Gabri Veiga to Saudi

[atypical_boro]

Is football a ‘career’ any more?

If you play for say Man City you may look back on a display cabinet full of medals but it won’t be like the old days where key players in particular teams were making the difference to trophies or not. It’s all about the depth of squad now. The rich clubs are just winning machines and if you don’t play for one of them you have no chance.

So it’s really just down to lifetime earnings as part of the circus isn’t it?

Final sentence is how Robbo described it in that “dodgy” interview he did. He said it had changed since he was a player. Which may be true. But there will have also been players in the 80s who’d move for no other reason than money. People are wired differently. Lineker said he actually didn’t want to leave Everton and Barca didn’t pay him anymore but he just couldn’t turn down the opportunity to play for Barca. He could have easily stayed at Everton and asked for more money.

For me, the 9 sub thing is part of the problem. It’s just made it, as you say, about squad depth now. If you’re not getting a start you don’t think about leaving, you just make do with playing 30 minutes a fortnight or whatever, and banking the millions.

Le Tissier, Okocha, Kinkladze, Juninho - all players who made such a difference at their clubs in the 90s. They’d all be on City’s bench now.

 

[sparkins]

I have mentioned previously that my godson has just broken into Leicester City's U23 squad (which is enormous in terms of number of players) and when I spoke to him last weekend he said that players in his age groups, with zero league games or senior experience are being approached by Saudi League 2 teams offering the earth to move over, so it is larger than just the big teams, there is a concerted effort to hoover up players (many of whom we have never heard of). If you are an 18 year old kid, on the fringes of the 23s and you are being offered 10x current salary, you can see why they might have heads turned

 

[TeaCider]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1694638510735520213

Says it all.

The whole football system in Saudi is backed by enormous state funded oil money.

 

[atypical_boro]

I have mentioned previously that my godson has just broken into Leicester City's U23 squad (which is enormous in terms of number of players) and when I spoke to him last weekend he said that players in his age groups, with zero league games or senior experience are being approached by Saudi League 2 teams offering the earth to move over, so it is larger than just the big teams, there is a concerted effort to hoover up players (many of whom we have never heard of). If you are an 18 year old kid, on the fringes of the 23s and you are being offered 10x current salary, you can see why they might have heads turned

Absolutely. Which means in the foreseeable future we could have enormous transfer fees for English players to come back to England!

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

can we really complain?

Our leagues have been backed by gambling and alcohol sponsorship for years, and cash injections from Murdochs media empire. They're just being quicker about it and have more money.

 

[asredastheycome]

Gabri Veiga...........................?

Did not have aclue who he is. Never bothered to look as he won't be coming to Boro...........................probably never was but the OP said he could pick any club so I thought we might have a chance.

 

[jonny_greenings_sock]

Is football a ‘career’ any more?

If you play for say Man City you may look back on a display cabinet full of medals but it won’t be like the old days where key players in particular teams were making the difference to trophies or not. It’s all about the depth of squad now. The rich clubs are just winning machines and if you don’t play for one of them you have no chance.

So it’s really just down to lifetime earnings as part of the circus isn’t it?

There’s no element of sporting glory to the Saudi league though, it’s just a cash pile of glorified exhibitions. In my mind it’s the Harlem Globetrotters league.

Money is great, but it depends if you live for that competitiveness or not.

Imagine being one of Leicester’s players who won the title or in the Argentina squad at the last World Cup.

 

[Easterside_Red]

Toni Kroos not impressed.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1694623726606717368

 

[Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret]

Not compatible

To be the best you have to compete with the best

Saudi will stagnate his progression

So we are annoyed that Saudi are buying a load of good players yet are at the same time annoyed that they are going to play in a league where there aren't any good players?

 

[HolgateCorner]

There’s no element of sporting glory to the Saudi league though, it’s just a cash pile of glorified exhibitions. In my mind it’s the Harlem Globetrotters league.

Money is great, but it depends if you live for that competitiveness or not.

Imagine being one of Leicester’s players who won the title or in the Argentina squad at the last World Cup.

Personally I would want the sporting glory but I think Leicesters season was a one off like Blackburns was 30 years ago, the overwhelming odds are that one of the money clubs will win everything.

My point was more to do with young players going to Saudi on the basis that they are very unlikely to do anything with their careers other than make money.

 

[TeaCider]

Personally I would want the sporting glory but I think Leicesters season was a one off like Blackburns was 30 years ago, the overwhelming odds are that one of the money clubs will win everything.

My point was more to do with young players going to Saudi on the basis that they are very unlikely to do anything with their careers other than make money.

Blackburn bought their title, they were one of the money clubs at the time.

Fair play to them for doing so, you can never take it away from them, but it wasn't a fluke win against the odds.

 

[atypical_boro]

Blackburn bought their title, they were one of the money clubs at the time.

Fair play to them for doing so, you can never take it away from them, but it wasn't a fluke win against the odds.

Yes, it was totally different to Leicester's win.

Leeds' title win in 92 probably was somewhere in between.

 

[HolgateCorner]

Blackburn bought their title, they were one of the money clubs at the time.

Fair play to them for doing so, you can never take it away from them, but it wasn't a fluke win against the odds.

They did buy the title but couldn’t sustain it, it was just too expensive.

They did it at a time when clubs like that still had a chance of being able to buy Alan Shearer - that would be like Burnley landing Harry Kane these days, the goal posts have moved so much you just can’t see it.

