Topic: Saudi Professional League 2023/2024 - page 184. (Read 111886 times)

I heard this rumor a while ago but honestly I wasn't sure what I had heard. I mean, it's impossible for De Bruyne to just give up and want to play in the Saudi League because he is currently still at his best performance in Europe and it's possible that Pep Guardiola will still trust him to stay at Manchester City. This is no different from Toni Kroos who is still retained by Real Madrid considering he is still a key player in midfield and vice versa with De Bruyne's role for Manchester City.

Maybe even if De Bruyne moves to the Saudi league, it won't be now and it might still take several more years before he finally gets there. But his decision could change if in the next few years the Saudi league starts to quiet down, then he won't join. So now the full challenge is on the Saudi league, whether they can consistently provide something for European players or not, especially when it comes to large salaries.

Al Hilal has been very consistent this season where they have been able to maintain their performance by not losing. Their strength is very strong starting in every line, even when they met Al Nassr where Al Hilal was able to win with a score of 3-0. So, in the remaining matches this season, Al Hilal will also meet Al Nassr again, which might be quite an exciting match considering that this match will take place at the Al Nassr stadium. But it seems that if Al Hilal loses in the second meeting against Al Nassr, of course it won't have a big impact on them or Al Hilal will also become champions because they are already far ahead of their closest rivals.

This season, no one speculated early that this season Al Hilal could perform quite perfectly by going undefeated. On the other hand, Al Hilal performed brilliantly but Al Nassr lost points in several matches which made Ronaldo et al unable to show their consistency in winning the title this season.

Yes, I understand. Saudi Arabia's wealth doesn't imply they can change football. Investing in elderly stars to make the Saudi Pro League the place to go hasn't worked out, has it? I think it's short-sighted. You got Mbappe and Haaland right. Why would great European players abandon their heritage for a bigger salary for a few seasons?

Honestly, this money-ball strategy isn't working. Big-name, past-their-prime athletes make headlines, but they don't change how fans watch the game. Football is about rivalries, generations of fans, and local kids who make it big. You can't make that stuff with a blank check. Time is needed, and I don't see much strategic thinking from Saudi Arabia

The perfect one. Al hilal is still remain unbeatable and this is totally a very good record for the club this season. People were not even speculating it would happen, but all Hilal broke all the doubts related to the club. It's now having very big chances in winning several trophies in a row which is very good for the club.
The perfect combination of Savic, Mitrovic, and his teammates is helping the club get perfect results. It was so amazing to see Al Hilal performing so perfectly like that. I have very good WR by picking this club. Al Hilal battered every teams in any competition and it seems like the era for this club will come again soon.

Mitrovic and savic have become the most successful transfers after ronaldo which was also helping his club to win the competition last season.

Al Hilal has been motivating the team to keep its momentum even longer until the last match of the current season. The perfect result obviously improves the club's performance. The easiest bet on the SPL caused by the club is always winning the game.
It doesn't really matter whether it's a total over or 1x2, and Al Hilal is always making it happen. This is pretty much the same as what Arsenal and Napoli did to the gamblers. It was always crazy when we found an unbeatable club and bet on it.

Unfortunately the presence of players including Christiano Ronaldo is still not able to bring more spectators to the stadium because the Saudi pro league is still below several other Asian leagues, such as the Chinese Super League, Japanese League, Indian Super League, Korean League and even below the Persian Gulf Pro League (Iran). Source

Popularity increases because of media reports about the presence of top European players and getting big salaries, not because the league is becoming more attractive which ultimately can bring more spectators to the stadium, and the instant way for the Saudi pro league is actually because they have a target that has been achieved, namely to host the world cup, and actually Saudi Arabia is trying to improve the image of their country by holding sporting events more aggressively, they are not only active in football but in other sports such as tennis, they want to be a country that is more open and liked by tourists.

It is very possible that the hunt for top European players will soon be reduced to focus more on developing the league rather than spending fantastic funds on just one or two players.

The interest in Saudis for buying more superstar players is not going to end at all.
I see some people they say the Saudis will stop investing in football and instead, they will start paying attention to the other things to invest in their country, but I don't think if they do that because even now I see some superstars and famous players are linked to the Saudis for the next season.
Other than some players like Salah and coaches like Mourinho, now it seems they want to start sending offers for Kevin De Bruyne the key player of Manchester City. However, Kevin De Bruyne leaving Manchester City can definitely damage the team but there is still the possibility for him to leave and accept the huge money he can earn in Saudi Arabia.

https://clutchpoints.com/manchester-city-news-kevin-de-bruyne-join-saudi-pro-league-one-condition

Recently I've been reading about the tension and division that football can put amongst people making it look as tho they are part of a different community or even county, like when two famous clubs are playing, and members of the same family or friends would be against each other forgetting other bonds they once had and going all out to support their club or née family they belong to.

