welcome to manchester united

https://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Kylian-mbappe-a-annonce-au-psg-son-depart-cet-ete/1448976

Official. He told PSG that he's leaving.

If he doesn't join Real Madrid this time then he never will.

Either welcome to Real Madrid or we get to move on and reinforce in multiple positions with more liberty and move on from this soap opera.

Win win.

The Madrid One wrote:If he doesn't join Real Madrid this time then he never will.

Either welcome to Real Madrid or we get to move on and reinforce in multiple positions with more liberty and move on from this soap opera.

Win win.

Clearly. He apparently told the president of PSG in person 2 days before the game yesterday.

And you see how hard he's playing despite leaving. Not worried about getting injured. Playing every minute of every game. Just a pro.

Pretty clear he's going to Real Madrid and the deal is mostly done. He would never have gone public otherwise.

Clutch wrote:I mean if you're mbappe why would you choose anyone but city or R.madrid? If his goal is winning, there aren't too many options. I would've included liverpool but w/o klopp liverpool hasn't shown to be a force since the mid 2000s and that's even a stretch.

Unpopular opinion perhaps, but provided he’s willing to play as a striker, or Arteta is somehow able to have him solve their striker issue from a different position, I genuinely do think he could turn Arsenal into a title challenging team.

They’re a young squad that will likely only get better in the future, and I do get the impression that they’re one or two great signings away from being significantly stronger than they currently are. That said, I can’t imagine Arsenal would be able to meet his wage demands.

Thimmy wrote:

Clutch wrote:I mean if you're mbappe why would you choose anyone but city or R.madrid? If his goal is winning, there aren't too many options. I would've included liverpool but w/o klopp liverpool hasn't shown to be a force since the mid 2000s and that's even a stretch.

Unpopular opinion perhaps, but provided he’s willing to play as a striker, or Arteta is somehow able to have him solve their striker issue from a different position, I genuinely do think he could turn Arsenal into a title challenging team. They’re a young squad that will likely only get better in the future, and I do get the impression that they’re one or two great signings away from being significantly stronger than they currently are.

I have this fantasy that Mbappe and Haaland team up in a 2 striker formation and they're left free to just attack with a 10 supporting them. Just imagine. Pep would never play this way though.

sportsczy wrote:

Thimmy wrote:

Clutch wrote:I mean if you're mbappe why would you choose anyone but city or R.madrid? If his goal is winning, there aren't too many options. I would've included liverpool but w/o klopp liverpool hasn't shown to be a force since the mid 2000s and that's even a stretch.

Unpopular opinion perhaps, but provided he’s willing to play as a striker, or Arteta is somehow able to have him solve their striker issue from a different position, I genuinely do think he could turn Arsenal into a title challenging team. They’re a young squad that will likely only get better in the future, and I do get the impression that they’re one or two great signings away from being significantly stronger than they currently are.

I have this fantasy that Mbappe and Haaland team up in a 2 striker formation and they're left free to just attack with a 10 supporting them. Just imagine. Pep would never play this way though.

The thought has crossed my mind, but yeah, that’s never going to happen under Pep

I don't think it's 100 percent done with Real Madrid btw. Mbappe has a lot of offers for very big money, including Liverpool, City, Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle. Any club in the EPL with money. Newcastle is a bit funny though... but what the heck. They might as well try lol.

Image rights is the sticking point. Mbappe will accept less guaranteed wages as Real Madrid wishes IF he gets an enormous share of his image rights. Now that Mbappe has taken the step to make his departure official, I would be shocked if Flo doesn't get this finished quickly though.

Riolo at RMC just said that Manchester City has sent Mbappe an enormous offer now that his departure is official... exact same money as PSG was offering him to stay. Bring on the popcorn.

For those who say "how?"... they would move Bernardo Silva and DeBruyne according to Riolo. I would hate to see DeBruyne go. He's perfect as the 10 behind Mbappe/Haaland. Foden makes it a 433.

pic.twitter.com/FYc3b6enjQ

— Kilgore (@billkilgore_) February 15, 2024

So....  an extremely (and I mean it) good media source whom I know in France (we went to school together) told me that the deal to Real Madrid is done.   Mbappe wouldn't have announced otherwise.  Also, his wages would not destabilize Real Madrid, which means it will be the highest on the club but not ridiculously more than Jude and Vini Jr.  To compensate, Real Madrid has agreed to give him 80% or thereabouts of his image rights.  It's actually a waterfall system so that's just an estimation.  To briefly explain, he gets 100% of the image rights revenue up to a certain number, and then it goes back to the typical split with Real Madrid. The other players cannot cry and complain here because the image rights are the revenue he creates personally.  The signing bonus will be 140 million euros.

