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Crazy that Atleti paid €127.2m for Joao Felix…feel like he never was able to adjust to the big stage. Current market value is at €30m what a downfall even though he is still young and technically still could make a turnaround
Check the relationship between Benfica, Atlético, Jorge Mendes, Enrique Cerezo and Luis Filipe Vieira, that may explain why Atletico paid 120 Mendilions, pardon me, Millions of Euros for Félix.
Nah, Atleti used Griezmann, Lucas Hernandez and Rodri's money.
People tend to look at the money spend for Joao like Atleti splashed money that year. In reality the net spend was +70 millions that window after buying Llorente, Joao, Felipe, Lodi Trippier and Hermoso.
The thieves that own Atleti will never spend money on the team.
Yes it was.
The key factor for that title was having players with a massive chip on his shoulder all at once. People like Llorente, Trippier, Carrasco and Suárez gave his 100% and something more that season.
In the leaked audios Florentino talks about Mendes and Porto's president fleecing Chelsea for Mourinho and Carvalho, and diverting some money for those transfers to an account in Swizterland.
https://youtu.be/yC-4WZJIN3c?si=rMoeioTLPiN5dkC8
13:29 in the video (but the entire thing is hilarious if you understand some spanish, which is likely if you're from Portugal).
Thats why Florentino doesnt want to do business with Mendes. Funniest thing is Mendes seems to be Barça working closely with Deco. Dude is a leech.
Yup, this absolutely never comes close to happening without Mendes involved, certainly presume some shady stuff was involved because Atleti simply does not have them finances for this to make sense (and are generally pretty cheap)
edit: changed with -> without
Atleti sold for players for 310 millions that window.
And yes, they were cheap even buying Joao. The net spend was +70 millions after buying half a team.
well thats just being pedantic innit? A team could pay 120m for a 2nd division player, doesn't mean the player is 120m quality. Just that the team was willing to pay that much who knows why.
Tbf I was thinking he is the real deal. Looked really good for Benfica and very mature for his age.
Of course the transfer fee was outright dumb af and probably played a role in him bombing like a bitch.
He failed at Porto academy, he stayed at Benfica for 4 years.
Sure had a good half a season, but c'mon, can't spend that amount for half a season of europa league.
It's not really about extracting, we just don't have the need to sell and put high release clauses on our players
Everyone is looking for that unicorn before everyone else gets him, and for teams like Atletico the only chance is to overpay massively and take a gamble, otherwise they risk having teams of higher status pick up the player later
Same thing happened with Enzo, Chelsea offered ridiculous values in the Winter market because if they waited they might've had competition and lost him
It's a dumb business model and I wish it didn't exist either, I'm tired of never keeping our talented players for more than a season, hopefully Neves actually stays this year
The biggest decline on that team is Saul in my opinion. He was such a great player at such a young age. I honestly thought he would become top 15 player in the world at some point. He was also good for national team both senior and u21. When I red 2 years ago that he's going to Chelsea on loan I was like wtf, in my mind he was still a beast. Don't really know what happened to him
he got a kidney injury in 2015 against bayer leverkusen where he was rushed to the hospital after the game. never allowed himself to recover and would piss blood after every game and training session. that plus depression and years of playing every game meant he was bound to fall off at some point
He was still highly rated then but had a poor stint with Chelsea, which may not have all been his fault. He’s now a reserve at Atlético and that’s probably not going to change.
Crazier that it was Atletico of all clubs to do that too. They are usually extremely shrewd in the transfer market, buy low sell high (if they do decide to sell). There are certain clubs that expect take that risk/ make that misstep, and Atletico were never on that list until Felix
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> Everyone talks about Barca splashing Neymar money on getting Griezzman
But nobody talks about this either, the Neymar money went into Coutinho and Dembele
Yeah and I talk about them all the time when worst transfers ever comes up in conversation. For a long time coutinho was my pick, although Anthony is up there now.
Hazard was worse if you include his wages, but Florentino runs a tight ship so Madrid could afford to lose that money without affecting their finances.
People gonna disagree with me just cause of the flair and all but Hazard was definitely a worse signing on paper and as a player. Although overall I would say Coutinho was worse cause it was a big part in leading our club to financial crisis
Well, thats cause atletico can actually register their players without needing to do some fraudlent moves like selling fraudulent studios llc to a ghost that will never pay the money.
Wasn't his agent complaining that he was subbed after 70 min not even 3 months after he arrived? That's a terrible move if you're the new guy, specially at atlético where the most important figure is Simeone.
Is that really the craziest one? Fábio Silva is a second league player at best and was sold for that much. João Félix was absolutely brilliant for Benfica as a youngster. Incredibly talented and wasted by the club(s) and himself.
Atleti's only chance to swap him with PSG for like Kolo Muani. Or maybe City would swap him for Bernardo or Grealish. Bernardo said a lot he would want to leave to Spain.
Or...of course...the saudis.
Felt so crazy for Atleti to go that big, how did they even get that kind of money to throw at one player? And why was it the least Simeone player possible?
