I thought to exploit some sort of loop hole Melbourne City had paid Villa $5million and New York City had paid him a couple of hundred k?
Sucks if its true, really crippling your club by removing their marquee.
I thought the point of buying Heart was to extend City's brand and fan base - surely shenanigans like this and playing third fiddle is going to alienate the people who you want to convert to city fans
It seems really weird that if Melbourne pay the majority of his wages, and he stays for 4 games. That means villa is getting 1.25 million a game!
Note that Villa is a "guest player" according to A-League regulations - not a marquee -the injured Koren is their marquee.
(A guest player can play up to 10 matches). Villa is only on loan from New York City.
There will be no problem with the financial aspects as City Football Group own both clubs (Melbourne City and New York City - as well as Man City). They'll just juggle things around.
It seems that Melbourne City knew some time ago that Villa was going to have to end his ten game guest stint prematurely but didn't make it public in order to drive season ticket and merchandise sales. Really dishonest.
Good opinion piece here:
http://www.theroar.com.au/2014/10/23/melbourne-cit...
Big Pete 65, Christchurch