BBZ8800
Senior Member
He came in 2014 and signed a 5 year deal till 2019.
His wages are 3,5M Euros per year.
So, if a new team wants to buy him, they need to offer 3,5M wages to him, or Vermaelen won't go to a new team.
On the other hand, nobody will give him 3,5M yearly wages.
So, that means that no one is willing to buy him.
About Barca releasing him for free.
Again, Verm has guaranteed 3,5M yearly here.
If he is released, he may end at 1M or even lower wages somewhere else.
That means that if Barca wants to release him, we need to pay him remaining wages till the end of a contract.
In summer of 2016, that meant 10,5M penalties.
This summer it is 7M.
Next summer it will be 3,5M.
So, basically, our current options with Vermaelen are:
1. sell him.
= but no one will give him 3,5M wages, so that won't happen
2. release him for free and paying 7M penalties and losing a player
3. loaning him. Paying probably 50% of wages (1,75+1,75 Millions for 2 years) and NOT having a player in a team
4. keeping a player and paying 7M for his wages, and actually having a player who can play a few matches in 2 years.
So, no one will buy him.
Loans are questionable.
And between releasing him for free and keeping him, in both cases we have to pay 7 Millions.
But with releasing him, we will pay 7M (for penalties) and lose a player, and with keeping him, we will pay 7M (for wages) and actually have a player in our team.
There is a chance that in his contract penalties for releasing a player for free are slightly lower than paying 100% of his wages, but you get the point why we can't sell him or release him for free (the same as Song and Douglas, for example).
