Vesper

Trevor Francis, Britain’s first £1m footballer, dies aged 69 Francis scored winner for Forest in European Cup final He played 52 times for England and was also a manager https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/24/trevor-francis-dies-aged-69-nottingham-forest-england-1m-footballer

Kylian Mbappé: Al-Hilal submit world-record €300m bid for PSG forward Saudi Arabian club open to having Mbappé for only one season PSG want to sell France international unless he extends contract https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/24/kylian-mbappe-al-hilal-world-record-300m-bid-psg-saudi-arabia The Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal have submitted a world-record bid for Kylian Mbappé, understood to be worth €300m (£259m), and are willing to have the forward for only one season if that is what is takes to get the deal done. The move comes after Paris Saint-Germain left Mbappé out of their squad for their pre-season tour of Japan, determined to sell him unless he signs a new contract. PSG will accept Al-Hilal’s offer but there have been no talks between Al-Hilal and Mbappé, and PSG remain convinced the 24-year-old has agreed terms to join Real Madrid on a free transfer next summer. Al-Hilal will try to tempt Mbappé with a world-record salary and, mindful that it may suit him to come for only one season, are open to a deal that – even by recent Saudi Pro League standards – would destroy football’s financial norms. Al-Hilal offered Lionel Messi more than £350m a year to join from PSG but the Argentina forward opted to move to Inter Miami. It emerged in June that Mbappé had presented a formal letter to PSG, informing them he would not to take up the option of a one-year contract extension next summer. The club’s president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, said this month: “If Kylian wants to stay, we want him to stay. But he needs to sign a new contract. We don’t want to lose the best player in the world for free; we can’t do that.” Mbappé joined PSG from Monaco in 2018 for £166m. Saudi Pro League clubs have been spending huge sums this summer to sign players from Europe. Al-Hilal are one of four teams in the country owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which has majority ownership of Newcastle United, and have signed Rúben Neves, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Kalidou Koulibaly. They are are also closing on deals to buy the forwards Malcom and Aleksandar Mitrovic from Zenit St Petersburg and Fulham respectively. Mbappé had appeared close to joining Real Madrid last summer before renewing his deal in Paris. The world-record fee is the €222m Barcelona received from PSG for Neymar in 2017. The Brazil forward’s contract is due to expire in June 2025. Manchester United are not negotiating for Mbappé, with their focus remaining on Rasmus Højlund of Atalanta.

the largest offer I saw for CHO from Bayern that was fully legit in terms of sourcing was £40m but even 'only' £40m is still a shit tonne more than £8m I really thought we could now get £15-20m for him from another English side

one or two years that blows out our FFP ledger is not worth it plus we have no CL to offer and zero guarantees we get it this season (even with Mbappe as bringing him in means we well fucked in terms of adding other players of high quality at vital positions) sorry, I am never going to advocate a 'short term potential glory/fanboi/fangurl fappening' at the expense of burning it down in terms of a longer term event horizon predicated upon a linear upward build curve

Chels/Brighton negotiations over Caicedo atm

All X'ed up 🤡

I obviously rate Mbappe I think he the best or co-best player on the planet (along with Håland) by miles atm BUT he would only be here for a few years max and would likely fuck up our books with FFP IF we also add other players (players we so so so need atm) I would much prefer to lever away Tchou (and hopefully even Valverde) from Real in exchange for funding their transfer fee for Mbappe

your maths are off 40 days to go (counting today) https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12893159/summer-transfer-window-2023-when-does-it-open-and-close-dates-deadline-day-how-to-follow-with-sky-sports The summer transfer window opens on Wednesday June 14 and will close at 11pm on Friday September 1

Deffo prefer Kudus over Michael Olise. As Zakharyan is likely blocked, Kudus is now my number one (who is actually available) AMF want. Positive for both is that Kudus and Olise are both left footers who can also play RW, but Olise is so far not much of a scorer.

depends who the MFer is

not a chance that happens zero bookmark this for historical reasons as I am 100% standing by this prediction the Saudis have a long term plan and at least 1.5 trillion in sovereign wealth (just the royal family's share and that is based off a 2 year old number, they likely are pushing 2 trillion now due to explosive oil revenues the past 2 years) backstopping it all

