Late last week, a report started circulating amongst the various (and obnoxious) twitter aggregators suggesting Turkish Super Lig club Fenerbahce was inquiring about and in talks with Tottenham Hotspur over a potential move for Son Heung-Min. The source of those aggregations was, naturally the Turkish media.
Naturally, I dismissed the rumor immediately. There are a few truisms that permeate football transfers and that you can generally rely on: ITK is almost always fake, swap deals never actually happen, and you can never, ever trust the Turkish media. This particular rumor originated from Yagiz Sabuncuoglu, who besides having a surname that makes him sound like he’s a distant cousin of Ange Postecoglou, has 1.5m followers and whose Twitter bio reads simply “Sports Journalist.” Not very promising!
EXCLUSIVE | Jose Mourinho met with Heung-Min Son. The Korean star’s relations with Mourinho are at a very advanced level and he is open to coming to Fenerbahçe. A transfer fee of 30 million euros is requested due to agreements in the Far East. If the transfer issue is resolved, the talks will progress.
So imagine my surprise when Friend of the Blog™ Joel Wertheimer dug up this from a Fenerbahce Reddit thread, suggesting that if Turkish football media has a Tier 1, this guy is probably on it. Amazing scenes, we seem to have discovered the singular reliable football journalist in Turkey!
I could spend a few paragraphs talking about how Son moving to Turkey might not be as insane as it sounds — aging footballers head there all the time, Sonny probably likes Jose a lot more than we do, it’s closer to South Korea than London, Fener are in the Champions League third qualifying round. You can certainly cock your head, squint, and convince yourself that this is plausible.
But I won’t do that, because Sabuncuoglu had an update yesterday that pretty much rules out Sonny reuniting with The Special One due to the high cost of the transfer.
Although Heung Min-Son wants to work with Mourinho again; the transfer is very unlikely to happen as the transfer fee is around 30 million euros.
Aye, there’s the rub — Spurs are probably willing to let Sonny go (he’s earned that right), but with one year left on his contract it would probably be for something close(r) to his market value and certainly not for peanuts. £25m isn’t a lot for a genuine superstar, but Sonny turns 33 next year, so that figure seems pretty fair? As one of the bigger clubs in Turkey, Fenerbahce can probably afford Sonny’s wages (Galatasaray just locked Leroy Sane down on a free transfer with ridiculous wages), but it looks like they can’t afford those wages and his transfer fee.
There are also rumors that there is interest in Son from several clubs in Saudi Arabia, which feels gross, but they’re much more likely to offer stupid money for him, assuming Son wants to go. Again, I feel pretty confident in saying that the club will accommodate whatever Son wants to do within reason. If he wants to leave the club, Spurs will find a way to come to an understanding that makes everyone happy. But it sounds like it won’t be with Fenerbahce.