It all started with Cristiano signing for Al Nassr last year. Karim Benzema, the Real Madrid striker and one of the best on the planet currently, decided to move to Al-Ittihad. He is joined by N’Golo Kante who had injuries last season but is still a very decent player on the field.
Ruben Neves from Wolves had interest from different Premier League teams. Not long ago, every other Arsenal fan wanted Mikel to bring him to Emirates, he is such a decent midfielder that he will start in any of the PL team’s midfield bar City. He has moved to Al-Hilal, at the age of 26 for a 3 year contract, and Wolves are getting £47m for him. Chelsea has shifted Hakim Ziyech and Edouard Mendy is expected to leave too. There are rumours of Koulibaly, Mahrez, Aubameyang, Neymar and a bunch of others.
Is it any difference to Chinese Super League or MLS? In short, yes.
China turned out to be a retirement home, so did MLS (and even now, they are). Players who had spent their best days, were moving to MLS and CSL, to earn a big fat check. Kind of a ‘grab whatever you can coz it’s going to be over soon’ round. But what Saudi League has managed differently is that, they have attracted some of the best and in-their-prime players. Though, Ronaldo had a bad season by his standards at Old Trafford, he could have literally walked into any of the teams he wanted. Benzema is still a hot entity in world football. Heck, I would have loved Neves at Arsenal for that amount of money.
Mendy is a Champions League winner. Riyad Mahrez, Bernando Silva, Gundogan, who all just won a trebble at City, are all being linked to different Saudi teams. We even have rumours for one of our own, Thomas Partey. Much like others, Partey is still in his prime and had a brilliant season with us. He still has couple of good years left in him.
What Saudi League has done, is, attract the attractive ones (money helps) and build from there. Any other league like Indian Soccer League are low on budget, they can’t pay millions and though the playing condition is a bit of hostile, it’s not as much as Saudi Arabia here. It’s the bottom up approach for Indian Football. It’s the top down for Saudis. Hear me out, Ngolo Kante is rumoured to have a net worth of 23m euros after playing in one of the richest league, in one of the richest clubs in Chelsea and winning almost everything. He will earn whooping 100m euros in his 4 year contract at the Saudi club. 4 times his net worth!
Is it going to last?
I don’t know. Unlike China and US, they have money and they can keep doing it forever. The lot that’s reaching Saudi this year (and the next year) will decide how famous they get, and how much impact it will have on European Football. English football in particular is rooted enough, and might not have impact in terms of revenue and popularity locally, but there’s a bigger market share outside and Saudi league will compete with it. Some of the neutral fans are invested in players (Ronaldo, Messi e.g.) rather than the club they play for.
What can the English club do?
Nothing, they have opened the pandora box. From an owner, who spent half a billion in one season, and now wants to shift some players and recoup some of that money, has a buyer outside Europe. Players, who were sitting on bench, being paid a whooping 100k/week wages will earn 10x of that. It’s a win-win for the club and the players as of now. It won’t be long before the players whom the club wants to keep, will ask for a transfer for that 10x money. It won’t be long before it further inflates the market because you have to pay substantially more to keep your prized possession from moving to Saudi (and MLS has opened the gate too with Messi and Image/TV rights).
In my honest opinion, it’s worse that the European Super League. Either it will ruin the financials all over, or it will force clubs to go back to grassroot level of developing footballer and instilling in them the club identity over money.
Only positive? For every Neves, there’s a Lukaku.
You are welcome to disagree with what I feel, because I haven’t seen anything like this. I don’t know how it will turn out. I would be more interested in your opinion about why/why not it’s a good thing for football in general and English Premier League in particular.
Sure but Cole moved to LB as a 20 year old. Interesting idea though but we’ve got ESR who needs minutes!
Sorry guys for being absent for some time.
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I had a thought from a neutral fan perspective –
Super League meant we will be watching high profile games like Madrid v Arsenal twice a year. Watching Man Utd play against Barcelona will sell well. But Saudi league can’t achieve this. It will be more of a competition than collaboration. Not a tough choice if you ask me what I would prefer, if it comes to that.
Tony-I get what you’re thinking, as it’s not like Zaha hasn’t tucked inside at times, but he would make far better sense as cover for Marts with Tross sharing time with ESR in the 8 hole…problem is there’s no way Arteta would pay Zaha’s massive wages to sit behind Marts and bitch…I don’t have anything personal against Zaha, but I think that ship has sailed
right now I’m more concerned about what might happen when it comes to Eddie and Balo…so hoping we keep the latter, as he provides a little something different from Jesus, but I feel like he’s going to be sold off by our grudge-holding manager…regardless, we need to start selling off some periphery assets so that we can bring in another midfielder, with some positional flexibility, especially if we offload Partey and keep Jorginho
I must admit I’m not pleased by the notion that United got Mount for less than we paid for Havertz, as the former would have made much more sense as a replacement for Xhaka…it’s clear that MA covets Havertz for his positional versatility and height, but based on what we witnessed at Chelsea I’m not sure if I buy into that whole versatility gig…let’s hope that Havertz is determined to prove all his dissenters wrong
unless we’re getting twice what we paid for Nuno, I would have him stay on, if we don’t bring in anyone else on the left side…I just think he has something rather unique on offer, with the right coaching up…even if he wasn’t destined to be a LB, maybe he could be a cover piece for Marts farther up the pitch
“Chelsea are very, very good at selling players with depreciating contracts, players who the world knows they don’t want anymore but have value elsewhere. Just because Chelsea don’t want you, it doesn’t mean you won’t be a great fit elsewhere.
“Chelsea had to come back to the table [with Manchester United over Mason Mount] for financial reasons. They needed to get as much money in as possible before the financial end of this season [June 30]. They need to get a fair chunk of money in now before that cut off.”
