When British sources say e.g. 160k/week... is that for a calendar year? Or the playing season? Divided by 52? or ~38?
The Everton article where I saw the 160k number did the math like this: The former Leeds loanee is demanding €5million (£4.2m) per-year net in wages, which works out at around £160,000 per-week gross, and as such there is no agreement for him to leave yet despite interest from Everton. But I would not put too much faith in the specificity of that math, but take it more as a realistic ballpark. How those guys know with any accuracy how Wes' pay would net out is a bit of stretch, although they can certainly make a reasonable guesstimate. Basically, if they are using 52 weeks, they're giving Wes ~50% net on an 8.3 mill Lb gross.
Yeah. Which would basically track with the 45% Brit tax rate + NI. The question is did Wes' folks actually go "Wes needs to see 160k after-tax in his pocket every week on the pay check!" Which seems oddly specific for that kind of deal, but what do I know. A transfer from Italy with outstanding salary and transfer fees etc can be structured a number of ways. England has cracked down on the "image fees" work around, but there are still legit ways to get paid that avoid some tax. Depends on whether Wes is really like "I want my salary to be listed as X in the paperwork" or it he's asking for a deal "worth X" which can be different. And, of course, there's the Juve transfer fee ask, which is not insubstantial.
I think the English article is confusing as it essentially doubled his wages to indicate the gross and to match how their market reports wages. Oddly, this may help explain Juventus's actions as the player cost increased significantly when they lost the tax credit and have 'encouraged' him to move to the Premier League. The other item from the article speculates that the deal makes sense if Wes wages are subsidized by Juventus; effectively lowering Everton's true cost and indicating he is not valued by local media / fan base at his salary level. Higher wage players are more likely to be the target of an unhappy fanbase, which Wes has mentioned was an issue for him at Leeds. Scanning through Capology, Wes may be the 2nd highest paid player on the USMNT and he earned more at Leeds then his American teammates, Fulham duo, and the Nottingham pair. Does he earn any money from marketing deals? Wes only has a US passport, which puts him in a large pool of players; many with limited marketing dollar potential. If he and his agent are not taking advantage of this source of compensation, are articles such as this one hurting his chances of clubs that now assume to be priced out of the market due to his salary demands?
it's a throw-away line from a "meh" source, but this is the closest I've seen to a good theory about the €2m he allegedly asked for: his net remaining contract with Juve is €2.5, so what he might be doing is asking potential buyers for €5m, when they balk, he says "get Juve to buy out the rest of my contract and I can go lower". If this is the case (and, to be clear, this is complete speculation), then Weston & co know he's over-paid at Juve. And if Juve are hampering his options by demanding a sizeable transfer fee, it's not a bad tactic. He's more or less threatening to sit for a year and take a pay check by demanding Juve buy him out of his remaining contract. I don't think it's a smart tactic in terms of his growth as a player, but I get it from an economic standpoint.
There was also a law in place since the pandemic that essentially gave Italian clubs a 50% tax break on the salaries of foreign players. Serie A clubs pushed hard to keep it. So, from January 1, foreign players have effectively become 50% more expensive for all Italian clubs. https://www.violanation.com/fiorent...-player-salary-wage-serie-a-transfer-strategy
This is the "growth decree" that's been mentioned a few times. It actually was implemented in 2019 with the goal of making Italy more attractive for foreign talent (soccer players included), not a pandemic related policy. I think the understanding we've come to in this thread is that growth decree contracts are grandfathered in, so Weston is still earning €2.5m this season. This is also how Juve offered Weston a "pay reduction": they offered him a renewal of his existing contract under the new tax laws.
Yeah, to be clear, I was just linking the 160k, I would be skeptical about the sourcing or that anyone knows what Wes' "pay check(que) net" needs to be. And that 20 mill transfer fee pays a lot of salary. I still doubt Juve gets that, esp as Wes seems fine to hold out a bit. And anyone saying "Wes must be out of shape/not awesome/somethingsomething since Juve don't want to resign him" have to explain Chiesa.
