Saudi club Al-Nassr are lining up an insane £85m swoop for Manchester United man - Newcastle fans will be livid

The Saudi Pro League has courted controversy since its inception as the vast wealth in that country has meant that the league has seen in influx of some of the world's best players.

Granted, many of those players are at the tail end of their careers, but they have managed to pull off some top coups by simply throwing money around.

We have seen some outrageously overpriced deals and according to Caught Offside, we could be about to see another as they are reporting that Al-Nassr are weighing up a €100m (£85million) for Manchester United's Casemiro.

That's the same Casemiro who had one good game in the second half of Man United's season and that was against us in the penultimate Premier League game.

Getty Images

Saudis have money to burn - they might be better off just setting £85m on fire here

At 32 Casemiro is becoming a shadow of his former self and after the season just gone, is hardly going to be up there for the Player of the Year awards at Man United, but Al-Nassr don't seem to mind.

If there is any truth to this, and it goes through at anywhere near that proposed fee. In fact, even half of it, then Newcastle United fans have every right to go absolutely nuts.

Newcastle are primarily owned by the Saudi PIF which also owns four Saudi Pro-League clubs - Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli, Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal and so far, the Magpies have sold just one player to the Saudi Pro League - Allan Saint-Maximin to Al-Ahli for £25million.

Make it make sense, please

When that deal happened fans of the other 19 Premier League clubs lost their minds and the deal was scrutinised under Fair Market Value even though, if we'd sold Maxi to anybody else we could easily have squeezed another £10million out of the deal.

So granted, there's a connection between us and Al-Ahli so, yes, Fair Market Value has to come into it, but why then, does it not have to for other clubs? If Man United can shift Casemiro for £85million when he's worth about £15million, why can't we sell Sean Longstaff to an unaffiliated Saudi club for £80million?

If Fair Market Value is a thing for connected clubs, then it has to be a thing for everyone else regardless otherwise it creates disparity like this.

Just the mere mention of us selling a player to the Saudi Pro League would cause ructions, even if it was one of the clubs not owned by the PIF.

We'll be keeping an eye on this one for sure. £85million for Casemiro, man. What's going on?