Amoyal: Sometimes the best deals are those you don’t make
We have seen it this weekend with Mata scoring against Leicester City, while putting in a dominating performance for a coach who didn’t stand in Chelsea’s way when he was sold to Manchester United. Also just imagine how much more intense the criticism of Conte would currently be had Diego Costa left London to return to Atletico Madrid last August.
In Serie A there have been numerous examples of clubs benefitting tremendously already because they held to a key player despite having an excellent offer. Try to picture where Milan would be without Carlos Bacca or Inter having to scramble to replace Mauro Icardi- but there was a real possibility both could have left last summer, especially with the Colombian striker.
Carlos Bacca arrived at Milan, the club he grew supporting, in summer of 2015 right after the rossoneri lost to Atletico Madrid in the race for Jackson Martinez. Despite Milan investing substantially on a 29 year old player, Bacca more than lived up to his price tag- so much so that a year later West Ham was willing to match the 30 million invested in him.
Bacca dragged his feet in the negotiation with the Hammers who had quickly reached an agreement with Milan on the transfer fee. Bacca was asking for a substantial salary of 4 million euro net of taxes per season, but after West Ham came close to matching his demands, he then stalled to see if a Spanish club or at least one in the Champions League would pursue him.
By this time Milan had already signed his potential replacement in Gianluca Lapadula, who was coming off a season in which he led Serie B in scoring. Lapadula had picked Milan over Napoli and Juventus (he had also been scouted by Leicester) in hopes of finding more playing time, but Bacca remaining at Milan certainly threw a wrinkle in his plans.
While many, including myself, wondered how Bacca would fit in with new coach Montella, he scored 3 goals in the first match of the season against former Milan coach Mihajlovic. Bacca is known as a pure finisher who needs service to score goals, Montella typically prefers a striker who would help with the run of play- but so far things have worked out rather well also thinks to the performances of Suso and Niang, two other players who came close to leaving Milan in the summer.
While Milan wasn’t very active with incoming moves this summer, I was convinced that Inter’s strong pursuit of Gabigol was a clear sign that Mauro Icardi was on his out. The nerazzurri’s management team often mentioned the Financial Fair Play constraints when asked about their plans for the summer transfer window, so any big incoming move could be seen as a sign that a valuable player would also be leaving.
Inter’s first few moves of the summer were excellent bargains- they signed Banega on a free transfer and then addressed a huge need by signing Ansaldi from Genoa to help improve at the wing back position. But after they signed Antonio Candreva for around 20 million euros, I was basically certain any other significant acquisition could only happen with a significant sacrifice.
By mid August there was a lot of rumbling surrounding Icardi, who despite only being 23 already had over 50 Serie A goals to his name. Inter’s captain had gotten a significant raise just the previous summer, so the nerazzurri were in a tough spot once Arsenal, Tottenham and especially Napoli were willing to increase the 3 million a year net of taxes he earned at the time. This was the time their interest in Gabigol became more concrete.
I assumed Inter could sell Icardi for at least 50 million and acquire Gabigol for about half of that. But Icardi’s wife and agent Wanda Nara had other plans; she was going to get her client and hubby a new deal to stay in Milano. While she was heavily criticized for the way she went about it, she used the leverage offered by other team’s interest (especially Napoli who was flush with cash after Juventus signed Higuain) to land Icardi a new improved contract just one year after he had already received a raise.
Once Icardi agreed to terms to a new contract (which should be made official soon), I assumed Inter’s pursuit of Gabigol was over. But instead Inter doubled down, not only did they sign Gabigol they also completed the acquisition of Joao Mario for a combined 70 million without having to sell either Icardi nor Brozovic.
Just like Bacca, Icardi is off to a great start to the season. He has 6 goals to his name already, including the game winner against arch rival Juventus- and considering the excellent supporting cast around him (Banega, Perisic, Candreva, Eder and now Gabigol) he’s expected to keep up his impressive scoring average.
Bacca and Icardi are just the most significant examples but I’m sure you can think of many more, there is a lot to be said about the benefit of keeping key players despite big offers. Sexy new acquisitions can take time to adapt and in some cases can end up being just expensive busts, so as the next transfer windows roll around remember that sometimes the best deals are those you don’t make.
@DavidAmoyal
