Summer Transfer Window 2023

[Naitch]

1 hour ago, Baddar said:

 

Because I know you all love new signing announcements. 

I thought it was Aston Villa who were being sponsored by BK8? The claret and blue clubs really are interchangeable this year.

[Colly]

You're right, Burnley are sponsored by that one with a W who used to sponsor Villa, so presumably BK8 is just for the training gear? All very above board I'm sure.

[The Lusophone]

23 minutes ago, Colly said:

You're right, Burnley are sponsored by that one with a W who used to sponsor Villa, so presumably BK8 is just for the training gear? All very above board I'm sure.

A lot of Prem betting sponsors seem to be owned by the same parent company ultimately. Stake, Fun88, BK8, W88, 12BET, Kaiyun Sports, Sportsbet.io are all owned by TGP Europe operating out of the Isle of Man. The UK Gambling Commission fined them 300 grand in April after they found them guilty of "anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures".

[METALMAN]

I know a cheese hipster who was very upset when he found out all his favourite little Roquefort makers were all just fronts for the same soulless multinational corporation.

I wonder if gambling hipsters going to Stake and Fun88 for something a bit different would feel the same way if they found out.

[Colly]

The Madri of cheese.

[FLiam]

Aubameyang is close to signing a three-year deal with Marseille.

No idea what they’re thinking there.

[gunnar hendershow]

Haven't been paying much attention to the last few years of Marseille, I suppose? They're an absolute disaster.

[The Lusophone]

Lots of former Premier League - and especially Arsenal - players there.

[METALMAN]

They still have Dimitri Payet lol. 

[FLiam]

I know from managing them in FM that their homegrown quota for Europe is almost non-existent. 

[FLiam]

His support for the LGBTQ+ community was completely empty. Fuck him.  

[DavidMarrio]

Brilliant player for what he's done for the club but this move just overshadows everything he built his reputation on. 

A very bad move from a PR perspective but also he's pretty much given in on being part of the Euros next season. 

[FLiam]

2 minutes ago, DavidMarrio said:

Brilliant player for what he's done for the club but this move just overshadows everything he built his reputation on. 

A very bad move from a PR perspective but also he's pretty much given in on being part of the Euros next season. 

Gareth will still pick him.

[King Ellis]

Given that he and his advisors will be completely aware of the optics of this, do you think they'll try to 'carbon neutral' (for want of a better term) the situation here by making a donation to a charity? 

Not that it would validate it or arguably even be accepted by a charity if they see it as dirty money, but I could see him being like "I know I've been a champion of this community in the past and I know how this looks but to help further the cause, here's 2m" or whatever.

Though, I imagine that would be frowned upon by his new club (if not the state themselves, with frowned upon being an understatement at that level).

[FLiam]

He doesn’t care. Another to add to the list of morally bankrupt footballers.

Remember when players would take a knee to show they were against discrimination? Now they’re running to be paid by a state that treats homosexuality as an illegal act. Fuck them. 

[Bobfoc]

I could perhaps understand someone living below the poverty line feeling the need to take money from unpleasant sources, but definitely not millionaires. All these top flight footballers don't need Saudi money. They just want it.

What difference will these additional riches bring to their lives? Certainly nothing that any normal person could empathise with. They could easily just not abandon their supposed principles and stick with fortunes the likes of which most will never see.

[Hobo]

To steal a point made by someone on a podcast i listened to earlier all this gives creedance to the kind of people who see any kind of display of acceptance for marginalized communities as virtue signaling.

It also makes you feel like no player in the Premier league is going to be beyond taking the money for move to Saudi Arabia. Getting a current England international and captain of the only other team to win the Premier league in the last few years is a big deal

[Colly]

Jimmy Milner would never.

[Tigerstyle]

I said this in my football draft, how I’m done with this now. But someone (from an LGBTQ+ background) said if in two years time his contract is over and he’s donated the extra £50mil he made to those causes in a ‘stick it to them’ kind of way, it’s forgivable. But he won’t do it won’t be.

[Hobo]

57 minutes ago, Colly said:

Jimmy Milner would never.

He'll do things the old fashioned way and drop down divisions, become a player manager and then go into after dinner speaking.