Premier League 2024/25

[Super_horns]

22 minutes ago, LFEFox23 said:

Its great profit, I'm confident Villa didn't really want to sell him though... This is where PSR is all wrong, clubs having to sell young talents or best players to keep inline. How can a club ever progress when they have to sell at least one asset every season.

Unless he was unhappy but then going to Saudi is just for money .

[The Bear]

Villa aren't getting £77m for Duran 

 

It's just under £65m.

[Mickyblueeyes]

Duran is awfully young to step out of European football. I know the money is crazy there but surely you want to test yourself in the best leagues. Toney did it too. 

 

Its always difficult to understand anyones motives but from a purely professional perspective, its disapointing. 

[st albans fox]

2 minutes ago, The Bear said:

Villa aren't getting £77m for Duran 

 

It's just under £65m.

€77m

they paid 17m with add ons a couple years ago 

no mention of sell on clause

so with amortisation taken into account they will be sticking £54m into their pot for this season.  Probs too late to spend much this month but means they won’t have to sell in June and can plan their summer activity well. 

[davieG]

31 minutes ago, LFEFox23 said:

Its great profit, I'm confident Villa didn't really want to sell him though... This is where PSR is all wrong, clubs having to sell young talents or best players to keep inline. How can a club ever progress when they have to sell at least one asset every season.

They could try paying the players less.

[st albans fox]

Just now, Mickyblueeyes said:

Duran is awfully young to step out of European football. I know the money is crazy there but surely you want to test yourself in the best leagues. Toney did it too. 

 

Its always difficult to understand anyones motives but from a purely professional perspective, its disapointing. 

We dont know his personal circumstances. I assume he has quite a large family and this Saudi contract will sort him and many of them out for life.  You never know when a career ending injury will strike. (Or one which will take you down to league 2 levels).  I think he’s in a great position - go to Saudi for three or four years and earn a fortune.  Then come back to Europe when he’s 25/25 and go again if he’s mentally up to it. 

[Mickyblueeyes]

5 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

We dont know his personal circumstances. I assume he has quite a large family and this Saudi contract will sort him and many of them out for life.  You never know when a career ending injury will strike. (Or one which will take you down to league 2 levels).  I think he’s in a great position - go to Saudi for three or four years and earn a fortune.  Then come back to Europe when he’s 25/25 and go again if he’s mentally up to it. 

As I said, I agree, we dont know the personal circumstance. And absolutely, the money will be extraordinary. However, from purely professional perspective (taking into account the money and standard of living one would get use to) its disapointing to see a player with so much talent not go to a European heavyweight. Its like Asamoah Gyan all those years ago, never really saw him back in Europe - had so much potential. 

 

Football is evolving and perhaps I am a dinosaur. Europe for me will always be the elite leagues. Its where you earn your reputation. 

[ClaphamFox]

Does the Saudi league have an international audience? Is there anywhere outside of Saudi where it's big?

[CUJimmy]

4 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said:

Does the Saudi league have an international audience? Is there anywhere outside of Saudi where it's big?

It reminds me of a few years ago when there was a mass exodus to the Chinese Super League because of the wages they were paying.  What happened to that?

[st albans fox]

20 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

As I said, I agree, we dont know the personal circumstance. And absolutely, the money will be extraordinary. However, from purely professional perspective (taking into account the money and standard of living one would get use to) its disapointing to see a player with so much talent not go to a European heavyweight. Its like Asamoah Gyan all those years ago, never really saw him back in Europe - had so much potential. 

 

Football is evolving and perhaps I am a dinosaur. Europe for me will always be the elite leagues. It’s where you earn your reputation. 

Don’t disagree with your stance but I think he’s young enough to do it all - if his mentality is up to putting in the hard yards with a very hefty bank balance and several years of managing without having to be right at the very top of his physical game.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

5 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said:

Does the Saudi league have an international audience? Is there anywhere outside of Saudi where it's big?

I don’t think it’s even big in Saudi? 
 

Average attendance across the league of around 9,000, TV viewership of around 200 million to put some hastily googled figures on it.

 

For a comparison - it is suggested that the Premier League averages over 600 million viewers per match.

[ClaphamFox]

2 minutes ago, DJ Barry Hammond said:

I don’t think it’s even big in Saudi? 
 

Average attendance across the league of around 9,000, TV viewership of around 200 million to put some hastily googled figures on it.

 

For a comparison - it is suggested that the Premier League averages over 600 million viewers per match.

200 million? I'd love to know who's watching it. Maybe it's big in Asian countries where they're obsessed with specific star players rather than teams...?!

[filbertway]

Duran has only just turned 21, that's decent to be fair. Go and make an absolute fortune for 2-3 seasons then afterwards, he's still 23/24 and can do whatever he wants.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

33 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said:

200 million? I'd love to know who's watching it. Maybe it's big in Asian countries where they're obsessed with specific star players rather than teams...?!

That’s world wide figures across a season - so I expect it’s mostly made up of the Ronaldo fan club members.

