Technically, no. Only Ibra. Seems weird that we're not all over the free market, but it makes sense since those guys are always out for a huge contract and bonus. I don't know if we'll be in challenging for the few free transfers we were linked to, like Kamara and a few others, unless they're looking for a sporting challenge and not a purely financial upgrade.
I imagine Giroud could have gotten a bigger wage someplace else and our 1m transfer fee for Giroud was clearly an annoyance for Giroud as he was told he'd be allowed to leave for free as long as it wasn't West Ham, so in my mind, Giroud is in that sort of ballpark. But if we're talking about players in the Kessie-Broz-Rudiger range, no, I don't think we're interested in matching those wage demands.
However, when it comes to players like Kamara, who wants a bigger wage and maybe just a change-of-scenery, we can offer him that, especially with Italy's tax laws, and when it comes to someone like Christensen (who I also suspect wants to leave Chelsea), he's a player I could genuinely see us making a push for. Christensen makes about 5m (4.9) Euros gross, so 2.45m net, now. Even if we offered him the 6m we pay Romagnoli, he'd cost us like 9m with taxes instead of 12m for Romagnoli.
Considering the difficulty that Barca had in just simply
registering Ferran Torres, I feel like we are in a stronger position to get him. With the influence of Kjaer and Tomori here, I can see him being a long-term heir to Kjaer, partner for Tomori, and a strong, sellable asset.
That being said, I would like an army of young players that we buy and send out on loan.
