Is Aurier actually any good? And doesn't 'being a massive cunt' sort of mitigate that, if he is? £25m as chump change is a laugh. Monaco paid half that for Mendy a year ago.
Is Aurier actually any good? And doesn't 'being a massive cunt' sort of mitigate that, if he is? £25m as chump change is a laugh. Monaco paid half that for Mendy a year ago.
He's decent but he's only a right back, and also his signing is dependent on having an assault conviction overturned which you'd think would be 'alarm bells, alarm bells' as Tim Vine would say.
I'm getting more and more radio ads for football on the way into work. Arsenal spent the last six weeks desperately trying to flog Emirates Cup tickets to the mums market (not convinced they succeeded) and this morning it was Man City trying to flog VIP packages to me, in Surrey.
D'oh! I missed that link in my post above. Drinkwater, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Barkley. All English. I suppose any of those guys will only be backup anyway, so maybe it is just to fill the quota.Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Apparently Renato Sanches is staying at Bayern which is a shame as I wanted UNITED to do something.
I'm still SEETHING that they won't go get Neymar but maybe their plan is to let Neymar fuck off in France for a couple years and pounce when PSG undoubtedly need to sell at a discount because of "FFP".
Neymar-size players will never come to England, much harder to dodge tax here.
After the Chelsea/English players talk I thought I'd look up some first team squads. According to transfermarkt:
Last season's top six:
Chelsea: 93.3% foreign players
Man City: 78.6
Arsenal: 69.7
Man Utd: 69
Spurs: 68.2
Liverpool: 64.5
Promoted:
Newcastle: 68.8
Brighton: 60.7
Huddersfield: 56.7
A few people have alleged that it is all going through Qatar (either them topping up his wages as an 'Ambassador' for 2022, or them giving him the money to buy his contract out), and none of our clubs have any convenient cover wheezes on the go at the moment. Maybe Tottenham could pay him to convert.
That's a good point actually. Couldn't all these Abramovich-like owners employ star players as 'consultants' for their companies?
When PSG got nobbled by UEFA last time it was because one of their Qatari sponsorships was thought to be above market value (however they work that out), so how do they expect to get this sort of shit through?
Oh right. Weren't the fines for them and Man City something stupidly insignificant like £5m? Maybe they're just weighing the supposed risk.
The crap rules are a double-edged sword, it may be easy to get around them but it's just as easy for UEFA to arbitrarily decide they've been broken. I think the French legal system has worked like this since the days of Cardinal Richelieu.
They got a fine, were only allowed to spend a certain amount the following year, weren't allowed to increase their wage bill for a year, and could only have a squad of twenty-one in the Champions' League. It didn't really hit them at the time, but a second penalty would presumably have to be much more severe.
I forgot that other stuff. It would actually be quite exciting if clubs started getting banned from the Champions League.
--
edit:
Freddy Adu is no longer a footballer, just a marketing prop./
Former US international Freddy Adu has joined the Polish club Sandecja Nowy Sacz on trial, despite their manager not wanting him there.
...
“It’s a joke,” Mroczkowski told Polish website Sportowefakty.pl. “I read in the media about his trial. I asked the sporting director [Arkadiusz Alexander] why he did not tell me anything [about Adu]. After all, he sent me a text message that there ‘will be a player on trial’ and that they all knew. Marketing knew, the staff at the club knew ... Only the coach did not know who the trialist was.”
Adu was most recently on trial with Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer earlier this year, but failed to earn a contract. He has not played a professional match since he was released by NASL side Tampa Bay Rowdies at the end of 2016.
“Whoever invited him, let him trial him. What is the point of having such a player?” Mroczkowski added: “The CEO says that it’s marketing. We may as well have Janusz Chomontek [a Polish football freestyler].”
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...ndecja-manager
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40800757
Looks like it's actually happening.
Christ.
£198 million
It took 15 years for the transfer record to double between Zidane and Pogba, 1 year for it to double again.
Deeply bonkers from all involved.
I was going to say, what does Neymar himself get out of this other than unlimited money (which he already has) and the appearance of being a corrupt bastard?
