Allan Saint-Maximin (now playing for Fenerbahce, on loan from Al-Ahli)

[r0cafella]

Just now, Unbelievable said:

They can’t retrospectively apply rules that weren’t even inexistence at the time though, especially given other PL clubs have gladly shifted their deadwood to SA.

Indeed they can’t so we would get one hit and that would be it. 

[TRon]

1 minute ago, GeordieDazzler said:

The PL won’t end up second man, people aren’t getting up at 3am to watch Al Hilal take on Atletico Jeddah. It’s a bloated vanity project and no amount of signings are going to change that. 

 

 

Yeah this angle does make me look twice to see if I'm reading it right. I mean good luck to the Saudi League in their part of the world, I just can't see any way it would suddenly become a major draw over European leagues simply because of logistics. Not to mention small matters like football tradition and history. I think people are panicking a bit like.

[simonsays]

24 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/allan-saint-maximin-transfer-saudi-arabia-cash-newcastle-scrutiny-2488410

 

We want £40 million according to this.

 

They'll probably meet in the middle at £30 million to £35 million.

Smart move to play out the negotiations in public like this - trying to make out that a fee hasn't already been agreed and that negotiations are between two completely separate entities.  From the reactions on here the tactic seems to be working! 

[relámpago blanco]

1 hour ago, bobbydazzla said:

 

I'd heard Burns car had issues because no-one could make their mind up whether he was better suited to driving in the left hand lane, or the middle one.

I'm not making that up. Burn talked about it in an interview on NUFC.co.uk

[kocunar]

Well, if our owners are as capable as everyone thinks (and I think they are, everyone was clowning their overpriced fees for LIV Golf and they ended up basically owning the whole sport), then I wouldn't put it past them to make the Saudi Pro League work. 

[Nobody]

21 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

FFP doesn’t work like that.  ASM wouldn’t be funding Barnes. 

That's exactly how it works

We get £22m for ASM, his book value is something like £5, so that's £17m left.

Barnes at £35 is £7m on the books every season, so that's £10m left, which with amortisation means £50m for this season (not counting wages and signing on fees etc). 

[GeordieDazzler]

10 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Yeah this angle does make me look twice to see if I'm reading it right. I mean good luck to the Saudi League in their part of the world, I just can't see any way it would suddenly become a major draw over European leagues simply because of logistics. Not to mention small matters like football tradition and history. I think people are panicking a bit like.

Yep, I’ve always read it as part of their plan to get the World Cup, they are copying a lot of what Qatar did, just taking it to the logical extremes. 

[The Prophet]

36 minutes ago, Nobody said:

But if the reported €25m fee for ASM is true, abig chunk of that will go to fund Barnes at £35m+. We would have about ~£10m worth of book value left after signing Barnes, but probably less than that after factoring in wages for Barnes and the new player.

It might allow us to sign other players for £40-50m at best, I don't think that's anywhere near enough for selling what has been one of our best players since he came here. Especially not when selling in this market, where players have gone for absolutely insane money to Saudi.

 

I agree if we get €25 million, but I'd wager we'll get more than that, unless of course we just really want rid.

[huss9]

11 hours ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Think the belief is that it unlocks a lot more spending than just Barnes. Not that I understand it. 

yeah someone mentioned that and i dont quite get it.

must  be some explanation.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Just now, huss9 said:

yeah someone mentioned that and i dont quite get it.

must  be some explanation.

A couple of people have answered on the previous pages now. 

[Danh1]

1 minute ago, huss9 said:

yeah someone mentioned that and i dont quite get it.

must  be some explanation.

To do with spreading the fee over the length of the contract. So a £50m signing would only impact us by £10m this season, if the player signed a 5 year deal. Leaving £20m of the £30m we got for ASM for similar deals. 
 

Something like that anyways. 

[RobsonsWonderland]

2 hours ago, Skeletor said:

 

Whatever way this falls can we just do it quickly... 

 

[catlover24]

Expect a tell-all article where ASM will claim he was forced out, revealing his true colours.

