Unfortunately, with Tolisso and Hernandez, FCB were completely wrong when it came to the price and acted under pressure because they really wanted players from the world champions.
With all the love, no, just no…
At the time, Tolisso was considered one of the greatest talents in his position and played for one of the biggest talent factories (yes, that was OL back then). For what I consider to be a more talented player in a (at the time) more expensive position, 4 years later, which was one of the biggest in terms of price increases, they paid just a few million (I think it was 2?) more than for Martínez. You couldn’t have guessed that Tolisso’s body wouldn’t cooperate so much. They didn’t act out of pressure because a year later, Goretzka, one of Germany’s greatest talents, was on the market for a free transfer and had a similar player profile and also came. They also signed Rudy with Tolisso, so there was actually no pressure there. In the end you have to label the transfer as a flop, but from the point of view at the time it was definitely understandable and good, but there were developments that you couldn’t foresee. In addition, when Tolisso arrived in 2017, he was not yet a world champion…
Hernandez is a similar story and yet a completely different one. Here, too, he was severely slowed down by injuries. They couldn’t have lowered the price either, as the IV market has risen sharply in price over the years due to transfers like Van Dijk and Maguire, which is why Atlético insisted on the AK, which is why they couldn’t have paid less. And when Hernandez played, I often found him to be very strong, but unfortunately, like Tolisso, he was often injured, although his injuries were always serious. At the time of the transfer, however, this was not so unlikely as he had already suffered his first serious injury. That’s why I would have said back then that it was definitely too expensive. Because they still received 45 million for him from PSG and he also had added sporting value, I still consider the transfer to be “too expensive”, but not a flop.
And Hernandez didn’t act because of the pressure either. You had Davies, who you already knew could play LV because he had already done so partially for Canada, you still had Alaba with a two-year contract, you had Süle and Boa as 1st IVs as well as Martínez and Kimmich, who were also able to play there, again 80 million is too much for a player who is probably not a regular, but there was no pressure and could have actually taken cheaper solutions…