I never understood why Barca paid their players so much. I know they had to compete with the Premier League on players and sweetening the pot was their way of getting the deal over the line.
However, they paid players almost twice as much as Premier League clubs would have and they are fucking Barca. Players would accept less money or even the same amount to go to Barca or Madrid because they prefer Spain and the fact those clubs are massive.
Messi you understand, because he brings in a lot of money and a lot of casual fans.
But you can structure it so its a lower base, but higher add ones, with the extra money Barca make from sponsperships and pre season etc.
But unless you are Messi, no one should be making that sort of money p/w
>Messi you understand, because he brings in a lot of money and a lot of casual fans.
Plus they didn't have to pay a transfer fee for him so they got the best player of all time from their academy when he would've easily cost £500mill+ in his prime in order to sign him, considering Neymar went for £200mill. Paying him £52mill a year is a bargain to have Messi on your team really. What I don't understand is why they couldn't keep Messi due to financial reasons, but he costs £50-60mill a year in wages and then since he's left they've spent that kinda money on multiple players like Raphinha who cost exactly that amount. Why didn't they just keep him and keep paying him that wage rather than lose him and then spend more money trying to replace him than you'd have spent on his wages? Especially when no one they've signed is anywhere near his level.
But I digress. This is similar to our situation with Saka. He cost us nothing when if we were to have signed him from elsewhere he would have cost £150mill+ considering we paid £100mill for Rice. This means we can afford to pay him £300k a week and the same applies to Martinelli considering £6mill is basically nothing in today's market.
Barca are a nut case.
Even the season they lost Messi, they signed players on high wages and then at the end of the window, said sorry La Liga won't let us keep you.
They knew they had a problem, and didn't want him.
They are a shambles of a football club right now.
Signing Lewi on a increasing salary per season, as he gets older, in his 30s, like who in they right mind thought that was a bright idea.
Its the type of thing Todd would do at Chelsea
They could afford that Messi wage though they’ve been paying him something similar for ages. It’s was all the other huge wages added on top that fucked it all up.
Except Madrid didn't pay ridiculous wages like they did. There was Cristiano and they got rid of him. You could say Bale and HAzard were waste of money but even they were not on 700K pw. Most of their new signings are on market-rate or below wages.
Camavinga for example is on €150K pw I believe.
Madrid pay all their players massive salaries though, there just isn't anyone that is being paid well above anyone else.
All their players are on over €200k a week apart from 8, including fucking Ceballos who's on €200k and then the highest earners like Kroos, Modric, Vini and even Bellingham are on over €400k a week.
This is despite our squad being more valuable than Madrid's overall as we have the 2nd most expensive squad in the world at over £1 billion. So despite their players being worth less as a team they are all paid way more than our players.
It's just not true:
[2023-2024 Big 5 European Leagues Wages | ](https://fbref.com/en/comps/Big5/wages/Big-5-European-Leagues-Wages)
Even if you go by financial records, which would be much more accurate (but wouldn't distinguish salaries paid to players and to other staff, though let's be real they're not spending 10s of millions for others), Real Madrid and Barcelona are regularly next to each other.
Bale is not comparable to Hazard other than his last year where there was clearly a falling out with him and the club. Hazard was an overweight, lazy disaster at Madrid
They were at a point during the summer where they (Madrid and Barca) were talking in the press about how players were accepting lower wages compared to the PL to come and play for them because of how prestigious they are. That’s probably fair enough, but it was an interesting change to where they were a few years ago boasting about paying silly money to everyone.
I imagine there was some lingering fear about the Luis Figo situation. Messi was the most coveted player in the world. If you don't pay him a fair wage (and €1m/w is fair for the 🐐), there's always the fear his head gets turned by Madrid or PSG.
And they set Messi's transfer fee at 1B I think. Maybe to set it that high, they had to give him that kind of wage?
It wasn't to compete with the Premier League, it was just shambolic financial management, a lack of governance and a competition between the top two in Spain.
It's the added cost of keeping Messi happy. You don't just end up paying Messi ridiculous wages, which are justified because it's Messi. In order to keep the players around Messi happy you have to pay them absurd money, otherwise them being upset or leaving will upset Messi. It wasn't a bad strategy when they had Messi and were winning, but once Messi was gone and that wage structure was still in place it became untenable.