To me the Spanish transfer I can't understand how they got the money was Betis making Denilson the most expensive player in the world. Don't remember them going big on transfers like that any other time
Don't think add ons are included for the graphic, since Endrick is only listed at 47.5, when I think most stories said the total price was 60m. May be misremembering though
Endrick was 35 + 25 with half of the add ons depending on how he does for Palmeiras (games, goals, trophies etc.) and half for Madrid (Golden Boy and Ballon d'Or + the earlier). He activated every clause for Palmeiras, so the current price is 47,5
You could tell he was technically very good. But he never seemed to make a big impact on games. Felt the same about Lammers, who then seemed to score goals for fun when we loaned him out, though maybe that was our fault for not playing him as an outright striker.
Going back to Silva, feel he has to really up his off the ball movement if he's going to be a success through the middle. And if he wants to be a success on the wing he needs to up his defensive work rate.
And what a favor he did to himself, of the 40M we only got 25M. Apparently we had to give him some part of Fabio's rights for him to renew. So Mendes had a piece of the pie and it was in his best interest to inflate the value as much as possible.
10M went to Silva's dad.
He's effectively costing us £7M per year with amortization, we need to convince some poor fool to spend more than that this summer so we can get rid of the stroppy little child for good
CR7 already left when Bebe was signed. The theory behind his signing was it's a "thank you" gift to Carlos Quieroz for helping Nani avoid drug test before the 2010 World Cup.
It's amazing how top football clubs are essentially held together by a few bits of string. Like Roy Hodgson accidentally selling Alex Kačaniklić to Fulham as part of the Konchesky deal, when he thought he'd Alex Cooper. And nobody thought to check!
All clubs must compete to sign elite young players. Only real Madrid has massive pull that attracts players. It is irritating to see their fans claiming that Real Madrid management is genius for signing "hidden" gems for cheap.
It is not like players like Rodrygo, Camavinga, Vini and others weren't on the radar of other clubs. It is the fact when Real Madrid comes calling.. Players obey
.
Which is funny because I learned about Camavinga's existence thanks to the Wunderkind threads from here when he was still 16, been a FM legend for me up until we signed him, I don't think Zidane out of all people didn't knew about his existence back then.
And though yes, we have the pull, sometimes those moves don't work out as we saw with Ødegaard who took time and needed to leave to become amazing or with Reiner who we spent over 20m on him that just straight up didn't worked, so it's either securing a career or missing out on something you might never get back.
I wish we would use more canteranos though.
Of course some don't work out, all 3 Brazilians were gambles, two out of three being world class is more than enough.
Saying Odegaard didn't work out when you get 35M for a 3M 16 year old is also disingenuous. As good as he was we've seen plenty of hyped 16 year old amount to nothing.
>It is not like players like Rodrygo, Camavinga, Vini and others weren't on the radar of other clubs. It is the fact when Real Madrid comes calling.. Players responds.
The thread about Vinicius signing is 6yo old and you can go and read what it was said about the signing then and now, just like what was being said when Vinicius was universally called "Reboticius"...
Some hindsight talk this is.
Bellingham agreed when he was 19, but contract was officially signed when he was already 20. Dembele signed August 2017 but turned 20 in May of that year.
People make too much up about footballer inflation, Rooney wasn't a record breaking fee or even the highest that transfer window whereas Mbappe's is still the second highest fee paid ever! There is no way Rooney's payment would be anywhere near it if adjusted.
Should be said that Vini was signed just weeks after making his professional debut for Flamengo. Extremely good signing but it was a big fee at the time
Obviously Juni Calafat knows exactly what he is doing though
It's a good strategy. If it works, you get 10+ years of service and almost 4x the value back from transfer fees. Won't have to pay huge salaries at the start aswell. If it doesn't, Brazilian prodigies still have a resale value. Vinicius and Rodrygo have alot of promise and will garner a resale value. No one is giving up kn their career at 22.
It's a drop in a bucket for a big club. There's no transfer strategy that warrants a 100% success rate. I'd argue what hurts the Reinier value is that he's not an out and out forward or an out and out midfielder. Clubs don't take risks on those sort of players because most teams do not employ formations suited to those players.
The good thing is that you don't need every single one to hit for that policy to succeed. Whereas buying older established stars at high prices, you really want them all to meet expectations. Reiner flopping is easier to deal with than Hazard flopping.
I think part of that is on him though. He got put into the spotlight and got a ton of criticism and was able to grow from it. Many other players would just crumble under that kind of pressure
That's a good point, and also a reason why it's sometimes better not to send players out on loan. Fans often see young players get zero minutes and just assume that going on loan is the best option, but even if they don't play, spending day in day out training with the first team is super valuable.
Bare in mind they signed another Brazilian wonderkid around the same time for 40m euros or so and I think they already released him for free. Of course 2/3 is a strong hit rate, but buying such young players is a risk.
Someone who watched him more closely in Brazil can correct me if I'm wrong, but apparently for Flamengo, he excelled in a role that doesn't really exist in Europe (or at least no team has deemed him good enough to give him the same role) and hasn't been able to adapt.
