2020-21 Transfer Rumours and Squad Discussions

[DominanceUK]

I was thinking about the Costa situation and a thought came to my mind.

There are 2 sides to a transfer, the buy and the sell for the same player from one perspective. So we bought Costa at 16 million. That seems a bad deal I think we'll all agree. Now we have 2 choices, we persevere and hope he comes good, he might he might not, the he either goes for nothing at the end of his contract or he comes good signs again. The other option is we cash in now. If we cash in I think 10 million would be about the best we could hope to get back for him at best. A loss of 6 million. Some would say that is a terrible deal considering what we paid last summer. However as I say there are two separate sides that should be considered in isolation. If we sold him for 10 mil, then we are in fact getting 10 mil that if his contract just runs down we won't see. Also we save 3 years of his wages which I would expect to be about the 40k mark meaning we save over 6 million pounds on wages. So realistically the club would be 16 million better off by selling than not.

Thoughts?

Great if you can find a club that will pay £10mill.
And secondly it assumes MB wants rid and isn't happy to keep him as a fringe player.

£15mill in hindsight has turned out a lot but at the time it was possibly difficult to attract players.
Saying that he did play a role in our promotion season (43 games) so in that sense it could be classed money well spent.

Good points across the board. One thing springs to mind for me, I didn't see many fans complaining at the beginning when we first signed him. I still think there's something there in him.

[Barlow Boy]

Good points across the board. One thing springs to mind for me, I didn't see many fans complaining at the beginning when we first signed him. I still think there's something there in him.

There were the odd few, maybe not on here, who were querying why we were paying so much for him. I can’t recall if we loaned him with a compulsory purchase at the end of the loan, or whether we just bought him as we wanted him ?.

I’m with you Dom, there’s definitely something there, which makes it even more frustrating at times.

[Selby White]

Good points across the board. One thing springs to mind for me, I didn't see many fans complaining at the beginning when we first signed him. I still think there's something there in him.

There were the odd few, maybe not on here, who were querying why we were paying so much for him. I can’t recall if we loaned him with a compulsory purchase at the end of the loan, or whether we just bought him as we wanted him ?.

I’m with you Dom, there’s definitely something there, which makes it even more frustrating at times.

Think you are correct BB it was loan with compulsory buy as I recall

[DominanceUK]

Good points across the board. One thing springs to mind for me, I didn't see many fans complaining at the beginning when we first signed him. I still think there's something there in him.

There were the odd few, maybe not on here, who were querying why we were paying so much for him. I can’t recall if we loaned him with a compulsory purchase at the end of the loan, or whether we just bought him as we wanted him ?.

I’m with you Dom, there’s definitely something there, which makes it even more frustrating at times.

Think you are correct BB it was loan with compulsory buy as I recall

It was but not many fans baulked at the price of £15m at the time. Along with Barry Douglas, I thought they we're great buys at the time. Bielsa has made me optimistic with everything that is associated with Leeds, something that no other manager (in my lifetime) has done so far. And because of that, I'm of the belief that Costa might just come good. More hope than expectation.

[PhoenixUnited]

Good points across the board. One thing springs to mind for me, I didn't see many fans complaining at the beginning when we first signed him. I still think there's something there in him.

There were the odd few, maybe not on here, who were querying why we were paying so much for him.

I’m with you Dom, there’s definitely something there, which makes it even more frustrating at times.

I was one of the naysayers I have to admit regarding the signing and felt that Wolves were laughing all the way to the bank (rather like us and Spurs over Jack Clarke).

Sure Costa played 43 games in the promotion winning team but he hardly set the place on fire. I didn't believe that agreeing to cough up £16m was a value for money deal then and I don't now. It would have been a really expensive enforced signing at £10m IMHO but then there is the always the question if Wolves would have allowed to come to us for that price or without the compulsory purchase option.

