Football: The Closed Season

[Soylent Brown]

A terrific idea to avoid clashes with your red and white home shirt by wearing your white and red away shirt.

Was it Norwich who a few years ago had three shirts that were all yellow and green, only with the second and third shirts slightly greener and greener still?

[Raja]

I quite like white kits but that one is not great.

[Rorshach]

Perhaps Arsenal want to combat the impression that they are not up for a fight? 

 

 

[Consigliere]

PSG have reached an agreement with Inter for Icardi - €50m + €7m in add-ons. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Impressive for this market.

[baxus]

On 5/28/2020 at 10:03 PM, Soylent Brown said:

A terrific idea to avoid clashes with your red and white home shirt by wearing your white and red away shirt.

Was it Norwich who a few years ago had three shirts that were all yellow and green, only with the second and third shirts slightly greener and greener still?

I quite loved Parma's combo of yellow and navy horizontal stripes back in the day. Their home kit had wider yellow stripes and their away kit had wider navy stripes, which made their kits look either yellow or navy, but keeping their colours in both.

Can't remember which season that was for but it was before Calciopoli, while I was still watching Serie A.

[Consigliere]

United have reached an agreement with Shanghai Shenhua to extend Ighalo's loan until 31 Jan 2021.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Five substitutes approved for rest of 2019-20 season
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52914350

Quote

Premier League teams will be able to make five substitutions, rather than three, in each match to the end of the season after clubs approved new rules.

Teams will also be able to name nine substitutes instead of the usual seven.

Though teams can now make five substitutions, each will only have three opportunities to make changes throughout the match in order to minimise disruption to the game.

Clubs have also agreed in principle to the use of neutral venues if required, although the vast majority of matches are expected to be played in their usual grounds, barring local spikes in coronavirus cases.

A draft document detailing the extensive biosecurity measures required for each match has been circulated. It is believed the number of people in the stadium while each match is being played will be limited to about 300.

 

[l2 0 5 5]

Werner to Chelsea Has Legs

[A Horse Named Stranger]

2 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Five substitutes approved for rest of 2019-20 season
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52914350

 

Pretty sure I mentioned that weeks ago, either in this thread or the last one. Also 5 subs atm used in Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches. Squad depth helps.

2 hours ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

Werner to Chelsea Has Legs

Kicker also reporting. Short summary.

Transfer to be finalized next week. Werner can leave for 60m €. Liverpool were not willing to pay that, Chelsky are. Thus he is headed for London.

Leipzig in turn want to sign loanee Schick permanently, but do not want to use the transfer clause in the loan agreement (30m €), but instead seek to negotiate a significantly lower transfer fee. Also on their short list Rashica from Bremen.

[Iskaral Pust]

It’s a pity if Liverpool miss out on Werner.  I can understand why they’re reluctant to pay a big fee in this environment, but they’ve lacked depth in the forward line for years now.  

I’m a bit surprised that Chelsea are giving an unproven Lampard such a big budget just now, especially since Pulisic hasn’t really settled yet.  I thought they’d be working on rebuilding with youth for a while longer.  Perhaps the collapse of Arsenal and Spurs, and indifference of United, just makes the CL spot more attainable and therefore irresistible.

If the title race were close, I’d be concerned that five subs is a huge advantage for City. 

[l2 0 5 5]

Hoping the Werner signing gets over the finish line. We need depth up top. Tammy had a good year but still inconsistent and injury prone. Don’t think he scored a goal against top six opponent. Werner and Ziyech can both play out wide too, so that’s nice to have that diversity considering we’ll have none after CHO and Pulisic. Now the question is left back. Would rather take the cheaper option in Tagliafico opposed to Chillwell. Sacrificing four years in age but the cheaper option maybe allows us to make a play for a winger. Though I do think the positional diversity in Werner and Ziyech puts the need for a winger on back burner till left back is filled. Guess that means no Sancho... Saw a trade floating around with Juve as Sarri has a hard on for Jorginho. They would send us Bernardeschi. Highly doubt there’s anything real about that but an interesting thought. Our midfield is so deep i wouldn’t say no to it, though I’d prefer money coming our way on top of the player. 

[Soylent Brown]

9 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

It’s a pity if Liverpool miss out on Werner.  I can understand why they’re reluctant to pay a big fee in this environment, but they’ve lacked depth in the forward line for years now.  

