Villatillidie95 Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 Marco Silva has 1 year left on his Fulham deal and has a £6 mil release clause. Saudi officials are in London and talking to his representatives. You would have to think that if someone is paying him 40 mil over 2 years, then someone else will be willing to prize mitrovic out of there too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlobalVillan Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 It's getting serious now. Premier League clubs losing their best players and managers to Saudi will happen more and more. We are in a battle with Al Nassr for Diaby which would never have happened even last year. There is a a huge sea change happening right before out eyes and its going to get bigger. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villatillidie95 Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 Mitrovic has told relatives he wont play for fulham again after they turned down 52 mil for him. There are 4 clubs explicitly backed by PIF in Saudi Pro League - Al Ittihad, Al Hilal, Al Nassr and Al Ahli. One of those other 3 clubs might come in for him, who knows. I fully expect some more shenanigans before the window closes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan95 Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 2 minutes ago, Villatillidie95 said: Mitrovic has told relatives he wont play for fulham again after they turned down 52 mil for him. There are 4 clubs explicitly backed by PIF in Saudi Pro League - Al Ittihad, Al Hilal, Al Nassr and Al Ahli. One of those other 3 clubs might come in for him, who knows. I fully expect some more shenanigans before the window closes I think Fulham turned down £25M and value him at £52M 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villatillidie95 Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 1 minute ago, villan95 said: I think Fulham turned down £25M and value him at £52M ah yeah that makes more sense, i suppose he is priceless to fulham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan95 Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 Just now, Villatillidie95 said: ah yeah that makes more sense, i suppose he is priceless to fulham yeah apparently his agent wants them to lower their valuation to £35M-£45M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 7 hours ago, Demitri_C said: Dont the saudis realise this is going to have a knock on effect on their national team? They are going to be absolutely hopeless because their league is going to be full of non saudis I can see why this would be a serious concern to a country with an internal pedigree as impressive as Saudi Arabia. It really would be football's loss. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marka Ragnos Posted July 20, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted July 20, 2023 1 hour ago, GlobalVillan said: It's getting serious now. Premier League clubs losing their best players and managers to Saudi will happen more and more. We are in a battle with Al Nassr for Diaby which would never have happened even last year. There is a a huge sea change happening right before out eyes and its going to get bigger. I still think players and much of social media are in the rose-tinted cloud cuckoo land phase of all this. Will be interesting to see what happens in a few years. I don't think it will be as influential as many think. Many players will be in for a most unpleasant education in their gated lives in the Kingdom -- and the six-hour flight back to London or wherever will get old. You can have all the money in the world and be a constant subject of flattery and blandishments and still be miserable and unfulfilled. My cousin worked as a nurse in Saudi and grew quickly to hate it. Sure, there's a kind of alternative universe of expats living lives of apparent luxury and comfort, but it has big limits, too. There's a huge price to be paid for all that and so much simulated reality. Might as well live at Disney World. I think it will get stale and restrictive for many players, at least those with brains. And the dangers for partners or family members who are LGBTQ are so real. You can really get yourself into trouble. There is poverty in KSA, too, and you have to wonder how the have-nots feel about rich foreigners who get away with flaunting the law and being given exceptions all the time while they get flogged. Quote Growing up in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, I was acutely aware that Saudi society was divided along class lines. There was the royal family and the super-rich, the middle class and the poor masses – all strictly segregated socially and culturally. Like many other Saudi cities, Jeddah, where I lived and worked as a journalist between 2005 and 2010, was divided in two: the northern part of the city was reserved for royalty and upper middle-class families, while the southern part was where migrant workers, undocumented migrants and poor and middle-class Saudis lived. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 11 hours ago, OutByEaster? said: The national team might be difficult - it's a very small country - the population is just over 30m but almost half of those are working foreigners, so the 'permanent' population is only around 18m - which in a country that isn't (yet) football obsessed is a fairly small pool. However, they might just do the thing they do in athletics and 'borrow' nationality for that purpose. I'm not sure I agree with the point about the size of the country either, but the bolded is definitely, categorically wrong. I must have taught somewhere between 1 and 2 thousand Saudis over the last 7 or 8 years, and well over 90% of the male Saudis I've taught have been utterly obsessed with football. Saudi *women*, no, admittedly not. But you won't meet many Saudi men who won't want to yak your ear off about football. