Blackburn started it when they paid £3.6m for Shearer! Back when football first started.

comment by Robb Van Nistelrooy (U21234)
posted 34 seconds ago
We started it by selling Ronaldo for as high as we did. People think it was a bargain now but the fee was mental when Real paid it. Especially paying in cash
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It started before that too. Just various degrees of ridiculous transfer fees.

omment by Babyen møtte snikmorder (U9094)
posted 13 seconds ago
comment by Robb Van Nistelrooy (U21234)
posted 34 seconds ago

We started it by selling Ronaldo for as high as we did.

.........................

I think we can blame Real there, for buying him at that price.

Real Madrid got a bargain, though. None of these stupid fees will ever represent the value for money they got with Ronaldo.

It started before that too. Just various degrees of ridiculous transfer fees.

.....................

Sadly though we have been involved in more than our fare share of them.

I don't think our fees have been too bad (especially not considered so at the time), it's just that there's been so many buys and so many of them have failed.

In recent years we really have struggled to buy players and actually improve them which is a big problem. That was what Ferguson was brilliant at, buying players and getting them to reach an even higher level at the club.

comment by Zlatan The King Ibrahimovic (U10026)
posted 6 minutes ago
Real Madrid got a bargain, though. None of these stupid fees will ever represent the value for money they got with Ronaldo.
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It's a bargain now. Pogba may one day be a bargain etc

But when they bought him £80 million was a mental amount. It was a risk. Especially after a poor season for us.

Real continued that thread of paying as much for Bale and now offering insane money for Mbappe. Even offering money inflates the market

Poor season? Messi was the only player better than Ronaldo in world football that year.

Pogba is very unlikely to be a bargain. Certainly not on the level Ronaldo has been.

Pogba is very unlikely to be a bargain. Certainly not on the level Ronaldo has been.

......................

All about the Urban appeal, Dazza, you should know this by now.

Plus Pogba just scored a goal while dabbing the other day so the potential financially is endless.

comment by Zlatan The King Ibrahimovic (U10026)
posted 7 minutes ago
Poor season?Messi was the only player better than Ronaldo in world football that year.

Pogba is very unlikely to be a bargain. Certainly not on the level Ronaldo has been.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you not see the 'Dap-Goal'?

comment by Kunta Kinte Kante Conte (U1641)
posted 47 minutes ago
Hopefully these crazy prices we are currently seeing will make clubs think more about home grown players and the potential they can bring in terms of either quality to the club or value if they want to sell.

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This is what I think. This and PL clubs using buy back clauses I think will become more and more common as long as prices continue to increase. Already if we put a buy back clause on Lukaku we'd have got him at a more realistic price by now
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And surprised we haven't seen a resurgence in swap deals

Yeah I did. It was embarrassing.

Yeah I did. It was embarrassing.

..............

The defender casing back was even more embarrassing. It was in a slower motion than Marouane 'Usain Bolt' Fellaini.

People have been saying the bubble will burst for decades now.

There is no sign of it really.

All the leagues are trying to increase their TV income to get closer to the PL, so I can only see fees going up further as revenues continue to increase.

I can see £100m plus fees becoming pretty normal in the next decade.

Even if there is some big crisis in the sport I don't think it will make much difference. People love football, want to spend money on football, want to watch football, and football continues to expand into new markets all the time.

I've thought that myself. I'm yet to see any evidence that this so called bubble will burst.

comment by rossobianchi (U17054)
posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
I'd like to know how people have come to know about this Keita chap's game.

RB haven't played any European football to date, so I'm assuming people are watching Bundesliga fixtures every weekend and catching Guinea's ACON qualifying games now?
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I can only speak for myself but since Liverpool were first linked way back in January or something I have read a lot about him.

I have never seen the guy play but you don't have to see a guy play to know there is a buzz around them. He was the best player in Austria aged 21, and at 22 was one of the best players in Germany last season.

By all accounts he's a proper all rounder who scores, creates, can dribble, but doesn't shy away from a tackle or the donkey work either.

Of course watching a player helps to know what they are like, but there are enough reliable sources of stats and journos out there to see that he's a young player on a rapid rise.

