Transfer Talk Topic

[Mark Kelly]

9 minutes ago, thevelourfog said:

Ruben Neves to Al Hilal for a reported £47m. So they are paying fees.

Ridiculous move for him, though.

Good news for us then. 

[Sleeping Dave]

The Saudi league will be, for many clubs this summer at least, a saving grace. However, long-term I do think European football need to be very vareful. They have an astomnishing amount of money to spend on sport. Just look at how they disrupted Golf. They can do the same with football. 

Football is all about money and if the players can make more there, for many that will be an easy choice. Just look at Ruben Neves... He could have had a big move on the cards but chose to finish his career over there at 26. Ridiculous. 

[Bob Singleton]

27 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

The Saudi league will be, for many clubs this summer at least, a saving grace. However, long-term I do think European football need to be very vareful. They have an astomnishing amount of money to spend on sport. Just look at how they disrupted Golf. They can do the same with football. 

Football is all about money and if the players can make more there, for many that will be an easy choice. Just look at Ruben Neves... He could have had a big move on the cards but chose to finish his career over there at 26. Ridiculous. 

While I tend to agree, the same was said of China not that long ago. There will be the odd player who, well short of the end of his career, will choose money over trophies (Oscar then, Neves now), but I think most of the players attracted will be those looking for one final big pay day.

[Holymoly]

1 hour ago, Sleeping Dave said:

The Saudi league will be, for many clubs this summer at least, a saving grace. However, long-term I do think European football need to be very vareful. They have an astomnishing amount of money to spend on sport. Just look at how they disrupted Golf. They can do the same with football. 

Football is all about money and if the players can make more there, for many that will be an easy choice. Just look at Ruben Neves... He could have had a big move on the cards but chose to finish his career over there at 26. Ridiculous. 

As long as they remove good players from our competitors and only haul the trash out of Cobham I don't really care

[JaneB]

8 hours ago, Max Fowler said:

80 million euros for Havertz would be insane

 

 

Why do Arsenal keep buying our players, none of whom have enhanced their side at all? 
(Havertz will turn into a world class player now 🤣)

[Chelsea_Matt]

1 hour ago, Sleeping Dave said:

The Saudi league will be, for many clubs this summer at least, a saving grace. However, long-term I do think European football need to be very vareful. They have an astomnishing amount of money to spend on sport. Just look at how they disrupted Golf. They can do the same with football. 

Football is all about money and if the players can make more there, for many that will be an easy choice. Just look at Ruben Neves... He could have had a big move on the cards but chose to finish his career over there at 26. Ridiculous. 

Why? Do three years there and he’ll be only 29 with millions in the bank. 

[asvaberg]

2 hours ago, Bob Singleton said:

While I tend to agree, the same was said of China not that long ago. There will be the odd player who, well short of the end of his career, will choose money over trophies (Oscar then, Neves now), but I think most of the players attracted will be those looking for one final big pay day.

And if I recall correctly, it was about the same said when US started being interested in professional soccer. Those days, players like Pele and Beckenbauer were hired to New York Cosmos to get as much publicity and popularity as possible. In the long run, I don't think it helped much. But I might be very wrong - there's always Pulisic 😁

[Sleeping Dave]

2 hours ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Why? Do three years there and he’ll be only 29 with millions in the bank. 

What top club is going to buy Neves after three years playing in the Saudi league? What top club was interested in Oscar after he had played three years in China? It’s a career ending move - you have effectively chosen money now instead of a career with the potential to get the big pay day after you’ve turned 30. 

Plus. The money they’re on now isn’t exactly peanuts. There is absolutely no soul left in this sport. It’s sickening. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

10 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

What top club is going to buy Neves after three years playing in the Saudi league? What top club was interested in Oscar after he had played three years in China? It’s a career ending move - you have effectively chosen money now instead of a career with the potential to get the big pay day after you’ve turned 30. 

Plus. The money they’re on now isn’t exactly peanuts. There is absolutely no soul left in this sport. It’s sickening. 

He’s a good player. There’ll be clubs after him. Oscar…isn’t so good in my view. 

I’m inclined to agree but when the money is dangled in front of you…

[Mark Kelly]

11 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

He’s a good player. There’ll be clubs after him. Oscar…isn’t so good in my view. 

I’m inclined to agree but when the money is dangled in front of you…

From memory Oscar explained his money was keeping loads of people going so he admitted he went for that reason and that reason alone. 

[Original 21]

4 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

Just look at Ruben Neves... He could have had a big move on the cards but chose to finish his career over there at 26. Ridiculous. 

Apparently he agreed a move to Barcelona, but negotiations between the clubs didn’t go anywhere. I’m surprised no other clubs have gone in for him.  I read the Saudis have offered Wolves 55m euros for Neves with one year left on his contract. Not sure too many others would be willing to pay that. But that doesn’t mean he has to agree to go there. Salary on offer must be  huge. 

[Original 21]

I guess this has some substance to it…

[ROTG]

6 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

Good news for us then. 

