I think our plan was to sell Salah to Spain for Coutinho type money, and reinvest in the squad. But that’s not on the cards right now, so can’t see anything drastic happening transfer wise. Any money we find under couch cushions will surely go to a CB, and not sure how much other business we will do.
Maybe PSG will cut a huge check, but I can’t see it. We need fit CBs, play our mids in mid, and work through the slump. Jota coming back will give some energy, but it will take some time coming back from a knee. Finish in top 4, see if we can make some noise in champions league, and have a go at the title next season, hopefully with crowds in the stands.
I think a lot of top clubs and players are slowly realizing that they’re in for a difficult summer.
You see with some of Mo’s latest quotes, Neymar now wishing to stay at PSG (get a new contract), who knows if Real gets Mbappe, etc. They probably got the information that a lot of top moves won’t be happening this summer. Some might still go ahead, but some might not.
For us, with so many important players having their contracts up to 2023, decisions over the next year or so will be interesting to follow.
Absolutely essential for us to remain in the top 4, because even with the CL, with the way we function, it will be a battle to generate as much as possible from sales to fund those 2-3 signings we need.
What happens if clubs go bankrupt. Like surely if most clubs money start drying up players can’t just leave. Will we see these high wages drop down slightly as they accept their fate and remain at these clubs just on less money
The clubs will go into administration and usually sell off their assets. Its rare but not unheard of for clubs to go under completely and disappear but yeah if that happens any players that weren’t already sold become free agents I believe. Likely the whole senior side would be sold on whatever best offer was made before that stage though to pay off debts.
Given that our largest expense (by far) is players’ wages, there’s only one solution if this carries on much longer. Players will have to agree to significant temporary wage reductions or risk shooting the golden goose. The problem then is getting all clubs to agree to reduce transfer fees accordingly. Cold day in hell?
Clubs become available on the market to be sold…
No new buyers forthcoming, like ARD says above…
Worst scenario is assets are cannibalised and club folds up
I disagree. I think that next season’s transfer windows will be very quiet.
With few exceptions, most clubs will be having cash flow problems. Outgoings, primarily player wages, have remained much the same as pre pandemic, but income will have been hit due the loss of matchday revenue, reduced TV payments, and possibly reduced commercial income.
Prior to the pandemic few clubs were actually making any money. That number will have since fallen dramatically.
I believe clubs must look to reduce their wage bills either by negotiating player wage reductions, or by reducing the number of playing staff. Either way, few clubs will be in position to take on additional players or to offer improved terms to players approaching the end of their contracts.
Very few clubs will have sufficient surplus cash to actually buy anyone, even at heavily discounted prices.
I expect most premier league clubs to survive by borrowing against future earnings; the same cannot be said for lower league clubs and it is quite likely that several of these lower league clubs could go out of business.
Longer term, the increased burden of debt will continue to inhibit any return to pre-Covid conditions (in the transfer market) for some considerable time.
What are the possibilities of clubs getting bought by venture (vulture) capitalists? There are plenty of billionaires and state entities floating around and a lot of the traditional clubs can be available at cut price deals.
I think the transfer market is the one thing that will save many clubs.
The money doped clubs will operate fine and snap up the big and rising star names and that money will then flood into the market.
Some of those clubs who have had players taken will then go bargain shopping amongst the cash strapped clubs.
Many clubs will use future revenues to pay for incomings (such as we did with Jota) or via loans (think Everton did that?).
But for profit and loss accounts where incomings fees get spread over the length of the contracts outgoing fees get banked in full. It’ll help a lot of clubs to show themselves as more profitable than they really are. Cash flow will be the issue they’d face and short/medium term loans will be available to a lot of them.
Expecting to see a credit boom in the sport this summer.
I doubt that the transfer market will be the clubs’ saviour.
There are very few clubs with super rich owners e.g. PSG, shiteh, cheatski. The rest (even Barca & Real Madrid) are strapped for cash, so it will be a buyers’ market. And in a buyers’ market prices fall because there is little or no competition for players that are put up for sale.
All the clubs (other than the aforementioned privileged few) will be strapped for cash. They will obliged to use any income from player sales to pay down debts (accumulated during the pandemic) that were secured against future revenues.
It will not be possible to mortgage the same future revenues twice, so there will be very little left over to purchase players.
Short/medium term loans have to be repaid in the short/medium term. And until they are repaid there won’t be any surplus cash to buy players.
We are probably also on course to miss out on £50m for ticket sales (league games) for this season. That doesn’t include food, drinks and merchandise which is being sold on a matchday.
Not expecting us to be able to spend as much as we did last summer.
Most (not all, obviously) footballers would be lucky to have a minimum wage job in a supermarket if they weren’t so adept at running around and kicking a ball.
It is unlikely a club will fold up because there will always be someone with more money than sense to dabble in the limelight and take it over… Doesn’t mean the club/club owners will make a penny from the sale though.