SPL never tries to take football away from Europe, and this is completely wrong. The SPL was only interested in achieving immediate success by bringing in many European players in the hope that viewers would be able to change their league immediately, which totally failed considering that it's very hard to change people's habits. SPL wants to try a short process that will help EPL's performance improve even more through buying as many european trophies as possible but this doesn't even work. .
It aims to be as popular as the European League, but it has failed because the atmosphere will never be the same as the European competition. It was a concerted effort by SPL clubs to bring in a large number of European players.

The fact that the return received by a Saudi Pro League club was insufficient to justify the amount of money spent by this league thus far and it's not even worthy with what has already gained by the league overall. That is why the decision was made to halt the money from being spent even more on the european players totally right. Saudi Arabia has decided to stop spending money on new players in the European competition because they were only losing money as a result. The results aren't even comparable to what used to attract many European players to the league. I predicted that it would be pointless to bring some old players to the Saudi Pro League by offering them all extremely high salaries.

Suaid Pro League should try to learn how to invest more in the domestic league rather than doing crazy things like that, which caused the Saudi Pro League to lose billions of dollars in player purchases.
I wholeheartedly supported the decision to stop it.

Even when Al Hilal plays against top teams they still end up winning the match and extending their lead even further and it is now like they are unstoppable in the league. It should be getting boring for them already as no team seems to be to the task to stop them, they have been so good this season that it is certain they will end up winning thee trophy. Can Al Shabab stop them from getting maximum points? I don’t think so, they have been inconsistent in their recent matches and need more than luck if they want to win Al Hilal but this is football where nothing is impossible so Al Hilal also needs to be at their best too if they don’t want to end up dropping points this time around.

Comparing the Saudi Arabian League with the European League is indeed a very unfair comparison. The reason is that the European League is definitely better than the Saudi Arabian League, even though currently the Saudi Arabian League has Ronaldo, Benzema and Neymar. However, the quality of the league cannot be said to be good just because there are several star players in it. So it is clear that currently the Saudi Arabian League is not yet comparable to the big leagues in Europe. Although it is true, currently the name SPL is better known to many people. However, one of the reasons the Saudi Arabian League (SPL) was able to appear at the top was only because of the arrival of several big names such as Ronaldo. For example, Ronaldo and several other European players left the Saudi Arabian League (SPL). So it is certain that the Saudi Arabian League will return to being quiet like before Ronaldo came to Al Nasr.

But even so, I still appreciate what the Saudi Arabian League clubs are doing. Because, dared to sacrifice a lot of money to buy players from Europe's top leagues. Even though it only has an impact on popularity, this action is indeed a good start in increasing the progress of the Saudi Arabian League. So, for example, the Saudi Arabian League wants to be able to progress more independently (without the names of star players). Of course, the Saudi Arabian League must be able to make the Arab League itself very high quality. Such as being able to create a better football school, so that it can produce quality local players who are able to compete on the world stage. And in the future, the Saudi Arabian League should not only focus on recruiting top European players who are already famous (but already quite old). But try signing talented young players from Europe. So that in the future the Saudi Arabian League will not only be popular, but can be of higher quality too.

Football is a global sport and Saudi Arabia can not take away football from Europe.

They can spend their money to overwhelm transfer market in Europe and buy star players from biggest leagues in Europe to Saudi Professional League. It is their short term plan but in long term, success of their league and how it will be improved in quality, will depend on their domestic players. A national league can not be strong if there is no good resource of local players.

They must spend more money for their Youth Academies to grow up their youth players around Saudi Arabia and even attract players from other Middle East nations, to have better local player resource. It will help them to save more money for player transfer but more important, make their league growth is more sustainable.

Yes, you are right, the European League doesn't always have these two players (Cristiano Ronaldi and Lionel Messi). There are times when they get old and think about retiring from the world of football, which forces us to accept the departure of these two star players, whether we like it or not, we have to be able to accept it and cannot force their will to fulfill the wishes of their fans to continue playing in the Europa League.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are still playing in the world of football and they haven't retired, but to end their careers they want to be in a different league and feel a different sensation. Maybe leaving the European league will make their minds lighter because the league they are currently in doesn't exist as big as in the European league which brings fierce competition from all corners of Europe, making them tired and deciding to leave.

Moreover, these two star players have collected many trophies with the clubs they fought for and also won many individual awards so getting trophies is no longer the main priority for them now because they are already full of having lots of trophies and they want to play football with a little more fun and not too much under pressure. Even though the club currently recruiting them also has high hopes for these two star players.

Saudi wants to take away football from Europe to their country but that's not as easy as they think, even with unlimited budget. Yes, at the moment they can take away old superstars who are going to retire but they have to keep in mind that it's enormously difficult to buy players like Mbappe, Haaland and future superstars because even if they move right now, yes, they'll earn money but they won't earn fame and won't build a successful football career. Money worth nothing without fame and excitement that fame gives you. So, SPL's popularity will decline or it will take almost all of their budget to completely bring football from EU to Saudi.

But neither Neymar nor Ronaldo are to blame here. They took the big pay checks and I guess most people would have done exactly the same. Hardly anyone is in the position to turn down offers that pay you hundreds of millions a year. Even Ronaldo as a probably almost billionaire back at the time knows that a salary of 200 million per year is out of this world.

