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Football: The Closed Season


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1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

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 €.

There’s also reports that Chelsea are paying Werner 200k per week.  At Liverpool at would make him the joint highest paid player (level with Salah).  It may have been too disruptive to go there.

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10 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

There’s also reports that Chelsea are paying Werner 200k per week.  At Liverpool at would make him the joint highest paid player (level with Salah).  It may have been too disruptive to go there.

Yes, I assume he'd get a big contract, even now. In addition, Werner was not going to move to a backup position (he said as much in interviews in the past). And Liverpool have a very strong established front three. Salah would right now be the best bet of whom a new forward could dislodge, and that's a quite a tall order by itself. Firmino is more or less at the core of Liverpool's attacking play. Mane is playing on a world class level by himself this season. That just leaves Salah as the weakest link, and there the term weak is becoming very relative.

The way into the Chelsea line up looks a bit more straight forward for Werner. This is gonna be interesting for sure, as I also rate Abraham quite highly as a talented forward.

Anyway, I am more curious where Havertz ends up. Bayern are obviously super interested in signing him.

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11 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

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.

Chelsea took a 2M loss on him which I find amazing considering how shit he was after a hot start. Bought for 47M and sold for 45M I believe.

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Mirror journalist David Maddock on why Liverpool pulled out of the Werner transfer: "they're looking at a loss of anywhere between 70 million and quite possibly 200 million pounds in the next year/current financial year...as will all the top clubs"

By loss he means loss of revenue due to Covid.According to him nearly all PL clubs will just break even for this year end.

He also says only Chelsea have the advantage among the top 6 clubs: didn't spend previously due to transfer ban, the Morata money, Hazard money and saving a lot of money due to 2 big wage earners Pedro and Willian are out of contract and won't be renewed.

 

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The 71 EFL clubs have unanimously agreed that in the event a division curtails its season or it is ended by any other means 1) Final divisional placings will be determined on unweighted points per game 2) Promotion and relegation will be retained and 3) Play-Offs will be played in all circumstances but will not be extended beyond four teams. 

The Championship restarts on 20 June however League One and Two clubs will meet later today to determine whether to resume playing the season or opt for curtailment. Simon Stone has reported that no-one expects anything other than the season being ended for League One and Two.

 

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47 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

The 71 EFL clubs have unanimously agreed that in the event a division curtails its season or it is ended by any other means 1) Final divisional placings will be determined on unweighted points per game 2) Promotion and relegation will be retained and 3) Play-Offs will be played in all circumstances but will not be extended beyond four teams. 

The Championship restarts on 20 June however League One and Two clubs will meet later today to determine whether to resume playing the season or opt for curtailment. Simon Stone has reported that no-one expects anything other than the season being ended for League One and Two.

 

Makes sense.

Their main source of income are tickets, not TV revenue as is the case for the EPL clubs. So while the EPL clubs need to play to make cash (with minimal damages done to their finances), the lower level teams would lose even more cash by playing.

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Note to Sky Sports:  When you re-start the season, please broadcast several games with Graeme Souness and Roy Keane as the announcers, and permit them to use whatever language they want to describe what they see as the game progresses.  Also put a camera on them so that when they inevitably come to blows by about the third or fourth game, we can see that as well.

I would pay extra for this service.

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11 hours ago, Soylent Brown said:

Keane and Souness actually seem to get on pretty well. I think they'd mostly agree with each other.

You are right, they do.  But they also become easily frustrated with the lack of effort or lack of fundamentals on display in the modern game, so in my imagination their rising rage from seeing Pogba saunter back into defense would eventually boil over.

For the most part, Sky puts on a good show with Keane and Souness, two of my personal favorites as players and pundits.  Carragher is also very good, and Neville is passionate and sometimes quite good as well.  Don Goodman was on a couple of times that I saw, and he was interesting.  I can't think of any other commentators on Sky that I really want to hear, or in Joe Hart's case, see. 

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2019/20 UEFA Champions League schedule

7-8 August: Round of 16 second legs (venues to be confirmed)
12-15 August: Quarter-finals (Lisbon)
18-19 August: Semi-finals (Lisbon)
23 August: Final (Lisbon)

 

2019/20 UEFA Europa League schedule

5–6 August: Round of 16 (venues to be confirmed)
10–11 August: Quarter-finals (Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Gelsenkirchen)
16–17 August: Semi-finals (venues to be confirmed)
21 August: Final (Cologne)

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23 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

2019/20 UEFA Champions League schedule

7-8 August: Round of 16 second legs (venues to be confirmed)
12-15 August: Quarter-finals (Lisbon)
18-19 August: Semi-finals (Lisbon)
23 August: Final (Lisbon)

 

2019/20 UEFA Europa League schedule

5–6 August: Round of 16 (venues to be confirmed)
10–11 August: Quarter-finals (Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Gelsenkirchen)
16–17 August: Semi-finals (venues to be confirmed)
21 August: Final (Cologne)

Ah, I see. So UEFA has decided that German clubs should get the short end of the stick, but the other German clubs get to host the EL in exchange.

German Football will be done and dusted at the start of July - the Cup Final on July 4th between Bayern and Leverkusen will be the last competitive game. So literally a over a month without competitive football for Leipzig and Bayern (CL), and Leverkusen and Frankfurt (EL).

OK, Scotland have also ended their season, so SEVCO will be in a position similar to Leverkusen.  Anyway, like I said before, there was no good solution for this. Restarting the CL now would have given an edge to the German clubs, who are already match fit.

I did not mention the French Clubs, who would've gotten the short end of the stick in any event. On that note, Lyon will finish their CL campaign without Tousart, who will join Berlin in July (we talked about the transfer and contract problems).

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The Premier League will suffer a big financial hit from the pandemic
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/06/16/the-premier-league-will-suffer-a-big-financial-hit-from-the-pandemic

Quote

The return to action, dubbed “Project Restart”, will give a boost to the country’s morale as well as to clubs’ bottom lines.

Television-rights revenue may have been the deciding factor. Such fees totalled just over £3bn ($3.8bn) in the 2018-19 season, or roughly 60% of clubs’ total income. Had clubs opted not to play the outstanding matches, they would have had to return some of this cash to broadcasters, refunding up to £760m ($955m) according to some estimates. This would have piled yet more pressure on an already loss-making set-up: the 20 clubs in the league recorded a cumulative pre-tax loss of £165m last season.

 

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2 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

CL campaign without Tousart, who will join Berlin in July (we talked about the transfer and contract problems).

I saw some reports that Timo Werner will not be available for Leipzig once the CL restarts. Also confirmed today, Ryan Fraser has rejected a short term deal from Bournemouth so he will be a free agent come 1 July. 

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