Life is a Beach - Summer 2023 Transfer

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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rguilmar said:
Things are getting interesting in Paris…
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My wild ass guess is that Madrid buys him this summer but the fee won’t be crazy, closer to 100m than 200m due to PSG’s lack of leverage.

If I’m Florentino I don’t really want to wait until next summer. Without Mbappe I don’t think Real have enough firepower to overtake Barca or to win CL again. And I’d also be very wary about Mbappe’s word being good regarding a free transfer given what happened last time. A lot could change in a year. Qatar could buy United. MBS could decide that he was sick of screwing around and that Newcastle should do whatever it takes to win immediately.
 
CodPiece XL

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Morgan's Magic Snowplow said:
My wild ass guess is that Madrid buys him this summer but the fee won’t be crazy, closer to 100m than 200m due to PSG’s lack of leverage.

If I’m Florentino I don’t really want to wait until next summer. Without Mbappe I don’t think Real have enough firepower to overtake Barca or to win CL again. And I’d also be very wary about Mbappe’s word being good regarding a free transfer given what happened last time. A lot could change in a year. Qatar could buy United. MBS could decide that he was sick of screwing around and that Newcastle should do whatever it takes to win immediately.
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My wild ass guess is that if 100M is the price, some Saudi team is going to be doing more than sniffing around.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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CodPiece XL said:
My wild ass guess is that if 100M is the price, some Saudi team is going to be doing more than sniffing around.
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I think 100M is a fair over/under number, and I’ll take the under. Qatari owned PSG won’t sell him to any Saudi owned club, despite some creative 1 year ideas. Mbappe has made it known that he only wants Madrid. The only reason Madrid would even consider buying him at all is because of the experience last year when they were convinced he was going to the Bernabéu, so this would be a guarantee. PSG owe him a huge bonus for this season plus like €77 million in salary and have said he will never wear the shirt again unless he signs a new contract. I don’t think that the club could have handled this situation any worse than they have.
 
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sdiaz1

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Shockingly the club owned by the despots that brought you the world cup built by slave adjacent labor is really not used to employees freely exercising their legal rights.
 
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sdiaz1

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Additionally, for some reason I think Kylian is perfectly fine not going on a whirlwind worldwide tour of glamor friendlies.
 
InstaFace

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sdiaz1 said:
Shockingly the club owned by the despots that brought you the world cup built by slave adjacent labor is really not used to employees freely exercising their legal rights.
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Seriously. We have a contract, which says I play until X date and you pay me $Y. Ordinarily, people get on a player's case about not being willing to honor and just play out a contract, when they want a new one. But I've never heard of a club being willing to cut off their nose to spite their face and refuse to play a player on an expiring contract unless they sign a new contract. And to a top-5 player in the world, no less! Good luck ever signing another great player, PSG, unless every year beyond the first is a player option.

Mbappe getting paid € 77M to sit around, practice, hang out in Paris with his friends and family since he's from there and not have to travel, and then appear only for France for the next 12 months, with no risk of overuse injuries and such? Dude probably thinks he's died and gone to heaven.
 
speedracer

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I have to imagine Mbappe is a significant dog to beat Haaland to the Ballon D’Or due to PSG’s CL performance.

My best guess is that PSG is in worse financial shape than folls know and they’re trying to maximize a transfer fee by applying leverage to the player that they don’t really have.
 
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sdiaz1

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SocrManiac said:
With Messi and Ronaldo falling off, he looks to be in a one on one with Haaland this year for the Ballon D’Or. I don’t think he’ll want to lose the opportunity in his prime.
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He is not winning the Balon d'Or with PSG. Unless they somehow win the UCL, which requires the cohesion and flexibility that you simply do not get by beating up on English Championship level squads every week.
 
67YAZ

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Al-Hilal bid €300m for Mbappe. This is just geopolitical joking around.
 
Zomp

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More importantly their offer includes a one year contract of 700 million.

