Summer 2021 Plane Tracking Thread

[Luke Emia]

Based on the fact I’m not sure he makes this United team a better team than what they already have and doesn’t really seem to fit the system seems madness.

[Shindig]

£50m could get you Ross Barkley.

[Spikey M]

And this is bad because? If Pogba stays, he'll get used. They at least know what they have with him. If they sell him, they'll need a replacement. Is £75m getting them another Pogba before the window shuts?

:cab:

[Shindig]

Sometimes he does a thing right! MONEY CAN'T BUY THAT.

[Yevrah]

Is it because we all played FM that we can't get our heads around transfer fees being almost irrelevant now?

[Shindig]

That and there's just nowt going on this window. Almost as if a year without fans had some financial ramifications.

[phonics]

I think so but not quite in the same way.

They're as relevant as ever but the FM math is wrong so people apply it wrongly to IRL.

The cost of a player is his transfer fee+wages split over the length of his contract. Considering we don't actually have a clue what anyone earns anymore. It's irrelevant.

[Lofty]

Arsenal still in for Maddison apparently.

[Spikey M]

Is it because we all played FM that we can't get our heads around transfer fees being almost irrelevant now?

I get that £75 million isn't to Man Utd what £75 million is to me, but I do know that it's better to have £75 million than than it is to not have it. Especially when there's less than 12 months between choosing to sell him or letting him walk for free.

He isn't that good. Nowhere near.

[Lewis]

The only reason not to sell him would be to think that if they do something this year he might want to stay; but even then, fuck him. There was some Ruben Neves talk the other day and that would be a very smart signing.

[Luca]

Yeah, I agree. Selling him, even at a bit of a discount, to bring in Neves and Saul (for instance) would be a massive coup.

[randomlegend]

1422666608003231744

120m euros for a 28 year old Lukaku :lol:

[Don]

Couple of midget gammons to try and replace Paul Fucking Pogba :happycry:

[Manc]

Are Inter not desperate for cash? Market has gone mad.

[Kikó]

Paul Pogba is shit so I'm totally in for midget gammons.

[randomlegend]

Are Inter not desperate for cash? Market has gone mad.

They needed about 80m euros in sales and made up the majority of it with Hakimi, so no not that desperate.

[niko_cee]

Bailey to Villa is DONE (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58084505).

[Manc]

Any legs in Cronaldo returning to Madrid?

[Waffdon]

Tier 1 source John Percy has spoken and Grealish to City will be completed in the next few days. Might even play in the Community Shield

[Jimmy Floyd]

Spare me his upcoming open letter to the Villa fans. In fact, spare me all open letters, from anyone, to anyone.

[Spikey M]

That's Kane at Spurs this season then, surely. :happycry:

[randomlegend]

Spare me his upcoming open letter to the Villa fans. In fact, spare me all open letters, from anyone, to anyone.

Are you aware you don't have to read them?

[Manc]

That's Kane at Spurs this season then, surely. :happycry:

How so?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Are you aware you don't have to read them?

They're all to me. It would be rude not to.

[Spikey M]

How so?

They're already crying about having to spend £100 million. It must be a case of one or the other.

[Waffdon]

Villa fans turning on him already. The white Fabian Delph.

[Lofty]

Apparently Grealish is at City right now to finalise the deal. So much for the decision turmoil.

[randomlegend]

They're already crying about having to spend £100 million. It must be a case of one or the other.

According to their TIER 1s they can afford both. They've made a load of money selling off flotsam already and Bernado Silva will be going as well if they can get a buyer.

[Ian]

But but but he's happy just being a cult hero at his boyhood club.

[Mellberg]

Ah well, fuck him. 100m goes a long way if spent well.

Buendia and Bailey a good start. Think we need one more now as it gets a bit light behind them two and Traore.

[SincereTheRebel]

Bailey to Villa is DONE (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58084505).

I wonder if his dad has gone back to the old forums and informed everyone on the board, that he was somewhat right all along

[Andy]

Ah well, fuck him. 100m goes a long way if spent well.

Buendia and Bailey a good start. Think we need one more now as it gets a bit light behind them two and Traore.

Is El Ghazi any good? Every time I see him play he looks like he's the most likely player on the pitch to score but not sure he does much else.

[Mellberg]

El Ghazi's fine and dangerous when on it. Capable of serious moments of quality too. Problem is when he's not in the game you might as well have 10 men, which happens more often than it should.

First choice reserve at the min, I think.

[Giggles]

Are you aware you don't have to read them?

You surely aren’t that lapped up in it to defend that type of bollocks are you?

[randomlegend]

I couldn't care less what open letters they may or may not post. I just find it bizarre people choosing to read stuff just to be outraged about it.

(Yes I see the irony of me choosing to read Jim's post and then being outraged)

[Spikey M]

That's definitely what happened there.

[Gray Fox]

I suppose now the question is, did Villa spend before he went to avoid inflated prices, or are they about to have an extra £100m to spend?

[Jimmy Floyd]

I couldn't care less what open letters they may or may not post. I just find it bizarre people choosing to read stuff just to be outraged about it.

(Yes I see the irony of me choosing to read Jim's post and then being outraged)

It's basically exactly the same process. One of my posts could contain solid posting gold, or it could contain an open letter of ghastly and insincere sentimentality. You just don't know until you read it.

[randomlegend]

I'm going to suggest you know you aren't going to enjoy a 4 page Instagram post by a footballer before you commence reading it

[Giggles]

Apparently Grealish is at City right now to finalise the deal. So much for the decision turmoil.

He even took longer to leave us.

[Danny]

1422865557708283904

[Baz]

Best episode, that.

[Ian]

1422865557708283904

:D

[phonics]

Just me or does Maddison seem a bit overrated?

[randomlegend]

I read something saying his STATSMATE are absolutely rubbish in recent seasons.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Him and Ben White are in a competition for the most 'lads lads lads' face/body available.

[Gray Fox]

In the most important news of the day, Alisson Becker signs a new 6 year deal.

[randomlegend]

Him and Ben White are in a competition for the most 'lads lads lads' face/body available.

I know a few people who came across him in clubs when he was at Norwich and he's apparently a total cunt.

[Manc]

Who is in charge of transfers at Arsenal? Maddison is a super lazy choice.

[Don]

I read something saying his STATSMATE are absolutely rubbish in recent seasons.

I like him but he's been operating at Jack Harrison/Bernardo Silva/Leandro Trossard levels of output in terms of xG and xA which is pretty shoddy given his lack of work-rate. You need to be doing more as such a luxury player.

