Wasn't a reason for also including Israel that teams in the middle east region were refusing to play Israel so they weren't able to play as much? That obviously won't apply to Saudi
Saudi League thread
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Wasn't a reason for also including Israel that teams in the middle east region were refusing to play Israel so they weren't able to play as much? That obviously won't apply to Saudi
Yet you seem to know.
What happened?
I can't really speak for the longer term prospects but if MLS teams are getting more funding you would think that that would be a decent pipeline for South American players to move to?
Hopefully it will also be beneficial for players from the Caribbean. MLS getting bigger will be great for football in that part of the world.
This is what happens when states get involved in football. Let's hope they change their minds like the Chinese did after a couple of seasons.
They've pumped in mega mega bucks to basically take over it.
They bought professional golf
I don't know, I worked for a financial services company in that area before, so I am going off memory of how these PE funds are sometimes structured. Like I said in another post, they more than likely pulled that 5% figure out of their arse, or saw that the biggest investor in Clearlake was 5% of the overall value and assumed it had to be PIF.
Either way, without having the full ownerhsip details of each investor for every fund they operate there's no way anyone would really know how much PIF have invested.
If there was ever a time to sell our deadwood:
Chelsea aren’t hanging about. I can’t believe the number they are getting for their deadwood. Arnold should be on the first flight to Riyadh. This is an opportunity not to be missed.
We can balance our books for the next decade.
Might even pay for a new roof at Old Trafford.
- Sancho
- Antony
- Mctomminay
- Martial
- AWB
- Maguire
- Lindeloff
- DDG (free obviously)
- Greenwood
Chelsea aren’t hanging about. I can’t believe the number they are getting for their deadwood. Arnold should be on the first flight to Riyadh. This is an opportunity not to be missed.
We can balance our books for the next decade.
Might even pay for a new roof at Old Trafford.
Chelsea making back all the money they spent in the summer. Why dont anyone want Maguire or Martial?
He’s not gonna accept a move to the Saudi league. I would be disappointed with him if he chose that route, despite the money on offer.
This is a pretty good listen
That’s what the new club world cup is for big bucks and I’d bet they will host the first or second one!
So I guess their focus has shifted from acquiring a well known club to turning their league into a well known league instead which will cost a feckton of money. Rather than buying clubs, bring the players of those clubs into their league instead. Hopefully that means their investment for Newcastle would be less than what they initially planned for. Ruben Neves and Benzema could have been their players if Newcastle offered similar money rather than Al-Something doing it. Just think about that...
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Imagine if they just stripped City with ludicrous money deals for Grealish, Stones, Haland, Pedri, KDB, Gundogan, Walker wonderful by that’s not going to happen ?
Simple martial or Maguire wanted to go there. Maguire s England career on the line. He won't give up soon as long as Southgate as the manager for england.
But he played very little for united as well yet Southgate picking him.But he goes to saudi it's tough for Southgate to pick him.
Who knows you may have chance to offload him to saudi if he is willing to go and play there.
Surely the amount of money required for this will be far too much for even SA to be willing to spend, if it's even possible? It's one thing to sign an end of the road Ronaldo, or a C list player like Neves, or even some of the Chelsea castaways, but that's still very far away from say Bellingham going from Dortmund to SA instead of Real. At some point I don't think the money will be enough to get them to that point, which is what it would take to turn their league into a well known league.
Kante, Koulibaly, Ziyech, Mendy (is he Muslim?).
Didn't realize the pattern, but it could be coincidental.
I think it will be very difficult for any single country league that is isolated from European club system to break Euro dominance. However, if SA buy their way into the uefa club tournaments they could probably pull in enough talent to be in the top 10 Euro leagues quite quickly, with a realistic aim of aiming even higher eventually.
There hasn't been a transfer yet that suggests it's anything but a retirement home for top talent looking for one last pay day. If Saudi clubs signed one of the likes of Mbappe, Salah, Bruno, Rashford, Kane or Haaland it might send a different message.
It's not coincidental. They are obviously much better suited at adjusting to life in Saudi and more likely to stay long term, which is the goal for improving the league. They'll be aiming to get these 'younger' players to stay for 5+ years and usher in an even younger set of players to play alongside them.
We need to sell some of our players to the Saudi League clubs. Windfalls incoming.
Shut up Gary. Now you know how it feels for any club in the continent or South America who lose their best players to lower table Premier league sides swimming in money (at least relative to them).
Not quite the point he’s making here
The issue isn't the money. The issue is whose money it is.
Ol' Rich and John need to be boarding flights to Riyadh and making deals happen
I won’t be surprised to start seeing big money transfers of Newcastle players heading to the Saudi league. The likes of Joelinton for £60m. It would massively help Newcastle’s FFP limits while helping Saudi on both sides of the deal.
Kaveh makes a good point in that Saudi can afford to buy any player in the world for their league including the likes of Mbappe and Haaland. The challenge is getting the player to want to come. It will naturally be tough to get younger elite players to join who have ambitions of titles. But if they keep throwing money at it and pulling players over, they could start getting momentum. It will take a few years at least to get to a high level all round in the league though. If there is genuinely a limitless pot of cash to enhance the league, it’s only a matter of time before the league becomes matching with the higher quality leagues in Europe.
I think he's less worried about talent drain and more suspicious that Clearlake's links to the Saudi PIF is helping Chelsea dig themselves out of an FFP hole.
South America doesn't really have anything to do with it.
But it’s only Koulibaly really that was looking like a big problem. Mendy is on very low wages and I doubt keeping or moving him on would have been a problem. Kante was a free agent, and I think Chelsea actually wanted to keep him but Saudi offered him money no one other club in the world would. His move there had nothing to do with Chelsea. Ziyech was hardly the biggest hit on the books. So it’s only Koulibaly where I feel like we got out of a jam. Selling Havertz alone would be enough to get out of the FFP hole for this year. Add Mount and Kovacic to that and we’re sweet on the FFP front. The Saudis aren’t bailing us out of FFP trouble any more than Arsenal, City or United are.
This is mental. Al-Ahli haven’t even played a game in the top division yet and they’re out here splashing more cash than any club in the world. It’s like Luton town going for Mbappe.
This is mental. Al-Ahli haven’t even played a game in the top division yet and they’re out here splashing more cash than any club in the world. It’s like Luton town going for Mbappe.
They are a big club though. Their relegation was an abnormal occurrence.