Costa is a player with great feet and fantastic ball skills. What he lacks is the mental and physical abilities to produce it to supplement those skills. From that point of view he becomes a passenger on the pitch which is obviously no good to anybody

As it is we seem to have a player that either can't or won't produce the goods at this level and I am not sure how many years he has a contract for. The Club appear to want to leave things as they are.

It's all about opinions and in any case no one is going to pay anything decent for Costa; not even £5m I don't think and options for finding a solution to have him playing elsewhere are unlikely to be available.

[ayearinmx]

they say that getting promoted is worth approx £150m...... with Costa being a more-than-regular part of that side, 150/11 = £13.6m

so maybe he wasn't worth £16m.... maybe he was worth £5m, so we overpaid by £11m (doubt we'd have got him for £5m to be fair)... but at the same time, his part in the side to get us into the premiership isn't that much more, so overall, i'd prefer to have overpaid, and to have got into the premiership, than to have not. Obviously it doesn't work out that simply, but at that time he helped us out and while i think we can agree he isn't first-choice, i think he can still do something and isn't the complete waste that others have said

[Leonickroberts]

they say that getting promoted is worth approx £150m...... with Costa being a more-than-regular part of that side, 150/11 = £13.6m

so maybe he wasn't worth £16m.... maybe he was worth £5m, so we overpaid by £11m (doubt we'd have got him for £5m to be fair)... but at the same time, his part in the side to get us into the premiership isn't that much more, so overall, i'd prefer to have overpaid, and to have got into the premiership, than to have not. Obviously it doesn't work out that simply, but at that time he helped us out and while i think we can agree he isn't first-choice, i think he can still do something and isn't the complete waste that others have said

Great post, I'm very much with you. The only thing that separates him from other signings is that the club mistakenly assumed he'd be able to make the step up like Harrison and others have. He's broadly been fine for us, and he definitely made some contributions to our promotion last season so I'm fine with the money we paid in the grand scheme of things. I also think he's probably worth £6-8m in today's market, and could see a richer Championship side paying this for him in the summer.

[Scott]

When Costa came in at the tart of last season, I was really excited at the prospect of what he could do. And the £15 million price tag didn't seem bad at all given that he had done some good stuff for Wolves in their promotion year. Seemed like a great deal at the time.

Unfortunately, he's never really delivered - at least not consistently. He showed some flashes of what he could do last season, and definitely had a part to play at times. But it never felt like he offered enough. At £15 million in the Championship, you want a player who can change a game and ignite something in the team. That's never been Costa for us.

And this season, I think it's fair to say he's deservedly fallen down the pecking order. Against Fulham earlier in the year, he had a great game, and it looked like maybe the Prem was his level all along. But that quality hasn't really shown itself since. In fact, I often find myself wondering just what he's supposed to be doing when he comes on these days. That urgency and desire most of our team have doesn't look as prevalent in Helder, unfortunately. Hopefully he bounces back from his issues at some point and becomes a more prominent part of the team in the future, but at the moment I think he has to go down as a bit of a disappointing signing overall. Can see him being offloaded in the summer.

[TelfordLeeds]

Costa stood out like a shining beacon when he first arrived in a poor Wolves side and scored a wonder goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup against Liverpool in Jan 2017. He got badly injured shortly afterwards and has never been the same since, whilst Wolves bought in a load of top players to win promotion. Too lightweight and not hardworking, wasn't worth £15m when we signed him.

[PhoenixUnited]

There has been a lot of criticism of Helder Costa and admittedly I have put my two pennyworth in. I do wonder however if all is OK with him.

We have all seen players who, having signed a decent contract, are content to take the money and are not too fussed about giving a fair return for their wages. They are quite happy to sit on the bench or not even be in the squad at all.

Regarding Costa he does not strike me as being one of these bolshie types who cares not a jot about what people think of him. He seems to have gone into a shell from which he is struggling to emerge. It does not look as if he is mentally all together. I would be sure that the club are doing all that is necessary to look after him - as they do all of our players. Fingers crossed