Ex-Wolf Watch

[Tony Towner]

Did wonders for his bank balance though. My take now is different to what it was when he went a couple of months ago. Neymar, Malcom, Milinkovic-Savic and Koulibaly have joined his since he did, Mitrovic about to. Their premier players are better than Wolves' are now although the drop off beyond that is bigger and it's going to be significant enough for International managers to not ignore players from there

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Basically a season of playing nonsense friendlies though isn't it at that standard? Might get some nice additions to his highlights reel playing against nobodies but he's not going to learn anything or improve himself playing at that standard. Wolves could well end up being the best it ever gets for him.

 

[Alan]

There are more important things in life than football and unfortunately an endless supply of cash can be one of them (or go no small distance in helping out with the other important things).

Ruben's an adult, he knows the decision he made.

 

[Tony Towner]

Basically a season of playing nonsense friendlies though isn't it at that standard? Might get some nice additions to his highlights reel playing against nobodies but he's not going to learn anything or improve himself playing at that standard. Wolves could well end up being the best it ever gets for him.

Those games against the other 3 PIF owned teams won't be. There's plenty of European leagues where the top teams only need to turn up for 1/5 of their matches

 

[Tredman]

Gerard’s non-PIF team are backed by Aramco too.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Those games against the other 3 PIF owned teams won't be. There's plenty of European leagues where the top teams only need to turn up for 4/5 of their matches

I don't see any of the games being that competitive, quick glance at the squads even of those 4 sides are a sprinkling of European names surrounded by native nobodies. Aside from when he's playing against Kante I don't really see another player who's going to challenge him in the middle of the park? I doubt any of the big attacking names are going to be busting a gut tracking back and putting pressure on the way they would in more competitive leagues, they've gone there to toss it off as handsomely paid show ponies.

I reckon any of those fluffed up Saudi teams would comfortably be relegated from any of the top European leagues. Beckham would've had a far bigger challenge when he went to LA than anything that'll be on offer in the middle east at the moment and he still managed to dip back into Europe at a competitive level whilst he was based out there.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Oh Ruben, what have you done

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Some superb keeping there. Has Carl Ikeme made a comeback or something?

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Some superb keeping there. Has Carl Ikeme made a comeback or something?

It's just awful all over.

Already rubbing off on Neves too, I think it's him that makes a mistake for the goal.

 

[darlowolf64]

That keeper

 

[jlo]

Those crowds are horrendously low too

 

[Quirkafleeg]

Some superb keeping there. Has Carl Ikeme made a comeback or something?

Well somebody likes him.

 

[Banjo]

A bit of a naive question.. are women and girls allowed into the stadium to watch Saudi matches?

 

[Alan]

A bit of a naive question.. are women and girls allowed into the stadium to watch Saudi matches?

I know that a bunch of the more draconian gender separation laws there got revamped to be much more lenient around 2018 or so. Whether that means they can now travel alone, I don't know (when the changes first happened, women were allowed to travel without male guardians, but only in groups of 3 women or more together).

Moreover, the change in outward policy may not have brought with it a comparable change in practice or enforcement.

 

[Tony Towner]

A bit of a naive question.. are women and girls allowed into the stadium to watch Saudi matches?

Yes, but segregated from the men

 

[Alan]

Yes, but segregated from the men

And guess which sex gets the harsher penalties if they're found mixing...

 

[Wolvensam]

There are more important things in life than football and unfortunately an endless supply of cash can be one of them (or go no small distance in helping out with the other important things).

Ruben's an adult, he knows the decision he made.

It’s a move that sets him and his family up for life, and that’s clearly more important to him. Fair play.

 

[Alan]

Besides, the way things are going, he won't even have to move clubs to get back into the UCL.

Oh, I made myself sad.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

It’s a move that sets him and his family up for life, and that’s clearly more important to him. Fair play.

He had that move in 2017, this move is the one transforms the lives of the next however many generations of his family even beyond it's current level.

 

[Del Woppio]

It’s a move that sets him and his family up for life, and that’s clearly more important to him. Fair play.

He's had earnings of £5m per year since his early-mid twenties, and would've earned at least that for the next decade. Him and his kids and his grandkids were already set for life. Let's not dress it up as anything less than grotesque just because we like him . I'd have done the same, but wouldn't have used words like security and family to justify it. Just say you want to be stinking rich and that's that.