General Transfer Thread

[TheRam]

Hard to see that ever happening.

The viewing figures are non existent for it so nobody is going to pay good money for it.

They’ll maybe get a streaming deal in the future but it’s a long, long way off competing with the big leagues.

I imagine it’s losing money at an alarming rate at the moment and if Saudi don’t find more ways of generating money outside of oil they’ll pull the plug on it.

[Gash]

Yeah, I don't see it either. I know the Saudi's have massively deep pockets but even they can't just keep hemorrhaging money at the rate they do. It's not just football but the likes of LIV golf as well and neither is attracting any sort of global audience, they aren't even get fans through the door never mind people streaming their sports or watching what little TV coverage there is. They want to be involved everything, football, golf, F1, boxing etc but it's all costing a lot of money at the moment without much coming back in.

I wouldn't be surprised if it went like the Chinese Super League and quietly disappeared into the background again.

[Escalator]

Will fizz out the way the Chinese boom did, hopefully.

[AllyBlue14]

Of course, the more high profile players or managers that go over, the higher the Saudi league's stock might rise. But there are plenty of reasons why it won't ever really rival the big leagues.

The main one being that fans' affiliations are to their clubs, rather than particular players, and it's emotional/entertaining/time-consuming enough following your own club, without picking another one in a random league.

As a result, people aren't really invested and there isn't that emotional commitment. Even the continental competition - the AFC Champions League - no-one really cares. Rightly or wrongly, public perception is just that it's a payday for either washed-up players or those who have no real ambition or motivation - aside from financial - and that won't be reversed easily. Plus, there's little evidence to suggest otherwise.

I'd say their best bet is to run something like a football equivalent of the IPL - a 2-3 month league tournament somewhere in the calendar without any other top-level football as competition, where all the top players join on loan or short-term contracts.

That'd probably create more problems in terms of player ownership etc. and given there are international tournaments every 2 years and the new Club World Cup, it's incredibly unlikely to happen. It'll likely just bumble on as it is - a convenient outlet for clubs with valuable assets and PSR issues.

[Escalator]

Duran to Saudi is so sad, such a good player. A complete waste.

Buy for 18mil, sell 12months later for 64mil plus add ons, that’s the way to run a club.

[weimaranerblues]

Possible 90 m bid coming in for Mitoma

[Granite]

With these players they’re not just getting good players; they’re getting audiences.

[Gash]

Even the big four teams over there can barely half fill their stadiums, Ronaldo's the biggest name over there, 25k seater stadium, average 16500 for the season. The lowest average is a 35k seater stadium and average 700 fans. If they can't get interest when Ronaldo's there then their not going to be interested in some young player from Villa or a former Brentford striker most have never heard of. No one outside of Saudi is watching it on TV and if the stadium attendances are anything to go by not many within Saudi are watching either. They'll lose interest long before the Saudi league gets anywhere near the top global leagues.

[TheRam]

With these players they’re not just getting good players; they’re getting audiences.

They’re not though.

It’s hardly watched anywhere. Tv companies aren’t going to pay money for it and without that it’s nothing.

Even streaming will be hard for them.

Netflix have just forked out 1bn for the WWE. They can guarantee at least 10m people worldwide viewership on a weekly basis and that’s without PPV events.

They had a game showing in france last season and a third division French game got more viewers.

They’re just throwing money about because they can but without any Tv or streaming deal it’s nothing.

[Blueomar]

Even the big four teams over there can barely half fill their stadiums, Ronaldo's the biggest name over there, 25k seater stadium, average 16500 for the season. The lowest average is a 35k seater stadium and average 700 fans. If they can't get interest when Ronaldo's there then their not going to be interested in some young player from Villa striker or former Brentford striker most have never heard of. No one outside of Saudi is watching it on TV and the stadium audiences are anything to go by not many within Saudi are watching either. They'll lose interest long before the Saudi league gets anywhere near the top global leagues.

If they allowed people to buy a pint at those games they'd sell out every entire stadium with season tickets alone.

[toffee_scot]

Even the big four teams over there can barely half fill their stadiums, Ronaldo's the biggest name over there, 25k seater stadium, average 16500 for the season. The lowest average is a 35k seater stadium and average 700 fans. If they can't get interest when Ronaldo's there then their not going to be interested in some young player from Villa striker or former Brentford striker most have never heard of. No one outside of Saudi is watching it on TV and the stadium audiences are anything to go by not many within Saudi are watching either. They'll lose interest long before the Saudi league gets anywhere near the top global leagues.

Ronaldo is certainly a big name and the Saudi league also brought in Neymar and Mane but a lot of these big names are players approaching the end of their careers and are players who have already won the most prestigious titles and trophies in Europe.

What they haven’t been able to do yet is attract the young major stars like Mbappe or Haaland or Bellingham - players still with their best years ahead of them. If they could persuade those star names to join then that could possibly have more of an impact. But for these profile of players are the ones who know they can play for the best teams in Europe and want to win the major trophies and have dreamt of playing for clubs like Real Madrid rather than…al-Ettifaq

[Gash]

Ronaldo is certainly a big name and the Saudi league also brought in Neymar and Mane but a lot of these big names are players approaching the end of their careers and are players who have already won the most prestigious titles and trophies in Europe.

What they haven’t been able to do yet is attract the young major stars like Mbappe or Haaland or Bellingham - players still with their best years ahead of them. If they could persuade those star names to join then that could possibly have more of an impact. But for these profile of players are the ones who know they can play for the best teams in Europe and want to win the major trophies and have dreamt of playing for clubs like Real Madrid rather than…al-Ettifaq

Yeah, I said similar in the golf thread about LIV, one or two superstars isn't going to suddenly change the appeal to fans, they need a big number of big names to go and it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. Right now it's players past their best going to retire or the odd "Oscar" type player who's young but been lured by the mega money (or their agent has) rather than stay where they are, still earn a fantastic amount of money and play in a decent league in front of full stadiums.

It's a totally different culture as well for the players and families if they go with them. I think it was Henderson that was travelling about an hour to training every day, in a strange country without much support network around the family, despite the money it can suddenly become a very lonely place. Totally different to living on a nice Cheshire or Surrey town, wife and kids with their friends and family close by and all their school friends, there's a lot more than £300k a week to consider before going there, especially if you're already on £100-£150k a week which is not that unusual in the PL these days.

[MayorFarnham]

I just wish they fancied one of our players. Total re-set with one stroke of the pen.

[CannockPricey]

I just wish they fancied one of our players. Total re-set with one stroke of the pen.

Wonder if they would fancy a former Man United star (one game qualifies as a star in headlines surely?), versatile, ball playing centre half with a penchant for a spectacular goal?

Deal could be done around the same sort of fee as Duran I reckon...

[74Blue]

Wonder if they would fancy a former Man United star (one game qualifies as a star in headlines surely?), versatile, ball playing centre half with a penchant for a spectacular goal?

Deal could be done around the same sort of fee as Duran I reckon...

Or possibly a former England international target man who'd be fucking boss if he got a bit of sun on his hamstrings.