Even if we matched 150k he’d “only” take home 79k assuming he actually paid his taxes properly. His take home on 50k is about 28k so in reality their offer is more than five times our offer.
Aye but the only thing that matters in terms of "league strength" is the quality of players, which is undoubtedly getting better as they keep hoying silly money at top players. Likes of Milinkovic-Savic, Ruben Neves, CR7, Jhon Duran, Mahrez, Mané, Toney, etc are as good as anything he'd face in the Prem. Don't get me wrong, there's no prestige and it won't exactly enhance his reputation, but a year or two earning mega bucks before coming back to Europe won't do his career much harm at all, imo.
Just had a look at Jonathan David. Rumour is that Juventus agreed a base of €110kpw plus bonuses and fresh. Might be a little out of our price range
In fairness the truth is I’d probably only refuse that kind of money for two reasons- ethics ( pretty significant and I don’t think I would go there) or opportunity to play for Sunderland. I’d be pretty ambivalent about my employer outside of the club I love and I suspect that’s true of most footballers.
Yes, there are some very good players there. But a League needs much more. It needs a lot of competitive teams, a deep background, an intensity only brought about by playing against other top teams, it needs big passionate crowds, and jeopardy. The Saudi league has none of that, and any player playing there will soon lose their edge. The longer they are there, the more they will lose. That's what is being bought from them, their professional edge.
Was most likely his agent that put the story out, to try get more interest / money... If that was the case, it worked a treat lol
Just read that bradleys tweet, notice he says about signings theres “ a couple” that havnt been mentioned yet