King Kante

Isn't Kicker the most reliable of all the main German sports media outlets?

I hope the shirts have three written on then and not the logo. The 3 logo is just plain awful and would need to me massive.

If the Covid situation means not much money/players not moving then I think Boga and Mertens make sense. In a world were we can go big then I doubt both or either come.

Just been thinking about Athlti's financial situation and the £50m they owe us for Morata (which is water tight - unless Fifa fu*k about with the rules.) If they cannot pay, we may be able to use it as leverage to get Oblak. What does everyone else think?

This is how I have been seeing it. Be interesting to see how Chelsea/Roman go about things.

There are a few things wrong with this article. Firstly, some of those figures are off. For instance our net spend in 2018/19 was more like £85-90m not £150m+. Also, 06-07 isn't right as that was more like +£32m not -£6m. Next, they have a quote direct from a scout saying that there will be less players signed than planned, yet we get an article that hints that we can go all out if Roman fancies it. Also, if the market has fallen how is Granny going to shift the players? Ok, we can probably still sell a Kante but what about players like Drinky (£100k), Baka (£110k) and Baba (on £75k apprantly)? Those players are likely to be knocking around SB next season pulling their over the top wages.

Yeah, I just do not see the need for Sancho to move this Summer. If I were him I would be either staying next season or seeing my contract out.

Interesting read. Personally, I am both happy and slightly amazed that we are so low down as whilst we have recieved a lot of money we have also spent a lot as well. My concerns with all of this however is, if people start defaulting all over the place and FIFA/UEFA have to step in, how much of a haircut are we going to have to take? If across Europe, Utd, Juve, Real, Barca etc, are all the ones with high debts and need saving, you just know FIFA/UEFA will cover their arse.

I am ok with Coutinho on a loan, I think if we can pay a loan fee of around £7m or under then he will be ok business as at the moment it looks like both Peds and Willian are off and we have a real need for some players in the 25-29 year old bracket. That said, I wouldn't be up for a straight out buy and/or a loan with compulsory buy. I say this as whilst a good player he has been overrated since his Dipper days and at 28 in June he is pretty much a sunk cost as by the time he does a couple of seasons he is 30. Further, his wages long term are an issue. Thankfully, as much as I do not like Granny, she isn't know for buy players for serious dosh over the age of 27 with the only exception being Drinky. Another thing going for a Coutinho loan is that I think this Covid situation is going to screw up the market and we may not see as many players move. For instance, I would be very surprised to see Sancho move now and if he does it would only be to someone like Utd as they have the deepest pockets.

Be interesting how this plays out. What about players who do not want to play for their teams anymore and are looking at a move to a bigger club when the season does finish. What happens if they pick up a long term injury?

They can't do that as it is a signed, sealed and delivered type of deal. If they default on that they'll have to explain themselves to the authorities. The only out for them is if UEFA/FIFA allow some sort of leniency.

It also applies to players like Drinkwater, Baka, Moses and Alonso. All those players are on £75,000-£110,000k a week. I cannot see anybody paying serious fees for those players now. After that you then also have people like Baba and Zappa who are on around £50,000 - £60,000 pw. Again, no one will be taking them other than for loan and we have to cover most of the wages.

You mean rich owners like Roman who is exposed to the stock market which has seen an average crash of 30% and all the dividend payments dry up? Or do you think rich people just put the money in the bank and sit on it? With what money? Roman like all Billionaire's is invested, that is why they are Billionaire's, they invest and most of their wealth is tied up in assets i.e. property/stocks/companies etc. They do not just wack the money in the bank. Oil owners may have a lot of liquidity but they have seen an absolute canning of the price of oil due to the Russia/Saudi price war. Currently, they are selling oil for close to the cost of production, I think Saudi Arabia are the only ones turning a small profit and that is because their oil is cheap to extract. Further all Arab states underpin their economies with oil money to keep their populations in check/happy and they come before buying footballers for City or PSG. That is why place such as Dubai/Qatar/Saudi Arabia have zero income tax. Thus if oil is down they have to dip into their reserves to pay for the states expenses. As for the Chelsea's finances, at the very least they are going to around 10% of revenue and that is best case. We may have Hazard money but that will be used to plug gaps in the finances. Lastly, how do clubs who have told their current playing staff they have to take 30-70% wage cuts that they have gone out and spent £50m on a player and are making them the clubs highest earner to boot? Sure that you go down a right treat.....

