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Anthony Martial

DublinSpur said:
Shame. I've only seen him play once (I think) but a friend in France, whose opinion I trust, tells me that Martial has the potential to be properly world class, and is showing glimpses of it already.

Makes me wonder if our supposed interest was a ploy by his agent to strengthen his hand in contract negotiations. Possibly not... either way, Monaco can offer significantly better wages than we can, though there will doubtlessly be those who see our not signing him as another failure by Levy (as opposed to simply being a young man choosing the highest paid job available).
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Nah. Make no mistake, I highly doubt Monaco can offer higher wages than us (they once could, but Rybolev has pulled the plug on funding, I think: now they're a sell-to-buy operation like us, and pay commensurate wages to boot)....but I don't think Levy is at fault for this one. Monaco needed to sell a player to balance the books: they sold Kondogbia for 40 million euros. Now that they've done that, they have no need to let anyone else go, and Martial never seemed to be agitating for a move anyway given the fact that he's going to be playing in the CL next season regardless.

Do I wish Levy was the kind of brilliant chairman who could still pull off a move like this? Yes. Am I upset that he failed here (as he has elsewhere, for more self-defeating reasons)? Not really.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Nah. Make no mistake, I highly doubt Monaco can offer higher wages than us (they once could, but Rybolev has pulled the plug on funding, I think: now they're a sell-to-buy operation like us, and pay commensurate wages to boot)....
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I'm aware that they need to sell in order to generate some cash, but I was under the impression that they were still running on a fairly large operating budget and the players are effectively paying no tax which means that budget goes a lot further (someone on £60k / week in Monaco is earning a lot more than someone on £60k / week in London). Could be wrong about that of course; can't say I'm entirely up to speed on the internal finances of Monaco (the country or the club!)

The other thing with Martial is the fact that - assuming he continues to develop as many think he might - he'll probably end up at Real Madrid next year.
 
DublinSpur said:
I'm aware that they need to sell in order to generate some cash, but I was under the impression that they were still running on a fairly large operating budget and the players are effectively paying no tax which means that budget goes a lot further (someone on £60k / week in Monaco is earning a lot more than someone on £60k / week in London). Could be wrong about that of course; can't say I'm entirely up to speed on the internal finances of Monaco (the country or the club!)

The other thing with Martial is the fact that - assuming he continues to develop as many think he might - he'll probably end up at Real Madrid next year.
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That is undoubtedly true, but their revenues haven't been high enough to allow for them to pay wages like that across their squad, I think. They average crowds of 11k, have fairly poor commercial revenue streams (understandable given that they were in the second division as recently as May 2013), and really only enjoy the profile that they now have due to Rybolev's initial splurge (a repeat of which is now highly unlikely given his eye-watering impending divorce settlement). Tax-free status can go far, but not far enough to cover the gap that exists between them and our BPL-fuelled cash-rich status.

As for where Martial will end up, yeah, I think he's destined for bigger stages than the Lane anyway. A stopover would have been nice, but eh, swimming against the tide here, unlike Schneiderlin last year.
 
DubaiSpur said:
That is undoubtedly true, but their revenues haven't been high enough to allow for them to pay wages like that across their squad, I think. They average crowds of 11k, have fairly poor commercial revenue masked water tyrants (understandable given that they were in the second division as recently as May 2013), and really only enjoy the profile that they now have due to Rybolev's initial splurge (a repeat of which is now highly unlikely given his eye-watering impending divorce settlement). Tax-free status can go far, but not far enough to cover the gap that exists between them and our BPL-fuelled cash-rich status.

As for where Martial will end up, yeah, I think he's destined for bigger stages than the Lane anyway. A stopover would have been nice, but eh, swimming against the tide here, unlike Schneiderlin last year.
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He won his divorce case so it's only £400m odd rather than £4.5b so I think he'll be fine.

Of course it's cheaper to pay them bigger money there, they don't have any national insurance to pay on those wages either. Signing on fees etc can be reduced considerably too e.g. £10m in UK at a simple level leaves the player with £5.8m so there they can just pay £5.8m and save 42% if they are a Monaco resident.
 
Was there not some challenge to Monaco (the football club) about their beneficial tax situation from the French FA? How did that pan out.
 
P.D. said:
He won his divorce case so it's only £400m odd rather than £4.5b so I think he'll be fine.

Of course it's cheaper to pay them bigger money there, they don't have any national insurance to pay on those wages either. Signing on fees etc can be reduced considerably too e.g. £10m in UK at a simple level leaves the player with £5.8m so there they can just pay £5.8m and save 42% if they are a Monaco resident.
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Didn't know that, so if so, maybe they're in better shape than they appear to be at first glance. But why'd they sell Kondogbia, in that case?
 
indianspur said:
isnt it to do with FFP
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Yeah, possibly, although the rules are being relaxed (and will be formally announced soon, I think): clubs are allowed a three-year deviation from the straight and narrow if they prove that their owner is capable of covering the losses, IIRC, so they'd be covered under that clause.
 
Well the rules aren't confirmed yet and neither is the date any changes will become effective from. As it is they will fail the next set I imagine so wanted to balance this summer.
 
agent has come out in the press saying that he is close to signing an extension to his current deal with Monaco ... di dums
 
They'll be looking at selling him for a small fortune over the next couple of years if he fulfils his potential.
 
Sorry to rub it in, but this guy is a beast. Just made everything happen when Monaco equalized away to Valencia. Been very, very good in the first half as well. Would have been everything we need IMO..
 
Yeah - watched the game too.

Absolutely brilliant player - should have had a penalty too.

Mark my words; one of the big guns will snap him up for £35m+ next summer.

We really missed out there.
 
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