[Albion] Would you accept £90m for Mitoma *NOW*?

[jimhigham]

There’s very few clubs that can reasonably pass up that kind of cash. We’re not one of them. With a heavy heart… take the cash.

 

[GJN1]

Imagine another company offering you eight, nine or ten times your current salary and turning it down? Football, bloody hell indeed.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

I have been very interested in how divisive this seems to have been.

Whilst I accept that from a business / financial viewpoint, £90M is a ridiculous amount of money for Mitoma, when I was a young lad on the terraces at the Goldstone, Priestfield etc, I wasn't dreaming about getting the big bucks for players.

The comparison with Knocky is a fair one, in that Mitoma is one of the very very few players that we have ever had that that gets me (and others) out of our seat, that is genuinely exciting to watch, has brought many, many new fans to the club and quite frankly is priceless to this old fool.

The thought that anyone would want to sell him a handful of days before the end of this window to the Saudis for a quick buck genuinely makes me question why certain people support us

I can only speak for me, but whilst losing Mitoma will be sad whenever it happens, in TB's grand plan he is just another stepping stone en route to where we want to end up. Just like when Knockaert left, Trossard arrived, and then Trossard went and his place was taken by Mitoma, and so it will go to the next guy. Mitoma won't be part of the first truly great BHA team, but the money we make in his transfer will have helped get us there.

In the past we didn't have this ambition, we just had Saturday at 3pm to cheer on the team and enjoy the performances of the talents passing through, and falling in love with some of them. But now we do have ambition to be really great, but to be really great means being great from 1 to 18, and to get there we need money, and we get money by making big profits on today's stars. And right now we have 5 or 6 guys capable of getting us off our feet, which means the plan is working? So its another way to look at things.

But I will miss that fellow when he goes.

 

[Professor Plum]

Some f***ing angry people on here too, crikey

Not angry so much as exasperated that some people are misinterpreting "I would be prepared to sell X for £Y" as meaning "I want to sell X". They are two quite different statements but a lot of people seem unable to see it.

 

[7dialssouthpaw]

It's not clear what the player is being offered here. Is the offer attractive to Mitoma? Ultimately, it's him that has to agree.

 

[jcdenton08]

Not angry so much as exasperated that some people are misinterpreting "I would be prepared to sell X for £Y" as meaning "I want to sell X". They are two quite different statements but a lot of people seem unable to see it.

This has been going on since page one

 

[Lush]

I'd miss our lovely Japanese fans. It's so great to see them all genuinely excited and taking selfies before the game. But you'd need to sell a lot of Mitoma printed shirts to make up £90m.

 

[Professor Plum]

This has been going on since page one

Then my decision not to read the first 10 pages turned out to be a good one. Thanks!

 

[el_ciddy]

I don't think that's the case. The question is would you take the £90m, as in if you were Tony Bloom would you take £90m for Mitoma. Well yes I would. We are not going to get more than that, ever. But that's very different from saying do you want to sell him. I'd like all our great players to stay. Imagine if we had a midfield of Caceido, Mac Allister and Baleba!

If the question was “Is he worth 90m?” then this may make sense.

Not angry so much as exasperated that some people are misinterpreting "I would be prepared to sell X for £Y" as meaning "I want to sell X". They are two quite different statements but a lot of people seem unable to see it.

By “accepting 90 mill” you are selling him. It’s not “prepared” it”s not “is he worth”

 

[LamieRobertson]

Well as my water rates are going up substantially this year I might have to consider accepting the offer …I’d need a financial advisor though
just answering the question…though I’ve never been asked to accept money for a player before

 

[Change at Barnham]

All Premier League teams are playing in two different competitions.

The first is who wins the most football matches.
The second is who can create the most effective financial model to allow their club to compete at the highest level possible.

Those two competitions are inter-related.
Unfortunately many fans can't get their head around the fact that we need to sell in order to reinvest and grow the club.

The media love dishing out praise about Brighton's wonderful business model, but in the next breath the same pundits inform us that Brighton "are just becoming a Southampton."

We heard from Tony Bloom and Paul Barber about 3 years ago that our aim was to try and establish ourselves as a regular top 10 Premier League team and a top 4 Women's Super League team.
After several seasons battling against relegation that sounded a bit ambitious to me, but here we are after lots of buying, selling and developing players, challenging regularly for a top 10 position.

When the price and time is right we sell, when the price and time is right we buy.

We are not Southampton, and most pundits on TalkSport and SkySports (and many fans) have no experience of running a business or even of basic successful housekeeping.

