Football: What goes up, must come down.

[Soylent Brown]

Perhaps not, but it would be close!

[Mark Antony]

Probably the end of Matip with us. Couldn’t stay fit but I’ll remember his very fondly for being arguably just as good as Virgil during our CL run. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

9 hours ago, baxus said:

Quite a bit of controversy in Serbia-Portugal match. In added time Ronaldo's shot was officially cleared from a goal line, though it looks like it crossed the line. No VAR in World Cup qualifiers so the ref's decision stuck. Not sure about goal line technology, why it wasn't used or if it was even there or what the rules say about it. If it Serbia and Portugal end up on the same number of points it could turn out to be a pretty significant mistake. And it seems quite clear it was a mistake.

Goalline technology is quite expensive. I think that might answer it. I'd guess the FA organized in UEFA would have little problem finding the cash for it, but I can still see some of them rather not having to invest in it (the Kosovo, Cyprus, Andorra are the first that come to my mind). Not to mention, if FIFA woul require it for the other continental federations. I think the Asian federation would not like it one bit.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Also Lewandowski picked up a ligament injury while on International duty the extent of his injury is not known yet and he is viewed as doubtful for the Leipzig-Bayern clash this WE.

[Daemon the Leaner]

11 hours ago, Soylent Brown said:

Ronaldo has and always will be a massive twat. His own stats are much more important to him than captaining his country, or his country winning.

I'm pretty sure he'd take losing in a World Cup final 4-3, having scored a hattrick, over winning 1-0 with someone else scoring the goal.

Yeah we all remember how gutted he looked, when Portugal won that Euro final 1-0 to France back in 2016, after he was substitued in 1st half through injury. 

More seriously, that Lewan injury might be PSG's bigger chance to go through. I'm aware Bayern still have an awful lot of excellent forwards and a very good midfield, but whoever they play instead of Lewan will be a massive downgrade (especially if it's Choupo-Moting).

[Corvinus85]

4 minutes ago, Ser Glendon Fireball said:

Yeah we all remember how gutted he looked, when Portugal won that Euro final 1-0 to France back in 2016, after he was substitued in 1st half through injury. 

Didn't he spend the rest of the game madly encouraging and coaching his teammates on the sideline, while wearing only his underwear and shirt?

12 hours ago, baxus said:

Quite a bit of controversy in Serbia-Portugal match. In added time Ronaldo's shot was officially cleared from a goal line, though it looks like it crossed the line. No VAR in World Cup qualifiers so the ref's decision stuck. Not sure about goal line technology, why it wasn't used or if it was even there or what the rules say about it. If it Serbia and Portugal end up on the same number of points it could turn out to be a pretty significant mistake. And it seems quite clear it was a mistake.

 

I thought it was extremely close. Goal line technology was definitely needed there. Were there any cameras not obscured by the defender that caught it?

[Consigliere]

Aguero announces that he will be leaving City at the end of the season.

Sam Lee has also reported that no offer has been made to Fernandinho as yet for an extension so he is also likely leaving at the end of the season.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

18 hours ago, Mark Antony said:

Probably the end of Matip with us. Couldn’t stay fit but I’ll remember his very fondly for being arguably just as good as Virgil during our CL run. 

Possibly, but not necessarily. There are some knock on effects here for several players.

First: Kabak. If you sign Konate, then you probably won't pick up Kabak on a permanent deal. That makes Schalke's trasfer business in the winter window even more bizarre. They effectively send away Kabak to replace him with Mustafi. Which really isn't an upgrade. Not that keeping Kabak would've kept them up (spoiler they are going down). But if you loan out your number one centerback, without an obligation to buy (to generate some much needed cash), then questions about what on earth you are doing are in order. But this is a different discussion. Bottom line is, if Konate joins Kabak leaves.

Second: Gomez. I think he might end up as the odd man out. His injury record is pretty much as bad as Matip's. That he is younger is on the one hand not a good sign, as that raises questions about his body being made for EPL football, on the other hand, that he is fairly young means there's a market for clubs who are willing to take a gamble on him. If you spend 40m on Konate, then I'd assume there's understanding him and van Dijk will be Liverpool's first choice CB pairing. Again, Gomez is a young (highly) promising centreback, so placing a new signing in front of him, might make him consider a move somewhere, where he is first choice.

Third: Matip. Whether you'll part with him, depends on the other two. He is older than Gomez, and with his Liverpool injury record, there's very likely much less of a market for him than for Gomez. And he will be more focused on getting fit again. And he is less likely to be unhappy about a backup position at this stage. I don't think you will force him out on a free transfer, so he might very well stay.

[Consigliere]

You also need to take into account the restrictions on non homegrown players - you can only name a maximum of 17 in your 25 man squad. So I think that makes it much more likely that Matip will be offloaded rather than Gomez. 

[Soylent Brown]

Matip is massively injury prone. As good as he is when he's fit, we really can't afford to keep him.

We need four good, reliable centre backs, and at the moment, not including players on loan, we have two.

