Mole_Toonfan

It's an opinion piece, there's nothing new there.

Well that's just bad management decisions. They spent 40 million on Andre Gomes and 30 million on Paco Alcacer. They are trying to 'hoover up talent' in the same way any other of the big clubs do, they've just done it badly. They have the highest wagebill in the world. Quite a bit more than either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. I'd love to know again why you think they are any different or more special than these other clubs. I'm pretty sure my post explained why like, but like I just said, because imo the money spent means nothing if you're wasting it. Put more succinctly, you said that they were a team full of superstar signings, my point is that they're a team full of superstar fees and that's the difference. Look at Real's squad, Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, Modric, Kroos, Marcelo, Isco, Casemiro, then they're looking at M'Bappe. With Barca, the talent is so highly concentrated in that main three, and once you get beyond those three the quality's not there in the same way it is at Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, or arguably Man City. By your own notion of what a superstar is, Casemiro and Marcelo are not superstars. Both were bought when they nobodies, if Barca bought them they'd be praised to the hills. Also it's concentrated due to bad management, it's not like they haven't tried to sign the level of player you speak of. They either straight up failed to get those players or overpaid on players they expected to do the same job but flopped. Lets not act like they are specifically concentrating all their high profile signings to 2 or 3 players and trying to go for lower profile players elsewhere, that isn't what is happening at all.

Aye Monaco are specifically doing this to sell players on, i read they see themselves as the Porto of France. They'll bring in young players and do it all over again. I wouldn't be surprised if this time next year we'll see similar players breaking through.

Aye, not a very good one either. Their front 3 and Messi especially have consistently masked the idiotic choices made by their higher ups in recent years.

That's not really true like. Aside from Messi, Suarez, and Neymar they have no superstars at all. I think people tend not to mind when the football is on another planet because football trumps all. Not like they haven't tried mind, it's just most of their signings since Guardiola left Suarez/Neymar aside have flopped. Besides having 3 superstar forwards is pretty comparable to everyone else really.

This is true always found that a bit confusing tbh.

Would agree.

He looked pretty fucking insane in the CL, to the point he might actually be worth that to a club one day. Even so though, that's a pretty big bet to make on a teenager.

Yeah most of those players would probably cost triple what transfermarkt says.

Money means absolutely fuck all in relation to quality, the sooner people realise that the better. The only reason we went down to begin with was because we waited an extra week or two to sign Rafa and spent too long with fucking McClaren. We'll be fine, but that's nowhere near good enough.

With a bit of luck and good management it probably is. I can't be alone in hoping we'd be aiming a bit higher than that though, which is the reason for my disappointment so far. We're acting like we're aiming for 17th, not like we're back where we belong with a world class manager in charge. I definitely think it is, people underestimate how bad the bottom half of the PL is. With that said i completely agree, i think it's honestly a disgrace we are trying to do the bare minimum yet again. Yet at the same time i can't say i'm really all that surprised sadly.

That's the case most of the time though, problem is we never do anywhere enough. Which looks like happening again.

Yep.

It's a pretty believable list tbh, i can definitely see Rafa wanting to get rid of all those players.

There's no real evidence of that tbf. If he was our best keeper, i doubt he'd be jumping around from Eredivisie loan to the next and if reports are right not actually performing that well. Because he was our best keeper 3 years or so ago doesn't mean he still is.

Wonder where Marseille are suddenly getting money from. Other than us buying their players anyway.

Don't know if i agree, Hanley didn't look all that in the championship so i shudder to think what he would be like in the PL.

Sky are finding it hard enough now and i can't see Bt Sport growing any further You are looking at a very narrow viewpoint, the PL isn't as big as it is because of this country and it's TV money. It's the overseas income which makes it ridiculously massive and the reason the other leagues can't compete financially. This is not true. The domestic money dwarfs that from overseas, it's about five times more. I'm not talking about that, I'm saying the PLs reach far outweighs the domestic popularity. Why do you think it's so popular? It's because of all the other countries and it's growing all the time. Even if the interest in this country wains the other ones increasing will pick up the slack over time. Why do you think the likes of Spain and Italy don't get the same TV deals? It's because on a world scale they are nowhere near as popular. The bubble may burst in this country, but as long as popularity increases as it is doing in the likes of Asia and Africa it will never actually matter.

Sky are finding it hard enough now and i can't see Bt Sport growing any further You are looking at a very narrow viewpoint, the PL isn't as big as it is because of this country and it's TV money. It's the overseas income which makes it ridiculously massive and the reason the other leagues can't compete financially.

The people that think the bubble is going to burst, do you actually think that or are you talking from a place of hope? Because quite frankly considering how the PLs reach is growing all the time globally I really see no evidence it's going to do anything but get more ridiculous.

All it does is raise the bar, again. "Neymar got X amount, I'm worth at least half that," remarked some good yet unremarkable player. Aye, the bar got raised initially when players like Bale went for close to 100m. I mean Bale is obviously class but it raises the perceived market value of everyone. It's just a vicious, yet endless circle.

Because PSG has more money than anyone in the PL.

Jesus f***ing Christ Neymar is fantastic and maybe i shouldn't be surprised when average players are going for ridiculous prices but still just reading that blows my mind.