Meh, these owners aren't fools. Most mid-to-low table PL clubs support the PSR rules out of self-interest. Very few clubs in that bracket are thinking about competing for the PL title. They're thinking about staying up and giving their supporters PL football and they don't want to live in a world where they need to lose a hundred million pounds a year in order to avoid relegation.
He’s Catalan and did score two goals for Barcelona, one in La Liga and one in the Champions League. It looks like he was demanding guarantees from Barcelona in terms of playing time that the club couldn’t guarantee. I’m curious to see if there is a buyback clause, but I doubt it.
Sounds like it’s Strasbourg (same ownership group), at least for now:
He has said he only wants the Premier League … while Napoli is refusing to sell anyways. He’s a terrific player for sure. C’mon Reds , get it done!
I don’t know how it works in England, but in Spain there is usually a flurry of activity to get to at least a balanced budget for the previous season by July 1, allowing normal transfer activity for the following season.
From my understanding that is how it works in England too. The window has been open, but the windows don't line up with the accounting year for PSR, which closes on June 30th. So if you're in a bad accounting spot you need to sell and make some cash before then. And teams that are close to their PSR limits wait until after that date to buy. It's an odd way to do things, but I guess it is fair to teams by giving them a chance to make things up if they have surprises during the year, and it's not so late that it freezes the market for big chunks of the window as the profitable teams (or ones good at faking it) wait for the reset.
It seems to have made it less likely they sell Branthwaite, at least.
I'm happy for Morata -- he seems rather miserable in Spain, and because his wife is Italian, it is certainly possible that he ends up feeling more at home in Milan and finds the Italian soccer culture to be more welcoming and forgiving to him. Plus, there was no way Atletico was going to offer him another four years, and Atletico shouldn't have made that move since Atleti needs to get younger and I'd rather not be committed to a 35-year-old striker.
Pretty sure that Dovbyk is walking through that door. I am a huge believer in Samu too. I think when people see him, they see the obvious athleticism he possesses- he’s HUGE in person and extremely fast when he gets going. But he has skills too and gets himself into great spots on the field. If he can put it all together, he’s a starter for Spain imo. He scored 8 goals last season at Alaves which is a pretty good return, and if you watch him you can see that he could’ve scored more.
Manager wants him. The fans are up in arms about it, and they are known to be a vocal bunch. This will not go well.
When Juventus were sniffing around the fans went on an angry letter-writing campaign against it. We never heard about him again. No clue if it worked or if the money was what didn't fit.
Dortmund is buying Guirassy from Stuttgart. The problematic Part was/is his physical.
Yeah, I’m certainly no United fan but I think it’s good for the game for Real’s “take this lowball offer or the player joins us for free next summer” strategy to get knocked back a bit.. This looked a lot like the Camavinga deal.
IMO, you can see all those traits and that kind of player eventually developing but right now he looks pretty raw (as one would expect of any 18-year-old).
That’s why it was exciting to think about Yoro coming in and apprenticing under VVD for a bit, joining the rotation, and emerging as top choice about the time Virg ages out or a new contract decision has to be made on Konate.
QFT. He's quietly been one of the biggest disappointments in recent memory. Dude has absolutely everything but can't duct tape it together all at once.
That's really how he should be handled. Saliba was bought at similar age and went on loan for three years. Varane also bought at similar age and in his first three years at Madrid he started 7, 12, and 12 league matches. It looks like United will pay 62m euro initially with another 8m in potential bonuses, which is a massive fee for an 18-year-old. If they get De Ligt it should make it much easier to ease Yoro into the frame but if its just Yoro and Maguire (or Lindelof) as their RCBs then it won't be long before the entire fanbase is braying to start the kid.
Javier Tebas has indicated that Barcelona are very close to out of FFP jail. That of course just means that they can spend what they sell off, so if they want to pursue players they need to sell current players off. They’ve reported to be interested in bringing Dani Olmo home as Flick wants him. The Nico Williams saga will continue until the end of the transfer window. He just signed a new contract at Athletic Club with a slightly higher release clause but the buying club must pay it in full up front and pay all of the taxes, so it’s much higher than a normal €58 million sale. They also put him on a very high salary so Barca or any other club would need to exceed that to get him to leave. He and his brother have been pretty brotherly online too, so he might not want to leave regardless. He’s publicly said he’s happy at Athletic and the club have been pretty defiant about it all. Barca are said to be pursuing Mikel Merino but as part of a swap will La Real would get their choice of unwanted Barca CBs along with €25 million. You know, one of those “I’ll sweeten the pot by giving you something I don’t want” deals that exist only in the minds of the most delusional fans. I haven’t seen anything about Barca going after any DM and the deal for Guido collapsed when Xavi got canned. The would have thought that Zubimendi’s performance at the Euros would have sparked new rumors. He’s really a great player in a position of need. He won’t come cheap either though.
It's an excellent point - becoming a bedrock CB requires time because so much of it is mental and the rest of it is developing a pro physique. For instance, VVD broke in at Groningen at 20 and made 62 appearances, then 76 at Celtic, and then 67 Southampton before moving to Anfield. By the time he got to Soton he was clearly up to EPL level and by the end of that first season, bigger clubs were swirling.
