Chelsea Transfers

[robsblubot 3,317]

21 hours ago, Thor said:

Nico Williams. 
 

Player with a loose carry, poor vision and passing who likes to flick ball past his opponents and run onto it. 
 

Nooooo thanks. 

You may be right about Nico, but it did sound like you were describing Mudryk in a nutshell there.

[MoroccanBlue 5,251]

42 minutes ago, mkh said:

JUST IN: Michael Olise in discussions for £220,000 a week salary with Bayern. (@cfbayern @altobelli13)

For a player that is injured 1/3 of the season to come here and earn £100,000 more per week than the best young player in the Premier League last season. Also earning more than the likes of Enzo, Caicedo, and Gallagher, whilst they are playing in the Euros/Copa and he's going to the Olympics. 

Yeah. I can see why they didn't want to match those wages. 

[Vesper 27,667]

Who is Chelsea transfer target Samu Omorodion and would he fit Maresca’s system?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5576228/2024/06/19/Chelsea-transfer-samu-omorodion/

It is easy to see why Chelsea made an offer for Atletico Madrid striker Samu Omorodion.

He is one of several forwards the club are looking at, but their bid of €32.5million (£27.4m) plus add-ons was turned down.

The 20-year-old joined Atletico from fellow Spaniards Granada in August but is yet to play for them, having spent last season out on loan at another La Liga side, Alaves.

When comparing Omorodion to the leading strikers at Chelsea’s Premier League rivals, there are plenty of similarities. Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, the division’s most prolific and dominating forward, Darwin Nunez of Liverpool and Manchester United’s Rasmus Hojlund share certain traits with the Spain youth international.

All four are tall, quick, and physically imposing — seemingly the prototype for the modern No 9. If you put these attributes into a spreadsheet of Europe’s top five domestic leagues and restricted the results to players under 21, Omorodion would be a standout among the names high on the resulting list.

But who is he and what could he offer?

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Omorodion was born in Melilla, an autonomous city of Spain that sits on the north African coast, surrounded by Morocco and a six-hour ferry ride from the Spanish mainland. Raised in Seville, he was rejected by Sevilla as a child and developed at AD Nervion, a local amateur club, where the president gave him a €5 bonus for every goal he scored to pay his bus fare.

While scouts from Sevilla and neighbours Real Betis attributed Omorodion’s dominance in youth football to his physicality, his coaches at Nervion saw an emerging talent with instinct and intelligence.

He got his break at 17, signing for Granada, and impressed in his first full season with their B team, scoring 14 goals in 29 games in Spain’s fourth tier. Then, after opening last season with a goal on his La Liga debut for Granada against them, Atletico bought Omorodion for €6million (£5.1m/$6.4m at current exchange rates) and immediately loaned the then 19-year-old out to Alaves.

At Alaves, based in northern Spain’s Basque Country, he scored nine goals in 35 La Liga appearances last season, his first in Spain’s top flight, as they finished 10th in the 20-team top flight.

“He’s a player with a privileged physique, imposing just looking at him,” said Alaves head coach Luis Garcia. “Big, strong, fast, wants to learn and improve. His movement into space is very good, and he wins a lot of duels. He needs to demand more of himself to become a really top player.”

Omorodion’s non-penalty expected goals (xG) of 0.52 places him in the 85th percentile among similar players in Europe’s top five leagues (meaning just 15 per cent were better). Scoring those nine goals from an xG figure of 11.5 suggests a slight underperformance but indicates potential for growth, which could come with time spent on the training ground. For comparison, Nicolas Jackson, Chelsea’s striker signing from La Liga (Villarreal in his case) last summer, scored 14 times from an xG of 18.6.

His exceptional pace — Spanish news outlet Marca claims he was among the fastest players in La Liga last season, with a top speed of 34.5km/h — has made him a constant threat to many teams in the division, and he uses his imposing frame to bulldoze through defences.

Here, against Almeria, Omorodion assesses Chumi and realises he can outpace the 25-year-old defender.

Instead of cutting in, he takes Chumi down the line, successfully getting past him. This forces goalkeeper Luis Maximiano to rush out and foul Omorodion.

Omorodion is a “fox in the box”, with excellent off-ball positioning in the final third.

