St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:Thinking purely in terms of finance is not very accurate here.

For a club like PSG and the level of ambition they have, exposure is invaluable. It's not just a matter of the attendance rising up, but the marginal benefit in terms of image.

How many people who never would click a PSG story, would now do? How many new fans now checking out PSG to see what beckham is doing, and who knows, they might discover Pastore and get hooked? That's the kind of impact he can have. More spotlight of PSG, more attention, the kind of factor that matters when you sell image rights, shirt rights, etc.., you gain more leverage to negotiate higher premiums.

Also another aspect he brings with him, his experience, professionalism, and winning culture. Remember PSG is a young team with a lot of players piece together, a guy like beckham in the locker room can prove very useful. He has a wealth of experience and competition at the highest level, he has been in Man Utd and Real Madrid lockers, he knows winning habits, and he can help make a difference, specially for those young players.

Disagree, why?

L.A. Galaxy and Florentino Perez presented thoughts similar to yours and brought in David Beckham at the height of his popularity exactly to boost theirs brands. It arguably worked somehow at first both boosting the Galacticos brand to bigger heights and constantly selling out the Galaxys stadium and bringing in bigger deals at first, great. Then what happened???

The on the pitch action suffered and crowds stopped paying attention. Madrid was in a sea of debt and Florentino was sacked, the Galaxy deal has failed to bring in the attention they hoped would happen to MLS and their huge deal was suddenly a fiasco. Both were arguably failed experiments.

But as a Madrid fan you obviously know that you can buy success and enjoy all the marketing boost that brings in, Florentino Perez now knows the 2 rules that you need to do in order to make this work:

1.- Be the biggest, most ridiculous giant kid in town
1 mega star like Beckham is not enough in this day and age, you need many huge names like Ronaldo, Kaka, Zidane, and Figo to make it work. Like a car crash, people just cannot look away when your team is so star studded.

2.-On the pitch success is as important as marketing success
You got their attention with the big stars, but if you unbalance the team and you slip away from the top, people will run away as quick as they came. When Makelele left and Beckham came in, that was the ominous sign for the death of the first galacticos.

I just cannot see Beckham and Pastore robbing international attention away from CR7/Real Madrid and Messiah/Barcelona.

chinomaster182 wrote:
Disagree, why?

L.A. Galaxy and Florentino Perez presented thoughts similar to yours and brought in David Beckham at the height of his popularity exactly to boost theirs brands. It arguably worked somehow at first both boosting the Galacticos brand to bigger heights and constantly selling out the Galaxys stadium and bringing in bigger deals at first, great. Then what happened???

The on the pitch action suffered and crowds stopped paying attention. Madrid was in a sea of debt and Florentino was sacked, the Galaxy deal has failed to bring in the attention they hoped would happen to MLS and their huge deal was suddenly a fiasco. Both were arguably failed experiments.

But as a Madrid fan you obviously know that you can buy success and enjoy all the marketing boost that brings in, Florentino Perez now knows the 2 rules that you need to do in order to make this work:

1.- Be the biggest, most ridiculous giant kid in town
1 mega star like Beckham is not enough in this day and age, you need many huge names like Ronaldo, Kaka, Zidane, and Figo to make it work. Like a car crash, people just cannot look away when your team is so star studded.

2.-On the pitch success is as important as marketing success
You got their attention with the big stars, but if you unbalance the team and you slip away from the top, people will run away as quick as they came. When Makelele left and Beckham came in, that was the ominous sign for the death of the first galacticos.

I just cannot see Beckham and Pastore robbing international attention away from CR7/Real Madrid and Messiah/Barcelona.

No, Real Madrid is famous for mismanaging the football aspect of the club in the past decade, so i fail to see how Beckham was responsible for that. Madrid brought Beckham mainly for the off the pitch attraction he brings to a club, and that was mission accomplished, not to mention he was still a decent player.

What LA did with Beckham was massive flop from the start, if they expected Beckham to transform their franchise into a winning machine, then it was obviously going to flop. He still managed to bring massive attraction and popularity to LA, in that regard, mission accomplished as well.

PSG isnt trying to sign him because he is a miracle worker and will win the league for them, that much is obvious. It's purely directed at strengthening their brand. They still have a very good side they will keep improving overtime.

Why are you trying to compare them with Real Madrid, and Barcelona? that's misguided, clearly not the target at the moment.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:
No, Real Madrid is famous for mismanaging the football aspect of the club in the past decade, so i fail to see how Beckham was responsible for that.

Daivd was brought in and to save some costs some non glitzy pieces like Makelele, Hierro and Del Bosque were thrown out, Figo was played out of position, the sporting balance was lost.

If PSG bring in Beckham, they have to bench in one of Nene, Pastore or Menez and they will spend up money they could use for a usable player. Sporting balance will be lost.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:
Why are you trying to compare them with Real Madrid, and Barcelona? that's misguided, clearly not the target at the moment.

Casual international viewers will get up in the morning to watch two, three European games any given Sunday tops. How do you convince them to drop one of Madrid, Barcelona or United to watch PSG instead?

Even hardcore viewers like myself will be hard pressed to leave one of their 4 (5 tops) games of Football any given saturday. At the moment i'll rather watch Inter, Madrid, United, City and some other random game which will most likely be filled in with Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Milan, Juventus, Barcelona or Roma. I might pay attention though to a Ajaccio - PSG match or OL - PSG game, chances i see PSG also increase if they qualify to the Champions League knockout stages one day.

PSG should buy Crouch and put Beckham on the right

There are 2 sides of the coin to this, I feel this is more a tactical signing from PSG as if its not marked as a big signing, it could potentially be successful.