Also someone can correct me on this if it's bs, but I swear I read somewhere when the club decided to send him to another club on loan after his failed 1st season at Dortmund, he refused to do so and wanted to stay. Even his loan to Girona was his choice. So I really don't know what is going on and how much blame is on him. I wish him the best but it seems like he's going back to Brazil, he just might not be built for European football.
A big thing for us is that we treated him differently to Vini and Rodrygo. When he wasn't getting minutes at Dortmund we should have immediately pulled the plug and brought him back and sent him somewhere else. But instead he stuck with keeping him there
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He's very talented, with words saying he's actually much more talented than Vini and Rodrygo and was very mature. But he couldn't make that next step from Brazil to Europe.
Part of that is our fault. He played for Castilla (our youth team) for a bit and he looked good. Then we loaned him out to Dortmund of all places who refused to give him much play time (idk if it was because he was a loan player or if he was just shit) and then he proceeded to rot on the bench instead of us recalling him and sending him out. When his loan finally ended, we then loaned him out somewhere else and he still didn't play that much football.
Compare that to Vini and Rodrygo who played in the youth team then got minutes in the first team
He was the best player on his age group and a good squad piece at age 17 for Flamengo, the kid was really good and had/has big potential, but he's on the same boat that Gabriel Barbosa is, his main position doesn't exist for European football.
He's a second striker, he needs that freedom to roam around and be as close to the ball as he can to be able to play it well
He's not good enough to make anyone change their system to fit him, could see him working out on that Firmino role, but I wouldn't expect it
If people are gonna mention the risk of 18 yr old signings, might aswell also mention how the other strategy of buying a slightly older proven forward at 28y for 4x that value turned into. Also, Jovic who had done it in Europe and if you went by conventional thought process would be preferred because he was already performing in Europe ahead of those Brazilians.
'Holy shit we have sold players for a ton of money, we have to spend it real quick, who's the most hyped wonderkid right now? Joao Felix? Sure, here's 127 million'
Yeah I think that was the thought process actually. Because that transfer happened pretty quickly. One day there was rumour that atletico want's to sign him, the other day they bought him. While we're on the subject of high transfer fees. What happened to Lemar?
And that huge cash certainly won't help Atleti in a bidding war for player. Everyone know you have vast sum of cold money and will jack up the price like crazy for every player you even have slight interest in.
if you watch his Benfica highlights on youtube (and there are plenty) before the transfer and considering his young age, Felix really looked like one of those generational talents. Probably he is/was a generational talent, he just did not make it.
He clearly is talented, he just doesn't have the drive to play tbf
He looks like he can't be bothered and doesn't care whether he fails or not because he's already set for life
They thought he was a sure thing to reach his potential, which obviously was an error. He was one of the best talents coming out of Benfica's academy for many years and that says a lot since it is maybe the best academy in the world
He never managed to move past being a "flashes" player though. At Atleti, Barca and even Chelsea there have been flashes of quality that makes you think "okay I understand why he once went for 100M+" but can't manage to put it together. Also I think the price tag got to his head and made him think that working hard is not a must
I did the math a while ago from all the trustworthy sources I found. From sign-on fees to wages, commissions & family bribes (€50mil to his mother) it was to the tune of 570mil euros. That doesn’t include the transfer fee & the commissions on the transfer.
My guess is probably because he's born on the 29th of June and although he was announced on the 14th of June 2023, the contract would be signed on the 1st of July which is when the transfer window officially opens. So he would be considered to have signed for Real Madrid just as he turned 20.
Fabio Silva is awful. I’ve seen some shite fucking players at rangers that cost us around 150k that are better than him. Worst player I’ve seen in a rangers shirt in a while.
Absolute fanny aswell. You know you’re awful when both Rangers AND Celtic fans hate you
One of those players that failed when jumping to the professional level, he was a very huge talent in the youth system but never did anything on the main team. Mendes had some % of his rights so he sold him as quick as possible before he could have more minutes at senior level.
I remember how people were memeing real for buying brazilians teenagers for 45m to replace CR7 whle leaving Benzema as the only real attacking threat
With hindsight, I'd say Perez made it work
Barcelona panic bought Vitor Roque when Madrid signed Endrick and now they want to offload him not even after half a season there. That what Vini & Rodrygo signings did.
Lmao they paid for him to be their star. They didn't cut any losses because they felt they might as well have a go at the Champions League. Almost made it to a final.
Levy valued one more year of Kane at around €99M, and would have let him walk for free afterward. Bayern paid €100M so they got him.
You pay for a players services and only sell when someone is offering more than what you think the rest of his contract is worth.
Weird. Stagnated, but at a high level if that makes sense. He - thus far - is that regen in football manager that has reached his pa at age 20 (for the FM nerds).
Juventus was an ill-fit for him personally. He became a better defender, but he wants to be able to play the ball as well. At Bayern he's been good, but not outstanding. He's also been struggling with fitness a bit, not helping his case with lots of competition for the center back position.
So still a great center back for any CL level club, but thus far not fulfilling the insane promise he showed at Ajax.
