Had the chance to speak with this individual again. Shorter time-frame for our chat, but we discussed the impact of COVID on Spain's big three, dark horse league for transfers in 2021, Barca funding (i.e. sugar daddy) drying up, and European Super League. Thread below (1/13): https://twitter.com/MattWiltse4/status/1236061943804440576

On COVID impact: Everybody's poor right now, but Spain are really in trouble. Barca have no liquidity. The group that was funding Barca is pulling out their cash and putting it in other ventures (non-football related). ATM just have so much debt. Madrid is the healthiest (2/13)

of the big three, but in hindsight the Hazard contract was a HUGE mistake. Financially that contract is heavy burden given the amortized fee of the transfer + wages + bonuses all combined.

In terms of RM's upcoming transfer market, feels it will be another quiet summer. (3/13)

He would let Modric's contract run out to free those wages, and try to get some money for Isco / include Isco in a swap. The problem is there are few teams to swap Isco with in terms of targets. You want Camavinga? Isco isn't going to Rennes. You want Pogba? Unlikely Man U (4/13)

will do a swap for Isco. Just has to hope somebody would be willing to pay a good fee for him.

His personal opinion, just a feeling not facts or anything (don't spam my mentions), is that Mbappe will stay at PSG. French kid, from Paris, huge family connections in Paris. (5/13)

Feels it would be very difficult for RM to pull off the transfer without major key-player departures. Thinks someone in the PL would pay up for Varane. If he were Madrid, would cash in on that deal. Rates Alaba highly, but doesn't know that he would fit in Spain given how (6/13)

physical and pragmatic the league has become. Thinks the inflection point with La Liga came with Simeone winning the title and VAL earning back to back UCL spots. As well as minnows coming up from Segunda finding success in a low block 4-4-2. Has made the league, in his (7/13)

opinion, one of the toughest to watch.

On Zidane: thinks he needs to bring in a top, top class assistant. He more often than not thinks assistants are overrated, but for Zidane a top tactician that can help implement the system he believes in would be a smart move. (8/13)

My opinion here: if ZZ does end up getting fired, it will likely be Raul who takes over, not Poch, because of the pandemic and Poch's high wages (close to 10M) vs what Raul would earn (~2M). Similar situation with Juve, who, without the pandemic, probably would not have (9/13)

hired Pirlo.

I asked if they have a model that can project out a young player's potential output. Said they have worked on something like that before, but didn't like the results. Have scraped it. Feels it really difficult to do and no sport has mastered it. (10/

On European Super League: Doesn't think it will happen without the PL teams. Feels PL won't leave and the smaller teams will end up taking a little bit less money so that the big six can take a larger share of the pie.

Does think there will be changes to UCL and UEL. (11/13)

Those competitions may be "tightened up" with potentially another slot being allocated in bigger leagues and teams outside of the major European leagues being pushed into EL. Something along those lines. Could even be a third European competition for smaller clubs. (12/13)

And lastly on potential dark horses in next summer's transfer window, aside from PL, is Serie A clubs. No certainty, but could be a new TV deal coming into play for that league which would help with liquidity. (13/13)