He has an impressive habit of finding space inside the opposition box, which improves his chances of finishing or getting into better positions from which to score. This can force defenders to constantly adjust and react, creating confusion and opening spaces for other attackers.

Below is that goal he scored for Granada against Atletico at the start of last season.

As soon as Gonzalo Villar wins the ball back, Omorodion instantly considers his best move. Spotting Stefan Savic nearby, he distances himself by dropping back, creating space. Omorodion then signals for the ball to be played into that gap.

Before Savic can react, Omorodion exploits the room he’s made for himself, receives the pass and scores.

While Omorodion is excellent in open space, he is limited in the build-up phase — at this early stage in his career, he relies on service from team-mates and is not a primary creator.

He averaged only 0.81 progressive passes per 90 minutes (putting him in the seventh percentile) and created 1.49 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes, significantly fewer than Jackson (3.05) did for Chelsea last season. These are areas he would have to improve in under new head coach Enzo Maresca.

Still, Chelsea’s opening bid suggests they are aware Omorodion is not yet quite at the level they require to lead the line for their first team.

The Spain Under-21 international, who is also eligible for Nigeria through his parentage, is a raw talent, but the attributes of a potentially dominant striker are all visible.

With David Datro Fofana, Romelu Lukaku and Armando Broja all still on the books, it is curious Chelsea are targeting a striker of Omorodion’s profile at this stage of the window. However, under the ownership of Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly over the past two years, the west London club have prioritised younger signings in the transfer market.

While bringing in a new No 9 was always a priority for this summer, given the challenges of staying within profit and sustainability rules (PSR), Chelsea cannot look at high-profile, high-fee options such as Napoli’s Victor Osimhen. Nor are they looking to replace or relegate Jackson after just one season.

Broja’s likely sale in this window after being loaned to Fulham for the second half of last season creates an opening for another striker to come in and compete with Jackson for minutes up front. Chelsea believe there will be plenty of those to go around, with the return of European football in the 2024-25 Conference League and then FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup next June and July.

Omorodion is not the only striker Chelsea are looking at, but he is indicative of the specific profile they want. He is mobile, physically imposing, and can compete with burly Premier League centre-backs while being technical, and positionally fluid enough to fit into Maresca’s system.

While he does not yet excel in the build-up phase of attacks, Maresca’s experience working with off-the-shoulder strikers such as Jamie Vardy and Patson Daka at Leicester City last season suggests he can find solutions with attackers who are not seamless fits in his system.

Omorodion’s debut La Liga campaign, in which he impressed in a limited Alaves team mostly as a 19-year-old (he turned 20 on May 5), also marks him out as the kind of emerging talent Chelsea co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley have been tasked with collecting in every position.

He may not end up at Stamford Bridge in the blue shirt as Atletico are very keen to retain him, but Chelsea’s interest in Omorodion is consistent with the club’s broader recruitment strategy.

GO DEEPER

Which Premier League team has the toughest start to the 2024-25 season?

[Vesper 27,667]

June 30 – the transfer deadline making rival Premier League clubs friends with benefits

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5578737/2024/06/21/transfers-between-premier-league-clubs/

There is not a Premier League club prepared to admit it, but June 30 has become a date laden with significance.

The end of football’s financial year represents the final cut-off point for compliance, one last opportunity to tidy up a club’s books. Sell a player and solve your problems. Fail and fear the repercussions.

These final days of June and the business they bring can be the difference between conformity and a breach of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR).

Everton and Nottingham Forest can attest to that. Both have tried to offload an asset and retreat under the allowable losses threshold in summers past, but failing to do so eventually brought disciplinary hearings and points deductions.

This summer, clubs are seeking silver bullets in the transfer market again — but this time around their shared problems are leading to mutually beneficial solutions.

Aston Villa, Chelsea and Everton, three clubs thought to be sailing close to the PSR wind, have all spent the week negotiating deals that will strengthen their positions ahead of June 30.

Ian Maatsen, the talented left-back, will leave Chelsea to join Villa for £37.5million ($47.5m), while a deal had also been proposed for striker Jhon Duran to head in the opposite direction for a similar sum.

