But MD, forgive me if I’m mistaken, aren’t a lot of these shorter deals that elite NBA players take typically so that they can be part of an elite squad in the short term under restrictive salary cap situations. The idea being that once they get to the end of the 1 or 2 years, they will seek to find a situation where they can get themselves a maximum contract for the full length the CBA allows.

Again, the rational player will work himself towards guaranteeing himself the biggest possible pay packet. If that means taking a hit for one or two years to win a title with the promise of a max deal down the line, then they can do that. But it seems irrational to normally want to go into annual contract negotiations.

Theres a difference between a 20 yo player leaving Toronto for Cleveland Miami or LA and another one for someone leaving France for Madrid Milano or London too. No way we'll have a NBA situation any time soon in football

Claudius wrote:

But MD, forgive me if I’m mistaken, aren’t a lot of these shorter deals that elite NBA players take typically so that they can be part of an elite squad in the short term under restrictive salary cap situations. The idea being that once they get to the end of the 1 or 2 years, they will seek to find a situation where they can get themselves a maximum contract for the full length the CBA allows.

Again, the rational player will work himself towards guaranteeing himself the biggest possible pay packet. If that means taking a hit for one or two years to win a title with the promise of a max deal down the line, then they can do that. But it seems irrational to normally want to go into annual contract negotiations.

they make short term deals because the max salary in the NBA is tied to a percentage of the salary cap. for example, the max contract this year for someone with 7-9 years of service time was 30% of the overall salary cap, which is $109M. that works out to $32.7M per year. next year, if the cap rises again (like most expect), a 1 year deal at 30% of a $115M cap would be $36.8M. if a player signed a 2 year max contract this summer, he'd make $32.7M and $34.8M for 2 years, because raises can only go up by a certain percentage each year. so by signing a 1 year deal and then signing a new 1 year deal next year after the cap has gone up, you make more money. the superstars have signed shorter deals to maximize their earnings. they risk the long term stability. but as we just saw with durant, even though he suffered basically the worst injury you can suffer, he declined his 1 year option, then signed a near max contract with brooklyn. they were willing to pay him for 1 season to do nothing because of how good he is and the surplus value they'll get when hes actually back and healthy.

in a way, this is all just an academic exercise, because the NBA is a salary cap world and football isnt.

jones wrote:

Theres a difference between a 20 yo player leaving Toronto for Cleveland Miami or LA and another one for someone leaving France for Madrid Milano or London too. No way we'll have a NBA situation any time soon in football

i know. but thinking about stuff like this distracts me from the realities of arsenal

Anything that distracts you from Arsenal Football Club is fair enough in my book man

Napoli's President De Laurentiis on signing Icardi: "I met Wanda Nara three years ago and I have no intention of seeing her again. That meeting was enough for me."

[L'Équipe] Barcelona have paid Griezmann's release clause of €120m

This saga might really end.

Tottenham have agreed personal terms in principle with Giovani Lo Celso worth £150,000-a-week. [Estadio Deportivo]

[James Ducker] : Manchester United left stunned by Newcastle's £50m asking price for Sean Longstaff.

50 milion gets you Sean Longstaff

OFFICIAL: Barça sign Louie Barry from West Bromwich Albion on a free transfer. He will play for Juvenil A

Di Marzio: Barella to Inter, deal done. Medicals soon.

BBC: Sam Allardyce Turns Down Newcastle United Job

When Sam says no to you...it's just sad.

[Luke Edwards] Sources at St James’ Park have indicated to Telegraph Sport that, barring any last-minute hitches, Steve Bruce will be announced as Rafa Benitez’s replacement before the weekend.

[RMC] PSG are keen on Sandro Tonali, Leonardo has met with the player's agent several times, the Italian player does not want to renew his contract at Brescia who expect €25m

According to Di Marzio and Turkish press, Fenerbahçe whose debt exceeds 500 million Euros and are under Financial Fair Play restrictions are interested in signing Sami Khedira from Juventus

[L'Équipe] PSG have offered €30m for Idrissa Gueye

Di Marzio: Bennacer has accepted Milan’s offer, everything could be formalised by tomorrow. Next few hours could be decisive for Veretout.

Gonna make some money here.

I. Hagi in Belgium for medical tests, hours away from officially joining Genk on 3 year deal

How much are we getting for Bennacer?

LOL @ the Napoli president on Wanda Nara. She sounds absolutely nuts.

Intrigued by this Spurs Le Celso deal. Really wonder if it is contingent on sales. If it isn’t, Spurs are going for it.

It'll be to replace Eriksen.

If they also get Ceballos (not that I am an expert on the Spaniard by any means, but he looked very impressive at Euro U21s this summer) and are able to make a trio of Ceballos, Ndombele and Lo Celso work as a functioning midfield then I would be very surprised if they weren't a much better team next season than they were last.