But the Saudi Professional League officials, the club owners and bosses are to blame because one they got the ball rolling with these absurdly high salaries, I think it came across as normal that they pay so much and it was all about the money. There was no project in the making where other, younger players would have loved to contribute to. Everyone who went there, went there for the money. Benzema told some weird stories about religion and belief, but in the end he is a mercenary like everyone else.

They were continue to play outside of european clubs caused by there have no been clubs who keen in recruiting them as new players. Even ronaldo had sent some offers to the various clubs but these clubs kept show no interest in recruiting him as a new player. It's clear that if ronaldo and messi were over in eurppean competition.
The only best choice for all of them to leave from european league caused by they must also able to enjoy their life. Messi gone to the MLS while ronaldo to the SPL. It proves they have picked their own ways.

This should be the case, but in fact Al Nassr is unable to fulfill its mission and targets even though it has brought in several other star players. the presence of Mane, Brozovic, Aymeric, Alex Telles, Fotana, did not make Al Nassr dominate the Saudi Pro League competition. in fact, in the end Seko Fotana was loaned to Al Ettifaq. in this competition, Al Nassr is the squad that has the most competitive team depth. however, Luis Casto's team is unable to compete with Al Hilal, and currently Al Nassr is 12 points behind. meanwhile, this competition only has 10 matches remaining until the end of the competition. Well, it looks like it will be quite difficult for Al Nassr to reduce the point gap from Al Hilal who is currently on fire.

On the other hand, Al Hilal was one of the elite teams in this competition before they were acquired by PIF, so it is only natural that Al Hilal is able to be consistent throughout this competition. Moreover, in the last few seasons Al Hilal has always dominated the Saudi Pro League. What's unique is that even though there aren't many big names as stars in their squad, Al Hilal was able to play impressive matches throughout this competition without losing. now the trophy for this competition is getting closer to Al Hilal, so Jorge Jesus' team just needs to continue to appear consistent.
As for the top score, the competition still seems quite exciting. Ronaldo scored 23 goals, while Mitrovic scored 20 goals. only 3 goals difference, with 10 matches remaining.
by the way, maybe Al Nassr needs a more competent coach. also, in the summer Al Nassr will have to improve its defense line.

Agree, European leagues and SPL aren't comparable. It is not about the popularity, but it is about the level of the leagues. Of course, the level of SPL is under the level of top European leagues (EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and etc). Although there are some star players in SPL, but it is only a few percentages from the number of star players in Europe. Sure, it needs a long process to grow talents in SPL, it is not an easy work.

No doubt star players have big impacts. There is a great raise of the popularity of SPL since Ronaldo, Benzema, Neymar, and other star players come to SPL. Star players have many fanatic fans, they will follow where their favorite players go.

Saudi Pro League and the European league are both different league and we have the interesting and entertaining one and the other becomes boring because there's absolutely no presence of big names but recently, SPL have been making huge improvements and this is good news for the league. They're entirely progressing in all round form, SPL took a bold step in clearing their path when they signed Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United and this have ever been the top signings necessary for the SPL to enter limelight especially in the eyes of the vast major.

You are right. Al Hilal never got a lose, they become stronger and play more consistently. In theory, Al Shabab has no chance to steal points from Al Hilal. Al Hilal has a better squad quality, their players have great mentality. Even if Al Shabab will play at home, it won't be a serious problem for Al Hilal. With the record of unbeatable, everyone must agree that Al Hilal should get full points against a mediocre team like Al Shabab. Sure, no team is capable to beat Al Hilal so far, even Al Nassr failed to beat Al Hilal.

It is amazing that Al Hilal could win 22 matches and got 2 draws only. I think it can be done by other teams in the world, specifically in the top leagues such as in EPL, La Liga, or Serie A. Al Hilal can do this because Al Hilal is in the league that is not very competitive. The strength and quality between the squads of the teams in the SPL is still not evenly equal. So, we can understand if Al Hilal looks very strong, they have almost perfect players in each line. With this condition, I think Al Hilal can keep this record until the end of the competition.

Yep. Al Shabab is only a middle-class team, they looks to get difficulty to play against Al Hilal. With the stats of the last 5 matches of Al Shabab, it is very unlikely to steal points from Al Hilal. So, I am optimistic that Al Hilal will get full points again, they will win the match. Sure, we can say that Al Hilal already wins the SPL for this season.

They may have expected a big return way too quickly as well, that seems like an issue. I mean looking at their stadiums and so forth, I can say that even the broadcast is not as good looking as some of the bigger leagues for example. Of course it can't be expected them to build 10+ amazing stadiums with the highest technological stuff, but if they don't want to invest into infrastructure and just use the money for players, they would lose.

Like for example instead of spending 100-200 million on Neymar and get nothing in return, they could have simply put that into bettering one of the stadiums and would have a much better one, just an example. Players are important, but the infrastructure you are bringing them to means something as well.