Silence is Golden

Comments (7)

As the aftermath of the Fernandes saga still continues, it is 9pm GMT and still no official word from the club via announcement or the website. I honestly feel that the club are in deep shock about the situation, left fuming about what has gone on. I know in the past we have all moaned about the 'dithering' which has occurred during other prolonged transfers, but this one is different.

This transfer has been held up for a legitimate reason, due to the 3rd party involvement. Before we all moan about the Tevez and Red $hite players sagas, and biased FA, this transfer is completely different from those. If Fernandes signed for us, it would probably have meant a rule change from the FA, which is was unlikely. The difference between the Tevez transfer and ours is that Tevez is owned solely by MSI and loaned to Man Utd. We would have only owned half of Fernandes, which caused the problems with the FA.

There were a couple of ways that we could of signed he legally, firstly by buying his contract from Benfica and giving the rights to the company that owns him. Then loaning him for a set number of years from them, with a view to purchase in the future. A similar loan situation to the Argies. Obviously this isn't ideal as we would be spending 6-8mil on a player, and we wouldn't technically own him.

The second way would be to buy his rights from the sports agency along with Benfica's share. This would of meant that we would of owned him completely, but this would of been a huge cost to get him to play for us. 6-8mil to Benfica and a similar amount to the company.

Like I said earlier, I honestly believe that the club are shocked by what has gone on over the last 48hrs. I think Moyes was already thinking of him as our player, and using him in training to get ready for the match against Bolton. If the FA definitely weren't going to allow the transfer, they would of known by now. I believe they thought that a compromise could be made, why else would you allow a player to train with you for a week?

The whole situation proven the FA's concerns about 3rd party ownership correct. The FA don't like the idea that an outside body can have an effect on the game or a player, which I think what has happened in this case. I reckon that Fernandes was expecting to sign for us, but Global Sports Agency didn't want to give up the rights to him. Why sell his rights now for 6-8mil, wait a couple of years and hopefully make 20mil. GSA saw that they could make more money for him somewhere else, and offered him to Valencia instead.

In the end, where does it leave us, obviously without an excellently gifted young midfielder which we are crying out for. With less than 4 days left of the transfer market, the management team need to move quickly to get a replacement in for him.

The Blackburn game showed the lack of creativity in the center of the park, we a desperate for some quality there. The money is supposedly there to buy someone, so the club needs to act fast to save face and to save our season.

A quick side note.... Did anybody see if Moyes was with the rest of the players at the Rhys Jones memorial? I've watched the footage a couple of times, but didn't see his ginger hair. Hopefully this is a sign that he is working on bringing some players in.
Kristian  Boyce, WA USA     Posted 27/08/2007 at 17:59:48

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