They would still be a mile behind City and Liverpool basically in every other area of the pitch, so not too much to worry about really. But unless big things happen here in the next few weeks, they'd be a proper, solid distance ahead of us, as opposed to last season where, even ignoring the points difference, in terms of quality there really wasn't a huge amount in it.

But there aren’t any Eriksen rumours. I don’t see Eriksen leaving this summer. It’s contingent on Pogba pursuit failing and Madrid settling for the Dane.
As for Saliba, he might make sense for them to bring in immediately if Alderweireld goes to Roma this summer.
And Spurs would be buying nice and young, protecting value for the future. This is what normal clubs seem to be doing. And then selling to wasters like us.

[Twitter]

Finally.

Does that mean no Neymar? Cos if he still does go then they'll have Messi, Suarez, Neymar and Griezman! Bonkers

Eriksen is so poor thing. Asked to leave and there's 0 bids coming in. LOL

The Barcelona videos are always so fucking cringe

Delph to Everton

why did they get for him? about £80m?

mdgoonah41 wrote:

why did they get for him? about £80m?

God no. Only £8m.

what on earth is a sean longstaff

arsedoc md wrote:

what on earth is a sean longstaff

apparently worth £50 million

Newcastle are crazy, I will be shocked if they are not relegated this season

We should give them a £50m hamper of Mustafi, Elneny and Jenkinson.

So in the end Rabiot went for a reported £120k a week and a £9m signing on fee, rather cheap considering the rumours that were going around.

ohboy!!! wrote:

arsedoc md wrote:

what on earth is a sean longstaff

apparently worth £50 million

Newcastle are crazy, I will be shocked if they are not relegated this season

It's a ridiculous price tag.

To be fair, though, a lot of people within Newcastle reckon he's the new Michael Carrick. I haven't seen the lad play a minute of football, but I heard Martin Keown say that he thinks Longstaff is a better talent than Declan Rice (who I rate a lot). Maybe he's a class prospect. It would explain why United are going for him so early too.

Klaus wrote:

ohboy!!! wrote:

apparently worth £50 million

Newcastle are crazy, I will be shocked if they are not relegated this season

It's a ridiculous price tag.

To be fair, though, a lot of people within Newcastle reckon he's the new Michael Carrick. I haven't seen the lad play a minute of football, but I heard Martin Keown say that he thinks Longstaff is a better talent than Declan Rice (who I rate a lot). Maybe he's a class prospect. It would explain why United are going for him so early too.

If so, then he seems an incredible prospect.

But if he was that good, surely he would have played more than 9 games, although you could also ask why are united also in for him.

Just ridiculous how cheap Ashley seems to be, that he is now asking for £50 million for this kid!

Yeah, it's completely insane. The whole transfer market is wrecked.

Ricky1985 wrote:

It'll be to replace Eriksen.

If they also get Ceballos (not that I am an expert on the Spaniard by any means, but he looked very impressive at Euro U21s this summer) and are able to make a trio of Ceballos, Ndombele and Lo Celso work as a functioning midfield then I would be very surprised if they weren't a much better team next season than they were last.

They would still be a mile behind City and Liverpool basically in every other area of the pitch, so not too much to worry about really. But unless big things happen here in the next few weeks, they'd be a proper, solid distance ahead of us, as opposed to last season where, even ignoring the points difference, in terms of quality there really wasn't a huge amount in it.

I saw that Spurs were also after another Spanish U21 player, Dani Olmo. I wonder why we aren't interested in Olmo, but he appears to be stalling on that Spurs offer for one from Spain (Atletico). 

Di Marzio saying that Napoli is close to signing Elmas, looks like a promising talent from Fener. 

Bryant wrote:

 I wonder why we aren't interested in Olmo, 

I keep seeing these kind of sentences every so often , used nonchalantly like they're routine. What in our recent transfer or club history makes you think we'd be  interested? I'm not deeply invested in the arsenal transfers as others so I'm curious.

arsedoc md wrote:

Bryant wrote:

 I wonder why we aren't interested in Olmo, 

I keep seeing these kind of sentences every so often , used nonchalantly like they're routine. What in our recent transfer or club history makes you think we'd be  interested? I'm not deeply invested in the arsenal transfers as others so I'm curious.

You would want us to be interested.
Our new reality is serious. There is a plain reason we aren’t competing with all the big clubs for these massive transfers. Gazidis and co used to boast that we could survive a year in Europa. They never bargained for 3 years in the wilderness while paying Mesut £18m a year. That’s simply unsustainable given our revenue shape.

The outcome of that is we need to be wily on incoming transfers. We need to stretch our dollars. Less Zaha and more undervalued players or slightly risky players who are on the cusp of blowing up (u20/u21 players).

So is not necessarily about our history but more about our new reality.

arsedoc md wrote:

Bryant wrote:

 I wonder why we aren't interested in Olmo, 

I keep seeing these kind of sentences every so often , used nonchalantly like they're routine. What in our recent transfer or club history makes you think we'd be  interested? I'm not deeply invested in the arsenal transfers as others so I'm curious.

