I think this Cole thing has left everyone a bit mental. The thing is, the Cole deal wasn't actually that bad, but it's sure been used as a great excuse for mediocrity by the lizards.
If Cole's contract hadn't been run down and we'd have had to pay something for him, what would it have been? Say he had a couple of years left like Downing or whatevers? 15m? He was 28, maybe 12m. And then he got a four year contract on something sensible, like 60k a week, then the 4 years would cost (60k * 52 * 4) + 12m = about 25m
What actually got signed up to was 90 * 52 * 4 = i.e. about 19m. So it was a good deal. It would have been an ace deal if he'd have been any good.
The reason everyone freaked out was because we got new owners and they looked at the balance sheet and they didn't give a fuck that we didn't pay a transfer fee because that was before their time, they just saw 90k a week going out the door for someone who couldn't even get in the side.
What great PR for a shitty new transfer policy.
If Cole's contract hadn't been run down and we'd have had to pay something for him, what would it have been? Say he had a couple of years left like Downing or whatevers? 15m? He was 28, maybe 12m. And then he got a four year contract on something sensible, like 60k a week, then the 4 years would cost (60k * 52 * 4) + 12m = about 25m
What actually got signed up to was 90 * 52 * 4 = i.e. about 19m. So it was a good deal. It would have been an ace deal if he'd have been any good.
The reason everyone freaked out was because we got new owners and they looked at the balance sheet and they didn't give a fuck that we didn't pay a transfer fee because that was before their time, they just saw 90k a week going out the door for someone who couldn't even get in the side.
What great PR for a shitty new transfer policy.