Moussa Diaby

[Villatillidie95]

I'm confident the player wants to come to us. You don't rack up those statistics in a couple of years to then want to throw it all away where similar statistics in a fraction of the time won't be taken seriously. I think he will sign this week. What a player we will have on our hands, this signing just feels right imo

[Tommo_b]

5 minutes ago, MachoFantastico said:

Realistically we can't compete against the Saudi teams, who currently have unlimited funds. Plus they don't have to deal with the financial limitations of FFP, etc. I can't say I'd be that heartbroken if he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia. Rather see players who want to play for the club. 

It’s truly madness… clubs across Europe with stadiums that average 30,000+ are watching Saudi clubs who average 3000 spend ridiculous amounts of money on players. 

The whole thing is getting ****. 

Just hope FIFA are paying attention and not just counting the numbers in their bank accounts. 

Imagine being told when you were younger that there would be players who would choose to play in Saudi Arabia over playing for Aston Villa, you’d laugh and call it career suicide. 

Edited July 18, 2023 by Tommo_b

[Mic09]

1 minute ago, MachoFantastico said:

Realistically we can't compete against the Saudi teams, who currently have unlimited funds. Plus they don't have to deal with the financial limitations of FFP, etc. I can't say I'd be that heartbroken if he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia. Rather see players who want to play for the club. 

Well, currently we are looking to attract players that don't necessarily want to play for Aston Villa.

The players like Diaby, who are hopeful for CL performances, could possibly pick a few other teams that are above us in the grand scheme of things. 

Same for Pau or Kamara. I bet you none of them dreamed to be in Aston in a Claret and Blue shirt.

At the end of the day, it's a job. Players pick the right manager, the right business (club) etc. Emery and Monchi are here to take us up a notch and some players will buy into it. 

Because we are doing fairly well recently, we have some money to pay those players. But in case of most of them, the attraction isn't to play for Aston Villa - it is to play against Man City and Liverpool on weekly basis in the biggest league in the world.

So if you are looking for a player who wants to play for Aston Villa as a preferred choice, we might have to lower our quality expectations. 

[Zero7]

I bet half this Saudi nonsense about him is made up. 

[PaulMcGrath_5]

Just now, Zero7 said:

I bet half this Saudi nonsense about him is made up. 

Which half do you reckon?

[villabromsgrove]

The fact that PIF only took ownership of the four top Saudi Pro League clubs approximately six weeks ago should set warning bells ringing.

Have a look at the pay structures of each team in the SPL and note that apart from recent "big name" additions, the average player earns £20,000 or often much less per week, and average transfer fees have been very low with a few exceptions.

So we would be naive to believe that Al Nassr, suddenly decided in January that they would be able to pay £177 million salary per year to Christiano Ronaldo. It's very unlikely that it would have been their own independent decision given that they had no previous history of "big" transfers. At the beginning of June we heard that PIF had taken control of the big four SPL teams, and that confirmed that Ronaldo's signing was the first shot in a campaign to destabilise football while at the same time making the Saudi Pro League the focus of world football discussion. The publicity they are now getting is incredible for a league that is currently ranked the 58th biggest football league in the World. 

That brings me to the point of this thread .... Diaby. Al Nassr's sudden apparent interest in a young player who has just turned 24 and is not currently playing for the French international team is surprising, as he doesn't have a particularly high profile at the moment. The fact that Al Nassr are apparently prepared to offer a huge transfer fee plus huge wages to a player who I'm guessing wasn't on their radar until Villa put in a bid for him, is concerning. Is this an early demonstration of PIF's intended modus operandi? Group interference in the proposed dealings of any club who are deemed a direct competitor to a PIF owned or funded club? This might sound unnecessarily alarmist, but remember just a year or so ago the golf world was laughing at the Saudi LIV Golf group, and now in the blink of an eye they own the golf world!

Money rules. PIF know this and both UEFA and FIFA have an abysmal track record when it comes to being confronted by dizzying sums of money.

I still firmly believe that Diaby will sign for us, because he appears to be a talented and committed young man, who will want to get back into a very good French international team and prove that he can star on the world's greatest footballing stage which is the Premier League.

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by villabromsgrove
spelling

[PaulMcGrath_5]

Just now, villabromsgrove said:

The fact that PIF only took ownership of the four top Saudi Pro League clubs approximately six weeks ago should set warning bells ringing.

Have a look at the pay structures of each team in the SPL and note that apart from recent "big name" additions, the average player earns £20,000 or often much less per week, and average transfer fees have been very low with a few exceptions.

