10 Jun 2026 06:32:33
Just a note - Konate signed at Madrid for £400k a week (ish) that doesn't include bonuses, which will also be substantial
This is why negotiations broke down.
10 Jun 2026 06:56:16
No transfer so that's why they can pay more.
I wonder how much Sobs has been offered by them.
10 Jun 2026 07:03:54
How is this free transfer, big wages / signing on bonus, making Real Madrid's finances look? Better than transfer fee and lower wages?
10 Jun 2026 07:16:44
Thanks Nevada, your information is always appreciated. I'm not sure Konate would be a good fit for Iraola anyway. Maybe it's for the best we didn't offer him silly wages.
10 Jun 2026 07:27:38
Crazy money for an average defender.
10 Jun 2026 08:15:23
Offered to him over a year ago.
10 Jun 2026 08:28:12
Kopcat, this is what boils my p*** with both Madrid and players, it's disgusting if they are doing this, and worse, players stringing clubs along by pretending to be considering signing a contract.
10 Jun 2026 08:30:38
He's a French International and a Premier League winner so I understand why he would feel he's worth those wages, but how anyone could watch him last season and think the same is beyond me.
10 Jun 2026 08:41:24
Ed1, is a club instructing a player to wind down their contract so they can join for free with big wages a loop-hole in the tapping up rule?
Is it even considered tapping up?
{Ed001's Note - if it could be proven they had done so, then it would be tapping up.}
10 Jun 2026 08:58:21
Regardless of the wages etc, I'm delighted he's gone.
10 Jun 2026 09:24:58
A player ending his contract and moving on is perfectly in his right. If they are stringing the club along, pretending they are going to sign a new contract when they've already had their head turned, then surely the onus is on the club to see through that. If negotiations are going on for years, surely that's a pretty strong signal?
10 Jun 2026 09:33:09
Not a lot you can do if a player wants to run down his contract. You can't make him sign a new contract, you can't make him accept a transfer... and at the end of the day, he is fulfilling his contract to the club. The power is with the players nowadays.
10 Jun 2026 09:45:03
This is the new contract the Club is prepared to offer you. It's non-negotiable... If it's not acceptable, we can talk about a transfer.
Simples!
10 Jun 2026 09:53:43
While I agree he was woeful this year, I think the lad struggled with losing Jota and his dad more than most. We didn't give him a send off because he thought he was staying only for the big Madrid offer to come in.
I dunno, just saying all my disappointment is directed at Real's business model, not at the kid who was huge for us a couple years ago.
10 Jun 2026 09:57:56
The way forward is if the player isn’t signing the contract, sign their replacement in the summer before their last year, and give them an option: either accept a transfer or become bench fodder for the next season while they run their contract down.
10 Jun 2026 10:15:02
On the financial side, it probably doesn't make a massive difference to their outlay. Player wise, though, being able to offer a higher salary is obviously more attractive. Less helpful if the player doesn't work out, mind. If Konate plays for them as he has been for us, then that's one they will regret.
10 Jun 2026 10:16:43
For me, the concern will be if the players are not giving 100% in their last season either because their heart isn't in it anymore or they are protecting themselves from injury before moving to their new club.
Maybe Konate's poor form this season was also partly that he knew he was going and wasn't giving 100% because of that.
10 Jun 2026 10:14:18
He has been useless this season gone as in his head he'd already moved to madrid and couldn't be a☆☆☆ed
10 Jun 2026 10:19:44
He's their 400k problem now. So I'm not upset.
10 Jun 2026 10:35:36
I don't believe 'negotiations broke down'. I think he was stringing us along the whole time.
10 Jun 2026 10:35:49
That model doesn't work, @Vik (see Gareth Bale's final year playing golf and being paid hundreds of thousands a week improving his glove handicap, and Coutinho's bad back and the great big break up with TAA the season before last).
As has been said, if a player stays within the requirements of the contract signed and agreed by the club and the player, then chooses to see oil the contract, the club can't do anything about it.
It's just the way that business works these days. It's the model used by Chelsea with their 25 year contracts.
10 Jun 2026 10:37:38
It does make me laugh how people think you can just force a transfer on someone if they don't sign a contract or, even more funny, is just sit them on the bench.
You can't force someone to leave if they have a contract and don't want to leave, and any manager isn't going to bench a player due to contract negotiations if he thinks he's the best player for a particular position.
Not to mention paying someone hundreds of thousands of pounds a week to not use them just to prove a point.
Madness.
10 Jun 2026 10:39:59
And he'll still be useless at Madrid. He's nowhere near good enough to warrant £400,000 per week... as I'm sure Madrid will find out.
