9. Sell A Player If Another Club Offers More Than His Worth
Andres Kudacki/AP/Press Association ImagesThis strategy was used by Lyon President Jean-Michael Aulus during the clubs reign over France from 2002 to 2008, when they won seven consecutive league titles. He used to claim that every international at Lyon is untransferable, until the offer surpasses by far the amount we had expected. Pedro was not on the transfer list and I had no intention of selling him until Paris Saint-Germain offered me much more than what the Spaniard was worth. Their first bid of £30 million was rejected, but after two rounds of negotiation, PSG increased their offer to £35 million, £10 million more than what Pedro was valued by Barcelona's scouts at that time. As Peter Taylor wrote in his book, its as important in football as in the stock market to sell at the right time and the moment when the player reaches the top of his particular hill is like when the stock market peaks. At Nottingham, Brian Clough and Taylor were always trying to gauge that moment, and sell. Pedros stock reached its peak when PSG came calling and I could do little other than accepting it and re-invest the same money in better players. Whenever Taylor signed a new player, he would give him a set speech, saying, Son, the first time we can replace you with a better player, well do it without blinking an eyelid. The money generated from Pedros sale enabled me to buy a deputy left-back (Rodriguez), a talented box-to-box midfielder (Romero) and Montoyas replacement, Mattia De Sciglio, who will arrive at the Nou Camp from AC Milan in January for a fee that could rise up to £15 million.