At least Denis was only 3m too.... not 50m
Denis was a good buy, but his price was way more than 3M.
We paid 1,5M to City for him, then 3,5M to Villareal (and maybe some more money for all those loans and cancelling deals?).
Plus, even if it is only 5M for these 2 transfers, Man City will earn a lot of money in terms of additional fees.
"According to Mundo Deportivo, on top of the initial flat fee Barcelona paid City, they were also contracted to pay a further €800,000 when he became part of the first team and then an additional €800,000 for each 10 official matches he plays up until his 100th appearance.
If every payment is triggered, the total fee will reach €10.4m."
So, it is 5M till now, then 0,8M to City for Denis becoming a member of our first team, then 0,8M for each 10 matches played for Barca until he plays 100 official matches.
He is currently at 17 official matches this season. By the end of a season, he will come to 30+ matches.
That is 2,4 additional Millions for Denis this season. Plus those 0,8M for becoming a first team player.
In 3 years, if he'll play around 30 matches per season, it will be:
1,5M to City
3,5M to Villareal
0,8M to City for becoming a first team player
8,0M to City for playing 100 matches for Barca.
= 13,8M in total, plus did we pay some money to Sevilla/Villareal when they broke those loan deals?
So, people often say that Gomes was 50M and Denis was 3M, while in reality, it is closer to: Gomes 35-40M and Denis 15-ish M.