[phonics]

Who is in charge of transfers at Arsenal? Maddison is a super lazy choice.

My only thinking is that by getting rid of Emi Martinez and Bellerin having his foot out the door, we are absolutely fucked when it comes to the ‘homegrown players’ rule. Considering we’re trying to shift Maitland Niles, Nketiah and Willock. Would only leave us with 3 homegrown players if they were all to leave.

[Waffdon]

Villa have had a bid for Ings accepted

Nvm they’ve signed him :lol:

[Mellberg]

I think we've just signed Danny Ings from absolutely no where.

[Mellberg]

That's really cute on a day we needed it. Well done, Villa.

[Spikey M]

No one seems interested in Ings, hardly surprising off the back of a fairly average season with a few injuries thrown in.

:rosebud:

[Andy]

:rosebud:

Instant regret.

That was like a proper 90s throwback transfer. Hadn't heard a peep about Ings to Villa at all.

He will do well there I'm sure but I don't think he's any better than Watkins.

[Manc]

He's definitely better than Watkins. Don't be blinded by Gareth.

[-james-]

Are Saints fucked now, Andy?

[Mellberg]

Instant regret.

That was like a proper 90s throwback transfer. Hadn't heard a peep about Ings to Villa at all.

He will do well there I'm sure but I don't think he's any better than Watkins.

Not a single mention at our end either. Madness.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

He's definitely better than Watkins. Don't be blinded by Gareth.

False.

[Waffdon]

I seen Southampton’s tweet saying they’ve accepted an offer and had to check it wasn’t a fake account. Scrolled down a bit further and Villa have it on their website saying he’s signed.

Still think they could do with improving Mings but for some reason he’s seen as some sort of don.

Ings isn’t going to start every week and even if he does I can see Watkins playing off the left anyway

[Andy]

Are Saints fucked now, Andy?

Probably, I think we're in the hopefully there are three teams worse than us category now with Ings gone.

He's our main goal scorer and also he leads the press, will be a lot for Adams to step up.

[Don]

Watkins and Ings both now in the 'wait and see' FPL pile. Tammy for Southampton? Someone from the prem from the dozen or so clubs needing a striker needs to pay Zenit £20m for Azmoun.

[Waffdon]

Think Abraham is going to Atalanta if Inter sign Zapata

[Andy]

Watkins and Ings both now in the 'wait and see' FPL pile. Tammy for Southampton? Someone from the prem from the dozen or so clubs needing a striker needs to pay Zenit £20m for Azmoun.

I think our main target is Armstrong from Blackburn.

[Mellberg]

Martinez
Cash
Konsa
Mings
Targett
Douglas Luiz
McGinn
Bailey
Buendia
Watkins
Ings

Steer
Tuanzebe (on loan I think)
Hause
Young
Nakamba
Sanson
Traore
El Ghazi
Trezeguet
Wesley

It's not bad. One more defensive mid maybe and I think we're good. Possibly a winger.

[Giggles]

Is Obafemi getting the door in that Armstrong deal?

[randomlegend]

Think Abraham is going to Atalanta if Inter sign Zapata

Isn't Abraham on like double their current highest earner? Seems unlikely

[Andy]

Is Obafemi getting the door in that Armstrong deal?

Possibly although I think now that Ings has gone we will need Obafemi. If the season started tomorrow we'd have Adams and Walcott upfront with Obafemi the only striker cover for those two.

[Yevrah]

That's cracking business by Villa.

[niko_cee]

Show me that sweet sweet sell-on clause.

Maybe Southampton would like to buy Divock Origi? Same terms as the previous Ings deal?

[Giggles]

Possibly although I think now that Ings has gone we will need Obafemi. If the season started tomorrow we'd have Adams and Walcott upfront with Obafemi the only striker cover for those two.

Latest now seems to be Armstrong to Norwich with Idah going the other way as part of it. I’d rather him than Obafemi from our point of view.

[-james-]

I worry for Giggles when Obafemi is leading the line for St. Johnstone in a couple years time.

[Giggles]

I worry for Giggles when Obafemi is leading the line for St. Johnstone in a couple years time.

I’d say he could be, though you’ve picked me up wrong. Neither is getting top flight games but Idah is the superior prospect so I’d rather see him move down a level to get some.

[Lewis]

I saw a picture of Harry Kane and his brother earlier, and he just looks like somebody imagined Harry Kane's idiot brother. Proper 'Simpson Gene' looks.

[Gray Fox]

Show me that sweet sweet sell-on clause.

Maybe Southampton would like to buy Divock Origi? Same terms as the previous Ings deal?

20% wasn't it?

And if Liverpool get anywhere near the £20m they supposedly want for a player who was last season, outscored by his goalkeeper, someone needs shooting.

[Andy]

20% wasn't it?

And if Liverpool get anywhere near the £20m they supposedly want for a player who was last season, outscored by his goalkeeper, someone needs shooting.

20% of the profit I've read.

[Lofty]

Who is in charge of transfers at Arsenal? Maddison is a super lazy choice.

Edu, his record isn't great so far.

[Manc]

What happened to Mislintat?

[randomlegend]

1423036231622004737

Here we go!

I don't think he really takes them up a level like a top striker would but we'll see.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Are they wearing that as a home shirt this year? Remind me to use the radio more.

[Mellberg]

Serious injury and wins fuck all :yn:

[Andy]

1423036231622004737

Here we go!

I don't think he really takes them up a level like a top striker would but we'll see.

Always hard to know what Pep will do, if as the journos seem to think he will replace Bernado Silva and play as an 8 then I think he makes a big difference.

They lacked a bit of a spark at times last season and Grealish will give them the extra bit unpredictability they may need through the middle.

[Spikey M]

That "here we go" stuff is cringe enough when Fabrizio Romano is doing it, can we not?

[SincereTheRebel]

KDB or Sterling goes to the striker position?

[Manc]

Kane.

[Lofty]

What happened to Mislintat?

Been gone for ages. When Gazidis left post Wenger, there was a power vacuum because things had always worked that Wenger was authority on everything. Mislintat wanted to have sole power for transfers but lost out to Raul Sanhelli, the man who brought us the £72m at a pound a week Pepe deal.

Then the yanks sent their main man over to check on the operation and he starting looking at the books, digging into the deals Sanhelli had signed off. Suddenly Sanhelli has resigned and left immediately and the whole plan has fallen apart. So Edu is promoted to technical director, in charge of transfers. There is an exec called Dick Garlic we hired from WBA who is helping, apparently?

