Football: A Tale of Two Finals

[Spockydog]

If Martinez chooses Spurs over Arsenal I'll eat my keyboard.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

I enjoyed Messi crying his eyes out trying to blame La Liga for not breaking the rules and allowing Barca to sign him despite the consequences of mismanagement that among other things allowed Messi to get paid what he did to this date.

It's kind of wild to read that Barca's operating budget, just for players, was 110% of its total revenue, and even after it cut ties with Messi it was still at 95%. Rule of thumb here in the U.S., regardless of the sport, is try to always keep that below 50% while fielding the best team possible.

[Consigliere]

3 minutes ago, Mark Antony said:

I don’t understand why Liverpool aren’t linked with Lautaro if he really is on the market. Are we really that broke that we have to sell to buy while Spurs and Arsenal put in bids

Maybe someone more familiar with 'Pool's squad can chip in here. I was under the impression that Liverpool are maxed out on non homegrown players. When Kabak had joined in January, I recall an article saying that Liverpool are one player over on the non homegrown quota so either Origi or Minamino would have to be left out of the squad - the latter went out on loan. Since then Kabak and Wijnaldum have left but Konate has joined so Liverpool are at the maximum 17 non homegrown players right now.

[Spockydog]

Griezmann is apparently on EUR800k per week!?! 

[Consigliere]

Tahith Chong joined Birmingham on loan. He had a pretty good game against Sheffield United yesterday and was named MOTM.

Ethan Laird joins Swansea and Tuanzebe is heading back to Villa on loan - he also signed a one year extension with United with an option for a further year.

[polishgenius]

16 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Rule of thumb here in the U.S., regardless of the sport, is try to always keep that below 50% while fielding the best team possible.

 

In theory it is in Europe too, but a lot of clubs have overcooked it in an effort to keep up. It tends to be the smaller clubs in a league that move to 60%, 70% in an effort not to get relegated, though, not the league leaders and not 110% which is insane. 

[ljkeane]

31 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Maybe someone more familiar with 'Pool's squad can chip in here. I was under the impression that Liverpool are maxed out on non homegrown players.

I don't think the Premier League squads have actually been announced yet but, yeah, they're probably at around 17 non homegrown players at the moment. I doubt that's the reason for not signing any players though, I'm sure some rejigging of fringe players could be done if they really wanted. They seem to be looking to offload Shaqiri and Origi anyway so if it came down to it they could just not register them.

I think they're just not in for any forwards because they don't want one. Jota was signed last year and Harvey Elliott quietly had an excellent season in the Championship. I know fans want big signings but if they were going to make one they'd probably be looking to offload one of Firmino or Mane.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

19 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

In theory it is in Europe too, but a lot of clubs have overcooked it in an effort to keep up. It tends to be the smaller clubs in a league that move to 60%, 70% in an effort not to get relegated, though, not the league leaders and not 110% which is insane. 

And that's why despite it's awesome appeal competitively speaking, flirting with a sport with relegation is so dangerous from a business standpoint, especially if you have to bump the numbers up that much because you risk, last I read, a loss in 75-80% in revenue if you fall below the top league in your given country.

[Mark Antony]

17 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

I think they're just not in for any forwards because they don't want one. Jota was signed last year and Harvey Elliott quietly had an excellent season in the Championship. I know fans want big signings but if they were going to make one they'd probably be looking to offload one of Firmino or Mane.

Kind of a bizarre decision tbh. Firmino has been inconsistent for about a year and a half. We should be looking for a potential upgrade (like Lautaro) instead of trying to turn Ox into a false nine. I do think Konate was a smart signing but scoring goals was a bit of a problem for us last season and every title rival has improved. 

Based on pre season Elliot will be playing in midfield more than in the front three. 

[Iskaral Pust]

Yes, Liverpool are already at the ceiling for non-homegrown players in the squad.  One of Ben Davies or Nat Phillips will probably be retained as a back-up CB just because they are homegrown, for example, even if both would benefit from game time elsewhere.  U-21 players don’t need to be registered for the PL squad, so they don’t count toward the 8 homegrown slots.  That applies to Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliot (among others), but Jones will turn 21 by the January transfer window, which may allow another homegrown player to depart then.

