Its back at long last and cannot wait. Good luck at Old Toilet tomoz lads. Well some very strange happenings this summer on the transfer front. We are seeing hardly any movement simply because continental clubs are in trouble financially. Yes there are some exceptions like PSG which is really the Qatari Royal Family plaything, much like Man City and the Abu Dhabi Royal Family. PSG now have the Harlem Globetrotters of soccer teams and the value of this squad is ridiculous: Here are just a few: Donnarumma Marquinhos Kimpembe Diallo Ramos Hakimi Peredes Gueye Verrati Wijnaldum Rafinha Xavi Neymar Draxler Messi Di Maria Mbappe Icardi God help Pochetino if he doesn’t win the league and Champions League because a certain Zidane is waiting to take his job. All this PSG nonsense was caused by Barcelona a team and club who have sunk from being the providers of the best football ever seen a few short years ago, to a shadow of their former self. They are massively in debt because of past presidents who have to be elected by fans who own the club, and every past president promised to bring in Messi or Ronaldo or anyone who the fans liked to get re-elected. At the moment the debt is higher than $1 billion and Goldman Sachs have been brought in to sell some $550m of refinance to give the club some liquidity. So Goldman Sachs don’t come cheap and then there is interest to pay on the refinance package so the debt keeps mounting. This brings us to the events of this week and Barcelona being refused to allow the club to re-sign Lionel Messi. La Liga rules stipulate that clubs cannot spend more than they earn. Barcelona had a ratio of 110% costs to sales and the rules stipulate no more than 75% is allowed. By getting rid of Messi’s wages the ratio falls to 95% so Barcelona are still in serious trouble. The club brought in some top freebies who will also be on top wages, yet these 4 players may not be able to be registered until the club get rid of a lot more players and wages. Aguero, Eric Garcia, Emmerson and Memphis Depay are waiting to be registered and these players need to be registered by 1st September, and the 1st league match is this weekend, so if it looks like not happening these 4 players will be looking for lifeboats. Watch this space because there is about to be a fire sale where players like Greizman may be sold cheap. Getting rid of players you paid a lot of cash for is one thing, but as we know when we bought Junior Firpo from Barcelona for £13m most of that went to Real Betis because they were owed from the original sale, plus add-ons. Lukaku has gone to Chelsea for £100m but £47m of that goes straight to Man Utd. Then we look at Chelsea who are able to afford £100m for Lukaku because of dirty Russian money, so the truth is that Man City and Chelsea are streets ahead of most clubs in Europe except PSG. Inter Milan are also in real trouble firstly because the Chinese have pulled the plug in Europe as I have said before, but also because they paid Antonio Conte £15m per year to win the Scudetto, which they haven’t won for 11 years. He spent a fortune on players and he did win the league for the 19th time. Inter begged Conte to win it next season too so that the club could display a 2nd star above their club badge for winning it 20 times. Conte said yes but I need some players. 3 weeks later he walked when the club asked all players and staff to forgo their wages for 2 months. The club needed to raise £80m profit from transfers and cut the wage bill by 15%. Conte laughed and walked away leaving the club on the verge of economic collapse. In Italy total losses to Seria A clubs totals £754m for last season, plus almost the same for the previous season as fans were banned. Only Caliagri, Napoli and Fiorentina are not in debt, and guess what, the former CEO of Fiorentina is now on the board of Leeds Utd. Inter Milan are in debt by £640m and the club CEO is being taken to court in Hong Kong for a personal debt of £250m. Inter Milan have sold Lukaku for £100m, Hakimi for £53m, Politano for £17m and Candreva for £3m. Plus they have released 5 players and loaned out another 11 players. Football has been raped by a few rich owners that want to win everything and how they do it has destroyed football and fair play. Fair Play rules have been cancelled due to covid losses, but that means the likes of Chelsea, Man City, PSG, Man Utd, Inter and AC Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid can carry on breaking football. Man Utd don’t have a rich owner, they have a robber baron at the helm. The club was bought with a loan (Debt) and the owner pays nothing back except the interest on the loan each year. The owner also takes out £20m every year to pay the board. That £20m each year has meant that well over £1bn has been taken out of the club and the banks are still owed the money borrowed to buy the club all those years ago
The positive thing about all of that Doc in my humble opinion is that the door is ajar to any really well run club with investors to choose from, a fabulous heritage and a name recognised all over the world - if only I could think of such a club Not a position I could ever foresee happening just a few short years ago
Agreed, how far from Bates talking about using the Delph money to buy back TA and the first Italian owner who snorts white powder and the skint Arabs…… Radz has done a 360 and you cannot say fairer than that
