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According to reports here in Spain a group led by Dan DeVos wants to buy Espanyol (Barcelona's second club) from it's Chinese owner.

The Wilf family, owners of the Vikings, are the other big player in the buying consortium.

Espanyol is an interesting case as an investment. It could be temping to view it as Barcelona's version of Atlético Madrid, but the reality is it is absolutely dwarfed by Barça in the city, in terms of fans, media coverage, ticket sales and results.

Big ask to turn it into a contender. But seeing as the DeVos family (and the Vikings) don't seem to be overly preoccupied with trophies so much as making cash, maybe they're just as ideal an owner as the current Chinese guy. He's cut from the same cloth - sells every good player Espanyol has produced.

jezzerinho wrote:According to reports here in Spain a group led by Dan DeVos wants to buy Espanyol (Barcelona's second club) from it's Chinese owner.

The Wilf family, owners of the Vikings, are the other big player in the buying consortium.

Espanyol is an interesting case as an investment. It could be temping to view it as Barcelona's version of Atlético Madrid, but the reality is it is absolutely dwarfed by Barça in the city, in terms of fans, media coverage, ticket sales and results.

Big ask to turn it into a contender. But seeing as the DeVos family (and the Vikings) don't seem to be overly preoccupied with trophies so much as making cash, maybe they're just as ideal an owner as the current Chinese guy. He's cut from the same cloth - sells every good player Espanyol has produced.

It's interesting. I think it's more relevant to consider the quality of the current ownership than it is to consider the difference in stature between Espanyol and Barca. If the current ownership is under-performing, then there might be substantial potential for growth. Chelsea and Man City were lumbering giants until they got competent ownership.

My club, Ipswich Town FC, was in a prolonged period of stagnation and decline. The owner, Marcus Evans, bought the club, brought in a big name as manager (Roy Keane), and provided an immediate infusion of cash for the transfer market. He saw ITFC as a big club that could be quickly turned around, but when that didn't happen, he changed tack. The spending stopped and the club just slumped into irrelevance. An American ownership group seems to have rejuvenated the entire organization. They bought the club just a year ago in the midst of the pandemic. They replaced the manager mid-season of this year and everything seems to have changed. The players are the same, but the form is terrific now. Attendances are up. They are planning improvements to the stadium.

I don't think American investment is necessarily a good thing though. I remember Lerner taking over at Villa and things were fine for the first few years. They were knocking on the door of the top-6 every year, but their spending was unsustainable. Lerner tightened the purse strings and the club hasn't been the same ever since.

I think that if the ownership is invested in the project and willing to spend, then it can be a wonderful thing for a club. The concern, I think, is that this is a hobby from some bored billionaire that doesn't really have a passion for what they are doing. I have no idea how interested this particular group is going to be in Espanyol. It's interesting that they are kicking the tires on a Spanish outfit though.

In Villa's case, it was bad timing. Lerner came in just as player budgets were exploding but tv money hadn't yet followed suit. During that period it was a bit of a black hole trying to fund a club to compete. His predecessor, Doug Ellis, who was a local guy with a love for the club, could never compete financially either with the big guys.

The current owner of Espanyol isn't popular. Budgets are pretty shoestring and good players get sold for a profit. Revolving door of coaches doesn't help either. But i can see the DeVos's being a ton different, especially as Espanyol is such a massive distant second in terms of support in the city. There is some Chinese support now, because of the owner, but i can't imagine it's very die-hard.

Good for them.

Who is going to be their Alejandro Martin

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Optimus_Steel wrote:Who is going to be their Alejandro Martin

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I would not be suprised if he takes on that job too, and just works two jobs

Given that Espanyol isn't top tear club, they could easly find right menagers to work team and have nice sucess with it.
You can EASLY work funcional Spanish club with budget below 100 million euros a year and return profit, and if you have right scouts you can make living off buying young players from lower leagues and selling them 2,3,5 or even 20 times bigger price later. Transfer market for RCD Espanyol shows most of players are worth 5 million euros. That's really not much.

jezzerinho wrote:In Villa's case, it was bad timing. Lerner came in just as player budgets were exploding but tv money hadn't yet followed suit. During that period it was a bit of a black hole trying to fund a club to compete. His predecessor, Doug Ellis, who was a local guy with a love for the club, could never compete financially either with the big guys.

