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webmeister posted:Saudi just seems to be throwing squillions at aging superstars like Ronaldo, Benzema, probably Messi and Neymar too so that I dunno, people spend money to watch? The world’s best over-35s league? Be impressed by the glorious House of Saud? It’s not really clear to me. MBS is playing Pro Evo in real life. Also talking bad about the Saudi league on Twitter is a good way to get a whole lot of Arabic thrown back at you, they don’t like people pointing out they’ve got a Mickey Mouse league that somehow produces teams that go deep in the AFC Champions League.
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Jun 7, 2023 06:29
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vyelkin posted:Saudi Arabia has unlimited money and a bad reputation and they're into football now so of course they're going to spend billions bringing 40-year-old superstars to play in their Mickey Mouse league and cut promos about how much they love it, that's just what new money does in the world of football. KSA is a surprisingly young country for average age of the population, and MBS and the others in charge are all millennials/young Gen-Xers in Western parlance. Saudi Arabian business has I think fully subsumed SNK-Playmore (MBS owns it through his own foundation apparently? wtf) and invested in Nintendo and some other games companies, tl;dr oil country being run by goddamned nerds who think purchasing Ronald and Messi now means they get their re-gens in a few years.
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Jun 7, 2023 14:03
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Eau de MacGowan posted:wonder if messi asked beckham to fredo phil neville before he signed it would be very funny if that's the case webmeister posted:Proper cursed choice that, do you want to live in Florida or Saudi Arabia Miami has been called the capital of Latin America, for whatever reason people with way too much money like living there.
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Jun 8, 2023 00:57
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Thanks Ants posted:Aren't they all people who are like "my ancestors were chased out of cuba for exploiting a monopoly position on the supply of eggs" That’s a big part, but I saw somebody else joke that Miami is the second largest city in Argentina. And then there’s all the skyscrapers bought with cash by Colombians in the 1980s 
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Jun 8, 2023 11:30
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Gigi Galli posted:The Saudi league exodus is definitely the same as the Chinese league one except the money is real this time and it probably wont run out nearly as quickly. The Saudi league has actually existed and been somewhat successful, whereas the Chinese league had gambling/refereeing scandals within the last decade. But yeah, both throwing around a ton of cash, the Saudi money is a bit more likely to arrive and not disappear on a whim.
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Jun 12, 2023 15:29
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Bacon Terrorist posted:Phillipe Auclair was saying the other day they are going to back FIFA's plan to make the Club World Cup the new UCL and screw UEFA over, they have taken the top four clubs in their league under goverment control and are sharing signings out for balance. Their goal is the CWC makes the UCL look tinpot, leagues like Saudi have 4 qualifying spots and by the time they arent a farmers league and attracting prime talent they will have a good chance at being the best teams in the world. Yeah, and to be more specific, Saudi clubs have done well in Asian Champs league, this is a different situation to Qatar - more akin to Abramovich pumping up Chelsea (who were up and around the top half of the league) than some club down in the 3rd division without any history. Expanding the CWC could be interesting, I just have no clue how you do it without really stepping on somebody’s toes. There’s too much for the players at European clubs as is.
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Jun 13, 2023 01:37
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Xabi posted:What do you think they're smoking over there at Emirates? Think it’s meats, Edu loves a barbecue. Also yeah ffs the problem is selling properly, but part of that is having good players people want to buy. That said, I feel like Chelsea is about to be in a worse position than even “paying Özil, Mustafi, and others to gently caress off” stage Edu even was.
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Jun 15, 2023 23:40
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the sex ghost posted:£20m under asking price, where's my :thatsarsenal: emote Arsenal in general or Wenger specifically? 
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Jun 20, 2023 10:31
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Jose posted:is Dominik Szoboszlai good and since he appears to be a midfielder and we're already seemingly signing tonali will he fit in? more of an attacking/number 10 type, can't remember if he can play off the wing as well but more creativity and finishing. has been coming through the Red Bull pipeline for a while.
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Jun 24, 2023 14:13
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blue footed boobie posted:Chelsea have spent 35m on Nicolas Jackson, a striker who had an okay season with Villarreal last year. can't believe they'd get one half of the Young Bucks for that sort of money, but here we are.
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Jun 26, 2023 01:01
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Average Lettuce posted:Is there any chance the Saudis bribe their way into being allowed into UEFA/Champions League? My guess is they ensure plenty of spots for the AFC in this new FIFA Club World Cup.
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Jun 27, 2023 00:05
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 Get this over the line and you can get back to the grill, Edu
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Jun 28, 2023 07:18
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TheRat posted:I bet they offered to pay gently caress all up front Considering that was a complaint about the earlier bids (beyond being under £100 mil), would hope that’s improved and agreed on soon. Sounds like that’s what is being hashed out now.
