Jump to content

Football: Silly season


Mark Antony

Recommended Posts

This Neymar transfer is going to drag and drag, although some are claiming that the deal will be completed next week but I still remain skeptical. Since is has been reported for quite some time that PSG are willing to trigger his buy-out and Neymar has already agreed personal terms with them, I've been wondering why it's taking so long for this transfer to go through. Turns out it is not a simple case of simply triggering the buy-out due to Spanish law.

In Spain, when a buy-out clause is triggered the amount has to be transferred to the selling club by the player himself and not the buying club i.e. the buying club transfers the money to the player who then uses that money to buy out his contract. This is where it gets complicated: when the buying club transfers the money to the player, that amount is subject to tax.

There are various options:

1) If the selling club is okay with the transfer and have a good relationship with the buying club, they can negotiate a fee which is usually midway between the value of the buyout clause and the amount that would have to be paid if the taxes payable on the buyout clause were also due.

2) If the selling club feels that it is a hostile bid this would mean that the buying club will have to pay the clause plus the 18% VAT. Barca would have to agree to this though.

3) If the selling club is refusing any transfer unless forced then the legal provision Decreto Real 1006/1985 kicks in (this is applicable wrt Neymar). This means that PSG would be liable for paying tax of 20% - 47% on the €222m fee which means that buying out Neymar's contract would actually cost PSG anywhere between €266m and €327. This is why I think the transfer is taking so long because PSG are trying to negotiate with Barca for a fee between the buy-out clause value and the amount that would need to be payed if taxes are included. So Barca are actually far from powerless here.

 

EDIT: Scratch that. I was operating on outdated information. Changes to Spanish tax law last October means that the money PSG gives Neymar to buy-out his contract is now considered as capital gains rather than income and is therefore not subject to Spain's top income tax bracket. This makes the transfer a bit cheaper for PSG although there would still be a tax for capital gains as well. Not sure exactly how much that would be although I've seen some claims stating that it could be as much as €80m.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So it looks like this Neymar transfer might happen after all, at least according to Mundo Deportivo. No idea how reliable these people are but they are reporting that Qatar Sports Investments are going to hire Neymar as their WC 2022 ambassador and pay him €300m upfront. Neymar will then use this to buyout his contract and move to PSG on a free transfer. PSG will then only be liable for paying Neymar's salary and any sign on bonus and agent fees.

If this is true then it is shady as fuck and hopefully UEFA throws the book at PSG otherwise FFP will become a bigger joke than it already is. Although, I must admit that I'm finding it pretty funny seeing Barca fans going into meltdown. I still remember that time when Barca players put a Barca shirt on Fabregas while he was still contracted to Arsenal. I'm not even a Gunners fan but I found that to be disgusting behaviour. Not so nice when the shoe is on the other foot, huh? Also, Barca are going to get absolutely fleeced trying to sign a replacement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Consigliere said:

No idea how reliable these people are but they are reporting that Qatar Sports Investments are going to hire Neymar as their WC 2022 ambassador and pay him €300m upfront. Neymar will then use this to buyout his contract and move to PSG on a free transfer. PSG will then only be liable for paying Neymar's salary and any sign on bonus and agent fees.

That seems excessively brazen. I suspect they'll just do what City do and completely coincidentally get sponsorships from Qatar based companies which cover their transfer spending.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

That seems excessively brazen. I suspect they'll just do what City do and completely coincidentally get sponsorships from Qatar based companies which cover their transfer spending.

Definitely possible, but I thought FFP covered that loophole? I wouldn't put it past them to act this brazenly though especially when you consider that FFP sanctions thus far have been nothing more than a slap on the wrist. QSI and PSG might think it is a risk worth taking so long as they get Neymar.

 

12 hours ago, polishgenius said:

The funniest thing is that, reportedly, if Neymar waits until Tuesday to sign for PSG, he gets a €25mil loyalty bonus from Barcelona on Monday.

:lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally. We really needed a CDM. Also hear that Fellaini is close to joining Galatasaray. If that happens then we do need another midfielder and the rumour mill is suggesting that we might make a move for Matuidi. Also, after watching some Inter and United preseason games, I can completely understand why Mourinho wants Perisic so bad. He would fit the system well and we desperately need someone who can put in decent fucking crosses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chelsea are having a bit of an odd Summer. It's not getting the attention of Liverpool's ongoing transfer sagas or Spurs not signing anyone but they won the title last year with a fairly thin squad and some luck with injuries.

With Champions League games this year plus Hazard coming into the season injured you'd think they like to add to their squad. They're pretty much just replacing Costa with Morata, Matic with Bakayoko and Terry with Rudiger it seems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Think fabregas will do well when he's given the chance, having Willian as a slightly more aggressive mid in front of him when Jose was in charge really played to his strengths.

