he's the garry neville of footballers. didn't gsrry neville go as commentator to Qatar and single handedly end oppression by speaking truth or was that all waffle by a despicable hypocrite who just took the money and shut up?
Who are we buying?. We have been linked with many players, like Nicolo Barella, Cheick Doucoure, Romeo Lavia and more .If we actually want the best we have to buy according to the market, but reasonably too.
Graham Souness: “I think with him (Henderson), as an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and a supporter of Rainbow Laces – and then he ends up going to Saudi, I think without a doubt that will damage his legacy." Steve Mcmanaman: “I believe Jordan will have to think about it, of course he will," said McManaman of Henderson's LGBTQ+ links. "He’s also a permanent fixture in the England team, so I presume he will have to give that up if he moves to Saudi Arabia. I think his chances of getting into England’s Euro 2024 squad are finished if he moves to Saudi Arabia. He won’t get into the England team. "That’s another scenario he needs to think about and he’s also going to have to consider what the living conditions are going to be like for his family as well, which is a big issue really. "Will he take his wife out there? Will he take his children out there? If you’re not going to do that and you go out there for two or three years, then it’s going to be an even tougher decision, so I’m sure there are many different factors weighing on his mind regarding whether he should go or not. “It’s a big move and that’s not just regarding the money, it’s about everything else. If I was in his position, my principles would be that you can’t necessarily take your family over there, they’d probably have to live elsewhere, so you’d effectively be living there on your own.”
But he's had multiple years (over ten years) of earning a high salary. He would have been mint as it is.
With all the talk about the morality of this, there doesn't seem to be much discussion about the practicality. Why are the Saudis even paying so much (assuming the reports are anywhere near the truth)? I'm no Hendo hater - he's been an integral part of our success - but the guy is showing clear signs of rapid decline now. If SA want to snatch football from under our noses they should surely be going for younger players with several years left at their peak.
Less likely to be able attract younger players as league has no credibility atm. Sign a load of big names in their 30s and get people talking about the league. You and many others may not, but a lot of people will have an interest in how all these players do in the league. That interest will mean some broadcasters will considering buying the rights to the league and suddenly you have an international market with income and you grow the league from there. Not sure they’d be able to sign players in their early 20s yet, not household names anyway. If they signed players like Jones/Bajcetic/eliott may be better signings but wouldn’t bring the same level of interest.
Having the big names increases the profile, same as with LIV. They went for big names, past their best. Its about making as much noise and gaining as much attention as possible. The football is secondary.
yes exactly. The question (which is devil's advocate) is do they do what my post suggests over the next 6 weeks to try convince us all is well or do they spend it. I like playing both sides of the argument.
absolutely. they want something, some form of attention or in to uefa or whatever. I would say they feel they cant get away with buying Valencia, Lazio, Monaco, and a random German club and pump in 5 billion to buy european football outright. I cna only presuem they feel this will be blocked so their scheme is to set up a big rival league and then seek to integrate in. They are presumably blocked from buying any more English clubs or feel they can't have another 4 or 5 saudi's line up as "not PIF" to buy them.
if Henderson and Fab go there has to be at least 1 more midfielder as Bajcetic , rightly imo ,by the looks of it will at most be used very sparingly in the first half of the season and like you i'm not convinced by Elliott as RM though with the way we will be using TAA he might be more suited as would then be pushed higher and possibly wider . I also think we need defensive cover . PS don't forget Carvalho was also used a MF cover last season and he is also absent .
It’s clear that we are looking for at least one more midfielder; we just don’t know who’s most likely!
The Saudi league has been strong by Asian (the confederation they are in ) standards for years and was getting stronger prior to this splurge. When they qualified for WC i wondered if like in athletics they had granted citizenship Zola Budd style to players to help them qualify but it seemed to be Saudi born players and they were a perfectly reasonable 2nd string team .
I wasn't going to reply to this because I've made my feelings know on the matter and don't need to keep reiterating but the bolded bit got my attention. This is where your statement draws a false equivalence. The West may well have done worse - past tense - Saudi is doing it currently. Now the second false equivalence is - how many football teams did the governments of the Western countries who were doing these things that were "far worse" own and run? I think your not judging others is a good trait to have but sometimes it's absolutely vital that we judge others and act on it or we end up with allowing all kinds of toxicity to exist right in our midst. This isn't a personal attack on you btw. I'm engaging because it's you and I know you like open, honest conversation.
I suppose that in the past Britain for example put it's power to use militarily to create it's empire. The Saudis are using financial power to achieve it's aims.
It's advertising. Marketing, etc. Trying to improve the appearance of the country to the outside world so that more companies invest in SA and SA businesses are not dismissed overseas. They're trying to get the name Saudi Arabia linked with sports and entertainment rather than oppression and beheadings.
mcmanaman comments are more close to a players but are still from an old dude's perspective. He is absolutely right about the repuation and 100% right about england. He is tossing that aside for 109million quid. The family bit is the same, I do feel thats an old man talking. These families live in air con enclaves and don't go out. There's a period of time where they can live in two places. Go for a period, go home for the rest. thier season runs on the same timeframe as europe. August to may. So really thats also right i nthe middle of english school. They just have to decide what goes on. They wont be on thier own anyway as they will be locked in a gated community with the other foreigners in that city and there will be 25 other mercenary families in there.