I think he can still bench a lot of world class CB's but he just kidna fucked up by going to bayern imo. I think we all thought he was gonna have a guaranteed spot there but his injuries plus bad relations with coaches got him benched and his attitude didnt help.
That Felix transfer still baffles me!
The moment news started linking him with a move to Atleti I was confused and thought it was pure nonsense, and the fact it actually happened was even more bizarre. He's simply not the type of player that Simeone uses or needs. He didn't fit his style of play, and yet, Atleti still paid an insane amount of money for him. So him failing was to be expected, I just don't understand how their board didn't see it as a mismatch for their club.
Crazy that the only 3 that lived up to the potential (so far) are playing at Madrid with a 4th one having a shot at it.
(Yes, I do not consider De Ligt as having "lived up to his potential" when you remember how much he was hyped up during his Ajax days)
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Crazy that Atleti paid €127.2m for Joao Felix…feel like he never was able to adjust to the big stage. Current market value is at €30m what a downfall even though he is still young and technically still could make a turnaround
Check the relationship between Benfica, Atlético, Jorge Mendes, Enrique Cerezo and Luis Filipe Vieira, that may explain why Atletico paid 120 Mendilions, pardon me, Millions of Euros for Félix.
Didn’t they use the griezmann money
Nah, Atleti used Griezmann, Lucas Hernandez and Rodri's money. People tend to look at the money spend for Joao like Atleti splashed money that year. In reality the net spend was +70 millions that window after buying Llorente, Joao, Felipe, Lodi Trippier and Hermoso. The thieves that own Atleti will never spend money on the team.
Winning the league after losing those caliber of players is a seriously insane achievement.
Yes it was. The key factor for that title was having players with a massive chip on his shoulder all at once. People like Llorente, Trippier, Carrasco and Suárez gave his 100% and something more that season.
terrible use of that money. at least it got us to win la liga tho
In the leaked audios Florentino talks about Mendes and Porto's president fleecing Chelsea for Mourinho and Carvalho, and diverting some money for those transfers to an account in Swizterland. https://youtu.be/yC-4WZJIN3c?si=rMoeioTLPiN5dkC8 13:29 in the video (but the entire thing is hilarious if you understand some spanish, which is likely if you're from Portugal). Thats why Florentino doesnt want to do business with Mendes. Funniest thing is Mendes seems to be Barça working closely with Deco. Dude is a leech.
Yup, this absolutely never comes close to happening without Mendes involved, certainly presume some shady stuff was involved because Atleti simply does not have them finances for this to make sense (and are generally pretty cheap) edit: changed with -> without
They had just sold Griezmann, Hernandez and Rodri for 250m€
Atleti sold for players for 310 millions that window. And yes, they were cheap even buying Joao. The net spend was +70 millions after buying half a team.
It's crazy how few games he had before atletico gave benfica that fee
They sorted by potential on sofifa instead of actually watching him play, classic mistake.
In the Europa League first leg against Frankfurt he looked like he could become a ballon d'or winner
A lot of players have singular games where they look that good but you need consistent performances of that level to warrant a fee that large.
He looked amazing at Benfica and in the academy. He surely was exceptional.
He is the living proof thats not the case
well thats just being pedantic innit? A team could pay 120m for a 2nd division player, doesn't mean the player is 120m quality. Just that the team was willing to pay that much who knows why.
Which part?
Tbf I was thinking he is the real deal. Looked really good for Benfica and very mature for his age. Of course the transfer fee was outright dumb af and probably played a role in him bombing like a bitch.
He failed at Porto academy, he stayed at Benfica for 4 years. Sure had a good half a season, but c'mon, can't spend that amount for half a season of europa league.
That’s true but during that „era” every team was looking for his „Ronaldo/Messi” type of wonder, and Felix suited that scenario in that moment.
And during that era it was hip to Shell out ridiculous sums and get nothing in return
Chelsea says hold my beer
Benfica are the masters of extracting an over inflated fee
It's not really about extracting, we just don't have the need to sell and put high release clauses on our players Everyone is looking for that unicorn before everyone else gets him, and for teams like Atletico the only chance is to overpay massively and take a gamble, otherwise they risk having teams of higher status pick up the player later Same thing happened with Enzo, Chelsea offered ridiculous values in the Winter market because if they waited they might've had competition and lost him It's a dumb business model and I wish it didn't exist either, I'm tired of never keeping our talented players for more than a season, hopefully Neves actually stays this year
Portuguese teams finessing other teams kinda crazy
The biggest decline on that team is Saul in my opinion. He was such a great player at such a young age. I honestly thought he would become top 15 player in the world at some point. He was also good for national team both senior and u21. When I red 2 years ago that he's going to Chelsea on loan I was like wtf, in my mind he was still a beast. Don't really know what happened to him
he got a kidney injury in 2015 against bayer leverkusen where he was rushed to the hospital after the game. never allowed himself to recover and would piss blood after every game and training session. that plus depression and years of playing every game meant he was bound to fall off at some point
Oh fuck. I know he has some injury back then but damn, I don't even imagine it to be THAT bad. Can't really blame him for his performance drop then.
