Chapter 825: The Clause I
[Team hotel, Pittsburgh. Thursday 26 July 2018. 08:40.]
"Say the number, Marcus."
"You are not going to like it."
"Marcus."
"30 million euros." He turned the laptop round so I could see it in writing. "26 and a half in sterling."
I sat down on the arm of a hotel chair.
Manchester City paid 60 million pounds for a full back last summer. We took 75 for Serge Gnabry off Bayern 6 weeks ago and Steve Parish went and stood in a car park about it.
26 and a half million pounds for an 18-year-old that a room full of professional coaches could not name on Wednesday night.
"I am aware of what City would pay." He shut the lid.
"Boss, that clause was written for a boy who had made 0 first team appearances. He signed it 14 months ago. He was in the B team and nobody in Portugal had heard of him.
"Benfica have not touched it since, because until about 6 weeks ago there was nothing to touch."
"And now?"
"And now he has played 4 matches, and West Ham had a go at him in June and it fell over, and if you think Benfica have not noticed you have not been paying attention."
I went and got a coffee and stood in a corridor with it and did not drink any of it, and 20 minutes later the phone went in my hand.
Dougie Freedman. 9 our time. 2 in the afternoon in Croydon, and he had been awake since 4.
"Right. I have spoken to Lisbon."
"And?"
"And they were extremely polite, son, and that is the worst sign there is."
I sat down on a hotel bed.
"They know what they have got," Dougie said. "The chief executive did not pretend the clause is not there and he did not pretend it is not low. He said, and I am giving you this word for word because I wrote it down.
"We are aware of the figure. We are also aware it does not reflect the player. We will be revisiting it internally in September."
"September."
"September. Which is 6 weeks away, and which is after our window shuts on the 9th of August, and which means the only summer that boy is buyable in is this one."
"So we trigger it."
"We can trigger it. Anybody can trigger it. West Ham could have triggered it in June and did not, because West Ham looked at 4 appearances and a B team record and got frightened of the noise." Something moved on his end. "Danny, I have to say the other part."
"Say it."
"He does not want to come."
Nobody puts this bit in a newspaper.
You can meet a clause. You cannot meet a clause and a player at the same time.
"Go on."
"He is 18. He came out of Porto’s academy to Lisbon at 15 and he has played 4 matches for the biggest club in his own country. His family are in Viseu."
Dougie let that sit.
"And his agent is Jorge Mendes, and Mendes has never once sent a Portuguese teenager to a club that finished 2nd in England. He will take a call. He takes everybody’s call. It is a courtesy, son, not a deal."
"What does Mendes want?"
"Mendes wants him at Real Madrid in 2 years for 120 million euros, and Mendes is going to get it, and you and I both know it."
"And if we trigger it anyway?"
"Then we have got a boy in London who did not choose London," Dougie said. "And he is 18. And I have watched 4 of those go wrong in 30 years and I have never once watched one go right."
I stood at a hotel window in Pittsburgh and looked at a car park.
"Do it anyway."
"Danny."
"Not the clause. The conversation." I picked the phone back up properly. "Ring Mendes. Tell him we are not bidding today. Tell him I want 20 minutes with the boy and his father in September, wherever they like, at our cost, and that I am not going to say one word about a contract in it.
"And tell him I coached a 19-year-old at a World Cup 3 weeks ago and he can ask that lad what it is like."
There was a pause on that line.
"That," Dougie said, "is the first cheap thing you have said all summer."
"It is not cheap if it is true. Do not put the phone down, I have got the other one."
"Centre-half," I said.
"Aye. Now the bad news."
Dougie has 2 voices and this was the other one.
"Stefan de Vrij."
"Go on."
"26 years old. 36 caps. Best defender in Serie A last season.
"I have had him on a sheet on this desk since February, because his contract at Lazio ran to the 30th of June and there was no fee anywhere in it."
"And?"
"And Inter Milan announced him on the 2nd of July. 5 year deal. Free."
I heard him move a piece of paper.
"It was done in May, Danny. Done while you were in a hotel in Voronezh working out how to beat Iran.
"I had a note in my diary to raise it on the 16th of June. On the 16th of June you were 3-3 with Portugal, and I did not ring you."
Neither of us said anything for a second.
"Would I have said yes?"
"You would have said yes in about 4 seconds."
"Then that is on me and not on you."
"It is on both of us and I am not doing this bit," Dougie said. "He is gone. 5 years at Inter, and he will be the best defender in that league for 3 of them, and I will feel it every time I see his name.
"Now. Do you want the 1 I can actually get?"
"Axel Tuanzebe."
Clk. Marcus had it up before Dougie finished the word.
20 years old. Manchester United academy from the age of 8. 4 first team appearances, a half season on loan at Aston Villa in the spring, and a squad number he is not going to get minutes behind.
Centre-half, and a right back when he has to be.
"They will not sell."
"They have been telling everybody since June that he goes out on loan for the season, and the queue is Villa and 2 in the Championship." Dougie let that sit. "I told them we do not take loans."
"And?"
"And they laughed at me, and then they stopped laughing, because I asked them what a 20-year-old who cannot get in their team is worth to them in 3 years’ time when he is 23 and has played 60 European matches for somebody else."
"How much?"
"5 million pounds. Permanent."
I did not say anything for a second.
"They will regret that."
"They will regret it in about 2 years and they will not admit it for 5," Dougie said, "and it is only on the table because Mourinho does not fancy him and Mourinho will be gone by Christmas."
We do not take loans at this football club. Not since the first week I got the job.
A loan is a man who is somebody else’s, playing for you until it suits him to leave, and everything I have ever built here I have built by buying a boy at 20 and having him at 25.
Mateo Kovačić and James Rodríguez were on loan here last season and I made both of them permanent in June before a ball was kicked at that World Cup, because I was not spending a year coaching 2 footballers for Real Madrid.
I looked at the screen.
[AXEL TUANZEBE. CA 118. PA 152.]
***
Thank you to Sir nameyelus and Kostas_Gounakis for the support.