£195 Million Neymar to PSG

Gritt23 said:

Indeed. It's the realisation of how insignificant the sums are that we pay over for entering the ground. Once upon a time we were such a crucial part of a clubs survival because the money at the turnstiles was everything. But now we are pretty insignificant. Clubs survive and thrive (or not) based on the oil price, and how rich that makes their owners, and how profligate they are prepared to be with their money.

That hit me when we announced £15m in losses a few years ago, which equated to 25,000 of us paying an extra £25 for each of 25 games. We contribute, yeah we contribute, but the money fans pay on the gate is mere chicken feed. As such they are not our clubs anymore, they are truly owned by the guys who pump the insane money in to keep up with these transfers.

THAT, for me, is why the spiraling cost of players transfers and wages spells the end of football as we once knew it. Football as the peoples game, where they were our clubs, and owners we nothing more than short-term custodians.

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Gate money is chicken feed in the PL, but the majority of income for the rest. The imbalance is crazy (and growing)

Transfer are totally OTT these days. Apparently Arsenal want £9 million for Wilshire. Madness.

Surrey_Albion said:

Because it has nothing to do with fans and is all about money. No player is worth that! I've fallen out of love with this commercially run cash cow of this personally.

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They used to call it ' the beautiful game ' but that was when you could reach out and touch footballers and identify with them. When all the shysters, schmoozers, con-men, crooks and downright dangerous individuals were attracted to boxing, the home of the big bucks. Football was ordinary. Down to earth. Footballers earned tens of pounds and then, eventually, hundreds of pounds. They were in the sport to win medals, trophies and caps and each were treasured by them and their family. When they packed up playing, they took pubs, ran newsagents, sports shops or local haulage firms.
If you grew up in the 50's, 60's or 70's, a lot of players had a mystique about them. Pele, Puskas, Matthews, Garrincha, Di Stefano ,Eusebio, Rivera, Law, Best, Yashin and many more. None of these guys made a fortune from the game. Sure they earned a bit more than the man in the street but not much more and thats how it continued pretty much up to the early 90's. The likes of Lineker, Shearer, Robson and Hoddle were well paid but t,hey were the cream. The top of the tree. They all still had to keep working beyond retirement. Football didn't afford them the modern day rewards.
And now young players are millionaires before they have even established themselves and some could retire and live comfortably for the rest of their lives, having never played a first team game. Its barely believable but its true. Sadly, the beautiful game has become the ugly game, sordid and grubbied by the detritus of society, always attracted to big and easy money. Those who protest honourable intentions but take great swathes out of the game for personal gain. Football is awash with money and it should keep the whole structure afloat for decades. But we know it won't because elitism won't go away. We will always have the big, the medium and the small. Everyone scrambling for a bigger slice of the cake. Now you hear..." its only ten million "....what a throwaway line. What a comment on our game and what it has become.
The best in any sport have always been rewarded well and deservedly so but football is faced with the average performer, the run of the mill player earning film star levels of earnings. Distorted, unrealistic and unsustainable. Too much paid out for too little return. To reward the ordinary with a kings ransom breeds complacency, arrogance and an unwillingness to improve and learn. Footballers will take more and more short-cuts as the rewards get greater. Its human nature. Why bust a gut when there is an enormous paycheck guaranteed every month.
The game is very gradually eating itself from within. It is barely in control of itself. Change won't come overnight. It could take 20 years before implosion inevitably occurs. The quality of the game isn't moving forward. It can't. Players aren't superhuman. The lack of hunger in the game is suppressing development. Cheating, inevitably more prevalent. Players have power and consequently call the shots and get the manager fired.
Those of us who grew up loving the beautiful game see it drifting, very slowly, like gossamer on the wind, away from us. We want to grab it back but we know the wrong people have got a grip on the game and won't let go until they have wrung every last penny out of it . And when sanity eventually returns, they will be nowhere to be seen.

Commander said:

Wrong. Clearly, they are.



We've been hearing this since the mid 90's. Hasn't happened so far.

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Fair point - however how many clubs can afford 200 million? 4/5?

middletoenail said:

Aren't you a glory hunting Spurs fan who grew up in Hassocks? I wouldn't let it get you down mate.

Sent from my SM-G9350 using Tapatalk

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Brilliant.

Slow clap

well I guess we'll be buying our players from Lidl or Aldi rather than Marks and Spencer.

Neymar to PSG

£200m, looking increasingly like it's going to happen.

****ing ridiculous.

Wonder how much his old man stands to gain from this one, and in turn how shortchanged the Spanish government will be.

Another one slips through the net

It'd be a pretty sensational move if it happens. It would double the current record transfer. When was the last time, if ever, that happened?

He's not even Barcelona's best player. I'm not sure he's even in there top three...

Garry Nelson's Left Foot said:

It'd be a pretty sensational move if it happens. It would double the current record transfer. When was the last time, if ever, that happened?

He's not even Barcelona's best player. I'm not sure he's even in there top three...

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This. I've never really "got" Neymar.

Quality player yes. Anywhere near the best in the world.... For his age... No.

People saying PL is the cause of all the inflation but it's not is it. Huge contributions from these 4 or so richer Euro clubs plus the likes of China. The best players always end up at Barca/Real/PSG/Bayern and then the likes of Juve try and mop up what they can.

I wish they had all ****ed off and started a European Superleague.

HastingsSeagull said:

People saying PL is the cause of all the inflation but it's not is it. Huge contributions from these 4 or so richer Euro clubs plus the likes of China. The best players always end up at Barca/Real/PSG/Bayern and then the likes of Juve try and mop up what they can.

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Eh?

Biggest spender this summer to date has been City, followed by Milan.

Bayern rarely get involved at the silly level of buying, and China has stopped buying due to the Chinese government bringing in a 100% tax on foreign purchases.

LlcoolJ said:

This. I've never really "got" Neymar.

Quality player yes. Anywhere near the best in the world.... For his age... No.

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I know 68 goals in 123 games for Barca is a shocking return.

Justice said:

I know 68 goals in 123 games for Barca is a shocking return.

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How many would he score for Carlisle on a cold wet Tuesday night in December away to Exeter though