Rumor has it Barcelona and Spain collaborated on what Lamine is allowed to do to finish his recovery: 15 minutes as a sub in game 1 (if necessary), entire second half vs Saudi Arabia, and start vs Uruguay + sub after 60 minutes. So if you've got money on him winning stuff, I'd reconsider the bet, haha.
Prem talents are going to have to start negotiating reasonable release clauses or just completely run down their contracts. Look at Baleba, United seemed prepared to offer 80m last summer but Brighton wouldn’t budge from their nine figure valuation. Kid was clearly destabilized and not in the right headspace t9 start the season, had an up and down year. Most any club would offer is 40m this summer, but because he still has two years left in his deal and Brighton don’t want to look bad, the least they would accept now is 80m. Imagine you’re Wharton, Palace asking for that magical nine figure price tag that Brighton were looking for last summer. Wouldn’t you be terrified that Palace regresses in 26/27 post Glasner and your own value drops? Now it’s June of next year and because you still have two years left on your deal Palace still won’t consider anything less than 80m. This is not me saying the “smaller” clubs should simply bend over for the established CL competitors, but the simple reality of what young talents need to start taking into consideration given the new found financial strength of all 20 teams in the league any given year.
Spurs learned last summer that even if you active a release clause you might get shut out lol I still don’t understand what happened there. Clause was activated. MGW agreed to it. Had his medical. Took his Tottenham pics. And it got axed. I agree with you overall though. But I think the big change in the seller clubs mentality is that they don’t really need to do it anymore. They’re making so much money from all the TV and sponsorship deals. They can more afford to let a guy run a contract down to the last year and actually be competing vs constantly flipping players for profit and living in the middle or lower portion of the table. I don’t really know the answer other than the player has to really force his hand in making a move, but no one enjoys that. And I think players are far less likely to do it these days.
Yeah, once again not criticizing the potential selling clubs, no need to bow to the whims of the player and the pulling power of the top clubs. Just think the best players rising the ranks maybe need to be a bit more conscious about career navigation from the very start. Gone are the days of a decent year or two with a mid table side before a quick and easy transfer to a UCL club.
@Swoos Spain-Saudi Arabia has had some resale drop below $500. I will probably pull the trigger if I find under $400, as much as that hurts.
That one dude who has correctly predicted the last four World Cups through analytics has chosen them.
Oh that’s interesting! I mean, I have them going to the semis so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised if they did it.
He has Netherlands knocking off Spain in the semis, then Portugal in the final (who knocked off England in the other semi).
My semis are almost identical haha I just have Argentina instead of Portugal. And Spain winning the cup.
same. As I just spent 15 mins importing all match calendar to both my personal and work calendars. Don’t tell the boss man!