He's the type of player that Emery envisioned Denis Suarez to be. 

I see. Denis Suarez barely played here and seemed to have no prupose and Emery hasn't been here long to form any trend so I didn't understand in what way like Suarez.

Tbh, I've struggled for a bit and gave up a while ago to understand any of this club's motives/aims. We brought in Ozil and didn't pursue any striker to play with him. And then we brought in Sanchez who, for all his brief solo heroics, wasn't really a fit. (He prolly would've been better at 10 or Laca-second striker role himself but that's for another day). All the while with serious defects all over the pitch. Then we seem to be investing in some youth with douzi,torreira etc and the club seems to be falling apart behind the scenes. What really is going on, it's hard to make sense. I have a theory but it's too depressing.

Go on

I'll prolly form my thoughts a bit and create a new thread but somebody please answer me this....With Tottenham's new stadium, will they be able to compete with us for transfers and wages now? Everyone been saying that this is only a temprary blip for us and wages will catch up for the spurs cos they're a smaller club. Doesn't the new stadium change that?

arsedoc md wrote:

I see. Denis Suarez barely played here and seemed to have no prupose and Emery hasn't been here long to form any trend so I didn't understand in what way like Suarez.

Tbh, I've struggled for a bit and gave up a while ago to understand any of this club's motives/aims. We brought in Ozil and didn't pursue any striker to play with him. And then we brought in Sanchez who, for all his brief solo heroics, wasn't really a fit. (He prolly would've been better at 10 or Laca-second striker role himself but that's for another day). All the while with serious defects all over the pitch. Then we seem to be investing in some youth with douzi,torreira etc and the club seems to be falling apart behind the scenes. What really is going on, it's hard to make sense. I have a theory but it's too depressing.

Actually it is not really rocket science is it?

We just need to decide on a style we want to play. Appoint a manager who can deliver that distinct style and execute it with the players with proper training. 

Sign the players who fit that style and remove those who doesn't. Don't target round pegs for square holes. 

We haven't even manage to do the first. Now we scattergun the market. 

Fekir going for £26m to Betis.

Ray wrote:

Fekir going for £26m to Betis.

Looks like Spurs are signing Lo Celso

[Esto Es Atleti] : Real Madrid and Atletico have reached an agreement for the transfer of James Rodriguez. Real Madrid will receive €50M + variables.

Tomorrow he will sign for Napoli.

Duncan Castles: Manchester United offer of £60m plus £20m of bonuses that @garbosj reported on Friday’s podcast has now been agreed with Leicester City. Record transfer fee for a central defender.

Harry Maguire costs 80 mil.

Bartomeu admits paying Griezmann's €120 million release clause was a 'complex' deal. Barcelona have had to take out a loan of €35m to pay the fee outright (they wanted to pay in installments).

They had to take a loan. No way the can afford Neymar if they don't sell. Dembele, Coutinho and Malcom should be available for the right money.

Steve Bruce has agreed to join boyhood club Newcastle — as the Premier League's lowest paid manager with his basic pay pegged at £1million a year, when predecessor Rafa Benitez was getting a £6m annual wage.

Official: Maxi Gomez signs with Valencia

Oliver Torres to Sevilla: Atlético have a 15% sell-on and also retain a 4% clause on his transfer fee because they developed him. If Sevilla buy him for €12m, Porto would only receive €9.7m - less than half of what they paid for him in 2017.

FC Bayern close to sign Ajax player Hakim Ziyech for 30 million euros. Hasan Salihamidzic already met with Ziyech's agent Mustapha Nakhli to conclude the deal.

Not good enough for Arsenal but good enough for Bayern ?

Mauro Icardi threatens Inter: "I'll stay here for two years, take my salary and I won’t move"

Classy guy.

Ziyech good enough to join Gnabry at Bayern. Team of rejects.
Barcelona sound like they're barely solvent.Uefa should take a peek
Diego Simeone integrating Joao Felix and Rodriguez sounds almost implausible. What's he doing with his strikers?
As for Icardi, he's just voicing what Mesut's and Mustafi are doing over here

Thanks as always for your summary

[Twitter]

I have Rafael Leão down as the breakout star of Ligue Une next season. Been waiting for big clubs to start getting linked to him all summer. It would be a massive coup for Everton to get him. It might take him a while to get up to Premier League speed and leading the line for a team like Everton, but the kid is a proper talent.

It's a shame Arsenal haven't moved for him.

I tried to watch a Leao highlight video but it was mostly just Lille’s number 19 taking on 2 or 3 guys and setting him up. Maybe we should get that guy

Pépé is undoubtedly the star of the team, and the main reason they finished second, but Leão is something a bit special himself.

6'2", very fast and strong, athletic, good touch, a nose for goal, good running in behind, good ball-striking, composed finsishing. Only 19 years old. I'm convinced he's going to be a top striker.