Bir_CFC

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/laliga/id/1346?cc=5901 If a player in La Liga wants to leave without his employers being able to stop him and his "cláusula de rescisión" is within the realms of acceptability, the only barrier is that it should be him, and not the club he wants to join, who pays it. Not a day goes by without my being asked about the accessibility of Diego Costa or Koke's respective buyout clauses. But here's the rub. Given that it must be the player who pays the (let's say) 50 million euros to the Liga offices, who then devolve it to the club he's leaving, and that most players don't have seven figures in cash just lying around, it's usually the "buying" club that stumps up the money. If they transfer that to the player so he can pay for his freedom, the Spanish authorities will deem that tax should be generated on the movement of that money. Which type of tax, and how much (potentially anywhere from 21 to 45 percent), will be dictated by a number of factors that I, decidedly not an accounting or legal specialist, decline to try to explain. However, let's say that the buyout clause of Herrera is 35 million euros and there's 25 percent tax on it; the real fee will be 43.75 million euros. When a Spanish club deal is taking place and a player determinedly wants to go but the outfit he belongs to doesn't want to sell, then what often happens is a wee "scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours" arrangement.

Release clauses in Spain work differently than the rest of the world. The buyout clause is accurate but it's actually not Chelsea who do the buyout, it's actually the player. So in Costa's case he has to pay Athletico 32M to terminate his contract. This means Chelsea has to pay Costa the amount and then he pays Athletico. When we give Costa the money, he has to recognize this as income and pay tax on it. We have to give him the 32M + reimburse him for the income tax he'd owe. We'd have to transfer like 60M to him. Instead it actually makes sense to not bother with the buyout clause at all and just pay Athletico a higher transfer fee, which would be beneficial to all parties. The only reason to activate the buyout is if Athletico don't want to sell, if they are willing to talk I don't expect the buyout clause to be activated at all.

wigan work so hard and now choking hard on pens

We need Liverpool to win, so then even a draw for City vs. Everton, puts the title back in our hands. If City win or even draw then title is most probably gone. They won't drop points other than at Everton possibly but even so their GD would win it for them assuming we still win out.

Ugh, to be honest, I didn't really want Athletico. I would have liked Bayern instead. Athletico right now is a better version of us really, only difference being they don't have a Hazard. It'll be very hard to score against them.

He doesn't get injured but he's been very unfortunate with the timings. Missed the EL final last year and now the epic PSG result yesterday. Of course he was important for both results but it would have been nice to have him on the pitch for really the only two epic European nights so far in his career.

A very good save, but one I would have expected him to make.

How did we get him so cheap? Best 1 on 1 defender in the world for me. Best defensive fullback in the world too. High praise maybe, I don't give a fuck. Defensively, dude is an absolute monster.

You have quotes? I believe you, but some quotes would be nice

Hazard, Azpi, Cahill

Eden looked at him after he stole the free kick, so probably joking around haha.

It's clear his lack of goals is cause he doesn't get in enough dangerous positions because whenever he's had a chance he's finished like a boss!

Very impressed by him. Coming from the swiss league, I didn't think he would contribute at all this season but not only has he contributed when given a chance, he hasn't looked out of place at all amongst 30M players. I thought he would turn out to be Moses/Marin type player, but he's already shown he has a lot more in his locker than both combined. Wasn't so excited about him, but he's shown enough now to get me excited about his future. Plus, seems like a top lad too.

PSG didn't really impress me much, they are a good team but are definitely beatable. We played bad and made mistakes that we don't usually make and they made us pay for each one. Would have been very happy with the 2-1 but 3-1 is pretty bad. We can still do it, but everyone would have to put in a heck of a performance.

I'm a little nervous about Luiz and Rami pivot. They both go ball chasing. One of them will have to show the discipline they haven't shown previously to curb their instincts cause I do fear they both will run towards the ball and leave the middle exposed.

wtf was Welbeck doing? What a chance that was, just run it past Neuer and put it in an open net. Even if that chip got past Neuer, it was so poorly hit, Martinez would have easily cleared it.

nvm he's fit

Is it true no Costa for Athletico? If so, that's so unfortunate, it'll be very hard for them now.

Mario has all the talent in the world but he can't be relied upon. He's better than our strikers, but if players like Costa are available then Balo shouldn't even be in the discussion. He's having a really poor season at AC Milan. Every AC Milan fan I know is tired of this dude just strolling about like he doesn't give two shits about the shirt on his back. He needs a massive change in attitude if he actually wants to make it as an elite player because he has the talent no doubt. Maybe Jose can transform him, but it's a huge gamble if it means the alternative could be Costa. However, if we can bring in two strikers then I'd take Costa and Balo all day because then the risk is mitigated as he'll be second choice and the reward could be potentially huge.

It's actually smart business to load up on top strikers, even if you don't need them immediately. It's such a rare commodity that even stashing one for 2 years is a smart move. If PSG hadn't bought him last year and he would have joined some other team, it would have been impossible to get that quality of a striker for another 4-5 years. Even we tried to do that when we bought Torres while Drogba was still performing as a first choice striker. Of course, at that time no one expected Torres to be so shit, but we were clearly ready to have 2 top strikers on the payroll even if it meant a 50M striker had to sit on the bench for a year.

One of, if not the best opposition views yet. Should be a great game. In other years, you come across teams you loathe in the CL but PSG seem like a likable bunch, from the players to the fans. May the best team win!

Do they want Luiz. More importantly, does Luiz want to go there? Especially when he could most likely get a move to Barca instead.

No way we can afford the transfer fee PSG would want. Not going to happen.

Forget success or failure. We should be looking for improvement. We won the CL in 2012 but actually regressed as a team. We had turned into a cup team these last few years. I personally think the league is the best barometer of success because it's a much larger sample size and the cream eventually rises to the top. Unlike in cup competitions where a bad draw, a bad bounce or an off day can result in a trophy-less season or the opposite. In that sense, we have improved considerably. I still want trophies, everyone does but I can live with a year without one because I see the improvement and can see trophies on the horizon in the near future.