But so far Edu's strategy has been to ask his best mate super agent Kia Joorabchian what we should do (sign all his clients, naturally. Kia also sits in the director's box at games then goes on Talksport and lols at us, totally normal behaviour), and pay off the contracts of anyone we want to leave but cant sell. So lazy is the theme.

[Manc]

Dick Garlic at your service.

[Shindig]

It's worse than I thought. He was born Richard and chose to shorten it.

[randomlegend]

That "here we go" stuff is cringe enough when Fabrizio Romano is doing it, can we not?

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a3/ad/2b/a3ad2b32f691d35b71524fe80c1757c8.png

[Raoul Duke]

Dick Garlic at your service.

I imagine his previous job was some sort of dashing vampire hunter

[Ian]

Hunting sexy vampires.

[Gray Fox]

Sounds like Newcastle have got Willock for £25m.

[Don]

Matheus Pereira to Al-Hilal. At least won't see him gracing another PL side with his genius.

[Waffdon]

He’s definitely getting a loan move to a West Ham or something come January

[Kikó]

Pallestri out on loan to Alaves:
https://www.manutd.com/en/news/detail/facundo-pellistri-rejoins-deportivo-alaves-on-loan-for-the-2021-22-campaign-5-august-2021?utm_campaign=ManUtd&utm_medium=post&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR34CMwnbH-N6pczp4sz8ZyCmTKZAmkKH_1p0Vt_PU3naT_uPxu_ESS55dI

[randomlegend]

There's a story in a shit tier Italian paper that the Inter owner is having second thoughts about selling Lukaku because of the fan backlash.

Obviously not true but would be hilarious.

[Lofty]

Sounds like Newcastle have got Willock for £25m.

Absolutely stonking business for all involved if true. I think he is a decent player but wont get the minutes at Arsenal to reach his potential.

[SvN]

Pallestri out on loan to Alaves:
https://www.manutd.com/en/news/detail/facundo-pellistri-rejoins-deportivo-alaves-on-loan-for-the-2021-22-campaign-5-august-2021?utm_campaign=ManUtd&utm_medium=post&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR34CMwnbH-N6pczp4sz8ZyCmTKZAmkKH_1p0Vt_PU3naT_uPxu_ESS55dI
Don

[Don]

:baz:

[Waffdon]

Messi apparently not signing the new contract if you believe Spanish papers

[Gray Fox]

It's from Marca who are almost a Real Madrid owned rag. Take it with a pinch of salt.

Good scenes if he's convinced Aguero to join only to sod off to PSG for eleventy billion a week.

[Shindig]

Absolutely stonking business for all involved if true. I think he is a decent player but wont get the minutes at Arsenal to reach his potential.

I read the other day he got a few minutes in a friendly and smacked the crossbar. It could've happened for him but I guess Arteta never really fancied it.

[Waffdon]

It's from Marca who are almost a Real Madrid owned rag. Take it with a pinch of salt.

Good scenes if he's convinced Aguero to join only to sod off to PSG for eleventy billion a week.

RL’s tier 1 source just confirmed he’s leaving

[Baz]

It's from Marca who are almost a Real Madrid owned rag. Take it with a pinch of salt.

Good scenes if he's convinced Aguero to join only to sod off to PSG for eleventy billion a week.

Fabriano Romano’s tweeted it though.

[Waffdon]

And so have Barcelona lol.

Man City will be asking for a refund on Grealish

[Manc]

Who can put up the cash to front his wages?

[randomlegend]

If he goes to City and Kane is left stuck at Tottenham :D

[Waffdon]

Who can put up the cash to front his wages?

Whoever does will make half it back in shirt sales anyway

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

He'll pitch up at Inter Miami.

[Shindig]

Mike Ashley left the Sports Direct board specifically to GET THIS DEAL DONE.

[randomlegend]

Whoever does will make half it back in shirt sales anyway

This is nonsense by the way. Most clubs make almost nothing from shirt sales.

[Gray Fox]

Barcelona have deleted that tweet from a few days ago about having the support of credit agencies :D

[Giggles]

https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/football/first-team/news/2207655/leo-messi-not-staying-at-fc-barcelona

[randomlegend]

News took a while to reach Ireland I see.

[Giggles]

News took a while to reach Ireland I see.

Actual confirmation coming all the way to you lot from here. Instead of some Twitter scrote.

[Jimmy Floyd]

And you wonder why these mugs were going big for the Super League. Nothing more than a death rattle.

[randomlegend]

https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/football/first-team/news/2207655/leo-messi-not-staying-at-fc-barcelona

Waff posted that Barca had confirmed it at 18:55 ACKSHUALLY.

[Giggles]

Waff posted that Barca had confirmed it at 18:55 ACKSHUALLY.

No linky no likey.

[Lofty]

Alright Paddy.

[Giggles]

Racist.

[Kikó]

And you wonder why these mugs were going big for the Super League. Nothing more than a death rattle.

Shirley it's the end of the Bollock money spending that's symbolised the last 10 years. There must be some bargains in that Barcelona squad.

[Giggles]

Have they sold everyone he wanted gone to make up his wages by now?

[Kikó]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/c2c8565a-e282-481c-8897-0530b0c81bce

Just an incredible read about Barcelona.

[randomlegend]

Shirley it's the end of the Bollock money spending that's symbolised the last 10 years. There must be some bargains in that Barcelona squad.

It looks chock full of aging players on high wages and shite to be honest. De Jong and Pedri are about the only players worth having and the only ones there's zero chance of them selling.

[Giggles]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/c2c8565a-e282-481c-8897-0530b0c81bce

Just an incredible read about Barcelona.

Paywall.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Do you not have a Financial Times subscription, Giggles? Kiko does.

[Giggles]

You bet your tits he does.

[Baz]

After seeing the Ings to Villa deal fly through out of nowhere, I wouldn’t be opposed to Messi to Liverpool happening in a similar way.

Ideally Messi to PSG, Mbappe to Liverpool is the real play though.

[Luca]

Do you not have a Financial Times subscription, Giggles? Kiko does.

I’ve made sure the lads from THE GROUP have been adequately furnished with only the best in paywall bypassing technology.

PM Bams…I mean me, for more details.

[Lewis]

1423344065014341634

[Kikó]

Paywall.

Barcelona
How FC Barcelona blew a fortune — and got worse
The inside story of why the world’s best and richest football club lost the battle for talent

August 5, 2021 4:00 am by Simon Kuper
When I began writing a book about FC Barcelona in 2019, I thought I would be explaining the club’s rise to greatness, and I have. But I have also ended up charting its decline and fall.

