Consigliere

Mine was working this morning but it didn't take long to hit the rate limit. Just checked now and all I'm getting is "Cannot retrieve Tweets at this time. Please try again later".

Season 4 release delayed due to writers strike. https://www.joblo.com/the-boys-season-4-release-delayed/

Children of Time trilogy is probably his most well known work. I started off with Guns of the Dawn and then Cage of Souls. Dogs of War was also good (its sequel Bear Head was decent but not as good imo). Some of his novellas that I've enjoyed: Walking to Aldebaran, One Day All This Will Be Yours, Firewalkers and Ogres. Currently reading The Doors of Eden - I'm enjoying the interlude sections of this one more than the main story - not really feeling the characters on this one. Tchaikovsky's characters aren't always the strongest but his books tend to be jam-packed with ideas.

Christophe Galtier and his son have been taken into custody on allegations relating to discrimination based on an alleged race or membership of a religion. Galtier is accused of having made discriminatory, racist and Islamophobic remarks during his one-season spell in charge of Nice in 2021-22. There are reports that allege he said in an email: "You have built a team of scum. There are only blacks and half the team go to the mosque on Friday".

It's not bad for Chelsea. On the books they can record it as a profit due to amortisation since Havertz spent 3 seasons out of a 5-year contract at Chelsea so even if they paid the full £90m (unlikely) his maximum book value would have been £36m.

The initial fee for Havertz was £71-72m (€80m) with add-ons that could see the fee rise to £90m. We don't know which, if any, of the add-on clauses were met. @Mexal Ornstein says it's £62m + £3m in add-ons. https://theathletic.com/4619930/2023/06/21/arsenal-transfer-kai-havertz-chelsea/

Yeah it's a good signing at a reasonable fee. Arsenal have been slick operators in the transfer market ever since Edu came in.

And Villa have agreed a fee with Villarreal for Pau Torres - £31.5m.

Mike Verweij reporting that Arsenal and Ajax have reached an agreement for Timber - €42m + €5m in add-ons.

Mount deal finally done. In a surprise to no-one we overpaid. Can't keep crying about 'United tax' when we repeatedly faff about only to eventually cave. Every club knows that United is an easy mark ripe for the fleecing and we always prove them right.

I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and say that you are just being hyperbolic. But this sort of opinion has been expressed before. Just because a manager does well on a modest budget at a mid-level club does not necessarily mean they would do even better with more resources. There's very different pressures and egos to deal with at top clubs. Lots of managers who did great jobs at mid-level clubs have been found wanting at bigger clubs with greater resources and better squads.

Meanwhile, United are still faffing about and haven't made a single signing. Made a hash of De Gea's contract and the proposed takeover has turned into a complete and utter farce. This is not a serious operation.

Reports that AC Milan have agreed personal terms with Pulisic and are currently negotiating with Chelsea on price.

That should get it done for Arsenal. One of the City journos (Jack Gaughan) has reported that City does not intend to match this offer. West Ham look to be happy with the overall package but are negotiating a more favourable payment structure.

I don't think we should have offered De Gea a renewal in the first place but once we did and an agreement had been reached, to then renege on the deal at the last minute is a pretty shitty way to treat a player who has been an integral part of the team for so many years.

Probably not £100m but I expect Bayern would need to improve their offer to somewhere in the region of £85m (€100m) to get the deal over the line.

Nah. A season is needed to properly adapt BSC. My expectations of the movie are low. Fully expect the pacing to be a mess.

It's fairly reasonable but Spurs can get more. There's not many good quality CF's available. Just look at the ludicrous price tags that Frankfurt has put on Kolo Muani, Benfica on Ramos, Atalanta on Højlund, Napoli on Osimhen. Even Vlahović will go for €70m at least. Jonathan David will likely cost €50-60m too. The CF market is a sellers market. Kane is also currently much better than any of those players.

They've cleared a significant amount of wages with the departures of Benzema, Asensio and Hazard. Their net spend over the past 5 years is around €84m excluding Bellingham. I think they could spend quite a lot if they wanted to. I doubt Mbappe leaves in this window. PSG are trying their best to get him to extend or leave but Mbappe has already said that he intends to see out the last year of his contract and then decide. Reports floating around that Mbappe would be entitled to a loyalty bonus of €90m if he remains at PSG this season.

Levy already rejected that bid. Bayern will need to offer a package closer to €100m (with easily achievable addons) to land him, one would think. Levy must be hoping that Real Madrid will get involved since Bayern can afford to wait a year to get Kane on a free. Real, otoh, are unlikely to win either the league or CL without getting a top replacement for Benzema. Joselu leading their line is a gigantic downgrade.

I don't see Osimhen leaving in this window. De Laurentiis makes Levy look downright reasonable and Di Marzio reported that he will not entertain any offers below €150m. De Laurentiis also mentioned in an interview recently that Napoli have broadly agreed a 2-year extension with Osimhem. I think Vlahovic is still the most likely for Bayern. He's a more proven goal scorer than Kolo Muani and will cost the least of the possible options (around €70m reportedly). Kane is the only one of the options who is proven world class though. He'd be a perfect replacement for Lewandowski. I suppose this transfer would depend on how much say Tuchel has with transfers. I could see him prioritising Kane but cost+age might give Bayern's board pause. I'm actually surprised that Real Madrid aren't also pushing for Kane. Perhaps clubs are confident that he will not renew his contract and will be available on a free in 2024. Clubs outside the PL can sign a pre-contract with him in January.

I could see this happening. If Levy is going to compromise on price, it would be for a club outside the PL. Wouldn't be the first time since he accepted lower bids from Real Madrid for Modric and Bale.

I found BSC to be the most fun of the standalones. It's a good place to start with an adaptation. My concern is that a movie is going to have to cut out significant parts of the story and the pacing is going to be a mess like The Last Kingdom movie. I wish we could have got a season of like 10 episodes to adapt BSC.