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Jun 28, 2023 08:32
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hadji murad posted:Arsenal fans are going to be acting like they won the league now. Mostly because few are still alive to remember the last time that happened. hey now, at least we've won the Premier League, even if it was in the pre-HD broadcast era. and like three Premier League font designs ago. and a stadium ago I've gained some trust in Arsenal's recruitment the past few years -- not so long ago 50 million for Ben White seemed mad, same with paying out for Aaron Ramsdale when we had a perfect good Leno at home, but those and other deals have been well worth it. I don't think we're going to talk about 105 Million Pound Declan Rice the same way Arsenal fans talk about 72 Million Pound Nicolas Pepe, put it that way.
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Jun 28, 2023 11:19
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hadji murad posted:There were tons of people on Twitter who all wanted Pepe and said how good he was then totally forgot about that and pretended that they always knew he was trash. Like all social media opinions. they also didn't notice that he played a completely different style in France to the Emery-era Arsenal team he joined. still hilarious that Emery wanted a right-footed left winger with Premier League experience (Zaha) and instead got a left-footed right winger with none.
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Jun 28, 2023 16:22
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an_mutt posted:Sounds like an NXT trainee Absolutely
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Jul 3, 2023 01:00
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lomzus posted:lol I remember when Onana was sidelined for the drugs ban while still at Ajax, there was a brief rumor that Arsenal were interested (this was when Leno was doing alright but an upgrade or competition never hurts). best part of it was some bright spark trying to come up with a chant based on the Rihanna song. it would be incredibly funny if United get beat to this by a Saudi club throwing around all that oil money, especially since De Gea is still in limbo without a contract from memory.
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Jul 4, 2023 00:54
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Terminally Bored posted:On a free, too. United could've gotten transfer money for her during winter. Most women’s transfers are still out of contract frees, in fairness. But yes, Arsenal tried in January too.
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Jul 5, 2023 01:39
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kri kri posted:Do I make you orny baby Arsenal signing a new RB every summer challenge sebzilla posted:Why/how are Arsenal spending so much money? Got cash :tenbux: Real answer: I think we’ll learn more of the details by the time Swiss Ramble can get around it, but I’m guessing cutting the high wage earners the past few years has really helped cash flow. None of these deals are FIFA-style “all the cash in one barrel at time of purchase,” so some magic combo of having more cash coming through and paying these deals across multiple years. harperdc fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Jul 5, 2023 |
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Jul 5, 2023 13:13
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vyelkin posted:I assume there's also a strong desire to build on last season and push for the title again which means spending big money to build squad depth since that really bit Arsenal when it mattered and this year they've got the CL to contend with as well this is really the big part of it too - the rebuild can't be done in one transfer window, but this is the last season where it feels like foundational pieces are coming in. two years ago was Ramsdale, White, Odegaard, and Tomiyasu in, last year was Saliba back from loan, Zinchenko, and Gabriel Jesus. Big Gabriel and Partey were three years ago, Saka and Martinelli were here even earlier. Add in three more this summer already, and that's 14 players that would be either starting or in your match day squad when fit. Partey is the only one that's "old" and he's not likely to stay past this summer. Rice and Havertz should both be in the starting 11 right away, Timber is going to be in the six player mix for the defensive places (assuming Tomiyasu is back fit as well). so yeah, Declan Rice with a price tag of 1.05 Grealishes is a bit high, but if it locks that position in for six years and gives you a better chance to win silverware? Ben White was 50 million pounds, but nobody brings up the price tag.
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Jul 6, 2023 01:03
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vyelkin posted:Xhaka can play for whatever club he wants as long as he never retires from international football Switzerland's number 10 on the team sheet and by role sometimes  here's hoping Leverkusen make it through to the Europa League knockouts and draw United dropping down from the Champions League 
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Jul 7, 2023 05:48
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Eau de MacGowan posted:the saudi league will fail because its crowds will be comprised of bored dudes in white clothes staring at their phones, and not the mind-bending, authentic spectacle of a horde of fat, toothless racists in england, sweaty, tanned racists in spain, and over-emotional coffee-sipping racists in italy. I dunno, the one thing you can’t fault the Saudi league on is fan interest and history. They actually do have both, unlike Qatar.
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Jul 19, 2023 01:08
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Ulio posted:Saudi's aren't the smartest businessmen, they have been just lucky to have one of the most important commodities in the history of humanity since last century. This is clearly dumb as poo poo but probably true. MBS is treating this like a Football Manager save with cheat engine on. [Edit] see also the PIF investments in Nintendo and ownership of SNK, you can tell MBS was the rich kid with all the video games growing up. I also tend to buy the logic that it’s bread and circuses for the (very young, male) Saudi population to keep them occupied there (and arguing on Twitter with anyone who calls it a poo poo league) instead of productive things like separating heads from necks and wondering about changing their nation.
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Jul 25, 2023 12:40
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Vegetable posted:Mbappe strikes me as a guy who wants to be a football legend. He’s not going to Saudi Arabia. Not now. That’s the whole thing, even the Saudis recognize it would be just for one year until he goes to Madrid.
