His value with a year remaining is about £15m I reckon. He'd have a lot of takers on a free transfer and would be a great squad option for most squads outside of the Sky teams.
Normally he'd command a wage of about £75k a week, around £4m a year there or thereabouts, so if somebody bought him now it'd be an investment of about £27m all in on a three-year deal.
Teams might as well wait 12 months, get him for free, and he'll be able to get £100k I reckon, about £16m investment over three years for teams which barely gets you a decent Championship strikers nowadays. I imagine he'd do well as a squad option at Palace, Fulham, Newcastle, West Ham, Wolves, etc.
I don’t know whether to be annoyed at him or not for the situation. I think the clubs you mention are likely his level. But do you think he wants to be a squad option? I reckon he still has total belief he should be in the England squad, rightly or wrongly. He’d start for us every week. Can’t see him engineering a move to be a rotation player as he is too confident.
Plus, I think while players on frees can negotiate higher salaries, are Palace paying £100k for a squad option when Mateta is on £50k? They’d be paying Dom £100k when he is turning 31. The other players won’t accept the “he had no transfer fee.” They will all want £100k too so it blows their structure.
I think he is playing a game that he has every right to, and thousands of players have before. But there is too much stacked against him so it’s really weird. Long term injuries, big periods of good play but zero goals, and an awkward age meaning he could be a £100k passenger toward the end of his next contract.
Its a stalemate as he hasn’t got the options to break out of the situation, and we haven’t got the finances to just lob another massive contract at him, even though the amount we would spend on that contract probably won’t buy us a suitable replacement even if they were willing to come to Exclusivity Period FC.
Someone needs to make a decisive move. Doing ok this window so far. Can’t let this ruin it.