2023 Summer transfer window - hopes, needs, expectations and rumours.

[Risso]

If I can relate it to my career path:

There are airlines in that part of the world offering £22000 a month tax free to Aircraft Captains excluding education and living allowances, car allowance, duty pay etc…

We simply cannot keep up with the wages being offered out there in Europe. It’s obscene. I think that the above transpires across - much more money than sense. You’ve got wonder when the bubble will burst.

What's it like living in Saudi, though? I mean, I just about get why some people like Dubai. It's utterly soulless but clean and safe with great restaurants and shopping etc. Isn't Saudi on the other hand still really sketchy for Westerners?

[Sexual Ealing]

I would imagine Monshi but isn't he Basque so I'll wait a few weeks or months..

He isn't Basque. He is from the South of the South of Spain. I would go for Monchy

He's from Cadiz so just growl his name as though it's coming out of a transistor radio.

Hahaha. Cadiz is one of my favourite cities, but the wife's ego took a battering there. Her usually-excellent Spanish was no match for the local why-use-syllables-when-grunting-is-available dialect.

[pablo_picasso]

Apparently we are signing 16 year old midfielder Jamaldeen Jimoh from West Brom for a £1m fee with a 10% sell on clause.

We have beaten Tottenham for his signature apparently.

Manchester City & Chelsea were sniffing around him too apparently.

[Sexual Ealing]

Back to speculation - Odysseas Vlachodimos, Greek keeper for Benfica linked. Hopefully GK links are the start of the end for Olsen

I like Vlachodimos, but unless we're buying Pliers as well, I think this is a link sent out to tease me.

[Dr Butler]

I would imagine Monshi but isn't he Basque so I'll wait a few weeks or months..

He isn't Basque. He is from the South of the South of Spain. I would go for Monchy

He's from Cadiz so just growl his name as though it's coming out of a transistor radio.

Hahaha. Cadiz is one of my favourite cities, but the wife's ego took a battering there. Her usually-excellent Spanish was no match for the local why-use-syllables-when-grunting-is-available dialect.

I love Cadiz...a really lovely place...the ball and chain and I have actually thought about moving there

UTV
The Doc

[ASHTONVILLA]

If I can relate it to my career path:

There are airlines in that part of the world offering £22000 a month tax free to Aircraft Captains excluding education and living allowances, car allowance, duty pay etc…

We simply cannot keep up with the wages being offered out there in Europe. It’s obscene. I think that the above transpires across - much more money than sense. You’ve got wonder when the bubble will burst.

What's it like living in Saudi, though? I mean, I just about get why some people like Dubai. It's utterly soulless but clean and safe with great restaurants and shopping etc. Isn't Saudi on the other hand still really sketchy for Westerners?

Technically - No alcohol (penalty is removal of hands), no sex outside of marriage (you can be jailed in Dubai for this too), no homosexuality (death penalty).

It's worse for women. For instance rape = adultery and is punishable by stoning. On the plus side, women can now drive, but they can not have a relative in the car with them that is not a close relative.

If you have a car crash with a Saudi national its your fault, get out the country quickly. If you have a crash and you hit a non European its their fault.

In reality you can live fairly normally, but the law is applied if they feel like it. Similar to Dubai but more likely to be applied.

Even when I had to work in Yemen, I still managed to get beer from the Dutch Embassy in Sanna. You just had to bury your cans carefully. There were many things there more likely to kill you than the death penalty, life is cheap there. I am pretty sure that the likes of Ronaldo have almost no restrictions, they wont be living like my Grandfather did when he was plastering there in the 80s.

[Percy McCarthy]

Apparently we are signing 16 year old midfielder Jamaldeen Jimoh from West Brom for a £1m fee with a 10% sell on clause.

We have beaten Tottenham for his signature apparently.

Manchester City & Chelsea were sniffing around him too apparently.

