The Neymar Debate

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Smoked Salmon

Finest human being of all time
Looks like he's off to PSG after telling Messi he'll miss Barca.

At £198m have we reached the level of unsustainable that Levy has been talking about, or is this juts simply the financial elite in the game becoming more and more apart from everyone else?
 
Looks like he's off to PSG after telling Messi he'll miss Barca.

At £198m have we reached the level of unsustainable that Levy has been talking about, or is this juts simply the financial elite in the game becoming more and more apart from everyone else?
I think it's the latter of the two. There are maybe 3 clubs in the world where money literally is just numbers on a paper. Everyone else, even the other multi billionaire clubs still couldn't put up a quarter of a billion dollars on a player.

But I won't believe anything until he's holding up the shirt.
 
...Football itself isn't sustaining such spending though.

I find it increasingly difficult to consider the likes of PSG and City as football clubs anymore.

That said, seeing Barca squirm is pure 'poetry'.
 
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...Football isn't sustaining such spending though.

I find it increasingly difficult to consider the likes of PSG and City as football clubs anymore.

That said, seeing Barca squirm is pure 'poetry'.
Is Barca "squirming" the first sign of the two Spanish giants finding their days are numbered?
 
you know, this could well be the straw that breaks the camel's transfer circus. if this is indeed true, the NHEL model could be introduced into football.
 
At £198m have we reached the level of unsustainable that Levy has been talking about, or is this juts simply the financial elite in the game becoming more and more apart from everyone else?
I believe it's something else entirely that few people seem to talk about.

It's unsustainable so long as such a club is expected to be self-supporting, absolutely. But Levy is increasingly the outlier; he sensibly believes that the business model should make sense in and of itself. There are only a couple of clubs whose internal revenue streams allow for such spending, and PSG is not one of them.

The petro-clubs and Chinese consortiums are playing a different game in my opinion. Russian and Arab owners probably aren't investing in clubs because they think it's a good and profitable business to get involved in, but because it serves several valuable and unique functions that aren't immediately apparent to Western businessmen.

Being a Russian, Middle Eastern, or even Chinese oligarch is a dangerous, high-stakes game, and these owners are perfectly aware of those stakes. Political purges and internal power struggles are common, and owning a football club seems to conveniently legitimize ill-gotten gains, and provides an enormous "rainy day" asset and safe-haven. They're investing abroad because their own countries are unstable and if it all falls apart they won't maintain any of the benefit of that investment anyways. To that effect, Chinese capital controls are very strict, and wealthy Chinese have to go to extreme lengths to funnel their money out of China, but conveniently buying businesses abroad is encouraged as a means of spreading influence and power.

If Roman Abramovich was purged by Putin tomorrow and his Russian assets confiscated then he would still have Chelsea, and the British Government would doubtlessly protect his interest. How much do you think he could fetch in selling Chelsea? The Forbes list currently values Chelsea at $1.85 billion.

If there was revolution in the U.A.E. and Sheikh Mansour found himself a Royal in exile, Forbes lists Man City as being worth $2 billion.

It's glorified money-washing, with millions of eager fans desperate to defend your ability to do so.

If I'm wrong, then all of this craters at some point and Tottenham Hotspur is left standing. If I'm right though, then we'll see spending continue to grow, because that's the whole point of it.
 
Is Barca "squirming" the first sign of the two Spanish giants finding their days are numbered?

Shock to their 'system' for sure, but given how they got most of the Spanish TV money locked down (and the bubble it affords them) I'd expect them be amongst the last to come a cropper to any genuine game-wide 'implosion'...

Pressumably a number of brands will survive, yet not bat an eye lid as the teams in their domestic leagues crumble around them....

Enter 'Global Super-League Championship Soccer'... Feels innevitable.... Then we'll see what financial doping REALLY is as the fuckers spend whatever it takes to cling to their spot.
 
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I believe it's something else entirely that few people seem to talk about.

It's unsustainable so long as such a club is expected to be self-supporting, absolutely. But Levy is increasingly the outlier; he sensibly believes that the business model should make sense in and of itself. There are only a couple of clubs whose internal revenue streams allow for such spending, and PSG is not one of them.

The petro-clubs and Chinese consortiums are playing a different game in my opinion. Russian and Arab owners probably aren't investing in clubs because they think it's a good and profitable business to get involved in, but because it serves several valuable and unique functions that aren't immediately apparent to Western businessmen.