Before the pandemic, Barcelona became the first club in any sport ever to surpass $1bn in annual revenues. Now its gross debt is about $1.4bn, much of it short-term.

Spain’s La Liga has blocked it from spending any more money it doesn’t have. Barça has faced obstacles to giving a new contract to the world’s best and highest-paid footballer, Lionel Messi, even though he has reportedly agreed to cut his pay by half. The club has put most of its other players in an everything-must-go sale, with few takers so far.


The pandemic hurt, but it was only the coup de grâce. Almost invisibly, Barcelona has been in free fall ever since the night in Berlin in June 2015 when it won its fourth Champions League final in 10 years. The club had achieved dominance on the cheap, thanks to a one-off generation of brilliant footballers from its own youth academy. Back then, Barça could afford to sign almost anybody in football. In any talent business, the most important management decision is recruitment. But Barcelona lost the “war for talent”. What went wrong?

Barça’s process for buying players is unusually messy. Rival currents inside the club each push for different signings, often without bothering to inform the head coach. Candidates for the Barça presidency campaign on promises of the stars they will buy if elected. The sporting director of the moment will have his own views, as will Messi.

The man overseeing Barcelona’s disastrous transfer policy between 2014 and 2020 was Josep Maria Bartomeu. An amiable chap, he runs a family company that makes the jet bridges that take passengers from plane to terminal. In January 2014, he went from obscure Barça vice-president to accidental president when the incumbent, Sandro Rosell, stepped down. Bartomeu was considered a mere caretaker. However, in July 2015, a month after the win in Berlin, grateful club members gave him a landslide victory in Barça’s presidential elections.

The problem was that he knew little about either football or the football business. His sporting director, the legendary Spanish goalkeeper Andoni “Zubi” Zubizarreta, had signed players like Neymar and Luis Suárez, who gelled with Messi into the “MSN” attack, the best in football. But Bartomeu soon sacked Zubi. In all, the president had five sporting directors in six years.

Footballers Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé
After selling Neymar (1) in 2017, Barça reportedly turns down Kylian Mbappé (2) and signs Ousmane Dembélé (3) instead © Mehdi Taamallah; John Berry; Pedro Salado via Getty Images
Barcelona’s descent began with the loss of Neymar. The Brazilian was a hyperefficient winger who ran on to Messi’s passes. Expected goals (xG) is a measure of how many goals a team is likely to score based on its quality of chances. In the 2015/16 season, Neymar by himself accounted for 1.2 xG per game, only slightly behind Messi’s staggering 1.4. But Neymar wanted to be Messi: the main man of his team. In 2017, he joined Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) for a transfer fee of €220m, a world record. Barcelona never managed to replace him.

When a club sells a player for €220m, it doesn’t actually have €220m to spend. There are taxes, agents’ fees and payments by instalment. Still, every other football club in 2017 knew Bartomeu had a wad of money in his back pocket and a need for a human trophy to wave in front of Barça’s 150,000 Neymar-deprived club members.

Almost any footballer will listen to an offer from Barcelona. “Sometimes you cannot reach an agreement,” Rosell told me, “but everybody sits at the table.”

In 2017, the Spanish agent Junior Minguella offered Barcelona’s board the sensational 18-year-old French forward Kylian Mbappé. But Minguella didn’t even hear back from Barça until finally a WhatsApp message arrived from a board member, Javier Bordas: “Neither the coaches nor Presi [the president] wanted him.”

Bordas would say years later that Barça’s technical staff had also rejected the young Norwegian Erling Braut Haaland, because he wasn’t considered “a player in the Barça model”. Today, Mbappé and Haaland are the two most coveted young men in football.

Messi’s calling the shots. He knows he can take out anyone. He’s not looking for fights — he’s a nice guy. But he knows he has the power

Barça staffer
Instead Barça targeted another young Frenchman, Borussia Dortmund’s Ousmane Dembélé. Three weeks after Neymar left, Bartomeu and another Barcelona official flew to negotiate — Dembélé’s transfer with their German counterparts in Monte Carlo, a favourite hub of the football business.

The Barça duo landed with a firm resolution, reported The New York Times: they would pay a transfer fee of at most €80m. Anything more and they would walk away. Before walking into the assigned room, the two men hugged.

But in the room, they got a surprise. The Germans said they had no time to chat, had a plane to catch, wouldn’t negotiate and wanted about double Barcelona’s budgeted sum for Dembélé. Bartomeu gave in. After all, he was president of the world’s richest club, and still something of a football virgin. He committed to pay €105m up front, plus €42m in easily obtained performance bonuses — more than Mbappé would have cost.

Not six months later, Barça paid Liverpool €160m for the Brazilian creator Philippe Coutinho. Neymar’s transfer fee had been blown, and more. A transfer fee of more than €100m should be a guarantee against failure, but neither Dembélé nor Coutinho succeeded at Barça.

Some of this may be due to the anxiety inherent in joining this club. The English striker Gary Lineker, who came from Everton in 1986, told me: “The moment I got off the aeroplane, there were hundreds of photographers and press. I was there with [Welsh striker] Mark Hughes. We’d just signed and we were told, ‘We’re going to train on the pitch today, it’s when they introduce you to the crowd,’ and we thought, well, who’s going to turn up? Maybe 30 people, maybe 40. There was about 60-odd thousand people there, just to cheer the new players and watch a bit of training.”

Lineker agreed that Hughes, who failed at Barcelona, may have been one of the players who are said to “die” of nerves in the Camp Nou. “I think he was a bit too immature. But the expectancy levels there!”

No wonder Barcelona face a peculiar hurdle in the transfer market: many potential signings feel they aren’t good enough for Barça. These men are experiencing possibly justified imposter syndrome. Rosell said, “Sometimes an agent comes and says, ‘No, no, no, we are not ready.’ This is very honest. I liked it when it happened to me.” Bartomeu told me of similar rejections from “very important players now playing in other clubs”.

Recommended
Meet Frenkie de Jong, the footballer playing like no one else
In early 2019, when Barcelona approached Ajax Amsterdam’s young midfielder Frenkie de Jong, a Barça fan since childhood, he was torn. He worried he wouldn’t get on to the team. Accepting an offer from Manchester City or PSG felt more realistic. He lay awake at night fretting over what might prove the biggest decision of his professional life. Reassured when Bartomeu made the effort to visit him in Amsterdam, De Jong finally decided he had to take the risk of joining Barça, rather than spend the rest of his life wondering whether he could have made it there.

