The majority of the ones above all left on a free because we couldn’t sell them, despite trying to do so. Nobody would pay to sign Balotelli and Markovic so we ended up letting them go for free before their contracts had even expired, Clyne would have been sold but for the injury, nobody would pay to sign Moreno and nobody offered an acceptable amount for Lallana who was also allowed to leave a year ago. The only players we intentionally let leave for nothing were Can who tried to hold us to ransom and get paid more than he was worth and Sturridge.
Yes, Can and Sturridge are who I'm thinking of as examples, and I don't recall the club trying to sell Lallana so I would include him with that group. We'll see if Gini goes this route as well.
Balotelli and Markovic were two of the worst purchases ever so I don't know if they quite factor into this example. As you say, NOBODY was going to buy them. Agree that Clyne would have gone for something. Now obviously the club has done well in the past few years in getting a nice fee for players who didn't really contribute that much. There should be a few more of those this window with Ojo, Ovie Ejaria and Harry Wilson heading out - I guess we'll see what kind of fees they bring.
But I still contend that Jürgen is willing to let players who he deems part of the main group, who have begun approaching the end of their window to be a main player with us, leave without a transfer fee. I was thinking Lucas Leiva here also, but in checking I see now that he did bring a 5 million transfer fee.
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