The whole point of my first post on the subject was that Ajax (The Netherlands are also in NATO and are also involved in sanctions v Russia) IS buying a player directly from a Russian club. As for the season before the Ukraine invasion occured he was a 17 year old teen (turned 18yo 3 days before the season ended, as they played in the Russian Cup final v Spartak on May 29th, losing 1 - 2, despite his scoring Dynamo's only goal) who had just been promoted to the senior team in mideason, he had played 13 Sr team games with 3 goals and 5 assists in 888 minutes people in Russia during that following summer transfer window (summer 2021) really had no clue what was going to happen in early 2022, let alone some 17/18yo kid who had just been called up 6 months earlier. The season before that he was mostly playing in an U17 league. I was the first person on the board to post anything about Zakharyan my first post that included him was a year and a half ago, 22 days before Russia invaded Ukraine that was halfway through his first full season at topflight level, a season in which, as an 18yo, he produced a total of 18 goals (9 and 9) in only 2869 minutes

well, there is now this, lol FC Barcelona Star Ousmane Dembele Receives ‘Enormous’ $220 Million Offer To Join Ronaldo At Al-Nassr https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomsanderson/2023/07/22/fc-barcelona-star-ousmane-dembele-receives-enormous-220-million-offer-to-join-ronaldo-at-al-nassr-reports/?sh=5b46bb6f472c FC Barcelona star Ousmane Dembele has received an 'enormous offer' of €200 million ($222.5 million) to join Cristiano Ronaldo at Al-Nassr according to transfer market experts Foot Mercato. Ronaldo switched to the Saudi Pro League giants in January when his Manchester United contract was terminated by mutual consent. Believed to pay him $200 million a season, the move allowed the legendary forward to finish top of Forbes' list of The World's Highest-Paid Athletes in May. Though Al-Hilal failed to deliver his generational rival and new Inter Miami signing Lionel Messi, big stars such as Ballon d'Or holder Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kante have made the switch from elite European football to the Kingdom where the Public Investment Fund has taken control of four of the biggest clubs to boost its domestic championship. Yet while all the players mentioned thus far are well past their 30th birthday, or not far off 40 in the case of Ronaldo while Benzema and Messi are on their way, the Saudi Pro League still hasn't pulled off the coup of landing a top, young player at the height of his powers. Ruben Neves, 26 and now at Al-Hilal, partly fits the bill. But the Portuguese midfielder didn't exactly feature for the biggest club on the Old Continent, with all due respect to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Al-Nassr luring 30-year-old Marcelo Brozovic in recent weeks, in turn snatching the Russia 2018 and 2022/2023 Champions League finalist away from FC Barcelona, was a bigger achievement. When all is said and done, however, convincing one of the victors on the other side of the ball in said World Cup final would be an indicator of great progress being made in the fight to have the local league recognized as more than a lucrative retirement camp. Unfortunately for Al-Nassr, they haven't been able to turn France international Dembele's head despite tabling a five-year, €40 million ($44.5 million) a season offer according to Foot Mercato which would have totaled €200 million and made 'The Mosquito' a much richer man by his 31st birthday. The Saudis are obviously willing to trigger his release clause in Catalonia, which has halved to a paltry €50 million ($55.6 million) this summer as part of a contract extension agreed last year which expires in 2024. Even though Dembele and his agent can pocket half of that fee, turning down the eye-watering package from the Saudis is another sign of how dedicated the Frenchman is to the cause under his head coach Xavi Hernandez. Keen to agree fresh terms at Camp Nou, or the Montjuic Stadium while Barca's usual home is being renovated, the winger has gone from being a booed outcast in early 2022 for not putting pen to paper to a fan favorite and regular starter. Barca are currently occupied trying to register their new players and the renewed contracts of existing stars while navigating Financial Fair Play limits, but Dembele is expected to commit to the Blaugrana for another three years when his own deal is oven-ready. "Barca want to renew me until 2027 and I'm happy here," he revealed to La Vanguardia last month.

the number in my mind for some time (just like me for Mount with £60m, which is exactly what we got) for Gallagher is £45m (£35m + £10m English tax) let us hope I am once again at the right price point

Just tossing this out here Ousmane Dembélé's release clause for July and August is only £43m I know he really wants to stay at Barca, but they are so fucked atm financially

£35m is too low I am sure we can get between £40m and £50m for him (HG and a multiple capped Sr England player) who is only 23yo, so in the first year or two of his prime time (22/23 to 30yo or so) £40-42.5m at a minimum

yes, but again, we were trying to buy him despite already having Mudryk, so we must have talked to him (Mudryk) I doubt Mudryk would snap over an Armenian descent (100%) player joining us, a player whose family also fled a war (granted they fled to Russia, but that was pre Putin Russia, a Russia that was at the time being propped up partially by the US) see this Time Magazine cover from July 15, 1996: Hypocrisy of Russia-Did-It Stories Is Hard to Stomach (2016) https://fair.org/home/hypocrisy-of-russia-did-it-stories-is-hard-to-stomach/ Hollywood even made a Jeff Goldblum movie about it https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324619/