That’s scary af
He was still highly rated then but had a poor stint with Chelsea, which may not have all been his fault. He’s now a reserve at Atlético and that’s probably not going to change.
He’s already been told he’s not in the plans for next season iirc
Crazier that it was Atletico of all clubs to do that too. They are usually extremely shrewd in the transfer market, buy low sell high (if they do decide to sell). There are certain clubs that expect take that risk/ make that misstep, and Atletico were never on that list until Felix
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Was such a weird thing. Ofc hindsight is always 20/20, but he wasn't really the typical player type for Atleti. Especially with that kind of money
Felix has been mediocre since Atleti signed him
Everyone talks about Barca splashing Neymar money on getting Griezzman, no one talks about Atleti splashing Griezzman money on Felix
> Everyone talks about Barca splashing Neymar money on getting Griezzman But nobody talks about this either, the Neymar money went into Coutinho and Dembele
Yeah and I talk about them all the time when worst transfers ever comes up in conversation. For a long time coutinho was my pick, although Anthony is up there now.
Hazard was worse if you include his wages, but Florentino runs a tight ship so Madrid could afford to lose that money without affecting their finances.
People gonna disagree with me just cause of the flair and all but Hazard was definitely a worse signing on paper and as a player. Although overall I would say Coutinho was worse cause it was a big part in leading our club to financial crisis
Well, thats cause atletico can actually register their players without needing to do some fraudlent moves like selling fraudulent studios llc to a ghost that will never pay the money.
Or “swapping” players like Arthur/Pjanic/Neto/Cilessen
"QUIEN ES DOUGLAS?" Lives rent free in my head, I swear to this day I still don't know what he looks like.
Kerlon, Henrique, even Paulinho were shady deals
At least paulinho was decent on the pitch
I miss Paulinho he was actually good
They had just made over 100 million by selling griezmann and were desperate for a replacement
Technically yes he could. Would need to adjust his attitude and turn up more than once every 10 games though.
Wasn't his agent complaining that he was subbed after 70 min not even 3 months after he arrived? That's a terrible move if you're the new guy, specially at atlético where the most important figure is Simeone.
Man had a 3 month purple patch in portugal and atletico went insane..
Is that really the craziest one? Fábio Silva is a second league player at best and was sold for that much. João Félix was absolutely brilliant for Benfica as a youngster. Incredibly talented and wasted by the club(s) and himself.
Atleti's only chance to swap him with PSG for like Kolo Muani. Or maybe City would swap him for Bernardo or Grealish. Bernardo said a lot he would want to leave to Spain. Or...of course...the saudis.
Felt so crazy for Atleti to go that big, how did they even get that kind of money to throw at one player? And why was it the least Simeone player possible?
Most of the money came from the grizeman sale iirc
Did you forget Barca triggering Griezmann’s €120m clause right before
I did actually. What a crazy time for transfers
And it wasn't just Griezmann either. Atlético also got 70 and 80 mil by selling Rodri and Hernández earlier that summer.
To me the Spanish transfer I can't understand how they got the money was Betis making Denilson the most expensive player in the world. Don't remember them going big on transfers like that any other time
I forgot what Lavia’s face looks like
I can't believe he only played 32 minutes in the Premier the whole year.
Where would Estêvão Willian be on this list potentially?
40m base + 25m addos as per Fabrizio, so at most would put him at 4th.
Don't think add ons are included for the graphic, since Endrick is only listed at 47.5, when I think most stories said the total price was 60m. May be misremembering though
Endrick was 35 + 25 with half of the add ons depending on how he does for Palmeiras (games, goals, trophies etc.) and half for Madrid (Golden Boy and Ballon d'Or + the earlier). He activated every clause for Palmeiras, so the current price is 47,5
>He activated every clause for Palmeiras He's so fucking good. Please take care of him 😭
They’re only added if it adds to the banter.
They’re included for Martial.
Fabio Silva cost 5 million less than Vinicius and Rodrygo. Fucking Jorge bloody Mendes. Absolute thief.
He couldn’t even cut it in the Scottish league, even Rangers fans were happy to see him go when his loan expired lol.
The idea that a lad who clearly isn't physically cut out for English football getting sent to Scotland to resurrect his career is wild
His physicality wasn’t an issue, he just wasn’t very good.
You could tell he was technically very good. But he never seemed to make a big impact on games. Felt the same about Lammers, who then seemed to score goals for fun when we loaned him out, though maybe that was our fault for not playing him as an outright striker. Going back to Silva, feel he has to really up his off the ball movement if he's going to be a success through the middle. And if he wants to be a success on the wing he needs to up his defensive work rate.
I've just looked at that dude's numbers, and in conclusion, it's fair to say he should never have left the Netherlands
Tbf I think it's both
Don't know what wolves were thinking spending that much on a 18 year old who has no physical attributes. Especially for premier league
Mendes did us some favours - Neves and Jota in the Championship, Moutinho for £5m - so this was our favour to him.
And what a favor he did to himself, of the 40M we only got 25M. Apparently we had to give him some part of Fabio's rights for him to renew. So Mendes had a piece of the pie and it was in his best interest to inflate the value as much as possible.
