Mountinho and James Rodriguez sign for Monaco for €70m

[George Hannah]

Rodriguez is the same kind of player as Isco I think and AVB will be broken-hearted about Moutinho - he was on the verge of signing for Spurs last season until Levy decided not to be ripped off by Porto.

 

[Blueper]

Wow they've been ripped off €70m :(

rough conversion from € to £ that's equal the price of andy carrol + stewart downing .
fair price!

 

[GHoddle]

Has this been verified? A huge move if true, but I have my doubts.

It's not true, just silly season.

 

[matt_matt]

Looks like Monaco are pretty certain they'll win their fight against the hostility of the other French clubs - wasn't there talk of them being banned from the top flight because they're a tax haven and so can pay players much higher wages?

Edit: this is what I was thinking of - http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/may/02/monaco-paris-saint-germain-ligue-1

especially stuff like:

You get the picture: money is no obstacle. But hostility from other French clubs is. Because in late March they united to threaten to ban Monaco unless the club agreed to move towards greater financial equality – Rybolovlev may not be prepared to put in quite as much cash as PSG's Qatari owners have already done, but he does not need to because he has an advantage that no one else enjoys: Monaco's status as a tax haven. And that is what the other clubs have set out to abolish.

Monaco has always benefited from the principality's special status. The club pays far less corporation tax than its French counterparts and although an agreement means any French player whom the club employs must pay tax in France (though they can still benefit from a 20% reduction on national insurance), foreign players get to keep all of their earnings.

By way of comparison, where PSG reportedly have to fork out in the region of €30m per year to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Monaco could give the Swede the same take-home salary for an outlay of just €9m.

 

[LoveCity]

This is a done deal and will be announced tomorrow according to Di Marzio. Christ, who do Porto employ as negotiators? Every single transfer they get top dollar it seems.

Di Marzio also says Monaco could announce Falcao on Monday.

 

[Claytop]

This is a done deal and will be announced tomorrow according to Di Marzio. Christ, who do Porto employ as negotiators? Every single transfer they get top dollar it seems.

Di Marzio also says Monaco could announce Falcao on Monday.

Also how the feck do they wrap up their transfers so quickly?

 

[pee dubya]

This is a done deal and will be announced tomorrow according to Di Marzio. Christ, who do Porto employ as negotiators? Every single transfer they get top dollar it seems.

Di Marzio also says Monaco could announce Falcao on Monday.

Also how the feck do they wrap up their transfers so quickly?

We signed Robinho in about 6 hours.

If you have unlimited cash you can makes things go quickly. If we weren't trying to become sustainable we could do the same.

 

[LoveCity]

So, if this is true...

Fourth Official ‏@FourthOfficial_ 11m
Porto wanted 70million euros for Rodriguez and Moutinho, so to avoid paying Sporting 25% sell on fee, sold Rodriguez for 69m and Moutinho 1m

Rodriguez becomes the second most expensive player of all time behind Ronaldo?

 

[Ray78]

Is Mendes the agent of the two players? Something might be fishy between Monaco, Chelsea and Porto.

 

[decmancity]

Its the bloody Porto scouts we want to be taking never mind their players. A few are homegrown lads from Portugal but nearly all of the rest of them are from south america and are brought in under the radar.

Jackson Martinez will be the latest one on that list this summer if not next year. The lad is a real gem.