While a headline figure can often look attractive to a selling club, it’s important to remember that clauses and bonuses behind the scenes can take away a large chunk of any fee.
Alex Telles has emerged as a serious target for Man United in previous days, while reports from Portugal do make it sound like Porto have left themselves over a barrel here.
He does have a release clause of €40m which they would be hoping to sell him for, but he’s only got one year left on his deal and there’s no sign of him extending that just now.
It means this is their last chance to get a reasonable fee for him, but that’s further complicated by sell on clauses that they’ll need to pay.
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10% of the fee will go to his former club Galatasaray which is fair enough, but their fans won’t be delighted to learn that 15% will be paid to the player’s agent.
Porto want to be left with at least €20m after these payments are made so it means that United will need to pay at least €27m to make this happen, but you have to think they should be able to afford that.
The Brazilian full back is certainly an upgrade in attacking terms over Shaw and Williams so he’ll improve that side of United’s game, but he’ll need to show that he can defend well at a higher level too.
It does feel like we’ve reached a point where Man United fans just want something to happen in the transfer market, and signing Alex Telles looks like the most likely thing for now.