[Jazzy_Jeff]

29 minutes ago, filbertway said:

Duran has only just turned 21, that's decent to be fair. Go and make an absolute fortune for 2-3 seasons then afterwards, he's still 23/24 and can do whatever he wants.

Sounds good in theory- a lot of clubs however will be put off signing a player that’s essentially gone on holiday for three years.

[RowlattsFox]

32 minutes ago, filbertway said:

Duran has only just turned 21, that's decent to be fair. Go and make an absolute fortune for 2-3 seasons then afterwards, he's still 23/24 and can do whatever he wants.

Hard to go back to 'normal' wages when you've been paid that much for a few years  

 

I think its disappointing to see a young player going this way so early but I understand it. Him and Villa probably can't believe their luck. 

[Fox92]

1 hour ago, st albans fox said:

We dont know his personal circumstances. I assume he has quite a large family and this Saudi contract will sort him and many of them out for life.  You never know when a career ending injury will strike. (Or one which will take you down to league 2 levels).  I think he’s in a great position - go to Saudi for three or four years and earn a fortune.  Then come back to Europe when he’s 25/25 and go again if he’s mentally up to it. 

Makes me laugh when people roll out the "money will sort him/family out for life" as if players are in League 2. He was playing for a top Premier League club, of course the money in Saudi is better but he would have hardly been on peanuts at Villa.

Edited 30 January by Fox92

[goose2010]

Reading between the lines he wanted out, Villa were getting fed up and they offered him out to get as much as possible. 

 

Probably why they were so annoyed with the Arsenal bid for Watkins. 

[Lionator]

This is why I don’t understand forest fans when they say that they won’t have to sell any of their best players.

 

Villa are loaded, have much bigger commercial income than Forest and are in the UCL and have still had to sell Douglas luiz and Duran. 

[filbertway]

32 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Makes me laugh when people roll out the "money will sort him/family out for life" as if players are in League 2. He was playing for a top Premier League club, of course the money in Saudi is better but he would have hardly been on peanuts at Villa.

I'm estimating salary here but

3 Years earning 80k in the prem will earn him around  £6.6 million

3 years earning 300k in the Saudi Prem would make him about £46 million

 

I'd be shocked if a young lad from Columbia was on 80k as well.

 

You'd be insane not to take that

[Bert]

2 hours ago, The Bear said:

Villa aren't getting £77m for Duran 

 

It's just under £65m.

€77m which I assume is what people are getting confused with. 

[JimJams]

2 hours ago, CUJimmy said:

It reminds me of a few years ago when there was a mass exodus to the Chinese Super League because of the wages they were paying.  What happened to that?

It didn't have the positive impact on the Chinese national team that it was mainly done for and China decided to change the rules regarding foreign players, pay and transfer fees so it became less lucrative.

[JimJams]

55 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Makes me laugh when people roll out the "money will sort him/family out for life" as if players are in League 2. He was playing for a top Premier League club, of course the money in Saudi is better but he would have hardly been on peanuts at Villa.

Toney is taking half a million quid a week compared to whatever he was on at Brentford.  To most likely be getting 10x your wage AND TAX FREE, I'm pretty sure it sorts out his family a lot more than if he stayed in the Premier League.

 

I don't get anybody questioning the players making this kind of move.  I largely don't get the idea that they lack ambition either.  I suspect it's that their ambitions are just different to the average English football fan.  Not sure why people would expect a Colombian lad to grow up coveting the idea of playing against Morecambe FC in the fifth round of the FA cup. Or generally just making up the numbers in the big competitions.

As a player you'll play the game, make some money and if you're good and to a degree somewhat lucky, you'll win something.  The vast majority will only play and make money.  And he's going to do that to a degree that means he'll likely make more in 2 or 3 seasons than he would in an entire career in Europe.  At which point he'll be 23/24.  So still loads of time to come back to Europe and have a career that many dream of.  If you write off his ability to come back at that age, then I suppose he'd be a write off if he did his ACL and spent a couple of seasons out injured.

 

[Bilo]

46 minutes ago, Lionator said:

This is why I don’t understand forest fans when they say that they won’t have to sell any of their best players.

 

Villa are loaded, have much bigger commercial income than Forest and are in the UCL and have still had to sell Douglas luiz and Duran. 

As I've said many times before, Forest fans do tend to think they are a much bigger club than they really are. They always have.

 

The reality is that they will be more vulnerable to this than Villa. Smaller club, less recent success,  nowhere near as much money either.

[KingsX]

The Saudi League is a sham league with a few "leading" clubs funded by the PIF and other Government sources.   The King would like to build it up as part of the future post-oil economy, but it's not proving very popular.  Even with Ronaldo, Duran's next club Al-Nassr average 16K attendances.  A large majority of the clubs draw similar sized crowds as your Vanarama.  (right-hand column below)

 

Players go there for money, to play mostly against non-league quality competition in front of EFL sized crowds.  More power to them, it's their choice.  But you can't dress it up.

 

https://www.sportcal.com/analyst-comment/are-poor-attendances-in-the-saudi-pro-league-becoming-a-problem/