People underrate beckham here. Fact is, when Beckham came to Milan, he brought more then his good looks and marketing ability.

He brought laser sharp crosses, superb intelligence, movement, awareness, vision and overall made the whole team play better.

He thought the youngsters his skill and Abate many of his tricks.

He brought leadership and his trademark Class A professionalism to the locker room.

He brought sheer consistency in his technique that made up for his snail pace.

Beckham must not be used as a winger but more to go for the Giggs route where he is placed centrally and deep.

Only thing is, he asks WAY to much for what he deserves.

chinomaster182 wrote:Daivd was brought in and to save some costs some non glitzy pieces like Makelele, Hierro and Del Bosque were thrown out, Figo was played out of position, the sporting balance was lost.

If PSG bring in Beckham, they have to bench in one of Nene, Pastore or Menez and they will spend up money they could use for a usable player. Sporting balance will be lost.

What makes you think he will have to be an instant starter? you are making the wrong assumptions.

Casual international viewers will get up in the morning to watch two, three European games any given Sunday tops. How do you convince them to drop one of Madrid, Barcelona or United to watch PSG instead?

Even hardcore viewers like myself will be hard pressed to leave one of their 4 (5 tops) games of Football any given saturday. At the moment i'll rather watch Inter, Madrid, United, City and some other random game which will most likely be filled in with Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Milan, Juventus, Barcelona or Roma. I might pay attention though to a Ajaccio - PSG match or OL - PSG game, chances i see PSG also increase if they qualify to the Champions League knockout stages one day.

Appealing to a greater audience is not just aimed at the US or Asia, of course they will be targeted long term, but the club growing in popularity in Europe would be a huge plus already. Like i said, this move has marginal benefits that cant be quantified, you are trying to put a number on everything. A simple surge in popularity can prove significant moving forward, specially if silverware and Champions league do follow. Why dont you discuss the sporting aspect, a player like Beckham in a locker room brings a lot of positive things.

Him and the wife would be down to live in Paris fo sho

I can't see PSG going for Becks in January.

- Is he cheap? Yes, but why do they care?
- Can he distribute the ball? Like a master, even in his advanced years. But again, is he better than pastore and does any advantage make up for his disadvantage in pace?
- Is the marketing aspect worth it? I'd argue that they've already drawn attention to themselves within the more astute footballing world in the summer transfer market. Now they need to support it with their play, not names on the team sheet.

I would expect them to splash for Tevez before Becks. Sure, they have Hoarau, Erdinc and Gameiro, but none of them hold a candle to Tevez's ability. Additionally, they are one of the few clubs that can afford to pay the transfer fee and Teve'z wages. I can see this being a better addition to their squad then Beckham.

donttreadonred wrote:I can't see PSG going for Becks in January.

- Is he cheap? Yes, but why do they care?
- Can he distribute the ball? Like a master, even in his advanced years. But again, is he better than pastore and does any advantage make up for his disadvantage in pace?
- Is the marketing aspect worth it? I'd argue that they've already drawn attention to themselves within the more astute footballing world in the summer transfer market. Now they need to support it with their play, not names on the team sheet.

I would expect them to splash for Tevez before Becks. Sure, they have Hoarau, Erdinc and Gameiro, but none of them hold a candle to Tevez's ability. Additionally, they are one of the few clubs that can afford to pay the transfer fee and Teve'z wages. I can see this being a better addition to their squad then Beckham.

Well they wouldn't have to pay a transfer fee for him because his contract with the galaxy runs out at the end of the MLS season which ends in late october so they could sign him as soon as november I believe

and yeah, he can distribute the ball, but honestly after watching the galaxy all season, all that becks is really effective at any more is corners and set pieces... His passing accuracy on the move isn't nearly as good as it used to be. He leads the MLS in assists but almost all of them were off of corners and free kicks.. His one goal was from a free kick as well. I know that was always his specialty but it seems like he just really can't do much when the ball is in play on the field any more

Though then again it might have a lot to do with the fact that the galaxy have HORRIBLE.. HORRIBLE finishers. They just signed robby keane who is good for an mls striker from what I can tell, but before that they had absolutely nothing going on in terms of strikers or forwards that could consistantly score goals.. Even Donovan blows incredibly easy scoring opportunities all the time.. it is incredibly frustrating. So while it seems to me becks has lost a step on his game in a few areas, it might just have been exaggerated from the bad offense the Galaxy have.

Honestly though if PSG wants to do this purely for marketing reasons, I say do it.. He will draw more attention than any other free transfer player in the world would give them I believe.. While I think Tevez would give them more buzz, I don't think he'd be worth what they would have to pay because I am not sure if they could even expect him to play. I mean maybe hed be all for it at first but what if he just has one of his fits and changes his mind and doesn't want to play anymore? They can expect becks to play, and to draw a lot of attention for less than tevez without all the drama as well either.

A Source closed to the Qatari owners supposedly revealed to LeParisien that a deal will be finalized "very soon".

They also described beckham as being more than a player, a brand and a pop star.

He would earn 4,5M and bonuses based on the ratings in Asia.

Sometimes, all it takes is a freekick specialist to win a game.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:A Source closed to the Qatari owners supposedly revealed to LeParisien that a deal will be finalized "very soon".

They also described beckham as being more than a player, a brand and a pop star.

He would earn 4,5M and bonuses based on the ratings in Asia.

He's going to have a tough, tough time imo. He'll get hurt in short order too. I get the marketing aspect though.

I am with Nick on that one. Becks is more than just a player. If i had a rich team, i would sign him even if he were to sit on the bench.

A good move. Good for marketing, a big boost to the PSG brand, and an excellent backup to Pastore Menez and Nene.