The current owner of Espanyol isn't popular. Budgets are pretty shoestring and good players get sold for a profit. Revolving door of coaches doesn't help either. But i can see the DeVos's being a ton different, especially as Espanyol is such a massive distant second in terms of support in the city. There is some Chinese support now, because of the owner, but i can't imagine it's very die-hard.

As a Villa fan you are partially right about Ellis, it wasn't so much that he couldn't keep up with the big guys in the league it was more of the case of he wouldn't. He wouldn't finance some transfers of players like us getting Saviola and Juan Pablo Angel, we signed one not both even though both were interested. Angel is a cult hero with us and at the time Saviola was one of the most promising names in football.

In regards to Lerner, he was spending the money but we didn't have someone that could guide the ownership in regards to FFP. Also our old manager Martin O'Neil spent money on the wrong players. We had the option to sign Falcao instead he went with Emile Heskey, at this point we were in a top 4 spot and just needed a quality striker to secure that spot. Eventually it lead to a tighter budget and the eventual sale and relegation. With our owners now we are in real good hands, they are loaded with cash but also understand the business and have Christian Purslow who was one of the brains behind FFP so they have someone in place to work their way around it. We have an amazing crop of young players coming up in the next few years, plus a stadium expansion. For Villa this is an exciting time.

Win or lose they make money off sports teams.

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pepe1991 wrote:Given that Espanyol isn't top tear club, they could easly find right menagers to work team and have nice sucess with it.
You can EASLY work funcional Spanish club with budget below 100 million euros a year and return profit, and if you have right scouts you can make living off buying young players from lower leagues and selling them 2,3,5 or even 20 times bigger price later. Transfer market for RCD Espanyol shows most of players are worth 5 million euros. That's really not much.

They could go the Betis route if the DeVos family are gathering a consortium to buy Espanyol. As of now the top 3 spots in Spain generally are locked up by Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico. So Espanyol has the potential to get the right investment and start competing for the top 6 spots within the next few years. As you said getting the right scouts will be key for them, teams of that stature around Europe will find success by bringing in younger players that are excellent for a low price to have around the team with a few vets, with the aim of selling a few for major profits. Then eventually using the profits to splurge on other world class players to be around their young players. It is easier said than done though.

LDNMagic90 wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:Given that Espanyol isn't top tear club, they could easly find right menagers to work team and have nice sucess with it.
You can EASLY work funcional Spanish club with budget below 100 million euros a year and return profit, and if you have right scouts you can make living off buying young players from lower leagues and selling them 2,3,5 or even 20 times bigger price later. Transfer market for RCD Espanyol shows most of players are worth 5 million euros. That's really not much.

They could go the Betis route if the DeVos family are gathering a consortium to buy Espanyol. As of now the top 3 spots in Spain generally are locked up by Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico. So Espanyol has the potential to get the right investment and starting in the top 6 spots within the next few years. As you said getting the right scouts will be key for them, teams of that stature around Europe will find success by bringing in younger players that are excellent for a low price to have around the team with a few vets, with the aim of selling a few for major profits. Then eventually using the profits to splurge on other world class players to be around their young players. It is easier said than done though.

Soccer/football works in fashion where it's close to impossible for non top 5 leagues sell young players over some price range.
I'm from Croatia and guys like Modric , and last year Gvardiol or Lovro Majer still weren't sold from Croatian league for some epic money. Majer was sold for 12 million euros, Rennais probably can sell him today for more.
Gvardiol is even better example, one of most versitale young defenders in the world, but he was sold from Dinamo , Croatia for "just" 16 million euros. Now, year later, there are rumors that Lepzig is willing to sell him.... at 60 000 000 euros

So if you are team in La Liga your main goal is to find those guys and buy them, promote them, and sell them for 3 times more.

On other end of a spectrum there is Barcelona, who almost went bankrupt due their idiotic spending fees. As somebody who grew up being huge Barca fan around 2002 ( Cocu,Puyol, Overmars, young Xavi ) last couple of years were gut punching experience to the point . I don't want to rant about them... But ... how to explain rationally that team spent 1 billion euros on roster to end up playing 39 years old Dani Alves in starting 11?