 

[jonny_greenings_sock]

Personally I would want the sporting glory but I think Leicesters season was a one off like Blackburns was 30 years ago, the overwhelming odds are that one of the money clubs will win everything.

My point was more to do with young players going to Saudi on the basis that they are very unlikely to do anything with their careers other than make money.

Totally agree with you mate.

I respect the few players like Ruben Neves who say “taking care of my family is the true trophy”, but I still think if you had the talent and were that age, say a Camavinga, most of them would want the glamour and the drama and the competitiveness of playing for France and Real Madrid. Saudi will always be there. And you literally can’t buy a World Cup or a Champions League.

 

[atypical_boro]

They did buy the title but couldn’t sustain it, it was just too expensive.

To a point but they did that really weird thing with King Kenny because he couldn't handle the pressure anymore, sent him upstairs, and moved Ray Harford into the dugout. Once Shearer wanted out it was clear the sun was setting on their little stint as title contenders/winners and they wasted the Shearer money on people who were nowhere near the same level.

I suppose they were a bit more cautious about the spending, so I agree with you that it became too expensive, but they did make an absolute mess of things after they won it as well and could have arguably kept it going much longer.

 

[Nano]

There’s a convenient smokescreen here IMO. Saudi Arabian clubs are being blamed for ‘distorting’ the transfer market but they’re only really buying the real top-end players, the majority of whom have already played their peak years. There will be a few, like Veiga, who haven’t yet peaked but by and large it’s older, more experienced players.

The bigger issue, for me, is that Nottingham Forest - 16th in the Premier League last season - can go to Sevilla - perpetual UEFA Cup winners and seasoned Champions League qualifiers- and sign Gonzalo Montiel, their first-choice right back, an Argentinian international, World Cup-winning footballer who’s 26 and very much in his prime years.

In January, Bournemouth signed a player AC Milan had been negotiating to sign for several weeks. Milan had to pull out because they couldn’t compete with Bournemouth. Do you think why player would choose Bournemouth over AC Milan for ‘sporting reasons’?

The Saudi Arabians may be chucking money about but the real issues are caused by the Premier League being so much wealthier than the rest of Europe.

This is different because going to the PL, even to a lower PL team, the competition is still higher. You could go to Milan. It's obviously more glamorous and you have more chance of winning something but as weird as it seems there is more prestige in being a PL player these days. It's where all the best players are playing. It's not like he's turning down offers from Utd and Liverpool to go to big paying Bournemouth but lower PL clubs can compete with teams from other nations that are now much weaker. Serie A is not what it was anymore. Just like there is more prestige playing for Luton in the PL than Leicester or Leeds in the Championship. If there had been a concrete offer from the PL for Chuba he'd probably have gone there ahead of Ajax.

 

[HolgateCorner]

To a point but they did that really weird thing with King Kenny because he couldn't handle the pressure anymore, sent him upstairs, and moved Ray Harford into the dugout. Once Shearer wanted out it was clear the sun was setting on their little stint as title contenders/winners and they wasted the Shearer money on people who were nowhere near the same level.

I suppose they were a bit more cautious about the spending, so I agree with you that it became too expensive, but they did make an absolute mess of things after they won it as well and could have arguably kept it going much longer.

I got the impression they ran out of Jack Walkers money, but in fairness they did ok, a league title for a medium club and rebuilt 3 sides of their stadium.

Agree they could have probably kept it going a bit better in hindsight.

One thing with Blackburn is they built stands with lots of exec boxes in them but struggled to fill them and I think this shows the difference between the big city clubs and the town clubs. The cities have the volume of businesses and companies to back the clubs whereas that is an uphill battle for the smaller clubs where there is a much more limited pool.

All in the past that now though, it just depends on the owner now.

 

[GibbosEmpire]

With success, doesn't money come with it? Or is it just the lazy option?

 

[Gunslinger]

With success, doesn't money come with it? Or is it just the lazy option?

How do you define success in life?

If your a footballer who retires at 35 with tens of millions or a footballer who retires with 5 million who sacked of the extra millions to have a chance to hold a trophy

Lets not pretend there is some default scenario where anybody who happens to turns down vast wealth ever actually wins anything at all in the pursuit of glory and medals

It's one of those where football fans who love the game will always say the latter, but in reality in the same position they would likely do otherwise

Every sport is the same, it's why cricketers go to the IPL instead of playing none stop county cricket for a few bob an hour to get a better chance of playing in a test match

 

[Nano]

How do you define success in life?

If your a footballer who retires at 35 with tens of millions or a footballer who retires with 5 million who sacked of the extra millions to have a chance to hold a trophy

Lets not pretend there is some default scenario where anybody who happens to turns down vast wealth ever actually wins anything at all in the pursuit of glory and medals

It's one of those where football fans who love the game will always say the latter, but in reality in the same position they would likely do otherwise

Every sport is the same, it's why cricketers go to the IPL instead of playing none stop county cricket for a few bob an hour to get a better chance of playing in a test match

There gets a point where you have enough money though surely. An average PL player will be on £50k per week. After a career they will be a multi millionaire. Once you are at the point where the money is enough to give you the lifestyle you want then surely your goals shift to achieving something rather than just making a number in your bank account go up. If you already have more money than you can spend then getting more of it doesn't change anything.

Cricket is completely different because county cricket pays nothing and cricket in general isn't worth a huge amount so they have to chase the IPL money to get a good salary out of cricket.