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Football: Steve the Bruce King of Geordies


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5 minutes ago, Mexal said:

Pretty excited about this signing! I know Arsenal won't be a better team with Pepe but they'll be more fun to watch.

Yeah - our defense is still a huge concern, but there's a lot to be optimistic about, if I'm being honest. We've needed a winger for *years*

Every year I think I'm out, but they reel me back in.

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6 minutes ago, Raja said:

Yeah - our defense is still a huge concern, but there's a lot to be optimistic about, if I'm being honest. We've needed a winger for *years*

Every year I think I'm out, but they reel me back in.

I really hope Willock gets a proper run. I'm still worried about replacing Ramsey and transitioning from defense to offensive quickly.

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1 minute ago, Mexal said:

I really hope Willock gets a proper run. I'm still worried about replacing Ramsey and transitioning from defense to offensive quickly.

We have so many options in midfield. I think the three we see starting against Newcastle could be markedly different from the line up in Jan/ Feb. It all depends on how Emery wants to set up. I need to see Willock again on Sunday, but man he looked really good live.

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1 minute ago, Raja said:

We have so many options in midfield. I think the three we see starting against Newcastle could be markedly different from the line up in Jan/ Feb. It all depends on how Emery wants to set up. I need to see Willock again on Sunday, but man he looked really good live.

Yea. I hope Arsenal moves to a 4-3-3. Not sure they can work a 4-2-3-1 without a good B2B.

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The Telegraph reported that City have put a hefty £137m price tag on Sane. They could negotiate that down a bit but I expect it would still be well north of £100m. Bayern's net spend so far is around €84m so they should have no issues forking over that kind of money if Sane is deemed as integral. 

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Yes, they could.

However, the 100m is still a bit of a psychological barrier. They are not Madrid, United, Barca, or PSG who could/would casually throw 100m around. Bear in mind, Hoeneß, has been in charge of the club since the late 1970s (1978 I think, after an injury cut his playing career short) - he will rumoreldy retire in October, tho. Anyway, the point is, he also remembers the days, when spending 1m, and later on 10m were real big money on the transfer market. So spending that kinda money probably makes them feel a weeee bit uncomfortable.

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Yeah, it seems unlikely that this transfer happens. I guess it depends on how badly the Bayern board feel they need Sane. It's also worth taking into account that Bayern had to trigger the buyout clause for Hernandez which meant paying €80m in one lump sum. 

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Like I said, Kovac sounded extremely optimistic, and with Dortmund's shopping spree there's some pressure on the Hoeneß and Rumpelzicke, eh Rummenigge, to do something to strengthen their offense. Thus far they've signed Pavard and Hernandez, which are defenders. With Ribery and Robben gone, there's now a real need to add some quality winger. Coman picked up another injury during their pre-season Audi-Cup shizzle. Hoeneß is a weeeeee bit prone to vanity, so him gifting the Bayern supporters Sane would not be out of character (despite the 100m making them baulk heavily). Him bowing out, while they are trailing Dortmund, with Bayern having missed out on Sane must be the stuff f nightmares for him. As the peasents already dared to speak up against his highness during the club's general meeting last year.

My guess is, they will put a limit on what they are willing to spend, which is a bit north of the 100m €. Something between 110-120m € would be my guess, of what they are willing to cough up. 140m would indeed be too much.

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Bayern are in an odd situation.  They had such dominance in the Bundesliga for so long and they raided their closest competitor for their best players to keep it so.  But they've stagnated and reached the end of the current generation.  And they weren't especially competitive in the CL anyway for several years -- just one trophy in the past 18 years, and even then it helped to face Dortmund in the final.  Even with Pep as a manager.  (they went pretty deep in the CL most years, but always being in Pot 1 makes that easy to achieve).

Until this summer, they hadn't really participated in the post-Neymar inflated transfer market.  They acquired Ribery, Robben, Lewandowski, etc for what now look like relative bargains.  So if their primary goal is to keep winning Bundesligas, then that might require only moderate spending, and they could even take a chance on some youth players just like Dortmund did.  But if they want to really challenge for a CL, then they would need a lot more.

If another $50m is enough to feel highly likely of retaining the Bundesliga, but $300m+ would be need to really challenge for the CL, then there isn't a lot of value in going for somewhere in the middle.  This was the same situation faced by Juventus and PSG, who both decided to make the really big investment in pursuit of the CL (and even then they didn't come any closer).  No point in spending an extra $100m to win your domestic league by 15 points instead of 5.

It's also similar to PL clubs deciding whether to aim for top 4 or go all in to challenge City for the title.  Most of them will decide that there isn't really that much value to 2nd or 3rd spot compared to 4th, so they're doing just enough to stay competitive for top 4.

There can always be other factors, like the ego of a club president or the need to appease fans who are tired of stagnation (looking at you, Arsenal), but Bayern don't really need to throw huge money at the problem all in this window.  They could just build over a couple of seasons.

 

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13 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

If another $50m is enough to feel highly likely of retaining the Bundesliga, but $300m+ would be need to really challenge for the CL, then there isn't a lot of value in going for somewhere in the middle.  This was the same situation faced by Juventus and PSG, who both decided to make the really big investment in pursuit of the CL (and even then they didn't come any closer).  No point in spending an extra $100m to win your domestic league by 15 points instead of 5.

That ignores the self-image Bayern and their supporters have of their club. They see themselves as a major force in European football, thus the CL is/has to be their ultimate goal. So of course all the spending has to measure up to that standard. The squad itself is not as bad as you made it sound. There are two holes for them to patch up imho. They need another quality winger (likesay Sane) and they need another quality forward (probably Werner) as they right now only have Lewandowski. Otherwise the squad is good to very good, depending on Neuer's health. Werner's contract in Leipzig runs out next year, so they are not willing to pay up to 70m or whatever Leipzig is demanding for a player they can/will get on a free transfer next year (yes, I assume they reached a general agreement with the player).

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Yeah, that a lot. 

Maguire's a good player and I know a lot of people said the same about Van Dijk but I'm dubious Maguire going to turn out to be quite the same transformative figure Van Dijk proved to be. I'm still not quite sure why there seems to be no interest in the relatively affordable Alderwierald. 

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Imo, Maguire is at the level of a player like Manolas but has cost 3x as much. As I said before, it looked like our plan for a CB boiled down to Maguire or bust so it isn't surprising that we've got rinsed a world record fee for an above average player. We have more money than sense. 

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Seven if you also include Tuanzebe. We need to sell a couple at least but our board's incompetence at dealing with contracts has left us in a position where we are struggling to offload players. 

I'm not too keen on this Dybala deal either. It's looking increasingly like Dybala really doesn't want to leave Juve but is being forced out by the club. We are going to end up with a mopey player on £350k/week putting in half arsed performances. Woodward will never learn. 

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