Dirk Gently In terms of management and motivation it is exactly like that - the only difference, as I said is that players have a book value :The only real difference here is that transfer fees are involved.
In the long run all this is of Newcastle's making. If they'd looked to sell him when he said he wanted out they'd now be sat on a British transfer record fee and have a load of P&R flexibility to rebuild the squad. It would also send out the message to "star" names that they can come to Newcastle and the club wouldn't stand in their way to move on if things didn't work out for them, which is now a problem they're going to have on top of being a largely unproven name at the "top" table.
