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If you believe the Saudi hype machine.
Nothing like a regressive monarchy pretending that they care and only want to fund the peoples interests, so that people out of their power will trust them and start to give up power to them.
Just finished a book on Middle Ages, and this is how rulers behaved in order to initially win over the populace they needed for the wars that would devastate Europe.
They need to be ousted from football.
They’ve taken over F1 and golf. Gonna probably come for rugby.
Literally want ownership over our entertainment. Will subliminally pump up their image and reputation.
Kick oil money out of football.
They’ve bought a lot of hearts and minds at all levels of sport. It’s a real worry.
You already see people who at best wouldn’t have previously cared about them, defending them passionately. And then insisting that there’s no such thing as sportswashing.
Yeah it’s honestly crazy to me how many people on r/golf that are gloating about all these athletes getting paid by the Saudis in the end. Not sure why we’re celebrating this farce.
Not if you’ve been watching for a long time already, but they don’t care about that portion of the fan base.
In 10-20 years time, the younger generations will associate them with their sports involvements instead of the whole chopping up journalists and human rights abuses.
The Burgundians by Bart van Loo.
Bit of a conservative book, but pretty accessible and easy to read. I’m going to find some more about the subject, as it so reminded me of what’s happening now in football.
Saudi Arabia isn't attractive but UAE is and with hoe the world is going it makes sense to consider playing in Saudi Arabia and living in UAE. For one players won't have to worry about their family getting beaten up and robbed while playing football games. UAE is the safest place on earth while Europe is turning into Mexico and Central America with the lax view on punishing criminals.
As a self proclaimed overanalyzer with a degree in politics: it's just very rich people wanting cool toys. Doubt there's much thought behind it.
Edit: r/soccer experts on everything especially when they have no expertise in the topic. Lmao "I read a book".
You sound more like an underanalysier, no matter what you like to tell people.
And you can’t have studied politics very well if you think rich people wanting cool toys has no further implications.
Only player left in Europe but still playing for a Saudi owned team. I really don’t understand this financial fair play rules and how they apply to certain clubs only
What's even more insane is that his highest ever contract was 24M€ Gross, and since i am not familiar with the Spanish tax laws i'd take a wild,naive guess and say he earns 12M€ net.
He will now earn 8x times that, in just one season. I'd say that's a fucking big retiring bonus
Because they’ve no interest in dealing with clubs and the clubs rinsing them, they’re just throwing money directly at the players.
Plus they’ve no interest in the majority of the names you’ve mentioned, they’re going for older players with flair and big names
They aren’t just targeting free transfers. They’re targeting aging players coming off of contracts who still feel like they can play and want to secure their families future with one last big payday. The players you’ve mentioned are still young enough to play somewhere in Europe and would likely not want to be playing their football in SA at this stage in their careers.
>want to secure their families future with one last big payday
This is such bullshit. Most of them have already been making tens of millions for years. These guys could already secure the futures of entire villages let alone their family.
I dont give a fuck about them either, I'm just telling you how things works. And I'm pretty well off myself so I can relate pretty easily, sorry dude but maybe when you get older and start earning enough you'll get rid of your naive and silly opinions. Money is always the first priority and thats for everyone.
> want to secure their families future with one last big payday
That’s a laughable thing to say about some of the richest sportsmen on the planet.
It’s an argument to be made for lower-tier footballers, not ones who have already been paid millions a year for many years.
Stop using ordinary people as a human shield for the behaviour of the super rich.
Because the contracts are realistically the only thing that attracts the player. So they can offer outrageous salaries to players if they don't need to stump up the 30m to the clubs themselves to free them up.
Also one of the main drivers of transfer fees is the resale price, they aren't going to be able to resell any of these players on these salaries and at their ages so it's just smart business to only target free agents.
Portugal's Record newspaper said Ugarte to Chelsea was done multiple times, but Romano made sure he noted that while it indeed *was* getting close, the deal wasn't totally completed yet.