Anyone who thinks there is going to be serious movement in the transfer market this Summer is deluded or on the crack pipe. Only transfers that will possibly happen are; A) Players out of contract B ) Players sent out on loan C) Players in the last year of their contract and clubs are forced to take something. No way are clubs going out spending serious dollar this Summer. No chance.

This is what is almost definitely going to happen. In my opinion, if we go for Coutinho it will be a loan. No way are we laying out £60m+ on him plus £250pw wages. If Granny signs off on that deal then she needs to leave. I mean if we have lower transfer money than expected, Coutinho is a decent loan signing, however if we have some dollar then there are much better buys out there. As for our transfers in, I only expect loans, frees or low fee players who only have a year or something left. I really do not see any club signing players for big money this year.

Some great names for sure and you can add Werner to the mix. With the way we work, I would imagine we would be looking at Donnarumma, Upamecano, Telles, Werner and Tonali. Not sure how many we would get/can afford but those are the ones that hit the profile we like i.e. under 27 and/or on cheap wages that means they are not too much of a risk. As for the others, I cannot see us after a Auba, Alaba, Sane or Thiago because we are a rebuild team and those players would likely want to go to teams challenging while they would still demand top wages and be a decent wack of a fee. Kun for me will leave England when he finishes at City and I am not so sure Torres, Milik and Zielinski are of the right profile for what we need. That said, I am not too sure how many we could actually afford as our finances are at the mercy of the current wage bill and how our income will be affected by Corvid. For instance, if we cannot shift either Emerson or Alonso, I can see us not signing a LB.

No way Barca get €80m for him. This transfer market is going to be the 'bottom of the market'. No way does any club lay out serious fees on players. I mean how exactly can a club go out and pay £50m+ on a player and give them £200k+ whilst their current squads are on 30%+ reductions? Further, which clubs are laying out £102m guaranteed (£50m fee/£200k a week for 5 years) when their income is uncertain in the age of FFP? Lastly, which top players, who are not out of contract, are going to want to sign a multi-year deal in this climate? For instance, Sancho is on €200k a week already, how much more than that is he going to get if he moves now and the club he goes to pay £100m+ just to sign him? It is not going to happen. Everyone is better off waiting this thing out for a year and then moving. The only exceptions to this will be; A) Players out of contract - they will need to sign something. B ) Players with only one year left - clubs will want to sell for something rather than get no fee. Further, some clubs will need to free up their wage bills. C) Players that are loaned to free up the wage bills that have become unaffordable for their clubs. Mega deals have zero chance this Summer. In the unlikely scenario that a club can afford to do it, how exactly is a £100m transfer fee with £300k a week wages deal going to play with the public when a serious amount of people have lost their jobs. It would be PR suicide.

Zouma is the one to sell. We may have kept a clean sheet against Everton but Zouma was all over the place at times. DCL really should've scored after he got himself caught on the half way line in no mans land. Further, his distribution is poor and he is at an age now where he isn't going to improve much more as he is entering his peak. Zouma for me is the Barkley of our CB's.