Soccer operates under such different system than basketball that it's crazy. I went to highschool with few pro soccer players and it's all about right people, right menagers, selling illusion, menagers pairing good player with their bad player to sell both...

pepe1991 wrote:

LDNMagic90 wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:Given that Espanyol isn't top tear club, they could easly find right menagers to work team and have nice sucess with it.
You can EASLY work funcional Spanish club with budget below 100 million euros a year and return profit, and if you have right scouts you can make living off buying young players from lower leagues and selling them 2,3,5 or even 20 times bigger price later. Transfer market for RCD Espanyol shows most of players are worth 5 million euros. That's really not much.

They could go the Betis route if the DeVos family are gathering a consortium to buy Espanyol. As of now the top 3 spots in Spain generally are locked up by Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico. So Espanyol has the potential to get the right investment and starting in the top 6 spots within the next few years. As you said getting the right scouts will be key for them, teams of that stature around Europe will find success by bringing in younger players that are excellent for a low price to have around the team with a few vets, with the aim of selling a few for major profits. Then eventually using the profits to splurge on other world class players to be around their young players. It is easier said than done though.

Soccer/football works in fashion where it's close to impossible for non top 5 leagues sell young players over some price range.
I'm from Croatia and guys like Modric , and last year Gvardiol or Lovro Majer still weren't sold from Croatian league for some epic money. Majer was sold for 12 million euros, Rennais probably can sell him today for more.
Gvardiol is even better example, one of most versitale young defenders in the world, but he was sold from Dinamo , Croatia for "just" 16 million euros. Now, year later, there are rumors that Lepzig is willing to sell him.... at 60 000 000 euros

So if you are team in La Liga your main goal is to find those guys and buy them, promote them, and sell them for 3 times more.

On other end of a spectrum there is Barcelona, who almost went bankrupt due their idiotic spending fees. As somebody who grew up being huge Barca fan around 2002 ( Cocu,Puyol, Overmars, young Xavi ) last couple of years were gut punching experience to the point . I don't want to rant about them... But ... how to explain rationally that team spent 1 billion euros on roster to end up playing 39 years old Dani Alves in starting 11?


Soccer operates under such different system than basketball that it's crazy. I went to highschool with few pro soccer players and it's all about right people, right menagers, selling illusion, menagers pairing good player with their bad player to sell both...

I agree, I find it weird that Croatian teams produce some of the best players in the world but when you look at the figures they have received for them its peanuts. The money for non top 5 leagues is next to nothing, I mean look I'm from the UK and the English/British players that get sold are way overpriced. Look at players like Solanke and Alex Iwobi, they were sold for a lot of money and they are bang average players. Everton are now in huge trouble for buying bang average players for 30+ million.

With Barca, it is really crazy what has happened to them. Some of the deals they made were so odd, I know he's on my team now and I'm enjoying him, but Coutinho apparently being on 400k+ a week is crazy money. The thing with Barca is that no matter what, kids are going to want to play for them so they'll be fine especially with Pedri and co now manning the ship.

LDNMagic90 wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:

LDNMagic90 wrote:

They could go the Betis route if the DeVos family are gathering a consortium to buy Espanyol. As of now the top 3 spots in Spain generally are locked up by Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico. So Espanyol has the potential to get the right investment and starting in the top 6 spots within the next few years. As you said getting the right scouts will be key for them, teams of that stature around Europe will find success by bringing in younger players that are excellent for a low price to have around the team with a few vets, with the aim of selling a few for major profits. Then eventually using the profits to splurge on other world class players to be around their young players. It is easier said than done though.

Soccer/football works in fashion where it's close to impossible for non top 5 leagues sell young players over some price range.
I'm from Croatia and guys like Modric , and last year Gvardiol or Lovro Majer still weren't sold from Croatian league for some epic money. Majer was sold for 12 million euros, Rennais probably can sell him today for more.
Gvardiol is even better example, one of most versitale young defenders in the world, but he was sold from Dinamo , Croatia for "just" 16 million euros. Now, year later, there are rumors that Lepzig is willing to sell him.... at 60 000 000 euros

So if you are team in La Liga your main goal is to find those guys and buy them, promote them, and sell them for 3 times more.