One year means he can join Real next year as planned.


If true I think it happens
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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Zomp said:
More importantly their offer includes a one year contract of 700 million.

One year means he can join Real next year as planned.


If true I think it happens
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I just don’t think that the Qataris will sell arguably the best player in the world to a Saudi club. I’m also of the opinion that Mbappe has little to no interest in a year in Saudi Arabia. Awards and recognition mean a lot to him, even more than money, and he has no chance at a Ballon d’Or playing in the Saudi League.

It’s a metric crapton of money, and it may speak to both PSG and Mbappe in the end. But I would be surprised if this actually happens.

Edited to add that I’m seeing Fabrizio say that PSG will “obviously accept” the offer, and he obviously knows more than me.
 
Zososoxfan

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What's with Turkish clubs becoming somewhat players in the transfer market? There's been a handful of decent players heading to Anatolia this summer, and I keep hearing them in seemingly-legit rumors.
 
Kliq

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Zososoxfan said:
What's with Turkish clubs becoming somewhat players in the transfer market? There's been a handful of decent players heading to Anatolia this summer, and I keep hearing them in seemingly-legit rumors.
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Feels like we go through a phase every few years where the big Turkish clubs start spending for players closer to their primes and are more competitive in Europe, followed by a phase where they only go after end-of-the-line vets and are easy outs in the Champions League.
 
OCST

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candylandriots said:
It’s true :confused:

I get it, and I hope it works out for him. And maybe both sides needed this at this point. But it’s still sad.

I hope for his sake they make it to the group stage, and then have nothing to do with Union Berlin.
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Didn’t realize he was available on a free. It is sad that they couldn’t resolve it sooner, either way. A nice fee for Zaha could have had Palace pushing for Europe if reinvested wisely.
 
candylandriots

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OCST said:
Didn’t realize he was available on a free. It is sad that they couldn’t resolve it sooner, either way. A nice fee for Zaha could have had Palace pushing for Europe if reinvested wisely.
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I think that the view was that they weren’t being offered enough for him, especially when there was just one year left on his contract. And that makes sense, because he was pretty much necessary to ensure their survival. £20 million or whatever they would have gotten for him last year wasn’t worth the incremental relegation risk they would have assumed.

I think he leaves on very good terms with the club and fans. He gets European competition with a team where he’s going to still be *the* man instead of being a spare part at a PSG or whatever. I would have loved for him to come back, but he leaves the club in a much better place than when he arrived (the second time and the first for that matter). He took good care of the campsite.
 
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radsoxfan

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Zomp said:
More importantly their offer includes a one year contract of 700 million.

One year means he can join Real next year as planned.


If true I think it happens
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How do contracts work in soccer? All guaranteed?

If he “tweaks a hamstring” does he still get 700M for one season?

I guess if they think he’s faking not the people you want to piss off….
 
Mighty Joe Young

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radsoxfan said:
How do contracts work in soccer? All guaranteed?

If he “tweaks a hamstring” does he still get 700M for one season?

I guess if they think he’s faking not the people you want to piss off….
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Yep … they are guaranteed. It just shows what a disaster the Saudi money is going to be. It’s basically meaningless in terms of value. That SaudI club will spend ONE BILLION euros for one year of Mbappe’s career. There is no planet or constellation or basically universe where that is good business. Money is a meaningless concept to PIF. I hope he takes the gig and publicly donates his entire salary to Jamal Khashoggi’s estate.
 
koufax32

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If I were Mbappe, I would hate doing anything that legitimizes the Saudi’s attempt to do anything, but…

Taking that money for one year then leaving would be awfully tempting, not because of the wealth you’d get, but from the perspective of taking it so they can’t spread it around to 20 other players to build a legitimate league. It would be helping them light $1bil. on fire. Donating part of it to things they oppose would be a cherry on the top after you’ve left one year later. I kinda hope he does it from just that angle.

Sovereign wealth funds are going to destroy soccer aren’t they?


