28 Aug 2026 16:16:36
Sorry, last post should have said Euros not pounds. Even worse, surely we could have afforded that.
28 Aug 2026 16:48:12
If we wanted him, we would have paid up. Simple as. The club sees Minteh/Sarr as a better fit for Iraola's system and I agree with them.
28 Aug 2026 17:00:20
So, get rid of 29yr old Diaz, proven player, and sign 28/29yr old Sarr is good business or a highly rated teen who's not classed home grown isn't ??
28 Aug 2026 17:06:52
I agree, Jay Dub, but it's all on wages. Diaz wanted 300k plus, Sarr will be 100k or less. That's why.
28 Aug 2026 17:09:44
We didn't get rid of Diaz. He wanted to leave. Why would we give a new contract to a player who'd already told us he wanted to leave? And why would he sign it?
28 Aug 2026 17:12:44
Jay, Sarr might be a downgrade on Diaz at the same age but the difference is Diaz didn't want to play for us anymore and was trying to find a way out so sell or let him go a season later on a free.
Honest question, would you take Sarr now and have a right winger or go without?
28 Aug 2026 17:19:00
How is Diaz 29 but Sarr 28/29? He's 28. The hoops people will jump through to try to prove a point are hilarious.
28 Aug 2026 17:19:19
Diaz didn't want to leave, he wanted wages that reflected his performance / impact since joining. The guy was on 75k a week, or 90k if other reports are to be believed. He had earned a higher wage, and we didn't give it to him as we didn't think he was worth it, so instead took the money Bayern offered.
I don't know if he wanted 300k a week. I have never seen that sum before, and might have very well been pulled out of thin air, but I wouldn't blame him for wanting more. Sarr is going to cost us at least 60 million, plus whatever wages he will demand moving to a top club.
Seems like quite the mess.
28 Aug 2026 17:20:57
@Jay dub red, Sarr is better than Mbaye right now. There's no guarantee that Mbaye ever lives up to his potential. You really want to have an 18 year old boy be our starting rw? If he was as good as Yamal then sure, but he's not.
28 Aug 2026 17:22:18
Jay Dub Red
Diaz wanted to leave.
But, keeping with the illogical nature of our transfer business, or lack of it, .... If Mbaye is going to Aston Villa for 55 million Euros, then what the hell did we actually rate/assess his value/worth at?
I wonder if it was another case of let's inquire, show some heart-hearted piss-poor interest, but actually have no real intention of buying the player ...
Who, if anyone, will we get - roll on September 2nd so this s*** -show of a not so funny comedy can be over (till January).
The owners must really think Areola is a miracle worker, or just the next scapegoat.
28 Aug 2026 17:30:21
No Mango, Diaz wanted to leave which is why he wasn't offered improved terms. We all knew he wanted to leave the summer before he actually did. His dad was flirting with Barca and Madrid. He gave us Slot's first season, and then we allowed him to leave. If it happened the way you said, then yes, it would've been crazy, but it didn't.
28 Aug 2026 17:32:33
Simple Sarr is better now and Sarr starts for Senegal over Mbaye everyday.
28 Aug 2026 17:34:17
This has probably been covered, but will Sarr not be heading to AFCON in winter time? I have no idea when it is, so just a simple question.
28 Aug 2026 17:35:34
He and his dad made no secret that he would move to Barcelona if the opportunity came along.
His contract had reached the final two years. He felt he should be paid to match his performance levels in order to commit to a new deal. He had a case as he was our second best performer that season after Mo Salah.
We decided that we didn't even want to negotiate and sold him to whoever matched our valuation. Bayern did. End of.
Depending on which way you look at it, you could interpret that as someone who engineered his way out for better pay, or our bean counters felt it was the right time to cash in on the asset.
Maybe they thought they would have been able to bring Barcola in last summer for the same price that Diaz left for.
Personally, I would have kept him even if it meant his deal would run down. Like Virgil, he's a late bloomer in football, so he probably has a few years left in the tank yet.
Would he have downed tools in his final years? Nobody knows.
Btw, Macca is now in a similar situation. By the same logic as last summer, we should sell him.
28 Aug 2026 17:37:21
Ismael Sarr really isn't a winger. His assist record is average at best.
If he's an interim backup for Isak while Hugo recovers, fair enough. But at that price, seems unlikely.
He is not the right winger to serve our no9 and 10s.
28 Aug 2026 18:07:40
Even age wise, you would not do it, Sarr, 29 next February, has played his best football, Mbaye's (18) is yet to come.
Common sense alone tells you the best option? Youth.
28 Aug 2026 18:08:00
I still suspect that Rayan is the ultimate RW target, be it for January or next summer. If Sarr is the bridge signing to tide us over in the meantime, I'm okay with it.
28 Aug 2026 18:25:52
Bit of revisionist history here... Pretty sure Diaz wanted to stay but we couldn't agree on salary because of his age. Who knows, maybe it was a bit of both - but the only people that know that are Edwards, Hughes, Diaz, and his agent.
28 Aug 2026 18:25:55
@gojonesgo,
So Sarr (28) to Rayan (19) is better, than Mbaye (18) and Rayan (19) long term for the club?
One senses a hiccup in the Barcola deal, it's gone too quiet?
28 Aug 2026 18:35:20
Spot on. We need experience.
28 Aug 2026 18:50:49
No Sarr in the Palace team tonight.
28 Aug 2026 18:51:19
Going for Sarr is stupid. Firstly it involves negotiating with Parish who we all know is a capricious bellend and impossible to negotiate with at this time of the window, even more daft given that we know what price PSG will sell mbaye at, additionally Mbaye won't count as non home grown whereas Sarr is another waste of a non home grown space gone.
I'd also add that it's entirely possible they mbaye would eventually qualify as home grown given his age which would make him a shrewd long term investment.
28 Aug 2026 19:05:46
@007,
All else being equal, no, I'd rather we ended up with Mbaye and Rayan. There are always multiple variables at play though, aren't there?
Perhaps it's a wages thing. Or perhaps it's not wanting to invest large sums in two very young RWs at similar stages in their development, when we can eventually sign the one we really want for the future, and pair him for a season or two with a more experienced player who's not on a long term contract.
28 Aug 2026 19:46:17
Sarr is a bum steer - there's no way we are after him. He's overpriced, average and Palace are shysters to deal with.
Something is coming straight out of the left field.
28 Aug 2026 19:46:34
Sarr is injured, that's why he isn't playing.
28 Aug 2026 21:42:08
AFCON moves to summer
28 Aug 2026 23:28:28
PSG didn't want to sell 2 players to the same club. They didn't quote us the same fee they quoted Villa for Mbaye. It's as simple as that. They wanted EUR70m from us compared to Villa (EUR55m).
29 Aug 2026 02:52:43
Diaz wanted to leave. How many times did his dad go on record saying that Barcelona was his dream club and he hopes he'd play there some day. In fact, he said that almost immediately after he was rescued from his kidnapping, where we stood by Diaz and his family and offered our support. They essentially spat in our face after that.
Iirc, there was a contract offer with higher wages on the table for Diaz but he still chose to leave.
We always say that once a player has two years left on their contract, we should start negotiations with them and if they don't want to sign, we should sell. That's what essentially happened with Diaz and people are still complaining about it. It's really a situation of damned if we do and damned if we don't.
29 Aug 2026 06:13:38
Sarr will probably conclude the business for the summer at around £70m.
Although it's felt like a poor window, if we sign him, and Barcola, and sell Gakpo, our net spend will still be over £100m.
That's a big outlay, but strangely not enough.