English Premier League Season 2023/24

What’s happening with the Rice transfer ? Declan has come to his senses ?? :grinning:

The arse are trying to pay him in sky awards!

Atb
Kk

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This thread has been open 3 weeks or so and you’ve made 9 posts all about Arsenal not one post about your own team.

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Ooooh is that against your rules
Bob?

Atb
Kk

A very unmathmatical quick tot-up of posts so far shows that, of the 204 posts posted, 147.5 have included Banter. I think this is exceptional work by everyone so far :grinning:

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Hope that includes me, SiBrighton :grinning:

I’d like to thank my mom, my dad, my coach, my fitness trainer, my psychologist, my physiotherapist, my speech therapist, my pedicurist, my manicurist, my hairdresser and Tetley’s brewery for getting me where I am today… :rofl:

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:rofl::rofl:

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No certainly not I have an obsession with Arsenal too.

Update on Man U……

Atb
Kk

What about Mount? D’Gea signing and and not signing.

No transactions bob.

Atb
Kk

I see Gerrard just been appointed at Al- Ettifaq. I wonder if Flamps will be joining as his assistant :roll_eyes:

Will it be another Chinese Super League? I get seeing out your career or trading on what remains of your reputation like Gerrard but I don’t get young players like Neves and now Jota from Celtic going.

I think some of the LIV golfers referred to it as “generational wealth” .
Seems they made the right call.

Jota is reputed to be on something like £10m per annum tax-free. That’s the best part of 200k per week. At Celtic he’d be on about 30k before tax so instead of doubling or trebling his salary with a move to the English premier league he’s effectively getting about 13 times what he was on at Celtic. How many of us would turn down that sort of increase?
What might get other European leagues worried is how the Saudis are going about hoovering up talent. It looks like they are using the massive salaries on offer to low-ball the transfer fees. Once a player knows he can earn a fortune, if his club sticks to their guns over a transfer fee and prevents a move they’re going to have a very disgruntled and demotivated player on their hands.

On that very topic, I checked out Oscar’s whereabouts earlier as he left Chelsea for China in 2017.

He’s still there!

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Tough to turn down the Saudi dosh, tainted though it is. But in a footballing sense, it’s a backward step for an exciting talent who’s only 24.

I’ve no doubt that quite a few professional players follow the money but surely the vast majority of people (well, kids) are attracted to the game through the sheer love of it.
The small percentage of those that make it professionally, and the tiny proportion of that group that make it to the top, surely crave playing at the best level they can achieve, and gaining recognition by fans, pundits and their peers for those achievements. That must mean playing in the toughest, most competitive leagues in the world, the PL being among them. Going off to the Saudi, Chinese leagues that no-one cares about while a player is still in his prime might be lucrative but for me is a betrayal of their talent.

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I don’t disagree but in Jota’s case he’s going from about 16k a week take-home to 200k. That’s head turning money he’s not going to get anywhere else.

Assuming he doesn’t totally regress while he’s there, he could do two years, have 20 million quid in his back pocket and come back to a European league in his prime.

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