The Unreliable Rumours Discussion Thread (Part 1)

But they are. And quarantine rules or not I don’t think anyone is going to get to refuse to release players for an actual tournament. Tournaments are for unspecified lengths of time already. Clubs have just enjoyed the freedom to bundle their stars straight on a plane and onto a pitch at the other end. They don’t have any right to have the player available to them by a certain date like with the international window when qualifiers and friendlies take place within a certain date range and the players have to be back available to their club. That’s my understanding of it anyway.

I would think it would come with the terms or at least before a formal agreement because how the payment is spread out will affect the value of the bid. There is a big difference between getting £1m today or paid a million yearly instalments of £1 (as an extreme example).

It’s likely the real Madrid bid was either spread over a larger than usual payment period, or heavily based on clauses which PSG have taken exception to. Either that or PSG are just having a go at Real Madrid for the fun of it.

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Depends when they have to actually join up with the national teams. I’m guessing that isn’t going to be the day before the first game.

Potential quarantine periods, injury risks, missing the winter break so needing a break elsewhere in the season.

Far too simplistic to say it’s just three games.

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Sort of what I was wondering due to the reply from PSG.

Sounds like they have bid 135m, but in reality its first 5 years at 1m, 1 year at 50m, with a 80m of addons dependent on winning the CL final by a margin of 5 goals, with Mbappe scoring 4 exactly within the first half, not including injury time.

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I have a feeling if Madrid doesn’t buy Mbappé this season, they won’t be able to sign him for free next season.

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Why do you think they’re trying now? If they were so sure he’s got his heart set on joining them, they wouldn’t be offering €160 million for a player who they can sign on a pre-contract for nothing in January.

They know where he wants.

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They know we have Mikey Edwards and they don’t! :0)

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It’s probably Mikey who has planted the €160 million bid story in the media.

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Mikey probably sent over the bid from Madrid’s fax machine :joy::joy::joy:

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MC and RM really need to start changing their passwords.

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I was laughed at for this but we’ve freed up roughly £20m room on the amortisation “costs” as they are taken into account on the balance sheet. Meaning £120m worth of talent could be added to the books (providing we utilise our usual 5 year deals) without the balance sheet showing any increase when working out the clubs profit and loss. This may yet increase a little if Salah and Mane extend their deals.

Ok let’s sign 15 players then to cover them just to be safe.

Not sure why you are getting at me, the government rules seem pretty clear on this, it’s not about FIFA putting its foot down.

It seems the reason FIFA can’t demand these players go is because of the UK governments quarantine requirements, tournament or no tournament.

Looking at it they would possibly miss up to 4 but likelihood would be no more than 3.

Can’t see Keita and Salah going far in the knockout rounds.

Cameroon remains on the Amber list and it’s some months away then there are no quarantine restrictions anyhow.

Klopp wouldn’t rush them back anyhow to be fair.

How about wages though? It mentions we’re edging closer to the 70% limit/recommendation.

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Tbh, I’m a little surprised that FIFA have not gone down the route of telling clubs that players need to be released, whether they have to quarantine on their return is nothing to do with them (FIFA). If clubs don’t release players then they face sanctions (including barring players from turning out for their clubs). That would, at least, be FIFA simply trying to strictly implement its own regulations rather than appealing for any special relaxation of public health measures for a global pandemic, which will always play out very badly.

Just from a PR point of view, let alone one that would be more likely to succeed, you would have thought that they would have gone the other way with this. I find it very interesting that they haven’t - I think it perhaps speaks to FIFA being marginalised by the most powerful clubs and leagues.

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That’s where we have more limitations I agree. On actual cash we had a net spend of over £160m three years ago with our usual practice to pay most deals in 3 annual payments, that’s going to mean we roughly had about £50m a year leaving the club in cash payments with the final ones leaving last year. Obviously without actually working for the club nobody is going to know how much is set to pay out or be paid in over the next 3 or 4 years but we should have had room open up on our outgoing payments from this summer onwards of up to around £50m a year. Over a 3 year payment plan that too could equal around £150m roughly.

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That should be a one off following a fall in revenues due to covid. We will most likely see that figure fall back to the 60% & below figure we are more accustomed to seeing.

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Plus it was the “perfect storm”! Revenue affected by covid in the year we won the league with loads of wins, goals and clean sheets. With our wages including lots of bonuses I’m sure that year the wage bill was as high as it could be. Next set of accounts will also show affect from Covid but with a few things that’ll mean it won’t be as bad as it could be. First the wages will be lower due to performance. Second the Nike deal should see an increase ad it’ll be the first year our percentage on sales (which have supposedly been good) will kick in. And 3rd a portion of the TV revenue from the year before will show up because of the delayed restart meaning that season ended in the following years accounts. They still won’t make for pretty reading this spring when they come out probably. The year after that, the financial year we’ve just entered, I think will be very good. Although that “very good” may be used to drive down loans etc. so it still might not show as a profit.

There’s been a change of narrative and it is a bit confusing.

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A big summer could be retaining all of your world class stars no?

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What’s confusing about Pearce being a reactionary hack?

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