Musketeer Gripweed Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 8 minutes ago, Fuctifano said: 4 months in Saudi then straight to Amsterdam, man is going to be off his tits for about 3 weeks. Better getting stoned in Amsterdam rather than Saudi. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highlandmac Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 I just hope he keeps his yapper shut when he moves,can't be fucked hearing any virtue signalling pish from this hypocritical,mercenary little cockroach 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Aldo Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 6 hours ago, NorthernLights said: Henderson off to Ajax I assume he's sorted all the human rights issues in Saudi and is now going to sort the drug and prostitution problems in Amsterdam? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 33 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said: I assume he's sorted all the human rights issues in Saudi and is now going to sort the drug and prostitution problems in Amsterdam? What drug and prostitute problem? 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VincentGuerin Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 (edited) On 09/01/2024 at 07:54, SH Panda said: Womens rights for their wives I don't know if bad journalism or the players being thick as f**k, or a combination of the two. As covered in the Athletic, many families (including Hendersons) don't even live in Saudi but rather Gomorrah / sin city / den of iniquity that is Bahrain. British players chancing it abroad only to run back with their tails between their legs is a tale as old as time. Only this time they can blame the country they moved to, not their own failing to adapt. I'm sure the likes of Benzema is faring far better having spent most of his career abroad. ESPN reporting that Benzema wants to leave too. Maybe it's just a shite place to be and loads of them regret going? Henderson is costing himself a fortune by running back with his tail between his legs to... the Netherlands. Plenty of British players prospering abroad just now. Edited January 17 by VincentGuerin 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Of course it's a shite place to live, all the money in the world isn't worth much if you can't do anything with it. I think the guys like Jack Hendry and folk in his position are more justified in being out there given that they can just suck it up for a year and earn the sort of money that will set them up for life. If you already have that sort of money, and could easily have continued to make a decent whack in somewhere like MLS, I really don't see why you'd think it was a good idea. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Turns out that Henderson deferred his entire salary for tax reasons so is likely to earn precisely £0 for his Saudi gay-rights outreach adventure. Hilarious. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Anywhere that you have to live in the middle of the desert in a compound, and where women don't have the same basic rights as men is always going to be a terrible place to live, so Saudi Arabia fits that bill. I have a friend who lived there and her experience was that it was tolerable for a short while for the money. I have no idea what life in more liberal Middle Eastern countries is like, maybe it would be better. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 (edited) He was living in Bahrain and commuting into Saudi, wasn't he? So if he couldn't even handle Bahrain imagine Saudi would be even worse. Edited January 18 by Bully Wee Villa 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VincentGuerin Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 (edited) 8 hours ago, SH Panda said: Will see it when it happens. Some people just can't hack it abroad, looks like Henderson and his family are one of them. Wonder how long he will last in Amsterdam. Is there plenty of British players prospering? Looks to be a fairly rare thing, certain when compared to almost every other country where living abroad as a footballer is quite common. The SPFL has a crop of Japanese players now, has a Scottish or British player ever played there? British footballers are notoriously bad at adapting, easier to stay at home with your lorne sausage, Morris dancing and outsized paycheck. It makes sense that British players don't go abroad in huge numbers. Firstly, the UK has a deep pyramid system in England (and Scotland to an extent) where footballers can be relatively well-paid even at a comparatively low level. Portugal doesn't have that, for example, so it's no shock to see places like Portugal export a lot more players than the UK. How much do players get paid in the fourth or fifth tiers in France or Spain compared to England? At the other end of the scale a genuinely top-level Slovakian player needs to go abroad to play at the top level. A Scottish or English player can win the Champions League or Europa League while playing in the UK. And for even relatively average English Premier League players, there are few clubs in other countries where they could earn the same money. And it's generally the case that the Premier League is considered the most presitigeous league in the world. So, why bother moving? There are also cultural isues, like language ability. But, again, for an English speaker the need to learn other languages isn't as great, so it's no shock that those from other places put more time and effort into that. A young Polish footballer who wants to get to the top may see learning English or German as a kid as a wise move to prepare for a move later. A young British player doesn't have that motivation as it's unlikely to be as necessary. You put the pieces together and British players' tendency to stay in the UK makes sense. It's not some kind of moral failing. There are British players doing fine in Italy, France, Germany off the top of my head