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stormi wrote:

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bomba.

Personally I would have thought Newcastle's next big splurge would be on a #10 to play in front of Guimaraes (Wirtz / Cherki), whereas Tonali is at his best as a deep lying 6.

Interesting player though, neat on the ball and physical. Definitely suits their DNA.

This would be a really good signing for them. Tonali is class.

Gundogan to Barca looks to be done as well.

Meanwhile, Spurs are close to signing Guglielmo Vicario from Empoli. Looks like Brentford weren't going to budge on their £40m valuation of Raya, so we've gone elsewhere.

Don't know much about him other than Inter also wanted him.

magik9113 wrote:.

Paging Magik.

Interested to see if London and Arsenal can win this battle over Manchester City:

This whole Chelsea, PIF and Newcastle thing is pure madness and it's insane to think the FA, UEFA or FIFA are going to do anything about it.

It's a f'n disgrace to the sport.

Are you pleased, Baphomet? Or would you have preferred the Brentford keeper?

The_Brecht wrote:This whole Chelsea, PIF and Newcastle thing is pure madness and it's insane to think the FA, UEFA or FIFA are going to do anything about it.

It's a f'n disgrace to the sport.

Is it anymore of a disgrace than Man U, ManC, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, PSG, RM, Barça being able to cherry pick because they can pay wages far higher than all the other teams in their leagues. I think not. Can't see why people don't see these teams have been doing exactly the same thing for decades.

Baseline81 wrote:Are you pleased, Baphomet? Or would you have preferred the Brentford keeper?

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Don't know this guy but Raya is class and would have been ideal for Spurs for the next 10 years.

The_Brecht wrote:This whole Chelsea, PIF and Newcastle thing is pure madness and it's insane to think the FA, UEFA or FIFA are going to do anything about it.

It's a f'n disgrace to the sport.

Where was this uproar when Chelsea wanted to keep Kante and Saudi came in and offered him €100m per year?

There is mutual interest here, Saudi want to grow their league, have unlimited funds and are interested in bringing names. No player is being forced out there, and to their benefit are receiving extortionate wages. Lukaku was wanted and he said no.

On the flip side, Chelsea have a bloated squad that they want to trim down and players to offer. It's not manipulation like Newcastle and City creating fake sponsors to put on their shirts and cook the books.

CR7 already made the pilgrimage and so did Benzema. Wolves are getting €50m for Neves. They've approached Son and Partey.

Partey to me is the only suspect one as he's actively participating in an ongoing case and about to flee to a country without extradition policies to the UK.

I just don't get the conspiracy.

I don’t get the anger about the Saudi clubs wanting to grow their league. Is it sustainable? Who knows? Obviously going by the China Super League some would think it will fail as well, but I actually don’t think this will fail. They do need to do work on the grassroots levels to make sure they can produce their own talents as well.

Most of the top teams in Europe do the same thing pretty much every transfer window, you see fans of the top teams tell the smaller teams fans to get over it when they are poaching their top players. Now when it’s a league outside of Europe we want to cry and complain?

Carragher and Neville are saying something needs to be done? Oh really? But it your mate Gerrard got a job out there would you say the same? Are they going to say the same if they get an offer of a lifetime to work out there for 2-5 seasons? It’s all hypocritical in my opinion.

Baseline81 wrote:Are you pleased, Baphomet? Or would you have preferred the Brentford keeper?

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I'm absolutely fine with it. I think I'd have preferred Raya on the whole, but not at the 40m that Brentford wanted. I like to think this is the result of our scouting diligence and was likely on our list from the start. From what I've read since learning about Vicario, he's seen as one of Italy's best up-and-coming goalkeepers alongside Carnesecchi and recently got his first call-up to the national team and is a tremendous shot stopper and penalty specialist. Much better with his feet than Lloris, though probably not as good as Raya in that regard.

We still got a good goalkeeper and saved 15-20m that can go towards other targets, such as Maddison and Tapsoba.

LDNMagic90 wrote:I don’t get the anger about the Saudi clubs wanting to grow their league. Is it sustainable? Who knows? Obviously going by the China Super League some would think it will fail as well, but I actually don’t think this will fail. They do need to do work on the grassroots levels to make sure they can produce their own talents as well.

Most of the top teams in Europe do the same thing pretty much every transfer window, you see fans of the top teams tell the smaller teams fans to get over it when they are poaching their top players. Now when it’s a league outside of Europe we want to cry and complain?

Carragher and Neville are saying something needs to be done? Oh really? But it your mate Gerrard got a job out there would you say the same? Are they going to say the same if they get an offer of a lifetime to work out there for 2-5 seasons? It’s all hypocritical in my opinion.

