Erling Haaland

[Keeper!]

He'll probably get Haaland 3-4 huge moves over his career,worth big,big money.
The man is a ****,but he's very good at what he does.

Totally agree, he is a brilliant agent, but he comes at a huge cost in terms of causing friction with clubs.

Haaland is that good, he will be a very rich man, with or without Riola.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Why would we want to lose Torres?

Because he is very much expendable and might serve as an effective make weight.

 

[Deleted member 87819]

Totally agree, he is a brilliant agent, but he comes at a huge cost in terms of causing friction with clubs.

Haaland is that good, he will be a very rich man, with or without Riola.

Again, this characterization of Raiola as the only agent who acts a certain way is a bit tired at this point. The main difference between him and some others is that he’s outspoken, but his methods are not unusual. Agents negotiating extensions and new contracts are never “nice”; they always try to get the most. So do players. And every club has operators able to negotiate. How do people think Txiki and Raiola built a good relationship?
You’d also never believe that at 28yo Pogba has only played for two clubs in his career if you heard all the boogeyman rumors about Raiola.
Agents don’t want their clients to leave clubs where they’re thriving

 

[Petetheblu]

Just like every other agent. They all get a cut and if the client is a superstar, that cut is going to be appropriate.
Are people aware that we’re one of the clubs that pay the most in agent fees around Europe? Or do people not want to acknowledge that?

Do people not realise we don't do bidding wars to well?

If we really think we have a chance with Haaland then why would we have bothered with Kane?

I'd love Haaland here, but I'm a realist and just don't see it happening.

 

[Keeper!]

Again, this characterization of Raiola as the only agent who acts a certain way is a bit tired at this point. The main difference between him and some others is that he’s outspoken, but his methods are not unusual. Agents negotiating extensions and new contracts are never “nice”; they always try to get the most. So do players. And every club has operators able to negotiate. How do people think Txiki and Raiola built a good relationship?
You’d also never believe that at 28yo Pogba has only played for two clubs in his career if you heard all the boogeyman rumors about Raiola.
Agents don’t want their clients to leave clubs where they’re thriving

He is a ****, a greedy ****, please don't defend him.

Is he a good agent for his clients? Yes, brilliant if you want financial security, but if you want to have a good long standing reputation with a club, don't involve Riola, he is hated and for a reason.

 

[Deleted member 87819]

Do people not realise we don't do bidding wars to well?

If we really think we have a chance with Haaland then why would we have bothered with Kane?

I'd love Haaland here, but I'm a realist and just don't see it happening.

We also had never paid 100M for a player until we did. However, it is not true that we don’t get involved in “bidding wars”.
Why are people so sure there will be a bidding war anyway? Just because Raiola is involved? You look at many major players and their moves, there weren’t these wars. There won’t be a war for Mbappe for instance, who knows where he wants to go.
What Raiola is good at in the market is identifying a club’s needs and doing what he calls “marriages”. He knows what he wants for his clients and for himself. In a situation in which Dortmund won’t have a say, this doesn’t have to drag on. Of course, people love to believe that Raiola will have five clubs on the phone at the same time trying to get the most, but that’s just a caricature.

It’s been reported widely that we looked into Haaland early on and the Dortmund situation made it impossible. We had some interest for Kane, but the situation is like Sam Lee described on his podcast with an analogy that it’s like you really want to go on vacation to Barcelona, but because of restrictions you can’t, but Cyprus comes up as a possibility and you start to think that Cyprus too could be a lot of fun, which doesn’t mean you didn’t want Barcelona first anyway. The truth is while we probably would have signed for a certain price in that situation, we never got so serious with major offers. And it’s been reported that in the final days we also made an offer for Vlahovic, showing again that “Kane or bust” was always bullshit. Then what is more natural for us than to try again Haaland when he has a release clause kicking in?
Being a pessimist doesn’t mean being a realist. I was a realist about the Kane thing all along, in the minority here, and it turned out that I was right

 

[Deleted member 87819]

He is a ****, a greedy ****, please don't defend him.

Is he a good agent for his clients? Yes, brilliant if you want financial security, but if you want to have a good long standing reputation with a club, don't involve Riola, he is hated and for a reason.

I am not defending Raiola, lol. I don’t like him the same way I don’t like Jorge Mendes, for instance. Or Neymar Senior, or Wagner Ribeiro, etc. I would never sit down for a beer with ANY of them.
The notion that somehow Jorge Mendes is a good guy because we have a relationship with him is false. He’s an user and so are we. Raiola has good relationships with some clubs, too. He also has a good relationship with Txiki, for instance, dating back to his days in Barcelona. Oh but he had a spat with Pep over a decade ago. And we still do business with him. He had worse tension with Alex Ferguson and United still deal with him regularly. Everything is business.

 

[decmancity]

The bidding war has already happened. Alf and Raiola did a tour of all the top clubs and asked for proposals and they were provided with the offers.

Chelsea either didn't put anything forward or what they did was rejected so they moved to Lukaku. I am convinced that our offer wasn't enough so we moved to Kane and that leaves PSG and Real.

We will see PSG give the lad the world when Mbappe goes to Madrid and that will be that.

I don't think Bayern are at the table.

