So it is now officially happened.
Mbappè to Real Madrid, he will wear number 9, free agent yes but it is rumored to had a 100m € bonus.
And I think it will be the new trend now, let contract expires to have big money at the sign.
Players have a lot of power but most clubs won’t allow a player of such high value to run his contract down and leave for nothing. Any smart club will offer players an ultimatum when they have two years remaining, either sign an extension or be sold. Funnily enough Liverpool have allowed Van Dijk, Salah and TAA to enter the final 12 months of their contracts which is stupid. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with those three.
Maybe now the international tournaments are over we’ll start to see more transfer activity, it has been a very quiet window so far. Liverpool need at least three new players to compete for the big prizes.
It is a big mistake for clubs to send players without making a profit. I agree with what you say and although the clubs that do this are big clubs, they act amateurish. In star transfers, some clauses need to be added to the contract to prevent behavior that will harm the club. Large amounts of money are earned under the name of signing money, and clubs are prevented from making any profit from this situation. I don't make an assessment of whether this behavior is right or wrong, but manager fees and signing money prevent clubs from generating income.
It looks like Liverpool will not be able to make any income from these players. Some clubs demand very high transfer fees from their players and never reduce this fee. It is surprising that the club took this decision despite knowing that the players would leave the club after a year.