So we would be naive to believe that Al Nassr, suddenly decided in January that they would be able to pay £177 million salary per year to Christiano Ronaldo. It's very unlikely that it would have been their own independent decision given that they had no previous history of "big" transfers. At the beginning of June we heard that PIF had taken control of the big four SPL teams, and that confirmed that Ronaldo's signing was the first shot in a campaign to destabilise football while at the same time making the Saudi Pro League the focus of world football discussion. The publicity they are now getting is incredible for a league that is currently ranked the 58th biggest football league in the World. 

That brings me to the point of this thread .... Diaby. Al Nassr's sudden apparent interest in a young player who has just turned 24 and is not currently playing for the French international team is surprising, as he doesn't have a particularly high profile at the moment. The fact that Al Nassr are apparently prepared to offer a huge transfer fee plus huge wages to a player who I'm guessing wasn't on their radar until Villa put in a bid for him, is concerning. Is this an early demonstration of PIF's intended modus operandi? Group interference in the proposed dealings of any club who are deemed a direct competitor to a PFI owned or funded club? This might sound unnecessarily alarmist, but remember just a year or so ago the golf world was laughing at the Saudi LIV Golf group, and now in the blink of an eye they own the golf world!

Money rules. PIF know this and both UEFA and FIFA have an abysmal track record when it comes to being confronted by dizzying sums of money.

I still firmly believe that Diaby will sign for us, because he appears to be a talented and committed young man, who will want to get back into a very good French international team and prove that he can star on the world's greatest footballing stage which is the Premier League.

 

[Zatman]

11 minutes ago, Villatillidie95 said:

I'm confident the player wants to come to us. You don't rack up those statistics in a couple of years to then want to throw it all away where similar statistics in a fraction of the time won't be taken seriously. I think he will sign this week. What a player we will have on our hands, this signing just feels right imo

Mitrovic racked up big numbers too, Milinkovic Savic as well

[duke313]

11 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

It’s truly madness… clubs across Europe with stadiums that average 30,000+ are watching Saudi clubs who average 3000 spend ridiculous amounts of money on players. 

The whole thing is getting ****. 

Just hope FIFA are paying attention and not just counting the numbers in their bank accounts. 

Imagine being told when you were younger that there would be players who would choose to play in Saudi Arabia over playing for Aston Villa, you’d laugh and call it career suicide. 

Imagine being told when you were younger that there would be players who would choose to play for Bournemouth over playing for AC Milan, you’d laugh and call it career suicide.

[Tommo_b]

Just now, duke313 said:

Imagine being told when you were younger that there would be players who would choose to play for Bournemouth over playing for AC Milan, you’d laugh and call it career suicide.

Who’s done that?! 

[The_Steve]

17 minutes ago, Villatillidie95 said:

I'm confident the player wants to come to us. You don't rack up those statistics in a couple of years to then want to throw it all away where similar statistics in a fraction of the time won't be taken seriously. I think he will sign this week. What a player we will have on our hands, this signing just feels right imo

We’ve either agreed personal terms or his camp have told us he would be interested in moving. 

[Mazrim]

I don't doubt the Saudis are interested because they are interested in literally anybody who would come ( I do wish they would feck off, the crooks). I doubt Diaby is interested in them though at this stage of his career.

Yes, most people have careers they wouldn't / couldn't turn down massive salary increases for, but most careers aren't judged on engraved bits of metal that people have heard of.
There's also such thing as sponsorship. Good players can massively increase their money by signing lucrative sponsorship deals when they play in one of the most televised leagues. Premier League, Champions League, etc.

The Saudi league will never, ever be that.

[KevinRichardsonsMoustache]

If he wants to go there then f**k him, quite honestly. 

[PaulMcGrath_5]

Just now, KevinRichardsonsMoustache said:

If he wants to go there then f**k him, quite honestly. 

That's illegal over there, sorry.

[Zero7]

24 minutes ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Which half do you reckon?

Both halves, take your pick 

[The_Steve]

Gregg Evans has shut up about FFP now at least

[Captain_Townsend]

Has something changed? Why do people now think he wants the Saudi move? I am not seeing any evidence- same position as last week and club negotiation on the fee? 

[BOF]

1 minute ago, Captain_Townsend said:

Has something changed? Why do people now think he wants the Saudi move? I am not seeing any evidence- same position as last week and club negotiation on the fee? 

They're hypotheticals based on if this tweet is true. Which we think is not.

 

[Captain_Townsend]

Many thanks, hadn't seen that. He had apparently agrees terms with us last week!

[Adman]

2 hours ago, tomav84 said:

 

newcastle are one of the richest teams in the world now and could circumvent FFP by signing players via the saudi league - the scale is quite different

Man city have set the precident that you can repeatedly cheat and lie your way to success.  They will bog the charges down for years in the legal system until everyone involved has moved on or died and noone will remember what they did in the first place.  They will have won 10 league titles by then.  it should now be considered mismanagement of Newcastle and other petrostate owned clubs not to do the same.