Totally agree mate and, for me, apart from Bielsa, Radz is the best thing to have happened to our great club for many a year. Loving the academy buzz too mate. How good does it feel to be cherry picking other peoples best youngsters instead of being resigned to losing every good one we produce? Simply has to pay dividends in years to come
Wouldnt it be brilliant if Bates was brought in as a consultant in charge of the Academy he would have Bielsas new operation stripped within a week, the pool drained and bottled and sold on as Phillips sweat. We would have sold everyone in the 23s and a promise to buy back TA with the Delph money again..no, no, no Ive seen how this film ends
Meant to say that I went in to ER to buy the new away top & get a strip for my youngest grandson. The cashier told me that there had been a constant big queue like the one I had been in since the top came out. Apparently not the case for the home strip. I can understand that as I won't be buying the home strip either, as I just don't like it. The 3rd strip's release is apparently imminent, but couldn't elicit details. Made a bit of a tit of myself too, which will come as no surprise. Angus Kinnear was sitting in his car, engine running, beside our car outside the Pavilion. Didn't get a chance to speak to him as I was juggling getting Mrs WJ, wheelchair etc. into the car & making sure that my 5yo grandson wasn't playing Hara Kiri with the traffic. As I was getting into the car, I noticed a huge black stretch limo driving down the road in my rear view mirror, so immediately put 2&2 together & concluded that I'd stumbled on a new signing arriving. Why else would he be sitting there? I jumped out of the car, camera in hand for my 'exclusive', only to notice that what I'd missed was the hearse in front of the limo. Limos, actually. And then an underling appeared on cue with a huge mound of ring binders, paperwork etc. for Mr Kinnear. Tit doesn't begin to describe it.
Maybe that is the lengths that Bielsa insists upon to ensure that there are no leaks about new signings. Which ever new signing was in the coffin, electronically signed his contract as the hearse went past Elland Road, and Kinnear was in the car park just to ensure there was no issue with the wifi signal for the signing
May 2017, however the 5 year plan was to get us promoted to the Premier League, so he's ahead of schedule. The new 5 year plan, which started with our first season in the Premier League was to consolidate for 2 years and qualify for Europe within 5 years. The quote below is from October 2020 “In football, everything happens very quickly, so we need to have an idea of where we want to be in five years, but we also have to focus on each week,” he told Argentine newspaper La Nacion. “I think the next two years are very important to consolidate ourselves. “And from that, we will have a solid base to modernize the club, renovate the stadium and promote this brand, which is already very attractive in the rest of the world. “The five-year goal is to participate in European competitions. We want to be a modern club, but we also need to preserve the heritage and family spirit that we have now. “In this way, I believe that we can become a strong institution of English football and then of world football.” https://translate.google.com/transl...arcelo-bielsa-nid2480526/&prev=search&pto=aue
As far as Radz is concerned he sees the first part of his job done. Yes he will still be in overall charge but he has a fantastic team looking after the club. Radz is in a venture now to increase the size of the GROUP by buying other football clubs in Europe. He has board approval and also backing and he almost bought Salernitano a few weeks ago and that could still happen yet. Having other football clubs in different countries is the best model for cash revenues, inter club synergies, loans means no problems with work permits and saving on transfer fees. You also get to generate a lot of revenues (on paper) that beat FFFP
Arsenals summer spending so far is £76m with a couple more deals still going on. Money well spent or just a shyt manager?
I think he wants to keep his options open. Each year with Bielsa it’s a will he won’t he sign another contract. Radz is a business man, having a coach only willing to commit a year at a time must give him nightmares. Would (or does) any of us trust any other coach could squeeze the performances out of our group of players that Bielsa does? I think with shrewd signings and the U23 investment we’ll get to a stage where someone else would be okay but we certainly need Bielsa for a bit longer. I think if we hit a brick wall and it was apparent we were going to start going the opposite way Radz would strongly consider selling up if he didn’t have the funds to prevent it.
Marcelo Bielsa seen at Man City Stadium: yes now cleared up because it was a League Managers meeting before the season starts and always held at the Champions ground.
Liverpool are trying to get Kylian Mbappe from PSG and say they are willing to offer him a UNIQUE DEAL whatever that means. In fairness the scousers have been quiet again in the market so far
Wasnt so long ago many of us on here were hoping we would sign a new striker, and now the vast majority are hoping we can get Bamford to sign a contract extension. Not long ago many of us were begging Bielsa to buy a CB as he refused and started using Pascal Struijk and look at him now. Many of us complained when Bielsa got rid of Pontus and who the hell was Ben White, does Bielsa know what hes doing. Yes we are all entitled to an opinion but in reality the opinion that counts is Marcelo Bielsa. So hoping for some calm later today whatever the result. Hes got this