Sky's moral posturing is one thing, but I think the outrage is less about Saudi Arabia growing its league and more about corruption. In terms of football viewership, the Middle East represents a massive market and I think it's a good thing if Saudi Arabia has a stronger league out there that the fans can enjoy. Nothing Gary Neville says should be taken seriously after his World Cup Qatar hypocrisy.

The problems begin when you start looking at Chelsea's majority owners Clearlake Capital, which is a private equity firm that has Saudi's PIF consortium, the owners of Newcastle and Saudi Arabia's four largest teams, among its benefactors. To what degree, I don't know, but it's not likely to be pennies. It's pretty clear that PIF is aiding Clearlake and Chelsea in helping them circumvent FFP by balancing the books and ridding them of unwanted players, after some ridiculous spending on their part. This isn't new for them, Abramovich had been pumping the club full of dirty money for decades, but it's never been quite this brazen.

This isn't an indictment on the Saudi league, nor is it absolving the big European clubs of their own financial misgivings, but it's just another kick in the teeth for those of us who are already sick to death of the rampant corruption in this sport while its governing bodies sit on their thumbs.

LDNMagic90 wrote:I don’t get the anger about the Saudi clubs wanting to grow their league. Is it sustainable? Who knows? Obviously going by the China Super League some would think it will fail as well, but I actually don’t think this will fail. They do need to do work on the grassroots levels to make sure they can produce their own talents as well.

Most of the top teams in Europe do the same thing pretty much every transfer window, you see fans of the top teams tell the smaller teams fans to get over it when they are poaching their top players. Now when it’s a league outside of Europe we want to cry and complain?

Carragher and Neville are saying something needs to be done? Oh really? But it your mate Gerrard got a job out there would you say the same? Are they going to say the same if they get an offer of a lifetime to work out there for 2-5 seasons? It’s all hypocritical in my opinion.

Exactly. How many English players get full minutes in the prem. We can't go buying the world's talent and then complain when other countries do it. The hypocrisy is that most of those players are NOT English and yet the fans are complaining.

Baphomet wrote:

LDNMagic90 wrote:I don’t get the anger about the Saudi clubs wanting to grow their league. Is it sustainable? Who knows? Obviously going by the China Super League some would think it will fail as well, but I actually don’t think this will fail. They do need to do work on the grassroots levels to make sure they can produce their own talents as well.

Most of the top teams in Europe do the same thing pretty much every transfer window, you see fans of the top teams tell the smaller teams fans to get over it when they are poaching their top players. Now when it’s a league outside of Europe we want to cry and complain?

Carragher and Neville are saying something needs to be done? Oh really? But it your mate Gerrard got a job out there would you say the same? Are they going to say the same if they get an offer of a lifetime to work out there for 2-5 seasons? It’s all hypocritical in my opinion.

Sky's moral posturing is one thing, but I think the outrage is less about Saudi Arabia growing its league and more about corruption. In terms of football viewership, the Middle East represents a massive market and I think it's a good thing if Saudi Arabia has a stronger league out there that the fans can enjoy. Nothing Gary Neville says should be taken seriously after his World Cup Qatar hypocrisy.

The problems begin when you start looking at Chelsea's majority owners Clearlake Capital, which is a private equity firm that has Saudi's PIF consortium, the owners of Newcastle and Saudi Arabia's four largest teams, among its benefactors. To what degree, I don't know, but it's not likely to be pennies. It's pretty clear that PIF is aiding Clearlake and Chelsea in helping them circumvent FFP by balancing the books and ridding them of unwanted players, after some ridiculous spending on their part. This isn't new for them, Abramovich had been pumping the club full of dirty money for decades, but it's never been quite this brazen.

This isn't an indictment on the Saudi league, nor is it absolving the big European clubs of their own financial misgivings, but it's just another kick in the teeth for those of us who are already sick to death of the rampant corruption in this sport while its governing bodies sit on their thumbs.

No. It isn't clear. In fact PIF are benefitting by investing in Clearwater not the other way around. Yes look into Clearwater - an American investor in England and France, look into PIF for their investment into England and France but if the Saudis want to bring in international footballers that's fine. I repeat most of them aren't English so why are English fans crying? We have been cremaing the talent from the rest of the world for decades.

HIF wrote:No. It isn't clear. In fact PIF are benefitting by investing in Clearwater not the other way around. Yes look into Clearwater - an American investor in England and France, look into PIF for their investment into England and France but if the Saudis want to bring in international footballers that's fine. I repeat most of them aren't English so why are English fans crying? We have been cremaing the talent from the rest of the world for decades.

Of course, it's a mutually beneficial arrangement, I'm not trying to suggest otherwise, they're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. That's my point, PIF has a financial interest in the firm that manages their assets.

Truthfully I don't care about the players themselves going to the SPL, Benzema, Kante, Neves, etc. They can do as they please, they're grown men, go get the bag.

