- Dec 28, 2017
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Let's say by some miracle Ajax settle for the same transfer fee as Davinson, around £42 million. Raiola would then want paying, perhaps as much as £15-20 million judging by his Pogba cut, and I'm sure Ajax would insist we paid that cash. So the total deal rises to around £60m.
Let's say Levy agrees. De Ligt is potentially the best ball playing CB in the world but, as a pure defender, Jan, Toby and Davinson are all better at this stage. So de Ligt spends the next 2-3 seasons learning his defensive trade with us, making some John Stones-style errors. But that's OK because he's the CB of our future, for the next ten seasons, yeah?
I'd like to believet that. But Raiola's MO is to move his players every couple of seasons.
So, I'll be thrilled if someone produces evidence that Raiola is not de Ligt's agent. But if he is, any deal is now a much expensive and complicated prospect.
I thought I had read a while back that Raiola was hired by Ajax to negotiate the transfers and wouldn't actually be the players full time agent. I don't have time to go skim through all the articles but I remember seeing that somewhere. Could have been complete bullshit but who knows.