by ronk » Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:39 pm
I dunno. Sturridge is far and away the biggest name to come through the tribunal system at the moment and Chelsea's name is complete garbage at the moment.
If there was ever a time for a huge award, it'd be now. He was offered huge money, had been subject to significant transfer interest before and clearly was approached earlier. They allow players buy out the remainder of their contract under certain circumstances because that's where their value it set. The value of Sturridge's new contract over 5 years is a reasonable estimate of his worth. If we offer more money to him, his tribunal value should be higher.
If he was offered £3m a year, even for a shorter contract (because he could expect a profitable extension for a shorter one) then the correct tribunal fee would be £15m. This is also a reasonable estimate of what we might have expected to sell him for (I think we might well have refused or even did refuse £10m).
A tribunal should be a last resort, pending agreement. It would be farcical to have a situation where the buying club always goes to tribunal on the basis that a lower award will always be given.
Pay up Chelsea.
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