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

[Iskaral Pust]

Those sound like two short-term deals that fly in the face of good economic management.  But with huge debt for the stadium, Spurs might really struggle if they continue to miss out on the CL, so perhaps short-termism is the expedient thing right now.  

They were in the CL for four consecutive years, including a final.  But that was an anomalous period really for the club.  If they expected that to be their new normal, just as they were planning the new stadium, then they may have over-extended themselves.

Sheer spending power means that United, City and Chelsea should be qualifying for the CL most years.  That leaves Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs in the next financial tier competing for one remaining spot, or hoping that one of the big spenders is spending badly and thereby freeing up another spot (thank you United).  Unfortunately that’s not a great basis for Liverpool, Arsenal or Spurs to bet the farm.  Liverpool are having their moment of ascendancy now, without lots of debt, because their transfer dealings went really well for 3-4 years.  Arsenal are still laboring under the Ozil contract and defections by top players who ran down contracts.  Spurs had a good period too by keeping stars on below-market wages, but it caught up with them eventually.

The only silver lining for Spurs is that interest rates are so low around the developed world that it’s relatively cheap to service that much debt.  

[Consigliere]

32 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

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.

Yeah, I think Reguilon could improve them slightly. It would also depend on how Mourinho uses him. Reguilon's best attribute is his ability to carry the ball up the pitch - he's a good dribbler and passer but an average crosser. He's also good at pressing and winning back the ball further up the pitch; sitting back and defending in a low block is probably the weakest aspect of his game. 

 

Quote

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.

When United were being linked with Bale, I was really hoping that the rumours are not true. Paying even half of his wages is an enormous expense and Bale really does not look interested in football anymore in addition to being injury prone. He's been pretty rubbish for Wales as well for some time now. 

[Iskaral Pust]

14 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

When United were being linked with Bale, I was really hoping that the rumours are not true. Paying even half of his wages is an enormous expense and Bale really does not look interested in football anymore in addition to being injury prone. He's been pretty rubbish for Wales as well for some time now. 

And yet he won the CL for RM against Liverpool only two years ago.  Why couldn’t he have played golf that day? Preferably with scumbag Ramos.

[Consigliere]

25 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

And yet he won the CL for RM against Liverpool only two years ago.  Why couldn’t he have played golf that day? Preferably with scumbag Ramos.

That might very well have been the last good game that Bale had for RM. He was rubbish the following season after he was supposedly going to be the talisman after Ronaldo left and managed to be even worse this past season. 

[polishgenius]

6 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Yeah, I think Reguilon could improve them slightly. It would also depend on how Mourinho uses him. Reguilon's best attribute is his ability to carry the ball up the pitch - he's a good dribbler and passer but an average crosser. He's also good at pressing and winning back the ball further up the pitch; sitting back and defending in a low block is probably the weakest aspect of his game.

 

 

I suspect with having got Matt Doherty in the idea is that he wants a more aggressive right back on the other side, and between them the pair would mean he doesn't have to play Aurier anymore.

[Consigliere]

The Madrid papers saying that Spurs are going to pay all of Bale's wages. They do tend to be mouthpieces for RM and like to spin stories to make Real look good but it does look like Spurs are going to be taking on the majority of Bale's wages if not all of it. Surprised that Levy would agree to such a high cost, high risk deal. 

[Soylent Brown]

There's no way Spurs are going to pay ~£30m for a year of Bale, surely?

This is probably just what Real would like to happen, and the two sides are still haggling. If Spurs have any sense they'll push for a deal that has them only paying his wages during weeks he's available for selection.

[Consigliere]

Yeah, more reports coming out that the sticking point is who pays what percentage of his wages. Apparently RM want Spurs to pay all his wages while Spurs want Real to cover half. If Spurs' position actually is a 50/50 split then I don't know why RM are haggling. That would be a good deal for them. Even paying half his wages would make Bale the highest earner at Spurs by a good margin. I'd be shocked if Levy agrees to pay any more than that. 

[ljkeane]

Bale seems to be quite happy to sit on the bench in Madrid earning his money just to fuck them over so, yeah, they should snap Levy's hand off if Spurs are offering to pay half his wages.

[Wilbur]

33 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

Bale seems to be quite happy to sit on the bench in Madrid earning his money just to fuck them over so, yeah, they should snap Levy's hand off if Spurs are offering to pay half his wages.

You really have to wonder what the RM management team did to piss off Bale so much that he would do this.  Surely the RM braintrust should have been better at man-management than to waste a resource like that.  Or is Bale really a bad teammate?

