Transfer Rumours 2013/14

Aye I'm pretty sure the one Chelsea got for Kakuta was repealed almost as soon as the appeal was lodged.

It would have to be an absolutely massive bid for us to sell Suarez, especially now and especially to a team in the same division. If he goes, it'll be abroad.

All these papers seem to be reporting stuff whilst completely forgetting about the FFP regulations though.

City will always get around it. Their new club in New York paid them £25m or so for using the word 'City' in their name. Effectively moving money from one pocket to another to circumvent the rules.

I don't blame City though, the rules are just pretty meaningless. All it does is stop smaller clubs from challenging.

City will always get around it. Their new club in New York paid them £25m or so for using the word 'City' in their name. Effectively moving money from one pocket to another to circumvent the rules.

I don't blame City though, the rules are just pretty meaningless. All it does is stop smaller clubs from challenging.

Don't see how they'd get around the wage bill rule though, they'll have to get rid of players to be able to make huge signings again.

That's not quite what happened but I agree with your assessment of the rules. All they're going to do is protect the clubs that are established at the top. They've come into play a few years too late to stop us, but they'll make it even harder than it already is for clubs outside the Champions League to challenge.

That's already going to be happening. Just getting rid of Lescott and Barry will free up ~200k p/w and they're unlikely to be the only departures this summer.

City don't pay as much in wages as people think

Nope. They've restructured everything and I'm pretty sure only Aguero and Yaya are on over 70k per week (think they're on 90).

They pay the rest on bonuses and image rights and that jazz so not sure how that affects FFP. But City will have no problems at all with it, we've got people on our books who created FFP

But still more than any other club in the world.

I would have thought the FFP regs have something to stop teams just doing that though, otherwise its utterly pointless

Nope. They've restructured everything and I'm pretty sure only Aguero and Yaya are on over 70k per week (think they're on 90).

They pay the rest on bonuses and image rights and that jazz so not sure how that affects FFP. But City will have no problems at all with it, we've got people on our books who created FFP

I don't know the intricacies of the deal but it does seem easy for clubs like City to stay well within the financial requirements. Plenty of people seem to think that FFP will seriously restrict the spending of yourselves and Chelsea but all it does is stop other teams from spending the way you have since 2008. You managed to just get your foot in the door before it shut, basically.

Oh, I entirely agree with that. FFP isn't really about ensuring clubs are healthy financially, it's all about preventing other clubs breaking into the Champions League and challenging for the title the way we have.

I was merely disputing the bit about NYCFC paying £25m for using the word City.

United spend more on wages than City...


Can't get a source right now as I'm on my phone, but I read it in 3 different places a few months ago

Do you not think it's pretty farcical that that is allowed though?

I'm not blaming City for doing it because they're entitled to but as I said it seems like your owners are just moving money from one pocket to another.

Fairly certain you're wrong with your figures there Slash. We've definitely changed from the early years of the takeover but I don't think it was that drastic. I do remember reading last season about Ferran Soriano negotiating our new contracts according to a new structure with the maximum basic wage being about £120-140kp/w and the rest coming in the form of incentives. I think that Yaya, Silva and Aguero signed new contracts in that structure.

Actually my figures might have been for the new signings last summer

A little bit but FFP's a farce anyway, it doesn't actually do what it was originally supposed to do. Personally I'd be far more concerned about the fact that under FFP, UEFA have no problem whatsoever with what the Glazer's have done with United (taking hundreds of millions out of the club) but are massively against what City and Chelsea's owners have done (putting hundreds of millions into their clubs). That seems backwards to me.

With FFP they aren't concerned about what individual clubs do to themselves, but what clubs do to the state of football in general, IMO.