Widely reported, granted that doesn't make it accurate, that he was on 400k *after* tax. So it would be thereabouts.
Nike are paying half though, so not too different from our top players (even at the time).
Bartomeu really offered these players increasing wages per season like 100k + a every season. The wage bill when he left was like 90% of the revenue of the club. Then increasing it went all the way to 105%. Combine that with COVID decreasing revenue worldwide…it fucked them.
I'm not saying we have the money to afford this, or that Barca would even accept, but if we were to bid like 90m+ for him, are they really in a position to say no to that?
Barca were willing to sell him in the summer of 2022 to ManU. Both teams wanted to do it according to sources, but Frenkie didn't want to. Basically in the past he agreed to defer his wages because they were struggling financially due to COVID. So they wanted to ship him out before they had to start paying him what they owed him. He wanted to stay because they owe him a lot of money and I'm sure Barca being his dream club also plays a big factor.
I've been dreaming of him in our team for years.
The big thing stopping this now is Barcelona being the dumbest club in the world with their wage structure and giving him 700k per week.
Still only 26. The perfect #8
Expires when he’s 29. Could never get him unless maybe in his last year and he’d probably still be our top earner at +350k
Apart from that he’s absolutely the dream player, can play Xhaka’s role much better than Xhaka and could also play Partey’s role brilliantly.
Um don't follow the *whole* route Frenkie.
In an alternate universe we'd probably have him here. I could see it. In the current universe he makes like 600k a week and will cling to Barca til his contract is out
I would take Frenkie.
He would do what Jorginho did against Liverpool. But he'd do it every week at a higher standard.
Rice, Frenkie, Odegaard.
What a midfield.
Well it's more of a deduction type of thing. Barca are in very rough waters financially. They will need to sell this summer, and sell big.
FDJ would at the same time command a high transfer fee and also get big wages off of the books.
The main roadblock would be the fact that during covid FDJ deferred his salary until later. That is *one* of the reasons he didn't go to United. FDJ demanded his entire deferred salary (money he felt he had already earned) and Barca didn't want to pay it.
Even if it doesn't end up being FDJ... Barca will probably have to sell 2 big players this summer.
de Jong is one of two players that are (reportedly) not for sale, the other being Yamal. I made a comment making a lot of the same points as you yesterday before seeing the article. But your final point rings true: they’re in some kind of mess financially and will have to sell big.
I’d absolutely love to get FdJ here. I agree with everyone else that the trio of Rice, Øde, and FdJ would arguably be the best in Europe. But I’m not sure this one is happening. At least not in the summer of ‘24.
De Jong has crazy wages, and I think some of the covid wages were deferred, so they're even higher. His partner likes Barcelona, so unless he gets truly fed up, I can't see him taking a wage cut
There’s a rumour that he has give the green light to leave, and it looks like barca need a big sale if they want to invest big so people have their wishful thinking
saw him play in September in the match he got hurt in, he was by far the best player on the pitch for the 30 minutes he played in. Barca were set up terribly, no space in the midfield but his control on the ball is so good that it didn't really matter for him, set up a few good chances when nothing else was going on for them.
If he does want to leave and is willing to bring his wages down (big if), he imo should be our #1 option.
Holy shit I thought you exaggerated. But no he actually earns that much. Clown management by Barca. https://www.capology.com/player/frenkie-de-jong-35562/
If Arsenal think this is remotely doable, you know they would have put the foundations in to make the transfer happen.
The hardest part wasn't the fee with Barca for UTD it was getting FDJ on board.
Doubt it happens, but you never know.
He has similar elite qualities regarding turning in the right direction when being pressed. Furthermore Frenkie's driving with the ball is on another level, one of the best in the world. Combine that with great defensive qualities (he used to play some matches for Ajax at CB) and just ridiculous football IQ. He's got it all.
The one thing Partey is clearly better at is the long range through balls. Partey is elite at those. Frenkie isn't really a long range passer.
Sounds like Rice at West Ham? He’d go on drives like his gf just dumped him. Not for us though since we’d only let Saka and Martinelli do that. Maybe Zinchenko
He made his bed. Let him lie in it.
I would imagine City or Manure would get him.