 

On another note watching England v France ladies match right now. The quality is very poor when it comes to technical ability. It's entertaining on some level but this is a million miles away from top class , even professional football. There is a long way to go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems like Mourinho has ruled out the possibility of Fellaini leaving. I'm okay with that. Fellaini gives everything on the pitch and carries out Mourinho's instructions very well. With Matic, Fellaini can now consistently be used further forward. He struggles when asked to play a deep lying midfield role as that highlights his weaknesses and negates his strengths.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find I can't bring myself to be pleased that we're signing Matic. Like, we do need another DM, and he'll do a job, but does it have to be a hyper-specialised sitting breaker like Matic? A guy like that is only really necessary when the midfield ahead of him is very attack-focused, but we'll presumably be mostly partnering him with Pogba and Herrera, and even when they're freed up they offer enough defensive work that they'll overlap with what he's doing already. It'll make more sense if we play Matic-Pogba-Mkhitaryan, but that shafts Herrera. It does provide a bit more freedom to use Fellaini further up, but I'm not sure that's enough of a benefit for not signing a DM who offers some passing or a bit more movement.

It just seems like a sign of Mourinho being stuck not just in his ways but in perhaps a previous era of football.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

I find I can't bring myself to be pleased that we're signing Matic. Like, we do need another DM, and he'll do a job, but does it have to be a hyper-specialised sitting breaker like Matic? A guy like that is only really necessary when the midfield ahead of him is very attack-focused, but we'll presumably be mostly partnering him with Pogba and Herrera, and even when they're freed up they offer enough defensive work that they'll overlap with what he's doing already. It'll make more sense if we play Matic-Pogba-Mkhitaryan, but that shafts Herrera. It does provide a bit more freedom to use Fellaini further up, but I'm not sure that's enough of a benefit for not signing a DM who offers some passing or a bit more movement.

It just seems like a sign of Mourinho being stuck not just in his ways but in perhaps a previous era of football.

Yes, this is a very Mourinho type player. Matic is a good distributor of the ball and will help us defensively but it is still very much an open question of how much of a difference this will make when we attack. We were already defensively solid last season; it was a lack of goals that cost us a top 4 finish. I'm not convinced that we have resolved that problem.

On a separate note, Andreas Perreira has looked promising in preseason. Hope he gets a decent amount of game time this season. Axel Tuanzebe looks a good prospect as well and I hope he is given more first team opportunity. I think we should let Smalling go - he's played top flight football long enough and it seems that this is as good as he is ever going to get, which is to say nervous as fuck everytime the ball comes near him. Also hear that we sent scouts to watch Dendoncker from Anderlecht which doesn't mean much in-and-of-itself but I do hope we bring him in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Yes, this is a very Mourinho type player. Matic is a good distributor of the ball and will help us defensively but it is still very much an open question of how much of a difference this will make when we attack. We were already defensively solid last season; it was a lack of goals that cost us a top 4 finish. I'm not convinced that we have resolved that problem.

On a separate note, Andreas Perreira has looked promising in preseason. Hope he gets a decent amount of game time this season. Axel Tuanzebe looks a good prospect as well and I hope he is given more first team opportunity. I think we should let Smalling go - he's played top flight football long enough and it seems that this is as good as he is ever going to get, which is to say nervous as fuck everytime the ball comes near him. Also hear that we sent scouts to watch Dendoncker from Anderlecht which doesn't mean much in-and-of-itself but I do hope we bring him in.

 


From what I know and remember of Dendoncker from when we played them, I'm not sure if we're likely to get him and Matic both (I would prefer Dendoncker, more of a gamble but a more complete player. Although if we're gambling on Anderlecht midfielders we really should have got Tielemans). But we might.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, polishgenius said:

From what I know and remember of Dendoncker from when we played them, I'm not sure if we're likely to get him and Matic both (I would prefer Dendoncker, more of a gamble but a more complete player. Although if we're gambling on Anderlecht midfielders we really should have got Tielemans). But we might.

The big problem for us is the tactics. I don't think that signing a different type of DM would make much of a difference because Mourinho would just instruct him to play the way Matic does, which is why Matic is basically the perfect signing for Mourinho's system. It's like if we signed Mendy (and this is an issue with Shaw as well), his attacking ability would mostly be negated because of the system. It's all well and good sitting deep and looking to counter against certain teams but Mourinho really does need to take more of a gamble against sides that sit deep against us otherwise it will be the same old story as last season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a Chelsea fan, I am disappointed we are letting Matic go to United. Not only are we weakening our already threadbare squad, we are boosting that of our rivals. With Bakayoko not fit until September, it looks like we are left with Fabregas and Kante as our only first team centre mids and as much as I love Fabregas, in big games where we don't have much of the ball, he is found out in a midfield two.

The only consolation is that it looks like Chelsea are getting £40m for Matic, which at 28, coming 29 in August, is good business on our behalf. But the problem at Chelsea is their obsession with doing 'good business'. We have shipped so many good players out the past few years. When Matic to United is complete we will have made £100m in transfers out this summer, yet we insist on haggling over every penny when it comes to signing players and end up missing out on top targets like Lukaku, Walker, Danilo and presumably Alex Sandro will be the same.

We can criticise teams like City that spend over the odds, but at least they don't balk at a price and actually get the deals done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Liverpool looking really good against Bayern. The pace of Mane and Salah are causing all sorts of problems. Bayern have struggled to create much of anything going forward and Liverpool have been quite comfortable defensively while providing the best attacking moments as well. Can't read too much into a preseason game but it's encouraging signs nonetheless for Liverpool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...