occasionally the madness of the game we love just catches up and you realise how warped the modern era is.
thousands in financial crisis, people struggling to heat their homes and you read this.Liverpool have offered England right-back and Real Madrid target Trent Alexander-Arnold, 26, a five-year contract worth £78m.
You have to ponder the future of football.

He's just an overrated CJ Egan-Riley.

It is utterly grotesque of course, but there are probably 6 or 7 Premier League players being paid more than that now.

Or they could go and buy a replacement for £60/70million who may or may not be as good, spend another £50+ million on wages and then signing on fees, agent fees etc.

Still can’t believe how people can’t understand the finances of football, if you don’t like it stop paying to watch it, it’s really simple. Or just get over it and watch it for what it is

SirBob wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2025 12:02 am

Or they could go and buy a replacement for £60/70million who may or may not be as good, spend another £50+ million on wages and then signing on fees, agent fees etc.

Still can’t believe how people can’t understand the finances of football, if you don’t like it stop paying to watch it, it’s really simple. Or just get over it and watch it for what it is

thanks for that insight, what time is your next condescending / patronising workshop?
I'll see if Im free.

Wile E Coyote wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2025 12:05 am

thanks for that insight, what time is your next condescending / patronising workshop?
I'll see if Im free.

Maybe people wouldn’t struggle to heat their homes if they weren’t paying sky 90 quid a month for sky sports

You’re regurgitating the same old conversation about how the football world’s gone mad with money bullcrap that’s been going on for 20 years, cheek to call me boring

I’m not trying to insult you, I’m just wondering why your surprised that they’d off Alexander Arnold £300k a week when he’s one of the best full backs in the world.. possibly why Real Madrid are sniffing around?

300k a week - mega money. However you’re not replacing him for less than 40/50 million (plus 150k p/w) so either way it’s going to cost roughly the same, and he will sit on their books as an asset worth in the region of 80-100m I’d imagine so financially it’s not the black hole it appears to be.

The good thing for me is as long as hes paid in the UK he will pay nearly half of that in tax so we all benefit, yes I know with a good accountant he can reduce it down but hes still going to pay a lot of millions in tax

I hope he stays at Liverpool as pureclaret says if only to pay his taxes here. Although I enjoy watching him play when he’s on top form.

beddie wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2025 7:56 am

I hope he stays at Liverpool as pureclaret says if only to pay his taxes here. Although I enjoy watching him play when he’s on top form.

Well, there are a number of scousers saying they'd drive him to Madrid.

He had a shocker against United, but I’ve never rated him defensively since a young Dwight McNeil put him on his ar5e at Turf Moor.

ClaretCliff wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2025 8:46 am

He had a shocker against United, but I’ve never rated him defensively since a young Dwight McNeil put him on his ar5e at Turf Moor.

Dwight certainly had the better of him on more than one occasion.
Trent Wotsisname is grossly overrated, certainly on the 'defensive' side of his game.

dougcollins wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2025 8:30 am

Well, there are a number of scousers saying they'd drive him to Madrid.

It's a lump over 1000 miles from Liverpool to Madrid, so they'd better steal a decent car to take him in

beddie wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2025 7:56 am

I hope he stays at Liverpool as pureclaret says if only to pay his taxes here. Although I enjoy watching him play when he’s on top form.

I doubt very much that he pays his tax here. His accountants will make sure of that.

Very good player. I’ve no idea why the defensive side of his game gets so much criticism as he’s not a defensive player.

In the mad world of football probably represents a reasonable deal.

15million a year

When you consider we have spunked that up the wall on Tresor, it sounds like a decent deal.

Although it’s not, because as you rightly pointed out in the opening post it’s obscene.

This is why I have IPTV. All you so called fans who pay to go on matches or pay for Sky Sports are responsible for this kind of madness. As a principled socialist I refuse to partake and instead I pay the Robin Hoods of this world for my football

£78m to move to Spain from Liverpool, not a hard choice is it

Corky wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2025 9:31 am

I doubt very much that he pays his tax here. His accountants will make sure of that.

If you are employed in UK you pay your tax in the UK. You don't even need to live in UK to have to pay your tax in UK if you are employed in UK. (Tricky, I expect for a footballer contracted to a club in England not to be employed in England). If TAA moves to Madrid he will pay his taxes in Spain - except that he will also be assessed to tax in the UK for the first 12 months after he left the UK.

There are a few things that you can do to reduce your income tax bill. First one is pay maximum £60,000 per year into your pension (including any money paid into pension by employer) - except £60,000 is cut to only £10,000 if you earn more than £250,000 per year.

Then there's investing in "high risk" shares - shares on AIM and qualifying start-ups. I think that might be as much £1,000,000 - but, look it up if you are interested, it might only be a smaller amount.

If anyone is paid £300,000 per week = £15,600,000 per year - HMRC will collect (roughly) 45% in income tax, plus 2% employee's NIC, plus 15% employer's NIC (from April) = 62% to HMRC = £9,672,000 to HMRC. TAA would only keep £5,928,000.

I think we can assume that HMRC takes a close look at anyone who might be paid a lot - as someone else once said "because that's where the money is."