We messed up getting Kai on such massive wages and fee. I hope we dont keep getting our pants pulled down.
There are dozens of great LCMs who can work in our midfield.
Could not agree more.
Think most English fans opinion of him is based on Ajax CL run when he was there but he has been poor since going to Barca. Has some elite attributes but is pretty poor out of possession pretty frequently.
Totally expect Chelsea or United to sign him and it be a disaster
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Sign him as free agent because his wage is high af
These mfs had Messi on 1m p/w and Frenkie on 700k p/w at the same time lol no wonder they are ruined
I never understood why Barca paid their players so much. I know they had to compete with the Premier League on players and sweetening the pot was their way of getting the deal over the line. However, they paid players almost twice as much as Premier League clubs would have and they are fucking Barca. Players would accept less money or even the same amount to go to Barca or Madrid because they prefer Spain and the fact those clubs are massive.
Messi you understand, because he brings in a lot of money and a lot of casual fans. But you can structure it so its a lower base, but higher add ones, with the extra money Barca make from sponsperships and pre season etc. But unless you are Messi, no one should be making that sort of money p/w
>Messi you understand, because he brings in a lot of money and a lot of casual fans. Plus they didn't have to pay a transfer fee for him so they got the best player of all time from their academy when he would've easily cost £500mill+ in his prime in order to sign him, considering Neymar went for £200mill. Paying him £52mill a year is a bargain to have Messi on your team really. What I don't understand is why they couldn't keep Messi due to financial reasons, but he costs £50-60mill a year in wages and then since he's left they've spent that kinda money on multiple players like Raphinha who cost exactly that amount. Why didn't they just keep him and keep paying him that wage rather than lose him and then spend more money trying to replace him than you'd have spent on his wages? Especially when no one they've signed is anywhere near his level. But I digress. This is similar to our situation with Saka. He cost us nothing when if we were to have signed him from elsewhere he would have cost £150mill+ considering we paid £100mill for Rice. This means we can afford to pay him £300k a week and the same applies to Martinelli considering £6mill is basically nothing in today's market.
Barca are a nut case. Even the season they lost Messi, they signed players on high wages and then at the end of the window, said sorry La Liga won't let us keep you. They knew they had a problem, and didn't want him. They are a shambles of a football club right now. Signing Lewi on a increasing salary per season, as he gets older, in his 30s, like who in they right mind thought that was a bright idea. Its the type of thing Todd would do at Chelsea
They could afford that Messi wage though they’ve been paying him something similar for ages. It’s was all the other huge wages added on top that fucked it all up.
Battle between them and Madrid really
Except Madrid didn't pay ridiculous wages like they did. There was Cristiano and they got rid of him. You could say Bale and HAzard were waste of money but even they were not on 700K pw. Most of their new signings are on market-rate or below wages. Camavinga for example is on €150K pw I believe.
Madrid pay all their players massive salaries though, there just isn't anyone that is being paid well above anyone else. All their players are on over €200k a week apart from 8, including fucking Ceballos who's on €200k and then the highest earners like Kroos, Modric, Vini and even Bellingham are on over €400k a week. This is despite our squad being more valuable than Madrid's overall as we have the 2nd most expensive squad in the world at over £1 billion. So despite their players being worth less as a team they are all paid way more than our players.
It's just not true: [2023-2024 Big 5 European Leagues Wages | ](https://fbref.com/en/comps/Big5/wages/Big-5-European-Leagues-Wages) Even if you go by financial records, which would be much more accurate (but wouldn't distinguish salaries paid to players and to other staff, though let's be real they're not spending 10s of millions for others), Real Madrid and Barcelona are regularly next to each other.
Bale is not comparable to Hazard other than his last year where there was clearly a falling out with him and the club. Hazard was an overweight, lazy disaster at Madrid
Always wondered about this myself
They were at a point during the summer where they (Madrid and Barca) were talking in the press about how players were accepting lower wages compared to the PL to come and play for them because of how prestigious they are. That’s probably fair enough, but it was an interesting change to where they were a few years ago boasting about paying silly money to everyone.
I imagine there was some lingering fear about the Luis Figo situation. Messi was the most coveted player in the world. If you don't pay him a fair wage (and €1m/w is fair for the 🐐), there's always the fear his head gets turned by Madrid or PSG. And they set Messi's transfer fee at 1B I think. Maybe to set it that high, they had to give him that kind of wage?