I would liken it to Hazard when he came from Lille. Nobody had really seen Lille play and he hadn't played a lot for Belgium at that time either but everyone knew about him in football circles. Keita is a little less known but whether he joins Liverpool or not he won't be unknown for long.

comment by selbstgerechtein (U7048)
posted 35 minutes ago
comment by rossobianchi (U17054)
posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
I'd like to know how people have come to know about this Keita chap's game.

RB haven't played any European football to date, so I'm assuming people are watching Bundesliga fixtures every weekend and catching Guinea's ACON qualifying games now?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I can only speak for myself but since Liverpool were first linked way back in January or something I have read a lot about him.

I have never seen the guy play but you don't have to see a guy play to know there is a buzz around them. He was the best player in Austria aged 21, and at 22 was one of the best players in Germany last season.

By all accounts he's a proper all rounder who scores, creates, can dribble, but doesn't shy away from a tackle or the donkey work either.

Of course watching a player helps to know what they are like, but there are enough reliable sources of stats and journos out there to see that he's a young player on a rapid rise.

I would liken it to Hazard when he came from Lille. Nobody had really seen Lille play and he hadn't played a lot for Belgium at that time either but everyone knew about him in football circles. Keita is a little less known but whether he joins Liverpool or not he won't be unknown for long.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pretty much every Bundesliga game is on Fox sports, so I do get so see quite a bit of the Bundesliga though I tend to limit my games to Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen.

I've seen enough of RB Leipzig to know the at Keita is a good player. In a sane market, he'd go for 15 to 25M. In the current climate, he's probably in the 35 to 50M range. I never saw anything from him to indicate he's better than Mane (or even as good).

What the fack is going on, indeed!!!

Couldn't be bothered though, I've made peace with this nonsense last summer. Clubs can do whatever they like... don't give a toss, as long as I get the prerequisite entertainment for the money I actually pay.

So far, footy is still the most interesting thing on TV, so we're cool...

Darren has become such a negative nancy lately.

Suffering from the same virus Mex had before he wrapped himself in an Italian flag and disappeared up his own ass.

They also publish gossip suggesting Chelsea are about to spend over £60m on Alex Sandro
-----------------------------------------------------
Worth every penny if he helps Chelsea win silvereware

comment by Coutinho's Mirkin 2.0 (U21501)
posted 1 hour, 37 minutes ago
comment by Zlatan The King Ibrahimovic (U10026)
posted 7 minutes ago
Poor season?Messi was the only player better than Ronaldo in world football that year.

Pogba is very unlikely to be a bargain. Certainly not on the level Ronaldo has been.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you not see the 'Dap-Goal'?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the great goals of our time. I remember exactly what I was doing when I saw it, so I can say when people ask in many years time.

comment by Quincey peacock, esq. (U19119)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Coutinho's Mirkin 2.0 (U21501)
posted 1 hour, 37 minutes ago
comment by Zlatan The King Ibrahimovic (U10026)
posted 7 minutes ago
Poor season?Messi was the only player better than Ronaldo in world football that year.

Pogba is very unlikely to be a bargain. Certainly not on the level Ronaldo has been.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you not see the 'Dap-Goal'?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the great goals of our time. I remember exactly what I was doing when I saw it, so I can say when people ask in many years time.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I remember exactly what I was doing as well: sat with my head in my hands, half laughing, half crying.

comment by Conte'nt (U20893)
posted 11 minutes ago
They also publish gossip suggesting Chelsea are about to spend over £60m on Alex Sandro
-----------------------------------------------------
Worth every penny if he helps Chelsea win silvereware

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Depending on the relative weight of the contribution and the prestige associated with the trophy/trophies, that could be said about any signing.

comment by rossobianchi (U17054)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Quincey peacock, esq. (U19119)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Coutinho's Mirkin 2.0 (U21501)
posted 1 hour, 37 minutes ago
comment by Zlatan The King Ibrahimovic (U10026)
posted 7 minutes ago
Poor season?Messi was the only player better than Ronaldo in world football that year.

Pogba is very unlikely to be a bargain. Certainly not on the level Ronaldo has been.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you not see the 'Dap-Goal'?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the great goals of our time. I remember exactly what I was doing when I saw it, so I can say when people ask in many years time.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I remember exactly what I was doing as well: sat with my head in my hands, half laughing, half crying.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Crying tears of joy, and thinking you'd gone blind with the magnificence of the goal?

Hardly, I just don't think dab goals are particularly entertaining.