How do PSG and Manchester City retain their players all the time?

[JSArsenal]

This is something that I have been wondering about. Every top club loses players that they'd rather keep or big names. Kroos, Neymar, Ronaldo, Hazard, Courteous, Higuain (Madrid wanted him to go), Di Maria and the list goes on, have all left top clubs winning every trophy in sight for a new challenge or more money.

Yet somehow PSG, a club in France managed to keep Veratti, Neymar, Cavani and Thiago Silva all through their prime years. City kept Aguero and Silva for years and years, De Bruyne as well. No one at City has ever complained about a lack of playing time, had a falling out with the manager or wanted to play in Germany or Spain.

How do they inspire such loyalty?

 

[Pexbo]

Money

/thread

 

[Samid]

Spoiler

 

[Tarrou]

$$$

 

[The holy trinity 68]

Spoiler

So true.

 

[duffer]

No one at City has ever complained about a lack of playing time, had a falling out with the manager or wanted to play in Germany or Spain.

Leroy Sane?

 

[OldSchoolManc]

2nd wages offshore. Already proven that Mancini received them

 

[Buchan]

We all know the answer but it was still amazing to think that, despite the world-class performances the likes of Aguero, Silva, Toure, Kompany etc. produced, the Spanish giants, PSG, Bayern or Juventus never tempted them away yet United and Liverpool, the two biggest clubs in England, were regularly pillaged for our top talents.

Hilarious really when you think back on it. Were we genuinely expected to believe they played for City’s badge and that the European elite didn’t fancy them?

 

[OldSchoolManc]

Leroy Sane?

Leroy (in)Sane. Or genuinely wanted more game time

 

[Bubz27]

 

[sullydnl]

Money, obviously.

Also in City's case this will be their 3rd title in four seasons and 5th title in ten seasons. It's not like their players are sacrificing trophies for money, they're also in the dominant PL team.

 

[stevoc]

We all know the answer but it was still amazing to think that, despite the world-class performances the likes of Aguero, Silva, Toure, Kompany etc. produced, the Spanish giants, PSG, Bayern or Juventus never tempted them away yet United and Liverpool, the two biggest clubs in England, were regularly pillaged for our top talents.

Hilarious really when you think back on it. Were we genuinely expected to believe they played for City’s badge and that the European elite didn’t fancy them?

Ronaldo who else?

 

[pcaming]

There's no reason to leave, competitive every year and great salaries. They're also proactive with their contracts.

 

[48 hours]

Be like Saracens in rugby. The sheikh will be getting money to them in other ways and not just their weekly wage

 

[harms]

As for PSG, no one even dares to steal their players anymore. Barcelona tried to sign Verratti... PSG retaliated and signed Neymar (as well as keeping Verratti, who had to issue an apology to the club). Look at how Perez communicates about PSG players — he is very respectful and wary of them, even when he talks about his long-time target in Mbappé. Neymar actually tried to leave for Barca multiple times, but he has no leverage whatsoever at the moment.

I'm very interested to see what would happen with Mbappé though. It looks very likely that he's going to leave them on a free, which would be insane... or they would sell him this summer for a very significant sum. I don't believe that he'll sign an extension for them, although who knows? But this will certainly be the toughest challenge for PSG in recent times.

As for City — they've been quite lucky in terms of their star players personalities. Silva & De Bruyne are very much Scholesy-esque; and no one seriously tried to sign Agüero from them as it would've cost too much money. If Barca would've went all-in for him, I think they would've had some issues. Toure already tried playing a second-fiddle in a bigger team and didn't want to do that again.

 

[NinjaZombie]

I'm no fan of Citeh but the personalities of the players they've brought in have been on point. Maybe they do pay Silva, Aguero etc a second wage but you can't deny that some of their top players are also the kind of personalities you build a team around.

 

[Judas]

It's a question never asked as we all know the answer. They're given money under the table that would probably make Messi blush.

