Weekend Debate

Lots of money been spent in the premier league and believe Arsenal will sack Arteta as soon as it becomes impossible to win the league. They have been up there for the last couple of seasons but in reality they were not even close but the cash spent by them this summer is huge. Even Piers Morgan will be wanting Arteta sacked again. Liverpool spent a massive bundle of cash so probably expect to be there or thereabouts too. Man City did some great business very early on and again spent big. City now moving some kids they bought out to their other club in Spain, Girona. Chelsea are the biggest cheating gits around and have spent over a billion in the last few windows. Guess what, as they try and cook the books again like paying way way over the odds to buy their own ladies team then start “selling” their excess players to their own French team Strasbourg. Newcastle have been trying to play catch up from when they got promoted and their new owners The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, have been trying to negotiate the intricacies of FFFP rules and now PSR. In fairness to them they were not allowed to do what Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal did and just spend and buy permanent security in the prem, they initially had to buy well and give Eddie Howe his due he built a team that firstly kept them up and started buying wisely and improving existing players. Isak was bought for £60m and Liverpool have offered to buy him from Newcastle for £120m so far. PSR was supposed to make sure clubs couldn’t go bust but that’s ridiculous in the case of Newcastle as it is with Leeds and many clubs in the prem so its now just a restriction on trade. Also we know Man City are awaiting the result of the investigation into the so called 151 charges, which will be appealed and most of the charges scrapped. These charges go back to years ago when Mancini came in as manager, way before FFFP rules. For the last 6 years Man City have made a profit on player trading which is almost unheard of anywhere in football. As an example the year they bought Erling Haaland and others they actually made £69m clear profit on players. Smart buying, improving players and moving them on

Will Wolves, Brighton, Brentford become vulnerable for the drop after player trading and management changes etc. Wolves are skint and although buying new players they are selling better. Brentford have sold players and more want to go, plus the new head coach, the detested Andrews is going to struggle. Brighton and Bournemouth seem to be in a transition stage and so far it’s not clicked yet during pre season. Ariola will find his toughest tasks this season and what about Moyes at Everton. He did well saving them last season and they have a rich owner, but funnily enough there are plenty of players refusing to accept a transfer to Everton another team who have been beaten in every game during pre season. I wonder if they can turn it around and if they do it will be Moyes who does it as I cant see Andrews being able to do that at Brentford

Lots of transfer business done yet the vast majority were for overseas players from overseas clubs. On top of that there were lots of 16,17 and 18yo kids purchased from overseas, all going to Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal. Unfortunately the premier league can have a UK based requirement but the facts are that UK based players are way overpriced. These young overseas kids then get used in the homegrown category for prem clubs as academy products, another loophole. Germany and Holland tapped into our kids a few years ago when they started enticing 17 and 18yo lads to get game time over there instead of wasting away in our academies. Jadon Sancho, Jude Bellingham and Noni Madueki prime examples of kids playing for top clubs at an early age, there are plenty more these days and there are young kids from Scotland and Ireland overseas now.

Heard somebody say that its amazing how Sweden a tiny country of only 10 million people seems to have a knack of turning out a lot of world class football players:

Isak

Zlatan

Larsson

Nordahl

Hamrin

Ljungberg

Brolin


But Scotlands population of only 5 million has turned out way more world class players than Sweden:

Dalgelish

Law

Souness

Johnstone

Bremner

Robertson

Gray

Lorimer

Gemill

Strachan

Jordan

McQueen

Many many more

What the hell happened to Scotland as it seems the best they produce these days is Liam Cooper although he was born in Yorkshire

 

Nice thread as always Doc I don’t think any small country can surpass the achievements of Uruguay when it comes to churning out quality players and decent teams over the years. A country of 3.3m.

Always had a soft spot for them because as well as talented they’re also dirty bastards a national version of vintage Leeds United at their peak

 

I have a soft spot for them too due to Bielsa being in charge of the National team

 

On the tranny front Dobvyk seems to be dying as he prefers a transfer to another Italian or Spanish club if he is being forced out of Rome. That could be just agent talk though.

Latest jungle drums being spouted on a few clickbait sites is all about Italian right back Mattia Zanotti 22yo Italy U21 star, plying his trade in Lugano and it’s going to be £9m. Seems to be more than the average number of sites and outlets for this than the norm?

 

Emu may be a happy c happy if he believes Graham Bailey whomis saying Solomon is for sale for less than £20m as he isn’t going to be in Franks plans. Massive news if true, but is Bailey ever on the right track?

 

Graeme Bailey is not a trustworthy source.

However, Spurs have Son, Gil, Johnson, Kudus, Odobert, Kulusevski, Maddison, Tel who can play on the wing. Common sense dictates Solomon wont get a look in. Count in that Solomon is currently injured and he will become available but probably late in the window.

The issue is having to deal with Spurs and Levy. They are horrific to deal with and will try and push the price up above what he is worth. We've kinda shown our hand with offering 30 million for Paixão. Levy will want that for Solomon if he knows we have it. £15 million sounds about right to me.

I think it's a good deal for us if there is nobody else available. He is better than we have.

 

As mentioned in the main thread on our kids going abroad. Well today 18yo Sol Sadibi has signed for PSV from Stoke

 

Gelhardt to Rangers is looking likely

 

Hopefully for £20 million

 

Its a bit of gossip really. Nothing substantial behind it.....yet.

It kinda makes sense though.

If they sign Joffy for £10 million and we sign one of their youngsters for £10 million then it increases the transfer budget for both clubs.

 

Sorry lads but the Joffy fee seems to be £4m so 49ers at play here to help clear the decks in Leeds and bolster the ranks in Glasgow

https://x.com/SportsPeteO/status/1951325739317342597

 

They need to learn from Chelsea

 

£4 million is a great price for Joffy if it turns out to be true.

 

Won’t make any difference as rangers never pay for anything. Notorious crooks

 

if it happens I am putting cash on Gelhardt for the SPL Golden Boot. You can laugh but look at last season up there….. anyone remember the young kid we had that the EFL shafted because he had a few £1 bets because he was lonely and away from home. Sam Dalby. He had his career at Leeds trashed, played a couple of games on the wing for Bielsa as he was pretty good for our U23s at the time. Well after being useless at Morecambe and Watford and better at Wrexham he ended up at Dundee Utd and scored 15 last season coming 3rd in the scoring charts if he can do it Joffy is quids in

 

£4 million for Joffy is still a £3.5 million profit

 

That was Jordan Stevens Doc, who now plays for Ilkeston Town. Of course that doesn't alter the fact that you are correct in that Dalby (who never played in our first team), was the 3rd top goalscorer in the Scottish Prem last season. He has now signed for Bolton in League One on a free transfer

 

....

 

This is what happens to pensioners Aski especially those on chemo.

 

I’m trying to join the dots but haven’t worked out what you’re saying yet