Football: Steve the Bruce King of Geordies

[BigFatCoward]

11 minutes ago, mormont said:

This is the sort of thing that's easy to say and sounds true, but isn't.

I mean, it's a no-brainer, right? But... there are two enormous 'ifs' in your statement before we even get started. And then there are issues like whether Bale would be a starter, whether even if he did drop his wages the club prefer to spend that elsewhere, whether he'd fit into the manager's tactics, what impact his recruitment would have on other players, the list goes on. And all of it adds up to what we actually have, which is... no teams at the highest level interested in signing Bale.

But as noted, Bale's not turning down better footballing offers for this money. This is the only real concrete offer he has, as I understand it.

You telling me if he said to spurs (for example) 'give me 100 grand a week' and with no transfer fee they wouldn't take it. 

 

[mormont]

8 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

You telling me if he said to spurs (for example) 'give me 100 grand a week' and with no transfer fee they wouldn't take it.

I'm telling you that, self-evidently, this hasn't happened.

ETA - put it another way: for whatever reason, Bale has a choice between collecting his money sitting on the bench at Real or collecting his money playing in China. This pay cut to go to Spurs is a hypothetical. It's a bit rough to blame someone for not taking up a hypothetical offer.

[Consigliere]

 

[Raja]

Bruh. What is this.

Also - re: our '40 million budget' - the two execs have come out and denied that that is the figure a couple of days ago. There's a lot of conflicting information our there regarding what our transfer budget it ( I honestly don't care enough abut any of it)

Re: Bale - What is this free transfer thing? Doesn't he still have 3 years left on his contract?

Lastly, headed to the emirates this sunday. Been a while so I'm looking forward to watching both the arsenal women & the men

[ljkeane]

14 minutes ago, Raja said:

Re: Bale - What is this free transfer thing? Doesn't he still have 3 years left on his contract?

Nobody wants to pay a transfer fee and Real want to get his wages off the books.

If Arsenal signing Pepe is true, and it probably is considering Ornstein is reporting it, then they are making some big moves this summer after all. They still need a centreback or two though.

[Consigliere]

I think we can safely disregard those reports of a £40m budget for Arsenal.

 

Re: Bale. There were reports that the Chinese club wanted Bale on a free but nothing to suggest that Real Madrid were willing to do that - yes, Bale still has 3 years on his contract. If Bale is to go to China then Real would likely have to settle for a nominal transfer fee at best because Bale's wages are astronomical (approx. 50% more than Sanchez) + Chinese clubs are subjected to a 100% tax on the transfer fee of foreign signings made for more than $7m. 

 

ETA. Also, Atleti absolutely humiliated Real in preseason beating them 7-3. Diego Costa scored 4 goals and got sent off so just typical Costa things.

[Mark Antony]

What a signing for Arsenal

[BigFatCoward]

3 hours ago, mormont said:

I'm telling you that, self-evidently, this hasn't happened.

ETA - put it another way: for whatever reason, Bale has a choice between collecting his money sitting on the bench at Real or collecting his money playing in China. This pay cut to go to Spurs is a hypothetical. It's a bit rough to blame someone for not taking up a hypothetical offer.

I dont beleive those are his two choices, you think they are. Neither of us knows for certain.

If he wanted to play too level football and was proactive about it I'm pretty sure he could. If he wants to play in China for a million quid a week that's fine, but it's a waste of his talent IMO, and strikes me as a bit pathetic. It's not like he is Beckham, old and shite moving to the states. 

 

[BigFatCoward]

31 minutes ago, Mark Antony said:

What a signing for Arsenal

That's a cracking strike rate for someone who is predominantly a winger. 

[Mark Antony]

4 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

That's a cracking strike rate for someone who is predominantly a winger. 

He did take penalties to be fair but I rate Pepe quite highly. Will be interesting if Auba will be played on the left wing with Lacazette up the middle and Pepe on the right. 

[Consigliere]

If Bale takes a gigantic pay cut and Real price him reasonably then there would be a number of European sides after him. It would have to be a huge wage cut though as even a 50% reduction means €300k/week (which limits options to a select few clubs) and with his injury record, these clubs would be very wary of taking such a risk. I don't see Bale agreeing to such a wage cut though. 

