The commercial and consumer interest will blow up anyhow IF we do well. Honda or not! Winning and entertaining is the best way to market yourself. Players do help, but they are not everything. I can promise you that if Honda is replaced with someone of higher quality and we end up winning the league plus be a force in the CL next year.....our commercial revenue will grow a lot more then if we keep Honda and stay as we are. Not saying we can't win with Honda, but his performances on the field the last year and a half have been far from good, let alone impressive. I maintain, it's a mistake to keep a player JUST for commercial value.
To reiterate my stance though before it gets out of hand.....I'm not looking for us to get rid of Honda. He CAN be useful. But if there is an interested party with an offer on the table, while also the opportunity to replace him in the squad with a better player......I would do it right away.
And by the way, here is a quote from the summary of the link you posted:"Lastly, it’s worth mentioning Keisuke Honda. A lot was made at the time of his arrival of the commercial impact he could have on the club in Asia. Milan listed €1.35m worth of income from an ‘international partner’ for Honda’s image rights in Japan.
Milan signed deals with two Japanese partners in 2014 – Toyo Tire and Rubber Company, and Fujitsu – off the back of Honda coming to the club, so the figure will refer to one of them. La Gazzetta dello Sport thought the Fujitsu deal was worth €3m over the two years, equating to €1.5m per season. This is not far off the €1.35m the accounts stated, so it could well be Fujitsu."
Like I said, we are talking about figures that are not so high. Sure they help, but let's not joke around, 1.5 or 2 or 3 or 5 mil is not going to take us anywhere. You said that he brings "quite a lot of money", but according to the report you posted, this is not quite a lot of money. In the grand scheme of things, we need great players and a winning team a lot more then a marketing puppet that brings a couple of mil euros a year. So if there is the opportunity to move towards having a better team at the expense of Honda, then I'm all for it. Honda has been average here and the only thing giving me some confidence that he'll do better this year is the fact that he will be used in his preffered role. But if this doesn't work too, then I don't get what's the point of keeping him here.
To reiterate my stance though before it gets out of hand.....I'm not looking for us to get rid of Honda. He CAN be useful. But if there is an interested party with an offer on the table, while also the opportunity to replace him in the squad with a better player......I would do it right away.
And by the way, here is a quote from the summary of the link you posted:"Lastly, it’s worth mentioning Keisuke Honda. A lot was made at the time of his arrival of the commercial impact he could have on the club in Asia. Milan listed €1.35m worth of income from an ‘international partner’ for Honda’s image rights in Japan.
Milan signed deals with two Japanese partners in 2014 – Toyo Tire and Rubber Company, and Fujitsu – off the back of Honda coming to the club, so the figure will refer to one of them. La Gazzetta dello Sport thought the Fujitsu deal was worth €3m over the two years, equating to €1.5m per season. This is not far off the €1.35m the accounts stated, so it could well be Fujitsu."
Like I said, we are talking about figures that are not so high. Sure they help, but let's not joke around, 1.5 or 2 or 3 or 5 mil is not going to take us anywhere. You said that he brings "quite a lot of money", but according to the report you posted, this is not quite a lot of money. In the grand scheme of things, we need great players and a winning team a lot more then a marketing puppet that brings a couple of mil euros a year. So if there is the opportunity to move towards having a better team at the expense of Honda, then I'm all for it. Honda has been average here and the only thing giving me some confidence that he'll do better this year is the fact that he will be used in his preffered role. But if this doesn't work too, then I don't get what's the point of keeping him here.