A boring couple of weeks since I have nothing to watch in internationals, so what do I do? I open a discussion about the changing scenarios of football transfers. Real Madrid are pursuing Trent from 2 years now and they would finally get him in a couple of months for FREE! There was a year long tussle between the PSG management and Kylian Mbappe and the club had to let go of the best player on the planet for a fee of ZERO EUROS. Erling Haaland transfer to Man City from Dortmund was a fair one but he recently extended his stay at Manchester TILL 2034! On a salary of half a million GBP per week. That’s bonkers but if you don’t tie up your best player, you will eventually end up in the situation which PSG suffered with Mbappe and Liverpool are going to suffer with Mo Salah.
Lets wrap our head around this a bit with an Arsenal player. William Saliba’s contract is set to expire in 2027, 2 years and some change. Real Madrid has been interested in him from some time. A club as big as Madrid has a great pull and if you ask anyone, they would feel privileged to play for them. But, that shouldn’t be on the cost of the club that invested time, money, games, medicos in your development. Saliba can ask the club to pay an exorbitant wages, which we will do eventually or he can run his contract down, and the club who should, in a fair deal pay 100m to us, will wait and give a part of that 100m to the Saliba. That’s win-win for the destination club and the player. The club in loss would be Arsenal. That’s exactly what is happening with Liverpool.
Ok, they mismanaged the contractual situation but I don’t believe that Liverpool didn’t sit on a table with either of Trent or Salah and I would also not believe that they didn’t offer a very good contract. Players know they can force the club to pay them huge sum per week or they walk out free and earn even more somewhere else.
Mbappe had set the trend. PSG is a very powerful club with no need of any money. PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi tried his best to sell him, keep him, play him, bench him but he didn’t succeed. Mbappe knew he is too big to be benched, and he ran his contract down on purpose. I am not saying he might have bumped into Madrid’s president on a morning walk and might have a word or two.
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How to deal with this?
I have no fucking clue! Chelsea’s attempt to tie up players on a 10 years deal looks the best option (although they are doing it for a different reason) but it comes with another problem – a player who is not performing, or is injured, or don’t want to move will visit the club every Friday for his check and play Fortnite for the rest of the week. Remember Mesut Ozil?
I was against these 10 years deal but if Haaland played for Arsenal and after the Mbappe incident, I would have cheered that deal. There’s no other way, not one I can think of.
You got any? Comment section is open for discussion.
“Berta was responsible for some costly misfires, including Joao Felix for £113million, Alvaro Morata for £58m, and Diego Costa’s return for £57m – only for Costa to manage just 12 La Liga goals across three seasons in his second spell at Atletico…He also splashed £63m on Thomas Lemar, and allowed talents like Toby Alderweireld, Diogo Jota and Theo Hernandez to leave for what, in hindsight, were bargain fees”
methinks two peas in a pod…pray to God I’m wrong, but it’s difficult to ignore the fact that this man was the DOF for a club which was the functional equivalent of Arsenal in La Liga during the Wenger Cup era and beyond, minus the obvious tactical differences(until MA’s bully-ball approach earlier this season)…the only thing worse than playing the beautiful game, without the necessary backing, and settling for a top 4 finish, is the possibility of playing blunt instrument football and still winning nothing of consequence
Nice one NORG
I’m just not getting a positive vibe about Signore Berta. He’s an underwhelming choice and if the set up is that he’s subordinate to his Royal Stubbornbastardness, then it flies in the face of how that DoF -Manager nexus ought to work. As I said a few weeks ago, I can’t help thinking he’s a BIC pen holder in a flashy suit. A contract guy, not a spotter of footballing talent.
How did you all get on with that mascot quiz by the way?
Jimi (sic) Gower on the bench tonight. In my ignorance, I have to say I’ve never heard of him
Great vision making descriptions KPand very worrying info on Berta’s previous big buys.
Doesn’t install confidence so back to a time will tell worrying period.
We should be too much for Fulham when th the extra test we’ve had being out of the FA cup.
Rest
the break has been so long there should have been a transfer window in between matches
If the same Fulham side who faced Palace in the FA shows up this should be a cake walk for us
I still think it would have been best if Ethan got a shot in the middle of the pitch before Saka returns to the starting lineup, as I’m concerned that he will become an afterthought in short order
It still amazes me that the Traore experiment has failed so miserably considering his size and speed
we can ill-afford the loss of Gabs with our CL matchup against Real on the horizon
I can’t remember the last time I saw Fulham play without Iwobi in the starting 11…not that it matters
6 years and we still can’t play football against a low block. A lackluster display from us.
Did big Gabs warm up properly especially without first team football or was he on international duty with not enough rest?
First real sprint and he pulls up. Seems strange to me and a big loss for the RM game.
maybe Timber should have been held out of this one considering the minor injury he encountered during the break
Ambarish—it’s difficult to play against the low block if you don’t have a clinical finisher up top or anyone, minus Ethan, who can truly snipe from distance
TRVL
What about Merino?
Yep, that’s why I’m excited about Berta getting Gyokeres to Arsenal.
how fortuitous was that…if it weren’t for the deflection that was going to be a Havertz-like baby shot straight at the Keeper…good on both Timber and Ethan though
Ambarish—be careful what you wish for because Viktor doesn’t change MA’s tactical approach…of course, he’s a better option than either Merino or Havertz
Ponderous usual game by us with a lucky deflected goal that was covered by Leno.
Need a much better 2nd half. Hopefully Saka can light things up for us with Ethan moving to false 9