On other end of a spectrum there is Barcelona, who almost went bankrupt due their idiotic spending fees. As somebody who grew up being huge Barca fan around 2002 ( Cocu,Puyol, Overmars, young Xavi ) last couple of years were gut punching experience to the point . I don't want to rant about them... But ... how to explain rationally that team spent 1 billion euros on roster to end up playing 39 years old Dani Alves in starting 11?


Soccer operates under such different system than basketball that it's crazy. I went to highschool with few pro soccer players and it's all about right people, right menagers, selling illusion, menagers pairing good player with their bad player to sell both...

I agree, I find it weird that Croatian teams produce some of the best players in the world but when you look at the figures they have received for them its peanuts. The money for non top 5 leagues is next to nothing, I mean look I'm from the UK and the English/British players that get sold are way overpriced. Look at players like Solanke and Alex Iwobi, they were sold for a lot of money and they are bang average players. Everton are now in huge trouble for buying bang average players for 30+ million.

With Barca, it is really crazy what has happened to them. Some of the deals they made were so odd, I know he's on my team now and I'm enjoying him, but Coutinho apparently being on 400k+ a week is crazy money. The thing with Barca is that no matter what, kids are going to want to play for them so they'll be fine especially with Pedri and co now manning the ship.

There is joke inside former Jugoslavia fans that if Harry Maguire was called Hrvoje Magvarić he would cost close to nothing and play in second division
England players have most insaine, unrealistic price tags out there.

Dusan Vlahovic was sold from Partizan for i think 1,5 million euros to Fiorentina, where they sold him to Juventus to 67 million euros
I don't know why is that, i know only top 5 leagues are actually super high quality ones, but there is incredible amount of quality players that enter those leagues , mostly average teams ,super cheap, just to be bought for boat of money to superteams. i guess superteams simply don't have time to invest into young talents, so they either allow others to develop them for them before buying them, or they buy them and send them to loans for ages ( Man City and Arsenal had at one point like 60 players under contracts, each ).

Barca is crazy team. That Jordi Alba story is best descripton of mess and drunk-money spending fees. They sold him for 6000 euros as youth than bought him back for 12 million euros. They tried to do the same with Dani Olmo two years ago.
During 2019, one thing they didn't need was forward,winger. So ofc, in free agency they bought Malcom for 41 million euros, to play him 15 times, 10 months later he was already signed to another team.
Coutinho... man... why did they bought him? But really? Was there only reason other than flexing how they can pay player 100 million euros?
Frenkie de Yong former Ajax coach told in interview after his first season with Barca that they don't know how to use him

I'm Barca fan, but man, i have at least 10 friends who would make better transfer decision and constructed roster better than Barcelona front office did.

pepe1991 wrote:
There is joke inside former Jugoslavia fans that if Harry Maguire was called Hrvoje Magvarić he would cost close to nothing and play in second division
England players have most insaine, unrealistic price tags out there.

Dusan Vlahovic was sold from Partizan for i think 1,5 million euros to Fiorentina, where they sold him to Juventus to 67 million euros
I don't know why is that, i know only top 5 leagues are actually super high quality ones, but there is incredible amount of quality players that enter those leagues , mostly average teams ,super cheap, just to be bought for boat of money to superteams. i guess superteams simply don't have time to invest into young talents, so they either allow others to develop them for them before buying them, or they buy them and send them to loans for ages ( Man City and Arsenal had at one point like 60 players under contracts, each ).

Barca is crazy team. That Jordi Alba story is best descripton of mess and drunk-money spending fees. They sold him for 6000 euros as youth than bought him back for 12 million euros. They tried to do the same with Dani Olmo two years ago.
During 2019, one thing they didn't need was forward,winger. So ofc, in free agency they bought Malcom for 41 million euros, to play him 15 times, 10 months later he was already signed to another team.
Coutinho... man... why did they bought him? But really? Was there only reason other than flexing how they can pay player 100 million euros?
Frenkie de Yong former Ajax coach told in interview after his first season with Barca that they don't know how to use him

I'm Barca fan, but man, i have at least 10 friends who would make better transfer decision and constructed roster better than Barcelona front office did.

