Depends what places you’re talking about. There are plenty of locations of football teams that London easily trumps.
And obviously this won’t be true of all footballers. But on more than one occasion, footballers have spoken about how multi-cultural London is. One of the reasons Alexis Sanchez apparently chose Arsenal over Liverpool was because of London’s large Chilean community for example.
If I was a professional football player I’d probably favour the warmer climate European nations over the UK but I do understand the appeal of London. I think it’s one of the best cities in the world if you’re rich
Yeah, some do prefer the warmer climate and don’t like the fact it gets dark early… looking at you Cavani. But players don’t have the choice of any team in the world, so London could be the deciding factor if their choices are limited.
Ah I see everyone’s points here and I was asking what a footballer can get from London that he can’t get from anywhere else with a top club at it’s heart.
Most European cities have a diverse culture with everything to cater for them and there are plenty of rich neighbourhoods in them .
But I see plenty of drawbacks living in London for a multi millionaire footballer, are they living actually in London if so driving is a nightmare if they are in the suburbs then the suburbs are much like any outside a large city.
I lived in London for a couple of years ( Crystal Palace) I loved the history and the multi culture but everyday living was a pain, took ages to get anywhere paying ridiculous prices to park, high insurance etc,list goes on.
I know people love and dislike London equally, and know people who would like to leave but only stay for work purposes.
Im digressing here on a personal level but say for a non English footballer I can’t see the level of attraction for the city, Alexis Sanchez was used as an example but did he choose London over Liverpool due to reputation and if so he can’t have been that enamoured with it if he went to Manchester.
I see London as one of the worlds major status cities. If you’re rich and famous then it’s a great place to be wealthy and dine in well known restaurants and enjoy London nightlife with other high flyers. London is for the rich and famous with the major department stores, the high end jewellery stores and the exclusive shopping experiences for rich people.
When you’re a 21 year old with millions of pounds it’s a great place to be and you don’t really tend to think about things like culture and all of that stuff. You just want to live the fast and high life and I think London has that appeal.
London also had its charms too, as much as I am completely past the point of wanting to love there now I can accept it’s a glorious city with rich history and high status for rich people.
Dubai needs to get a football team on the map, they’d be instantly the most popular.
Willian and Auba would sign up in a flash.
This I agree on, but is a top footballer going to be living a fast life? Don’t forget I was trying to see this from a footballers point of view as I really can’t see a top athlete hanging out in expensive restaurants and swanky nightclubs all the time.
I can understand more an English player being more attracted to London than a European or a South American.
Paris is going to be more attractive for a North African which is probably more my assumption rather than the absolute truth.
London to me is a place for adventure making money and contacts and where things can happen when you’re young but I see the richer people get and when they’ve found their mark in life it becomes less attractive and tend to leave, so when I see footballers who let’s say are all going to be multi millionaires the life of a player isn’t going to be more involved in the life of a city whether its going to be London Manchester or Liverpool.
Damn
This is why Edu’s outgoings work has never been impressive to me
The fact is there are more rich people living in London then almost anywhere else in the world, so you can argue the semantics as to why you think these people should or should not want to live in london or you can just accept the fact that they do, and maybe you are seeing things through your own bias/preferences.
Oh absolutely im seeing things from my own perspective no doubt about that, I’m trying to understand why a top footballer would because there is a finite difference in a cities attractions if you take away the actual football clubs.
If you have the time check his interview for TBG, you’ll get an insight on how he feels.
He believes he’s at a place where he needs to be starting more.
He even brought on the fact that he was England’s U21s captain for a reason and that he’s seeing players from that side get opportunities and shine whereas he hasn’t.
LCB wanted to support Gabriel. Tried for Schlotterbeck in Jan
Mari is another Arteta/Edu dud depth/rotational piece signing.
I don’t get why people rate their talent ID? Hitting a rotational player with high scope to contribute is a much greater sign of an ability to spot and evaluate players.
Not sure how much involvement Arteta had in Cedric and Mari. He arrived in late December as a coach and Raul was still here at the time.
I always saw those moves as Edu and Raul led with Mari being a standout performer at Flamengo and Cedric being a Kia guy.
Arteta requested Cedric to stay
He also requested a LCB and Edu facilitated the Mari signing
All documented…
Did he request them to extend their stay or were those deals laid out in a way that we didn’t have a choice but to sign them?
I don’t think that’s clear yet.
And yeah, that’s how I remember it as well. Arteta wanted a left-footed LCB at the time and they got him Mari and he also wanted a RB because AMN was probably leaving and they got him Cedric.
I don’t think he specifically asked for those guys.
He didn’t have the power to do so anyway, he wasn’t made manager till the summer.
Doesn’t mean he identified those players as targets in January.
In any case, I think what really matters is your hit rate when you spend real money. Buying Cedric for 3m doesn’t have to hurt the club much. Buying Pepe for 72m, Laca for 50m, or Xhaka for 35m is what kills you.
Yeah, that’s the moves you pay more attention to. The big moves we actually invested in under Arteta actually paid off. Partey, Gabriel, White, Ramsdale and Odegaard.
Whether we’re considering Willian and Auba contracts in this changes things though.
I still love the way he washed his hands off the Tavares move early. He made sure to clarify the scouting team found him and he deserves no credit, and later blame for his signing. 
It is clear unless you provide evidence suggesting otherwise.
Cedric was on loan, we made the decision to sign him permanently in the summer after his deal expired. It’s just not true to suggest that Arteta was not invovled in that decision as the coach.
Mari is an Edu signing
@Powderfinger In the case of Cedric he was already at the club so Arteta would naturally have an idea about his level? Again Mari is an Edu signing…
No one is talking about the old regime signings, zero need to talk about them