Barca are essentially cooking their books by around €150m. Here is an article that explains it much better than I could. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/bobbymcmahon/2020/01/18/intro-to-barcelona-math-how-to-make-revenue-of-836m--990m/amp/

Barca have serious problems with their wage bill, incredibly it is £480m. To put that in perspective ours was £260m. Further, Barca have zero wriggle room as almost all of their contracts still have 1+ year to run unlike us who have the likes of Pedro, Willian and Giroud expiring. In other words, any hit to their finances means they cannot afford pay their players which is why they got all desperate and started spreading rumours that the players were refusing to accept a pay cut. If this Corvid business means the season cannot end and they miss out on any TV/CL/La Liga/Gate Revenue they are going to have to sell just to cover wages. This is against a backdrop where most teams in Europe are also going to struggle to pay their players already on contract. As a result, Barca are going to either have to fire sale in the poorest market pretty much ever or loan the players out so they're not on the hook for wages. In my opinion, Coutinho will be loaned again as they cannot afford to pay him on top of the players in their current squad and no team in Europe is going to be paying serious fees as their income levels will have either been seriously hit and/or uncertain.

In regard to Coutinho, I wouldn't want to sign him full time but on a loan I think he would be decent if the market goes belly up. My personal opinion is that this window is going to see hardly anyone move as teams are going to have reduced revenue and they have still got to cover the wages of their players under contract. Further, players that will move will have to expect lower wages than what they thought they were going to get as clubs are going to have less money to spend due to reduced revenues. I honestly see a situation where the only players that move are players that are; a) out of contract, b ) only have one year left, c) need to be loaned out for whatever reason or d) are involved in swap deals. I seriously do not see anyone signing a Sancho for £100m+ with £300k a week wages guaranteed for 5 years as that is a minimum commitment of £178m for the duration of the contract.

He only said that after the move. No one really knows what he actually wanted. I'd imagine if we had got our act together we would've given him a higher wage so I am not so sure things would've panned out with him in Dipperland if we had done what should've been done.

Not really. Sancho is by all accounts a £100m player with a wage of £250k+ that needs to be guaranteed for 5 years. That is a £33m a year hit to the accounts for 5 years. Who is going to pay that if the virus business doesn't get itself sorted and a shed load of tv money doesn't get paid? Coutinho (who I suggested as a maybe not a certainy) would be a loan so it would just be wages that needed covering so that is around £10.4m-13m (his reported wages are £200-250k) for the year but no commitment outside of that. That is at least 60% cheaper but with no commitment outside of one year. Further in a years time Sancho would only have one year left. If the market does dry up he would be better off waiting rather than moving this Summer as every year he holds off the higher his signing on fee becomes, while negotiating a top wage in a bad market will be difficult. As for Alaba, he would be £60m plus £200k+ vs £25m plus £90k. That is a difference of around £24.4m v £11.1m per year on four year contracts. That is around 55% cheaper. Further as both players are 27/28 they are essentially sunk costs as these will be their final prime contracts that run them to their 30's. If we only needed Alaba then sure, maybe we could do something if he would be willing to come - questionable as he is a peak top draw player who would be walking into a rebuild job with a inexperienced manager. Further, when we need a; CF, AM, CB, LB, GK and possibly another CM/DM, comparimises will need to be made in certain areas as we cannot go out and buy top rate players in every area or even at all if our revenues dry up. Anyhow, any talk of transfers at this point in time is moot as we do not know what the financial implications of Covid is yet. However, if they are as bad as predicted teams are not going to want to shell out top dollar and/or sign themselves up to very expensive long term contracts when incoming revenue levels are questionable.

So if the Corvid 19 situation has wrecked everyone's finances who do you expect to be moving? As for Alaba have a fantasy wank all you want over it, it is not going to happen.

As Mo says, Alaba is nigh on impossible. Of course he is a great player but the chances of getting him are virtually nil, so there is not much point in trying because if he does not get a move to Spain he will likely stay in Germany. Anyway, this aside. What does everyone think will happen with Sancho this Summer? I am personally not sure that anyone is going to want to blow £120m after this Covid 19 business. Personally, I can see a situation where it may be better for Sancho to stay in Dortmund another season (he is only 19/20) and move next Summer as by that point he will only have one year left and get more money. If we are interested, we could then focus elsewhere on the squad for this Summer and maybe try and pick up a Courtinho on loan.