Neves sold for £47m

Originally Posted by Sparky***

Alrighty Windy, calm down pal

Sorry pal. Its father's day and I'm thinking of my children...£££

Originally Posted by Sparky***

Alrighty Windy, calm down pal

Originally Posted by NedKelly

Great input as ever.

No matter where he plays, with sensible investment he never needs to work again if he chooses not to. Choosing what he has now shows a distiinct lack of amibition. Always rated him as a player, but you need the desire as well to be top dog

Originally Posted by windy waffles

Great input as ever.

Smiley face helps define the world. As does the singular most boring paragraph I've ever read.

Originally Posted by measlyshark

Smiley face helps define the world. As does the singular most boring paragraph I've ever read.

What are you referring to?

Originally Posted by armchair

There are probably loads of footballers who hate football and cannot wait to get out.

A saudi move is a springboard to a great rest of your life.

I didn't know this was a thing until I read an article a few years ago about it.

A lot of footballers genuinely do not like playing the game.

Watch him get loaned to Newcastle but it's nothing to do with FFP

Originally Posted by andyroo

Watch him get loaned to Newcastle but it's nothing to do with FFP

Wow. Is that what it is?

Originally Posted by tatty

I didn't know this was a thing until I read an article a few years ago about it.

A lot of footballers genuinely do not like playing the game.

I don’t think it’s that hard to believe tbh. It’s not necessarily that they don’t enjoy playing football either - you have to remember that for professional footballers it becomes a way of life, increasingly more regimented the higher up the ladder they go. For many, football is a recreational sport - a way of having fun, letting loose and unwinding from the many pressures that life can bring. It’s escapism. But when it’s a full time job and the pressure to progress and succeed comes into it, it’s easy to see why the fun and joy can be drained away.

It’s natural that some would fall out of love with it all.

Originally Posted by NedKelly

I don’t think it’s that hard to believe tbh. It’s not necessarily that they don’t enjoy playing football either - you have to remember that for professional footballers it becomes a way of life, increasingly more regimented the higher up the ladder they go. For many, football is a recreational sport - a way of having fun, letting loose and unwinding from the many pressures that life can bring. It’s escapism. But when it’s a full time job and the pressure to progress and succeed comes into it, it’s easy to see why the fun and joy can be drained away.

It’s natural that some would fall out of love with it all.

Yup, my boy's coach is an ex pro. Played in the Argentina under 20's with Mascherano, Sorin etc and went on to have a pro career in the US, Brazil and Japan. Despite still coaching kids he doesn't watch any games and borderline hates the idea of supporting teams.

It's not quite as much of a money grab as it first appears.

He wanted Barca above all else and would have gone there for a fraction of the Saudi wage. But Barca have no money to actually pay for him, so Wolves told them to do one. He has one year left on his deal and if he'd have really wanted to, he could have just seen it out and walked to Barca next season but he didn't want to do it that way.

But as Wolves also have some FFP issues, the Saudis have solved two problems in one go by paying massively over the odds for a player with one year left on his deal and paying Neves life changing money.

So if there's anyone to blame here it's the big clubs who would rather battle it out to spend £100m on Declan Rice than £30/£40m on Neves, who is a better all round midfielder.

He'd have definitely gone to pretty much any regular Champions League club, but none of them have actually tried to buy him. Which is ironically exactly the reason Wolves got him in the first place from Porto. Big clubs have had a good look, but not actually made an offer. Ever since he arrived we've been waiting for a big club to come in and take him, but they simply haven't tried to. That's why we are where we are. Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Juve etc could have had Neves in the midfield next season for well under £40m. He was 'only' on around £60k p/week too. I am entirely biased, but Neves is criminally underrated. Personally I'm sad for him from a football point of view but absolutely delighted we didn't just agree to sell him to Barca for on a Klarna payment plan. He's done Wolves a massive favour.

Originally Posted by DuanePipe

It's not quite as much of a money grab as it first appears.

He wanted Barca above all else and would have gone there for a fraction of the Saudi wage. But Barca have no money to actually pay for him, so Wolves told them to do one. He has one year left on his deal and if he'd have really wanted to, he could have just seen it out and walked to Barca next season but he didn't want to do it that way.

But as Wolves also have some FFP issues, the Saudis have solved two problems in one go by paying massively over the odds for a player with one year left on his deal and paying Neves life changing money.

