Hearts captain Christophe Berra is now reportedly just a passed medical away from sealing his switch to English Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The fee that has allegedly been agreed between the two clubs is £2.5million, which although it does seem like good money for a player of Berra’s ability, is perhaps not as much as Hearts could have gotten for him if you consider what some other players are going for out there at the moment. I mean, I heard someone quoting this sort of money for Hibs’ Rob Jones for goodness sake!
Wolves’ manager Mick McCarthy is evidently confident that the deal with now ahead. He said:
‘If he passes his medical, which I have no doubt he will, then he’ll be signed.
‘He’s an ambitious lad and he will be driven to get to the Premier League.
‘He’s 6ft 3in, left-footed with a bit of pace and a good defender who reads the ball well and is good in the air.
‘He got a glowing recommendation from Billy McNeill, who has been my manager twice and is a great pal of mine.
‘They don’t get much better recommendations than from a great centre half like that, although he did sign me once!
‘We tried to sign Christophe last summer and we seem to have done that now, which I delighted with.’
It’s obviously good that Berra’s going to be working for a manager who clearly rates him, but it’s a shame that McCarthy has made it public knowledge that Billy McNeill rates him – believe me this is NOT a milstone that a promising young player deserves! Just ask Stevie Fulton or Simon Donnelly about that…..
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I think in the current financial climate, £ 2.5m is a pretty good price for a 24 yearold who has only been a first-team regular at Hearts for 2 years. The regime are to be praised for holding out to get this sort of money after previous lower bids, although I’d rather have seen Berra stay at Hearts until the summer. Good luck to him – he’s developing into a top class defender, and will probably learn from McCarthy too. And yet another set of English teams results for us to look out for now !!
…….if you mean hope they get beat for pinching our captain, I concur Specs…..
McCarthy’s a clown – he showed that when he was in charge of Ireland. Poor footballer too. I wish Berra luck!
I too wish Berra all the best but don’t think this was right for the club or player. In my opinion £2.5m is a steal and with a bit more bottle we could have held on and got more in either this summer or, my ideal scenario, summer 2010. Wolves are currently at the top of the Championship, fair enough, but it’s a tough league with no guarantees of promotion – will Berra be quite so happy if this happens? Here’s a plyer who’s improved immesurably this season and who might just have been worth more to us in securing Europe (and playing there next season) than what we’ve now got. Oh well – just my opinion.
All ifs and buts I’m afraid though. Bottom line is, Berra wanted to go, and there weren’t too many other bids on the table. Hearts needed the money and Wolves offered it to them. The £2.5M is only conjecture by the newspapers anyway – the real figure is undisclosed. I suspect it will be at least another year before we know how much was actually paid, or whether there are sell-on clauses attached or whatever. I agree with you on one thing though itsnomarooned, £2.5M is a steal.