Villa have opened up a line with Everton, too. As well as lining up winger Lewis Dobbin from Goodison Park, they could send midfielder Tim Iroegbunam in the opposite direction. Two separate deals for sums in the same ballpark, this time about £9million.

Such deals and potential deals promise to fill holes in squads ahead of 2024-25 but, importantly, also improve PSR positions before June 30. Premier League rivals are becoming friends with benefits.

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What is the relevance of June 30?

A date that looms on the horizon marks the end of English football’s financial year. Accounting periods typically run from July 1 to June 30 and the numbers that are posted matter.

Every club is allowed total losses of £105million over a rolling three-year period in the Premier League, adjusted for those clubs not in the division for all three years. Go north of that, as Everton (twice) and Nottingham Forest did, and there will be trouble.

All clubs will be aware of their positions — good, bad or indifferent — as the end of another financial year rolls around, with these closing weeks of June a last chance to remedy problems.

Forest’s disciplinary hearing, published in March, underlined the importance of June 30. Aware of their overspending in the period under assessment, Forest made attempts to sell star man Brennan Johnson to be compliant.

That sale, to Tottenham for £47.5million did not come until the final days of the summer window, too late to address a spending breach of £34.5m that brought an eventual four-point deduction.

Cards are being kept close to chests this summer but the business discussed by Aston Villa, Chelsea and Everton this week would indicate those three clubs are all open to improving their financial results in the next 10 days.

How do these deals benefit clubs?

If we start with the biggest — Maatsen’s move to Villa — it will be a significant boost to Chelsea. A youngster who joined aged 16, his book value will be close to zero. That £37.5million, therefore, can effectively be added to the profit column and immediately redress the losses Chelsea have incurred over the last three years.

Villa, meanwhile, do not need take the equivalent hit. That £37.5million can be amortised, or spread, over five years, meaning only £7.5million shows up on the books every year. That can also be amortised on a monthly basis to ensure almost none of the outlay shows up in the 2023-24 accounts.

Selling Duran would not have been as beneficial to Villa as the sale of Maatsen has been to Chelsea, but it would still have been a welcome windfall.

The business drawn up between Villa and Everton this week carries similar benefits.

In selling Dobbin to Villa, Everton will be able to book the entire fee as profit in their 2023-24 accounts, owing to the winger’s status as an academy graduate. Villa, meanwhile, are able to amortise the cost over the length of Dobbin’s contract. So a £10million purchase, for example, could be spread over five years, ensuring the player only shows up as £2million annual outlay.

Roles would be reversed in the Iroegbunam transfer. Everton could amortise the cost, while Villa book a useful profit on a player they signed from West Bromwich Albion two years ago without recommitting the sum to Dobbin in their own accounts. Both clubs win without losing a player.

There was a time when Dobbin and Iroegbunam, players with similar market values, would simply have been swapped. That option would still have been open for Villa and Everton but it is telling that the two transfers are being treated as separate transactions, independent of the other.

It all effectively amounts to helpful accounting ahead of June 30, replacing one asset with another for mutual benefit.

 

 

Lewis Dobbin may be on the move this summer (Tony McArdle/Everton FC/Getty Images)

 

Is this kind of trading all within the rules?

There is nothing to stop clubs from buying and selling players with each other in any of these cases and the motives for doing so are irrelevant. Aston Villa, Chelsea and Everton can state it is business that benefits the make-up of their squad and any further advantages gained are incidental.

Any Premier League club, whether buyer or seller, would theoretically need to do is satisfy the regulations in place.

As a result of Newcastle United’s takeover by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) in 2021, rules were introduced to ensure all transactions would be checked to ensure they did not exceed “fair market value”. That was a move primarily focused on limiting how much Newcastle could secure through Saudi sponsorship deals but, as in the case of Allan Saint-Maximin’s £30million move to PIF-owned Al Ahli, also covered transfers — clubs with the same owner could not bail each other out with a price inflated for the purpose.

There has already been grumblings from within the Premier League over the definition of ‘fair market value’ and how it is judged, and that is particularly challenging with player valuations. It grows even more onerous when two unconnected clubs are doing business in an open market.

GO DEEPER

Dobbin and Iroegbunam are set to switch clubs - why do Villa and Everton want to sell to each other?

Has there ever been anything similar to this before?