Baphomet wrote:

LDNMagic90 wrote:I don’t get the anger about the Saudi clubs wanting to grow their league. Is it sustainable? Who knows? Obviously going by the China Super League some would think it will fail as well, but I actually don’t think this will fail. They do need to do work on the grassroots levels to make sure they can produce their own talents as well.

Most of the top teams in Europe do the same thing pretty much every transfer window, you see fans of the top teams tell the smaller teams fans to get over it when they are poaching their top players. Now when it’s a league outside of Europe we want to cry and complain?

Carragher and Neville are saying something needs to be done? Oh really? But it your mate Gerrard got a job out there would you say the same? Are they going to say the same if they get an offer of a lifetime to work out there for 2-5 seasons? It’s all hypocritical in my opinion.

Sky's moral posturing is one thing, but I think the outrage is less about Saudi Arabia growing its league and more about corruption. In terms of football viewership, the Middle East represents a massive market and I think it's a good thing if Saudi Arabia has a stronger league out there that the fans can enjoy. Nothing Gary Neville says should be taken seriously after his World Cup Qatar hypocrisy.

The problems begin when you start looking at Chelsea's majority owners Clearlake Capital, which is a private equity firm that has Saudi's PIF consortium, the owners of Newcastle and Saudi Arabia's four largest teams, among its benefactors. To what degree, I don't know, but it's not likely to be pennies. It's pretty clear that PIF is aiding Clearlake and Chelsea in helping them circumvent FFP by balancing the books and ridding them of unwanted players, after some ridiculous spending on their part. This isn't new for them, Abramovich had been pumping the club full of dirty money for decades, but it's never been quite this brazen.

This isn't an indictment on the Saudi league, nor is it absolving the big European clubs of their own financial misgivings, but it's just another kick in the teeth for those of us who are already sick to death of the rampant corruption in this sport while its governing bodies sit on their thumbs.

I do get what you’re saying and I do agree to some degree that they need to look into the PIF/Clearlake situation and monitor that. However I feel like the floodgates were open as soon as Chelsea got taken over by Roman and City/PSG’s takeovers.

There was an opportunity to nip it in the bud and no one decided to do it and the sad thing is the only time they’ll try and put a stop to it is if a smaller club wanted to try and do a city. Other clubs can obviously but we all know there’s bias towards certain teams in football and they barely hide it.

I’m no way endorsing what’s happening in Saudi with any of the injustices just like I wouldn’t for anywhere in the world. However I just get wound up by these pundits acting holier than thou.

LDNMagic90 wrote:I do get what you’re saying and I do agree to some degree that they need to look into the PIF/Clearlake situation and monitor that. However I feel like the floodgates were open as soon as Chelsea got taken over by Roman and City/PSG’s takeovers.

There was an opportunity to nip it in the bud and no one decided to do it and the sad thing is the only time they’ll try and put a stop to it is if a smaller club wanted to try and do a city. Other clubs can obviously but we all know there’s bias towards certain teams in football and they barely hide it.

I’m no way endorsing what’s happening in Saudi with any of the injustices just like I wouldn’t for anywhere in the world. However I just get wound up by these pundits acting holier than thou.

I agree on all counts. Neville, Carragher and Sky would take that kind of money without even thinking twice if they were offered it. Look at what happened with the PGA Tour, after all those years of moralising about LIV Golf. It really does feel futile.

Chelsea reject United's third bid for Mount, which was estimated at around 50m +5m add-ons.

I get the feeling this will be done soon, though. The player wants the move and they don't seem too far apart on valuation.

Declan Rice is gonna end up at Man CIty, isn't he?

kdawg32086 wrote:Declan Rice is gonna end up at Man CIty, isn't he?

Yo, good to see you man. Hope you're doing well.

About Rice, it really depends on a few things. The initial reports during the season suggested that he wanted to stay in London, which could still be a factor that of course works in Arsenal's favour. However, you'd think that City could pay him quite a lot more and offer a better chance at winning the major honours. No disrespect to Arsenal in that sense, they've improved significantly, but realistically City are the best team in Europe and look set to be for the foreseeable future. But that also begs the question: Do City really need him?

With Xhaka leaving there's a vacuum in that position that Rice could fill and improve upon, so there's no doubt that Rice would be a great fit. Gundogan has left City, which means there's a regular midfield slot to fill there, too, and though that's much less of a like-for-like swap than Xhaka, you could argue City's tactical fluidity creates less rigid positional definition. Rice's presence could allow Rodri to play more freely.

Obviously on a personal level I hope he chooses City, because I really rate Rice and don't want Arsenal to get better. Wherever he ends up, he's going to thrive.

Baphomet wrote:Chelsea reject United's third bid for Mount, which was estimated at around 50m +5m add-ons.

I get the feeling this will be done soon, though. The player wants the move and they don't seem too far apart on valuation.

The more he goes for the higher Maddison's price for Spurs/Newcastle.