10 Jun 2026 10:46:34
The 'bench fodder' plan is negated by several things:
1) You can only register 25 players, so do you 'not register them' or 'register them and not play them'?
2) What happens if results fall off a cliff and the replacement is out of form?
3) What happens if the replacement gets a season ending injury?
None of these plans are feasible in this competitive reality.
Players have the power, clubs have to find a way of dealing with it. In reality, you need to have a strong youth development but even that is just partial mitigation.
10 Jun 2026 10:53:11
I think what Madrid are doing is going to cause another big change in football globally.
Other big clubs will follow this plan. Why wouldn't they?
That reality being accepted, and the fact that football authorities are clueless and toothless in preventing this, leads to the question 'what will be the end game?'
In my opinion, it will lead to transfer fees collapsing, which will mean higher wages for players.
10 Jun 2026 11:23:05
You've summed it up well, WDW and Ron. The bench them idea doesn't really work, and they won't leave early as the likes of RM won't pay a fee.
This was expected since Bosman, in a way, it's surprising it's taken this long.
The irony is that mid to low experience players with talent are now costing a fortune like Diomande. The economics of all this are going to catch up with us at some point unless we can also start to play the game like RM and others do.
10 Jun 2026 11:56:12
I'd rather have had both Konate & Arnold's roles diminished in the side and been marginalised in the squad, with their replacements on the pitch than let them coast through their final season and negatively affect the team's performance through their lack of effort. Both Arnold and Konate were pretty rotten in their last year.
Again, I think being tough and saying that they'd have the option of leaving sooner (if they want to be able to play regularly), or if they want to sit out their contract, they can do that from the bench or the stands, watching their replacement get the minutes instead.
The example of Bale is a poor one, as he was very much at the end of his career and was being overpaid by Madrid (they'd been trying to get shot of him for a couple of years). Additionally, at 32 he knew his options were limited and would always get picked for Wales regardless of his situation at Madrid.
But a player in his mid twenties isn't going to want to sit a season out on the bench if he has ambition of playing international football. Can you imagine Konate would have been happy sat on the bench all season knowing there was a World Cup coming up? Because I can't.
10 Jun 2026 12:09:47
The World Cup or Euros seem to be a factor which helps players maintain motivation, probably more than playing for the club who pays their wages.
Something's got to give with us, as the current approach isn't working. We're suffering the worst of both worlds at the moment, with poorly performing players running contracts down but still getting paid and played.
10 Jun 2026 12:31:21
I am not entirely sure it sets off a trend. Real and to some extent, Barca, are the only clubs who have the gravitas to do this consistently.
Interestingly, the fact that they choose to do it is probably because they are acutely aware they cannot compete with the spending power of the Premier League.
I am not sure the approach really translates to more clubs. Perhaps Bayern can do this for German players who don't traditionally like to leave Germany.
10 Jun 2026 13:02:30
@Bik, In recent times both Trent and Ibou have played the 'on-going negotiations' card through social media.
If, as suggested in this thread - though granted without any proof to back up the statement - Konate was offered EUR or £ 400k a week last year, if he ran his contract down, then all he has to do is have his reps raise the matter if a new contract from time to time, knowing full well that, after the last match of the season, he would have a dramatic change of heart and move, surprise, surprise, to Real Madrid.
Liverpool flagged that we were / are going to buy the best young talent from around the world, a couple of years ago, and it's no coincidence that with Leoni, .jacquest, and the three young lads they signed in the winter window, they are starting to change the model to something that looks like what Chelsea had been doing for a good while + buy the cream of the crop of youngsters, put them on long term contracts and advertise they are available and the club is open to offers before contract renewal becomes an issue.
Don't forget they banned us from their academy matches when we enticed Rio to leave and City were after Abe recently.
10 Jun 2026 13:10:24
I think Ron is correct, and other clubs will follow suite with this type of recruitment tactics, if nothing else, needing to do it to be competitive with higher salaries from the lack of a transfer fee will be a factor at the highest levels of the game.
Of the risk is that you then get stuck with said players on high salaries if it doesn't work out, and you can't offload them, but then again, clubs wouldn't be tapping players up if they didn't think it would work out.
11 Jun 2026 03:47:08
Ron, maybe in Europe, but not for the Premier League where the money is.
Is a free transfer and higher wages cheaper than paying a transfer fee and lower wage?
It'd depend on the transfer fee.
Konate's situation, with the info as we know it, is cheaper than paying a transfer fee and lower wages. It would depend on how low the wages would be and signing bonus.