N'Golo Kante

V.O. said:
Glad we dodged that bullet, even if a decent number of caf users didn't want us to. :nervous:

You can buy a lot of Mini Coopers with that Saudi money.
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His injuries were there to see and some members of this forum still wished we would sign him up. It would have been like Pogba this season if the club went for him.
 
WeePat said:
Sounds like his time at Chelsea and in England is coming to a quiet and sad end.

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I really don’t understand how this kind of stuff elevates the Saudi League.

I mean, I’m glad that they think it will. But it’s like they don’t realise that one team could go and get Di Zerbi, buy the best 8 young foreign players he wants, and have a team that the world would pay attention to.

If a few teams did that, actual football fans might grudgingly have a look.

A constant MLS style graveyard of ageing players isn’t creating a viable exportable product.

They’ve got so much money. Why on earth are they pissing it away on creaking legs?
 
If he goes to Saudi, be interesting to see if he can stay fit.

Can't really blame him for taking the £100m or whatever they're offering. He's won pretty much everything and continually injured in recent times.
 
WeePat said:
Sounds like his time at Chelsea and in England is coming to a quiet and sad end.
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Despite the injuries, I’d be very sad to see him leave. He’s still our best player when fully fit imo, albeit no longer at the peak of his powers.

He won’t be easy to replace. We’ve been linked with a number of midfielders this summer, but I don’t think any are a perfect replacement for a fit Kante.
 
UnrelatedPsuedo said:
I really don’t understand how this kind of stuff elevates the Saudi League.

I mean, I’m glad that they think it will. But it’s like they don’t realise that one team could go and get Di Zerbi, buy the best 8 young foreign players he wants, and have a team that the world would pay attention to.

If a few teams did that, actual football fans might grudgingly have a look.

A constant MLS style graveyard of ageing players isn’t creating a viable exportable product.

They’ve got so much money. Why on earth are they pissing it away on creaking legs?
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Because if a bunch of up and coming players moved to the Saudi league no one will care. Whatever they do there wouldn't attract any attention. Ronaldo arrival over there has created far more attention than any up and coming player will. Messi and Benzema will do similar. They aren't trying to compete with the European big leagues, you can't buy over that fan base, they're just creating a niche. A league were the elites have their last hurrah. Its show buzz.
 
It’s sad his future wasn’t decided by the end of the season and he didn’t get the send off he deserves. Been one of the best PL midfielders of the past decade.
 
UnrelatedPsuedo said:
I really don’t understand how this kind of stuff elevates the Saudi League.

I mean, I’m glad that they think it will. But it’s like they don’t realise that one team could go and get Di Zerbi, buy the best 8 young foreign players he wants, and have a team that the world would pay attention to.

If a few teams did that, actual football fans might grudgingly have a look.

A constant MLS style graveyard of ageing players isn’t creating a viable exportable product.

They’ve got so much money. Why on earth are they pissing it away on creaking legs?
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Had you ever heard of a single Saudi team before Ronaldo went there?
 
UnrelatedPsuedo said:
I really don’t understand how this kind of stuff elevates the Saudi League.

I mean, I’m glad that they think it will. But it’s like they don’t realise that one team could go and get Di Zerbi, buy the best 8 young foreign players he wants, and have a team that the world would pay attention to.

If a few teams did that, actual football fans might grudgingly have a look.

A constant MLS style graveyard of ageing players isn’t creating a viable exportable product.

They’ve got so much money. Why on earth are they pissing it away on creaking legs?
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Appeals to the YouTube generation, my kids included.

They are more interested in single players than clubs as sad as it is it's the truth.
 
11101 said:
Had you ever heard of a single Saudi team before Ronaldo went there?
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Al-hilal is the most decorated club in Asia, if you ever participated in a pub quiz you’d be foolish not to know them.

But that’s just to say Saudis had a decent league (perhaps the best in the region) and a solid national team, featuring at the World Cups, even before becoming the retirement home for the former superstars. Their current model doesn’t make sense IMO, it’s a large country with significant population, if they were serious about becoming anyhow relevant in global football they’d try capitalize on that, hire the best coaches, get some state of the art training facilities, poach young foreign talent building academies in Africa, like Qatar does. The fact that the fans are fine with them spending majority of money of foreign, past it players, IMO shows some inferiority complex still and for me their investment is shortsighted.
 
Red Star One said:
Al-hilal is the most decorated club in Asia, if you ever participated in a pub quiz you’d be foolish not to know them.

But that’s just to say Saudis had a decent league (perhaps the best in the region) and a solid national team, featuring at the World Cups, even before becoming the retirement home for the former superstars. Their current model doesn’t make sense IMO, it’s a large country with significant population, if they were serious about becoming anyhow relevant in global football they’d try capitalize on that, hire the best coaches, get some state of the art training facilities, poach young foreign talent building academies in Africa, like Qatar does. The fact that the fans are fine with them spending the majority of money of foreign, past it players, IMO shows some inferiority complex still and for me their investment is shortsighted.
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I dont get the Kante signing because frankly speaking he isnt a big commercial player like that. But Benzema and Ronaldo, I get. Benzema is the current Balon Dor, and he will be playing in that league and doing a lot of advertising/marketign for them.
 
RedStarUnited said:
I dont get the Kante signing because frankly speaking he isnt a big commercial player like that. But Benzema and Ronaldo, I get. Benzema is the current Balon Dor, and he will be playing in that league and doing a lot of advertising/marketign for them.
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High profile Muslim player still at his powers and only slowly falling off the peak - I get the allure and why the Saudi billionaires decided to pay him whatever he wants. It might be a commercial breakthrough for them to have a few big names, but again - is it really the most sustainable model and the best way to invest your money if you wanted to improve your league and your nation’s standing in football? Looks more of a vanity project doomed to fail, like China.
 
Red Star One said:
High profile Muslim player still at his powers and only slowly falling off the peak - I get the allure and why the Saudi billionaires decided to pay him whatever he wants. It might be a commercial breakthrough for them to have a few big names, but again - is it really the most sustainable model and the best way to invest your money if you wanted to improve your league and your nation’s standing in football? Looks more of a vanity project doomed to fail, like China.
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I am very uncomfortable at how close our usernames are. :lol::lol:
 
€100 million a season for Kante confirms the world of football has reached peak madness.
 
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