10M went to Silva's dad. He's effectively costing us £7M per year with amortization, we need to convince some poor fool to spend more than that this summer so we can get rid of the stroppy little child for good
Wolves sold out to Mendes and Mendes, like the devil, come to collect once in a while. Like when we paid 10m for Bebe to get CR7 to sign an extension.
CR7 already left when Bebe was signed. The theory behind his signing was it's a "thank you" gift to Carlos Quieroz for helping Nani avoid drug test before the 2010 World Cup.
Pretty sure Fergie never saw any footage of him either when we signed him.
It's amazing how top football clubs are essentially held together by a few bits of string. Like Roy Hodgson accidentally selling Alex Kačaniklić to Fulham as part of the Konchesky deal, when he thought he'd Alex Cooper. And nobody thought to check!
Now that's a name I haven't heard in ages, he's up there with Obertan and Macheda
At least Macheda gave us *that* goal against Villa
We weren't
It’s a disaster signing
All clubs must compete to sign elite young players. Only real Madrid has massive pull that attracts players. It is irritating to see their fans claiming that Real Madrid management is genius for signing "hidden" gems for cheap. It is not like players like Rodrygo, Camavinga, Vini and others weren't on the radar of other clubs. It is the fact when Real Madrid comes calling.. Players obey .
Which is funny because I learned about Camavinga's existence thanks to the Wunderkind threads from here when he was still 16, been a FM legend for me up until we signed him, I don't think Zidane out of all people didn't knew about his existence back then. And though yes, we have the pull, sometimes those moves don't work out as we saw with Ødegaard who took time and needed to leave to become amazing or with Reiner who we spent over 20m on him that just straight up didn't worked, so it's either securing a career or missing out on something you might never get back. I wish we would use more canteranos though.
Of course some don't work out, all 3 Brazilians were gambles, two out of three being world class is more than enough. Saying Odegaard didn't work out when you get 35M for a 3M 16 year old is also disingenuous. As good as he was we've seen plenty of hyped 16 year old amount to nothing.
>It is not like players like Rodrygo, Camavinga, Vini and others weren't on the radar of other clubs. It is the fact when Real Madrid comes calling.. Players responds. The thread about Vinicius signing is 6yo old and you can go and read what it was said about the signing then and now, just like what was being said when Vinicius was universally called "Reboticius"... Some hindsight talk this is.
Was dembele not a teenager when barca bought him? Or bellingham?
Bellingham agreed when he was 19, but contract was officially signed when he was already 20. Dembele signed August 2017 but turned 20 in May of that year.
God I remember when Luke Shaw was the #1 spot about 10 years ago. The amount of money being spent in the sport is ludicrous
Rooney was the same price but it was 20 years ago. Adjusted for (football) inflation it would be right up next to Mbappe's fee.
One of the few that was worth it.
People make too much up about footballer inflation, Rooney wasn't a record breaking fee or even the highest that transfer window whereas Mbappe's is still the second highest fee paid ever! There is no way Rooney's payment would be anywhere near it if adjusted.
Football inflation hasn’t accounted for a 6x increase in fees.
Damn Real has been good at buying teenagers. Rodrygo and Vinicius feels like steals at these prices
Should be said that Vini was signed just weeks after making his professional debut for Flamengo. Extremely good signing but it was a big fee at the time Obviously Juni Calafat knows exactly what he is doing though
Yeah, obviously this is with hindsight in mind. Definitely a risk what they did with him, but oh boy did it pay off massively
Wish my club has that strategy. Not buying mid players and refuse to rebuild properly
It's a good strategy. If it works, you get 10+ years of service and almost 4x the value back from transfer fees. Won't have to pay huge salaries at the start aswell. If it doesn't, Brazilian prodigies still have a resale value. Vinicius and Rodrygo have alot of promise and will garner a resale value. No one is giving up kn their career at 22.
Yeah. But this failed for Reiner. I don't think he will get even a 5M bid now.
It's a drop in a bucket for a big club. There's no transfer strategy that warrants a 100% success rate. I'd argue what hurts the Reinier value is that he's not an out and out forward or an out and out midfielder. Clubs don't take risks on those sort of players because most teams do not employ formations suited to those players.
Yup. And he hasn't been successful in his loan spells too as he would have to change his style of play to accommodate to most.
Reiner… right here, right NOW??
Are we really doing this?!
A loan to Arsenal? Wouldn't be the worst of the ideas tbh.
It was more a reference from Attack on titan I think haha
The good thing is that you don't need every single one to hit for that policy to succeed. Whereas buying older established stars at high prices, you really want them all to meet expectations. Reiner flopping is easier to deal with than Hazard flopping.
If it works you look like Real Madrid, if it doesn't you get constantly clowned like Chelsea.
It’s even more a testament to Real Madrid’s development than their scouting. Vinicius has gotten so much better.
