Darwin Núñez (FW) Benfica

Haaland is surprisingly weak with his head. For a big lad who grew up in a style of play tha puts the ball on the ground less than occurs in England you would expect him to be approximating the likes of earlier Norwegian strikers like Tore André Flo, but he really isn’t. He is far more of approximation of Rush than that, which is what makes his situation all the more interesting given he lack of space opposing teams leave in the channels for City’s striker to look to get into.

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I don’t get how anyone gives a fuck what fans of other clubs or anyone in the media thinks or says about this transfer?! If Klopp wants him that’s the bottom line! If Klopp wants them it doesn’t matter if they’re 8 million quid or 75.

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It’s the Twitter age unfortunately, and it seems for a lot of folks they’re more concerned with winning the banter war than anything taking place on the pitch.

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The inflation adjusted thing is important, as that infamous declaration from Klopp was literally a couple of months prior to PSG destroying the market for everyone else.

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#Hurryupandannouncenunez

I got hit on Whatsapp over the weekend by 3 separate Chelsea supporting mates with the same line of us now having the 4th most expensive player premier league player of all time, second most expensive defender and 2nd most expensive keeper…amazing what miracles he’s doing on a shoestring budget.

Alternatively, it’s fascinating what sort of purchases you can afford when you manage your finances responsibly.

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Doesn’t the PL transfer window open on July 1st? I’m sure it does, doesn’t it?

.










runs away

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tommy wiseau psa GIF by The Room

It was already announced today that there’ll be another announcement tomorrow

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God that one’s been going round and round on Twitter… I’ve seen it umpteen times which is remarkable because I’m barely on Twitter.

It’s also funny how the clubs that regularly break transfer fee records are the ones who are most sharing this opinion.

Did you ask your mates which club has the most expensive keeper, and how that’s working out for them?

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Man City have a sophisticated PR machine, bots, the lot, to aid their sports washing. Whenever they can, they want to downplay and hide what they are truly paying. So the transfer fee that is reported for Haaland will be lower end, in pounds to make the number lower too. That grates, but it is clearly what they are doing.

The transfer fee for Nunez is being reported in Euros, with all add ons. Apples to oranges. But the British press just see fruit. Ooh. Tasty fruit. Lovely!

The bigger problem is that Haaland’s wages will be under reported too. There will be a large portion that will be completely hidden and off the books. If the bar is now set in the region of 1M a week, or more, for the very highest paid players in the world, we can be sure that Haaland will be getting double the salary that is reported.

Besides the bad reporting on the money Man City are paying in transfer fee and wages, the press aren’t talking about where it came from. The money that we are spending is based on what we earn. There is a clear link to it all. Prize money, sales, true commercial deals… it’s all there, on the record, so the business we do is legitimate. Man City are ridden with sponsorship deals where they essentially sponsor themselves. It’s a scam, and it is very easy to expose, but it goes under reported.

It’s in Man City’s interest for a narrative to develop along the lines of both top clubs buying a striker for the new season ready to fight it out again next season. It’s in their interest to make it look like they are doing the same as us. It’s a form of whataboutery. They have a rap sheet as long as you like, but they want to be seen as legitimate, like us.

The galling thing is the British press are legitimizing them, when what is needed is more along the lines of Der Spiegel.

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Despite what Maddock says, I think this may get officially announced this evening. I’ll take 7pm!

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I sort of get it. If your team gets endless shit for spending then I’d too be invested in pointing out the spending clubs we’re competing with do. It’s not the comeback that is the problem, its the whole contextless overlooking of why they get shit thrown at them.

The two previous purchases cited in this much borrowed attack line have increased in value and only missed a only a small hand full of games combined when available. Chelsea on the other hand have a succession of high priced failures on their side whose value has plummeted - a keeper more expensive than Alisson who was replaced in a year by a man 20% of his cost, a forward who before his first season was even up was telling the world he wished he’d have stayed in Milan, a German wonderkid who is as uncertain over what sort of footballer he is supposed to be as he was when he was signed 2 years ago. And all of this is before we even need to get to their historical record of spunking out big money to replace previous big money flops. Torres and Schevchenko are both among the biggest inflation signings of all time, and they have about 20 Chelsea goals between them.

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Yeah, you say that, but surely the French window comes into play, with the tax thing between Spain and Monaco.

And what about those release clauses, hm… nobody ever made the effort to explain that to us…

Bastards.

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All the talk of Andy Carrol, and strikers we were in for brings back memories of one of Rafa’s major mistakes - not signing Anelka after his loan period.

Edit: houllier not Rafa…having a mare

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I hear you, but would it have made much difference? I honestly can’t remember details (brain is partly fucked) :slight_smile:

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The bigger crime was signing Diouf instead :grimacing:

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Right, but if we amortize his salary over 5 years we actually earn money.

willem dafoe scientist GIF

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Rafa never should have sold Beardsley. It was clear he still had several more years at the top in him.

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