Clarifying John Obi Mikel's €35m price tag and Fenerbahce's interest

Well, it certainly made for a fun headline, but apparently something got lost in translation when Fenerbahce chairman Aziz Yildirim supposedly claimed that Chelsea were asking for €35m for John Obi Mikel.  What Yildirim was apparently talking about was the total financial burden on Fenerbahce, rather than the actual price tag.

"Chelsea want €15 million and Mikel asked for €5 million a season over four years. We are talking €35 million."

-source: Aziz Yildirim; source: BBC

It's something that's rarely done in the current state of football media, but, especially in these FFP-days of extra attention to club finances, describing player costs purely in terms of transfer fees is becoming increasingly inadequate.

Underscores how important it is to take wages + contract length into account when dealing w transfers + player costs https://t.co/PJSwEi8KbW

— Jake Cohen (@JakeFCohen) July 12, 2015

Gary Cahill often comes to mind for me when talking about such things.  We are often lauded for getting him on the cheap at just £7m or so.  But we gave him an £80k/week contract (£4m+ per year) for five-and-a-half years, for a total financial commitment of roughly £30m.  For a player who was expected to be a backup at the time of his signing (coming in as the replacement for Alex), that struck a sour note for many.

In any case, the €35m total commitment for Mikel is far too much for Fener.  Not only would he become their record signing at €15m, the wages he's supposedly requesting make this deal completely untenable.

"This definitely is not something we can pursue."

-source: Aziz Yildirim; source: BBC

This is one of the reasons the previously reported interest from Abu Dhabi's Al-Ain seemed more likely to actually become reality.  Certainly no problems there with financing.  (Interestingly, perhaps, Al-Ain did just complete the signing of Mikel's international teammate Emmanuel Emenike on loan from Fenerbahce.)