Transfer expectations & reality
Just saw that Strasbourg offered 20m base for Coulibaly and people are complaining like crazy that it's too low.
Let's clear up the expectations. From a negotiation POV:
Werder is in an extremely weak position. Both sporting & finance wise. Every club negotating against them, is well aware that they are desparate for money and have a few holes they need to fill. You can see it in the table predictions too. I think it was kicker that showed we're predicated to finish 17th. Everyone knows this. But the fans are not seeing reality as it is.
So for a club like werder, even if Coulibaly's market value is 28m, it's gonna require a specific scenario in which this amount can be achieved (as base):
Bid war. preferably during an earlier stage of the transfer window. (I believe the reports of the 40m transfers were rumours spread by his agent to build up anticipation for this)
Werder has strong enough positioning to keep Karim for another season for development reasons (won't happen as he's desparate to move)
With pressure mounting from karim and his new agent (which has strong connections), option #2 is gone. And option #1 won't happen as he is still not a good enough talent to draw attention from actual elite clubs, and he's too expensive of a risk to justify for non-elite clubs.
He played one season and he was pretty damn average. The age is the factor here. For werder, getting 20m base + 5m bonuses + resale % is probably among the best deals we could get for him. 25m base and above is just a daydream. Werder is too desparate to make that work in negotiations.
So let's say Karim goes for 20m, Justin goes for 5-7m. Now you got some money to play with. With Lucke coming back I don't see them bringing another striker, so let's see what will be cooking.