Selling at the right time is as important as buying at the right time when it comes to football. FC Basel are feeling that fully now. A year after failing to do a deal with Fulham, they’re counting the cost.
Blick report on the Swiss club and how their failure to sell winger Philip Otele to Fulham a year ago has now come back to haunt them.
Fulham transfer failed
While coach Stephan Lichtsteiner would like to keep Philip Otele in his squad this summer, the club’s management feel otherwise. They want to move the 27-year-old on ‘as soon as possible.’.
This is not due to underwhelming performances, but rather his substantial salary. They agreed to that last summer to secure his signing on a permanent from Abu Dhabi after winning the double.
Him staying long-term was not part of the plan. Instead, they wanted to sell last summer. Fulham were one of the interested parties. A deal worth around 16 million francs was mooted. No agreement was ever reached with those in charge at Craven Cottage.
Now, after mixed start to last season and a six-month loan spell at Hamburger SV, Otele is at risk of becoming ‘unsellable deadwood’. His market value has ‘completely collapsed’.
Italian side Lecce enquired in July but that has fizzled out. Now there’s an offer from Saudi Arabia. That bid stands at three million francs, exactly what Basel paid a year ago. They need at least four million to walk away with a ‘marginal profit’. Even that is a fraction of what they could have got from Fulham.
Now they have a decision to make. Do they let him go for less and take the loss, or hold out for another party coming in? Either way, they’re regretting not pushing Fulham’s interest more last summer.