Lol:

https://twitter.com/thecoldgun/status/1668583119039987712?s=46&t=oWmAAXfGub9FmoQSqsnPtw

[Dr Butler]

Apparently we are signing 16 year old midfielder Jamaldeen Jimoh from West Brom for a £1m fee with a 10% sell on clause.

We have beaten Tottenham for his signature apparently.

Manchester City & Chelsea were sniffing around him too apparently.

Lol:

https://twitter.com/thecoldgun/status/1668583119039987712?s=46&t=oWmAAXfGub9FmoQSqsnPtw

Lol indeed...

UTV
The Doc

[Clark W Griswold]

If I can relate it to my career path:

There are airlines in that part of the world offering £22000 a month tax free to Aircraft Captains excluding education and living allowances, car allowance, duty pay etc…

We simply cannot keep up with the wages being offered out there in Europe. It’s obscene. I think that the above transpires across - much more money than sense. You’ve got wonder when the bubble will burst.

I mean, I just about get why some people like Dubai. It's utterly soulless but clean and safe with great restaurants and shopping etc.

Never been but always imagined it to be way too hot and almost as boring. I reckon you can drive to or drive and ferry crossing to far more interesting places.

[Smirker]

If I can relate it to my career path:

There are airlines in that part of the world offering £22000 a month tax free to Aircraft Captains excluding education and living allowances, car allowance, duty pay etc…

We simply cannot keep up with the wages being offered out there in Europe. It’s obscene. I think that the above transpires across - much more money than sense. You’ve got wonder when the bubble will burst.

What's it like living in Saudi, though? I mean, I just about get why some people like Dubai. It's utterly soulless but clean and safe with great restaurants and shopping etc. Isn't Saudi on the other hand still really sketchy for Westerners?

Technically - No alcohol (penalty is removal of hands), no sex outside of marriage (you can be jailed in Dubai for this too), no homosexuality (death penalty).

It's worse for women. For instance rape = adultery and is punishable by stoning. On the plus side, women can now drive, but they can not have a relative in the car with them that is not a close relative.

If you have a car crash with a Saudi national its your fault, get out the country quickly. If you have a crash and you hit a non European its their fault.

In reality you can live fairly normally, but the law is applied if they feel like it. Similar to Dubai but more likely to be applied.

Even when I had to work in Yemen, I still managed to get beer from the Dutch Embassy in Sanna. You just had to bury your cans carefully. There were many things there more likely to kill you than the death penalty, life is cheap there. I am pretty sure that the likes of Ronaldo have almost no restrictions, they wont be living like my Grandfather did when he was plastering there in the 80s.

As a single non drinker it sounds good but I'd be terrified of breaking some law and being one of those cases you see on telly of Brits being sentenced to death for farting or something really trivial.

I wouldn't even visit let alone live there.

[ASHTONVILLA]

If I can relate it to my career path:

There are airlines in that part of the world offering £22000 a month tax free to Aircraft Captains excluding education and living allowances, car allowance, duty pay etc…

We simply cannot keep up with the wages being offered out there in Europe. It’s obscene. I think that the above transpires across - much more money than sense. You’ve got wonder when the bubble will burst.

What's it like living in Saudi, though? I mean, I just about get why some people like Dubai. It's utterly soulless but clean and safe with great restaurants and shopping etc. Isn't Saudi on the other hand still really sketchy for Westerners?

Technically - No alcohol (penalty is removal of hands), no sex outside of marriage (you can be jailed in Dubai for this too), no homosexuality (death penalty).

It's worse for women. For instance rape = adultery and is punishable by stoning. On the plus side, women can now drive, but they can not have a relative in the car with them that is not a close relative.

If you have a car crash with a Saudi national its your fault, get out the country quickly. If you have a crash and you hit a non European its their fault.

In reality you can live fairly normally, but the law is applied if they feel like it. Similar to Dubai but more likely to be applied.