The biggest trade to ever cause surprise perhaps involved Juventus and Barcelona in the summer of 2020.

Miralem Pjanic, who had just turned 30, was sold by Juventus to Barcelona for €60million (£51m $64m); while Arthur headed in the opposite direction for €72m (£61m; $77m). It would later transpire that only €12m (£10m; $13m) changed hands but both Juventus and Barcelona, facing huge financial pressures in the midst of the Covid pandemic, were able to book handsome profits. Juventus always argued the deal was legitimate and in breach of no rules.

That deal was eventually the most high-profile case of the 62 transfers investigated by the Italian Football Federation (FICG), with 42 involving Juventus. They were referred to as “mirror” deals and also included the 2019 trade when Danilo (€37m; £31m; $40m) joined Juventus and Joao Cancelo (€65m; £55m; $70m) moved to Manchester City.

The FICG’s case, which included a further 10 clubs, essentially collapsed due to the challenges of establishing the value of a footballer. A subsequent investigation into the club’s transfer dealings, though, found evidence of false accounting and saw Juventus docked 10 points.

The Pjanic and Arthur trade has become infamous but there is nothing to suggest any wrongdoing in the business proposed in the Premier League this summer.

GO DEEPER

Which clubs are going to spend in this summer's transfer window?

 

[Vesper 27,667]

Chelsea open talks with Boca Juniors over Aaron Anselmino transfer

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5578387/2024/06/20/Chelsea-aaron-anselmino-transfer/

Chelsea have opened talks with Boca Juniors over the signing of defender Aaron Anselmino.

The 19-year-old, who can also play in midfield, has played just 10 times for the senior Boca Juniors side so far having come through the Argentine club’s youth ranks.

Despite his career being at such an early stage, Anselmino’s performances has led to speculation over interest from European clubs in recent months.

Chelsea have made a move to beat any potential competition for the teenager’s signature by starting initial discussions with Boca over signing him.

There are reports in Argentina suggesting Chelsea have offered a fee worth £14.1million plus a further £3.1m in add-ons. This has not been confirmed by Chelsea but they are negotiating over the fee.

Anselmino is not the only young transfer target from South America on their wishlist though. Looking for some of the best emerging talent in the region is just part of Chelsea’s recruitment model.

Last month they agreed a deal worth up to €57m for Palmeiras winger Willian Estevao. The 17-year-old will officially join up with the squad next summer, after he has turned 18.

GO DEEPER

Chelsea's aggressive youth recruitment means days of signing players at peak are over

[Vesper 27,667]

Chelsea plan to double down on aggressive youth transfers after Estevao Willian signing

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5575306/2024/06/20/Chelsea-aggressive-youth-transfers-estevao-willian/

When Chelsea reached an agreement to sign 17-year-old winger Estevao Willian from Palmeiras, it was significant for a couple of reasons.

First is that the fee — £28.7million (€34m, $36.5m) up front, potentially rising to £48.1million with performance-based incentives — took Chelsea’s guaranteed transfer fee commitments on teenagers under Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly above £150million.

Second is that it provided the clearest signal yet of where Chelsea’s recruitment strategy is heading: not back towards the established international signings that powered much of the success under Roman Abramovich, but doubling down on an aggressive, coordinated attempt to assemble the best young talent.

It is likely that the level of investment in Estevao will remain something of an outlier; Chelsea regard him as a better prospect than his former team-mate Endrick, who they courted extensively before his decision to agree to sign for Real Madrid in December 2022. When he officially moves to Stamford Bridge after his 18th birthday next year, it will be with a view to taking an immediate first-team role.

On Thursday, they moved for another promising young player, opening talks with Boca Juniors over the signing of defender Aaron Anselmino.

It is increasingly evident Chelsea want to position themselves to recruit every teenage footballer they identify as having elite potential. Clearlake and Boehly are spending six times more than the previous owner on youth recruitment, and intend to scale it up.

That money is not solely going into transfer fees on promising teenagers. Chelsea are continuing to build their global scouting and data analytics teams beyond the headline hire of Sam Jewell from Brighton & Hove Albion as director of global recruitment in May, seeking to complement modern digital methods of performance analysis at Cobham with more high-level scouts and recruiters on the ground.