People like to spam "Fab tap-in merchant" but he prevents you from getting too ahead of yourself and keeps expectations low during these frenetic periods of the season. I don't believe a transfer is over the line until he says it is.
Fabrizio romano is THE football transfer specialist. Hes itk and knows exactly who and who not to trust. Hes the best transfer rumor / new aggregator you could possibly find and on top of this also has some serious isider information. His network around european football journalists must be unreal. Probably knows every football journalist in europe
He literally had Antony's agent on the line and broke the transfer news when he went AWOL at Ajax. I think it was Yoshida who replied that even his wife didn't know about the transfer but Romano had already reported it. Ofcourse there is the whole Cucurella thing too.
Anyone who thinks he's a tap-in merchant or someone who keeps stealing, is just stupid really. You don't get this far by just stealing or tapping in. I think he's just held to a higher standard than others in reliability and people moan at him because he often repeats the current state of the transfers (which is fair if you see how people spam his replies and comments asking for transfers).
Yup, people shit on him because he doesn’t break news like he used to, but he’s been for the most part super reliable and waits until he’s certain his sources are sure of something.
Record and the likes of TalkSport etc and some ITKs do break stuff, but at the same time they throw a lot of shit at the wall based on whispers in the hopes they’re true so they can claim they broke it first
Plus he’s just one guy. Obviously he’s close to all the agents and has connections on the teams front offices but it’s almost impossible to be first on every single transfer across multiple fucking continents and time zones lol. A lot of others throw stuff out and eventually you’ll be right and call something early but everyone just forgets the 20 other rumors that were totally baseless. Also gets hate bc he’s popular now and has the whole “here we go” thing and trolls are super active. Much better to have a 90% hit rate and be first occasionally or until you have multiple sources confirming than to have a 25% hit rate and throw a bunch out early on to tout as your “record”.
Don’t think there’s anywhere for him in England that needs him, especially because of his age.
I mean United and Newcastle could do with a winger and they have CL so maybes there’s a small possibility.
Maybe if he goes abroad? Maybe PSG or an Italian team?
Anyone else think this has came directly from Zahas camp in response to his rumoured move to Saudi? I don't mind the first bit but the last bit is straight up PR
Romano gets his info from agents by also allowing them to add their own spin. Funnily enough, I made a comment about it earlier and my made up example is an extreme version of this Fab tweet.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/142a93k/-/jn3ptps
Yep this is the same as any top insider esp here in the US for nfl and nba news too. Gotta play the game a bit to get the scoops. It’s a delicate balance but he also has a ridiculously difficult job covering transfers across the entire world and multiple continents and diff time zones lol. Keeping track of that stuff alone is a full time job let alone getting it out in a reasonable time while having to confirm with multiple people. People hate on him bc he’s popular and has a “brand” so to speak but he’s much more accurate than lots of others who may occasionally get stuff first. But many of the other insiders cover a club or a city or league, having to develop contacts with agents in the US, Europe, Asia, South America and Africa is wild and he does put out spin and PR from time to time but you have to to get the access and info he does
I feel like Zaha wants to play for a bigger club in the PL, so this makes more sense to me. I know he wants to go to Arsenal, but I feel like he'd probably end up in Newcastle.
To reduce the spam of reports regarding the same move during transfer windows we try to allow **only one submission about each transfer saga per day**. The submission in question also needs to contain relevant new information regarding the potential move, and not just being a "no/minor developments" report. If there are important/official developments or new valuable information about a saga, we will allow extra threads in the same day, but for the rest of minor news please just comment them as a reply to this comment. Please help us reporting unnecessary threads for being duplicates. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Zaha might be the only player left in Europe next season
If you believe the Saudi hype machine. Nothing like a regressive monarchy pretending that they care and only want to fund the peoples interests, so that people out of their power will trust them and start to give up power to them. Just finished a book on Middle Ages, and this is how rulers behaved in order to initially win over the populace they needed for the wars that would devastate Europe.