Barcelona paid Ajax a transfer fee of €75m. According to football agent Hasan Cetinkaya, advising the Dutch club, this was nearly double what Ajax had initially hoped to get. Cetinkaya said: “There was tremendous pressure on Barcelona’s sporting management to get the deal done, and they really wanted to protect themselves. Those in Barcelona’s sporting leadership were so relieved that the then sporting director Pep Segura began crying as soon as the papers were written.”

Barça was used to overpaying. Whereas most clubs target a type — say, a young playmaker who costs under €30m — Barcelona until 2020 shopped at the top of the market, and could afford to target an ideal. In this case, Barça didn’t want a “De Jong type”. It wanted De Jong himself. As so often when bidding for a player, it had no alternative in mind, and the selling club understood this. “You know you will pay more than another club,” shrugged Rosell.

In early summer 2019, Neymar messaged Messi to say he wanted to leave PSG. (“MSN” lived on in a WhatsApp group.) Messi saw the chance to repair Barcelona’s mistake of 2017. He replied: “We need you to win the Champions League.” He summoned Bartomeu and let him know. Messi made the same case in the media, putting pressure on the club.

The way they showed contempt for me at Barcelona at the start of the season . . . Then Atlético opened all its doors for me

Luis Suárez
But Barça took one look at the injury-prone, fun-loving, then 27-year-old Neymar and decided it wasn’t going to pay PSG’s asking fee of approximately €200m. By this time, Barcelona was running out of money, partly because of its run of bad purchases and partly because the pay rises Messi’s father Jorge kept extracting for his son were bleeding the club dry.

Between 2017 and 2021, Messi earned a total of more than €555m, according to extracts from his 30-page contract published in El Mundo newspaper. Neither Messi nor senior Barcelona officials denied the figure. One senior Barça official told me Messi’s salary had tripled between 2014 and 2020. But he added, “Messi is not the problem. The problem is the contagion of the rest of the team.” Whenever Messi got a raise, his teammates wanted one too. Messi’s salary finally made it impossible for Barcelona to buy the player Messi most wanted.

Images of footballers Philippe Countinho, Antoine Greizmann, Frenkie de Jong and Luis Suárez, all wearing football kit
In 2018 Barça spends big on Philippe Coutinho (1) but by 2019 he is on loan to Bayern Munich. The same year, it buys Antoine Griezmann (2) and Frenkie de Jong (3). In 2020 Luis Suárez (4) is sold to Atlético Madrid for just €6m © Josep Lago; Pedro Salado; Pierre-Philippe Marcou via Getty Images
Barça spent summer 2019 more or less pretending publicly to sign Neymar, so that it could eventually go back and tell Messi, “Sorry, we tried everything but we couldn’t get him.” Instead Barcelona paid Atlético Madrid €120m for Antoine Griezmann, the 28-year-old Frenchman who had rejected the club a year earlier. It was a record fee for a footballer older than 25. It also enriched Barcelona’s rivals Atlético over and above the peculiar arrangement of Barça paying the Madrileños millions a year for “first refusal” on their players.

Barça’s ostentatious pursuit of Neymar doesn’t seem to have fooled Messi. Asked if the club had done everything possible to get the Brazilian, he replied, “I don’t know . . . not everything is very clear.” Asked if he ran the club, he issued his usual irritable denial: “Obviously I don’t direct things, I’m just another player.”

A club staffer who has worked with Messi since before his first-team debut in 2004 disagrees. “He’s calling the shots,” this man told me. “He knows he can take out anyone. He’s not looking for fights — he’s a nice guy. But he knows he has the power.” When Messi lost a battle, the staffer said, he would say nothing but metaphorically “write it down in his notebook”.

The failure to buy Neymar was Messi’s biggest defeat inside Barça and it went into his mental notebook. He couldn’t forgive Bartomeu. Messi didn’t particularly want power. He would have preferred that the directors and coaches handled everything — but only as long as they bought exactly the players he wanted.

Players who join Barcelona have often been the stars of every team they have played for since age six. At Barça, they become watercarriers for Messi. The drop in status was hard for a veteran superstar like Griezmann, especially when, for the first time in his career, he was benched. He rarely reached his best at Barça.

In total, Barcelona spent over €1bn on transfers between 2014 and 2019, more than any other football club, yet as veteran defender Gerard Piqué admitted, “Every year we were a little bit worse.” By January 2020, when Barça needed a striker to replace the injured Suárez, the club was reduced to discount shopping. Sporting director Eric Abidal contacted the agents of Cédric Bakambu, a French-Congolese forward at Beijing Guoan.

When Bakambu got the phone call that every journeyman footballer dreams of, he jumped on a plane to Hong Kong, from where he could catch a flight to Catalonia. He sat wide-awake with excitement during the four hours to Hong Kong. As the plane came in to land and the signal on his phone resumed, a message from Abidal arrived: Barça had changed its mind. Instead the club signed a different journeyman, the Dane Martin Braithwaite, who had flopped at Middlesbrough in the English Championship.

Yet the strangest purchase of the Bartomeu era was Matheus Fernandes. In January 2020, Barça signed the unknown 21-year-old reserve midfielder from the Brazilian club Palmeiras. The transfer fee was €7m, plus €3m in potential add-ons. Fernandes was almost a secret signing. Barça never gave him an official presentation. After a spell on loan at little Valladolid, where he played just three matches, he returned to the Camp Nou and was given the “Covid” shirt number 19, which nobody else wanted. Last season, “the Brazilian Phantom” played 17 minutes for the first team.

Nobody could work out why Barça had bought him. Palmeiras’s sporting director, Alexandre Mattos, explained later that he had somehow lured Abidal to come and see the club’s reserves train. “At that moment, they called me crazy: ‘You want to sell a player from Palmeiras reserves, who doesn’t play much, to Barcelona?’” One wonders what Messi made of Braithwaite and Fernandes.

By summer 2020, Barça’s transfer deficit was haunting Bartomeu and his board members. Under the rules that govern Spanish member-owned clubs such as Barça, directors had to repay losses out of their own pockets. The board needed to book profits urgently before the financial year ended on July 1. And so a bizarre swap transfer was concocted. The counterparty was Juventus, also eager to improve its books. Juve “sold” Bosnian midfielder Miralem Pjanic to Barça for a basic fee of €60m, while Barça sold Brazilian midfielder Arthur Melo to Juve for a basic €72m.