Sterling has only had 3 great seasons on his entire career, all in a row, from the age of 22/23 to 24/25yo (he was born December 8, 1994, so turns 30yo on the middle of next season) he absolutely peaked at the age of 24/25, which is bizarre, as he had no bad bad injuries it is almost like he is like 70 to 80% of NFL running backs, who peak early and then mostly tumble down due to the insane physical beating that they take (the average career span for an NFL running back is around 3 years) Sterling of course does not have that excuse he has now had 2 meh and 1 poor (last season) seasons in a row since

11, unless you are already assuming they win it again this year (which is very likely, lol)

but we were trying to buy him after we already had Mudryk Zakharyan is not even of Russian descent, he is 100 per cent Armenian (both parents), just like that Ajax AMF I refuse to blame a 19/20yo kid for Putin's war crime thuggery Arsen was born into an Artsakh family. His family moved to Samara after the war https://sport24.ru/news/football/2021-03-23-intervyu-ottsa-arsena-zakharyana-iz-dinamo---istoriya-detstva-interesnyye-fakty-semya-pochemu-ne-vzyali-v-zenit Arsen Zakharyan's family comes from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), where war between Armenia and Azerbaijan has flared up more than once over the past 30 years. The city of Mardakert is located exactly where the fighting takes place. After the first war, the family decided to move to Russia. The usual story of families who leave to be away from wars and troubles. “The war has strongly affected our region,” says the football player’s father, Norayr. “Mardakert has always been under fire, it’s terrible and scary… Uncle and aunt still live in their homeland. And we go there every year. Of course, after the war it was difficult, but we got out and began to gradually build our lives anew. Our relatives have been living in Samara for a long time, and they have always helped us. In Yerevan I graduated from a construction institute, in Samara I started working in my profession. Never left without a job. At a time when the children were running and playing football, I did everything to provide them with a carefree childhood.”

How the hell are Ajax buying an AMF from a Russian team but we cannot buy Zakharyan?????? wtf https://thedailybriefing.io/i/135369041/ajax Ajax have submitted a bid for Armenian top talent Eduard Spertsyan worth €8.5m plus €2m add-ons and 10% sell on clause. Ajax are still waiting on a decision from Krasnodar as there’s no green light as of now — but talks are ongoing.

Romeo Lavia and Liverpool - the latest https://thedailybriefing.io/i/135369017/romeo-lavia-and-liverpool-the-latest Jordan Henderson to Al Ettifaq is now almost a done deal - a verbal agreement was already in place and I can now also confirm that the player did his medical on Friday night. The deal will be signed next week, so it’s almost completed - Henderson will is leaving Liverpool. Staying with Liverpool, they keep working on Romeo Lavia. Nothing is advanced in terms of bids or club to club negotiations - still, contacts are taking place with the player’s agents and they are trying to understand the final price tag. Southampton always wanted around £50m but Liverpool are hoping for a different fee. He’s not their only target, but he is a concrete one, and Liverpool are still there. Jurgen Klopp has hinted that things will happen before the end of the summer, and while it’s impossible to predict the exact number of signings, Liverpool will be busy for sure, it just depends on opportunities. Chelsea are also following the Lavia situation due to the connection with Joe Shields, one of the Chelsea directors, but it’s not linked to the Moises Caicedo deal. Caicedo remains the priority for Chelsea, but Shields had Lavia at Southampton and Manchester City, so he knows the player well and there is a good connection there.

https://thedailybriefing.io/i/135369017/other-midfield-deals-to-watch Gabri Veiga made headlines earlier this summer and then more recently it’s gone a bit quiet in the media, but I can say that behind the scenes things are happening. We know he has a release clause of €40m but some clubs feel they can strike a deal for below this fee. Let’s see how the conversation will continue, but in the coming weeks things could move. We know there is interest from the Premier League, with Chelsea following the situation and well informed, so let’s see if they make a bid, but for sure he’s appreciated by Chelsea. It’s not only Chelsea, but they are watching this situation while Liverpool look to be focusing on different kinds of players right now - Veiga is not their priority, despite reports.

I do not know