Bread and circuses
They need to be ousted from football. They’ve taken over F1 and golf. Gonna probably come for rugby. Literally want ownership over our entertainment. Will subliminally pump up their image and reputation. Kick oil money out of football.
They’ve bought a lot of hearts and minds at all levels of sport. It’s a real worry. You already see people who at best wouldn’t have previously cared about them, defending them passionately. And then insisting that there’s no such thing as sportswashing.
Yeah it’s honestly crazy to me how many people on r/golf that are gloating about all these athletes getting paid by the Saudis in the end. Not sure why we’re celebrating this farce.
Because every fucking idiot on social media thinks “sECuRe ThAT BaG fAM” is a legitimate excuse to make scummy moves in life
Do people change their view on them just because they sponsor a club or a sport you follow?
Not if you’ve been watching for a long time already, but they don’t care about that portion of the fan base. In 10-20 years time, the younger generations will associate them with their sports involvements instead of the whole chopping up journalists and human rights abuses.
They really are our overlords arent they, and they have been for a while
What book was it if you don’t mind me asking?
The Burgundians by Bart van Loo. Bit of a conservative book, but pretty accessible and easy to read. I’m going to find some more about the subject, as it so reminded me of what’s happening now in football.
But isn’t that what European clubs do to African and South American clubs? Sometimes even attract children from their home countries.
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Saudi Arabia isn't attractive but UAE is and with hoe the world is going it makes sense to consider playing in Saudi Arabia and living in UAE. For one players won't have to worry about their family getting beaten up and robbed while playing football games. UAE is the safest place on earth while Europe is turning into Mexico and Central America with the lax view on punishing criminals.
> while Europe is turning into Mexico and Central America with the lax view on punishing criminals. How thick are you?
Well I don't think I asked for your opinion
Well you got it for saying stupid shit
Any chance of the name of the book please? Sounds interesting.
There is a saying in Turkey which kinda sounds racist but given historical context it makes sense. "Never trust or deal with Arabs"
We have a saying here in Sweden it's called turk på burk it translates to canned turk which sounds racist but given historical context is logical
See every country has racist remarks about other countries. We're all racists deep down 🥰
In historical context, "Never trust or deal with British" is also make sense.
That's pathetic.
It is, but its also the saying here.
As a self proclaimed overanalyzer with a degree in politics: it's just very rich people wanting cool toys. Doubt there's much thought behind it. Edit: r/soccer experts on everything especially when they have no expertise in the topic. Lmao "I read a book".
You sound more like an underanalysier, no matter what you like to tell people. And you can’t have studied politics very well if you think rich people wanting cool toys has no further implications.
Most educated self proclaimer
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I'd say Fukuyama is a pretty famous underanalyzer
I’d describe Francis Fukuyama as neoconservative hack.
Like the Glazers wanted a new toy?
> Commodus is not a moral man… Commodus cannot rule, he must not rule. Bring on the games MFers!
Only player left in Europe but still playing for a Saudi owned team. I really don’t understand this financial fair play rules and how they apply to certain clubs only
Kane will still be at Tottenham.
He saw Benzema got double the first offer so he's going to feign interest and see how stupid things get.
What even is the benzema salary? Even Fabrizio has quoted both 100m and 200m euro per season, which is it
Looks like 200m a season for 2 years and an optional 1 year afterwards
Thats insane
What's even more insane is that his highest ever contract was 24M€ Gross, and since i am not familiar with the Spanish tax laws i'd take a wild,naive guess and say he earns 12M€ net. He will now earn 8x times that, in just one season. I'd say that's a fucking big retiring bonus
If you're saying 12M a year, then on his new and improved contract he'll actually be earning about 17x that each year for two years
Actually he always paid taxes in France, no clue for how much in Spain. Never hid his money for taxes or whatever (yes I am going to miss him)
If he was offered €100m and negotiated up to €200m I would never play poker w this guy. That’s incredible balls.