Maybe we should have dangled the Havertz deal, like United did with Mount, so that we could have increased our leverage…both these above paragraphs speak to how we still have a long way to go when it comes to conducting our business
a couple news and notes
(1) it appears as if the Rice signing has been delayed due to an issue over the payment schedule…we naturally want to use the full 5 years available to us, whereas the Hammers want it all paid up by 2025…I can understand why we’re pushing for such a lengthy payment plan considering the size of the fee in question and our propensity to pursue this course of action whenever possible, but I would suspect that a compromise can be reached in a fairly timely fashion…there’s no doubt MA wants to embed Rice asap, to properly prep for the upcoming season, so I would think that the Hammers might get something closer to their expected timeline
(2) now maybe there’s some sort of administrative reason that I’m totally unaware of, but I do wonder why Saliba hasn’t made his extension official yet…I could be overthinking things on the heels of our aggressive pursuit of Timber, who certainly wasn’t cheap and just happens to play primarily as a RCB…maybe it’s nothing though (that one was for you Marc)
as to our LCB position, there has been considerable chatter about us acquiring another left side defender, like Micky van de Ven or Gonçalo Inácio, which could speak to either MA’s concerns surrounding our present starter or maybe he just wasn’t impressed by what he saw from Kiwor…both of these players are left-footed and can play at LB, so maybe it’s just another versatile positional coverage gig in case Tierney actually does leave
(3) rumours have emerged regarding our potential interest in Aurelien Tchouameni, which seems rather far-fetched considering what kind of fee Real would demand and the fact we just paid a shitload for Rice…I get that this young midfielder might be considered somewhat expendable with Kroos, Modri, Camavinga, Valverde and now Jude all “competing” for playing time in the midfield, but surely this is just wishful thinking…I would consider it to be the 7th sign of the apocalypse if our club spent upwards of 200M on two DMs in the same window…as such I’m calling total bullshit on this one
(4) I read a couple articles today which seemed to suggest that we might be in for 2 more recruits of note, above and beyond another defender, but that it would be later in the window…the thought was that MA wanted to use the preseason tour for assessment purposes then enter the market to shore up any notable shortcomings…not sure if I can see us signing 3 more players, considering our potential total spend already, but it likely depends more on what monies we can raise with any outgoing players…as of right now it looks like Balo, Xhaka, Partey, Nuno and maybe Tierney and Holding are on the outs, which could net us upwards of 120M…in theory this could bankroll a couple or 3 late window signings of some import, but it’s hard to imagine our current duo actually achieving this ends
TRVL
Shame Zaha wasn’t out of contact last summer.
I think I called it yesterday saying this is really a sink or swim window, and as much as I don’t like Arteta the man, I have to say he’s not shy in coming forward and holds firm on his beliefs, which is highly commendable until it goes tits up like the last 2 seasons.
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Blind enthusiasm is one thing, but risk assessment should quickly follow to bring in a more measured approach. One can’t argue that ‘Winners’ are always making fine adjustments to a carefully thought out meticulous planning.
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Of course I’m talking about elite and generational managers, such as Pep & Klopp et al.
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There always seems to be something left untended to with A&E; our midfield notwithstanding, there is always a glaring hole in which we are our own undoing. Either the defense is not shored up with adequate cover or our midfield is like Swiss cheese at the best of times and this almost 4 years into our aspiring generational one’s tenure with us.
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Now on our umpteenth final rebuild like a The Eagles farewell tour 6.0, Mikel is bringing in the heavy artillery with Rice, Ode and Havertz midfield with ESR, Trossard and featherweight Vieira who sadly can’t be played on very windy days, as left mid back ups for rotation, but in reality will rarely start if ever, especially if Havertz hits the ground running.
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Clever ruse by Mikel having 4 players for LCM because the gamble on Havertz is easily remedied, so when ESR is once again was the missing Calvary, hiding in plain sight balancing our left and interchanging with Ode confusing the fcuk out of Arteta who is claiming it’s his process.
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I seriously don’t care whose process it is because we know Wenger is the catalyst for it from secret phone calls with A&E: cue the holidaying Almunia because we don’t believe you’re up to your ears in marking papers: Guinness? yes! That is easy believable. 🙂
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For the first time I think since we had David Dein as out transfer gate keeper – may he rest in peace because he aint doing a lot of us lately. To be honest I would have rathered David D had had the furtive calls with A&E instead of Wenger because we’ll likely sell Partey and keep the one and only Xhaka re-upping him for another 5 years and Mikel claiming it a masterstroke with Wenger marveling in his commanding presence even over a mobile phone and master of the pregnant pauses.
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So, after Tiiiimberrrrr ahhh has landed where is our little magical mystery transfer bus going to stop next? Don’t leave me here hanging brother gooners someone has to know!
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Anyone?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8WMGBuNaus
*For the first time I think since we had David Dein as out transfer gate keeper I’ve been calm and actually looking forward to what we do next……………* may he……..
I have to admit in the few minutes it took me to skim 2 pages of LG, I did stop on AFC Forever’s returning post after being away or probably binned for being to pro Arteta even by Pedro’s standards.
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Anyway apparently AFCF keeps a bottle(s) of viagra next to his bed, but claims buying Rice has solved his limp dick issues. Doesn’t need Viagra when he thinks about Rice. Bit late to come out, but kudos to AFCF being honest.
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I wonder is he is the bitch? Would seem to fit his posts. Takes all sorts I guess.
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“I must admit I’m not pleased by the notion that United got Mount for less than we paid for Havertz,”
Mount and Rice are best mates apparently – pretty sure we could have got him instead.
New post.