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Jul 27, 2023 05:29
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the sex ghost posted:Sit on the bench and get fat while ten hag pulls a face harry  Besides, if you want a big English center back that isn’t wanted by a top 4 team, why spend on a Maguire when we have a perfectly good Rob Holding for much less.
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Jul 29, 2023 10:43
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brocked posted:It feels like Balogun is very much in the shop window and it annoys me because he looks like he has potential whereas Nketiah just seems like a Danny Welbeck who stays healthy Arsenal can likely get more for Balogun coming off a hot year in France than Eddie on his longer contract with decent results while Gabriel Jesus was out, but not good enough either at smashing in worldies or at hold-up play to get others involved. I don’t get the Raya link now - I remember he was a possibility a couple years ago before we bought Ramsdale, but that was at least three goalkeepers ago. He’s just signed a new contract as well, and talked about wanting to be Arsenal’s #1 for the next ten years. Have to wonder if Ramsdale has been firing off heaters in the hotel room on the trip
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Jul 31, 2023 03:46
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Edu’s got one last bad contract to get out of the door. (Two if you count Cedric, which, eh)
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Aug 2, 2023 14:27
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blue footed boobie posted:For Raya, I think Masonity made a good point that lowering goals conceded is probably the easiest way for Arsenal to pick up points. I'm more of the opinion that Arsenal conceding goals was the result of the defense getting discombobulated when Saliba and Tomiyasu went down and Arsenal had to play Holding at cb and White on the right, but Timber should probably address that problem. I guess saving some points off of Ramsdale's gaffs will help. Yeah, even if Ramsdale got a bit off at the end of the year, missing half a first-choice defense really hurt, and the stand-ins weren’t great. Balogun is more sellable than Nketiah right now IMO, though the options at CF being Gabriel Jesus, then Nketiah/Balogun and Trossard (?) or maybe Kai Havertz (?!?!) is a bit worrying. Ideally Eddie gets better at doing a Medium Gabi impression or Balogun can, and the other options are change-ups depending on opponent or to rest the main striker.
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Aug 3, 2023 04:42
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FullLeatherJacket posted:that's a computer-generated image of a regen if I've ever seen one new *touches earpiece* hold on,
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Aug 4, 2023 15:57
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Blinkz0rz posted:I’m still holding out hope that Big Ange puts his arm around Harry’s shoulder and convinces him to sign a new contract and then we win the league. The league? Spurs can’t even win a cup, Kane has won nothing so far, let’s not get too silly here. blue footed boobie posted:Harry Kane is very good and paying 100m to secure his services is not only fine but also a smart thing to do, and particularly in a world where there are like 5 really good strikers. I’m indifferent at “failing” at Bayern but watching Spurs go around like a sailor on shore leave buying up binmen? Always hilarious.
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Aug 5, 2023 03:34
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Shrapnig posted:Højlund is done jeez writing him off a bit quick are we Shrapnig posted:He’s actually currently injured! Danish Kim Kallstrom!!
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Aug 5, 2023 15:45
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Literally Lewis Hamilton posted:E: a left back would be good, and CB cover that isn’t slow as poo poo We have a Tierney you may be interested in
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Aug 8, 2023 05:59
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The Perfect Element posted:The 'paqueta rice' combo was too good for this world Not too bad for West Ham’s bank account though. Jeez.
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Aug 9, 2023 00:49
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Loving Africa Chaps posted:Ramsdale seems like a good lad so I hope this pushes him to become better and stay no.1 rather then see him.get the boot. Yeah same. Love how the team attitude changed when he stepped in for Leno, the defense also seems to work well with him too. And importantly he’s definitely one of the “seven” that Tony Adams mentioned long ago that every top team needs.
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Aug 9, 2023 06:19
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Matt Turner to Nottingham Forest is a done deal https://twitter.com/NFFC/status/1689215191073099776
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Aug 9, 2023 11:35
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vyelkin posted:This is one reason why good English players are in such high demand at top clubs, because there aren't that many really top-level English (or otherwise homegrown) players and if you can't find 8 of them then you can't register a full 25-player squad. I’m convinced this is a secondary reason Arsenal are trying to sign Raya, he counts as homegrown, so that means two of that squad (barring injuries) will always count, locked in (with the third choice being whichever kid you don’t send on loan). It’s smart.
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Aug 9, 2023 16:22
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tarbrush posted:He could probably spend three seasons at Bayern and then come back and knock it off at a mid table club So, Tottenham again?
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Aug 10, 2023 12:09
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Not sure he’s worth 1.05 Rices, but man, probably better to go play for Klopp than pray Poch can overcome whatever chaos engine still sits under Stamford Bridge.
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Aug 11, 2023 04:00
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TheRat posted:It's remarkable how much funnier this shite is when it doesn't involve your club. Somewhere, Edu turned a steak over on the barbecue when his phone chirped with a text message.
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Aug 11, 2023 12:28
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lomzus posted:lol he is poo poo Courtois apparently did his ACL, and Neuer is still in recovery from his skiing accident. Weird, but here we are.
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Aug 12, 2023 13:32
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