These sums would never actually be paid. They were invented for accounting purposes. Under bookkeeping rules, each club could book its handsome supposed selling price as immediate income. The notional payments would be spread out over the years of the players’ contracts. Only €12m in actual money would end up changing hands, the difference between the two players’ fictional prices, paid by Juve to Barça. What mattered was that the swap helped both giants clean up their books.

It was a good deal for Bartomeu’s board, but not for Barça: the ageing squad acquired another 30-year-old in Pjanic, who was soon a fixture on the substitutes’ bench. By last August, after an 8-2 thrashing by Bayern Munich in the Champions League, Barça’s financial crisis became acute. The club needed to offload overpaid older players for whom there was little demand. Suárez, 33, was informed in a one-minute phone call that his services were no longer needed. He joined Atlético. Barcelona continued to pay a portion of his salary.

Bartomeu does deserve credit for signing 17-year-old Pedri from Las Palmas that summer, for an initial fee of just €5m. The boy became a sensation. He shone for Spain in this summer’s European Championship and should play in Saturday’s men’s Olympic football final against Brazil. Still, that success cannot outweigh all Bartomeu’s failures.

Lionel Messi in a dinner jacket, holding the Ballon d’Or trophy; Messi holds aloft the trophy after Barça wins La Liga in 2019; a dejected-looking Messi on the pitch
In 2016 Messi wins his fifth Ballon d’Or (1); three years later Barça wins La Liga (2). But by 2021, the club faces obstacles to giving Messi a new contract, even though he has reportedly agreed to cut his pay by half © Fabrice Coffrini; Lluis Gene; Manu Fernandez via Getty Images
Barcelona ended last season third in the Spanish league, its worst performance since 2008. Atlético Madrid won the title, largely thanks to Barça’s gift of Suárez. The Uruguayan scored 21 league goals, and was the striker that Barcelona lacked all season. After scoring the winner in the last match, he sat on the field crying with happiness as he phoned his family. “The way they showed contempt for me at Barcelona at the start of the season,” he had said earlier. “Then Atlético opened all its doors for me.”

This season could be worse for Barça. La Liga has been indicating it will only let the club spend about €160m or €200m on player costs this year, less than a third the amount of three years ago. Barcelona isn’t merely paying unaffordable wages. It’s also still amortising failed transfers of years ago. The club has gone from discount shopping to only signing out-of-contract players who carry no transfer fees at all. Even then, La Liga will only register them to play and re-register Messi if Barça can first slash its wage bill.

Barça has offloaded a few relatively modestly paid reserves, without noticeably denting the wage bill. Fernandes received an email saying his contract was being terminated; he is reportedly taking legal action for unfair dismissal. Barça would love to sell some expensive players, but Dembélé is injured and Coutinho recovering from injury.

The club may end up having to sell its most treasured young players, Pedri and De Jong. Rival big clubs are pitiless. Messi might choose to leave. Barça needed to lower its sights for a while, another senior club official told me, “not try to win every year La Liga or the Champions [League]”. I have sometimes felt I was writing a book about Rome in 400AD with the barbarians already inside the gates

[Giggles]

You’re not the worst.

[Baz]

Grealish given number 10.

That’s the Kane deal off then.

[Manc]

1423344065014341634

:D

[SincereTheRebel]

Cancel the Grealish deal and get Messi in you cunts.

[Spikey M]

Racist.

:D

[Spikey M]

1423344065014341634

:lol:

[niko_cee]

Got to say I have enjoyed this page, well played to all involved.

[Danny]

You’re not the worst.

Get a room.

[Lewis]

lol at Neymar if Messi has to go and win him the Champions' League at PSG. It will be like when they had to put Stone Cold Steve Austin in Team WCW to make them a threat and bury them at the same time.

[randomlegend]

Tracked Varane's flight into Manchester :cool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/476466012024340483/872932813236760596/E8DN_s_XsAQ5-3A.png

Is he now downgraded to tier 2, randomlegend?

[Shindig]

There must've been a last-minute fax.

[Giggles]

Is that an update to earlier or an old tweet?

[Jimmy Floyd]

That was yesterday. Life comes at you fast.

[Shindig]

*Fax

[randomlegend]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/476466012024340483/872932813236760596/E8DN_s_XsAQ5-3A.png

Is he now downgraded to tier 2, randomlegend?

Tier reviews take place at the end of the window.

[randomlegend]

In seriousness, Barca and Messi did agree the renewal and presumably (arrogantly) Barca believed the issues with La Liga would all get sorted out and they'd register him.

They are currently not able to register their new signings either :lol:

[Pepe]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/476466012024340483/872932813236760596/E8DN_s_XsAQ5-3A.png

Is he now downgraded to tier 2, randomlegend?

Hello.

[Gray Fox]

Tier 3 at best.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Here we go.

[Lewis]

1423359692475142146

'If you would like to pay the release clause, please press "1".'

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57818660

Grealish to Man City official.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Mellberg

1423361628670726152

Every little thing is going to be alright.

[Spikey M]

:cool:

[Shindig]

"If you would like to speak to an actual human, please hold and one of our customer service team will be with you shortly."

[-james-]

Messi is going nowhere.

[Offshore Toon]

Yeah, it ain't particularly convincing. That statement is a tad weak for someone of Messi's stature.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Messi is going nowhere.

What are they trying to do, bully La Liga into changing their rules? I thought the whole thing with Tebas is he wants to make it less of a duopoly and more of a league like England.

[randomlegend]

The argument is that Messi is just as huge a loss for La Liga in terms of marketing/popularity as he is for Barcelona. So yeah, they might be thinking they can bully La Liga into changing the rules so Messi stays in the league.

Not sure I believe it. Bouhafsi reckons he's already in talks with PSG.

[Yevrah]

Thought that was cracking from Purslow.

What a club Villa are.

[niko_cee]

I've not watched it (sounded a bit open lettery) but I'm struggling to come to terms with the idea that Purslow is anything other than an utter moron.

Was it Villa or Birmingham who were the Trillion Trophy mob?

[Manc]

How much is Grealish on at City? (Tier 1 sources only)

[Yevrah]

While Grealish’s wages at City have not been officially disclosed, the Telegraph are reporting he will earn £115m across his six-year deal, working out at £369,231-a-week.

sddfgui

[Spikey M]

It doesn't matter what he's earning. It wasn't about the money :happycry:

[Jimmy Floyd]

£370,000 a week? I like Grealish but that's a lot of moolah.

[Lewis]

Once again, would he have said no to £250000 a week? That must make him their second highest earner.

[Waffdon]

Tier 3 sources state Villa offered Grealish more a week than City were giving him. RL to confirm

[Manc]

More than I suspected. Absoutley bonkers.