In Tony we trust.

 

[Gabbiano]

Some f***ing angry people on here too, crikey

Grumble grumble grumble.

Its all the fault of woke young people and violent video games.

 

[Milano]

Had these bids arrived in the first week in Jan then I think it may have happened. As it is the timing is terrible. For that alone I REALLY want our 124 year old football club, that has battled adversity few other clubs have, to stick 2 fingers right up at this plastic, manufactured, sporting irrelivance of a 'football club' that to me embodies everything wrong with pro football and beyond.

Uncle Tony, cousin Karou, please tell them to f*** right off today.

 

[MJsGhost]

I have been very interested in how divisive this seems to have been.

Whilst I accept that from a business / financial viewpoint, £90M is a ridiculous amount of money for Mitoma, when I was a young lad on the terraces at the Goldstone, Priestfield etc, I wasn't dreaming about getting the big bucks for players.

The comparison with Knocky is a fair one, in that Mitoma is one of the very very few players that we have ever had that that gets me (and others) out of our seat, that is genuinely exciting to watch, has brought many, many new fans to the club and quite frankly is priceless to this old fool.

The thought that anyone would want to sell him a handful of days before the end of this window to the Saudis for a quick buck genuinely makes me question why certain people support us

There are a few things I disagree with in your last sentence.

1) Are you confusing "I'd accept that bid for Mitoma" with "I want to sell Mitoma"?
2) Is the timing that much of an issue? It's not like we'd be out in the market, bidding for an exact replacement if this was happening 4 weeks ago - that's not how our transfer policy works. However, that policy does mean we already have players to cover Mitoma's position (maybe not quite at his level - yet - but we are not short of options).
3) It's hardly 'a quick buck'. It's a substantial amount of cash that would cover the cost of the next generation of prospects and keep us competing in the top half of the PL
4) Questioning others' support over a difference of opinion on a hypothetical transfer is a bit much, no? It's quite arrogant to think that sharing the extent of your love for a Knocky/Mitoma type player is the only valid reason to support the club. You even suggest that selling him is a good idea from a business/financial POV, so you can see there would be logic to it.

FWIW, I would prefer him to stay, but I would absolutely understand if the deal was done. It seems that he's not keen to go anyway so this is all probably moot, but it's the kind of deal that fits with our model - a whacking great fee for a player that we would miss, but it would allow others to step up in a position we have cover for and fund arrivals in the summer.

 

[armchairclubber]

The question was "would you accept £90m?"

Not "do you want to get rid of Mitoma?"

Some f***ing dense people on here, too busy getting on their high horse to deal with basic literacy.

Clearly that's not what I was responding to, rather than those saying "I can't believe so many people want to get rid of Mitoma!" It's perfectly reasonable to want to keep him, but also think that £90m is an acceptable offer, given what we could do with that money.

Where did you see those quotes, I cant find them?
Did you understand the original question, and the voting options?

Or are you making stuff up?

 

[armchairclubber]

By “accepting 90 mill” you are selling him. It’s not “prepared” it”s not “is he worth”

You may now be accused of being illiterate.

 

[JetsetJimbo]

90 million is a lot of money, there's no denying that. But I have no idea what the overall value of Mitoma is to the club in terms of commercial revenue. Not just shirt sales (which I suspect aren't the biggest part of the pie) but sponsorships with companies in Japan. The club's involvement with the Google Pixel launch in Japan, for example, wouldn't have happened if Mitoma didn't play for us.

We wouldn't just be losing a star player (arguably *the* star player in this squad), we'd be saying goodbye to all that additional revenue. Does 90m cover that? I have no idea, as I said. Anyone here able to have an educated guess?

 

[The Wookiee]

SSN reporting talks ended - he is staying at Brighton

 

[Mustafa II]

90 million is a lot of money, there's no denying that. But I have no idea what the overall value of Mitoma is to the club in terms of commercial revenue. Not just shirt sales (which I suspect aren't the biggest part of the pie) but sponsorships with companies in Japan. The club's involvement with the Google Pixel launch in Japan, for example, wouldn't have happened if Mitoma didn't play for us.

We wouldn't just be losing a star player (arguably *the* star player in this squad), we'd be saying goodbye to all that additional revenue. Does 90m cover that? I have no idea, as I said. Anyone here able to have an educated guess?

I think considering that match day revenue in total is around £25m a season, and commercial revenue in total is around £25m - losing the Japanese contribution would easily be covered by a £90m transfer fee, and then some.

 

[macbeth]

SSN reporting talks ended - he is staying at Brighton