So if there's anyone to blame here it's the big clubs who would rather battle it out to spend £100m on Declan Rice than £30/£40m on Neves, who is a better all round midfielder.

He'd have definitely gone to pretty much any regular Champions League club, but none of them have actually tried to buy him. Which is ironically exactly the reason Wolves got him in the first place from Porto. Big clubs have had a good look, but not actually made an offer. Ever since he arrived we've been waiting for a big club to come in and take him, but they simply haven't tried to. That's why we are where we are. Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Juve etc could have had Neves in the midfield next season for well under £40m. He was 'only' on around £60k p/week too. I am entirely biased, but Neves is criminally underrated. Personally I'm sad for him from a football point of view but absolutely delighted we didn't just agree to sell him to Barca for on a Klarna payment plan. He's done Wolves a massive favour.

I've always been a huge fan of him as well, and don't understand why no-one has even bothered to take a chance on him for the money he could be picked up for

He was captaining Porto at 18, seems like he's been a top class professional since he was a teenager, been one of Wolves best and most consistent Premier League players, has Champions League experience with Porto, only missed 10 games through injury in his entire career so far (and only 4 of those with Wolves).

He just seems like a no brainer for teams that can afford him to pick him up for under £50m and see what he has to give at a higher level.

Shame that he's gone to Saudi, but if he hasn't been getting offers from the big clubs that would be a proper step up, then I can't blame him for taking the money. I hope we see him back at a bigger club in Europe in the next year or so.

Discussions on the Mbappe thread about players in their prime going to Saudi. Okay, Neves is not Mbappe level but still a high-level player in his absolute prime. I'm not saying that this is the start of a trend, but those saying ambition will always beat money might need to revisit that thought. You won't play in the Champions League for the next four years at least, but you will earn 10 times your current salary. No brainer for some.

If - as noted above - you have players who play for a living rather than love of the game, will we see more tempted by the Saudi dollar?

On Neves in particular, wouldn't be upset if United tried to hijack the deal.

maybe he wanted to be a pioneer and trailblazer. In years to come when all the major finals in the world are based in Saudi, they will look fondly at Neves and his unrelenting ambition to bring the beautiful game to Saudi Arabia

Find it hard to believe that nobody has been in for him tbh. If it is true, feels like there must be some reason behind it

Originally Posted by NedKelly

I don’t think it’s that hard to believe tbh. It’s not necessarily that they don’t enjoy playing football either - you have to remember that for professional footballers it becomes a way of life, increasingly more regimented the higher up the ladder they go. For many, football is a recreational sport - a way of having fun, letting loose and unwinding from the many pressures that life can bring. It’s escapism. But when it’s a full time job and the pressure to progress and succeed comes into it, it’s easy to see why the fun and joy can be drained away.

It’s natural that some would fall out of love with it all.

Yep, I can understand it. We all the think we'd love it but apart from the bundles of money it's a pretty boring existence being a top pro these days. It's all about diets and strict exercise regimes and you can't even go out on a weekly basis and have a blow out like the old pros could. They could leave training at lunchtime and go out on the piss down the local, nowadays everyone is on them and has cameras on their phones.

Originally Posted by Ethers

Find it hard to believe that nobody has been in for him tbh. If it is true, feels like there must be some reason behind it

Me too.

The only time it got close was last summer. Arsenal were going to sign him for £30m but then Xhaka ended up staying so the move fell through. Neves was all but gone, but apart from that nobody has ever bid for him. Same happened at Porto. Neves confirmed Wolves were the only club that ever tried to actually buy him.

I suppose clubs thought they'd be able to watch the window tick down and pick him up for next to nothing with a year left, like Barca were trying, but apparently Neves felt they didn't really want him that much so the Saudis have solved everyone's problem, Wolves get way more than we were expecting and Neves is going to earn £2m a month tax free.

Think most Wolves fans were of the view we'd have to accept around £20m for him with a year left or he'd see out his contract and walk to Barca next season.

Playing with Ronaldo would be a huge pull for him as well. Set his kids and their kids up for life financially and he can move back to Europe well before he hits his 30's as he only turned 26 a couple of months ago.

I'm 99.9% certain if Utd or Liverpool or even Newcastle had offered Wolves between £20m and £30m the minute the season ended, they'd have got an absolute bargain.

Is he that good? Interesting to get a Wolves’ fan perspective. Matheus Nunes is another in the c. 40-50 mil range .. throw Moutinho into that midfield too & wonder why Wolves were so poor last season?