Curiouser and curiouser.

Sounds like good business by them.

Hopefully MA has ensured this deal leaves us very, very protected. Presumably something was agreed last year regarding sell ons etc.

Wonder if we're well protected...

The way MA has handled other deals jas0999 i wouldn't hold your breath.

Why would we need to feel protected?
We asked for £6m as part of an option to buy. We've got that for a player we didn't want anymore. Who, in most people's opinions on here wasn't worth anywhere near that.
If Sassuolo sell him for more good luck to him.

There may well be a sell on clause. Just another excuse for some of you to start whining before the season's even started!

Bet Ashton has had his pants pulled down again over this one. He isn’t very good when it comes to negotiations with contracts. Hence he shouldn’t be Chairman and CEO. Ridiculous state of affairs.

He's clearly worth £10m + which is what we paid. We're only getting £6m back but we could have recouped a higher fee by not inserting such a low option to buy. And thereby protecting ourselves.

@PaulC. I think we all agree he was a bad signing for us, but it is a really bad deal for us if we have sold a player for significantly less than we paid for him only for him to be sold on for more money. There is an argument that to attract top players release clauses need to be included to encourage players to sign, as was the case with Delap and Hutchinson, and you can accept the risk that players may end up gping for less than market value if they perform particularly well. However Muric was not hard to attract. If we did sell him for that much of a loss and no sell on clause then it is the worst deal under Ashton.

12 months ago people were declaring he must 'never' play for us again and offering to drive him to the airport if he would leave on a free, just get his wages off our books...

To now be wining about only getting £6 million for a failed signing is ridiculous. Remember we also got his wages off the books and probably a loan fee as well. Plus if we have a 10% sell on we might get a little bit more. To the people saying Ashton had his pants down on this, give your head a wobble!

The added value he might get if they sell him on, he generated whilst as Sassuolo so if they pocket most of that, so be it. Better for us to have clarity and him be out - imagine if he had flopped and we had him coming back and would really struggle to move him out again. I'll take the £6million thank you nicely.

Well said @chrissmith

£6m is ok.

Quite frankly given what a mess he has been for us I'm delighted we've managed to a) shift out his wages this past year and b) get any money back after two years of his deal has already run down. Obviously never going to play for us again so at least we've got something back...

People who have clearly got it in for Ashton conveniently ignoring the fact that other clubs wouldn't be looking at him if he hadn't played well at Sassuolo this season. The option was part of the loan, without which he wouldn't now have other suitors. Catch 22.

He's clearly a decent player, it didn't work out here but we've managed to get a decent lump of the fee back for him. It is what it is, move on.

Do they want Akpom?

Personally I think the fans treated him harshly but the fact is we have got the deal we agreed. I hope we have a sell on clause but his value now is only higher because he spent a season at a tiny Serie A club. If they make a profit it’s because they took a chance when others wouldn’t have.

Muric was worth £6M (or whatever) the deal was when loaned out. It's what people agreed. He's had an excellent season, but that value extra has been created by the player and/or the opportunities that Sassulouo has given.

We can't expect £10M now for what we have not created. Otherwise, we'd moan that the house we sold in 2010 has gone up after the new owner built an extension. However, if we knew he had potential to regain his form, then a sell on clause would protect that belief.

Need to mov ethis discussion on because no matter what we say its not going to alter the current fixed position. New GK, centre back, right full back, attacking midfielder and a goal pincher then we are good?

It may show how endlessly and unnecessarily running down any of our players costs our club in the transfer market?
Some our doing it again with Hirst!
Our Manager must despair at what is sometimes written here about some of our players!

Headline figures hide that over 3m of his wages are no longer our liability

Just over £6 million plus another million + in wages

I feel there are reasons he went from being our No.1 first choice goalk to not being even considered by the club not good enough to be our third choice and farmed out then to a continental side.
We may not have recouped all what he cost us but I think it’s good business.

Great deal. Well done MA. Many on here last year saying we would lose £10m. £6m fee plus a loan fee and they pay wages for a season. But you won’t stop the moaners!!

£6m is a good return - we signed him for £10m, had 1 years use (he was poor behind a poor back 4 - and in front of minimal support - some fans were on him from day 1), 2nd year out on loan, so no salary (or we might have made his salary up, given reports he wasn't on as good a salary in Italy) - we insert an option to buy if they stay up, as we don't want him back and their staying up was worth more than £6m.

They stay up, we get the £6m we asked for, which effectively writes off the remainder of his contract at nil cost (plus wage saving) - what is it people are looking for to be protected? We're quits on a keeper we got 1 year out of, plus a saving on salary - it's sound business.

He could have been terrible for them and we're then sitting there with £6m still being counted on his contract plus we'd have to pay him and nobody wanting to take him off our hands!

Why is our fan-base full of David Dickenson's?!

The only person I feel sorry for in this case is AM himself. He's being treated like a pawn on a chessboard. Certainly not sorry for us, if there are any mistakes being made by us, it's our fault, no one elses. Personally as I see it, we've recouped some money, what we may have lost is spare change found down the back of the sofa by PL standards, which is what we now are in case anyone's forgot. I say, the very best of luck to Aro for the future, it's time for him and us to move on.

Usual Ashton haters out in force as usual. I’d be confident they were all moaning last summer that we’d never get a fee for Muric.

jas0999 - would would you put a sell on, for a oakher you’re desperate to get rid of, on high wages, that you believe isn’t good enough at (our) level.

Ashton has (financially) been handed his backside in a plate.

He’s a good operator in the EFL, clearly, but at this level, and since he had resources he’s been schooled, tine and time again, fee’s too high, sales too low, players but good enough.

Time and time again, deal after deal.

It’s ok when you have eye watering resources, but every one of our competitors have those resources now, or more, and the ‘value’ we get in deals will instruct how much quality we have in the pitch, and where we finish.

Relative to our condition now, we are light years off the standard.

Brighton, Bournemouth, Brentford, Sunderland, Leeds, they sign players for less that us £10-15 million and often they take either a shirt while to adjust, maybe a year, or are an instant success worth 5 X the investment.

We sell below what we paid, because we overpaid to start with and didn’t identify good enough talent.

It’s not sustainable, if we want to stay at this level.

I can’t think of a single player we’ve signed, that’s left worth much more under Ashton. Maybe Hutch, and that’s it.

For £200 million plus spent, that’s damning.