Yanks Abroad 2024/25 thread

This is what’s slowed down Newcastle’s progression. They mostly were able to spend what they did because their previous owner had spent absolutely nothing which gave them so headroom. But since the initial surge they’ve been much more limited in what they can do. Despite the Saudi financial backing.

 

Its not going to change.

Clubs in the Championship are allowed to accrue smaller losses than Premier league ones.
So when we think of Leeds, their three year total of allowable losses (after the last two years in the Championship) is much smaller than a ManU or Spurs or West Ham or whomever the worst teams in the Premier League are. ManU and Spurs have much more ability to improve their squads. Particularly the one that qualifies for the Champions League. [I know I'm oversimplifying the PSR/FFP calculus.]

If the Premier League (FA and other parties) are serious about the Championship clubs being able to challenge when they're promoted..............................they'd let them accrue MORE losses/debts than the established premier league clubs. But why would the Premier League clubs vote for that?

I saw an interview with Tony Mowbray the other day. He said that in order for Leeds to compete in the Premier League, they'd need to be able to spend 200 million pounds to upgrade their squad. He compared them to how Southampton and Leicester rolled thru the Championship last year, and then got their heads caved in by the Premier League.

They can't do that unless they knowingly breach PSR rules, take the penalties, and hope to stay up regardless. Like Forest did. It seems like there's an increasing number of pundits who think that might be the way to go for Leeds.

When I think of Brenden Aaronson at Leeds......................I think he's the definition of a player they're going to try to sell to upgrade their squad. They need to sell in order to spend. Not just Brenden. A group of the current squad.

 

As I posted in the Brenden thread, Ipswich had the highest net transfer spend in the EPL last season and the 4th highest ever of any newly promoted club. And a fat lot of good it did them.

As for improving the competitiveness of promoted teams, give them the parachute payments up front, not after relegation to a different organization.

 

So one of the things is the spending doesn’t get counted all at once. So if you spend $200 million on transfers what you are actually getting charged on your balance sheet is the amortization over time. Which usually is over the length of the contract. So if you pay 50 million dollars for a player and sign him to a 5 year contract, for PSR purposes that costs you 10 million for the fiscal year in question. On the flip side for any player you sell you get to count the full sale price all at once (minus any amortization for the fiscal year that is owed for the player). This helps a Leeds spend more in the short term but leaves them on the hook for unsustainable payments in the future if they can’t stay up. Meaning PSR penalties aside it’s a huge financial risk. Teams like Leeds still receiving the parachute payments tend to be in a better spot also as they don’t have as far to go roster wise to be EPL level.

The second thing is that the rules are actually changing. They were supposed to for next season but were delayed cause of the Man City legal challenge (which is independent of their other case). Under the current rules you can lose 105 million over any three period (minus spending on things like infrastructure, youth development, the women’s team, etc).

But the idea is to shift from PSR to SCR which is more like the UEFA rules and EPL teams will be able to spend 85 percent of their total revenues on squad related costs. The main thing that held things up is a legal challenge from Man City regarding related party transactions. Clubs that play in Europe already have to comply with a version of this rule though (which I believe is at 70 percent).

The biggest issues in my mind with the PSR as currently structured are 1) it incentivizes you to sell youth players who can be booked for pure profit, 2) it basically serves to lock in clubs in their current status, 3) it allows for all sorts of gaming of the system (like Chelsea selling a hotel or their women’s team to themselves for the profit or some of the end of the fiscal year transactions we saw between clubs like Newcastle and Forest), and 4) the numbers have not been adjusted for inflation since their introduction in 2013 (which would move the threshold to around 145 million by my rough calculations).

 

That's exactly what these rules were put in place for. Which is ironic with all of the talk about Pro/Rel, sporting merit, being able to build a club anyway owners see fit..... The rich, and traditionally "Big" clubs endorsed these rules precisely to prevent the Malaga's and other nouveau riche clubs from spending their way into glory. Man City is likely the last of this kind of Club.

Sure there'll be one off exceptions every now and then when a Club reaches the UEFA CL, or a Bayer Leverkusen wins the Bundesliga before Bayern buys/signs all of their best players and goes back to winning the league for consecutive seasons.

 

And Madrid steal their coach...

I very much doubt the Bundesliga will ever be able to compete with The Premier League or La Liga as the FFP rules have left Bayern in a league of their own.

 

The same is true for Ligue 1 and La Liga outside of Barca and Real (maybe Atleti). The same can be said of Serie A too. Though because the big clubs in those leagues are so far ahead of their competitors, they can concentrate on the CL and Euro comps more. The EPL teams are fairly close in the top half, so they can't really afford to take a match day "off" and still keep up with the league title chase. If PSG rotates their lineup throughout the season they'll still end up at the top. Same goes for Bayern most seasons, and for Real and Barca.

 

Maybe I'm crazy, but I just have a hard time imagining him selling for more than 6-12, maybe at most 14-15 (but who would be that sucker). I just think after a miserable '22-'23, after 85% of his '23-'24 he was a largely benchfodder player for a midtable Bundesliga side, and while '24-'25 was his best counting #'s season since '24-'25, a heckuvalot of people over there seem not terribly impressed with it.

At the run up to his sale in '22, he was 20-22 or 23 mill Euro valuation, and then I believe Leeds overpaid by about 20% to lock him in that summer, maybe 25%. I never saw him as 20+ million Euro guy, as an RBS guy he seemed more 14-18 mill (and that makes sense because transfermarkt valued him at about 10 million when he moved to RBS, and at about 20 million as he wrapped his career there).

To me anyway, he was basically 20 mill Euro-ish at peak value, and his value has tanked, hugely, in the 3 club seasons since. If I were them I'd ask for 15, and settle to 8-12. I wouldn't sell for less than 8 and honestly would struggle to sell for sub 10, but you might have to. If somebody offered 15+, I'd take it and run before I got arrested.

 

Nathaniel Brown among the best U21 players in the top 5 leagues

 

Two wins and they are secure no matter what

 

One more win and Lecce/Empoli dropping points in their remaining matches also is good enough.

 

And if juve need that W for cl qualification, Venezia will be relegated. Lol

 

SGD comps are back

Sergino Dest, game changer. 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/NI9jmrHP1T

— USMNT Otaku 🇺🇸 (@USMNTOtaku) May 12, 2025

 

Replaced Ledezma in the 26th minute?

Any idea why?

Richie was on a yellow card but that was issued in the 17th.

 

Good column about Charlie Kelman. His next move will be an interesting one. Something to watch.
From Dallas heat to EFL League One playoffs: Leyton Orient’s Charlie Kelman emerges as American soccer’s most prolific scorer - and eyes a USMNT call-up | Goal.com US

Its interesting to see that his dream is to one day play for FC Dallas!!!

He wasn't given much of a chance with the FCD DA team back in the day. They had that guy Ricardo Pepi in his way.

 

Performance.

 

Dest is a special player.

The difference in PSV with and without Dest is stark. Their whole approach to play changes, and they show the dominance that they enforced on the dutch league last season. It’s highly unusual for a fullback/wingback to have that kind of wholistic impact.

He’s the US player I expect to use the World Cup to have a World Class coming out party.

 

You are correct.

"PSV’s weaknesses at full back were being exposed by the two Feyenoord wingers. Peter Bosz clearly felt the same, as he decided to substitute right back Richard Ledezma for Sergino Dest after just 25 minutes played." NL Times