Well, I agree that's the bottom line, but the question is why? Just calling him fat and out of shape, like you did, is not the answer. It's a lazy answer and what dumb twitter fans use. I watched a lot of Juve games over the last 4ish years and Wes was good for them but not great (sounds like 95% of the team). I think they are trying to get rid of him because they think they can do better. Wes did not impress enough over the last 4 years and make himself indispensable. Add the new manager in to the equation and that Juve want their elite dominating squad back and Wes just wasn't make the cut. From this perspective I get it. I don't think Wes met their dominating (from years past) standard. Some of that had to do with how Allegri used him though. Also, Juve can't afford that standard anymore, which is why Wes has a lot of value for them I think. At the end of the day, Wes seemed to play well enough to get himself a very solid to very good contract at a high level club in the top 5 leagues at his next stop. But the rumors, at least for now, don't reflect that. He is getting bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. That is what I don't get. I guess he has to figure out how to get rid of those chubby cheeks because far too many people have associated that with him being an out of shape dud... which he has proven time and time again he is not.
Bottom line is almost all the money is in the EPL and his Leeds loan tanked his value there. There may not be a big payday out there for him right now even after a strong season for Juve last year.
Agree with you ... given how things are progressing (or not) if Wes wants to make a serious play for the growth of his game - for the long term - he needs to take a pay cut and understand that he will NOT play for a CL club for the next few years. but he may decide he just wants the $ right now and forget the longer term. Will have to see how he plays his options.
He needs to take a pay cut? I seriously doubt that (certainly in pretax money.) It's so odd. He's had an offer from Villa, apparently an offer from Everton, interest elsewhere and even the option to re-up at Juve... and he'll be out on a free in June. I'll go dollars for donuts he moves someplace at a gross pay bump (no idea what various countries tax schemes will mean for the net). Whether it's "good" CL ball is more of a question, given that there are only a dozen teams in top/rich leagues that are for sure in the CL, but some of the dire predictions seem a bit out of touch here.
Picture well painted, I can see that as an option. What I don't really understand is that if these clubs are allegedly balking at this request, why would Wes and his team think he will get that type of money at a free agent after not playing much this upcoming year?
Hard to argue against. I mean he was bad but he wasn't outright terrible. He just got a lot of bad press over it as if he was the only one who was horrendous. I'm sure he'll turn it around. Looks like it won't be at another club in Serie A. Damn shame Girona neither Atletico Madrid need him.
Agreed! I get the sense that the press and fans have a much lower view of Weston than most English club scouts. But, while this might be true, it doesn't negate the possibility that he's asking for more than English clubs think he's worth. I think he runs into "non-EU player" issues in La Liga as well. It's less restrictive than Serie A, but still a hurdle that doesn't exist in England or Germany.
I also get hung up on this... I think the real question is "does Weston actually want to make €5m/yr at any club other than Juve?" I'm probably being overly charitable to Weston, but I would guess he'd lower his wage demands as a free agent and would be content with simply making more than he was with Juve. @freisland is correct: making €3m NET (£4.5m gross) is extremely reasonable at a mid-table PL club, and would technically be a raise from his net pay at Juve. But adding in a €10-€15m transfer fee amortized over 5 years makes it less palatable for the clubs... if it were a €15m fee, you're basically adding €3m to Weston's overall yearly cost (please someone correct me here, I honestly have no clue how clubs calculate amortization for these kinds of moves and am talking more out of my ass than usual).
It's interesting that so many folks see the sticking point as Wes' salary and not Juventus fee ask. Rabiot just left on a free. Arthur is supposedly going to Como?!! (except they can't afford his 5 mill Euro salary...) We shall see, but I still think Wes is in the driver's seat here. As the end of August rolls around, and Juve has splashed 35 mill on Todibo, 20 on Thuram, 13 on Cabal, and show a 175 million loss for fiscal 23-24... even Soule's fee and sell ons is not going to close that gap. We'll see who the new secret sponsor is and what they pony up, but Wes has a better chance of getting his ask than Juve does.
Yeah and point is teams look at amortizarion of fee + contract when reviewing investment in a player. So $20M fee + $5M a year over 4 years = $40M. But $5M a year on free is duhhh $20M.
This isn't stopping other teams signing players in their last year. €20m is already a "discount" when looking at his transfermarkt value.