I’m a bit surprised that Chelsea are giving an unproven Lampard such a big budget just now, especially since Pulisic hasn’t really settled yet.  I thought they’d be working on rebuilding with youth for a while longer.  Perhaps the collapse of Arsenal and Spurs, and indifference of United, just makes the CL spot more attainable and therefore irresistible.

If the title race were close, I’d be concerned that five subs is a huge advantage for City. 

We're obviously really strong right now, but it does look a bit like we're making it easier for those behind us to catch up and possibly overtake us.

If AFCON goes ahead as planned, we're probably screwed next season.

[Mark Antony]

27 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

We're obviously really strong right now, but it does look a bit like we're making it easier for those behind us to catch up and possibly overtake us.

If AFCON goes ahead as planned, we're probably screwed next season.

I just don’t understand the supposed “financial reasons” for backing out. We should have a “warchest” after not buying anyone the summer after winning CL and now we are about to win the league. Would be counterproductive to be so stingy in the market. Plus that price for Werner is a steal imo

[Consigliere]

Bringing in Werner and Ziyech for ~€100m combined is some excellent business. Talk that Chelsea are also looking at Chilwell and Tagliafico. I'd opt for the latter since Leicester would certainly demand an outrageous fee for Chilwell who has had a poor season as well. Tagliafico is much better value for money.

[Iskaral Pust]

3 hours ago, Mark Antony said:

I just don’t understand the supposed “financial reasons” for backing out. We should have a “warchest” after not buying anyone the summer after winning CL and now we are about to win the league. Would be counterproductive to be so stingy in the market. Plus that price for Werner is a steal imo

I agree.  Werner at that price, and fitting our need so closely looks like a very good deal.  I think the financial strain is from all of the contract renewals.  Nearly all of the team received big wage increases in the past two years.  The strategy is to retain the established core at the expense of new recruitment.  But wages are a fixed expense.  If stadium revenue disappears for a while, and who knows if the CL can go ahead this year, then revenue is dropping while higher costs are fixed. 

I think the club is being too cautious here and giving up a chance to stay at the top for a couple more years.  Especially as some of City’s stars are aging (Silva, Aguero).

[ljkeane]

4 hours ago, Mark Antony said:

I just don’t understand the supposed “financial reasons” for backing out.

Liverpool have always been about spending within their means on players under FSG and staring down the barrel of tens of millions of pounds in lost revenue was definitely going to impact on the transfer budget. I think Isk's probably right that the club views all the improved contracts they handed out as this season's spending.

It's disappointing but it's been clear for a while they weren't going to meet Werner's buyout clause.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said:

I agree.  Werner at that price, and fitting our need so closely looks like a very good deal.  I think the financial strain is from all of the contract renewals.  Nearly all of the team received big wage increases in the past two years.  The strategy is to retain the established core at the expense of new recruitment.  But wages are a fixed expense.  If stadium revenue disappears for a while, and who knows if the CL can go ahead this year, then revenue is dropping while higher costs are fixed. 

I think the club is being too cautious here and giving up a chance to stay at the top for a couple more years.  Especially as some of City’s stars are aging (Silva, Aguero).

I read the same earlier on the LFC forum, specifically not spending on Werner in order to use money to give extensions to Allison and Virgil.No source though, so can't say if true, but sounds plausible.

[Iskaral Pust]

I think Klopp is haunted by the player departures at Dortmund, plus he saw how disruptive the Coutinho saga was.  And buying new players is less certain than retaining your proven best players.  But this way creates a risk of stagnation and a lack of depth.

If the choice is between retaining the best GK in the world and the best CB in the world, versus adding an excellent back-up forward who could become a starter, then the decision looks balanced.

We’ve been fortunate too in the amount we have generated from player sales in recent years — Coutinho, Sakho, Ibe, Solanke, Smith — but it looks like that won’t be available either.  We’ll get less of a fee for Shaqiri now, and Lallana will leave for free.

Perhaps Chelsea are in a different position with wages with Hazard, Willian, Pedro, Costa, and Luiz all (?) coming off their books.

If Keita can stay healthy and Minamino start to find his feet, then we’ll have some more depth.  Curtis Jones will probably get pushed forward to replace Shaqiri’s role.

Edit: I forgot Morata leaving Chelsea too.  His wages and transfer fee probably helped them a lot here.  Which was lucky for them considering how poor he was in the PL.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Small addition/correction.

Kicker ran a new story today. Apparently Werner's release clause was lower than the widely reported 60m € (yes, that figure was also used by the kicker itself yesterday). Anyway, according to its sources at Leipzig, Werner's buy out clause was just 50m €.