Topic: Saudi Professional League 2023/2024 - page 707. (Read 126597 times)

Advancing the local league is indeed a very wise thing. because it's not only the world of football that will progress there but it will attract investors and outside sponsors to join in and sponsor the clubs in the local league itself. Even the European media are now starting to report a lot about the Arab league. And I think in the coming season the world will really pay more attention to arab league football. Because even now international sports news is always warm with news from the Arab League. both in terms of player transfers or other matters. A lot of money spent to bring in the world's top players and top coaches really brings profitable results for Arab league football itself. Because I think this is not only about advancing Arab football but also about the business in it.

There's no need to change the coach for top clubs in SPL. The club that is placed at the bottom shall take care of this. If they wanna get more improvements in their gameplay and i think signed a new coach gonna be very useful not only for the club but for the players too.
Im feeling skeptical with gerrard. Even though he will be coaching a nonpopular club but i have the feeling that if gerrard may not be successful to bring ittifaq to the top positions. Gerrard failed a few times in EPL.
He may also fail again in SPL. People are still expecting a lot from him while im not even thinking he will be able to change ittifaq drastically. There will be a negligible difference for ittifaq compared to last season. Gerrard is gonna fail again.
He never learned from what happened with him in EPL.

I am not sure it will be a concern because the same thing happened in the top league Premier, Serie A and La Liga and the fact is their national team can still compete in several tournaments, indeed the situation is a little different in the Saudi League but overall I think there are more positive impacts. If we check the Al Nassr squad of all the players there are only 4-6 players from other countries the rest are local players. Regarding the mission of the club owner brought European top players, I have explained here even though we don't have data for the accuracy, I think that's the most reasonable reason.

we will not really know what is the reason for the rich club owners in Arab. They bought European players at very high prices. it's a business, yes we know of course it's going to bring in a lot of money in terms of sponsorship and broadcast rights.
I think the arrival of European players there can also build and motivate their young players to compete. but there may be an adverse effect when one team will have 50% of players from Europe. and it makes the opportunity for their local players even less to play.

I don't think it's right for them to spend so much money. If they want to improve the quality of the league and make the name of Saudi Arabia more popular, they should give importance to infrastructure. The ad that comes after giving millions of dollars to players over 30 doesn't make sense. Can you tell me a good football player, a citizen of Saudi Arabia? nothing comes to my mind. I think it makes more sense to have players around the world. Therefore, instead of paying 200 million Euros for 1 year, 200 million Euros can be spent on infrastructure and youth, and they can present great players to the world football market after 10 years.

Source article: https://en.as.com/soccer/cristiano-ronaldo-lines-up-nike-for-al-nassr-n/

To be competitive and very popular, I totally agree with your opinion and this is just how the Saudi league is able to maintain for many seasons and not just focus on the next season. We know that the initial arrival of one of the GOATs was an extraordinary trigger for a European player to determine his career in the Saudi league team and at the same time to get a lot of savings in the future.

There is the latest news about the popularity of this league which has made Nike, which is one of the biggest apparel brands in the world, finally signed a contract for 1 season with Al-Nassr. Maybe it's clear that this is the effect of Cristiano Ronaldo as Nike's main brand ambassador and it is likely that there will still be other apparel that will be interested in establishing a cooperation contract with other Saudi league teams later.

Saudis are splashing money like never before. This is the difference between them and the other Arabs. Qatar Sports Investments invested money in foreign leagues and clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain. The Saudis on the other hand are trying to strengthen the local league by spending money to acquire players and coaching staff. And the results are there for everyone to see. Qatar failed to win a single match during last year's world cup, and the Saudi Professional League is about to become one of the top football leagues globally.

Top players need top managers to excel. See how well the Norwegian footballer Erling Haaland excelled under the management of Pep Guardiola. Steve Gerrard does not exactly fit the profile of top manager, he refused the deal before to move to Saudi Arabia, but since he has been without a job for a while, I am sure he has been forced to reconsider, also joined that the league is getting attention now more than last three months since they started heavily bringing other professional footballers to the league asides Ronaldo. He has some experience in English football as a player and coach in Aston Villa, and that can be of benefit to the improvement of the game of Al Ettifaq in the Saudi Professional League.

Yes i have read that news too and Gerrard will officially train  Al-Ettifaq starting next season and apparently Al-Ettifaq will be serious contender for Al Nassr, Al Ittihad, Al Hilal, and Al Ahli because they also want to gets star players from europa and it says after Gerrard waa announced to the public he was starting to hunting the players and Atletico Madrid player Alvaro Morata will be into his radar and possibly Morata will be accepts Al-Ettifaq offers it because his future at Atletico Madrid also still uncertain

Besides Morata reported Gerrard want Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson and Phillipe Coutinho but probably to gets Jordan Henderson will be difficult because i am sure Liverpool won't let him to leave because Liverpool still needed him and Henderson still has 2 years contract with Liverpool actually Al-Ettifaq status on Saudi Pro League is only mediocre team even last season they only can able to finish at 7th place but i am curious whether the arrival of Gerrard and european players will it have a positive impact or not for this team

Steven Gerrard is a good addition to the SPL non-playing staff. If they are ready to splurge billions to bring top players to the Saudi Professional League, then I think there is nothing wrong in spending a fraction of that to bring the top managers as well. They can consider hiring people like Arsène Wenger or Frank Lampard. Well.. Wenger retired a few years back, but a big fat paycheck would be enough to bring him to the SPL. Overall, I like the direction in which the Saudi Professional League is moving. By 2030, we can confidently say that this will be among the top-5 leagues in the world.

