Hopefully the last agent influenced PSR deal we’ll ever do.

7 hours ago, evissy said:

So is this potentially a good deal for us and everyone involved did a good job OR is it just a Saudi bailout and we got lucky?

Sorry, mate, nice try to wash the face of the SDs and owners. No, they did not do a good job, Jorge Mendes is a very shrewd representative and he’s got the most money for himself that could get. In the mean time, he got us rid of a very valid played in Gallagher and we’ve got what, £5m profit for Felix? But this is not done yet, as far as I know, so we shouldn’t get on our high horses just yet.

I’m editing since just read that the deal is €30m plus add ons. So they’ve managed to get €5m over what Benfica was offering, which is selling on a loss (add-ons are never guaranteed) and for not much more than what the Portuguese were offering. It’s poor for a deal with the Saudis if true the price.

Edited July 27, 2025Jul 27 by RMH

27 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

Unfortunately I think Sterling is just set against moving abroad

Wants to stay with his family in London. Deadline day loan to fulham or west ham at best imo.

20 minutes ago, RMH said:

Sorry, mate, nice try to wash the face of the SDs and owners. No, they did not do a good job, Jorge Mendes is a very shrewd representative and he’s got the most money for himself that could get. In the mean time, he got us rid of a very valid played in Gallagher and we’ve got what, £5m profit for Felix? But this is not done yet, as far as I know, so we shouldn’t get on our high horses just yet.

I’m editing since just read that the deal is €30m plus add ons. So they’ve managed to get €5m over what Benfica was offering, which is selling on a loss (add-ons are never guaranteed) and for not much more than what the Portuguese were offering. It’s poor for a deal with the Saudis if true the price.

Mm-kay.

34 minutes ago, RMH said:

Sorry, mate, nice try to wash the face of the SDs and owners. No, they did not do a good job, Jorge Mendes is a very shrewd representative and he’s got the most money for himself that could get. In the mean time, he got us rid of a very valid played in Gallagher and we’ve got what, £5m profit for Felix? But this is not done yet, as far as I know, so we shouldn’t get on our high horses just yet.

I’m editing since just read that the deal is €30m plus add ons. So they’ve managed to get €5m over what Benfica was offering, which is selling on a loss (add-ons are never guaranteed) and for not much more than what the Portuguese were offering. It’s poor for a deal with the Saudis if true the price.

Agreed

Good deal for all.

Strange player, I actually like watching him play but his shooting and work rate has stopped him becoming the top player everyone thought he would be.

Glad the Saudi club stepped in, Benfica aren’t an easy club to deal with, apparently they were even trying for part ownership of Felix which isn’t even allowed in this league.

The meltdown of other fans as we sell to the Saudis again is worth the deal on its own.

It’s not a loss on the fiscal years books. It will only be a loss if those bonuses/sell on aren’t activated over a 5 year period.

Someone said it above but it sounds something was pre planned for Felix to leave to Saudi and come back to Europe in a couple years.

Loophole FC

If Broja, Sterling, Disasi, Carney, Veiga and chilwell want to be playing next season their agents better start making things happen the way Mendes can.

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

If Broja, Sterling, Disasi, Carney, Veiga and chilwell want to be playing next season their agents better start making things happen the way Mendes can.

Can scratch Sterling and Chilwell from that list. They will have no interest on leaving on less money than they are on. Who here would Jack their jobs for less money when their money is guaranteed for another couple of years each.

I'd also be interested to know exactly what these Felix add ons are specifically. I remember when every one was going on about how much we paid for Mudryk. Guy had to win the Ballon D'or for us to pay that much.

Looking at this Felix to Al Nassr deal I am struggling to see why everyone is so gassed over it.

Weren't we already sorted for a €50m deal with Benfica with 50% paid now and the other half due later. I can't see how this is any better anyway, except that the extra here is performance related rather than a 50% balloon payment.

Edited July 27, 2025Jul 27 by WhiteWall

2 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Can scratch Sterling and Chilwell from that list. They will have no interest on leaving on less money than they are on. Who here would Jack their jobs for less money when their money is guaranteed for another couple of years each.

That's fair, apart from they could go to Saudi to make more money and play.

Basically if they stick around they are happy to earn big and not play. Fair enough if they do. Sterling has played regular since 15 and Ben has taken a lot of injuries.

Is like an extended paid holiday.

Just now, axman2526 said:

That's fair, apart from they could go to Saudi to make more money and play.

Basically if they stick around they are happy to earn big and not play. Fair enough if they do. Sterling has played regular since 15 and Ben has taken a lot of injuries.

Is like an extended paid holiday.

It's retirement on a 100% pension. None of us could boast such returns. Is it £1.2m max in your pension pot. Well done to both of them

39 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

I'd also be interested to know exactly what these Felix add ons are specifically. I remember when every one was going on about how much we paid for Mudryk. Guy had to win the Ballon D'or for us to pay that much.

Looking at this Felix to Al Nassr deal I am struggling to see why everyone is so gassed over it.

Weren't we already sorted for a €50m deal with Benfica with 50% paid now and the other half due later. I can't see how this is any better anyway, except that the extra here is performance related rather than a 50% balloon payment.

