Man City ‘expected to agree Juma Bah deal’ – Stefan Borson
Manchester City will likely agree to sign teenage sensation Juma Bah despite Real Valladolid threatening to take legal action against the club.
That is the view of former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the Premier League champions wouldn’t want to face any significant liability after pursuing a deal for the 18-year-old.
Bah initially joined Real Valladolid on a loan deal last summer from Sierra Leone club AIK Freetong after he signed a youth-team contract, with the deal made permanent on 1 January.
In a statement on 22 January, the Spanish club accused Man City of “appearing to advise” the centre-back, who has made 12 appearances in La Liga this season, to “breach his contract” to make the move to the Etihad.
Real Valladolid claim they reserve the right to take legal and sporting action over the matter.
Man City want to pay Juma Bah release clause
But Borson admitted it appears as though Man City are looking to pay Bah’s release clause.
“We know over the years these situations have come up from time to time,” Borson told Football Insider.
“I think the thing to distinguish when it comes to Spanish deals is the difference between encouraging a player and inducing a player to breach his contract as opposed to encouraging the player to terminate his contract under the contract.
“We know that these Spanish players all have release clauses and, as we understand it from the announcement that they made, the player has sort to make the payment required to exit his contract by making a payment to the league, effectively his release clause.
“I think that is a slightly different situation from encouraging somebody to breach their contract as opposed to terminating their contract under the contract.
“We will have to see. He is not that important of a signing for City, so I can’t see that they have wanted to end up with any significant liability.
“He is a high-quality young player it seems that they presumably want to sign him for the release clause, and they will go from there.
“I suspect nothing will come of it and that the player will end up at City, but we will see.”
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