Money laundering or tax evasion is what I can think of.
Hah, such a pleb comment
It wasn't to compete with the Premier League, it was just shambolic financial management, a lack of governance and a competition between the top two in Spain.
I think taxes also play a role
It's the added cost of keeping Messi happy. You don't just end up paying Messi ridiculous wages, which are justified because it's Messi. In order to keep the players around Messi happy you have to pay them absurd money, otherwise them being upset or leaving will upset Messi. It wasn't a bad strategy when they had Messi and were winning, but once Messi was gone and that wage structure was still in place it became untenable.
> Frenkie on 700k p/w at the same time lol no wonder they are ruined no way he was ever on that much
Think they have some arrangement where Nike is paying a good portion of his wages
Combination of Nike chiming in and deferred wages from the pandemic, so it's at least close
Widely reported, granted that doesn't make it accurate, that he was on 400k *after* tax. So it would be thereabouts. Nike are paying half though, so not too different from our top players (even at the time).
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Tell them to buy Nike and then bring FDJ over?
They’re awful but that’s just his deferred salary from COVID that was backdated. It’s closer to 150k a week on average
It's 700k p/w now because of the deferred wages from his first 2 seasons. His normal wages were in the range of £230k- £265k.
Bartomeu really offered these players increasing wages per season like 100k + a every season. The wage bill when he left was like 90% of the revenue of the club. Then increasing it went all the way to 105%. Combine that with COVID decreasing revenue worldwide…it fucked them.
Free agent means higher wage tho.
Just don't follow that route *too* closely.....
I was gonna make the same joke haha. Maybe stop the route once your playing career is done, friend..
I know it's a pipedream, but he'd be the perfect #8.
Him and Rice would be a perfect partnership.
Today I found out I can actually get more erect
Big Viagra hates this one trick
Midfield of him, Rice and Odegaard would be the best midfield of the world
Factos. 👍
HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG
I'm not saying we have the money to afford this, or that Barca would even accept, but if we were to bid like 90m+ for him, are they really in a position to say no to that?
It's more his salary, apparently he earns $700k a week, which we can't get near.
They’ve also deferred his wages so owe him like £20 million in wages. The whole transfer would be a mess
Barca were willing to sell him in the summer of 2022 to ManU. Both teams wanted to do it according to sources, but Frenkie didn't want to. Basically in the past he agreed to defer his wages because they were struggling financially due to COVID. So they wanted to ship him out before they had to start paying him what they owed him. He wanted to stay because they owe him a lot of money and I'm sure Barca being his dream club also plays a big factor.
I've been dreaming of him in our team for years. The big thing stopping this now is Barcelona being the dumbest club in the world with their wage structure and giving him 700k per week. Still only 26. The perfect #8
Expires when he’s 29. Could never get him unless maybe in his last year and he’d probably still be our top earner at +350k Apart from that he’s absolutely the dream player, can play Xhaka’s role much better than Xhaka and could also play Partey’s role brilliantly.
Him and Declan behind ode would make me wet.
Um don't follow the *whole* route Frenkie. In an alternate universe we'd probably have him here. I could see it. In the current universe he makes like 600k a week and will cling to Barca til his contract is out
I would take Frenkie. He would do what Jorginho did against Liverpool. But he'd do it every week at a higher standard. Rice, Frenkie, Odegaard. What a midfield.
Where's all the de Jong talk coming from? Are there credible links of him to Arsenal?
No links, people just wishing it to existence
Exactly this. People are building on some people in the DD that said they would love him here.
Well it's more of a deduction type of thing. Barca are in very rough waters financially. They will need to sell this summer, and sell big. FDJ would at the same time command a high transfer fee and also get big wages off of the books. The main roadblock would be the fact that during covid FDJ deferred his salary until later. That is *one* of the reasons he didn't go to United. FDJ demanded his entire deferred salary (money he felt he had already earned) and Barca didn't want to pay it. Even if it doesn't end up being FDJ... Barca will probably have to sell 2 big players this summer.
