by Flight » Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:59 am
I can tell you from as good a source as it gets (though I'm not claiming any kind of 'special' relationship) that its Mascha that is unhappy and wants the move, its not just his agent spouting off.
Having said that, there are mitigating factors :
i) his wife hasn't been granted a permanent visa, which means all sorts of messing about when entering the country and reporting in regularly to immigration;
ii) he is far from amongst the top earners at the club. On top of that, with our new tax rates, the fall of the pound and the way Spanish clubs can treat the tax from their players, under specific legislation, a player nearly doubles their wages when they presently move from here to Spain even without getting a pay rise.