Am I the only one surprised that JJ had a release clause in the first place? Or that the release fee was such a low amount?
These clauses are mandatory in Spain and we've had it before of course with Sylvain Ebanks-Blake in the Championship Days but I didn't think these were too common in the lower leagues. If Bradley, Taylor and Carey had similar clauses then we can consider ourselves to be very fortunate to have avoided what could have been a disastrous deadline day. Perhaps that explains the managers comments today about being pleased about keeping the core of the squad together.
But lets not kid ourselves about the £125k, that really is chicken feed. Those looking forward to that money being re-invested in the summer would be better advised to forget all about it. It's not enough to pay the transfer fee of an in-form non-league striker and barely enough to cover the annual salary & bonuses of a ropey 3rd choice keeper. This is 2018 - £125k is the sort of transfer fee that would be expected to prise away a key player from Salisbury City and not a 1st team regular at a mid-table league 1 side. It's not the case that Argyle ran out of time to spend the money, as DA admitted this transfer had been on the cards for a while, it's more likely that £125k is of little to no use in attracting league 1 quality players that are under contract.
These clauses are mandatory in Spain and we've had it before of course with Sylvain Ebanks-Blake in the Championship Days but I didn't think these were too common in the lower leagues. If Bradley, Taylor and Carey had similar clauses then we can consider ourselves to be very fortunate to have avoided what could have been a disastrous deadline day. Perhaps that explains the managers comments today about being pleased about keeping the core of the squad together.
But lets not kid ourselves about the £125k, that really is chicken feed. Those looking forward to that money being re-invested in the summer would be better advised to forget all about it. It's not enough to pay the transfer fee of an in-form non-league striker and barely enough to cover the annual salary & bonuses of a ropey 3rd choice keeper. This is 2018 - £125k is the sort of transfer fee that would be expected to prise away a key player from Salisbury City and not a 1st team regular at a mid-table league 1 side. It's not the case that Argyle ran out of time to spend the money, as DA admitted this transfer had been on the cards for a while, it's more likely that £125k is of little to no use in attracting league 1 quality players that are under contract.