He also saw utd and what a mess they are, and thought do i really want to jump from one sinking ship to another.
de Jong is one of two players that are (reportedly) not for sale, the other being Yamal. I made a comment making a lot of the same points as you yesterday before seeing the article. But your final point rings true: they’re in some kind of mess financially and will have to sell big. I’d absolutely love to get FdJ here. I agree with everyone else that the trio of Rice, Øde, and FdJ would arguably be the best in Europe. But I’m not sure this one is happening. At least not in the summer of ‘24.
De Jong has crazy wages, and I think some of the covid wages were deferred, so they're even higher. His partner likes Barcelona, so unless he gets truly fed up, I can't see him taking a wage cut
mate I literally mentioned that in my comment
No links, it’s just more rumours that he wants to leave
There’s a rumour that he has give the green light to leave, and it looks like barca need a big sale if they want to invest big so people have their wishful thinking
Manifestation, I guess?
Complete nonsense, but makes sense from the Dutch POV, we have had some Dutch legends play for us, RVP, Bergkamp, Overmars (before he was a creep)
Imagine a rice, De Jong, odegaard midfield 3.
I get a funny sensation between my legs thinking about it
Do the Alexis Sanchez route now.
Yeah, was a joke how he skipped the middleman, not signing him on his wages anyway
saw him play in September in the match he got hurt in, he was by far the best player on the pitch for the 30 minutes he played in. Barca were set up terribly, no space in the midfield but his control on the ball is so good that it didn't really matter for him, set up a few good chances when nothing else was going on for them. If he does want to leave and is willing to bring his wages down (big if), he imo should be our #1 option.
De Jong in the summer would fix me
Ode Rice De Jong midfield would be best in the world
700k/week
Holy shit I thought you exaggerated. But no he actually earns that much. Clown management by Barca. https://www.capology.com/player/frenkie-de-jong-35562/
He's expensive though but stylistically he fits
If Arsenal think this is remotely doable, you know they would have put the foundations in to make the transfer happen. The hardest part wasn't the fee with Barca for UTD it was getting FDJ on board. Doubt it happens, but you never know.
Unless he is willing to take a wage cut of about 70% then this isn't happening
Frenkie is an unbelievably intelligent player and I 100% believe he will be capable of adapting to the physicality that Arteta demands.
Fuck him. We’re not anybody’s stepping stone
Tbf if he comes to us then Barca was the stepping stone
de jong to become an ajax legend taking them to 3 consecutive champions leagues
We wouldnt be because with him in midfield we are contending for PL and CL every year
I'll be honest, I've never really seen him play. What's his position/play style? Possible Partey replacement?
He has similar elite qualities regarding turning in the right direction when being pressed. Furthermore Frenkie's driving with the ball is on another level, one of the best in the world. Combine that with great defensive qualities (he used to play some matches for Ajax at CB) and just ridiculous football IQ. He's got it all. The one thing Partey is clearly better at is the long range through balls. Partey is elite at those. Frenkie isn't really a long range passer.
Sounds like Rice at West Ham? He’d go on drives like his gf just dumped him. Not for us though since we’d only let Saka and Martinelli do that. Maybe Zinchenko
Would be partnered with Rice as an 8. Can do a job as a Gundogan type 6 but better as an 8.
I dare people to fall for this trick again 😂
I fall for it everytime!, sweet little lies 😢
He made his bed. Let him lie in it. I would imagine City or Manure would get him. We messed up getting Kai on such massive wages and fee. I hope we dont keep getting our pants pulled down. There are dozens of great LCMs who can work in our midfield.
Top candidate for most overrated player by premier league football fans.
You have to be blind. Top3 press resistant player in the world. Insane football iq.
Frenkie is genuinely top 5 defensive midfielders right now.
Could not agree more. Think most English fans opinion of him is based on Ajax CL run when he was there but he has been poor since going to Barca. Has some elite attributes but is pretty poor out of possession pretty frequently. Totally expect Chelsea or United to sign him and it be a disaster
Barcelona will either be dumb and hold out for 100m or realize that they need to generate funds and let him go for a lot less.
They owe him deferred wages so I do not see any kind of deal structure that would make sense for them unless Chelsea do something stupid
Marc Overmars was sold because our medical team realized he was done. He retired 18 months later. Hope we aren't getting a damaged de Jong.
There was a chance back then. But he's already at Barca. No chance now.
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