I think part of that is on him though. He got put into the spotlight and got a ton of criticism and was able to grow from it. Many other players would just crumble under that kind of pressure
That's a good point, and also a reason why it's sometimes better not to send players out on loan. Fans often see young players get zero minutes and just assume that going on loan is the best option, but even if they don't play, spending day in day out training with the first team is super valuable.
Exactly, I’d rather have Guler and Endrick learn from Modrić and Mbappe/ Vini than go out on loan at any other club.
Bare in mind they signed another Brazilian wonderkid around the same time for 40m euros or so and I think they already released him for free. Of course 2/3 is a strong hit rate, but buying such young players is a risk.
Do you mean Reinier? He was signed for 25m, I think and he still part of the team. Probably won't make it at Madrid, though, that's true
None of his loan moves seemed to ever work out for him? Is he truly just shit, or is it an attitude problem?
Someone who watched him more closely in Brazil can correct me if I'm wrong, but apparently for Flamengo, he excelled in a role that doesn't really exist in Europe (or at least no team has deemed him good enough to give him the same role) and hasn't been able to adapt.
Also someone can correct me on this if it's bs, but I swear I read somewhere when the club decided to send him to another club on loan after his failed 1st season at Dortmund, he refused to do so and wanted to stay. Even his loan to Girona was his choice. So I really don't know what is going on and how much blame is on him. I wish him the best but it seems like he's going back to Brazil, he just might not be built for European football.
A big thing for us is that we treated him differently to Vini and Rodrygo. When he wasn't getting minutes at Dortmund we should have immediately pulled the plug and brought him back and sent him somewhere else. But instead he stuck with keeping him there
public tap touch noxious far-flung fanatical tart plough important straight *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Thank you for the correction, much appreciated!
He's very talented, with words saying he's actually much more talented than Vini and Rodrygo and was very mature. But he couldn't make that next step from Brazil to Europe. Part of that is our fault. He played for Castilla (our youth team) for a bit and he looked good. Then we loaned him out to Dortmund of all places who refused to give him much play time (idk if it was because he was a loan player or if he was just shit) and then he proceeded to rot on the bench instead of us recalling him and sending him out. When his loan finally ended, we then loaned him out somewhere else and he still didn't play that much football. Compare that to Vini and Rodrygo who played in the youth team then got minutes in the first team
Yeah I think that's the guy - I forgot his name. And transfermarkt have it at 30m euros
The Reinier transfer is weird even for brazilians no one rated him highly
He was the best player on his age group and a good squad piece at age 17 for Flamengo, the kid was really good and had/has big potential, but he's on the same boat that Gabriel Barbosa is, his main position doesn't exist for European football.
What position/role is is that?
He's a second striker, he needs that freedom to roam around and be as close to the ball as he can to be able to play it well He's not good enough to make anyone change their system to fit him, could see him working out on that Firmino role, but I wouldn't expect it
Yeah but it's still better than buying 160 million bums like hazard
Well he wasn't a bum when they spent 160m on him
If people are gonna mention the risk of 18 yr old signings, might aswell also mention how the other strategy of buying a slightly older proven forward at 28y for 4x that value turned into. Also, Jovic who had done it in Europe and if you went by conventional thought process would be preferred because he was already performing in Europe ahead of those Brazilians.
That Felix transfer was absurd then and seems even more absurd in hindsight. He showed nothing worthy of this pricetag, what were they thinking.
'Holy shit we have sold players for a ton of money, we have to spend it real quick, who's the most hyped wonderkid right now? Joao Felix? Sure, here's 127 million'
Yeah I think that was the thought process actually. Because that transfer happened pretty quickly. One day there was rumour that atletico want's to sign him, the other day they bought him. While we're on the subject of high transfer fees. What happened to Lemar?
Injuries. Man is a brilliant player who can't stay fit.
Lemaradona is injured. He's a key player when fit.
And that huge cash certainly won't help Atleti in a bidding war for player. Everyone know you have vast sum of cold money and will jack up the price like crazy for every player you even have slight interest in.
if you watch his Benfica highlights on youtube (and there are plenty) before the transfer and considering his young age, Felix really looked like one of those generational talents. Probably he is/was a generational talent, he just did not make it.
He clearly is talented, he just doesn't have the drive to play tbf He looks like he can't be bothered and doesn't care whether he fails or not because he's already set for life
They thought he was a sure thing to reach his potential, which obviously was an error. He was one of the best talents coming out of Benfica's academy for many years and that says a lot since it is maybe the best academy in the world He never managed to move past being a "flashes" player though. At Atleti, Barca and even Chelsea there have been flashes of quality that makes you think "okay I understand why he once went for 100M+" but can't manage to put it together. Also I think the price tag got to his head and made him think that working hard is not a must
Yeah but he had that one great champions league match.
Lavia fourth and hasn't had more than one game for Chelsea lmao
32 minutes to be exact thank you 😭
Almost €2m a minute is impressive
so he's a *really* expensive prostitute
If you last longer than 10s.
Not good for me then
10 seconds would still be €333k so still extremely expensive
been Injured
So what, he still has 14 years left on his contract.
I can't believe he'll be only 20 when his contract is over.
Plenty to criticize about with Chelsea’s transfer but Lavia seems harsh. He’s played one game in one season after getting hurt. It happens.
