4 minutes ago, Johnmfc81 said:

I think there should be a bit less pressure to rush Bangura back now that Sami is playing well and with Targett too, he needs to build up his resilience and hopefully get over this terrible luck with his fitness. 

It's a shame because the brief glimpses we have seen of him he looks like he could be a real talent down the left, bags of energy and speed getting up and down the wing but his injuries may ave taken a yard of pace from him. Let's hope not and he gets to full fitness and more importantly resilience asap.

10 hours ago, Borodane said:

I would definately expect us to get some money if there is indeed a "cap bonus". Maybe not the full amount after just one cap, but it would be a fairly good deal for Spurs too even if it was just for the one cap, as it would mean that they have bought a quality player and then it probably doesn't matter if its just the 2,5 million up front after the one cap.

With any other buyer I would agree. Having read a few articles about Levy’s negotiating tactics, I am not so sure. He tried every tactic to minimise the cost, even those costs that might never be incurred. You only have to read about the deals that they lost because Levy was too obstinate. It just depends how determined Scott was - and whether he felt it too risky to put deal in jeopardy over an add on element. 

3 minutes ago, ScarBoro said:

With any other buyer I would agree. Having read a few articles about Levy’s negotiating tactics, I am not so sure. He tried every tactic to minimise the cost, even those costs that might never be incurred. You only have to read about the deals that they lost because Levy was too obstinate. It just depends how determined Scott was - and whether he felt it too risky to put deal in jeopardy over an add on element. 

It was Gibson that did this deal wasn’t it? I remember a big thing was made of him personally dealing with Levy himself to get it done. I’m not sure Scott was even here at that point, I think it was the summer he joined but couldn’t officially start until September.

3 minutes ago, LinoJo3 said:

It was Gibson that did this deal wasn’t it? I remember a big thing was made of him personally dealing with Levy himself to get it done. I’m not sure Scott was even here at that point, I think it was the summer he joined but couldn’t officially start until September.

You might well be right - I don’t think it changes my point though - whoever dealt with Levy would probably had to have let Levy have last word in order to get deal done. Boro might have given way on something else, of course

gibson vs levy is probs each others worst nightmare, like dealing with themselves I reckon where both sides are more than happy to call the others bluff or make out they are walking away to get their own way and happy to spend weeks on a deal 

hard to really know about what the addons are, as you never normally hear much about them until press leak vaguely somethings been paid from one. I found that ESPN link that said 2.5m were international based and the rest were club related.

I'd imagine there is something on both sides (of the above) for appearances, these can be done as starts only, all appearances, percentage of appearances in a season or even done by the minute instead of the game numbers. So there is multiple ways in just that style of add on you can stack the deck to make it harder to activate and keep the control in the club to release the funds or not (plenty of players have had their club careers stopped over paying an add on, when they were in the first team all the time)

But you would expect some to be within touching distance of a first full season of playing given that there is around maybe 6-7m worth of add ons, which most add ons are selling club compromising with the buying club, we think he's worth 19m, your saying 12-15m so lets setup scenarios where you agree he is worth this much to you.

but I think we might be due some soon from his appearances given he has hit 25 so far. you would think 40-50 might be a common number for the first one. I know every deals different but sure I've seen a few deals before where they were given out every 20 games (I think dele ali to evertons was payments every 20 games for example). I think appearance numbers are probs the easiest ones to negotiate as its got to be hard to say a player isn't worth a few million more if you used him in 100 games 

But I reckon we will of had at the least a very fair set of add ons if they are 7m, But I think both sides know each other well enough and how everything works with deals to know when you have gone to far and losing a deal to bring things back in, but lets face it, it will not of taken a genius for levy to work out he was the only one bidding and we were not really in a position where we would get any value out of making him stay, but at the same time I think everyone knew Spurs really wanted him and had been following him for a while under us.

I'm sure he would of still prob's had Forrest as a backup option if they pulled out, but Levy also will of known if he matched their offer spence would still pick them. After all that was the reason why Forrest likely never bid because they will of known he wasn't picking them over Spurs. 

I think a lot of the add ons are probs ones that are reasonably achievable if we drove a hard bargain, but I think where Levy will have had them on the achievable level would be so they are mostly pinging off around 2-3+ years of playing in the first team all the time. I tend to think even without the add ons we got a decent deal out of his transfer, but reckon we could start to see things pay out a little more if he stays in that team over the next few years and builds up them appearances.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="tr" dir="ltr">🚨🚨🚨 ÖZEL:<br><br>💣 Fenerbahçe, 23 yaşındaki süper genç wonderkid 8 numara Hayden Hackney için €16+4M teklif etti ancak Middlesbrough €25M istediği için transfer yetişmedi. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Boro?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Boro</a><br><br>✅ Ali Koç tekrar başkan seçilirse Hackney, kış döneminde takıma katılacak.<a href="https://t.co/lhLBucj7x1">pic.twitter.com/lhLBucj7x1</a></p>&mdash; As Marca (@asmarcatr) <a href="https://twitter.com/asmarcatr/status/1966512279098204186?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Well that didn't work..

As Marca

@asmarcatr

Translated from Turkish by Grok

EXCLUSIVE: Fenerbahçe offered €16+4M for the 23-year-old super young wonderkid number 8 Hayden Hackney, but the transfer didn't happen because Middlesbrough demanded €25M. #Boro If Ali Koç is re-elected as president, Hackney will join the team in the winter period.

They didn't and he won't.

Ings already injured for blades, my lord what a terrible signing he would of been

26 minutes ago, Tarmo Kink Army said:

Ings already injured for blades, my lord what a terrible signing he would of been

We were never getting him, it was clearly a worst case scenario option if Sene and/or Strelec or any other back up target didn’t come off. We risked waiting for Strelec and could easily have ended up without him if they’d qualified for champions league I guess we needed some kind of option to cover for that.

5 hours ago, TeaCider24 said:

They didn't and he won't.

They make some absolute tosh up don't they.

4 hours ago, LinoJo3 said:

We were never getting him, it was clearly a worst case scenario option if Sene and/or Strelec or any other back up target didn’t come off. We risked waiting for Strelec and could easily have ended up without him if they’d qualified for champions league I guess we needed some kind of option to cover for that.

yeah I think its most likely he contacted us not the other way around, and we just sat on what ever he probs offered us just in case 

bit early I think to write him off just yet as being a injured flop this season, he's only played twice and probs was high risk of injury given the lack of preseason. 

think its probs the desperation of the manager putting him straight in there 

Lol why on earth would Hackney go to Turkey?

2 minutes ago, Denzel Zanzibar said:

Lol why on earth would Hackney go to Turkey?

I know.. he's already had his teeth done and his hair line seems ok...