Some of the biggest clubs in Europe I.e Monaco, Dortmund, Sevilla have to sell player's, it's their business model. They've had to do this for longer then we have, so shows that it is more then sustainable way to keep themselves battling the best in their respective divisions.
Key difference being that all those teams are in leagues with less money than the Prem and (usually) dominated by one or two teams, so they are still able to regularly get into CL/Europa because them selling a player for 30m and replacing with 2/3 others will not be as big of an issue than for a PL team. I've said before that our business model most likely will not work in trying to regularly break into the top 6, only possible way we could do it is with a Man City type takeover
Financial Fair Play, what a load of rubbish. More like, hey the big clubs now have a nice gap between them a lesser teams, let's make it impossible for the lesser clubs to ever overtake them again.
There are ways round it, but yes realistically it would take a miracle for us ever to be considered one of the big clubs
Nice little video produced on how, in one way, clubs can get round the rules of FFP: Further, if a club is taken over 'Man City style', the owners can invest out of their pockets and record losses of upto €45M in any one season. If they don't invest, the club can only make losses totalling €5M in any single season. These rules are being challenged by the likes of Man City and PSG, who are that big that the owners want to spend more to grow faster.
Depends how big the Chinese takeover is. It could be enormous, but we don't yet know. They're only buying 80% because Katharina Liebherr insists that that is all she's willing to sell. Not because they couldn't afford Saints. I'm betting that the Chinese have an awful lot of money. It's more a case of whether they decide to use it. The Chinese have never been afraid of putting up the money. I'm not saying whether it's a good or bad thing, but they tend not to do things by half measures. And what a guaranteed entrance into the still relatively new market of China and eastern Asia.
Does anyone know roughly where we stand on the Chinese thing...? I half expected something come the end of the season, but it appears as if it's getting lost along with the Puel stuff...??
10:09 CITY BEAT REST TO VAN DIJK Manchester City have beaten Liverpool and Chelsea to the £60m signing of Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk, the Mirror reports. There has been plenty of interest in the centre-back who will become the world's most expensive defender with a £200k per week, five-year deal which will be completed when the transfer window opens next week.
Sunday papers bored again. I don't believe it until I see him paraded in Manchester wearing their shirt.
He had signed for Liverpool last week and probably Chelsea by the end of next week. Unless VVD or his agent are giving a running commentary to the press then it is all speculation as they all talk as if their reports are factually
The press know little more than we do....they rely on ITKs...and we all know how accurate they are. Throw enough mud at a wall and some will stick.
When we sell him for whatever the fee, I'll await the "we didn't get enough for him" posts to flood in. Useless Board of Directors.
If he does go to City, perhaps we could make Iheneacho or Delph (or someone fitter) part of the deal?