If we can sort out that position and also bring in a striker in the summer, I'd be happy. Perhaps trade in Adrian for an upgrade too.

[Mark Antony]

I don’t think signing Konate means we won’t keep Kabak tbh. We will see what happens.

Raiola today coming out again talking about how him and Pep do not get along. Gives me hope that Haaland will not end up at City. I’d rather he go anywhere else. 

[Soylent Brown]

Haaland will end up at one of the super rich clubs. His choice of agent shows that he cares way too much about money, so the relatively 'normal' clubs have no chance.

[Consigliere]

If Haaland waits until 2022 when his release clause becomes active then there will be no shortage of clubs chasing him.  If he wants to move this year then it's only the state funded clubs (City and PSG) who could afford him. Dortmund's president has also come out and said that the club are not in any serious financial difficulty and that the next two seasons are already fully financed regardless of whether or not the club qualifies for the CL. So don't expect any discounts - rumours are that Dortmund will demand €180m for Haaland this year.

[Consigliere]

 

Sam Lee reported a while back that City were considering Lukaku as an alternative to Haaland. Seemed very unlikely that Inter would sell but it could happen given Inter's financial predicament and the likelihood that Dortmund will slap a fuck off price tag on Haaland.

 

ETA.

 

[Mark Antony]

2 hours ago, Soylent Brown said:

Haaland will end up at one of the super rich clubs. His choice of agent shows that he cares way too much about money, so the relatively 'normal' clubs have no chance.

I mean yeah plus he’s arguably the best young talent itw so he’s going to go to a mega club

[baxus]

19 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

I thought it was extremely close. Goal line technology was definitely needed there. Were there any cameras not obscured by the defender that caught it?

Even the footage from the camera that was obscured by the defender shows that it's pretty likely that it crossed the goal line properly. I mean, there's still a chance that a part of the ball was above the line and the angle of the camera was misleading, but I'd say it's not likely.

9 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

First: Kabak. If you sign Konate, then you probably won't pick up Kabak on a permanent deal. That makes Schalke's trasfer business in the winter window even more bizarre. They effectively send away Kabak to replace him with Mustafi. Which really isn't an upgrade. Not that keeping Kabak would've kept them up (spoiler they are going down). But if you loan out your number one centerback, without an obligation to buy (to generate some much needed cash), then questions about what on earth you are doing are in order. But this is a different discussion. Bottom line is, if Konate joins Kabak leaves.

I don't see why Kabak would leave in that case. I mean, he's shown he's pretty good this season and his price tag is not that big. Liverpool getting VVD back and signing Konate would definitely not leave them with an abundance of CBs. Kabak, Matip, Phillips - all of them would be pretty good backups and shouldn't have problem with that status. Phillips and Kabak are still very young and would have a lot of room to improve.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

21 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Goalline technology is quite expensive. I think that might answer it. I'd guess the FA organized in UEFA would have little problem finding the cash for it, but I can still see some of them rather not having to invest in it (the Kosovo, Cyprus, Andorra are the first that come to my mind). Not to mention, if FIFA woul require it for the other continental federations. I think the Asian federation would not like it one bit.

I listening to my favorite sports show right now (and for context, it's more like the Colbert Report than a series show) and they were saying Ronaldo walked off the pitch in disgust, leaving his team to play 10-11.

Almost wrote field instead of pitch, but I caught myself. I'm learning! Here's a great comedy routine about the importance of education and improve language acquisition:

 

[baxus]

11 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I listening to my favorite sports show right now (and for context, it's more like the Colbert Report than a series show) and they were saying Ronaldo walked off the pitch in disgust, leaving his team to play 10-11.

He did walk off, but it happened literally seconds before the final whistle so it's not as if his team was significantly weakened by his actions. I'm not sure he even managed to get completely off the pitch at the moment ref called the game.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

4 minutes ago, baxus said:

He did walk off, but it happened literally seconds before the final whistle so it's not as if his team was significantly weakened by his actions. I'm not sure he even managed to get completely off the pitch at the moment ref called the game.

Damn, without the context it was far funnier. I'm just going to lie to myself and pretend he did it in the 83rd minute of a 1-1 match. That's at least slightly believable. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

1 hour ago, baxus said:

I don't see why Kabak would leave in that case. I mean, he's shown he's pretty good this season and his price tag is not that big. Liverpool getting VVD back and signing Konate would definitely not leave them with an abundance of CBs. Kabak, Matip, Phillips - all of them would be pretty good backups and shouldn't have problem with that status. Phillips and Kabak are still very young and would have a lot of room to improve.

No, Kabak by himself would be available at a reasonable fee. However, you also have to buy Konate. So you suddenly spent 40m on Konate and another 30m on Kabak. That's 70m. Shouldn't be a problem for a club of Liverpool's size. But you are running a rather conservative transfer budget. So unless you sell someone, I don't think it's particularly likely you end up spending that money, thus you will only sign one of them, thus Konate in = Kabak out.

Also @Mark Antony