Not angry with her. I'll be cheering her on at the WC I'm sure. Obviously not about to wish her success at club level either, mind.
Alessia Russo | leaves United for Arsenal
- Thread starter jojojo
- Start date
I don't think bringing her appearance in to it has good vibes.
Why not?
Have you missed out what makes womens players the most money? Not the club salary, its their social media and commercial deals, clothes, watches, sports drinks etc. Russo is 3rd in the WSL when it comes to money gained from external sponsor deals. Is she the 3rd best player in the league on the pitch? No, far from it.
And you know which players cash in most on that front? The prettiest players of course because they have the most followers.
If you look at any field, the best looking females always has the most followers and therefore make most money. In fact we have lots of women who have loads of followers, mainly because they are beautiful, thats just a fact whether you like it or not.
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What does young girls and potentially new United fan look up to? Performance on the pitch yes, a nice personality, but also wanting to be like Russo when it comes to her looks and appearance. Russo has the whole package which makes her the ultimate PR BOMB!
I am just saying, her marketing value of United might overvalue her actual quality as a player. I dont see why that is so controversial.
Saying she is very pretty, but maybe a bit over-rated in england as a football player is not an insane insult is it?
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Cristiano Ronaldo sells millions of jerseys to girls who are in love with him, thats not different any different.
At last, why do you think Ivana Fuso has an enormous amount of fans in Africa wanting her to come back and play for Manchester Women spamming Uniteds social media about it? Is it because she is amazing footballer who would improve the United team? Or is it because she is sensationally pretty?
I think this is the reality we live, I dont see anything controversial by making observations about tbh, I am curious about why you feel it is.
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I think lines between what is acknowledgement of the marketability advantages of conventionally attractive footballers and what is misogynistic anger fuelled by their looks are too faintly drawn for it to be a good road to go down.
To be honest, I think you make a good point in that players in general can make a lot money from posts / instagram etc and that is a lot based on looks. Women unfortunately / fortunately can make a lot because of how they look, so can men. It's both wrong but at the same time why shouldn't someone exploit their earning potential - both mens and womens sports career are short and in a football sense, men can earn a lifetime salary in one or two years whilst the women aren't near that.
Just as an example, Alisha Lehmann earns c. £160k p/y at Villa, yet gets her average income per post to her 13m followers is £241k per post...
Only correction to the post would be I'm confused about Fuso as isn't she Brazilian so why would Africans care as much rather than South Americans
But at the same time, @Lightbringer makes a more than valid point that the money we offer her should have nothing to do with what she can earn on Instagram or outside football earnings. If her performances on the pitch haven't been good enough, and as Lightbringer said about Kerr's performance vs Russo's, then our offer is more than fair.
Both make good points
She's gone, bring in Rachel Daly
Hear, hear.
She can feck off... Hope the fans get stuck in when she returns to LSV
As an aside, the women really need to get onto signing a replacement.
As an aside, the women really need to get onto signing a replacement.
Thank you.
And to make it clear, I do not fault Russo for cashing in, anybody would have. And from all that I´ve seen she has been terrific with United fans & is top lass to deal with in any sense. I just do not buy in she could not still be at United. If she wanted to be here badly she would have signed the contract making her the best United player of all time and she would have become a rich women regardless.
Which to the question, what are United missing out on her OFF the pitch with her leaving? Since United fail to invest in the womens team properly, is this going to shoot them in the back more off the pitch?
Well, it seems that Africans do not discriminate regarding the nationality of a player, they will adore any pretty women and try to get their phone number on the United Womens social media whether its one of our lionesses or Leon from Canada etc :-) They have a completely different culture it seems compared to what we have in europe, I was pretty shocked to see their posts when I started following the Womens teams social media, but I have gotten used to it now.
Arsenal is said to be paying Russo 500 000£ a month now. Maybe they can afford it because of the sold out champions league games they had and also because the club can make money of Russos popularity in england. And also they might hope that she´ll go from 10 goals to 20 or 25. But I do think she is overpaid atm.
So in conclusion, nothing personal against Russo who is a good player, not just world class IMO - and also I think there were 2 parts to tango on those contract negotiations, not fair United getting 100% of the blame based on PR coming from Russos agent who sent PMs to fans laying it all on United.
Sadly if we could not afford to slightly overpay for Russo, freeing Daly from her Villa contract and also paying her should be even more expensive?
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So you are saying we cant discuss all the factors that come into play when considering how much a player is worth to the club because someone might get easily offended in todays society? And how can it be perceived as misogynistic anger if I apply the same to Cristiano Ronaldo or any male player? How do you even assume I am not female btw? I do realize you might mean in general and not only from my comment.
