Paulo Bernardo

I think it can come into perspective aswell so 16k a week for a decent Celtic player in modern football shouldnt be too much but then again why won’t we pay it for bernardo? Just seems like penny pinching tbh. No harm in signing Lagerbielke up on 13.5k without kicking a ball for us but for Bernardo who was solid when needed 3k more is too much. Just seems our business is more winging it than structured plan

 

Cardiff City pay David Turnbull £20k per week. He got a pay rise to leave us to join a championship team.

A mid table championship team that averages 17k attendance pays more money than we do.

Nat Phillips was on loan at Cardiff and apparently they were paying him £65k per week. He was dreadful with us.

I do agree that we can't go crazy with our wages, but for a club of our size and our finances we can't miss out on players for a few thousand pounds per week.

 

Bizarre to be penny pinching over wages of a guy who we set up a load-to-buy for knowing full well what his wages were before he even kicked a ball for us, let alone when we actually try to sign him permanently. More alarmingly whether you rate Bernardo or not, this sets a tone of more of the same from the board (specifically the Chairman) being * scared to spend.

Doesn't bode well for the rest of the window if this is our attitude towards a player we know all about.

 

I come at it from this perspective but a different angle and ill be the first to slaughter the board but maybe they just dont think hes worth it hence the rumours of renegotiating the fee. Im not upset about him not coming I thought he was average for the most part.

The board simply have to be aware of what his wages are at Benfica it would be daft to structure the deal with the option otherwise but he's not had anywhere near the impact of CCV or Jota

 

Not trying to go two footed into the board this early on in the summer but I think if they don't rate him and try and save ~£3m on transfer fee but also then expect the player to be haggled down on his wages too then it's taking the * a bit. It's not like he's coming in saying he wants to be the top earner and it'll upset the applecart - he's asking for a relatively above average wage for our players.

 

On the one hand, I can see why the club are still suspect over paying certain contracts for certain players. Is Bernardo worth £16k a week? It depends on where we see him in the squad and where we believe he can contribute in our season. Personally, I think £16k a week is absolutely fine. I don't see any reason why we wouldn't pay it.

Currently, including players out on loan and including players loaned in and NOT including younger players who have been coming through over the last year or so, like Kelly and Vata, we have a squad size of 34 players. That is far too * big. I always remember Rodgers, the first time around, saying he liked to work with a group of between 22 and 25 players, with youth supplementing the rest of the squad. If you take it at say a squad size of 24, we need to get rid of 10 players. We could name 10 players to get rid of very very easily.

Siegrist
Bernabei
Kobayashi
Lagerbielke
McCarthy
Kwon
Johnston
Tilio
Haksabanovic
Oh

Now, that takes the squad down to 24 players. Which is what I think is Rodgers ideal number. You then remove Hart, Bernardo and Idah. Takes the squad down to 21. Of the 21 players we have left, I'd happily see us move on

Welsh
Montgomery
Shaw
Yang
Palma

You're now left with 16 players. Of the 16 players we have left that would be

GK x1- Bain
LBx1- Taylor
CBx3- CCV, Scales, Rocky
RBx2- AJ Ralston
DMx1- Iwata
CMx5- O'Riley, Hatate, Holm, McGregor, Lawal
RWx2- Kuhn, Forrest
LWx1- Maeda
STx1- Kyogo

You're looking at the players above and even then, some are still probably not up to scratch. Bain is here as 3rd choice in general, 2nd choice for Europe. Taylor should be a back up. Scales needs upgraded on, Rocky needs to have a full season fit. I'm fine with AJ and Ralston moving forward for another year. Iwata shouldn't be our first choice DM, even though I think he's ok. O'Riley is likely away for a huge fee, Hatate needs to stay fit consistently, Holm needs game time and/or a loan and Lawal, no one really knows. Kuhn has flattered to impress, although I'd like to give him another season and Forrest is getting older and is another year towards his retirement. Maeda and Kyogo are absolutely fine.

Take out O'Riley as we know he's going and take out Holm, because he needs a loan. You're sitting with 14 players there. The size of this rebuild, the waste of the vast resources we do have is scandalous. As someone has mentioned previously, domestic success and domination is in spite of our transfer strategy, not because of. Our rebuild is going to take at least 2 or 3 windows because you simply cannot get rid of 15 players in one window. It's just never going to happen.

The recruitment set up has been a joke for a number of years now and the penny pinching has got us to this stage. If the rumours of our new transfer strategy is to sign international experienced players, between the ages of 17-22, under £4m and for less than £20k a week, I genuinely worry that instead of progressing and taking on the big Potuguese clubs and the big Belgian clubs, we will be taking on teams like Copenhagen, Brondby and Malmo.

 

I know what you mean, but my head hurts just reading that....

 

He earns around 1M€ gross per year at Benfica. Maybe a bit more but certainly not 2M€ gross. Net salary is around half the amount before taxes, in Portugal.

For context, our biggest wages are around ~5-6M€ gross per year. And he was seen as the next big thing when got promoted to the first team.

 

Ehhh, no. He was a good rotation option, certainly not our best midfielder though.

 

How dare you. Leave.

 

Aye Mooy was good, but I'll see your Mooy and raise (lower) you James McCarthy.

 

Hairs the issue

 

I believed in the power of baldy until I saw what hairy Daizen can do

 

The extra air resistance made him able to cross. What a guy. Hope he avoids anymore serious season ending injuries. Glad he healed in a game

 

Back in Portugal now

 

Benfica start back pre season training this week

 

Started the pre-season with Benfica today. Medical exams.

 

He's looking thrilled to be back...

 

Hoping we can still get this done, think we’re waiting to see how much we get for O’Reilly though.

 

For all we know the manager might not even rate him that highly.