 

[blueparrot]

We also had never paid 100M for a player until we did. However, it is not true that we don’t get involved in “bidding wars”.
Why are people so sure there will be a bidding war anyway? Just because Raiola is involved? You look at many major players and their moves, there weren’t these wars. There won’t be a war for Mbappe for instance, who knows where he wants to go.
What Raiola is good at in the market is identifying a club’s needs and doing what he calls “marriages”. He knows what he wants for his clients and for himself. In a situation in which Dortmund won’t have a say, this doesn’t have to drag on. Of course, people love to believe that Raiola will have five clubs on the phone at the same time trying to get the most, but that’s just a caricature.

It’s been reported widely that we looked into Haaland early on and the Dortmund situation made it impossible. We had some interest for Kane, but the situation is like Sam Lee described on his podcast with an analogy that it’s like you really want to go on vacation to Barcelona, but because of restrictions you can’t, but Cyprus comes up as a possibility and you start to think that Cyprus too could be a lot of fun, which doesn’t mean you didn’t want Barcelona first anyway. The truth is while we probably would have signed for a certain price in that situation, we never got so serious with major offers. And it’s been reported that in the final days we also made an offer for Vlahovic, showing again that “Kane or bust” was always bullshit. Then what is more natural for us than to try again Haaland when he has a release clause kicking in?
Being a pessimist doesn’t mean being a realist. I was a realist about the Kane thing all along, in the minority here, and it turned out that I was right

Last summer was Kane or nothing and always was and we almost certainly made offer /s. The rumours of offers for anyone else were just that. We will have a pretty good idea now, or by January at the latest whether we think Haaland is an option, if not we will be looking at alternatives. History tells us how we operate we will have a budget for Haaland and a cut off that no bidding war will shift us from.

 

[Deleted member 87819]

We will see PSG give the lad the world when Mbappe goes to Madrid and that will be that.

They may offer him the world but he isn’t going there. Young stars don’t go to France. Mbappe wants to get out for a reason. Raiola letting Donnarumma go there is one thing, it’s a different one dealing with the top of the food chain

 

[Coatigan]

The only chance of Haaland in January is if he does want to join us.

And if he does I could see the club paying a premium to Dortmund to get the deal done quickly, but how much Dortmund have in the say of things is a big question, Riola seems to have all the power and the final word.

Agree entirely with most of that, apart from the bit on Riola having that say. Stil feels like a sunmer transfer than a mid season one, wherever he ends up, and I don't think we'd rush to sign anyone ourselves unless it was right, having had the nerve to leave it this summer.

Much can change between now and january though. The last three games for example, could have had an impact on behind the scenes thinking. Three high profile games in a row against top teams. Drew one which we should really have won, lost one which we could have won, won one which we could have won a lot more confortably. Had we had a striker. Pretty much the entire footballing world watching agrees and openly says so in all coverage and conclusion material. Surely that surely has to resonate, and those 3 games in a row will have drawn huge focused attention to something thatbwas obvious anyway. And on top of that, just before an international break, when it leaves it hanging on that, rather than a follow-up 5-0 against a lower team to argue we don't need a striker.

 

[Deleted member 87819]

Last summer was Kane or nothing and always was and we almost certainly made offer /s. The rumours of offers for anyone else were just that.

I’m not going to go over this again. I stand by what I said reading around and weighing credibilities. Everyone is entitled to believe what they want. Kane was a target at some point but I have enough to believe he wasn’t the first and wasn’t the last either. This isn’t even the place to have this discussion for the millionth time

 

[Deleted member 87819]

Guys, it’s Raiola not Riola

 

[ancoats]

i seen there is talk of kane again in the winter transfer window for £125million ?
would not even take him for free now ? haaland is the right choice and if we have to wait at least get a pre-contract signed for the summer.. he is the real deal and money should not be the issue

 

[Deleted member 87819]

i seen there is talk of kane again in the winter transfer window for £125million ?

Forget it...

 

[blueparrot]

I’m not going to go over this again. I stand by what I said reading around and weighing credibilities. Everyone is entitled to believe what they want. Kane was a target at some point but I have enough to believe he wasn’t the first and wasn’t the last either. This isn’t even the place to have this discussion for the millionth time

You are going over it by repeating it again, IMO there is nothing to show we went for anyone but Kane. IMO we will know now whether Haaland is possible and we will know now our cut off budget for any bidding on him.

 

[decmancity]

They may offer him the world but he isn’t going there. Young stars don’t go to France. Mbappe wants to get out for a reason. Raiola letting Donnarumma go there is one thing, it’s a different one dealing with the top of the food chain

Apart from Donnarumma, Hakimi, Nuno Mendes and a ton of some of the biggest talents in Europe at u19 age group etc. Yeah, never signed any young stars.

Raiola took Donnarumma there because there was millions on the table for both of them. How is Donnarumma not at the top of his respective food chain? just won best player at Euro 2020 and the best young keeper in the world with a potential career of 15+ years.

 

[Coatigan]

Because he is very much expendable and might serve as an effective make weight.

Our top scorer currently. With so miluch potential, and time on his side. I'm disappointed he hasn't been involved more tbh, I suspect there is a bit of a dance going on with Sterling just now though, and contract talks.

 

[BerkshireBlue]

why would Dortmund hold on to him when they know he's going for half the price in the summer. Surely it makes sense for them to sell in January for more money.

 

[andyhinch]

why would Dortmund hold on to him when they know he's going for half the price in the summer. Surely it makes sense for them to sell in January for more money.

Not sure it’d make much sense for Erling though.