Manxst

Forgive my ignorance…what does this mean?

And Michael Owen scored goals for us against the likes of Portsmouth, Reading, Birmingham City, Wigan, Bolton….

Any need?

Messi has played 14 games for PSG in the CL and got 9 goals.

Zero chance on wages alone. He’s Bayern’s highest paid player.

Messi has 31 goals and 34 assists in 71 games for them, and they won the league last year. If that’s not effort, then fuck knows.

We moved on from monitoring Dirk Kuyt then?

Talk of Bruno’s new deal increasing from his current £125kpw to around £200kpw, isn’t there? We’ll be paying that soon, if not quite this summer.

Ok, not top 5….but they came 6th in net spend- hardly frugal. Why are they facing a £200m wage shortfall, as stated earlier?

Agreed. Was just pointing out that they’re hardly the role model when it comes to finances- they’ve gambled with future income, the same as Barca. They might not have recently spent much on transfers (although the fee for Tchouameni was hardly scraping the barrel) but this is only because they spent far beyond their means previously.

“The club were also facing a €150 million shortfall for their biannual salary bill coming due in July which totalled €216 million plus €35 million in associated taxes.”

Real are only doing well financially because they’ve sold future rights, the same as Barca. “Last summer, the club faced a new cash crisis. The redevelopment plan for the Bernabeu, with a new premium matchday hospitality offering under a new roof and distinctive metallic outer wrap, had grown into a multi-use stadium with scope for concerts and business conferences. Costs were anticipated to rise to €1 billion which would have needed the club’s board to approach JP Morgan to increase the €800 million bond by €200 million. That in turn would have needed the approval of the members at the general assembly last September. The club were also facing a €150 million shortfall for their biannual salary bill coming due in July which totalled €216 million plus €35 million in associated taxes. To cover these immediate calls on cash, Real negotiated a deal with the US investor Sixth Street to sell 30 per cent of future income from the new Bernabeu, excluding ticketing and any potential naming rights deal, for the next 20 years. That payment of €360 million was to come in two parts, €316 million in May last year and a further €44 million in July, the latter falling within the next financial year. The Sixth Street deal covered the stadium costs and the salary bill and crucially was booked as revenue. This method of accounting has also been adopted by Barcelona who sold €700 million of future revenue last summer, including television rights and commercial entities to Sixth Street and others. Both clubs have represented this in their financial results as revenue. Others, including Uefa, might choose to see it as debt. Real would have made losses last summer had it not been for the sale of future revenue. These are known as the financial levers - “palancas” – of last resort. The €44m from the original €360 million that was scheduled last summer in the subsequent financial year – the current – suggests that Real anticipate future problems. The sale of Casemiro to Manchester United, a €70 million deal for a then 30-year-old, was a gift Real could not ignore. Yet that is the kind of dream sale that cannot be guaranteed every year. Real made an operational loss last summer and may well do so again in the current 12 months. It is against this backdrop that they will supposedly take on Manchester City for the signature of the hottest prospect in European football. The club’s president Florentino Perez will no doubt point out that City are facing the most serious suite of charges the Premier League has ever laid against one of its members. Yet a question might also be asked of Madrid: how can selling future revenues that must be repaid be considered anything other than debt?” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/04/13/can-real-madrid-afford-jude-bellingham/

Because Messi.

Got us to 5th. We should’ve been more grateful…

€80m = around £70m. I can see him costing that, and us paying that price. He’s 26, Brazilian starter, at Barca (who bought him for £50m), proven in the PL…

The article also mentions that one reason Hearts were chosen is that it is easy for Shola to get the train up and watch Kuol play. Wonder how often that’s happened….

Aye, sounds like it: “His application in training throughout this period has been praised. Kuol is participating in one-to-one coaching alongside regular Hearts training, and has his own nutritionist — even if Naismith wonders whether his charge is trying too hard. “He’s probably the last off the training pitch, which is great to see. At times he probably is doing too much close to games, just in case he’s needed. But it’s because he’s got a hunger to learn.””

That was 7 and 8 seasons ago, when Kante was 24/25. He just hasn’t been that same dynamic and industrious player for the last year or two imo- don’t know whether it’s fitness, age, injury, or combinations.

He’s only 28? In the last 18 months of his contract, and (supposedly) currently earning less wages (£100kpw) than Bruno. I’m not his biggest fan, but if the club were interested in signing him, now’s a great time.

He’s made a deal to take a percentage of their wages?

Milner in next as player/coach

4th best side over the coming years? Why wouldn’t he go to a possible 1st best side now, to a Real or Arsenal? edit- he’s also on a relative pitttance in wages at Sociedad compared to what he’d get elsewhere.

£53m release clause. Arsenal were heavily linked in the last window but he didn’t want to move mid season. I can see him going this summer.

2.5 year contract until June 2025

Mudryk was £88m I think. They’ve all done fuck all but I was most looking forward to seeing how he would do, after his CL exploits.