[ljkeane]

17 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

You really have to wonder what the RM management team did to piss off Bale so much that he would do this.  Surely the RM braintrust should have been better at man-management than to waste a resource like that.  Or is Bale really a bad teammate?

My understanding is that Zidane basically flat out told him he didn't rate him so he doesn't have much motivation to play for him. I think Bale initially had a better relationship with Perez but them pulling out of the deal for him to go to China has soured his relationship with the rest of the club hierarchy.

I'd be irritated if he was doing it at Liverpool but you kind of have to respect Bale for not trying to sugarcoat things. He doesn't have a good relationship with his boss and his employers gave a him a good contract they're now stuck with. Why should he pretend that's not the situation he's in?

 

[Wilbur]

4 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

My understanding is that Zidane basically flat out told him he didn't rate him so he doesn't have much motivation to play for him. I think Bale initially had a better relationship with Perez but them pulling out of the deal for him to go to China has soured his relationship with the rest of the club hierarchy.

I'd be irritated if he was doing it at Liverpool but you kind of have to respect Bale for not trying to sugarcoat things. He doesn't have a good relationship with his boss and his employers gave a him a good contract they're now stuck with. Why should he pretend that's not the situation he's in?

I suppose that given the choice of living in Madrid and not playing for a management team you don't like, and living and playing in China, he probably still lives a better life now despite not getting that move.

Both RM and Barca have management teams with poor track records when it comes to signing players to big contracts for big transfer fees, and then not giving minutes on the field to those same players.

[Consigliere]

On 9/14/2020 at 12:24 AM, polishgenius said:

PSG vs Marseille ended in a bit of a scuffle- 5 sendings of in the 96th minute- two second yellows for Paredes and Benedetto for an ill-advised challenge and retaliation, two straight reds for Kurzawa and Amavi for straight out laying into each other in the resulting brawl, and one for Neymar for a little clip round the head of Alvaro Gonzalez who he claims was being racist throughout the game.

LPF have handed down sanctions. 

Kurzawa banned for 6 matches, Amavi for 3 matches, Neymar for 2 (+1 with a suspended sentence), Leandro Paredes 2 (+1 with a suspended sentence), Dario Benedetto for 1 match. Opening of an investigation on Alvaro Gonzales. 

[baxus]

17 hours ago, Wilbur said:

You really have to wonder what the RM management team did to piss off Bale so much that he would do this.  Surely the RM braintrust should have been better at man-management than to waste a resource like that.  Or is Bale really a bad teammate?

As far as I'm aware, no other club or teammate have had such complaints about Bale and neither has anyone related with Welsh national team.

[Soylent Brown]

Joyce and Reddy both now reporting that we're going for Thiago, regardless of any sales. Hopefully it gets done.

[ljkeane]

Huh, I really thought that wasn't going to happen after all with how long it's been talked about without any actual contact with Bayern. I suppose they wanted to make some sales before bringing him in but have decided that they can't risk missing out. You'd think that means Wijnaldum is probably going to leave.

[Consigliere]

1 hour ago, ljkeane said:

You'd think that means Wijnaldum is probably going to leave.

Not necessarily. It'll depend on whether Barca can offload more players unless another club comes in for Wijnaldum. Lyon's president mentioned a day or two ago that he had spoken to Bartomeu about Depay and was told that Barca cannot make an offer yet. Koeman later confirmed that Barca have to sell before they can buy. 

[Iskaral Pust]

I’m glad we’re adding some more creativity to MF just as opponents have started shifting their tactics to target our FBs.  If Keita stays healthy too, we could have a lot more threat from MF now.

OTOH, I’m still scratching my head why we didn’t pay 20m more to capture Werner instead.  He’s much younger and plays in the role where we have the greatest need. 

[The Winged Shadow]

2 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

I’m glad we’re adding some more creativity to MF just as opponents have started shifting their tactics to target our FBs.  If Keita stays healthy too, we could have a lot more threat from MF now.

OTOH, I’m still scratching my head why we didn’t pay 20m more to capture Werner instead.  He’s much younger and plays in the role where we have the greatest need. 

Saving those spots for Mbappe and Sancho obviously!

[Iskaral Pust]

12 minutes ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Saving those spots for Mbappe and Sancho obviously!

Of course.  Mbappé 2021 is on now.

Our homegrown quota is a challenge now unless Gini or Shaqiri do leave after all.  Having seen Lewis join Newcastle for 13m, I’m a bit surprised we moved onto Tsimikas as quick as we did.  Back-up to one of the best and fittest LBs in the world seems like a really good spot to add a young homegrown player and allow him to develop.