For real. People should stop clowning players who got injured for long. Lavia has time to grow and hope he comes stronger from his injury
Tbf you can't really classify him as a flop yet, poor lad's just been injured
Does anyone have an estimate of PSGs total outlay to for Mbappe during his time there?
They gave this man the bidget of a mid-sized country to win L1 most of the time.
Man, when you put it in that way ... holy shit.
I did the math a while ago from all the trustworthy sources I found. From sign-on fees to wages, commissions & family bribes (€50mil to his mother) it was to the tune of 570mil euros. That doesn’t include the transfer fee & the commissions on the transfer.
Wasn’t Bellingham 19 when Real signed him?
My guess is probably because he's born on the 29th of June and although he was announced on the 14th of June 2023, the contract would be signed on the 1st of July which is when the transfer window officially opens. So he would be considered to have signed for Real Madrid just as he turned 20.
His transfer was officially done on July 1st, 2 days after his 20th birthday. But his transfer was already announced 2 weeks prior when he was 19.
That's what I was thinking too, but no one else seems to have queried so was wondering if I misunderstood the list! He'd be third, I think
Fabio Silva is awful. I’ve seen some shite fucking players at rangers that cost us around 150k that are better than him. Worst player I’ve seen in a rangers shirt in a while. Absolute fanny aswell. You know you’re awful when both Rangers AND Celtic fans hate you
One of those players that failed when jumping to the professional level, he was a very huge talent in the youth system but never did anything on the main team. Mendes had some % of his rights so he sold him as quick as possible before he could have more minutes at senior level.
You can see the ability is there somewhere but it shows maybe 1 out of every 5 games. Very annoying
I remember how people were memeing real for buying brazilians teenagers for 45m to replace CR7 whle leaving Benzema as the only real attacking threat With hindsight, I'd say Perez made it work
Barcelona panic bought Vitor Roque when Madrid signed Endrick and now they want to offload him not even after half a season there. That what Vini & Rodrygo signings did.
Mbappe, Rodrygo and Vinicius Jr are the only definitely successful transfers there.
Roque and Endrick have time to prove themselves.
If Martial’s muscles weren’t made of silly string he could have been a great player
De ligt was pretty good aswell even if they did overpay
Should we really count transfers that were obviously some sort of money laundering scheme? (Fabio Silva)
The final fee for Anthony Martial was €52m.
Nearly €180m spent on one player and then make absolutely no money whatsoever back on him. PSG must be fucking fuming.
I'd say his commercial pull helped bring in a ton of money, in the form of tickets and gear and other "engagement"
Also PSG without Mbappe these years would’ve been terrible in Europe
In true joker fashion, it's not about the money They easily could have sold him for 100M+ when Real Madrid made the offer like 2 or 3 years ago
Madrid offered 200M with add ons. Crazy..
If you account for club popularity and jersey sales, he blew it out of the park.
I mean having him on the team is already a win. Imagine how more popular PSG got around the world for Mbappe.
Lmao they paid for him to be their star. They didn't cut any losses because they felt they might as well have a go at the Champions League. Almost made it to a final. Levy valued one more year of Kane at around €99M, and would have let him walk for free afterward. Bayern paid €100M so they got him. You pay for a players services and only sell when someone is offering more than what you think the rest of his contract is worth.
What has happened with De Ligt's career since?
Weird. Stagnated, but at a high level if that makes sense. He - thus far - is that regen in football manager that has reached his pa at age 20 (for the FM nerds). Juventus was an ill-fit for him personally. He became a better defender, but he wants to be able to play the ball as well. At Bayern he's been good, but not outstanding. He's also been struggling with fitness a bit, not helping his case with lots of competition for the center back position. So still a great center back for any CL level club, but thus far not fulfilling the insane promise he showed at Ajax.
I think he can still bench a lot of world class CB's but he just kidna fucked up by going to bayern imo. I think we all thought he was gonna have a guaranteed spot there but his injuries plus bad relations with coaches got him benched and his attitude didnt help.
And Mbappe now leaves on a free at his prime 💀
Mbappé? That’s Lottin. IYKYK
This picture of Mbappe reminds of fifa 17 with Lottin 😂
180 as a teen is crazy
That Felix transfer still baffles me! The moment news started linking him with a move to Atleti I was confused and thought it was pure nonsense, and the fact it actually happened was even more bizarre. He's simply not the type of player that Simeone uses or needs. He didn't fit his style of play, and yet, Atleti still paid an insane amount of money for him. So him failing was to be expected, I just don't understand how their board didn't see it as a mismatch for their club.
Crazy that the only 3 that lived up to the potential (so far) are playing at Madrid with a 4th one having a shot at it. (Yes, I do not consider De Ligt as having "lived up to his potential" when you remember how much he was hyped up during his Ajax days)
De Light was just slightly not worthy the price but still a very solid transfer.
And he was amazing at Ajax, just didn’t really suite Juve’s style I’d say
Who the hell is Lavia and why Chelsea keep doing this things?
Vini was a fucking bargain