[Zero]

You can simply multiply ASMs transfer fee by 4. That would be roughly the additional funding available under the current FFP

[brummie]

1 hour ago, GeordieDazzler said:

The PL won’t end up second man, people aren’t getting up at 3am to watch Al Hilal take on Atletico Jeddah. It’s a bloated vanity project and no amount of signings are going to change that. 

 

 

Absolutely this.

 

Surprised how many people online are failing to understand this.

[MrRaspberryJam]

3 minutes ago, catlover24 said:

Expect a tell-all article where ASM will claim he was forced out, revealing his true colours.

 

Go on..

[wormy]

1 hour ago, Eveready said:

Bruno's definitely mentioned he was a good friend at the club.  Pretty sure he said he invited him to his wedding too.

 

Bet he was only invited to the evening reception. 

[Unbelievable]

11 minutes ago, catlover24 said:

Expect a tell-all article where ASM will claim he was forced out, revealing his true colours.

The lad has been nothing but exemplary in his time at this club, donating to fans and charity and speaking highly of the club, the city and its inhabitants. More like you are revealing your true colours by making this unsubstantiated prediction.

[Eveready]

21 minutes ago, catlover24 said:

Expect a tell-all article where ASM will claim he was forced out, revealing his true colours.

In that scenario it would be saying his true colours were that he wanted to stay at the clubs for the fans and Champions League football after his contribution to the club, almost single-handedly keeping us in league for a couple of year, but eventually accepted that he would move to a league where he can't compete for major honours so we can have a boost to our FFP position.  All to his own detriment and to benefit the club.

 

What an absolutely awful person that would make him seem.

[kocunar]

1 hour ago, GeordieDazzler said:

The PL won’t end up second man, people aren’t getting up at 3am to watch Al Hilal take on Atletico Jeddah. It’s a bloated vanity project and no amount of signings are going to change that. 

 

3am? I didnt know Saudi Arabia is in the middle of the Pacific

[Ashley17]

I love watching ASM play but it’s apparent that he doesn’t really suit the style of play and his body isn’t capable of high intensity play over a prolonged period of time. Ideally we’d keep him around but FFP is what it is. It’s a shame as he’s clearly always wanted to play in the CL and single handedly made us watchable for a couple of years. The only surprise is that we have outgrown him quicker than he outgrew us

[The Prophet]

 

[LV]

What does ‘payment terms are strong’ mean?? Add ons maybe??

[Unbelievable]

Regarding FFP impact, ASM was signed in august 2019 on a six year deal worth approx. £20m (if reports at the time are to be believed). For the next two years we’d still amortise £3.3m per season (plus wages obviously). Any fee we’d get on top of £6.6m would count as profit towards FFP and we’d be allowed to spend that amount times five this season, amortising those contracts over the next five years. All good so far.

 

What people seem to forget is that spending that profit *5 now means we are restricting future spend. Let’s say we sell Maxi for £30m. That gives us £23.4m * 5 = £117m wiggle room in terms of FFP. However, if we were to spend this on Barnes and say one or two more, rather than amortising £3.3m for the next two years (and nothing more if we extend his contract afterwards), we’re now amortising roughly £25m (plus more wages) every year for the next five years. That’s money which we will need to earn commercially or by trading other good players before we can spend any further.

 

I understand this is the way we need to grow and develop, but I’m not sure if many people realise that creating room in our FFP budget in this way comes at a cost in terms of what we then can and can’t do in the future.

 

Personally I believe this effect of FFP to be a bit ridiculous. Normally you’d applaud clubs for using their assets beyond their amortised value, i.e. using players from their own academy. Under the current rules it’s exactly those players that would be sold off in order to fund further investment, or worse mortgaging of the club’s future.

[St1pe]

I’m starting to sound like a broken record but given the state of transfer fees now €25m for ASM with his prime years ahead of him while he’s sat on a 3 year deal is all kinds of shit for us. 
 

He has one good season where some of his chances are converted and that fee is literally doubled. I know he’s got some haters but that isn’t a highly unlikely scenario either. 
 

We’re getting bumped here. To sign Harvey Barnes.