As highlighted by the signings of Andrey Santos, Angelo Gabriel, Deivid Washington, Kendry Paez and Estevao, South America is a key area of focus.

Chelsea are far from the first club to hone in on this hotbed of talent, but they are dedicating significant resources to building a comprehensive scouting and recruitment network there, led locally by individuals who can use their contacts with agents, academy staff and club owners.

One example is Alysson Marins, the former Corinthians chief scout who publicly announced he was joining Chelsea in July 2023. Co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley had dealt productively with Marins at their previous clubs and held him in high regard for his recruitment expertise.

Chelsea’s vastly increased spending on youth recruitment is most accurately characterised as a redirection of investment. The first-team wage bill, which ballooned to an unwieldy £404million in the 2022-23 accounts, has been drastically reduced to a level significantly lower than in the final years of the Abramovich era.

That is unlikely to delight supporters used to seeing Chelsea spend close to every available penny in search of an immediate challenge for major trophies, but Clearlake and Boehly do not believe it is realistic or sustainable to target the world’s best established players at the peak value. They would rather try to sign the potential superstars of tomorrow at a lower cost, develop them in the right way and then retain them.

Persuading these teenagers to sign long-term contracts at Chelsea is only the beginning of the challenge. Ensuring continued development is no easy task with first-team minutes at Stamford Bridge relatively limited, though the 2024-25 season could stretch to 75 or 80 matches across all competitions once next summer’s expanded Club World Cup is factored in.

One area for potential improvement next season is the use of loans, and Chelsea will have considerably more flexibility under FIFA’s limits if they succeed in offloading Romelu Lukaku and Kepa Arrizabalaga. More developing players are likely to follow the path walked by Gabriel and Santos last season to BlueCo sister club Strasbourg.

Agreeing major deals such as the ones for Paez and Estevao raises other developmental considerations. Chelsea have too much invested in them to simply leave them to their own devices at Independiente del Valle and Palmeiras until they are old enough to move to England. Constant communication, support and mentorship is required — without violating FIFA rules — to ensure they continue to grow as players and people.

Chelsea insist they always recruit with developmental pathways in mind, rather than out of a desire to stockpile elite talent. That becomes harder to compute when you realise that Estevao is the seventh left-footed attacking midfielder or right-winger under the age of 23 that Clearlake and Boehly have signed in two years, but it is not in the owners interests for these players to stagnate.

Laurence and Winstanley have been empowered to implement succession planning with forward-focused recruitment in every position. Estevao and Paez may operate in many of the same areas of the pitch as Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke or (hypothetically) Michael Olise, but they are five years younger. Chelsea aspire to never be left short of the quality they require regardless of who might leave, as the squad evolves.

It is fair to ask where the Cobham academy, one of the most prolific producers of top-level footballers, fits into this. Chelsea’s aggressive recruitment under Abramovich too often blocked any realistic route for home-grown talents to break through, and Clearlake and Boehly are keen to ensure the standard to play for the first team remains every bit as high.

But part of Laurence and Winstanley’s remit is to more closely integrate the academy, creating and maintaining pathways for the best products to transition to the first team, ideally without the need for loan spells elsewhere. One reason Sport Recife defender Pedro Lima is choosing between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Strasbourg rather than Wolves and Chelsea this summer is because Josh Acheampong, who made his Premier League debut against Tottenham Hotspur in May, is viewed internally as being in front of him.

Chelsea expect to go into next season with as many as 10 homegrown players in their first-team squad, headlined by club captain Reece James and Levi Colwill. But the best Cobham graduates will be challenged to compete with elite young signings for minutes, and those not regarded as being of that level will be sold.

The prevailing philosophy can be summarised as ‘steel sharpens steel’: that the best Chelsea’s academy produces will be elevated to greater heights by young signings, and vice versa. Estevao and Paez will add their considerable talents to that mix next year. More will follow.

[LAM09 6,612]

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

Don’t get why they wasted 2 summers trying to convince him. Just shows how arrogant and stupid the sporting directors are. If a player says no and signs a new deal at Palace ahead of coming here, why even go back?

Would take the figures around his salary with a pinch of salt. 90% of the time these are vastly inflated.

Next it will be our board didn’t want to pay him an obscene salary so thats why he turned us down. 

