Saudi Professional League 23/24

Big_Bad_World said:

CAFCsayer said:

PaddyP17 said:

Henderson is the most disappointing here by a mile. Ultimately, his morals were tested and he made his choice. He has lost the trust of so many people who admired him. That's not tangible, and I'm sure the £700k a week probably provides some comfort to him, but it is so sad to see nonetheless

700k a week… I’d be over there in a heartbeat in the same situation 

...as would everyone else on here with an opinion. If they say they wouldn't then I'll point to a string of massive liars.

If you offered me that now, of course.

If you offered it to me when I was worth millions, coming to the end of my career, settled in an area with young kids etc, I'm not sure I would.

Would I want to uproot everything to go to Saudi Arabia when I'm already worth millions, probably not.

But then I'm always surprised how much footballers chase being slightly more rich over lifestyle considerations - like when they move to a crap industrial town over a lovely coastal place (whilst still being paid thousands a week) etc, so might just be me.

AllHailTheHen said:

Football at the top level was already screwed. I think the Saudi's might actually break it completely.

I almost feel glad to support a club at a level that isn't caught up in this bullshit

If the Saudi's carry on (which they will) then personally i don't think it will be too long before one of two things happens.

1. FIFA step in to introduce global FFP restrictions. 
2. The major clubs in Europe kick off and demand that UEFA scrap their FFP restrictions. 

You can't have one continent being allowed to spend billions whilst other continents in the same sport are restricted despite being able to afford it.

If you've got PL clubs owned by Abu Dhabi, Saudi, maybe soon Man U with Qatar, PSG with Qatar then i can't see them being too happy to just sit back and watch players go to Saudi for 1m a week when they could easily afford that without restrictions. 

At the moment it isn't a problem because the majority of players going there are old, but if you start to get world class young players going there, then the big European clubs will revolt against the rules and something will have to change. 

PSG are allowing Mbappe to speak to Al-Hilal over their offer now

North Lower Neil said:

Big_Bad_World said:

CAFCsayer said:

PaddyP17 said:

Henderson is the most disappointing here by a mile. Ultimately, his morals were tested and he made his choice. He has lost the trust of so many people who admired him. That's not tangible, and I'm sure the £700k a week probably provides some comfort to him, but it is so sad to see nonetheless

700k a week… I’d be over there in a heartbeat in the same situation 

...as would everyone else on here with an opinion. If they say they wouldn't then I'll point to a string of massive liars.

If you offered me that now, of course.

If you offered it to me when I was worth millions, coming to the end of my career, settled in an area with young kids etc, I'm not sure I would.

Would I want to uproot everything to go to Saudi Arabia when I'm already worth millions, probably not.

But then I'm always surprised how much footballers chase being slightly more rich over lifestyle considerations - like when they move to a crap industrial town over a lovely coastal place (whilst still being paid thousands a week) etc, so might just be me.

If you're a top PL footballer coming to the end of your career you'll be worth millions. Let's for arguments sake say you're 35 and you're worth 75m. You have everything you've ever wanted and have so much money you don't even know how to spend it all. However Saudi come in and you can double your entire career earnings in 2 more years.

Of course you're likely to take it. It's only 2 years. Your family and kids don't need to be uprooted, they can stay where they are. You get time off, they get a lot of school holidays, you get the entire summer months off, you also travel by private jet and can fly home in 7 hours. It's easily manageable.

JohnBoyUK said:

Any chance they can offer Spurs £200m for Kane?  asking for a friend lol.

Levy would only then ask for £250 mill

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

killerandflash said:

Callumcafc said:

Mitrovic throwing a wobbly after feeling like he's been priced out of a move by Fulham.

When forcing a move, footballers can normally explain/pretend that it's about "ambition" i.e. I want to move to City/Real/Chelsea because I want to play with the best players, improve myself and win trophies, whereas with all these Saudi moves, the only ambition is to become even richer than they already are...

For most footballers it's only ever about the money. Ultimately it's a job and in a lot of cases their career is done by the time you're 35. It's also a career where you're one bad injury/incident away from an even earlier retirement (Dean Ashton, Ryan Mason, Fabrice Muamba as examples) so i'd never begrudge any player for taking the money when they can.

Mitrovic has 3 years left on his contract and by the time it ends he'll be almost 32 so you'd imagine this is his last chance for a big contract. He's been given the chance to earn in 3 years in Saudi what would take him 10 years at Fulham. He'd be crazy to turn that down.

He's on £80k to £100k a week currently, 99.9% of the population would consider his current salary a big contract 

PSG have accepted the bid of £259m. Does Mbappe want to go to Al Hilal though? 

Addick Addict said:

PSG have accepted the bid of £259m. Does Mbappe want to go to Al Hilal though? 

Although I can’t personally see the desire for an approaching retirement age player going there as others have said surely they have enough money already. But if this guy goes at his age it’s just bollox. There must be more to it, maybe the super league is going to be announced again ? I just can’t see a player like him going there to play in a 4 club league with crowds without atmosphere 

MrOneLung said:

Think the question should be :

Why wouldn’t he go there on loan for a year ? 

PSG get a fee
He gets a massive wedge 
The Saudis get their marquee player and publicity 
He then goes to Madrid 

all four parties get what they consider a result 

don’t think that’s a result for PSG if they can get 1/4 of a billion for a permanent deal 

MrOneLung said:

cafcfan1990 said:

MrOneLung said:

Think the question should be :

Why wouldn’t he go there on loan for a year ? 

PSG get a fee
He gets a massive wedge 
The Saudis get their marquee player and publicity 
He then goes to Madrid 

all four parties get what they consider a result 

don’t think that’s a result for PSG if they can get 1/4 of a billion for a permanent deal 

Sorry, PSG get the 258m but was mentioned earlier he would be in Saudi just for a year and then they let him go Madrid 

Absolutely, although 258m plus wages for a year is insanity 

MrOneLung said:

cafcfan1990 said:

MrOneLung said:

Think the question should be :

Why wouldn’t he go there on loan for a year ? 

PSG get a fee
He gets a massive wedge 
The Saudis get their marquee player and publicity 
He then goes to Madrid 

all four parties get what they consider a result 

don’t think that’s a result for PSG if they can get 1/4 of a billion for a permanent deal 

Sorry, PSG get the 258m but was mentioned earlier he would be in Saudi just for a year and then they let him go Madrid 

Surely even the Saudi’s wouldn’t spend £258M on a one year loan fee (with astronomical wages on top)? 

£260m odd transfer fee for a one year contract?!  Mad.

Who's gonna ask him? Not the Saudi media that's for sure. He might get asked if he gets called up to England again, but I'd be surprised if that happens