Even when I had to work in Yemen, I still managed to get beer from the Dutch Embassy in Sanna. You just had to bury your cans carefully. There were many things there more likely to kill you than the death penalty, life is cheap there. I am pretty sure that the likes of Ronaldo have almost no restrictions, they wont be living like my Grandfather did when he was plastering there in the 80s.

As a single non drinker it sounds good but I'd be terrified of breaking some law and being one of those cases you see on telly of Brits being sentenced to death for farting or something really trivial.

I wouldn't even visit let alone live there.

You are not missing much. Desert and concrete. It's not my cup of tea either, but I go where I can help farmers and that sometimes means some fairly ropey places.

I flew to Saudi a couple of times with co-codamol in my bag, not realising that codeine is a class A drug there. Taking a bible into the country is also a serious offence with severe penalties if they choose to prosecute. Both are unlikely. Basically if they take issue with you they will find a reason to bang you up.

Messi has the right idea heading to Miami.

[Chris_Jephcott]

If I can relate it to my career path:

There are airlines in that part of the world offering £22000 a month tax free to Aircraft Captains excluding education and living allowances, car allowance, duty pay etc…

We simply cannot keep up with the wages being offered out there in Europe. It’s obscene. I think that the above transpires across - much more money than sense. You’ve got wonder when the bubble will burst.

What's it like living in Saudi, though? I mean, I just about get why some people like Dubai. It's utterly soulless but clean and safe with great restaurants and shopping etc. Isn't Saudi on the other hand still really sketchy for Westerners?

Therein lies the issue. One of my neighbours flies for a different airline and in a previous life, had to go Riyadh regularly.

As they were “esteemed guests”, him and his crew often got the front line seats at the weekly executions. It’s amazing how many of the crew developed stomach ailments as soon as they landed.

I couldn’t live there myself, I am partial to a glass of wine in the evening and enjoy an unrestricted lifestyle. In Bahrain at the weekends though, all the Saudi nationals come across and drink very heavily and *gasp* live a second life - for example, many homosexual relationships flourish in the relatively relaxed Bahrain. And yet during the week, it’s different.

As a Westerner, we would be 3rd class citizens. Our wives and partners would be 5th class citizens.

By all accounts, when it’s going well, it’s ok. When fortune dictates a different set of circumstances, it starts looking much less favourable.

For me - there’s much more to life than money. I love my family, my wife, my kids too much to drag them through that. And I also want my kids to grow up to be who they want to be, not repressed or living in fear of a system that could turn very nasty, very quickly.

I’ll finish with a cautionary tale - one of my colleagues was released by a big Middle Eastern carrier at the start of Covid. He was given 3 days to pack, move his entire family out and relocate to the U.K., or else they would all be put in prison. 3 days to pull the kids out of school, 3 days for his wife to quit her job, 3 days to pack up an entire life that had been built, 3 days to clear his debts.

Crazy isn’t it? It’s not for me.

Anyway… have we signed anyone today?

[Londonvilla]

Aston Villa and Wolves join the race for Borussia Monchengladbach’s £35m-rated Manu Kone, with Liverpool also keeping tabs on the midfielder

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12190561/Aston-Villa-Wolves-join-race-Borussia-Monchengladbachs-35m-rated-Manu-Kone.html


Nice link, but everyone knows he is going to Liverpool

[Londonvilla]

REPORT: ASTON VILLA NOW SERIOUSLY WANT TO SIGN £350,000-A-WEEK MANCHESTER UNITED PLAYER


https://www.footballtransfers.com/en/transfer-news/uk-premier-league/2023/06/exclusive-man-utd-transfer-news-jadon-sancho-listed-for-sale-aston-villa-interest

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2023/06/13/report-aston-villa-now-seriously-want-to-sign-350000-a-week-manchester-united-player/


I would take him on loan if United pay £250 000 of his wage

[chrisw1]

I mean it's obviously nonsense but I don't think I'd even take him on loan at £100k a week.