OLDVILLAIN Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 40 minutes ago, Philosopher said: Prime is sweetened with stevie Waaahhh..The Saudis must have ground up stevie g and are now using him as an artificial sweetener..no wonder they offered him so much money to lure him in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerryBarrPet Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 2 minutes ago, OLDVILLAIN said: Waaahhh..The Saudis must have ground up stevie g and are now using him as an artificial sweetener..no wonder they offered him so much money to lure him in Artificial being the correct term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 23 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: I wouldn’t worry too much. Similar happened with China a few years back. There’s plenty of top players around for a few mainly motivated by money to go Saudi Arabia. It's different from China signing one "Oscar". Everyone else that went there was long past their sell by date. China also largely failed in their takeover ventures of UK clubs..see Xia. It isn't good, for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 I'm amazed that Ruben Neves is off to Saudi. I guess they were prepared to pay the player (if not his club) considerably more than any PL/CL team that were interested in him were and that money is more important than football to some players. Pity to see players at their playing peak being so happy to put cash ahead of the standard of the football that they will be playing. Now let's hope that we are getting increasingly nearer to a signing or three ourselves. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philosopher Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 38 minutes ago, OLDVILLAIN said: Waaahhh..The Saudis must have ground up stevie g and are now using him as an artificial sweetener..no wonder they offered him so much money to lure him in Or auto correct change Stevia to Stevie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 43 minutes ago, MrBlack said: It's different from China signing one "Oscar". Everyone else that went there was long past their sell by date. China also largely failed in their takeover ventures of UK clubs..see Xia. It isn't good, for sure. You mustn’t remember who China signed, it was more than just Oscar: Hulk - 30 Paulinho -30 Jackson Martinez - 29 Bakambu - 26 Carrasco - 24 Arnautovic - 30 El Shaarawy - 26 All for big money and playing at a decent level, and hardly past their sell by date all of them 30 or under. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 49 minutes ago, MrBlack said: It's different from China signing one "Oscar". Everyone else that went there was long past their sell by date. China also largely failed in their takeover ventures of UK clubs..see Xia. It isn't good, for sure. What about Ramirez, Teixeira, Carrasco? How many top players at their peak have gone to Saudi? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 26 minutes ago, duke313 said: You mustn’t remember who China signed, it was more than just Oscar: Hulk - 30 Paulinho -30 Jackson Martinez - 29 Bakambu - 26 Carrasco - 24 Arnautovic - 30 El Shaarawy - 26 All for big money and playing at a decent level, and hardly past their sell by date all of them 30 or under. Diego Costa and Arnautovic through tantrums to get transfers there as well 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketspuds Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 As excited as I am about the players coming in this summer, I’m equally as interested to see who will be leaving and if there will be any surprises. I’m also interested to see what kind of impact Monchi is going to have. Going to be a fun couple of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 59 minutes ago, duke313 said: You mustn’t remember who China signed, it was more than just Oscar: Hulk - 30 Paulinho -30 Jackson Martinez - 29 Bakambu - 26 Carrasco - 24 Arnautovic - 30 El Shaarawy - 26 All for big money and playing at a decent level, and hardly past their sell by date all of them 30 or under. Point still stands that this is very different from the china attempt to get in at the big table. Of those you've listed, only Arnautovic was playing in the PL for PL salaries and was 30. A few others I would qualify as past it and demonstrated this by proceeding to do nothing afterwards. Bakambu, who was of a reasonable age, is now plying his trade in Greece. If you can't see the difference between what Saudi Arabia are doing and planning, and what China have done, you've got a serious shock coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 (edited) 5 minutes ago, MrBlack said: Point still stands that this is very different from the china attempt to get in at the big table. Of those you've listed, only Arnautovic was playing in the PL for PL salaries and was 30. A few others I would qualify as past it and demonstrated this by proceeding to do nothing afterwards. Bakambu, who was of a reasonable age, is now plying his trade in Greece. If you can't see the difference between what Saudi Arabia are doing and planning, and what China have done, you've got a serious shock coming. Yannick Carrasco went there from Ath Madrid and is now right choice for Belgium and Ath Madrid again. Hardly past his sell by date. Edited June 19, 2023 by bobzy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 10 minutes ago, bobzy said: Yannick Carrasco went there from Ath Madrid and is now right choice for Belgium and Ath Madrid again. Hardly past his sell by date. Players going back to where they come from (el shaarawy also fits that bracket) tells you the China effort failed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 12 minutes ago, MrBlack said: Players going back to where they come from (el shaarawy also fits that bracket) tells you the China effort failed. You think Neves will retire in Saudi? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted June 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 19, 2023 Quite honestly, the Saudi thing might be a great way of weeding out who actually wants to play football and who is just in it for the money. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 3 minutes ago, bobzy said: You think Neves will retire in Saudi? Not a chance, but they'll use him to inspire more to move. He's a player hitting his prime, that was playing in the top league in the world and could have moved almost anywhere. They've got Mendes on the payroll. They own Newcastle United who are in the champions league and, effectively, have a material investment in Chelsea. They have money to spend and a finite resource backing them up currently. They need this to work for their future. China barely wanted the money to leave the country after they saw it didn't bring them anything in return on the short term. The Saudi ambitions are astronomically higher. It's a world away from China's attempt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 20 minutes ago, romavillan said: Quite honestly, the Saudi thing might be a great way of weeding out who actually wants to play football and who is just in it for the money. The Premier League sort of does that already anyway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 We're now linked with Fati in Spanish media, reports suggest that we want him on loan with a view to a permanent deal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerryBarrPet Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 Just now, useless said: We're now linked with Fati in Spanish media, reports suggest that we want him on loan with a view to a permanent deal I think we have to keep an open mind over transfers now we have Unai &Co recruiting but I’m not holding my breath over this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alreadyexists Posted June 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 19, 2023 2 minutes ago, useless said: We're now linked with Fati in Spanish media, reports suggest that we want him on loan with a view to a permanent deal Let’s hope this Fati has got the Monchi’s 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted June 19, 2023 Share Posted June 19, 2023 1 hour ago, MrBlack said: Point still stands that this is very different from the china attempt to get in at the big table. Of those you've listed, only Arnautovic was playing in the PL for PL salaries and was 30. A few others I would qualify as past it and demonstrated this by proceeding to do nothing afterwards. Bakambu, who was of a reasonable age, is now plying his trade in Greece. If you can't see the difference between what Saudi Arabia are doing and planning, and what China have done, you've got a serious shock coming. I don’t think it does still stand. Let’s see what Ziyech, Koulibaly and Kante do with their careers after their stint in SA. I would say it’ll not much more than the “past it” players on my list. Why does it matter that only Arnautovic was playing in the PL? Some of the other players played for Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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