Originally Posted by
superfrank
People thinking O'Donovan will fetch upwards of half a million euros are being unrealistic.
His contracts up at the end of our season, so time is a key factor in any deal.
If O'Donovan wants to leave, as it appears so, he won't sign a new contract when he knows there's interest abroad (I doubt very much he'd join any other Irish club). He'll be tempted away by money, international prospects, etc., so on that front any deal will already be done.
Next, Cork will want to get as much as possible from the sale before he goes for free.
Ideally clubs would want him in time for the start of their season but if Cork ask for too much, any club who want him that badly and rate him that highly will wait til his contracts up and get him for free. What harm will three or four months do? Relegation/promotion isn't decided til April/May and as we've seen with Sunderland a bad start doesn't mean the end of the season.
So, imo, any bid over 100,000 or so should be accepted by Cork. That way they get money in July and can buy in new players, spend on club, etc. Otherwise he'll go for free. I'm not sure how old O'Donovan is but if it were to go to a tribunal, you know the monetary compensation goes by how much players were earning at previous club, etc. which I imagine is no more than €3k a week at Cork so the compensation would be a lot less than €100k.