Football: New Season, but same old Messi at Barca and elsewhere.

[Soylent Brown]

Chelsea haven't been up to much so far. Their only real chance, which led to the penalty, was a result of a dreadful blind pass from a Brighton player who was under no real pressure.

[polishgenius]

14 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Not entirely sure what happened to them as they are still a very strong squad.

They have several very good players but they're badly lacking in both creativity (there's a pretty strong argument that Kane is currently that team's best starting playmaker unless Lo Celso sorts himself out) and pace going forward. Hjojberg is their best effort to fix the first problem which isn't ideal - he's a decent player but he's not going to turn around a midfield where his main partner in creativity is Harry fucking Winks - and they've made none at all to fix the second.


Chelsea haven't been great tonight but still got a good win eventually. Their formation was just too narrow and won't work against teams with more consistent attacking threat down the wings than Brighton, but then I can't imagine they'll use it that often, once Pulisic and Ziyech are fit and firing.

[Soylent Brown]

As good as their new players might be individually, it can really screw a team over to have a lot of new faces in at once, all learning each others' games.

Having said that of course, I've no doubt they'll put five past us at the weekend.

[Iskaral Pust]

Everton and Newcastle both got a big benefit from three new starters added this summer, although that’s judging from a sample size of one game.

Arsenal are probably the next most improved with two signings performing very well for them. 

But it’s very early days.

[Soylent Brown]

Talk of Mason Greenwood doing more stupid things. Is he in danger of becoming the next Ravel Morrison?

[Consigliere]

Doubt it. What him and Foden got up to on international duty was fucking stupid but The Sun trying to whip up more outrage against him over inhaling some laughing gas from a balloon weeks before is utterly moronic. Morrison was waaay worse - from numerous run-ins with the law to constant skipping of training sessions. 

[Soylent Brown]

I mean, the laughing gas thing isn't deadly serious, but it's still idiotic.

The press doesn't have an agenda against him - they just enjoy reporting about dimwitted footballers and it looks like he may end up presenting them with quite a few easy stories.

[Consigliere]

That doesn't make him the next Ravel Morrison though. Inhaling some laughing gas is a bit silly but hardly anything to get worked up over. Unlike Morrison, there has been zero suggestion of Greenwood not being dedicated to the profession.

[Soylent Brown]

Sure, and I was just wondering aloud rather than seriously claiming it.

It's not good that he's finding himself in multiple situations close together though, and the international thing really was mind-bogglingly stupid.

If he was truly dedicated to his profession, he wouldn't be breaking various rules to cheat on his girlfriend during his first senior England call-up!! I think that's that I most can't get my head around - you'd expect even the biggest tossers to be on their best behaviour for at least the first couple of call-ups!

[Consigliere]

You're confusing Foden with Greenwood. Foden is the one who cheated on his girlfriend and has a kid with said girlfriend as well. 

What they did on international duty was a serious breach and they are rightly criticised for that; this in no way shows that either are not dedicated to the profession. If they turn out to be serial offenders then that argument can be made. There's no suggestion whatsoever that either player are anything but dedicated in training and on the pitch. 

Inhaling a bit of laughing gas from a balloon is not a 'situation'. It's just a bit of silliness and nothing to be calling a players dedication into question over. 

[Soylent Brown]

It is a situation though, as much as anything because the soft fucker allowed himself to be filmed. He's clearly very talented, but also very dumb.

They both have (perhaps had) girlfriends, but yeah, it looks worse for Foden as he has a kid.

[polishgenius]

On 9/14/2020 at 8:22 AM, The Winged Shadow said:

Not entirely sure what happened to them as they are still a very strong squad.

Spurs have several very good players but they're badly lacking in both creativity (there's a pretty strong argument that Kane is currently that team's best starting playmaker unless Lo Celso sorts himself out) and pace going forward. Hjojberg is their best effort to fix the first problem which isn't ideal - he's a decent player but he's not going to turn around a midfield where his main partner in creativity is Harry fucking Winks - and they've made none at all to fix the second.

 

14 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Everton and Newcastle both got a big benefit from three new starters added this summer, although that’s judging from a sample size of one game.

Arsenal are probably the next most improved with two signings performing very well for them. 

But it’s very early days.

 

Yeah I have no doubt they'll get better but I don't think new signing confusion was the reason for Chelsea's meh performance. It was Lampard starting them in a formation even the regular players clearly weren't used to - most notably, despite Reece James's goal the fullbacks for much of the game were pretty much playing as in a flat back four rather than pushing up like they needed to be. If they play the same formation against Liverpool they're going to get ragdolled no matter how generous Liverpool aspire to be, because giving that kind of space to Brighton's wide players and giving it to TAA, Robertson, Mane and Salah are two very different things. I'd guess they won't though, Chelsea fans seem to think Pulisic will be ready for then at the least.

