Hit a brick wall, concede

Question

But talks have hit a brick wall, forcing the European champions to try to cash in now rather than let him leave on a free next summer.  Concede.  Reports in Spain say Inter Milan and Manchester United are keen on the 28-year-old, but concede City are the only club prepared to pay £30m and meet his huge pay demands.   Can someone here explain me shortly what concde and "hit a brick wall" mean in this text?Thank you.

Mr Wordy · Accepted Answer

The second "concede" has the usual dictionary meaning, but I have no idea what purpose the first is serving. It looks as if the text has been garbled. Are you sure you copied it correctly?

"to hit a brick wall" is a stock expression meaning "to come to an end because of insurmountable problems". In this case, presumably they couldn't agree terms.

Desireandlove · Answer

Hi, I meant the second one. The first one isn't right at all; I think I must have copied it in the text without knowing it.What does it mean anyway?

Mr Wordy · Answer

It has sense 2a/2b at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/concede .

In other words, these reports accept/admit that it's true that City are the only club prepared to pay £30m. The extent to which this is accepted grudgingly (i.e. not willingly; sense 2b) is open to interpretation, but does not seem particularly great to me here.

Desireandlove · Answer

Thank you guys for helping me, I really appreciate it. I understand the words now.

Hit a brick wall, concede

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