I don’t consider him a greedy bastard. He knows that he can make more money elsewhere and has decided that’s his primary motivating factor, that’s his prerogative. It’s not as if he ever gave the club a reason to believe otherwise, he’s been an exceedingly valuable player for us during his stay - but his career is a mercenary one and he hasn’t really tried to hide that.
It’d be foolish for the club to flush money down the drain at this point. They did the right thing in getting Sanchez last summer. This summer we still have moderate control of the situation - we can tell United to piss off and offer him out to the big continental clubs at a price somewhere between the £50M valuation United has and the £25M he’ll walk for next season. If that fails we can play hardball over Matial and try to pry him away (if, indeed, that’s Poch’s wish).
But in the end if he really wants to go to United then we really can’t stop him. If we refuse to sell this summer he can just wait it out. He’s good enough that even if he was frozen out and sent to the reserves, United would still pay £25M for him next summer.
I’m just ready for the end of the saga. Sign a deal or move on, it’s just all a bit tiring. Though I don’t expect anything to happen until after the WC. Coming back from a injury, in particular, I doubt United or any other club wants to commit to a deal until he’s back from Russia intact. And so it will continue to drag on...and TFC will keep arguing over it.
I dont think its greed per se, I think he wants to leave......his wage demands have a double benefit for him, as he knows full well he wont get 180k a week here, at his age, with his injury problems and after falling down the ranks behind Sanchez.
So it makes him look good to the more gooey eyd fans that he hasnt demanded a move, despite making demands that wont be met. That way he gets his dream move eventually, his wage hike and said fans slate the club and still hero worship Toby.