[Raja]

 

[Consigliere]

Agresti and Romero reporting that Suarez is unlikely to complete a move to Juve due to issues over the citizenship process. Reports are that the process is increasingly unlikely to be completed before the transfer window deadline.

Alasdair Gold reporting that Spurs are genuinely interested in a loan deal for Bale if Madrid are also willing to help out a lot on his wages. There were reports previously that United were considering a loan move as well.

[Iskaral Pust]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

 

 

2 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Alasdair Gold reporting that Spurs are genuinely interested in a loan deal for Bale if Madrid are also willing to help out a lot on his wages. There were reports previously that United were considering a loan move as well.

Are Spurs poaching all of United’s deals?  Liverpool have definitely suffered that in the past, although I think Willian was the last big example.

[Consigliere]

13 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Are Spurs poaching all of United’s deals?  Liverpool have definitely suffered that in the past, although I think Willian was the last big example.

Regarding Reguilon: I mentioned before that it was reported that United would not accept a buyback clause. Reportedly Spurs have accepted Real's demand of a buyback clause as well as a first refusal. Reports out of Madrid saying that the fee agreed is around €30m with a buyback clause of €35-40m which will be active for the first two years of his contract. Thereafter Real will have first refusal. 

Regarding Bale: There have been reports that United are considering short term alternatives for RW. Bale was one name being bandied about. Douglas Costa and Perisic were thrown in there as well iirc. Bale's agent has just confirmed that there are indeed talks going on with Spurs and that Bale would like to return to the club. His wages will be the sticking point unless he takes a huge pay cut or Real subsidise a substantial portion of his wages. Reportedly he's pulling in around £300k/week after tax. 

[Iskaral Pust]

21 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Regarding Reguilon: I mentioned before that it was reported that United would not accept a buyback clause. Reportedly Spurs have accepted Real's demand of a buyback clause as well as a first refusal. Reports out of Madrid saying that the fee agreed is around €30m with a buyback clause of €35-40m which will be active for the first two years of his contract. Thereafter Real will have first refusal. 

Those figures make that deal sound more like a 1-2yr loan with RM having the option to make it a sale, plus RM gets all of the price upfront without risk.

If RM receive 30m now and save on his wages for the next two years, then the buy-back fee is almost equivalent.  They basically sent him out on loan for two years to see if he would develop.  But if RM don’t buy him back, they get all the transfer fee upfront and Spurs have all the risk that he doesn’t pan out or gets injured.

As much as we all like to criticize Woodward, I wouldn’t have accepted those deal terms either.  I’m pretty surprised that Daniel Levy would.  So Spurs want Reguilon to be a good signing, but not so good that his value appreciates at all in the next two years.  RM can buy him back just to sell him on.  They don’t need him to become their actual LB, they just need any price inflation at all.

[Mexal]

Auba signing now official. Great. Now sell some folks and buy some more. We still have quite a few balance issues to be sorted and the squad is quite big.

[Consigliere]

7 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Those figures make that deal sound more like a 1-2yr loan with RM having the option to make it a sale, plus RM gets all of the price upfront without risk.

If RM receive 30m now and save on his wages for the next two years, then the buy-back fee is almost equivalent.  They basically sent him out on loan for two years to see if he would develop.  But if RM don’t buy him back, they get all the transfer fee upfront and Spurs have all the risk that he doesn’t pan out or gets injured.

As much as we all like to criticize Woodward, I wouldn’t have accepted those deal terms either. I’m pretty surprised that Daniel Levy would.  So Spurs want Reguilon to be a good signing, but not so good that his value appreciates at all in the next two years. 

It's an okayish short term deal for Spurs - Reguilon is a good player; better than any of Spurs' other LB options. It would appear that Levy has put all his eggs in the Mourinho basket and as we all know, Mourinho is a short term manager so he will not care if Reguilon leaves in two seasons. 

It's a very good deal for Real Madrid though as you laid out. Mendy is first choice and Zidane also loves Marcelo but he'll probably be gone in a couple of seasons so Real could have a ready made replacement for a reasonable fee. It also gives Real a chance to see how their 19y/o youth prospect (Miguel Gutiérrez who Zidane rates very highly) develops. 

 

Quote

RM can buy him back just to sell him on.  They don’t need him to become their actual LB, they just need any price inflation at all.

They did the same with Morata. Sold him to Juve for €20m with a €30m buyback and then sold him on for €65m.

[Soylent Brown]

Reguilon is a left back, isn't he? I'd have said Spurs have weaker players in the team than Ben Davies. While this may slightly improve them, I don't think it'll fix any of the glaring issues.

I'm not sure paying half of Bale's wages, or whatever it ends up being, for him to end up playing ~15 games of football and many more rounds of golf would be a great idea either.