at the moment. The Saudi league project doesn't look like it's working out. In all industries this is a country that needs to overpay foreigners to go there, which speaks volumes. Maybe it's just shite. Edited January 18 by VincentGuerin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian1 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 8 hours ago, SH Panda said: The SPFL has a crop of Japanese players now, has a Scottish or British player ever played there? Yes, Pele* himself............the Fochabers version that is. *For our younger vewiers that is Steve Paterson (of "I canna be arsed geting oot of my bed, I'm still pished and it's only Dundee we are playing - you be manager today Duncan" fame) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eez-eh Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Satoshi jumping to the defence of countries with barbaric laws and awful human rights again, is it? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlipperyP Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 8 hours ago, SH Panda said: The SPFL has a crop of Japanese players now, has a Scottish or British player ever played there? Gary Lineker 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB1994 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 (edited) 57 minutes ago, Caledonian1 said: Yes, Pele* himself............the Fochabers version that is. *For our younger vewiers that is Steve Paterson (of "I canna be arsed geting oot of my bed, I'm still pished and it's only Dundee we are playing - you be manager today Duncan" fame) Totally off topic but his book is well worth a read, for anybody who hasn’t done so yet. Edited January 18 by PB1994 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musketeer Gripweed Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 13 hours ago, ICTChris said: Turns out that Henderson deferred his entire salary for tax reasons so is likely to earn precisely £0 for his Saudi gay-rights outreach adventure. Hilarious. Gets an MBE for services to charity in 2020. Tax dodger in 2024. Good process Jordan. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 (edited) On 09/01/2024 at 07:54, SH Panda said: Womens rights for their wives Denying Rights for women in general? jog on I'm a sportsman not a politician Denying Rights for women I actually know? Well I've got to draw the line somewhere Edited January 18 by topcat(The most tip top) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VincentGuerin Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 Astonishingly, it seems that those accepting vastly out-sized wages to go and play in fornt of mediocre crowds in a league full of teams nobody has ever heard of and with a less than stellar global reach (never mind the human rights concerns) are finding that things may not be terribly well-run, and it might not be a great place to live. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/jan/20/many-are-discontented-aymeric-laporte-lifts-lid-on-life-in-saudi-football 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highlandmac Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 (edited) 2 hours ago, VincentGuerin said: Astonishingly, it seems that those accepting vastly out-sized wages to go and play in fornt of mediocre crowds in a league full of teams nobody has ever heard of and with a less than stellar global reach (never mind the human rights concerns) are finding that things may not be terribly well-run, and it might not be a great place to live. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/jan/20/many-are-discontented-aymeric-laporte-lifts-lid-on-life-in-saudi-football They're in my prayers As these prayers aren't of a denomination the Saudis would approve of I'd better stay away from there myself Edited January 20 by highlandmac 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derry Alli Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 lawl. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Diamond For Me Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 I don't watch football apart from Airdrie and Scotland games and a few games at the Euros and World Cup, and I don't really follow what's happening elsewhere apart from the radio coverage I hear on the way home from games, but my brother and lots of my friends have all kinds of subscriptions and listen to various football podcasts and whatnot. So even though I don't care to follow it myself, I get a general sense of what's happening from what friends talk about on social media, or folk at games I'm attending talking about whatever Champions League game was on the night before and so forth. I don't follow these things myself, but I'm in close enough proximity to people who do that I get a general sense of what's happening by osmosis. For all the money and superstars and controversy, I don't think that all these months later I've heard anyone talking about any actual games in Saudi. Nobody says what a brilliant, exciting game there was in the Saudi league midweek, or that they're looking forward to such-and-such a game, or how player X has really turned team Y around or how manager A is surely going to get picked up by some big European club. I quite regularly hear these things about the English, German and Italian games, and not infrequently about La Liga and even the MLS - without ever going out of my way to hear them. The most I ever see from Saudi Arabia is some Facebook ad with a video of Ronaldo scoring his 800th goal that week for all the people who still think "GOAT" is a witty term and are still invested in decade-old Messi vs Ronaldo "debates". Seven pages of this thread and there's not much chat about any actual football being played there. For all the hype and and all the sound and fury about this league last summer, it doesn't really seem to have much salience. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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