However I think it should be open game if done respectfully, I dont think I have been disrespectful against Russo. Making observations is completely different from belittling women from making smart money from their appereance, those are separate issues.
Why am I not making these points about Ona btw? Because I dont think she is overpaid from a football standpoint, she is world class on her position compared to Russo, which is exactly the point I am making.
I dont think Russo being a life long United fan joining United biggest rival is a good vibe either tbh.
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Russo’s attacking stats are inferior to Leah Galton’s last season.
To be fair she helped take 6 points off Arsenal but that was her highlight.
We’ll see how well she does at Arsenal but I’m hoping United find a perfectly adequate replacement.
To be fair she helped take 6 points off Arsenal but that was her highlight.
We’ll see how well she does at Arsenal but I’m hoping United find a perfectly adequate replacement.
I can’t imagine playing for united and wanting to leave if they offered me equal to what any other club was. I’d want to make United competitive and build a legacy. She’s a United fan. I think that makes it a little more bitter.
although we don’t know the ins and outs of what really happened I guess, it’s easy to judge and probably a little nieve.
although we don’t know the ins and outs of what really happened I guess, it’s easy to judge and probably a little nieve.
Daly is one of the first names that comes to mind when you think of an attainable replacement for Russo, but genuinely interested if there have been any substantial links?
I realise people don't like to talk about how attractive a player is but I think it's a valid point - no different to why Beckham had a higher profile to Rooney
Although it is a factor, I think her performances for the winning Lionesses team and THAT backheel goal in particular are a bigger deal than what she looks like
But her performances for United last season did not warrant a world record bid
I will still hope to see her do well in an England shirt but I also hope Maya Le Tissier gives her hell next season !
I was actually going through my Instagram last night and saw a post she had put up and just had the urge to no longer follow. Because outside of United I really don’t care about what she gets up to. I saw yesterday there was talk of how much she earns per post on Instagram and was wondering if many others had felt similar and maybe unfollowed her on socials. Or is The Arsenal following for the woman’s team greater than United and she’ll probably make more now.
I’d imagine in London there are more lucrative opportunities through advertising and stuff for her via socials and stuff.
There haven't been any links. Apparently she has history with Turner and it's unclear if that might be a factor against her coming.
We seem to be after a couple of Brazilian forwards instead.
I am sad to see Alessia go. I do think we can replace the goals, but I liked her style of play and her contribution to the forward line.
It is fair comment that on a straight money basis she isn't (and maybe never will be) worth the money that Arsenal are reportedly paying her compared to other centre forwards. We should be able to get a comparable player and maybe a more reliable goalscorer for the money - though we will have to look sufficiently tempting in ambition and club terms as well as wages to get them.
That said - I think United just weren't ready for the success of the Euros and lacked the agility/focus to adapt quickly enough. It's not a surprise - the combination of problems in the men's team and ownership issues meant that the women's team was always going to be a long way down the list of agenda items for people with the power to make decisions.
The club wasn't ready to see the team as more than just a tick in the PR/marketing box. By the time we caught onto it, we were already behind on negotiating with our suddenly famous Lionesses and using the team in general as an opportunity to get new fans and new sponsors. They were still just a cost item, whose costs were going up.
How we recruit now and how we build the team and the infrastructure going forward is what matters. Losing Alessia is at best a symptom of where we were this time last year - the question is where are we now.
It is fair comment that on a straight money basis she isn't (and maybe never will be) worth the money that Arsenal are reportedly paying her compared to other centre forwards. We should be able to get a comparable player and maybe a more reliable goalscorer for the money - though we will have to look sufficiently tempting in ambition and club terms as well as wages to get them.
That said - I think United just weren't ready for the success of the Euros and lacked the agility/focus to adapt quickly enough. It's not a surprise - the combination of problems in the men's team and ownership issues meant that the women's team was always going to be a long way down the list of agenda items for people with the power to make decisions.
The club wasn't ready to see the team as more than just a tick in the PR/marketing box. By the time we caught onto it, we were already behind on negotiating with our suddenly famous Lionesses and using the team in general as an opportunity to get new fans and new sponsors. They were still just a cost item, whose costs were going up.
How we recruit now and how we build the team and the infrastructure going forward is what matters. Losing Alessia is at best a symptom of where we were this time last year - the question is where are we now.
Good.
Haha.
She did score two goals though 
That makes it even betterShe did score two goals though
I guess the grass isn’t always greener - although there’s every chance we won’t make it through to the group stage either. Just having 16 teams go through, with just 4 automatic qualifiers, doesn’t seem very many. I guess there’s not enough money in the women’s game to sustain a larger tournament, but hopefully that will change soon.
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Russo in the mud