 

[thepolice123]

 

[Zen86]

I'm no fan of Citeh but the personalities of the players they've brought in have been on point. Maybe they do pay Silva, Aguero etc a second wage but you can't deny that some of their top players are also the kind of personalities you build a team around.

Managing different personalities is easy with a bottomless pit of cash, NDAs and enough shell accounts

 

[OmarUnited4ever]

yet United and Liverpool, the two biggest clubs in England, were regularly pillaged for our top talents.

to be fair , Liverpool were shit for a long time(1993 - 2017) that's why they couldn't keep the likes of Suarez, Sterling, Owen, Mcmanaman and so on, for United, the only players we couldn't keep were CR7 and maybe Tevez (SAF probably didn't want to deal with Kia Jorabshian), SAF allowed Beckham and RVN to go, and from recent memory, Ole allowed Lukaku to go, so basically we were not pillaged as much the likes of Liverpool & Arsenal were.

Did we want to keep Di Maria? he only played one season so not sure we can add him to the list.

on the topic, PSG couldn't keep Rabiot for example and Mbappe might not agree to extend, City couldn't keep Sane and Eric Garcia, sometimes top clubs can't keep a player if said player wants to leave, Bayern couldn't convince Alaba to extend & stay, they also couldn't keep Thiago.

 

[devil99]

I have thought about this multiple times too. When we look at the official salaries reported on the newspapers they are not much different. But some times I can't help but think about Jamal Khasoggi / offshore money.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

I have thought about this multiple times too. When we look at the official salaries reported on the newspapers they are not much different. But some times I can't help but think about Jamal Khasoggi / offshore money.

It's been proven that they were paying Mancini off the City books. They also gifted art lover Pelligrini a Lowry painting when he left which can be worth up to £6m. They're up to all sorts to 'look after' their key staff.

 

[Ludens the Red]

Spoiler

Yup, in a nutshell

 

[elmo]

As for PSG, no one even dares to steal their players anymore. Barcelona tried to sign Verratti... PSG retaliated and signed Neymar (as well as keeping Verratti, who had to issue an apology to the club). Look at how Perez communicates about PSG players — he is very respectful and wary of them, even when he talks about his long-time target in Mbappé. Neymar actually tried to leave for Barca multiple times, but he has no leverage whatsoever at the moment.

I'm very interested to see what would happen with Mbappé though. It looks very likely that he's going to leave them on a free, which would be insane... or they would sell him this summer for a very significant sum. I don't believe that he'll sign an extension for them, although who knows? But this will certainly be the toughest challenge for PSG in recent times.

As for City — they've been quite lucky in terms of their star players personalities. Silva & De Bruyne are very much Scholesy-esque; and no one seriously tried to sign Agüero from them as it would've cost too much money. If Barca would've went all-in for him, I think they would've had some issues. Toure already tried playing a second-fiddle in a bigger team and didn't want to do that again.

Because the Spanish teams are broke and nobody else is willing to pay him what PSG is giving him.

 

[adexkola]

This is something that I have been wondering about. Every top club loses players that they'd rather keep or big names. Kroos, Neymar, Ronaldo, Hazard, Courteous, Higuain (Madrid wanted him to go), Di Maria and the list goes on, have all left top clubs winning every trophy in sight for a new challenge or more money.

Yet somehow PSG, a club in France managed to keep Veratti, Neymar, Cavani and Thiago Silva all through their prime years. City kept Aguero and Silva for years and years, De Bruyne as well. No one at City has ever complained about a lack of playing time, had a falling out with the manager or wanted to play in Germany or Spain.

How do they inspire such loyalty?

Sane? Nolito? Danilo?

Anyway, when you win trophies all the time and are paid well, the odds of you clamoring for a move are much less. Ronaldo was our only high profile player who wanted to leave when we were on top.