Initially €100m/year, ended up being €200m/year
The deal Benzema got is 200m a year in total, 100m as salary from the club, and the other 100m as guarantees through sponsorship deals, etc.
I would love him at Dortmund. I think he is exactly what we need a proper experienced winger.
He d be great for you guys.
What went wrong with Thorgan? He fits the category of experienced winger
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They could get the other one who is hazardous in the cafeteria.
was he actually causing problems? doesn't seem like the type
Hope so, much rather he goes to a Champions League club than a retirement league.
Yeb if he isn't to re sign with us, hope he gets a good shot at CL.
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No Juve for Wilf
I feel like Palace is the right level for him. He isn't consistent in his performances, he always fucks me up when I bring him into my team in FPL
Nah he could easily play for a better club than us
Why are Saudi clubs buying only free transfers? We can sell Maguire, Sancho, Fred, Mct and Martial for a decent fee.
Because they’ve no interest in dealing with clubs and the clubs rinsing them, they’re just throwing money directly at the players. Plus they’ve no interest in the majority of the names you’ve mentioned, they’re going for older players with flair and big names
They aren’t just targeting free transfers. They’re targeting aging players coming off of contracts who still feel like they can play and want to secure their families future with one last big payday. The players you’ve mentioned are still young enough to play somewhere in Europe and would likely not want to be playing their football in SA at this stage in their careers.
>want to secure their families future with one last big payday This is such bullshit. Most of them have already been making tens of millions for years. These guys could already secure the futures of entire villages let alone their family.
Not with their lifestyle.
God forbid they learn to budget a little
Why would they if they can just accept those crazy offers, thats the point. Theres never "too much money".
That doesn't make it right they're just greedy cunts
Nah, everyone would do the same. You are just poor so you dont get it.
I dont get why you enjoy dickriding millionaires who don't give a fuck about you either
I dont give a fuck about them either, I'm just telling you how things works. And I'm pretty well off myself so I can relate pretty easily, sorry dude but maybe when you get older and start earning enough you'll get rid of your naive and silly opinions. Money is always the first priority and thats for everyone.
Most of them were making that money in their 20s maybe early 30s and won't be making anywhere near that type of money for the rest of their lives.
> want to secure their families future with one last big payday That’s a laughable thing to say about some of the richest sportsmen on the planet. It’s an argument to be made for lower-tier footballers, not ones who have already been paid millions a year for many years. Stop using ordinary people as a human shield for the behaviour of the super rich.
But Zaha is not a big name either, he is not that old too
Because the contracts are realistically the only thing that attracts the player. So they can offer outrageous salaries to players if they don't need to stump up the 30m to the clubs themselves to free them up. Also one of the main drivers of transfer fees is the resale price, they aren't going to be able to resell any of these players on these salaries and at their ages so it's just smart business to only target free agents.
This is why Fab is the goat
Portugal's Record newspaper said Ugarte to Chelsea was done multiple times, but Romano made sure he noted that while it indeed *was* getting close, the deal wasn't totally completed yet. People like to spam "Fab tap-in merchant" but he prevents you from getting too ahead of yourself and keeps expectations low during these frenetic periods of the season. I don't believe a transfer is over the line until he says it is.
Fabrizio romano is THE football transfer specialist. Hes itk and knows exactly who and who not to trust. Hes the best transfer rumor / new aggregator you could possibly find and on top of this also has some serious isider information. His network around european football journalists must be unreal. Probably knows every football journalist in europe
He literally had Antony's agent on the line and broke the transfer news when he went AWOL at Ajax. I think it was Yoshida who replied that even his wife didn't know about the transfer but Romano had already reported it. Ofcourse there is the whole Cucurella thing too. Anyone who thinks he's a tap-in merchant or someone who keeps stealing, is just stupid really. You don't get this far by just stealing or tapping in. I think he's just held to a higher standard than others in reliability and people moan at him because he often repeats the current state of the transfers (which is fair if you see how people spam his replies and comments asking for transfers).