To be honest you are very right about Harry Maguire, £80 million is a joke. It's funny because a season before they refused to buy Virgil Van Dijk, but were happy to pay 80 million for a guy who does nothing. Man Utd's transfer dealings is for a whole different day because boy I can go on about how poor they have been in that department.

You are right it's so weird, It's crazy to me that most of the big clubs don't develop any of their own talent. If they do they are generally overrated as hell by the media and their fans. There is a huge gap in most aspects between the bigger teams and the medium to smaller ones and it at times makes football annoying.

I think with Barca they were trying to maintain their teams in order to keep Messi which worked up to a certain point but then now its backfired majorily.

LDNMagic90 wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:
There is joke inside former Jugoslavia fans that if Harry Maguire was called Hrvoje Magvarić he would cost close to nothing and play in second division
England players have most insaine, unrealistic price tags out there.

Dusan Vlahovic was sold from Partizan for i think 1,5 million euros to Fiorentina, where they sold him to Juventus to 67 million euros
I don't know why is that, i know only top 5 leagues are actually super high quality ones, but there is incredible amount of quality players that enter those leagues , mostly average teams ,super cheap, just to be bought for boat of money to superteams. i guess superteams simply don't have time to invest into young talents, so they either allow others to develop them for them before buying them, or they buy them and send them to loans for ages ( Man City and Arsenal had at one point like 60 players under contracts, each ).

Barca is crazy team. That Jordi Alba story is best descripton of mess and drunk-money spending fees. They sold him for 6000 euros as youth than bought him back for 12 million euros. They tried to do the same with Dani Olmo two years ago.
During 2019, one thing they didn't need was forward,winger. So ofc, in free agency they bought Malcom for 41 million euros, to play him 15 times, 10 months later he was already signed to another team.
Coutinho... man... why did they bought him? But really? Was there only reason other than flexing how they can pay player 100 million euros?
Frenkie de Yong former Ajax coach told in interview after his first season with Barca that they don't know how to use him

I'm Barca fan, but man, i have at least 10 friends who would make better transfer decision and constructed roster better than Barcelona front office did.

To be honest you are very right about Harry Maguire, £80 million is a joke. It's funny because a season before they refused to buy Virgil Van Dijk, but were happy to pay 80 million for a guy who does nothing. Man Utd's transfer dealings is for a whole different day because boy I can go on about how poor they have been in that department.

You are right it's so weird, It's crazy to me that most of the big clubs don't develop any of their own talent. If they do they are generally overrated as hell by the media and their fans. There is a huge gap in most aspects between the bigger teams and the medium to smaller ones and it at times makes football annoying.

I think with Barca they were trying to maintain their teams in order to keep Messi which worked up to a certain point but then now its backfired majorily.

There was some story that Maguire had best head cleanance percentage in Premierleague, however, Maguire is awful, just awful at controling ball, and in today's football your centre backs are ones who should start your offense and dish balls toward mid field or wing. And man, he is simply slooooowfooted for modern football.

Youth and big teams is odd topic. They tend to showcase those guys for few games than burry them in rotation. Look no further than from Ansu Fati. From wonderkid to... 5 games this season?
Dylan Levitt, from United, played first game for them at age of 17 or something like that. Fast forward 2 years later and guy was bench player , on loan, in Croatian league, on one of worst teams in the league . Wtf happened?

Hell probably main reason why i'm not big on idea of "development " in basketball comes from fact i see so many young players dusting out in football.

I think with Barca they were trying to maintain their teams in order to keep Messi which worked up to a certain point but then now its backfired majorily

100% agree

pepe1991 wrote:

LDNMagic90 wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:Given that Espanyol isn't top tear club, they could easly find right menagers to work team and have nice sucess with it.
You can EASLY work funcional Spanish club with budget below 100 million euros a year and return profit, and if you have right scouts you can make living off buying young players from lower leagues and selling them 2,3,5 or even 20 times bigger price later. Transfer market for RCD Espanyol shows most of players are worth 5 million euros. That's really not much.