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osmark86 Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 10 hours ago, HanoiVillan said: I'm not sure I agree with the point about the size of the country either, but the bolded is definitely, categorically wrong. I must have taught somewhere between 1 and 2 thousand Saudis over the last 7 or 8 years, and well over 90% of the male Saudis I've taught have been utterly obsessed with football. Saudi *women*, no, admittedly not. But you won't meet many Saudi men who won't want to yak your ear off about football. Yeah I think there are many things to use as ammo against the Saudi League and its ownership structure, but using lack of footballing culture/passion just isn't one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 1 hour ago, osmark86 said: Yeah I think there are many things to use as ammo against the Saudi League and its ownership structure, but using lack of footballing culture/passion just isn't one of them. Who could forget 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osmark86 Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 2 hours ago, sne said: Who could forget Martin Dahlin & Kenneth Andresson. Legender! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 Your going to see alit of poaching from there over the next 10 years with obscene money being offered i predict Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyM3000 Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 They are just signing old and injury prone players who will be retired in 1-3 seasons time. There's no real competitive side to this league, these players won't care about winning or losing. They need to bring the standard of the league up. If I was them I'd look to be poaching a lot of the average players from the Prem/Championship who are unlikely to play at the very top level anyway and can still earn a fortune this way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villarule123 Posted July 22, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted July 22, 2023 Shock horror.. Mbappe linked now. This is the biggest threat to football we've ever had and all it takes is a transfer like this for it to really jump a few levels. What do FIFA/UEFA/The PL do? FFP is leaving a lot of clubs powerless to stop this but I don't even think getting rid of FFP will be enough to combat a country with limitless amounts of cash. Interesting times ahead.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 6 minutes ago, villarule123 said: Shock horror.. Mbappe linked now. This is the biggest threat to football we've ever had and all it takes is a transfer like this for it to really jump a few levels. What do FIFA/UEFA/The PL do? FFP is leaving a lot of clubs powerless to stop this but I don't even think getting rid of FFP will be enough to combat a country with limitless amounts of cash. Interesting times ahead.. Its not a threat to football though, they are playing in a FIFA league it isnt unsanctioned. Its a threat to the bigger richer European clubs or Premier League teams and a lot of people that support football clubs don't really care. A lot of international fans would say Premier League has done similar for the last 20 years Also in FIFA is a lot of members who were against Europe being the main location of football as had too much financial power. FIFA are loving this 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 Also, they're being 'linked' to Mbappe, he hasn't actually gone there, and probably won't, because he's not the wrong side of 30. If he does, he will earn tons of money but risk his relevance declining and form fading at the top level. This isn't a 'threat to football'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted July 22, 2023 Moderator Share Posted July 22, 2023 I'd say it isn't a threat to football (and by that I mean European football) "yet". If they do this for a couple of seasons and we end up twenty quality players at each of the four clubs, then I think it does start to become that. It could become the IPL of football I guess. It's interesting that they appointed Emenalo as someone whose responsibility is to grow the league rather than any club - there's an odd sort of non-competition between the top four teams (which I'm sure won't be replicated on the pitch). His role almost seems to be most akin to a sort of Monchi role, but a Monchi that works for Manchester City, Aston Villa, Newcastle and Liverpool all at the same time). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAZZAM Posted July 23, 2023 Share Posted July 23, 2023 Sadio Mane and C. Ronaldo at the same club that's a recipe for disaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted July 23, 2023 Share Posted July 23, 2023 Considering the age bracket where most of the big signings are you'd imagine that players with pace will be overpowered. Many might outshine Ronaldo which I'm sure will go down well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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