King Kante

Wait, I have just realised something. Is Barca's turnover only €715m? There wage bill is approx €680m which is 95% and that is pre-covid. They're actually even more fecked than I thought they were as I thought their wage to turnover was 75%. 95% wage to turnover is so ridiculous I cannot even find the right word to describe it. I used to think they just hit the crack pipe too hard. Instead I now think they must party like the guys in Wolf of Wall Street but don't know anything about money at all.

Sorry, I meant the start of next season not this coming one. I count the season we're about to go into as this season as we are past 1st June. Still, I was out on a few still.

Always wary of Serie A hot shot CF's. Needs to do it for 2.5 years before I would be interested. Remember Piatek?

If we can get Håland and sort out a more offensive CM, I am pretty confident about our chances. If you look at City, they're starting to age out. I mean, look at the ages of the side at the start of next season: KdB - 31 (maybe not an issue with his play style but he has never been quick and always looked a little 'chunky') Gundogan - 31 (bad knees) Kane - 29 (bad ankles) Walker - 32 (relies on speed) Fernandinho - 38 Mahrez - 31 (relies somewhat on speed) Then you have some of their speed merchant players pushing for 30 during that season: Sterling 28 Cancelo 28 For me, City are a great side but they're not far off a overhaul. One thing the do have however is probably the best group of CB's and GK's in Europe that are still young + Zinchenko (although he seems to split opinion.)

Pedri and De Jong are the only ones I really rate and we don't really need Pedri with Billy/Jorgi/Kova. However, what is interesting with Pedri is that he will be out of contact next season and Barca are already €300m over the new La Liga wage cap. Personally, I don't see us getting him but I do see City putting insane money his way. He is perfect for Pep and Gundogan and KdB are both over 30. Barca are properly fecked, like Leeds 2003 fecked. If anyone cares to actually look at their financial situation they're going bankrupt very quickly as unlike Leeds they cannot even really fire sale owing the the insane wages of their players and/or the low amount of years they have. Ter Stegan and De Jong are probably the only two they have in a reasonable situation (although Ter Stegan is on big, big wages for a GK.) Romano also claimed that AS Monaco’s Aurelien Tchouameni is someone that the club could look at as an alternative to Rice in case a move does not pan out. Not sure about Rice, I really like the idea of him back as he is such a Chelsea lad but I fear his inability to break the lines with his running and passing would be a big issue for us.

Going to be a nightmare when he fecks off to the ACoN. Unless, if course, he is booked in to see his dentist that month 🤔

Hopefully Kepa gets a loan. However, if not I suspect 2nd. All he needs to do is have a 55% save to shot ratio and he is ahead of Kepa.

29 year old RB playing LB who has only become a good player in the last year or so? Yeah, can't see any problems with that.

As I said, lets see. La Liga have introduced a €380m salary cap. Barca are currently over by €300m and cannot register their new signings officially yet or re-sign Messi because of it. Barca and Real, unlike the PL clubs, both draw a lot of revenue from their stadiums. It has been 18 months since they have been able to use them properly. That dollar has gone and isn't coming back, whilst their debt interest has been racking up at the same time and at increasing rates. The issue this causes is that they are rumoured to be €150-€300m down since covid, whilst their debt payments have gone up. They both also cannot sell their way out of trouble as their players are unsellabable due to their contracts/form. On top of this their are rumours that a lot of Barca's commercial deals are tied to Messi and that they drop from anywhere from 10%-50% if he leaves, which looks like he may have to as they simply cannot register him unless the rest of the squad take 50%+ cuts to their wages. Then we get to TV rights, even the PL had to take a bit of a hit on the 2023-26 set. La Liga's is meant to go down even more best of it due to its lesser audience. As for their international revenues a lot was tied (apparently) to the stars in the league such as CR7 and Messi. So, that is also coming to an end. Then we get to how their government money has dried up due to EU legislation. That essentially saved Real in the early 00's as without their land deal with Madrid Council they essentially bankrupted themselves with the first Galatico set of spending. Tbh, Real, I don't think are in as much trouble, however they have had to seriously reduce costs in the past five years. I think I read that they are something like the 30th net spender in Europe over the past five years, that is going to have to continue for the foreseeable.

Lets see, Barca are over €1bn in debt and Real aren't far behind. Both are having to take refinance at bad rates just to keep the lights on. Neither really have any sellable assets due to age and contracts (ok, Barca do but that is selling the family silver territory; Pedri/De Jong.) Also, they can't sell out to oil money (officially at least) owing to their tax beneficial 'membership' model and their members having voting rights. It is the only reason why they are still signed up to the Super League as without the €400m it is pretty much goodnight, god bless as my old Nan used to say.

Barca are essentially Leeds circa 2003 broke and Real are in quite a pickle too. Not sure how either team is going to get out of their hole in the next five years. I mean Barca have to cut their wage bill by over €300m before next season starts. As for Real, they need a squad overhaul and they don't have any assets to sell as they've all aged out. The stadium renovations and lack of government money has been a real bitch for them.

He is over hyped, however his stats stand up and he is potentially a player that could solve your CF issues for 10-15 years. The latter part is primarily why he is going to go for mega bucks.

Cannot see it happening. Hard to turn down €100m when your owners are trillionaires.

If Real and Barca weren't both broke, they would probably be all over him this Summer.

In all seriousness we could do with Emerson having a couple of barn stormers in the next two games to raise his chances of a transfer.

Mbappe is going to wait 6/12 months then leave on a free. He would be pretty much insane not to take that option now. Why would he leave this season so PSG get €100m when he can wait six months and pretty much take that €100m as his own signing on fee?

I want him so will can simply call him Count Doku.

Jorgi is an excellent player in many facets of his game. His only issue is that he has flaws that are well known and cannot really be covered (pace and physicality.) As I have said before, 80-90% of the time he is an excellent player. The only issues come when we end up in PL 'ding, dong' games in those 10-20% times where his flaws get exposed. If he played in Spain or Italy, no one would really ever talk about this as he wouldn't have these sort of games as much.

Wasn't he on something like £80k after his contract renewal after the title win? That isn't too far off Zappa, Batsh*t, Baka and Drinky territory?

Haha, I am a little bit. However, we have a lot of dregs and there is only so long we can hang onto all of them.

West Ham, Spurs (if they sell Kane), Palace, Newcastle (if Ashley decides to put his hand in his pocket), Brighton?

Lets hope not.

With Billy going, we must have someone in mind, even if that is Gallagher.

Well we need to shift players, we aren't far off fire sale stage. €4.5m is reasonable for Moses considering his contract, age and contract. Better £4m than trying to find yet another loan for him.

Tbh, the RCB gets played as a Half Back in the current system. Not sure you need a 'real' CB for the position. Dave and James are fine imo for that position.