[Shindig]

Might as well make it before some Serb bend his legs backwards in the group stages.

[randomlegend]

It doesn't matter what he's earning. It wasn't about the money :happycry:

It's been reliably reported that Villa offered him more to stay than he's on at City

Edit: ninjad, as above. I can't remember who it was off the top of my head but I thought it was someone good.

[Ian]

Would Villa paying him the better part of half a million a week (if that City figure reported is right) not have totally fucked them in future contract wranglings if they didn't turn into a title / European challenger in the next few years? I assume that'd have put him on at least double what they're paying anybody else.

[niko_cee]

Double? Doubt anyone else at Villa earns a six figure weekly salary.

[Ian]

I couldn't be bothered to think if there was anybody they'd likely have got overexcited about a contract for but you're probably right.

[Waffdon]

Mings the highest at 80k a week if you believe the internet. Poor John McGinn on 25k, he should be too 3 earner.

[Spikey M]

It's been reliably reported that Villa offered him more to stay than he's on at City

Edit: ninjad, as above. I can't remember who it was off the top of my head but I thought it was someone good.

Don't believe a word of it

[SincereTheRebel]

You would think the likes of Barca and Man City could low offer players. Some of those salaries are madness if true.

[niko_cee]

The reality is players have probably been 'always wanting to go to' the big Spanish clubs for years for the precise reason that their wages paid (combined with Spain's ostensibly optional tax laws) were leagues ahead of what was on offer elsewhere, rather than more conventional 'footballing' reasons.

[Lofty]

1423678961746337795?s=19

Will this beat Delph's record?

[Giggles]

Isn’t there an MK Dons fan here? Loads of talk over here at the minute that they’re after Stephen Bradley (Shamrock Rovers) to take over.

[igor_balis]

Browning if he's still around iirc.

[Gray Fox]

Messi to sign a 2 year deal at PSG by the sounds of it. #HereWeGo!

[Ian]

What a shocker that he takes the most boring possible option.

I like forward to him being all weepy as he leaves, waxing lyrical about the club he allowed to run themselves into the ground for him.

[Gray Fox]

And let's be honest. He's already earned hundreds of millions. He could get pretty much any sponsorship deal he wanted, so he could have essentially reduced his wages to almost nothing if he really cared to stay.

[Shindig]

Messi vs French defenders should be fun.

[randomlegend]

I can't quite get my head around the rules, but I think even if he offered to play for free they couldn't re-sign him because they are over the wage cap already so can't register "new" players.

[randomlegend]

Shit tier rumours of Aguero trying to get out of his contract :lol:

God it's great seeing Barca fall apart. I'll have you all remember one of the ITKs predicted ages ago that they would this summer and that Messi would leave. Basking in my e-victory.

[Lewis]

I can't quite get my head around the rules, but I think even if he offered to play for free they couldn't re-sign him because they are over the wage cap already so can't register "new" players.

In that case letting his contract run out is crazy. What were both parties thinking?

[randomlegend]

They were thinking La Liga wouldn't let Messi leave the league. They've been well and truly Surprised Pikachud.

[phonics]

You don’t let the contract expire, the player does.

[Lewis]

And then he re-signed, which he could have done before it expired, but seemingly neither party pushed it as a necessity.

[Mellberg]

It's been reliably reported that Villa offered him more to stay than he's on at City

Edit: ninjad, as above. I can't remember who it was off the top of my head but I thought it was someone good.

So about 400k? Jibberish. We were in the Championship two years ago and our highest paid player gets less than 100k.

[randomlegend]

So about 400k? Jibberish. We were in the Championship two years ago and our highest paid player gets less than 100k.

Yeah never mind it was Sky Sports saying it who are awful.

His reported wage is probably not true either though.

[Lewis]

He would probably be worth it as the marquee man. Especially if he's the difference between top half and wherever the fuck.

[phonics]

Yeah never mind it was Sky Sports saying it who are awful.

His reported wage is probably not true either though.

The numbers probably real but It was obviously quoting the maximum amount he could earn if he were to hit every bonus possible and before tax.

[Mellberg]

He would probably be worth it as the marquee man. Especially if he's the difference between top half and wherever the fuck.

Next thing you know you're paying Matt Targett 150k per week and you're Barcelona. Absolutely no way. We couldn't pay the taxman 3 years ago.

[niko_cee]

"and you're Barcelona"

:harold:

Maybe "and you're Leeds"? Or any of the other myriad clubs who have borked their finances without winning the league 10 times and taking home 4 European Cups in a 15 year period, or whatever it is.

[Giggles]

You’d nearly take the pain in a decade to have even half the success of a Barcelona now.

[niko_cee]

And some.

Most clubs face some sort of financial oblivion on a once per decade basis anyway, without the bother of ever getting close to winning anything.

[randomlegend]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58130354

£97.5m for Lukaku. Jesus.

[niko_cee]

Must take him close to the lifetime transfer fees record, which I assume Neymar probably holds.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Must take him close to the lifetime transfer fees record, which I assume Neymar probably holds.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/statistik/transfererloese

Would take him above Neymar if those figures are correct.

[randomlegend]

If Kane does go to City, then with Lukaku to Chelsea and Mbappe to Madrid on a free next year, Utd have got to be one of the only realistic options for Haaland.

On the one hand, it's Haaland. On the other, would mean getting back in bed with Raiola...

(Madrid will probably just sign both Mbappe and Haaland next summer).

[Lofty]

Yeah not like any of the other clubs ever buys a high profile striker then breaks the bank 12 months later for another one.

[randomlegend]

I don't think even City or Chelsea are binning a £100m (more like £150m in City's case) player off after 12 months.

[Waffdon]

Inter Milan heading for liquidation and selling all players that receive a bid if you believe the Tier 3 sources.

How are they so skint? They’ve got nearly 180m off two players alone so far. Everyone should be after Barella and Martinez

[Shindig]

All these clubs in financial peril and there's still fuck all movement. :D

[Jimmy Floyd]

Football will soon be a duopoly between City and PSG, with maybe Chelsea getting a look in if Abramovich stays on the right side of the KGB.

[randomlegend]

Inter Milan heading for liquidation and selling all players that receive a bid if you believe the Tier 3 sources.

How are they so skint? They’ve got nearly 180m off two players alone so far. Everyone should be after Barella and Martinez

Chinese investors who own foreign entities like football clubs have been told in no uncertain terms by the party to that they are not to invest any further money into them (is my understanding).

[phonics]

Inter Milan heading for liquidation and selling all players that receive a bid if you believe the Tier 3 sources.

