Berahino fee agreed claims

The Sun are suggesting that Saido Berahino will be joining Tottenham for £20-million (€27.93m) which given a Tweet a couple of days ago from a consistent source would seem to be on the mark.



Regular readers will know simply believing anything in the press is a route to disaster especially when a little bit of common sense and a little bit of ITK tells another story.

The Berahino saga has the media throwing out red herrings as one side or the other 'leak' information they want leaked, whether it be accurate or not, to demonstrate to fans that everything is being done on one side to secure a signature and on the other to keep hold of a player.

WBA have known for some time that Berahino wants to leave for a bigger club, he agreed a deal with Tottenham but held pout for Manchester City or Manchester United to firm up their interest, both were scouting him last season. That has not happened so Tottenham negotiations begin in earnest.

Media savvy Tony Pulis has come out in the press to demonstrate to WBA that they are reluctant sellers, that they are doing all they can to keep Berahino even though hey know he is leaving, it's all a PR game. Tottenham have a policy of asking the other club not to discuss transfers in public thus actual fees for players are often not known until after a deal is concluded.

I have no doubt a fee was agreed early and there has simply been posturing in the media, but what in my view will have been holding up any deal is how that fee is paid. As discussed in a previous article looking at transfer negotiations the risk in the deal is will Berahino develop into the player WBA think he will develop into, there is no guarantee of that so you don't simply pay what a club asks for that.

Berahino, Bolasie, Llorente, Rabiot - negotiation
Goodwill gesture to facilitate Berahino transfer

Both clubs have to agree there is an element of risk and place a figure on that risk. Spurs may think it is £5-million (€6.98m) which would be where the £15-million (€20.95m) bid stories come from, £15-million + £5-million add-ons = £20-million (€27.93m), the fee we are said to be willing to pay all along.

WBA may feel the risk element of the del is only £2-million (€2.79m) and the guaranteed fee element £18-million (€25.13m) bringing s to the £20-million mark. The reported £25-million (€34.91m) was to my mind an opening salvo, simply a way for WBA to say we value the player highly, while we put out a story at a lower fee to suggest you have got it wrong. Both clubs then can justify a sale at the eventual fee.

WBA can say we did all we could and secured all we could, but the player had a strong desire to lave while Tottenham can say we paid more than we wanted to because we really wanted the player, the truth is probably that his agent knew all along the rough figure WBA would accept and thus Tottenham have been confident thy will secure their man because they know what he is going to cost, just not how, in other words not what the make up of the transfer fee will be.

That's my reading of the deal and it's posturing, we'll see what comes out at the end, but I have no doubt the size of the risk factor in the deal is the talking point.



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