The club is getting no offers for Origi or Shaqiri so far (a bit surprising for the latter after another good international tournament).  Minamino and Tsimikas (who played well in preseason) could also be sold if there is interest, just to free up a squad slot.  It’s very surprising that we gave Adrian a new contract because back-up keepers are great slots to park homegrown players (United use that heavily).

And the new regs on work permits for foreign players makes it much easier now for South American players to qualify without international experience, provided they are over 18 and have good club experience.  So there is a big value opportunity to add some young players directly from Brazil or Argentina, but you need squad slots open for them.

[Soylent Brown]

We'd have to be crazy to move on Tsimikas. He's the only real backup we have for Robertson, and while he's not had much chance to do anything for us yet, he looked pretty useful before he joined.

Robertson just went over on his ankle a minute ago as well, and that looked pretty nasty.

The front three we're using at the moment look pretty lively - Mane, Jota and Salah. Hopefully we start the season with them up front.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

2 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

We'd have to be crazy to move on Tsimikas. He's the only real backup we have for Robertson, and while he's not had much chance to do anything for us yet, he looked pretty useful before he joined.

Robertson just went over on his ankle a minute ago as well, and that looked pretty nasty.

The front three we're using at the moment look pretty lively - Mane, Jota and Salah. Hopefully we start the season with them up front.

Hope it's not ligament damage, if it is, we are screwed in that position.Who's backup no#3 there after Kostas?

[Mark Antony]

Milner

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Just now, Mark Antony said:

Milner

[Soylent Brown]

Milner seems to pick up injuries quite often if given a run in the team these days, so I'm not sure how much we can rely on him beyond being a bit-part player.

[The Sunland Lord]

4 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Poor Inter. Turns out I was wrong: they are fucked, because their current owner is everything Barca's previous board and presidency were, and is strip-mining the club of its player assets to get his money out. 

There was a bit of a hubbub on twitter yesterday coz a mistranslated tweet led to the rumour that it's happening because they're going into liquidation, which doesn't appear to be true, but the owner is acting as if it is and accepting any decent bit for any player. 

And so:
 

 

Suning never really showed with an act, or word, or anything else that we are not fucked over the previous year, and I'm not counting the Lukaku sale. If anything, they are consistent to show that all rumours about Inter going bust are true. I don't remember when everything negative that was leaked to the media about us was completely true-however, that is now the case and I wouldn't be surprised if they liquidated us. After all, they did it to their Chinese club already. They really thought the Superleague would go through-these people are completely out of depth. 

[polishgenius]

16 minutes ago, The Sunland Lord said:

that is now the case and I wouldn't be surprised if they liquidated us.

 

Ending a club that is 10 years old and in an undeveloped league is different than ending a 113 year old club that is one of the most prestigious in the world. They might fuck you, even see you relegated, but Inter aren't going to be as easy to just wind up and run with the money. 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

what a goal that would have been by Elliott.Unlucky to hit the bar.

[The Sunland Lord]

Lol, is Elliott the new Messi? 

[Consigliere]

37 minutes ago, The Sunland Lord said:

Suning never really showed with an act, or word, or anything else that we are not fucked over the previous year, and I'm not counting the Lukaku sale. If anything, they are consistent to show that all rumours about Inter going bust are true. I don't remember when everything negative that was leaked to the media about us was completely true-however, that is now the case and I wouldn't be surprised if they liquidated us. After all, they did it to their Chinese club already. They really thought the Superleague would go through-these people are completely out of depth. 

They did not do so willingly. They got into a disagreement with the CCP who then revoked the licence of Jiangsu Suning along with five other clubs to make examples of them. The Zhang family, along with other major Chinese investors in European football, are being strong-armed by the CCP to withdraw - it's an issue for Wolves as well. I don't see Inter getting liquidated either - guaranteed that the club will be sold but the Zhang family are probably going to get low-balled so they are asset-stripping in the mean time to recoup their investment.