6 minutes ago, loz said:

Fans too often live with the delusion that players love their club and would move heaven and earth for them. You get the occasional one who wants to stay forever or makes a pay cut gesture but for the vast majority it's just a job and the club is their employer.  They are looking to maximise their income in the same way people do in loads of jobs.

Yeah I don’t disagree with this and it has diminished my enjoyment of the game over the years  (by the same token, I don’t get that upset about bad results). But I do think we are seeing more of this bargaining by players than usual and it’s casting a long shadow and affecting performance (Christensen hasn’t been anywhere near as good as last season and while I don’t have the delusion you mention I’m disappointed as I didn’t think he was THIS greedy). It also lines up with the excess you see elsewhere in the economy / markets (which I watch), and which I’ve observed in previous cycles. Only one way it gets resolved 😳 

2 hours ago, Dean said:

Anyone else think it’s getting a bit much? Christensen wanting to double his salary, Lukaku price and salary, Rudiger’s demands, Salah wanting £400k a week.. One may argue it’s always like this but i don’t remember it this bad; and it’s everywhere - not just football. Levels of greed / excess that set off an alarm in my head that shxt’s gonna break.

Not at all.. everyone deserves a chance to demand what they feel is a fair price for their skillset... Footballers have a much smaller shell life and you never know when they may do their ACL or break a leg or their form goes down the drain... It is a lot of money that the industry generates .. but it is not at all equitably distributed.. the main actors on the pitch are the Refs and the players.

Its now that players are trying to demand their part of the flesh.. from the administrators.. i hope the Refs are next.. no wonder we have such incompetent yobs doing the ref job they are way way underpaid to attract real competence..

"double his salary" is around £170k. I don't think that's terribly bad considering that we would be saving on a transfer fee for his replacement, he's also settled and proven to work for us so there is no gambling element either.

A 5 year deal will cost us around £45m? It would cost us that or more to buy a new CB + whatever wages the new guy will earn.

I'd say do it if Rudiger is asking for 200k+ because we need to keep at least one of them. Andreas, Trev and Kounde could be the future.

11 minutes ago, Jangz said:

Not at all.. everyone deserves a chance to demand what they feel is a fair price for their skillset... Footballers have a much smaller shell life and you never know when they may do their ACL or break a leg or their form goes down the drain... It is a lot of money that the industry generates .. but it is not at all equitably distributed.. the main actors on the pitch are the Refs and the players.

Its now that players are trying to demand their part of the flesh.. from the administrators.. i hope the Refs are next.. no wonder we have such incompetent yobs doing the ref job they are way way underpaid to attract real competence..

You don’t think Lukaku on £17mn a year for being a flop is more than “equitable”? AC should overnight start getting paid twice as much for doing a worse job than he was doing before? They’re asking for more than a pound of flesh in these cases, no?
 

Look. I understand what you’re saying. Refs - sure, no argument from me. but what we are seeing now from some of these players is obscene and out of whack with other trends, and ultimately (even soon) may not be affordable. It’s also not efficient (see Lukaku and AC above) . People will say “market forces” but this is just perception / reflective of an unreal speculative boom in asset prices over the last few years. 

11 minutes ago, sonic90 said:

"double his salary" is around £170k. I don't think that's terribly bad considering that we would be saving on a transfer fee for his replacement, he's also settled and proven to work for us so there is no gambling element either.

A 5 year deal will cost us around £45m? It would cost us that or more to buy a new CB + whatever wages the new guy will earn.

I'd say do it if Rudiger is asking for 200k+ because we need to keep at least one of them. Andreas, Trev and Kounde could be the future.

Ok 170k but it’s only relative to other players that it seems low which is kind of my point. It’s still 9 mil a year. These are astronomical sums of money to me - are you all billionaires or something :)?The whole thing seems particularly inflated to me right now, and it may not be affordable except for the ones willing to bankroll it all at a loss. Great! we get to watch Man City Newcastle CL finals for the next however many years till they find a viable replacement for oil. 

I get that it’s human nature too. Salah would play for £50k a week and be just as good as long as there was nobody  better paid. 

1 hour ago, Dean said:

Only one way it gets resolved 😳 

You're thinking death by Snake Whacking Day aren't you? Proper Homer style.

1 hour ago, Dean said:

Ok 170k but it’s only relative to other players that it seems low which is kind of my point. It’s still 9 mil a year. These are astronomical sums of money to me - are you all billionaires or something :)?The whole thing seems particularly inflated to me right now, and it may not be affordable except for the ones willing to bankroll it all at a loss. Great! we get to watch Man City Newcastle CL finals for the next however many years till they find a viable replacement for oil. 

Of course, the wage demands are excessive. This though is the way football has gone ever since it sold its soul to Sky. We all were aghast when Roy Keane got is 52k per week, doubling the wages of his nearest pier at the time, since then the wages and transfer fees have spiralled. The salaries to income of some clubs is dangerously high for some clubs and this could tip a few over the edge in the future if trends continue. The laugh about it is we as fans join in with the charade, deciding that one player is worth 100k per week, whilst another is worth 300k per week despite most of us not being lucky enough to have 300k in a bank account at any time in our lives. 

