Greatest of All Legends

Chapter 417: Sports Talks II

“Good point, I wouldn’t give up such an opportunity to do so if I were him,” William laughed.

“Exactly, especially when there’s the possibility of a full transfer at the end of the loan period, that would mean a better salary, better playing conditions, more fame and all. Those are very enticing things for a player, especially when it’s someone as young as Jason,”

“The kid definitely has dreams to make it out of the Portuguese Primera Liga, and now with an opportunity having shown up, what’s stopping him from jumping on it,” Martins continued, on a roll as the words kept flying out of his mouth and heating up the conversation.

“Secondly, assuming our conjecture is correct and there is something going on between him and the club, be it the management or his teammates, this is a very good chance for him to escape and fly the coop,” he continued, moving on to the next point.

“I don’t know how it feels to be in such a situation considering I was never a football player, but if the work environment was filled with conflict, then I assume it wouldn’t be pleasant for him and the pressure may come bearing down on him heavier than others, considering his age,”

“I’m not saying anything’s happening, this is strictly a ‘what if’ situation, so that’s that,”

“… wouldn’t want to be sued for defamation,” he added with a laugh.

“Haha, you should be safe, hopefully,” Patricio laughed as he added and everyone burst out in laughter despite the bittersweet reality.

It was said that ‘freedom of speech’ was a human right, but the person who wrote the constitution failed to mention that ‘freedom after speech’ wasn’t guaranteed.

“Anyways, the third reason would be the club. With suitors like Uventus who are known to have quite the deep pockets, the club might just be looking to cash in on the player and then re-invest the money into the parts of the team where they are lacking, which if you haven’t noticed, is quite a bit,”

“The squad depth is barely okay at best and with the rush of games they are currently facing, injuries due to exhaustion would soon start showing up and it might hit the team hard,”

“The management wouldn’t like that considering they are finally coming back in their race for the league title and their progression in other competitions,” Martin finally finished.

“I have to admit, those are plausible reasons, especially the third one. Facing an injury wave right now would not be good for the team’s chances in every competition. They’re already progressively drawing close to the trophies in all competitions and any mishap could lead to all their work up till now fading away,” Patricio started, taking over once again.

“If their way out is a sale for one of their more important players so they can cover other parts of the team, then there’s a chance they could take it, but that would mean a direct transfer deal which is no longer the same thing, but well we can never tell with the negotiations,” he said.

“If that’s the case, why not just give the full hundred percent chance, why eighty-eight?” William asked Martin curiously.

“Well, that’s because of two reasons,” Martin began licking his lips a little as his throat felt slightly dry after all his previous talking.

“First, I removed ten percent because of a fallout in negotiations between the two clubs,”

“I purposely made the percentage as low as ten percent because that’s how low the chances of the negotiations falling out are. Both sides want to do business for sure,”

“The Uventus will definitely want to get their hands on one of the new stars of the young generation even if they have to pay a bit of a hefty price to do so while the Oporto side definitely wants the money that the Uventus side has to offer, however, there could be a falling out if the price the Oporto side have in mind is too high even for the Uventus side that is willing to sacrifice quite a bit,” Martin explained.

“How much would you think is too high?” Patricio cut in.

“Well, I’m not a business man, but based on the current day valuation of players, I would say anything above seventy million Euros is already cutting it close,” Martin responded.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit low for a player like Jason,” William immediately questioned.

“i mean, Mbappe was bought for one hundred and eighty million Euros by PSG and even Felix from Benfica was bought for over almost a hundred and thirty million Euros by Athletico, so why do you think seventy million is too much,” William asked.

“Firstly, I never said it was too much, I said cutting it close. To be honest, no matter how we look at player valuation in the current day and age, seventy million is still quite a lot of money and despite Uventus having quite the deep pockets, you forget that they were hit by the COVID break as much as every other person and their finances has taken the brunt of it,”

“There’s even news about the club owing some players quite a few million in wages so they can’t pull out the numbers you are expecting right now,” Martin explained like a professional who spent his days analyzing company assets.

“That’s probably one of the reasons why they’re going for the option of a loan with the option to buy at the end of the loan, they may not have raised enough money and might be looking to get a buffer period to pay the transfer fees while already having him linked to them,” Martin explained.

“”Ohhhhhhh”” Patricio and William echoed at the same time.

“That explains a lot,” William said.

“Yeah, it brings a new perspective into this, you should be a professional investigator,” Patricio said with a laugh.

“No way, I love my job,” Martin laughed.

“Anyhow, what about the remaining two percent?” William suddenly remembered that there was still two percent left out of the calculation.

“That two percent is the chance that Jason will reject the loan deal even if the two clubs come to an agreement,” Martin began explaining the last part.

“Don’t you think that chance is a bit low, considering that it might be a tough decision, especially if we bring things like feelings and the fans into play,” Patricio asked.

“The fans probably wouldn’t have much effect,” Martin imediately replied in a confident tone.

“Why do you think that?” Patricio asked.

“I don’t know if you remember, but Jason had hardly made his debut when the stadiums were closed down to the fans so he hasn’t established that deep of a relationship with the Oporto fans hence, their voice in his decision would be quite low and he might very well just do whatever he wants,” Martin said and opened a bottle of water.

“Anyhow, there you have it folks, we will be back after this commercial break,” Patricio immediately took the cue to take an advert break so that they could rest a bit before moving on to the next topic.