The announcement will be made at the most reasonable time for Mbappe.  

I think it's awkward to announce officially during the season.  Once PSG's fate in all the competitions they are a part of is final, the announcement will be made.  So essentially sometime in April to early May.

That's the scoop.

And just to put it in perspective in terms of image rights value... CR7 made twice as much money in terms of revenue from his image rights compared to his wages. Beckham owned 100% of his image rights at Man U. When he went to Madrid, he gave up 50% to the club. BUT, Beckham earned 2x from the 50% at Real Madrid compared to the 100% at Man U.

The marketing machine at Real Madrid is literally on a level of its own. That's why Mbappe (allegedly) isn't overly concerned with taking his wages down. He feels that he'll earn more annually with all the other revenue streams.

So glad he's made the announcement. 2 years overdue. I could not give a shit about PSG for they have peaked what they can do for Ligue 1 and I am sick of their fans. Marseille Lyon or ASSE need to win again. For me I hope Lyon for they are my favourite team but Ive moved past the Paris ship for a while and their current set up and squad just bores me.

If it is RM for Mbappe easily the biggest move of the club since CR if not bigger. CR was no where near his level at this age.

Arquitecto wrote:So glad he's made the announcement. 2 years overdue. I could not give a shit about PSG for they have peaked what they can do for Ligue 1 and I am sick of their fans. Marseille Lyon or ASSE need to win again. For me I hope Lyon for they are my favourite team but Ive moved past the Paris ship for a while and their current set up and squad just bores me.

If it is RM for Mbappe easily the biggest move of the club since CR if not bigger. CR was no where near his level at this age.

It's a shame for football really. I hate super teams. It makes the competitions boring. I'd rather have 7-8 very strong teams where you can very easily see any of them win. With Mbappe, Madrid literally should win everything, every year.

I'm holding out hope that Real Madrid management acts like its fans and Mbappe tells them off lol.

Real is not a super team anymore... we just assume they'll win everything because of the winning DNA

Ironically PSG was the super team and they could never win anything but Ligue 1

Congratulations Sports, you finally have understood what I’ve been saying about salary and salary team structure / ladder. As to image rights, I agree and again much of what I had been talking about, similar to what Ronaldo had.

I believe it’s a win win situation with the only remaining question in my mind is how will Mbappe and Vinicius coexist.

Now it’s on to Davies and possible a CB (kid at Liile I think) and a RB (rumour before last week was Couto). Nacho and Lucas renewals are dependent on these potential signings.

futbol_bill wrote:Congratulations Sports, you finally have understood what I’ve been saying about salary and salary team structure / ladder. As to image rights, I agree and again much of what I had been talking about, similar to what Ronaldo had.

I believe it’s a win win situation with the only remaining question in my mind is how will Mbappe and Vinicius coexist.

Now it’s on to Davies and possible a CB (kid at Liile I think) and a RB (rumour before last week was Couto). Nacho and Lucas renewals are dependent on these potential signings.

I don't think co-existence is much of a problem since Vini has improved his overall game.  He's not as accomplished as Mbappe of course... but he can play centrally at times.  Mbappe on the other hand can play anywhere.  As this season is showing, Mbappe is more concerned with playing near the players that can best work with him.  Barcola was really playing well but can only play left wing.  So Mbappe moved to CF to allow Barcola to play and become what he's becoming (see goal against La Real for example).

Team player really.   He's trying to press too... but he's so bad at it that the only impact is him burning energy lol.  Maybe Madrid can teach him better.

Rodrygo is in danger though.  I don't know where he plays.  He's not good on the right. Mbappe can't play right because his best scoring moves are outside-in like CR... you'd take half his goals away which would be stupid.

Rodrygo has been speaking highly of Mbappe everytime he's been asked about him. He must've gotten assurances that he'll continue to be a starter. I think we go back to play 433 if Mbappe arrives. That will be bad news for Camavinga as he'll be competing with Bellingham for the LCM spot or preferably with Tchouaméni for the CDM spot.

Or we could use the same 442 formation with Rodrygo as a super sub but that'll mean we will be very lopsided as neither Vini nor Mbappe will fancy playing from the right neither Bellingham for that matter.

Rodrygo is Perez' pet project, I can imagine him insisting he starts and after a season like this one where he has been a regular starter we will risk losing him if we bench him.

