10 Jul 2016 16:25:19
Want to ask united fans this. Paul pogba is a fantastic midfielder. I think he will be a. top player at united. However 100 million sterling?
Have we got to a stage in the game were fees don't matter as long as clubs get their targets?
I commentEd on manes fee aswell when we bought him. I think he's potentially an excellent player but again overpriced Imo . Many Liverpool fans weren't bothered by what we paid.
It seems premier league clubs don't know how to walk away anymore because of the money pumped into the league and money available. I also think the majority of all fans know our league is overated aswell. The German and Spanish leagues throughout are a lot better.
10 Jul 2016 16:57:08
I disagree about our league being overrated Al. Look at last season when Leicester won the title with the previous champions finishing mid table. Just wouldn't happen in Spain. Our 'weaker' teams are generally stronger than those in other leagues and every game is a battle. Regarding Pogba, if that's what the club need to pay to get him then so be it. He could be the difference between battling for the title or battling for 4th place. Whole bigger picture at play (missing CL next year would cost us a lot with the adidas deal etc) . I guess it's the end of the season that determines if the fee is worth it! .
10 Jul 2016 16:59:39
I think money is out of control now in football Al, maybe it's just the times and the clubs have to move with it, I was always one who was 'make stars not sign them' but no time in footy now unless your on top to do it. If you can curb Mane's apparent attitude and consistency you've got a top player there, £35m don't seem to bad in comparison now does it ha.
10 Jul 2016 17:13:26
Blind, Fellaini, Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin, Herrera equals near enough what we are going to pay for pogba.
Its just quality over quantity for me.
10 Jul 2016 17:13:39
Who's to say the fee is £100m and not €100m truth is nobody knows what fee it will be.
10 Jul 2016 17:17:02
The money in the game is ridiculous, what footballers earn is something we couldn't imagine, they're on another planet. No point even trying to comprehend the transfer fees, every club has the right to spend what it earns and the people in the position to make those decisions are surely much more informed than us fans. Personally I want to see the best players at my club, as does everyone, couldn't care less what they pay for them.
10 Jul 2016 17:25:48
£100m seems a lot but it all depends on how you look at it. It's not 'our' money and it may well be a case of Pogba for £100m or Matuidi for £25m with nobody else coming in regardless of which we end up with (which makes the fee somewhat irrelevant from the fans' point of view) .
You could also look at it as being the equivalent of signing Mane, Benteke and Firminho or Depay and Di Maria - and in that sense - I'd take Pogba every time.
10 Jul 2016 17:31:06
I agree that our top teams are weaker than say Spain and Germany. I would also say that our league overall is closer from top to bottom. As for Pogba, he could play for 5 seasons at Utd and still be sold at a later time for the same fee as long as he maintains his form. He could still get better, he could stay at Utd for the rest of his career, say 10-12 seasons. Is that value for money? I would say so.
10 Jul 2016 17:34:55
Welsh, I don't think you can compare mane to pogba or then you are in a different relm of thinking. It almost justifys manes price because of how enormous pogbas fee will be.
Red andy, would you not rather the club use some of this money to reduce ticket prices etC?
Cumbrian. I have to disagree mate. Technically the German and Spanish leagues are superior imo. As an entire package for quailty, entertainment and ticket pricing for fans German football is streets ahead of English football. As for leister. Leister were a magnificent team last season and had fantastic players in core positions playing consistently top class solid stuff.
10 Jul 2016 17:35:27
It's horrible how much footballers earn and how it goes to their heads for the most part. However, if the money didn't go to the players where do you think it will go? Some wealthy business man who probably knows next to nothing about the game and just has a football club as one of their many assets.
The money has to go somewhere, so whilst it seems ridiculous to pay these players this much money, there is just so much of it swishing around that it's arguably the lesser of two evils for the football fan. It's not like excess tax will solve the problem because offshore football will be set-up instead.
Whilst football finance is going through this golden age there should be so much more done for the grass routes and sustainability. But a lot like what is happening now to the economy, when the tide turns there isn't much left to sort out the dips because it's all been blasted on champagne and caviar during the good times.
I always look at former players of the 80's and very early 90's and think they must be so gutted they missed the money boat.
10 Jul 2016 17:38:44
The money side of it is madness -but the money in the game is mental nowadays - I remember sitting at home and seeing on tv Newcastle were about to gazump us for Rooney by paying 30 million -just before he signed for us, seems like only a few years ago. Newcastle .
IMO we are 3 seasons away from the 150 million quid player . Neymar, Bale. or the newest superstar and clubs like West Ham / Everton / Spurs will be signing 2 or 3 40 million pound players - even the next tier down from the Bales or Neymars what would Neuer or Suarez go for if up for sale next week 75 -85 mill?
Im past caring now - look at baseball and basketball players in USA the line is blurred between entertainment world and the sports world so they say 500k per week, AND huge transfer FEES so the players pull in the same money as Springsteen or Madonna in a year and if the club can't fund it themselves 100% then they tie up with Ford or Chrysler to tie down the superstars - we would go the same way . a few years back the talk of Ronaldo coming back was tied to Chevrolet making him the face of their worldwide advertising and chipping in 150 -200k a week . which is peanuts to them to see him in a UNited shirt - they were paying some American TV actor 5 million a year in their adverts so what's the difference?
10 Jul 2016 17:42:16
BigAl have to disagree with u, when u look at the money being spent today and what was spent say 5 years ago, yes it will look like overspending, but what people forget is the money the TV deal and other such commercial deals have pumped into the game, especially the english game, it's a simple case of spending increasing as income has increased, likes of westham and crystal bloody palace are trying to spend 30mn on a single player.
On the league being overrated again i have to disagree, real and Barcelona are expected to win each game except against each other and may be athletico, that is not the case in epl especially with the increased revenues for midtable clubs, they can buy talents just below the elite level from other midtable clubs in europe while the tv money does not really turn out to be as big a game changer for the big clubs thanks to the sharing system in epl, likes of shaqiri come to mind. This makes it a far more difficult league that either german or spanish.
10 Jul 2016 17:56:28
The bigger issue is the reported 25 mil the agent is getting.
{Ed001's Note - people are misreading it. He does not get 20% of the transfer fee.}
10 Jul 2016 19:16:18
Interesting Ed001 - would you be good enough to elaborate/ hypothesise on how any transfer might be made up and how much his agent might get? Really interested in how these deals are put together!
{Ed001's Note - agents get 20% of the player's money. They may also get a fee for facilitating the deal from one or both clubs as well. Well it doesn't have to be 20%, that depends on the agent and player and their agreement. 20% is the standard though.}
10 Jul 2016 19:40:40
Personally, in an age where mediocre actors are earning 50m a movie, I've no issue with working class lads taking advantage, in a career that can be distressingly short.
Yes, it's obviously obscene to the majority of us, but I don't see people up in arms about George Clooney earning his wage. Surely, telling a story is no more important than kicking a bag of wind about.
I get the impression some people don't like to see working class lads getting above their station.
10 Jul 2016 19:51:49
Irish
Pogba would sell for 100 million at 28? I'm going to let you off on that one mate😉
Beast
Were will the money go? Why not decrease fans ticket prices? Put some of it into the local community? Academy etc. Not just united because united has fantastic facilities but I'm referring to throughout the league clubs should put it towards their debt, infrastructure and academies etc. To be fair this may well be happening but why is it that many clubs aren't producing young players through?