He gets to live in France (has he not suffered enough etc), he gets to play Tours and Montpellier etc on a weekly basis, and there might even be a fruity January Coupe de France tie away at Raon L'Etape.
It's almost as if those around him, and not the player, are the true beneficiaries.
Apparently he can't win the Ballon D'Or at Barcelona, which is the true measure of greatness for a Brazilian [the logic being Messi would win it if Barcelona did well enough].
Hopefully this doesn't trigger Coutinho fall out, although I suspect it will. Southampton and the owners of any fair to middling midfielders will be rubbing their hands together with glee.
Well the claim is that it's to get out of Messi's shadow and try and win a Balloon Door, but as I think Lewis covered, the only way he's doing that in France is if he wins PSG an Oscar and a Nobel Prize.
EDIT: beaten to it.
There was some talk that he feels he needs to be the main man in a side to win the Ballon D'Or and he isn't getting that at Barcelona, but he can be the main man for every side in France simultaneously and he isn't winning that prize playing in that league.
He'll spend some time pissing about in France then go back to Spain when he's twenty nine and Messi is just about out of the picture.
If he wins the Champions League for PSG (he won't) he'll win the golden ball which seems to be what all elite players want to be measured by these days.
Who gives a shit about the Ballon d'Or?
'In second place, for his 48 goals and 100 assists, is Lionel Messi. But the winner, for banging a few past Metz, is...'
The top players definitely give a shit.
A more convincing theory is the one I've just read by Tim Vickery in which he wants to coast all year to save himself for the World Cup.
I read a convincing theory that he wants loads of money.
But why leave Spain then?
lol.
What a corrupt little league.
Aren't Barcelona knee deep in Qatari money as well?
Sponsorship changed this year, strangely enough.
La Liga have some balls.
https://www.ft.com/content/750e14a2-...c-36b487ebd80a
I must have missed this. Premier League teams are now allowed to add a new sponsor on the arm. Chelsea have Alliance Tyres, Man City have Nexen Tire (interesting decision to use the wrong spelling of the word) and Watford go with 138.com
Strange.
Chelsea
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Man City
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Yep, Tinder are offering United 20 million a year apparently.
As said before, the actual fee is pretty irrelevant to Barcelona, so they (and Spanish football as a whole) must be absolutely SEETHING about some nobody French side doing to them what they thought was their exclusive right.
Tire is the spelling typically used in the US etc. Alliance Tyres actually is Alliance Tire Group and I'm assuming they changed the spelling in the shirt just to make it look british.
Are crap tyres in third world countries really such a big market?
Yes, I am aware of that
Tyres, and online betting websites apparently. I'm looking forward to Liverpool getting Dunkin' Donuts plastered on the sleeve.
In cricket we have the much more homely sight of Indian cement companies, you know where you are with them.
Liverpool have been tapping up Lanzini as a Coutinho replacement
https://streamable.com/xnfbe
Barca have confirmed it on their website.
Ye the meat of the post was mostly that they went and changed Alliance Tire to Alliance Tyres, which seems pretty silly. Unless I guess it's some kind of subsidiary in the UK.Yes, I am aware of that
Stunning.
The 222m euros according to barcelona. Its a release clause, has to be deposited in its entirety.
What is it with Indians and their cement?
Apparently Neymars Dad / agent is set to make €55m.
He will have earnt more than anyone at Barca in the four years Neymar has been at Barca.
Maybe he just doesn't get on with Messi/other Barca fellas and the only one who will pay this stupid ass release fee is PSG?
Vital information.
I saw this mooted the other day, with some Bamsterman opining that it would be a DISGRACE if they didn't get £40m and Sturridge for him.
He's a decent player, but for fuck's sake.
£125m and Rakitic'll do.
Hopefully agent Neymar will put him off in preference of joining PSG after donning the World Cup next year.
All of the named replacements sound pointless (and two/three lots of wages is no good for them), so they might as well just spend it all on Kylian Anelka and annoy Madrid.
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