They could go the Betis route if the DeVos family are gathering a consortium to buy Espanyol. As of now the top 3 spots in Spain generally are locked up by Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico. So Espanyol has the potential to get the right investment and starting in the top 6 spots within the next few years. As you said getting the right scouts will be key for them, teams of that stature around Europe will find success by bringing in younger players that are excellent for a low price to have around the team with a few vets, with the aim of selling a few for major profits. Then eventually using the profits to splurge on other world class players to be around their young players. It is easier said than done though.

Soccer/football works in fashion where it's close to impossible for non top 5 leagues sell young players over some price range.

Except Brazil, obviously we don't sell anyone in the range of 100M, but 50M is doable. Neymar, Vini Jr, Rodrygo, etc. went for 40+M directly from Brazil to Spanish giants.

MoMM wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:

LDNMagic90 wrote:

They could go the Betis route if the DeVos family are gathering a consortium to buy Espanyol. As of now the top 3 spots in Spain generally are locked up by Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico. So Espanyol has the potential to get the right investment and starting in the top 6 spots within the next few years. As you said getting the right scouts will be key for them, teams of that stature around Europe will find success by bringing in younger players that are excellent for a low price to have around the team with a few vets, with the aim of selling a few for major profits. Then eventually using the profits to splurge on other world class players to be around their young players. It is easier said than done though.

Soccer/football works in fashion where it's close to impossible for non top 5 leagues sell young players over some price range.

Except Brazil, obviously we don't sell anyone in the range of 100M, but 50M is doable. Neymar, Vini Jr, Rodrygo, etc. went for 40+M directly from Brazil to Spanish giants.

Yea, i was refering to leagues in Europe outside Italian; Franch, England , Spanish and German.

Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay are historiclly basketball pools of talent, maybe that's why players from that leagues can get super expensive to get. But in general, acorss a globe, Europe "big 5" league are places where vast majority of money burning comes from when it comes to spending GDP of small country on players.

pepe1991 wrote:

MoMM wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:
Soccer/football works in fashion where it's close to impossible for non top 5 leagues sell young players over some price range.

Except Brazil, obviously we don't sell anyone in the range of 100M, but 50M is doable. Neymar, Vini Jr, Rodrygo, etc. went for 40+M directly from Brazil to Spanish giants.

Yea, i was refering to leagues in Europe outside Italian; Franch, England , Spanish and German.

Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay are historiclly basketball pools of talent, maybe that's why players from that leagues can get super expensive to get. But in general, acorss a globe, Europe "big 5" league are places where vast majority of money burning comes from when it comes to spending GDP of small country on players.

In a few years I can see Brazil as one of the steps for Uruguayan and Argentinians before they go to Europe. Our economy is way bigger and a lot of teams are being bought by investors, for example, Ronaldo bought Cruzeiro for around 100M euros, ManCity is considering buying the current Brazilian champion (Atletico-MG), Flamengo has a professional management and fixed their money issues, etc.

Next big thing from Brazil is Endrick, he is 15 years old and he is already playing with 20 years old kids. He might go next offseason for more than 50M.

See bike goal around 50s mark: https://youtu.be/bZOvbtvAAic?t=51

Wasn't expecting to visit the Orlando Magic RealGM forum for Harry Maguire slander but I'm here for it

Spurs will play a back 3 against United on Sunday - the cost of all 3 was £54m (assuming Dier, Romero and Davies start) and I wouldn't swap any one of them for Maguire.

In fact, include the wing-backs and the cost of the 'back' 5 players (Doherty, Dier, Romero, Davies and Reguilon) was still only £97.5m

Tarheel wrote:Wasn't expecting to visit the Orlando Magic RealGM forum for Harry Maguire slander but I'm here for it

Spurs will play a back 3 against United on Sunday - the cost of all 3 was £54m (assuming Dier, Romero and Davies start) and I wouldn't swap any one of them for Maguire.

In fact, include the wing-backs and the cost of the 'back' 5 players (Doherty, Dier, Romero, Davies and Reguilon) was still only £97.5m

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