Inside plush £770-a-night hotel used by Saudis as secret transfer war room to secure huge deals for Premier League stars
WHILE most clubs use fax machines to organise transfer deals the Saudis have set up a transfer war room in a plush London hotel.
Clubs from the Saudi Pro League have been making moves to sign top talent from Europe in order to boost the attraction to the competition this summer.
Many Premier League stars have been tipped with big-money transfers to the Middle East this summer already.
But the way the Saudis have been sorting the deals has been by setting up shop in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in London‘s Portman Square, according to the Daily Mail.
The luxury hotel, known as The Churchill, has rooms that can set people back over £770-per night.
It has previously hosted the likes of former President of the United States Barack Obama, but is now temporarily housing Saudi Arabia’s football elite.
The hotel is being used as the Saudis’ secret transfer war room and has been the base of operations as they try to wrap up deals for players to join their league.
Being set up in England will help the clubs negotiate with English and other European clubs as there is a three-hour time difference in Saudi Arabia.
It also allows them to negotiate face-to-face with club chiefs and then quickly move on to player contract talks.
Doing this would allow them to avoid the errors that a fax machine could produce as David De Gea found out during his failed transfer to Real Madrid in 2015.
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Recently it was announced that the Public Investment Fund, which owns Newcastle, will take control of Al Ahli, Al Ittihad, Al Hilal and Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League.
Premier League stars such as Bernardo Silva, Wilfried Zaha, N’Golo Kante and Eduoard Mendy have been linked with moves to the Middle East.
Kante appears to be the closest to sealing a switch after his contract expires at Chelsea on June 30.
Meanwhile, Wolves captain Ruben Neves could also be on his way to the Saudi Pro League as he is set to join Al-Hilal for £47million.
But there are a lot more deals in the works as Chelsea‘s Kalidou Koulibaly and Hakim Ziyech are close to their own moves.
Karim Benzema made the move to the Saudi Pro League after leaving Real Madrid as he joined Al Ittihad and will rival Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr next season.
Some players have already turned down the chance to move to the Middle East.
Romelu Lukaku, Lionel Messi, Luka Modric are among those stars that have preferred to remain in Europe.
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