How are they so skint? They’ve got nearly 180m off two players alone so far. Everyone should be after Barella and Martinez

Any Chinese money invested in non-CCP strategic areas is unwanted by the government so you're 'taxed' at 100% of your investment and told in no uncertain terms they'd prefer you didnt do that.

[Lewis]

It can't be that desperate otherwise they wouldn't have been holding out for that lol Lukaku fee. Unless Chelsea just really, really wanted him right away.

[Mellberg]

"and you're Barcelona"

:harold:

Maybe "and you're Leeds"? Or any of the other myriad clubs who have borked their finances without winning the league 10 times and taking home 4 European Cups in a 15 year period, or whatever it is.

It's topical you boring cunt.

[Baz]

Inter Milan heading for liquidation and selling all players that receive a bid if you believe the Tier 3 sources.

How are they so skint? They’ve got nearly 180m off two players alone so far. Everyone should be after Barella and MartinezLautaro Martinez to Spurs :eyemouth:

[Manc]

The Times reporting Spurs have secured Lautaro Martinez.

[Lewis]

lol at Messi bealing all over this press conference like he couldn't have renewed at any time for significantly less money. I thought Ander Herrera making a sad little United tribute when he left for three times the wages was bad.

[Offshore Toon]

What an absolute wimp. Belongs at PSG if he's gonna carry on like that.

[niko_cee]

I would have happily stayed for £1.2m a week . . .

He's completely torched his reputation with all this shit.

£123m a year? How was that worked out? Utter madness. Hopefully Barcelona are actually ruined and it's laid at his door.

[-james-]

His contract has expired so he would have to be registered as a new player, and they are only allowed to register new players if their wage bill is below a certain threshold, which they would still be way above if they paid him nothing. I guess he could sit about and twiddle his thumbs for a year while they get rid of Greaseman and co., but yeah.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Can we get Barella in this Inter fire sale please?

[Giggles]

lol at Messi bealing all over this press conference like he couldn't have renewed at any time for significantly less money. I thought Ander Herrera making a sad little United tribute when he left for three times the wages was bad.

What a saint of a man.

[Andy]

What is going to happen with Depay, Aguero and Garcia?

[Yevrah]

He's completely torched his reputation with all this shit.

Hardly. He's just left a club that wouldn't/couldn't pay him what he wanted and what he could get elsewhere. It's no biggie.

[Giggles]

Hardly. He's just left a club that wouldn't/couldn't pay him what he wanted and what he could get elsewhere. It's no biggie.

That’s all fine, but spare everyone the crocodile tears then.

[Yevrah]

That’s all fine, but spare everyone the crocodile tears then.

One can both decide to leave a job and still be sad about leaving, the two things aren't mutually exclusive.

[Waffdon]

Shouldn’t run his contract down every time and create some sort of unnecessary drama for the past 3/4 years if he wants sympathy

[Yevrah]

Shouldn’t run his contract down every time and create some sort of unnecessary drama for the past 3/4 years if he wants sympathy

Of all the things Messi wants Waff, I doubt your sympathy is one of them.

[-james-]

Does he want sympathy? He has the EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE of a 16 year old, I doubt he has any particularly deep understanding of the situation.

[Giggles]

One can both decide to leave a job and still be sad about leaving, the two things aren't mutually exclusive.

He had numerous opportunities to stay so he can’t be that sad. It’s all a load of fake bollocks for the brand.

[Yevrah]

He had numerous opportunities to stay so he can’t be that sad. It’s all a load of fake bollocks for the brand.

When you say 'that sad', you mean sad enough to have a little cry at a press conference? I mean, he was, I've just watched him do so. Unless we're suggesting he's such a good actor that he can cry on demand...

[Shindig]

He can crying through his nose.

[Gray Fox]

What is going to happen with Depay, Aguero and Garcia?

Twitter is running with Aguero wanting immediately out as he wanted to play with his bestest mate.

The report on it from earlier in the summer suggest those players were signed, but not registered. As mentioned above they are unable to register new players until they bring their wage cap down. Messi now going will help that, but they still have more to save.

Coutinho, Pjanic and Umtiti who aren't wanted combine to around £1m a week. They even asked the latter two if they could release them for free, which shows how desperate they are.
Add in that they have Griezmann on a ridiculous wage too(rumoured anywhere from £600k-800k per week). This chicken has been waiting to come home to roost for some time.

[Waffdon]

Of all the things Messi wants Waff, I doubt your sympathy is one of them.

Only you have gotten that, Sir x

[randomlegend]

Lol the Martinez to Spurs reports have been shot down in record time.

[Manc]

Renato Sanches to Liverpool links are surfacing again. Tier unknown.

[Ian]

Lukaku's medical today. Is that when The Operation takes place or do they do that later?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Traditionally it takes place immediately after the official unveiling, so that they can get a couple of optimistic quotes out of them before their talent and zest for life are both removed.

[Shindig]

Michael Owen’s was activated with the simple phrase, “Howay the lads.”

[Baz]

Nah Owen was class for Newcastle.

[Offshore Toon]

Yeah, and Henry was the GOAT Garden Soccer player.

[Shindig]

Adam Armstrong turning up in the Prem is a nice surprise. Hope he does well for Saints. As for Owen, he was good but the injury against the Swedes made him a coward. The phrase makes or breaks you. You either live forever like Jimmy Carter or your knees explode at a random point in the future.

[Don]

Never watched Armstrong but do like his stocky build and midget height, expect mad sharpness in and around the box so could be a perfect Ings replacement. Modern day Kevin Phillips :cool:

Lukaku not sure about. It's all well and good bullying white boys of Italy but you're largely getting shown up as being a bit slow to accelerate and a poor first touch in the prem, aren't you? Hope he bosses it though, not many better sights than purebreed BLM donnage.

[randomlegend]

Norwich are signing 2 players. That's about the extent of my knowledge. A Greek and an American don'tchaknow.

[Lewis]

That potential PSG XI doing the rounds is a bit good. If Smallpockets doesn't clean up with it he should never work again.

[-james-]

7/2 joint favourites for the Champions League along with City. They really need to rig that to be one of the semi finals.

[-james-]

City favs for me if they get Kane, Clive.

[Waffdon]

Not with that bald fraud in charge

[randomlegend]

Murmurings that Barca are trying again to re-sign Messi...

Abraham seems to be off to Roma for £34m.

[Shindig]

If PSG or City had a Champions League in them, it would've happened by now.

[randomlegend]

Messi to PSG is done.