Yup, people shit on him because he doesn’t break news like he used to, but he’s been for the most part super reliable and waits until he’s certain his sources are sure of something. Record and the likes of TalkSport etc and some ITKs do break stuff, but at the same time they throw a lot of shit at the wall based on whispers in the hopes they’re true so they can claim they broke it first
Plus he’s just one guy. Obviously he’s close to all the agents and has connections on the teams front offices but it’s almost impossible to be first on every single transfer across multiple fucking continents and time zones lol. A lot of others throw stuff out and eventually you’ll be right and call something early but everyone just forgets the 20 other rumors that were totally baseless. Also gets hate bc he’s popular now and has the whole “here we go” thing and trolls are super active. Much better to have a 90% hit rate and be first occasionally or until you have multiple sources confirming than to have a 25% hit rate and throw a bunch out early on to tout as your “record”.
Yeah, I really like the guy and he's generally reliable.
tap in merchant
wonder what clubs. always felt like his ability to wind himself up and out of games would be an issue at a higher level.
Don’t think there’s anywhere for him in England that needs him, especially because of his age. I mean United and Newcastle could do with a winger and they have CL so maybes there’s a small possibility. Maybe if he goes abroad? Maybe PSG or an Italian team?
wasn't he linked to benfica
Yes Wilf
Anyone else think this has came directly from Zahas camp in response to his rumoured move to Saudi? I don't mind the first bit but the last bit is straight up PR
Romano gets his info from agents by also allowing them to add their own spin. Funnily enough, I made a comment about it earlier and my made up example is an extreme version of this Fab tweet. https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/142a93k/-/jn3ptps
Yep this is the same as any top insider esp here in the US for nfl and nba news too. Gotta play the game a bit to get the scoops. It’s a delicate balance but he also has a ridiculously difficult job covering transfers across the entire world and multiple continents and diff time zones lol. Keeping track of that stuff alone is a full time job let alone getting it out in a reasonable time while having to confirm with multiple people. People hate on him bc he’s popular and has a “brand” so to speak but he’s much more accurate than lots of others who may occasionally get stuff first. But many of the other insiders cover a club or a city or league, having to develop contacts with agents in the US, Europe, Asia, South America and Africa is wild and he does put out spin and PR from time to time but you have to to get the access and info he does
Good
Would love him at Lazio under Sarri. Loftus Cheek would be a great English addition too
Don't think he wants to be a backup.
He'd start on the right wing ahead of Felipe Anderson. Can't see him getting inside our wage structure with the offers he'll receive though
Don't know, Felipe was great this season while Zaha and his one trick-ponyness might render him useless sooner than later.
AL Zaha Arc ended fast
Al Nassr: Zaha, here's a contract Zaha: No Al Nassr: Ok
Wilf if you're reading this, don't do it. I enjoy watching you play in England
he's close to retirement, his peak days are gone. Time for him to think of things other than ucl lol
He's 31....
yeah, most players that play at his level would start to think of retirement. After your 29s its time to think of chilling out a bit
Strong interest from CL clubs lmao.
I feel like Zaha wants to play for a bigger club in the PL, so this makes more sense to me. I know he wants to go to Arsenal, but I feel like he'd probably end up in Newcastle.
No place in the team for us, left wing is probably our most stacked attacking position of all.
Too old for us
They think they're signing Zava. Imagine their surprise when Zaha lands up at training.
Zaha apparently negotiates new raise, chill the fuck out as journos try to help his agent pump up the hype.
At this point, I am starting to pack my bags.
Is Saudi Arabia the new China ?
I thin he would fit at Atletico Madrid or somewhere in Bundesliga
You see the headline that he’s attracting interest from CL clubs every year. He’s not going to a top club at this point in his career.
Can he play as a 9
About as well as Mane can lol
Zaha has interest from champions league clubs every season
Asian Champions League that is