Ugo - About Bloody Time!

20 October 2000

Ugo Ehiogu has made the much, much talked about move from Aston Villa to Middlesbrough after the two clubs agreed a fee of eight million pounds and he passed a medical and agreed personal terms.

Reports suggest that Albion will receive 40% of the fee - £3.2 million - after recent renegotiation of the original 50% sell-on clause imposed as a penalty for pinching him from us in the first place. At the start of the season, we were reported to have agreed to accept £1.25 million plus ten per cent of the full fee in a bid to encourage a quick sale to fund team building, but this was stressed to be a short term offer only. Two months have passed and, if reports are to be believed, we have ended up receiving 40% of £8 million instead of waiting two years to receive 50% of nothing.

However, before Megson rushes off to the second hand player shops, the Club have said that not all of the money will be made available for team strengthening - some of it has already been spent on Jason Roberts and some is still needed to balance the books. Megson is, however, likely to see over a million to help in his search for a left sided midfielder.

Latest: (14:30) John Wile, speaking on Talk Sport, has confirmed that Albion will receive £3 million from the proceeds of the Ehiogu sale - of which 2 has already been spent on Jason Roberts. The remaining million will be made available for Gary Megson to use in team strengthening.

Epilogue: Ugo limped off after five minutes of his debut game against Charlton with a thigh strain - my calculations put that at around £1.6 million a minute. Let's hope for Robson's sake that his masters see that as good value for money...

Previous Stories:

  19 October 2000:  Alternative Ticket Office!

  19 October 2000:  Mardon injured again

  18 October 2000:  Ugo on the way at last?

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