The deal with Benfica was €25m now and €15m in 27/28 as long as Benfica didn’t sell him on before then, in which case we’d get 50% of the sell on price and Benfica the other 50%. And, Benfica was in to delete the second part of the contract, so that they would not pay €15m in 27/28 or the 50% of any sale before 27/28. Cheeky buggers but they’d have a good deal had not Mendes seen a better opportunity for himself, and had not Jorge Jesus and Ronaldo been at Al-Nassr team.

5 minutes ago, RMH said:

The deal with Benfica was €25m now and €15m in 27/28 as long as Benfica didn’t sell him on before then, in which case we’d get 50% of the sell on price and Benfica the other 50%. And, Benfica was in to delete the second part of the contract, so that they would not pay €15m in 27/28 or the 50% of any sale before 27/28. Cheeky buggers but they’d have a good deal had not Mendes seen a better opportunity for himself, and had not Jorge Jesus and Ronaldo been at Al-Nassr team.

But we still haven't sold him for €50m though, no? We only get that if a number of circumstances happen. Anyone else and it seems that Saudi is the cash cow, but I'm not sure if that's the case here

1 minute ago, WhiteWall said:

But we still haven't sold him for €50m though, no? We only get that if a number of circumstances happen. Anyone else and it seems that Saudi is the cash cow, but I'm not sure if that's the case here

As far as I know, no, we aren’t getting €50m now no matter whether it’s Benfica or Al-Nassr we strike the deal with. With Benfica, it wasn’t even agreed on the add ons after the initial €25m, which was the sticking point. While with Al-Nassr we get more money up front and probably better add-ons. But I don’t know whether any of all this is true, I trust the Portuguese journal A Bola for Benfica related news, but all the Saudi news are new to me.

2 hours ago, bisright1 said:

Unfortunately I think Sterling is just set against moving abroad

Think you are right . It seems he will be able to cycle to his new club. That’s if the rumours are correct !

9 hours ago, evissy said:

So is this potentially a good deal for us and everyone involved did a good job OR is it just a Saudi bailout and we got lucky?

I would say, less about the SDs, more about the fact that Felix as a name and brand is something that is attractive to the KSA league that they will pay good money.

Things have all worked out how the SDs would have liked.

1) Agree to take Felix, as a sweetener for the pure profit goodness of Gallagher (a player who although I liked, was never in my mind top tier or good enough for the long haul)

2) We register a FFP profit, and an overall profit given the loan fee from last year.

3) KSA get a rolls royce, marquee signing, and a further statement of intent for the league

4) Felix gets a home, and the chance to play alongside Ronny.

The biggest takeaway from all of this is how badly he was mismanaged under Maresca, and never truly given a fair crack.

4 minutes ago, terraloon said:

Think you are right . It seems he will be able to cycle to his new club. That’s if the rumours are correct !

Which presumably is the nearest David Lloyd

Not to bring in the SD's here too much but maybe they knew Felix was a pretty safe bet in terms of his market value.

1 minute ago, evissy said:

Not to bring in the SD's here too much but maybe they knew Felix was a pretty safe bet in terms of his market value.

They got lucky. This time last week, he was off to Benfica, and we were set to make a big loss on him.

7 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

They got lucky. This time last week, he was off to Benfica, and we were set to make a big loss on him.

As far as the latest news are concerned, we’re getting €30m up front from Al-Nassr, so we’re selling at a loss unless add-ons take the Saudis to the cleaners, which I very much doubt.

9 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

Definitely a Jorge Mendes & Saudi bailout. No other big club would have come in for Felix anymore after the season he's had. Think this was the case last summer as well when Atletico had no plans to include him in the squad and Felix was coming after two underwhelming seasons on loan at Chelsea and Barcelona, but somehow we came to the rescue and "helped" Mendes move his client. Now he was due one.

Judging by the numbers, Felix was brought here for 45M on a seven year contract and loaned to Milan for 5M, which means most of the amortization money for his first season here was covered by Milan. Now if Felix goes to Al Nassr for anything over 40M, we're actually making a small profit in the financial books which I never thought it would happen this summer. I wrote in this thread some pages ago that it was impossible we recoup our money unless a Saudi club comes to the rescue.

The maximum time his fee could be amortised over was 5 years so using your numbers that was £9 million. In effect to cover the balance of his fee we needed to recover £36-£5 million ( loan fee) so £31 million to in effect balance the books. I would imagine the club had already expected a £9 million 25/26 charge but will simply shift that sum to impairment.

Where the number perhaps balance out is if the add ONS which seem sizeable kick in.

The numbers at the end of the day seem far too good to be true

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/ateam-plan-together-i-love-it-when-hannibal-gif-19272497

48 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

They got lucky. This time last week, he was off to Benfica, and we were set to make a big loss on him.

He wasn't Lukaku 99m. He is 25 and still carries good value.

I would call this a master play by Mendes, who worked hand-in-hand with our SD's. So by extend, good job to our SD's for working alongside Mendes. I'm sure Joao will be sold again in a couple of years (probably to Benfica) and we will make another huge sum from the sell-on fee.

We sold Gallagher, bought Felix, loaned him out for a fee, returned and we sold him again for what we bought him for with all the add ons and the upcoming sell-on fee. Small profit and PSR kept at bay.

Win-Win-Win in this situation.