Anyways we will see, it'll be great to see Vini, Mbappe and Bellingham together. Poor Bellingham though, will go from scoring 20+ goals and a potential Balon'dor to just being a shuttler. Vini will still do the same things as he does now. He has never been a killer infront of goal or we wouldn't be after Mbappe for this long. We have always had someone who could give us 30+ goals per season and Mbappe will add that.

I am not sure how it will work in reality, I think one takes away from alot of Mbappé's qualities by positioning him in between CB. Defences in LaLiga are not as open as Ligue 1 so it'll be difficult to find space for him. But I trust Carlo to make it work.

Reals attackers will just roam around a lot n interchange places everywhere I imagine... n be flexible about it. Diaz has also been great on the right so pretty sure hes an option if the management will be fair to everyone

Davies would be another Galatico signing wtf... fk Flo is so greedy

I think PSG might do a Klopp leaving Liverpool kind of thing maybe, as in Mbappe wanting to leave on a high n really go for the CL. Saw the game vs Real Soc n they looked good. Players hitting form n hungry... not sure about their defending still though, but who knows what might happen... would be funny if Mbappe wins them the CL b4 leaving

I don't see Rodrygo leaving next season in any case. Vinicius is Perez' boy a bit like Karim was, Rodrygo not so much to that degree. He seems to have a relatively good mentality and he'd be one of the first in line rotation players along with Brahim and one or two of the midfielders. With Endrick coming Joselu would likely have to go back to Espanyol (although we could probably do with his profile), Arda should go on a well thought out loan, and Ceballos maybe sold, although Modric leaving could change that.

Apart from being rotational every game there will be injuries and time throughout different competitions.

Marca also mentions in its front cover that they don't think Mbappe announces this without having a team set.

Wonder what Mbappe says publicly next. I would think that if he really does have something with Madrid that he will hint to that soon as I doubt he'll want further speculation to float around for too long due to his situation at PSG.

Mbappe will score 50 goals at least for Madrid if he stays healthy.  That's what he does at PSG with no midfield... now he has the best midfield in the world behind him.

Remember when CR took 7+ shots a game?  Mbappe averages 4.7 because the midfield can't get him the ball.  Before this year, he took 3.5 shots per game.  His efficiency is off the charts.

About 1 more shot than Benzema typically for comparison.  

Point is, he doesn't dominate the ball.  He leaves plenty for everyone else.  So no worries there.  But I expect the shot total to go up with better service and the fact that he has greatly increased his scoring tools. He's not a very very good long-range shooter and developed his off foot. The only remaining weakness is he does head the ball much... he did as a youth in Monaco funny enough. But it hasn't been asked of him at all with PSG. The biggest area for improvement is to lean to press effectively. He's pressing a lot this year, but like a headless chicken lol. No idea what he's doing there.

Similar stats in CL, Ligue 1 and for France... so against all competition.

@Hala... CBs and defenses in Ligue 1 are actually much harder than La Liga. That's what Messi and Neymar both learned. Why? Just very physical and rough. The refereeing is very different in France. Much softer in Spain.

France and Ligue 1 is known for developing CBs and defenders in general. Playing tough and physical is the emphasis.

PSG is asking Mbappe to do the club a solid by not only forfeiting his bonuses... but also giving a part of his signing bonus from Madrid to them. Are they serious? lol. Hope Mbappe tells them to go get lost. He agreed on the bonuses already after they blackmailed him last summer. They should be ecstatic about that.

What rubbish.

sportsczy wrote:

Thimmy wrote:

Clutch wrote:I mean if you're mbappe why would you choose anyone but city or R.madrid? If his goal is winning, there aren't too many options. I would've included liverpool but w/o klopp liverpool hasn't shown to be a force since the mid 2000s and that's even a stretch.

Unpopular opinion perhaps, but provided he’s willing to play as a striker, or Arteta is somehow able to have him solve their striker issue from a different position, I genuinely do think he could turn Arsenal into a title challenging team. They’re a young squad that will likely only get better in the future, and I do get the impression that they’re one or two great signings away from being significantly stronger than they currently are.

I have this fantasy that Mbappe and Haaland team up in a 2 striker formation and they're left free to just attack with a 10 supporting them. Just imagine. Pep would never play this way though.

We've already seen a much better version of that with Messi, Suarez and Neymar

Mbappe sucks at pressing given the way he uses his movement. Slow and tepid movement followed by aggressive bursts of movement forward that most defenders simply cannot predict. In pressing he's using energy that is used for such surges that aren't as effect when his legs are gone within the game. It's very similar to Henry who was similar in both and quite frankly a waste.

His natural position is central I'll never agree otherwise. Vinicius on the other hand is clearly a player more suited to wide positions as it is.