The Manchester United Thread: That's It. That's the Joke (Part 1)

Is this site another click bait/junk site?

According to their journalists, they want De Jong desperately, they know Barcelona have to sell, and have already initiated talks with Antony. They’re gonna spend big again, it doesn’t look like they will make any significant sales at this moment if I’m not mistaken.

Probably because they haven’t got anyone other clubs would spend big money upon, with the exception of De Gea.

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They dont have anyone they can sell. They lost 5 first team players on a free already, and the only players they have left who might be surplus are either now going into the last year of the contract (Martial) or have no market value (Wan Bisaka) or both.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/vhoadk/manu_sainz_cristiano_ronaldo_was_determined_to/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Apparently ronaldo wants out. On the one hand the utd fans melt down if he leaves will be hilarious, on the other i think their football will improve without him. Either way looking forward to goldbridge crying.

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Barca no longer have to sell, they’ve just had a 700m euro windfall. I think they’d still like for De Jong to go on the basis he’s not set the world alight there, but the ball is most definitely in their court.

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From where?

Selling up a proportion of TV rights and stuff.

They are selling a chunk of their licensing and merchandising arm (2-300m euros) and a % of future TV revenue (200m euros). They also signed that shirt and sponsorship deal recently with Spotify for about another 280m euros.

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I greatly look forward to Barça’s looming insolvency later in this decade.

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It would be absolute madness for them to mortgage their future, then plow that capital into increasing their expense structure. As Prolix says, insolvency is where they end up if they don’t clean up that balance sheet.

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The issue is less that they lack the money they need to do the deals they need to do, but more the burdensome spending restrictions imposed on them by La Liga. Booking revenue now allows them to do some accounting fuckery that allows them to spend the money they had already wanted to spend.

Of course, that is all out of the window if they do think of this as a windfall to spend now and increase the spending, but outside of that I think where the major risk is in selling them short for future revenue meaning they may be at a financial disadvantage down the line due to need to get this money on the books now.

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In other words, they are just accelerating their downfall? Selling the future income revenue away just to secure their present players. What if they don’t win any la liga titles in the next 5 years? What if they don’t make it into champions league for a year or two?

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Yeah, Barce’s plan seems like a pyramid scheme to me.

They have the cash to do the deals, but their balance sheet is a mess and they are just over a year removed from a point where they did not have the cash to even pay wages. They have 600M Euros of short term debt that is going to be renewing at interest rates nothing like what they have seen in the past decade, and they just sold off a chunk of future revenue. La Liga rules are causing the constraint, but those rules are actually fairly sensible.

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A pyramid scheme?

Got me all confused… I thought, for a brief moment, that the discussion was about Mancs financial trouble…then I realised that the discussion was about Barça financial mess instead. :man_facepalming:

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I think their purpose is undoubtedly well intentioned, but I’m sympathetic to the argument that the way they have been implemented have backed Barca into a corner that makes it really difficult for them to operate. Not so much sympathetic to Barca, but conscious of the reality that the restrictions have forced them into a place where there are no good solutions. But right now, even the two players they have picked up on free transfers are currently unable to be registered without tens of millions being removed from their existing commitments or they find new revenue from somewhere they put on their books.

Removing legacy high earners from a poorly run period like of Pique and Busquets and bringing in players like Christensen and Kessie for free are sound business decisions, but the La Liga resitrctions prevent them doing it due to the distinction they make between outgoing money they were already committed to vs new commitments, even if the moves result in a reduction in their overall spending. Booking this sort of revenue now allows them to make tha move.

Yeah, for purposes of this thread, it is relevant only for how easy it makes a good cop-bad cop negotiation strategy for Barca with ManU. They can just remain completely inflexible on valuation, blame La Liga, and have ManU’s negotiatiors’ eyes glaze over as they dive into the minutiae of La Liga spending rules.

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Star Wars Reaction GIF

Worked perfectly for Leeds. Shining example of splashing every penny to get to the semi-finals of the CL and it all went great after that.

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