Also, Kroos wanted to stay but Bayern treated him like shit. I can't think of any other high profile star that's left Bayern in recent years (I think they were ok with Thiago's departure)

 

[harms]

Because the Spanish teams are broke and nobody else is willing to pay him what PSG is giving him.

He was willing to take a pay cut; the issue is, even Barcelona's incompetent management understood that they couldn't afford to pay PSG the required fee and the usual under-the-table tactics with discovering Barca's DNA etc. didn't really work on them.

 

[horsechoker]

It's 2021, people are posting the wrong pics, its more like this

I doubt De Bruyne gets paid in cash. Could be bitcoin

 

[tomaldinho1]

Spoiler

/thread

 

[DWelbz19]

It's 2021, people are posting the wrong pics, its more like this

I doubt De Bruyne gets paid in cash. Could be bitcoin

Walker is 100% a dogecoin man

 

[horsechoker]

Walker is 100% a dogecoin man

Wow. Much sneaky. Very pay. Wow

 

[Hulksmash]

Barcelona tried to sign Marquinhos and Verrati. PSG took revenge by activating Neymar release Clause

 

[Murder on Zidane's Floor]

2nd wages offshore. Already proven that Mancini received them

This. Also the actual pay they receive is far higher than quoted. Wasn't Tevez on £300k a week ten years ago?

 

[redshaw]

The bosom of the state/sheik.

 

[ExecutionerWasp001]

There was talk of an ''agreement'' between the clubs that Barca & Madrid wouldn't try to sign any of City's players. Think this would be better interpreted as City saying there would be serious consequences if Barca or Madrid signed any of their players.

The £500 Mill Madrid stadium upgrade has been paid for by Abu Dhabi. Who knows the amount of other funding both clubs have received/are going to receive, from Abu Dhabi. It would be very easy for Mansour to turn off the taps if he was antagonized in any way.

 

[horsechoker]

There was talk of an ''agreement'' between the clubs that Barca & Madrid wouldn't try to sign any of City's players. Think this would be better interpreted as City saying there would be serious consequences if Barca or Madrid signed any of their players.

The £500 Mill Madrid stadium upgrade has been paid for by Abu Dhabi. Who knows the amount of other funding both clubs have received/are going to receive, from Abu Dhabi. It would be very easy for Mansour to turn off the taps if he was antagonized in any way.

Real Cuckdrid
Barcucklona

 

[JJ12]

Spoiler

 

[adexkola]

No one has ever answered how under-the-table payments (both wages and transfer fees) are feasible from a tax and FFP perspective.

For wages, isn't it tax evasion/fraud to underreport income, or falsify tax statements? Clubs are supposed to mark all compensation paid to employees against income received. How does it work when clubs underreport income? Also, how does FFP verify income? I would imagine that under confidentiality agreements, certified balance sheets are provided, to verify income. Not sure how the tax guys work over there but if I report $300000 in wages spent as a business owner to the IRS, and my 10 employees report $500000 in wages received from my company, the discrepancy would be flagged. The loophole or construct can't be this simple.

Transfer fee underreporting is even more ludicrous, because as a selling club to City, me underreporting transfer fees publicly or to FFP, fecks me over when it's time to show I kept balanced finances, and it fecks me in the negotiating market because other clubs know they can get a discount on my good players. That's not counting the other issues raised in the first paragraph with regards to undercounting income.

Seems far fetched and conspiracy theoried. Yaya would have blown the lid open by now.

 

[adexkola]

PSG are also in contention to win their league every season, and regularly make it to the final stages of the CL. Plus who wouldn't want to play next to Neymar and Mbappe?

Anyway, it's great that clubs can hold on to their star players. It's refreshing to know that Rashford and Shaw and Maguire and Greenwood aren't saying regarding a move to Madrid, "Only God Knows"

 

[Giggsy13]

Real Cuckdrid
Barcucklona

FFS.

 

[Gopher Brown]

Ronaldo who else?

Nobody else.

I mean, could you count Herrera?