I can see why Bale would move favour a move to China - he's already won plenty at club level in Europe, he'd receive massive wages in China (probably even a wage increase) all without jeopardising his international career - he'd still get called up for Wales whether he's sitting on the bench at Real or playing in China. 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Didn't know that London was this lawless.Kolasinac is badass.Ozil didn't even get out to help him.

 

[polishgenius]

57 minutes ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Ozil didn't even get out to help him

Reports are that their wives were in the car so Kolasinac told him to skedaddle.

[Mexal]

4 hours ago, Consigliere said:

 

This is an amazing signing if it finalizes. They still need to work out the agent deal which he has rejected previously. Still no defense this year though but at least the front 3 would be fun.

3 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Reports are that their wives were in the car so Kolasinac told him to skedaddle.

Also, Kolasinac is hard as fuck,.

[Consigliere]

4 minutes ago, Mexal said:

This is an amazing signing if it finalizes. They still need to work out the agent deal which he has rejected previously. Still no defense this year though but at least the front 3 would be fun.

I think this signing would make Arsenal favourites for that top 4 place ahead of Chelsea and United even if your lot doesn't sign a CB. With Chelsea and United, it's uncertain how good the managers really are, the loss of Hazard is massive for Chelsea coupled with a transfer ban while United are woefully short in midfield with a defence no better than Arsenal's and uncertainities over Lukaku and Pogba. 

[Mexal]

Just now, Consigliere said:

I think this signing would make Arsenal favourites for that top 4 place ahead of Chelsea and United even if your lot doesn't sign a CB. With Chelsea and United, it's uncertain how good the managers really are, the loss of Hazard is massive for Chelsea coupled with a transfer ban while United are woefully short in midfield with a defence no better than Arsenal's and uncertainities over Lukaku and Pogba. 

Think that's probably right. But it's still very much up in the air because the defense is so bad that they will likely lose games they shouldn't.

[Consigliere]

The Times reporting that Bale has agreed to a 3 year contract with Jiangsu Suning worth an eye watering £23m/year after tax. Negotiations with Real Madrid over the transfer fee continue but it's expected that Real will settle for a fee around £18m. 

As soon as this deal goes through, I fully expect Real Madrid to come in with a mega offer for Pogba. 

[Iskaral Pust]

I’m really surprised by Arsenal signing Pepe.  They already have two excellent forwards, and seemed reluctant to play them both for long stretches.  So now they’ll have three excellent forwards and be very top heavy.  Mimicking Liverpool’s front three?

Auba, Laca and Pepe doesn’t seem to leave any room for Ozil.  It looks like a 4-3-3 with a MF of Torreira, Ceballos and Xhaka/Mkhi.  

Seems like that transfer fee would have been better spent on defenders, but it will make their games very fun to watch.

[Mexal]

2 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

I’m really surprised by Arsenal signing Pepe.  They already have two excellent forwards, and seemed reluctant to play them both for long stretches.  So now they’ll have three excellent forwards and be very top heavy.  Mimicking Liverpool’s front three?

Auba, Laca and Pepe doesn’t seem to leave any room for Ozil.  It looks like a 4-3-3 with a MF of Torreira, Ceballos and Xhaka/Mkhi.  

Seems like that transfer fee would have been better spent on defenders, but it will make their games very fun to watch.

They need defense, no question, but one of their biggest needs was a tricky winger who could dribble, create and score. Laca/Auba can finish fairly well but neither are very good on the ball. There is a reason why Arsenal scored 3 goals all season on the counter attack.

[Raja]

We've needed a wide forward who can score for *ages* and have been looking for one all summer ( you could argue the past 4-5 summers, tbh). So anyone surprised by us signing a winger, or that we've been looking for a winger hasn't been paying attention.

Never seen Pepe play, but those numbers are obviously impressive. In addition, I think Emery wants to play with one striker, with Auba & Pepe as wingers, if it happens.

Gotta pray we get a CB now.