I know this time of the year is called silly season, but this is just going above and beyond what we could expect.
It’s been out there for about a day now and I still can’t quite comprehend it, but let’s dive into it anyway.
According to a report from Peruvian outlet Libero, Fulham are looking to take advantage of the chaos that is going on at Barcelona and offering an escape route for Gerard Pique by bringing him to South West London. And whilst it might look strange on the surface, if we can sign Edwin Van Der Sar, George Best and Bobby Moore despite them being big names and us very much the opposite, then anything can happen.
I don’t think this will happen for the record, but let’s take this seriously and actually analyse the deal as if we did have a chance of making it happen.
First off, his wages. Figures put him anywhere from between £220,000 per week to roughly £316,000 per week. With our highest-paid player currently on a reported £67,000 per week, either he has to make a massive pay cut, or we have to smash our wage structure in a time when income isn’t going to be all that it can be with the full allocation of fans not allowed into grounds, so rule that out.
Do you think this deal will happen?
Yes
No
Secondly, his age. As our past transfers have shown in recent years, we’re not exactly in the business of bringing in older outfield players, with the majority of them being under the age of 30. Pique is 33 right now, so that’s another thing that would seriously go against our ‘culture’ and ‘process’ if he were to be brought in.
Thirdly, having played the majority of the last ten years basically with his feet up watching Lionel Messi and co dominate in games at club level and Spain for the most part at international level, do you really think that he is going to want to come and scrap it out in a relegation battle with the likes of Brighton and West Brom?
There are a whole host of other reasons, but for the sake of time I’m going to leave it at that. We’ve all had a good chuckle over it, but don’t take it seriously. It just isn’t going to happen.