This time, the Saudi Arabia league is focusing more on coaches, attempting to apply new gaming techniques from European coaches, which is one of the reasons they brought in Steven Gerrard. The Saudi league is assisting in reviving the coach, who has been out of work since being fired from Aston Villa Park. Steven Gerrard is a well-known coach outside of the EPL; he simply does not know how to handle great or mediocre clubs. He's the main character in the game, and he's not going to give up on the major mission at hand, let's hope for the best results from Steve Gerrard in his new club.

I never seen gerrard was successfully coached club in EPL before. He has been also kicked out due to the bad performance with the club. In my opinion, that if gerrard will not be suitable to make it happen. Ittifaq puts a lot of hope to him.
Im not expecting him to be able to push the performance from ittifaq drastically. The fact that if gerrard found difficult to find a club in european league. That's why middle east club has become his only choice to get more experience.
I think that this choice is not as bad as people think. Gerrard is always having poor result when he was coaching the european club. he hopes that if he can do better when he will be a new coach for ittifaq.
Im feeling skepticism even though he will be coaching al ittifaq for now.

Steven Gerrard had a good spell at Rangers where he won the scottish league in style, after which he was hired by Aston Villa. He started very well but after a series of poor results he was axed by the club and has been jobless. His latest appointment by the Saudi Arabian club side Al-Ettifaq might not have gone well with some football faithfuls, but I don't think it's a bad move. It is good to see him back to coaching, and I hope he gets more exposure and experience there, and he gets to manage a big team in europe some day.

The arrival of Stephen Gerrard to the Saudi Arabian League is another indication that the Saudi Arabian Football authorities has vowed to make sure they not just advertise the league to the world but to also make it a very strong league that should be competing with the other European leagues in few years from now.
Gerrard have already shown his potentials as a good manager in the English Premier League and would surely do well in the Saudi Arabian League

I am not sure if it is that great when a Super League gets launched initiated by the owners and operators of the SPL unless they will also subsidize the sport such that fans can still afford ticket prices. With all the money they have there is no doubt that they could convince every club and almost every fan to accept a Super League. Maybe they can't convince everyone to actively support it, but to respect it. They could subsidize tickets for the viewers at fist to get the league off the ground and then monetize it down the road. I wouldn't rule out any possibilities because when somebody said 10 years ago that Messi could earn a billion in 2 years playing in Saudi Arabia, nobody would have believed it and now these numbers are getting out of control.

There have already been several attempts to launch a Super League, but what has come of it? In many cases contempt, just as in many cases conflicts and threats. Although I think that if they get serious about implementing it, they will succeed and the football world will finally see something new, which is certainly great, but again - so far it's just a dream

This is not over yet since Saudi teams are still trying to pick more players and managers eventually. This season things become interesting in Saudi Arabia and more teams are attracted to the recruitment race.
Al Nassr for exemple seems interested in Saul Niguez and Carvalho from La Liga and Al Ahli with Firmino. Al Hilal and Al Ittihad are the other two teams that are taking the lead in this mission.

Before these Saudi Pro League clubs were acquired by the PIF company, Al Hilal and Al Nassr had been rivals in recent seasons. these two teams, have always been strong competitors in the race for the Saudi Pro League title. even so, Al Hilal has always dominated the competition. now, the two clubs are owned by just one company under the auspices of Prince Mohammed bin Salman. not only that, Al Ahli and Al Ittihad were also acquired by the same company.
However, the management of the club remains under the control of the former management which owns 25 per cent of the shares. you can be sure, that there seems to be no royal intervention regarding this competition. it's just that, the arrival of top European players who are dominated by these four clubs will create an obvious gap. but, this is their way of introducing the Saudi Pro League to the world.

At least IMO, this is just the beginning. in the next 1 or two seasons, the Saudi Pro League will bring in newcomers. maybe, small clubs will be acquired by other investors who are interested in this industry. at least, rich people in this country might get involved to invest or acquire mediocre clubs. well, as I said from the start in various posts, that this goal was not solely carried out by them without calculation, it even involved the vision and mission of the Arab kingdom project initiated by the Saudi prince through his company PIF. oh yes, overall what I said is an opinion that refers to the project carried out by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Well i wish Steven Gerrard all the best in his new club, but i didn't expect that he would make this sort of move right now, i don't have details about how much he is going to be paid, but i can conclude that this move was all about the money. Steven Gerrard isn't a good coach, but i expected him to stay in Europe, gain more experience and try to move his coaching career forward. Frank Lampard's case is almost similar to that of Gerrard, he hasn't had the best of his coaching days, and who knows, if a Saudi club comes knocking, he might move there as well.

Let’s just hope Gerard performs well in the club he is going in Saudi Arabia league, we all know that Gerard was a very talented and good player, but that those not make him a good coach, we all saw what happened to Chelsea in last season, they signed lampard as their coach, lampard was once a good player in Chelsea, he really performed well when he was a player in Chelsea, he was one of my favorite player in Chelsea back then, but when he came back to coach Chelsea, we all saw what happened, Chelsea performance got worst under him, so Chelsea those not have choice than to just let him go. A good player those not guarantee a good coach, but let’s wish Gerard success, let’s hope he will perform well since Saudi league is not really competitive.

It’s just a matter of time, very soon Saudi Arabia league will become very competitive and popular just like the way other leagues are popular, Saudi Arabia is really pumping money into football by getting talented players and coaches and they are being to get the public attention, lots of people will start following up Saudi Arabia league matches because of the players they signed.