According to a report from TEAMtalk, AS Monaco are closing in on signing Barcelona midfielder Marc Casado. The Spanish international will be joining the Ligue 1 giants in a deal worth in excess of £20 million.
Hopefully this is real. So if this is true, the report about Monaco pulling out/not intending to bid were bull. And especially if it's a sale for that price, what's that, like €25M? I mean, IF that 25M bid from Brentford was true, it would make sense, but otherwise I think this would a very respectable fee (certainly more than I thought we'd get with our negotiating skills), especially if we maybe also squeeze in like a 20% sell on clause or something.
And I think it would actually make up for selling Fati a little under the price to them, since after the season he's had, he could probably be sold for close to 20M elsewhere. So it would basically even itself out, let's say we then get 36M for both, so 18M for each, which is kinda around the numbers I was thinking, that we'd get for each of them.
Who knows, maybe we can build a more than good relationship with Monaco this way too, could certainly come in handy in a year or two, if we decided to maybe go for Vanderson to replace Kounde in the long run, although I actually wouldn't mind that swap right now as well to be honest, with Kounde seemingly mentally checked out for almost 2 years now, and Vanderson turning 25 this month, it would actually be the ideal time to get him, if we wanted him. Attacking wise, he'd certainly be an upgrade and a better match as an overlapping RB for Yamal (even though I'm still hoping primarily that we maybe bite on that bargain deal on Grimaldo and move Cancelo back there).
But let's say we go for Vanderson, but not now. Let's say we get him two years later, he's already 27, which is basically the last train, considering he's a (Brazilian) and a full back at that, so physically probably can't be of a good enough level past 32/33...
