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


A Horse Named Stranger

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15 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

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. 

Getting Werner would have been ideal but I think it's a question of timing. Werner's release clause had an expiry date so the deal had to be made back in June when it wasn't clear cut that last season was going to be finished or whether we could rely on having a full season this year.

I'm pretty happy with the Thago signing though. I'd sort of resigned myself the fact that we were probably going to regress a bit this year, the level we've been playing at probably isn't sustainable for 3 straight seasons with pretty much the same team. It's hard to get too worked up about maybe taking a bit of a step back from excellent to very good on the back of the three previous seasons we've had but with the addition of Thiago there's a chance to improve the team.

 

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4 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Seems like Liverpool might be selling Rhian Brewster for 20-25mil, which I know there's additional circumstances involved but comparing him and Thiago's levels that is pretty mad.

That has been rumored for a few weeks now, with Sheffield United leading the chase.  I don’t know what to think of it.  Brewster has been very highly regarded within the club throughout his development, but we’ve had no chance to evaluate him at senior level.  He missed an entire season with injury, then he had a very good loan with Swansea for half a season.  His finishing looks excellent and he seems to have a good instinct for where to be to get chances, but his all-round game is hard to judge.

We obviously need to develop forwards beyond our current three starters, and I don’t think Origi suits our style well even if he could be a good mid-table striker.  Brewster at least still offers the tantalizing potential that he could develop into what we want.

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BT Sport: Premier League's highest earners if Madrid-Spurs strike a deal...

Bale £500,000 per week
Aubameyang £375,000 per week
De Gea £375,000 per week
Ozil £350,000 per week
De Bruyne £330,000 per week
Havertz £310,000 per week https://t.co/t9xlti9719
 

Salah is Liverpool’s highest earner at 200k per week.

(the tweet didn’t copy in the format I expected)

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As far as Bale goes, BT Sports are exaggerating. Most reports are that Spurs will be covering half of Bale's wages with Alasdair Gold saying that it is closer to a 40/60 split. 

 

ETA. and if you thought the drama at Barca was over, think again. Setien has just confirmed his intention of taking Barca to court over a dispute regarding his settlement.

And

Alfredo Martinez has reported that Barca socios have presented a motion of no confidence against the board with 20,731 signatures of club members. According to Barcelona's statutes, a motion of no confidence requires signatures of 15% of eligible club voters (around 16,500) who have been club members for more than a year. For the motion to pass, at least 10% of eligible club voters must take part in the vote with a two-thirds majority needed to oust the board. 

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3 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

BT Sport: Premier League's highest earners if Madrid-Spurs strike a deal...

Bale £500,000 per week
Aubameyang £375,000 per week
De Gea £375,000 per week
Ozil £350,000 per week
De Bruyne £330,000 per week
Havertz £310,000 per week https://t.co/t9xlti9719
 

Salah is Liverpool’s highest earner at 200k per week.

(the tweet didn’t copy in the format I expected)

This list is funny, for all the wrong reasons.

I mean, Bale, de Gea, and Özil just brings tears to everyone's eyes.

For fans of the clubs not involved, it's from laughing tears of joy. For the involved fans, it's just sad. To see that much money thrown at not much return on the pitch.

3 hours ago, Consigliere said:

ETA. and if you thought the drama at Barca was over, think again. Setien has just confirmed his intention of taking Barca to court over a dispute regarding his settlement.

:lol:

3 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Alfredo Martinez has reported that Barca socios have presented a motion of no confidence against the board with 20,731 signatures of club members. According to Barcelona's statutes, a motion of no confidence requires signatures of 15% of eligible club voters (around 16,500) who have been club members for more than a year. For the motion to pass, at least 10% of eligible club voters must take part in the vote with a two-thirds majority needed to oust the board. 

OK, that was to be expected. Just surprised at the speed of how things unfolded.

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4 hours ago, Soylent Brown said:

I'd much rather keep Brewster than Origi, but I guess there's not much interest in the latter.

I agree.  I really thought Origi would be sold this summer.  But he got a new contract a year ago and that has another four years to run.  We might be stuck with him.  He’s 25 now, and he’ll be eligible for a testimonial game by the end of this contract (if those are still a thing).

He’s no Phil Jones, but I would prefer to see him depart and have a good career somewhere.

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Phil Jones is a better defender than Origi is an attacker.

The problem with Phil Jones is he just doesn't know how to tone things down: he runs at full speed everywhere, thudding into everything, and thusly getting injured all the time.

In terms of economy of movement, he's the anti-VVD, but I still think he'd be a good addition to anyone's squad if he could figure that out and stay fit.

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21 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

Phil Jones is a better defender than Origi is an attacker.

The problem with Phil Jones is he just doesn't know how to tone things down: he runs at full speed everywhere, thudding into everything, and thusly getting injured all the time.

In terms of economy of movement, he's the anti-VVD, but I still think he'd be a good addition to anyone's squad if he could figure that out and stay fit.

Jones has one of the worst tackling techniques of any defender ever. Every time he goes in for a tackle, you feel he's got a 50% chance of injuring himself. When he gets a run in the team, he's a decent enough defender. He'd be a solid addition for any mid level club but with his injury record nobody wants to touch him with a ten foot pole. 

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Yeah really the only serious difference between Jones and Eric Bailly is that Jones pulls a lot of funny faces. He gets a lot of stick coz of that and the outsize praise he got when he signed, but he's a good player when he can keep himself fit for long enough to get a little run going.

Same went for Chris Smalling, which he's now proving with his exploits in Italy, and style-wise they would have been a good partnership as well if they weren't both made of biscuit.

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Buzzing about Thiago obviously (best signing in PL era for Liverpool in terms of signing an established World Class player?) but hope it doesn’t stifle Naby too much. He’s been one of Liverpool’s better players this calendar year. Was expecting he’d have an impactful season. 

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19 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Right, time for some Thiago 'footy porn'  :drool:

 

That chipped pass from midfield is going to be one of the biggest asset this year. None of our midfielders has it (closest is probably Shaq, who tries it every now and then). Fab/Milner/Hendo do long passes behind the back line for the forwards to chase, but not the super accurate cute chips that sets up a shot/volley for the forwards.

We've had our long pass/shield midfielders (Hendo, Fab, Milner, Gini) and the driving midfielders (Ox, Keita) and with Thiago we will have added the missing piece of that cute chip to the arsenal (not to mention an upgrade to all of the above as well!). Really happy we got this done. For a while I thought this was another Edwards feint.

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5 minutes ago, Mark Antony said:

Hoever to Wolves for 10m. Not the “deadwood” I expected us to shift. Thought he would be a player who we would loan out. Hopefully we can find buyers for Kairus, Wilson, Grunic.

We signed him for £90,000 , sold for £10m. Moneyball man! :D Good luck to him though.

Dembele on loan?? hmm......

 

 

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