I live in Saudi Arabia. Football has a huge following here. Match attendance is low but that is because all the matches are shown live and the weather is not conducive to attending matches. Whether they will develop the grass roots is problematic - too soon to comment.
A lot of **** is being flung at Saudi Arabian football by English fans/media and I think it’s a bit hypocritical. Footballers ALWAYS follow the money. It’s why they come to the premier league. If the Saudi’s have enough money, they can make it the best league in the world within a decade. (I don’t think even they will have enough though) In my life time it has moved from Italy, to Spain, to England. People can pretend that it’s football heritage that attracts people to these leagues, but ultimately the best players go where they get paid the most
Yet those three European countries have heritage? Not happened in Saudi yet has it. It might of course, but not sure it will.
If he was offered as a permanent transfer then I would be ok with it but as a loan….no! This is just a ruse to reduce the transfer fee to an unrealistic level for JWP
The Riyadh Rapids are nothing compared to their Romsey equivalent However the Jeddah Jacuzzi is worth a visit
Impressed that the club appear to not let anyone take the piss out of us now. If it was a permanent move then could be a deal, but a loan deal? Jog on. Think WH will be one of 12/13 clubs in the “we’ll be happy not to be in the relegation fight this season” band.
Saints fan too isn't he? I have no idea as I don't subscribe or anything but do the Athletic not cover Championship clubs? TSP will presumably just always have the Echo chap now instead if theres no exclusive Athletic journalist working on Saints anymore.
Yeah, big Saints fan. I think that could be me done with The Athletic now. Removed the beat reporter for my football team and my NBA team - and my NFL team is down from three reporters to one (and they're probably the worst of the three). I was only still with it for general in-depth US sport pieces + Saints.
I am a little surprised and disappointed with this. Seemed like he might give us this season post injury and I assumed, maybe foolishly, that teams would want to wait and see if he's still the same player post injury and if he is, make a move in January. It was KWP who seemed to me at least, like he wants to leave not Tino. I still expect KWP to leave by the end of the window too and if he does we'll have to bring in another RB. At least Bree should be good at this level.
It will be stink to lose livramento but when your club has been pants for 2 years and a champions league club come calling there’s literally nothing you can do about it. I would have loved to see him for another season but this is probably just the start of the sad farewells to come.