Edit: Where is the 700m # coming from anyway?

Edit 2: answering my own question: https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/kylian-mbappe-transfer-saudi-side-al-hilal-offer-huge-332-million-fee-776-million-wage-for-psg-superstar/amp/
 
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67YAZ

67YAZ

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In Liverpool news...

They submitted a £37m bid for Lavia, but that was batted back. Sounds like a contract framework is agreed with the player, and Soton are holding out for £50m knowing that City have a £40m buy back clause next summer.

Fab is set to join pre-season training tomorrw as his transfer has hit some kind of wall. There's a theory that it's because KSA bans bulldogs and Fab has a pair of French bulldogs. And there's anothe theory that Liverpool and Al-Ittihad can't agree on the fee structures, espeically how much upfront.
 
rguilmar

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sdiaz1

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rguilmar said:
Real Betis have been very busy of late. They brought back old friend Marc Bartra who was a financial casualty last year. Now they’re bringing Isco back to Seville presumably as a Canales replacement. Isco recently did an interview where he claimed to be physically assaulted by Monchi while at Sevilla, so an already testy Derby might get a little more picante.

View: https://twitter.com/fabrizioromano/status/1684227557225295873?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ
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I really like that move for Isco, Pellegrini has worked some magic with creative mercurial types in the past and hopefully can do so again.

Of course, I also thought Sevilla was a great place for Isco in the first place so...
 
Zososoxfan

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Barca are supposed to be making a big financial announcement today, which according to Laporta has already been blessed by La Liga and will allow them to register all their players (4 from last year, and 3 summer signings). The rumor is a 10-year branding deal with Qatar worth €100M+/year. The deal is thought to be more of a partnership structure, where Qatar may invest more in the deal with the club splitting additional revenue 50-50. The little I've read from Barca message boards is mostly positive realpolitik (i.e., can't compete while the last of the Barto era is cleared off, be owned by the Socis, and stay competitive in global football without petrodollars), but also a fair amount of ick considering this is Qatar, and pointing out Laporta's hypocrisy as he slammed Barto/Rosell for the Qatar Airways sponsorship going back 15 years.
 
InstaFace

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Zososoxfan said:
Barca are supposed to be making a big financial announcement today, which according to Laporta has already been blessed by La Liga and will allow them to register all their players (4 from last year, and 3 summer signings). The rumor is a 10-year branding deal with Qatar worth €100M+/year. The deal is thought to be more of a partnership structure, where Qatar may invest more in the deal with the club splitting additional revenue 50-50. The little I've read from Barca message boards is mostly positive realpolitik (i.e., can't compete while the last of the Barto era is cleared off, be owned by the Socis, and stay competitive in global football without petrodollars), but also a fair amount of ick considering this is Qatar, and pointing out Laporta's hypocrisy as he slammed Barto/Rosell for the Qatar Airways sponsorship going back 15 years.
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Still better than selling TV rights or a % of revenue for 40-50 years or whatever the hell had been proposed.
 
rguilmar

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Jettisoned said:
I wonder if Isco will just slot right into the role Sergio Canales was playing.
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I imagine Fekir will slot into that role with Isco coming off the bench, at least to start the season. Betis have added a lot of depth to make a run at 4th in La Liga while competing in three competitions. They have a bunch of guys that can play at a La Liga level as some combo of wingers, 8s and 10s depending on how Betis line up - Fekir, Isco, Henrique, Juanmi, Rodri, Ayoze, Juan Cruz, Alex Collado, Andres Guardado. Isco needs to show that he can play consistently after years in the wilderness at Madrid and whatever happened at Sevilla last season. The social media folks did give him the full Jon Snow coming back from the dead treatment.

View: https://twitter.com/realbetis/status/1684244865616424961?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ
 
67YAZ

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Fab was back in Liverpool camp yesterday, but has been left out of the trip to Singapore. So this was likely a negotiating ploy to nudge and Fab is still on track for his Saudi move.
 