15 minutes ago, charierre said:

Of course, the wage demands are excessive. This though is the way football has gone ever since it sold its soul to Sky. We all were aghast when Roy Keane got is 52k per week, doubling the wages of his nearest pier at the time, since then the wages and transfer fees have spiralled. The salaries to income of some clubs is dangerously high for some clubs and this could tip a few over the edge in the future if trends continue. The laugh about it is we as fans join in with the charade, deciding that one player is worth 100k per week, whilst another is worth 300k per week despite most of us not being lucky enough to have 300k in a bank account at any time in our lives. 

All great points with which I agree. Spot on re salaries to income and did everyone forget the super league fiasco? Isn’t Barcelona basically bust?
 

I guess another way of saying what I’m saying is this: even within the context of sky deals and everything you mention, what we are seeing right now (late 21/early 22) is OTT. We’re in an anomaly, in the same way that (I think) the paper wealth of the likes of Musk and Bezos is an anomaly that is set to be corrected (maybe even dramatically) in the coming years. This is my view and I could well be wrong.
 

Football somehow skirted around the 2008 crisis. I wonder whether it will be so lucky next time. Im not necessary calling for some long term change, and in 10 years the top players could well be on £1-2mn/week (I think 20 years more likely), but I see a good chance that in the coming years, maybe even soon, there’s less money sloshing around football than there is now.  

His is the future that is less certain that any of the other players who are/were out of contract in the summer.

Obvious Thiago committed very early to staying.

Dave is said to be committed to Barca already for next season.

Toni wants to be made a big earner and where that happens he is open to possibilities.

AC though fired his dad as agent, had gone back on 2 agreements with us already over wage and contract length so as to what he actually wants most is not really know. He has been very unclear about it despite interviews last year saying he wanted to stay with us.

On 23/01/2022 at 11:24, Dean said:

Ok 170k but it’s only relative to other players that it seems low which is kind of my point. It’s still 9 mil a year. These are astronomical sums of money to me - are you all billionaires or something :)?The whole thing seems particularly inflated to me right now, and it may not be affordable except for the ones willing to bankroll it all at a loss. Great! we get to watch Man City Newcastle CL finals for the next however many years till they find a viable replacement for oil. 

Don´t even care whether that is net/gross, cause I´m sure Bayern Munich will pay that on a free transfer after they decided to let Sule walk. Christensen is a proven commodity in the Bundesliga/Champions League and he´s only 25 years old. 

2 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

And this one is the "just realized all the other trophies I could have won if I had stayed at Chelsea and not signed for the cash at United" look, lmao.

https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/chelsea-fc-transfer-rumours-news/2022/2/26/22951640/no-one-expects-christensen-contract-extension-at-chelsea-as-barcelona-await-report

Given this remains the case I am left to wonder why previously TT dropped AC due to his contract situation yet now he is almost indroppable despite Trev being fit.

Seeing reports that he's agreed to join Barca. Never rated him highly but wish we got some money for him.

15 minutes ago, KonaKai Blue said:

Seeing reports that he's agreed to join Barca. Never rated him highly but wish we got some money for him.

He is likely off, if he has not signed already. Should put him behind Trev, Sarr and Dave for the remainder of his time here imo. Unlike Toni and Dave he has not dealt with the club in good faith.

Get rid. Decent player but too soft and easily bullied. He’s threatened to leave before and has messed us about contract wise. Use the money to get Kounde. 

10 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Get rid. Decent player but too soft and easily bullied. He’s threatened to leave before and has messed us about contract wise. Use the money to get Kounde. 

Yeah, I was one of those that wanted him to stay. Think he has a lot to offer, but the actions - or lack there of - from his side and being as non-committed to the squad and club, I am fine with them letting him leave. Between Rudi and AC, give me Rudi all day.

CB group of T Silva Rudiger Kounde Chalobah Colwill would be completely fine with me for next season.

Just now, chiefBlueCFC said:

Yeah, I was one of those that wanted him to stay. Think he has a lot to offer, but the actions - or lack there of - from his side and being as non-committed to the squad and club, I am fine with them letting him leave. Between Rudi and AC, give me Rudi all day.

CB group of T Silva Rudiger Kounde Chalobah Colwill would be completely fine with me for next season.

Personally I want players who want to play for our club with passion. Whether they be like Trev, who broke down in years vs Juve and Palace with how much it means to him, or like Silva who grow quickly to love us.

AC does not. I don't want to see him in the side again unless we need to rest players.

Toni, Silva, Dave, Trev and Sarr should all be ahead of him.

17 hours ago, JM7 said:

Get rid. Decent player but too soft and easily bullied. He’s threatened to leave before and has messed us about contract wise. Use the money to get Kounde. 

What money? Hes leaving on a free.

Shame we're not getting a transfer fee for him but i don't think he'll be too hard to replace. Chalobah already has more in his locker for me.

I feel like he's always missing through "minor" injuries. I won't be sad to see him go. Keep Toni and Dave though 😁

So its pretty much confirmed that he's off to Barca at the end of the season, he got better the past 2 seasons but it will be interesting to see if he can be THE guy in a back 4.

He's done enough for us. Best wishes in Spain