I know it’s not Premier League but Darren Moore leaves by ‘mutual consent’ too. What a strange day, two decent managers out of a job.
Agreed and whilst 50% of me wants Iraola to fail and prove everyone's point the other 50% wonders if it was just a case of of the owners ambition to be better than 15th-17th in the league.
Maybe his links in Spain is a decent route to some cheap talent?
Certainly not a fair and reasonable decision and will be interesting to watch.
I know it’s not Premier League but Darren Moore leaves by ‘mutual consent’ too. What a strange day, two decent managers out of a job.
Looks like Arsenal have come back with a 90m bid for Rice (75 guaranteed and 15m in add on's)
West Ham holding out for 100m are City actually interested or is this just paper talk?
Anyone watching Scotland, bit wet up there.
Hope they can get going again.
A piece of commentary I’ve never heard before, the half time whistle has been blown with Scotland scoring the opening goal 2 hours 25 mins ago - classic.
If United don’t want McTominay I would be happy for him to sign for Everton, but it won’t happen. Not because we are shit, but because he has never played for Burnley
It's interesting to see people's reactions to this news...and to compare it to the reaction of people who've seen Bournemouth play this season. GON did the job he was asked to do, but for many games in Jan, Feb and March the football was hopeless, uninspired, directionless, and the defending was dire. We had a great April which kept us up, and then the last 4 games of the season were woeful again. Staying up triggered a 2 year extension to his contract, which is effectively a bonus payment for him. I agree that the way the news came out was less than ideal but the following are true
1) he leaves with his stock higher than it was - a Championship post will surely be his for the taking
2) Bmth fans are truly grateful for the job he did, whilst recognising that he was more of a firefighter than the man to take the next steps for the club (whatever they are). He leaves with the fans' best wishes for his future
3) he'll be aware that the club were looking for a new manager, and that he wasn't first choice to take the role. My speculation is that this was factored in to his contract talks
How it works out with the new manager is anyone's guess - our August and September fixtures are pretty horrible! But, there is genuine excitement at the appointment of Iraola, whilst respecting the job GON did for us.
Kovacic to Man City for £30m
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65966385
Does this confirm Gundo exit ?
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That happens all the time as his contract had ended . Negotiations were still going on with the club . Likewise , DeGea at United has been released ( I think )
All the Spanish journalists are on the Gundogan to Barca story so it’s definitely got legs . I don’t begrudge him his move . A genuine world class footballer who will have a couple of seasons in La liga before going into coaching . He’s left on the highest high too .
It's very convenient that Chelsea, with their significant Saudi shareholding via Clearlake Capital, is able to offload players at pretty high prices to Saudi Arabian teams, thereby freeing up their ability to re-enter the transfer market. For sure they'd receive far lower bids for these players if selling them to European sides so it is very helpful to Chelsea.
I'm sure the by proxy Saudi shareholding in Chelsea, and the sales of dead wood players to Saudi sides at top dollar are unconnected......
Last edited by ryanb741; 21st June 2023 at 16:29.
West Ham have had their fans banned from the next European away game they play as a result of the throwing of objects during the Conference League Final
Um Arsenal isn't Saudi yet, we've given them £12m for Jorg, and another £65m (inc add ons) for Havertz (subject to medical). 29yo Kovocic to Citeh for £30m (inc add ons) with 1 years left on his contract seem reasonable for their best player, £100m for Rice with 1 year left perhaps less so. Plus looks like we are offloading Partey to a Saudi side (as in the country not the EPL ones) so not sure we have a moral high ground.
Maybe I'm a pessimist but give it a few years of mature mercenaries attracted to Saudi money, then the snaffling of players at their prime, and then young bought and loaned out and you end up with the Saudi Champs league competition (featuring those old historical clubs from Europe as guests) and their league being the best in the world (think of a scaled up Man Citeh/ Chelsea model) see Golf for recent example- I hope I'm wrong but I get the feeling that they like power and the trophies to go with them.
Two games
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...-b1089361.html
What did the team whose fans attacked West Ham family members get, I missed that.
Saudi/Middle East teams can pay as much as they like for players and no doubt will attract some big names but they simply play for nothing in the way of silverware, most young talented players will want European titles so I can see the Middle East teams ending up like China from a few years back..
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Newcastle apparently loaning neves from Saudi.
Absolutely laughable if that is allowed to happen.
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Havertz deal done. £65m.
The last time such an inexplicable purchase was made was late at night on ebay after a heavy day's drinking.
Besides owning Newcastle, the Saudi fund PIF also owns four competing clubs in the Saudi League: Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad, Al-Nassr and Al-Ahli. These four clubs have just bailed out Chelsea, another financial participation of Saudi Arabia, by buying six players from them. They are also buying players across Europe, like CR7, Benzema, Neven and others.
And Saudi Arabia is not a terrorist state, allegedly.
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
it’s quite similar. If memory serves, Frank signed for New York City, part of City Football Group and then was loaned to Man City.
Al-Hilal is owned by Saudi PIF who own Newcastle (despite assurances there was no links to MBS during takeover but since evidenced in LIV golf PGA Tour court case) so the similarities are there.
Saudi are clearly looking to be a major disruptor in the football world. What’s the betting next World Cup bid goes to Saudi?
It's worse.
The three first teams in the Saudi League are all owned by the government, and are allowed to "compete" against each other, buying any player they want with unlimited government funding. As a side show they are also subsidising Newcastle by giving them players on cheap loans and Chelsea by buying their overvalued players that nobody else would buy. It's going to become even better, with Al-Ahli just having been promoted from the second league: next year the four biggest clubs will be government-owned.
Long live fair competition, and human rights (allegedly).
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
Good old Chelsea, they certainly do attract some unscrupulous owners/investors..
I hope we can get Tonali over the line as he’s a good player. Only 23, won Serie A, played 14 times for Italy and 29 Champions League appearances for Milan. Scores a few goals for a CDM.
Man City in for Rice now, have been told he is open to the move
Hard to turn down Pep though. Depends on how serious he was about his word to join Arsenal and also being a guaranteed started at Arsenal vs that being less likely at City.
City also have their financial limits if bidding gets too high - hence pulling out of the Harry Kane deal when Levy asked for £120m