For the rest of the summer though, I'm still very hopeful that we'll get Jürgen's top targets and the progress from last season will continue apace.
Wish I had your optimism. So far for me it seems to be the same old song and dance. Dragging deals along over a few million...a few million that they'll likely end up paying in the end anyway.
Sometimes is can be beneficial to just come in and pay the asking price without trying to nickel and dime the other party. You do that a few times and all of the sudden people take you seriously. There is nothing wrong with coming in a little low. But we basically try to get every signing for a cut rate and when has that ever worked for us? I can't think of one player that we've all thought (at the time) "wow, we really stole that player from the other team".
But I think we can all point to a number of deals where if we'd just ponied up some extra, we could have had the player that we supposedly really wanted. Willian, Salah (the first time), Mikhytaryan, Zielinkski, Dahoud........
I could be wrong on those, but that's sure the way that it looks to me.
In life, people don't like to deal with misers...with people that are always trying to negotiate you down on something they want of yours that you actually value. I tell those people to jog...I'll wait to deal with someone that's not going to insult me and that's serious to do business.
Like I said in another post, it's a seller's market right now....we have to adjust our purchasing style to adjust to that.
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