Quite. 
Maybe one of the Saudi clubs will be willing to cough up Mounts alleged valuation fee.

[Bob Singleton]

With a bit of luck, that'll be Koulibaly, Aubameyang and Ziyech off to Saudi clubs paying us more than we might reasonably have expected; especially as most other "interested" clubs were looking at loans, or in the case of Barca and Auba, us releasing him on a free.

 

[EDIT: Deleted a post that got merged with this post that had nothing to do with this subject. Any chance the new "merge" could be disabled?]

Edited June 18, 2023 by Bob Singleton

[Floyd25]

Lyon need to raise funds apparently, rumours we’re interested in Cherki, clearly a talented young player, was playing for Lyon from age 16, but still needs to work on his game. If they need to sell players I’d definitely take a look at Caqueret, think he could be a top player. 

Edited June 18, 2023 by Floyd25

[Bob Singleton]

Regarding Onana, this video may explain why we're so interested in him.
 

 

[Original 21]

42 minutes ago, Bob Singleton said:

With a bit of luck, that'll be Koulibaly, Aubameyang and Ziyech off to Saudi clubs paying us more than we might reasonably have expected; especially as most other "interested" clubs were looking at loans, or in the case of Barca and Auba, us releasing him on a free.

I think you can also add Mendy to that list. 

Edit: And Lukaku once he runs out of options.

Edited June 18, 2023 by Original 21

[Floyd25]

Our business dealings with Saudi clubs really have angered a lot of people it seems, oh dear, hopefully the experts on social media won’t report us to the premier league. 
 

In all seriousness, I wouldn’t ever put my club on a moral pedestal, but neither would I have any sympathy for rival fans shedding tears about us, a year ago they were chomping at the bit at the fact that we could go out of business. Anyway, a certain club still has 115 charges against them, we seem like the wrong team for people to point fingers at right now, but I wouldn’t expect anything less. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

4 hours ago, Floyd25 said:

Our business dealings with Saudi clubs really have angered a lot of people it seems, oh dear, hopefully the experts on social media won’t report us to the premier league. 
 

In all seriousness, I wouldn’t ever put my club on a moral pedestal, but neither would I have any sympathy for rival fans shedding tears about us, a year ago they were chomping at the bit at the fact that we could go out of business. Anyway, a certain club still has 115 charges against them, we seem like the wrong team for people to point fingers at right now, but I wouldn’t expect anything less. 

For everyone else except Chelsea, “it’s okay when we do it”. 

[My Blood Is Blue]

7 hours ago, Bob Singleton said:

EDIT: Deleted a post that got merged with this post that had nothing to do with this subject. Any chance the new "merge" could be disabled?]

It can be, yes. The current setting is to merge two posts from the same user on the same topic that are posted within 5 mins of each other.

[ROTG]

17 hours ago, Bison said:

Enzo, Badiashile and Madueke are all very good young players that I am happy we have.

You're not answering the original question, did any of the above improve the squads performance last season?

Enzo was flogged to death because of his fee, and nothing to do with his ability, which he has stack of BTW

 

[ROTG]

14 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

The Saudi league will be, for many clubs this summer at least, a saving grace. However, long-term I do think European football need to be very vareful. They have an astomnishing amount of money to spend on sport. Just look at how they disrupted Golf. They can do the same with football. 

Yeah - if they can sign enough players, I would not put it past them to make it a kind of Haarlem Globe trotters road show, with the teams playing in different continents week after week.

Most of the middle east countries have stadiums to facilitate football matches, and places like Africa and Asia would bite their hands off to have games played in their countries.

IMO the Saudi's looked at the European super league model and decided to bring it to life on the world stage.

[ROTG]

13 hours ago, JaneB said:

Why do Arsenal keep buying our players, none of whom have enhanced their side at all? 
(Havertz will turn into a world class player now 🤣)

Pay Chelsea a decent fee,  keep them earning a decent wage and delivering nothing, so they can sell them to Fulham for peanuts to watch them blossom 

[xceleryx]

1 hour ago, ROTG said:

You're not answering the original question, did any of the above improve the squads performance last season?

Enzo was flogged to death because of his fee, and nothing to do with his ability, which he has stack of BTW

They weren't all purchased to provide immediate improvement upon signing, everyone acknowledges this besides yourself - conveniently enough. 

Enzo was flogged to death because he was genuinely our best midfielder the moment he walked through the door. That, and the fact Kante was more frail than a strand of dry spaghetti and Kovacic had gone off the boil, and we sold the only other competent option in Jorginho who could sit in midfield. Had absolutely zero to do with his fee, which is another self created narrative you've pushed.

[thevelourfog]

It's something a few oppo fans have zoned in on already on Twitter and their motivations are mostly simply partisan, but something to consider with all these Saudi links is that it appears PIF buy the players and then distribute them across the league. The same PIF who apparently have a 20% stake in Clearlake, who manage almost limitless Saudi wealth.

I'm not all that sure what to make of this.