Being a Russian, Middle Eastern, or even Chinese oligarch is a dangerous, high-stakes game, and these owners are perfectly aware of those stakes. Political purges and internal power struggles are common, and owning a football club seems to conveniently legitimize ill-gotten gains, and provides an enormous "rainy day" asset and safe-haven. They're investing abroad because their own countries are unstable and if it all falls apart they won't maintain any of the benefit of that investment anyways. To that effect, Chinese capital controls are very strict, and wealthy Chinese have to go to extreme lengths to funnel their money out of China, but conveniently buying businesses abroad is encouraged as a means of spreading influence and power.

If Roman Abramovich was purged by Putin tomorrow and his Russian assets confiscated then he would still have Chelsea, and the British Government would doubtlessly protect his interest. How much do you think he could fetch in selling Chelsea? The Forbes list currently values Chelsea at $1.85 billion.

If there was revolution in the U.A.E. and Sheikh Mansour found himself a Royal in exile, Forbes lists Man City as being worth $2 billion.

It's glorified money-washing, with millions of eager fans desperate to defend your ability to do so.

If I'm wrong, then all of this craters at some point and Tottenham Hotspur is left standing. If I'm right though, then we'll see spending continue to grow, because that's the whole point of it.

Any reason to bring this bit on Sky Sports News by Matthew Syed
 
Any reason to bring this bit on Sky Sports News by Matthew Syed

I was specifically thinking of that when I was writing.

Points out that the money is ill-gotten, that Chelsea is washed in literal blood-money extorted from the Russian people, and you've got panelists willing to say "but the fans don't care" and "he's put British football on the map!"

But, but, but, but, but, but.

It's shameful.
 
If any governing body properly kicked the tyres of Barca and Real, like the Taxman seems to have done recently, they would find obscene levels of creative accounting and financial crime that is for certain
 
...Football isn't sustaining such spending though.

I find it increasingly difficult to consider the likes of PSG and City as football clubs anymore.

That said, seeing Barca squirm is pure 'poetry'.
I don't agree. Barca are were they are for a reason.
Look at Man City. They have bought every decent woman player, now the best women's team in the UK. That will become profitable.
They buy whoever they want, despite having zilch fan base in Manchester to fill a stadium.
It will soon be clubs like them and PSG who are the top dogs. Clubs who haven't earned the right to be where they are like Man U, Barca or Real. Hate them ,yes, but Barca were always winning titles long before TV money.
PSG never won a title for 19 years. Two in their history. 86 & 93
The year after Qatar buys them they won 4 titles on the trot until stopped last year.
St Ettiene shit all over PSG for titles won.
It stinks.
Especially as Qatar and Abu Dhabi have completely different views on the very things we in football are trying to stop. Like gays & women rights.
Whilst claiming to support kick out homphobia and women's football over here meanwhile in AbU Dhabi they impison and flog homosexuals , women don't have the same rights and Qatar has told gays attending WC not to be seen in public showing any kind of love.
Fuck them.
 
I don't agree. Barca are were they are for a reason.
Look at Man City. They have bought every decent woman player, now the best women's team in the UK. That will become profitable.

They've just "sold" one to Barca, Toni Duggan
 
Barca and Real Madrid are massively profitable year after year - days numebered for having sold a player for a huge coin?
 
I don't agree. Barca are were they are for a reason.
Look at Man City. They have bought every decent woman player, now the best women's team in the UK. That will become profitable.
They buy whoever they want, despite having zilch fan base in Manchester to fill a stadium.
It will soon be clubs like them and PSG who are the top dogs. Clubs who haven't earned the right to be where they are like Man U, Barca or Real. Hate them ,yes, but Barca were always winning titles long before TV money.
PSG never won a title for 19 years. Two in their history. 86 & 93
The year after Qatar buys them they won 4 titles on the trot until stopped last year.
St Ettiene shit all over PSG for titles won.
It stinks.
Especially as Qatar and Abu Dhabi have completely different views on the very things we in football are trying to stop. Like gays & women rights.
Whilst claiming to support kick out homphobia and women's football over here meanwhile in AbU Dhabi they impison and flog homosexuals , women don't have the same rights and Qatar has told gays attending WC not to be seen in public showing any kind of love.
Fuck them.

I hadn't framed Barca as Oil-cunts, but to suggest their laterday financial model is sustainable without being propped up by a major slice of the leagues tv money (and state loans if storys are to believed) is a bit of a stretch...

So yeh.... Fuck them too.
 
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If the world's most expensive player goes from 90million to 198million in one year, modern football isn't just broken, it's totally fucked. That's surely inflation on an insane scale. The only silver lining being that Kane and Alli just became worth about 200mill each.
 
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