It just goes to show how inept they are. If one of the really stumbling blocks was no CL football, why on earth even go after him?

[Vesper 27,667]

[robsblubot 3,317]

2 minutes ago, LAM09 said:

It just goes to show how inept they are. If one of the really stumbling blocks was no CL football, why on earth even go after him?

yeah.
Reminder that we did not even get Europa.
So, we have a choice of expecting things regarding injuries to be better next season and hope that's good enough for CL, or help the team a bit with a couple of ready players to assure we get CL. In my mind, the choice is a very obvious one, but that's me.

 

[Mário César 902]

he choose bayern and its normal that he prefer join them than Chelsea

tbh, dont bother me, but it always a bit sad but we will have estevao so thats ok 

[LAM09 6,612]

21 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

yeah.
Reminder that we did not even get Europa.
So, we have a choice of expecting things regarding injuries to be better next season and hope that's good enough for CL, or help the team a bit with a couple of ready players to assure we get CL. In my mind, the choice is a very obvious one, but that's me.

 

Aside from two or three clubs, others will always slip up (which is why a CL spot was attainable with only a few games remaining). It's just hard to see how this current crop, along with a manager who hasn't managed a complete season in a prominent European league, will pull it off.

As has been the case over the past few seasons, I hope they make me eat my words come May 2025.

[Mário César 902]

 

[robsblubot 3,317]

2 minutes ago, LAM09 said:

Aside from two or three clubs, others will always slip up (which is why a CL spot was attainable with only a few games remaining). It's just hard to see how this current crop, along with a manager who hasn't managed a complete season in a prominent European league, will pull it off.

As has been the case over the past few seasons, I hope they make me eat my words come May 2025.

Let's not forget United had a very off season, which may not be the case come next--same for Tottenham. From what I saw, I honestly suspect Villa's season has more to do with United and Tottenham than their own quality.

I don't understand why this club is OK with these risks; a smaller club can place all bets on promising youngsters and hope for the best, because they don't have any other choice. In our case though, it seems to be very much a choice.

[Duppy Conqueror 1,458]

Olise was worth going for but now we need to put that money to other positions.

 

[Pizy 17,988]

The briefing from the club that Olise’s transfer is too expensive is hilarious. As if anyone believes that the club who in this calendar year alone has spent £100m on Enzo and £100m on Caicedo plus untold tens of millions on random teenagers can’t now spend £50-60m on a player who they’ve told every reliable reporter is our #1 priority target. A player the club have wanted badly for 2 straight summer windows. We’re about to spend about the same total on 17 year old Estevão.

It’s clear that Olise didn’t fancy us. Just like he didn’t last summer. 

can only hope we don’t go out and spunk huge money on an alternative that’s not very good. I’ve said all along that I wasn’t bothered about Olise. But if we DO still want a winger it has to be someone at his level.

[Mário César 902]

so he will cost only 50M pounds. not too much

the fact is that he wants Champions league.

its sad but it is the new reality of our club 

[Duppy Conqueror 1,458]

3 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

Let's not forget United had a very off season, which may not be the case come next--same for Tottenham. From what I saw, I honestly suspect Villa's season has more to do with United and Tottenham than their own quality.

I don't understand why this club is OK with these risks; a smaller club can place all bets on promising youngsters and hope for the best, because they don't have any other choice. In our case though, it seems to be very much a choice.

I have always thought their main plan is to take say the dortmund/southampton etc..model and what could happen if unlike them they didnt have to sell/see their best talent leave as free agents. 

 

[robsblubot 3,317]

48 minutes ago, Duppy Conqueror said:

I have always thought their main plan is to take say the dortmund/southampton etc..model and what could happen if unlike them they didnt have to sell/see their best talent leave as free agents. 

 

yeah that'd make more sense if international football contracts were respected the same as in American sports; they aren't tho. Still the same question: why not improve the chances of CL football meanwhile -- also does not apply to AM sports as they don't qualify for international comps.

I dread the day that our top player, say Cole, says that either we take whatever RM offers or he will leave as a free agent like Mbappe just did. And Mbappe was on comparable wages at PSG--imagine the bitching his agent would've been doing otherwise.

Edited June 21 by robsblubot