Kliq

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Turner would see plenty of action given the state of Forest's defense.
 
rguilmar

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Keeping with the Arsenal and USMNT theme, Auston Trusty looks to be off to Sheffield United for £5 million. Still working on the personal terms.
 
rguilmar

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July 31 was a big day for PSG related transfers. It was a point of no return for Mbappe. July 31 was the last day he could have activated the contract extension beyond the 23-24 season. He also gets a massive bonus for being on the club on August 1. The club jumped into a late pursuit of Ousmane Dembele who had a €50 million release clause until July 31 when it doubled to €100 million. They couldn’t get the deal done despite the player and PSG reaching a verbal agreement. Crucially, Barcelona would receive the full €100 million (or whatever the clubs agree to as negotiations appear ongoing) as opposed to half of the €50 million which would have been split with the player.

Bayern are continuing their pursuit of Kane. Saudis are after Osimhen. Either one could set off a chain reaction of striker transfers. Chelsea was Valhovic and Juve want Lukaku, so rumors are swirling of a possible swap (which never happens).
 
Zososoxfan

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I've never heard of a private clause in any type of football contract. Is that a clause limited to PSG (and perhaps other clubs), or something else?

Either way, there's a talented player in Dembele but I'm ready to move on from him. Barca need the funds and to offload wages and this is a fine place to start. I hope Raphina is up to the task.
 
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sdiaz1

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Zososoxfan said:
I've never heard of a private clause in any type of football contract. Is that a clause limited to PSG (and perhaps other clubs), or something else?

Either way, there's a talented player in Dembele but I'm ready to move on from him. Barcelona need the funds and to offload wages and this is a fine place to start. I hope Raphina is up to the task.
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Barcelona made a splash, high profile aqusituon with convoluted and somewhat shady language under Josep Bartomeu reign?

I am positively shocked!
 
Titans Bastard

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rguilmar

rguilmar

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sdiaz1 said:
Barcelona made a splash, high profile aqusituon with convoluted and somewhat shady language under Josep Bartomeu reign?

I am positively shocked!
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Not that your point isn’t valid but this was actually a new contract signed just last summer under Laporta. It’s not bad business by Barcelona when they can get €25-€50 million or whatever now when anyone could have had him on a free at this time last year. Barca have to unload a winger or two (or three) and this helps solve that problem*.

*Personally I would prefer to keep Dembele over Raphinha or Torres but there isn’t a market for the other two. I wonder if they’ll try to keep Abde now because the rumored money they’d accept for him previously seemed ludicrously cheap for a young talent like him.
 
Zososoxfan

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rguilmar said:
Not that your point isn’t valid but this was actually a new contract signed just last summer under Laporta. It’s not bad business by Barcelona when they can get €25-€50 million or whatever now when anyone could have had him on a free at this time last year. Barca have to unload a winger or two (or three) and this helps solve that problem*.

*Personally I would prefer to keep Dembele over Raphinha or Torres but there isn’t a market for the other two. I wonder if they’ll try to keep Abde now because the rumored money they’d accept for him previously seemed ludicrously cheap for a young talent like him.
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Yeah not terrible business, but I read this morning that Barca are trying to keep the full 50M instead of remitting half to Dembele as his agent understood the framework. Abde is almost certainly staying in the fold as Raphinha hasn't impressed in preseason and he's inconsistent anyway, and Ferran is probably the backup striker in addition to being in the rotation at wing. Ansu had a nice goal yesterday and I'm thinking that Barca might continue with their 4-4-2 and play Ansu as a traditional 7/11.

Vinho Tinto said:
Cavani signed with Boca.

View: https://youtu.be/F2wtHAvmL7c
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Never liked him anyway. Godin and his teammates were assaulted by their own club's (Velez) ultras after a bad performance earlier in the week. It's a discussion for another time, but things are not pretty in Argentina.
 
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