Originally Posted by Neil O'Riordan
If he does leave in the summer, losing their biggest star for such a paltry sum [€150,000] will anger fans because of the potential to damage their title bid.
...
A cheap sale would revive memories of how Kevin Doyle and Shane Long were sold to Reading for €117,000 and €40,000 respectively in 2005. Doyle subsequently moved to Wolves for £6.5million with Long joining West Brom for a similar fee. City had a ten per cent sell-on clause for both but Doyle’s was cashed in when the club was in financial difficulty for far less than it would have been worth, and Long had not moved by the time City was liquidated in 2010.
With Maguire, the club will argue it had no choice but to agree to the [buy-out] clause to persuade him to sign a new deal amid UK and Belgian interest and, given he will be available for free in November anyway, it was the best they could hope for.