Mitrovic on a Serbian podcast that aired yesterday (filmed on 10.6.)

[Southcoastffc]

Many posts greatly overvalue Fulham players that they'd like to keep. That's understandable, but Mitro is not worth anywhere near £60m in the real world. Furthermore, after one poor or average season, I suspect that we'd be doing very well indeed to get £25m from a European club. Therefore, if the Saudis are prepared to pay £40m, I'd bite their hands off. Mehdi Taremi is valued at £18m, is in the last year of his contract and is a better striker than Mitro. Whether he'd come is another matter and that's the real problem: the better players aren't necessarily too expensive for us but they want to play Champions League football, while Mitro wants to build sandcastles in Saudi Arabia.

Maguire wasn't worth £85m and Antony wasn't worth £80m but they were key players for their clubs, hence the high fee. The same applies to Mitro and Palhinha.

Quite simply, players are worth what someone is prepared to pay. That's the capitalist football market.

[jayffc]

The OP has done a good job and it was an interesting read, thank you.
However it didn't say much that we didn't already know at the time of the interview. eg the Fulham fix podcast in May.

And as I think someone once said....... "A weeks a long time in politics and football"

To understand a foreign PL footballers mindset without being very close to them is almost impossible for a fan these days.

IMO for a foreign player it's really about accruing wealth for the future, whether that be a player who establishes a life in London and probably has property back home as well or one who retires to a grand project back home but can still live an international lifestyle if they wish.

Many will have plans during the latter stages of their career but an offer out of the blue like the Arabs will turn everything on its head.

Therefore my conjecture is, he's been happy at FFC as demonstrated in the interview and not looked too far ahead but now he's had his head turned by this.

Under the circumstances he's protecting his asset by not training and playing and his team mates understand this as it's a chance of a lifetime and they accept it.

I believe its reasonable to accept he has pleaded with the club to let him go and even sanctioned the comments about not playing for us again (even if he didn't say it himself) as it suited his stance at that time.

Now time has passed with no resolution, so he is reviewing his options by returning to training to keep fit but don't kid yourself by training now his attitude has changed.

Silva can only be diplomatic and say little other than he has already and the club sits tight and hopes it will pass or we get the fee we want and move on.

As important as it is to all concerned the politics is only relevant to those who care about these things and it's clear that the player and his entourage are not bothered.

It really boils down to the Arabs coming back with an acceptable offer and if they don't, how he handles the situation.

To conclude, all players (well the vast majority) say stuff they are expected to say until a better offer comes along.

Nothing but logical conclusions to me base do the evidence.

Pretty much exactly how I see it

Possinle it's wrong in some places but this is very much my interpretation of the timeline

[Bassey the warrior]

Many posts greatly overvalue Fulham players that they'd like to keep. That's understandable, but Mitro is not worth anywhere near £60m in the real world. Furthermore, after one poor or average season, I suspect that we'd be doing very well indeed to get £25m from a European club. Therefore, if the Saudis are prepared to pay £40m, I'd bite their hands off. Mehdi Taremi is valued at £18m, is in the last year of his contract and is a better striker than Mitro. Whether he'd come is another matter and that's the real problem: the better players aren't necessarily too expensive for us but they want to play Champions League football, while Mitro wants to build sandcastles in Saudi Arabia.

Maguire wasn't worth £85m and Antony wasn't worth £80m but they were key players for their clubs, hence the high fee. The same applies to Mitro and Palhinha.

Quite simply, players are worth what someone is prepared to pay. That's the capitalist football market.

That's the point I was trying to make.

[Carborundum]

I'll add to the thanks.

The comments about Sasa Lukic caught my eye.  He's not the first to find the tumbledryer of premier league midfield a shock.  Step one is to recognise the gap, which it sounds like he has done.  Step two is to put in the work to adapt.  We will see, but there's a proper player in there and I hope he's up for the graft.

Anyone getting too excited about our overseas league midfield targets might want to reflect. To me, this cautionary tale points to Fred being the best option for quick points on the board.  You don't survive at Man United as long as he has if you can't move the ball quick and recover quick.  Premier league quick is a heck of a lot quicker than, say, the Brazilian league's tempo.

[SerbianLad]

I'll add to the thanks.

The comments about Sasa Lukic caught my eye.  He's not the first to find the tumbledryer of premier league midfield a shock.  Step one is to recognise the gap, which it sounds like he has done.  Step two is to put in the work to adapt.  We will see, but there's a proper player in there and I hope he's up for the graft.

Anyone getting too excited about our overseas league midfield targets might want to reflect. To me, this cautionary tale points to Fred being the best option for quick points on the board.  You don't survive at Man United as long as he has if you can't move the ball quick and recover quick.  Premier league quick is a heck of a lot quicker than, say, the Brazilian league's tempo.

I would agree with this. And it is not like Sasa was at a poor club barely playing, he was the captain of a top half team. Palhinha fit instantly, but he played a lot of CL games on top of playing for his NT.

[Jim©]

I genuinely remember watching Sasa in the World Cup and thinking he looked brilliant- Murphy like in his role to an extent- tidy, didn't give ball away, could go long and also got stuck in when needed.
I hope to see more from him as someone says above, there's a proper player in there.

(just as a caveat- i also remember signing carlos Salcido after a world cup and thinking he looked like the best LB i'd ever seen)

[jayffc]

I genuinely remember watching Sasa in the World Cup and thinking he looked brilliant- Murphy like in his role to an extent- tidy, didn't give ball away, could go long and also got stuck in when needed.
I hope to see more from him as someone says above, there's a proper player in there.

(just as a caveat- i also remember signing carlos Salcido after a world cup and thinking he looked like the best LB i'd ever seen)

Salcido! Forgot about him ha!

I think there's clearly a technically decent player in Sasa, I just don't think he's got to grips with things here yet and it's possible he will or wont. Hopefully, a full summer of focussed preparation knowing what hes heading into will help.