Football: Transfers of Power

[Iskaral Pust]

50 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

£17m for Neco Williams is very much in line with those transfers. He has his fans as he's so attacking (pretty much all he does is try to score, and sometimes it works), but he's incredibly limited as a player.

Yep, it’s a good fee for Liverpool to receive, as was Minamino’s.  My point was that it’s a welcome improvement after not seeing much in transfer fees for a while as COVID limited transfer budgets.  Shaqiri left for very little, Gini and Origi left for free, Mane’s fee wasn’t much considering the replacement cost, Ben Woodburn was released for no fee (could not get any buyers last year), and I don’t think we expect to receive any further fees this summer.  Harry Wilson left for 12m last summer, which seems low for his impact in getting Fulham promoted.  Ryan Kent went for only 7m despite being a big success for Rangers.  We’ve been the champions of net spend for a long time but our transfer revenue had largely dried up for the past two years.

Unrelated: Although Origi is a cult hero among Liverpool fans, it’s pretty crazy that we paid him 100k per week for the past five years.  He hasn’t looked capable of playing in the first XI since that EL run in 2016.  By the time he returned from his Everton leg break, Mane was established and Salah soon to arrive.  He was great for occasional late goals, and goals against Everton in general, but he was a very expensive bench warmer.  His loan to Wolfsburg was a disaster who mainly played when we rotated the reserves in.  It’ll be very interesting to see if he can be a success at Milan.

[Rorshach]

Norway looks a mixed bag based on warm-up games and the game vs NI.

We have an attack that on its day can score at will (Reiten, Hegerberg, Graham Hansen are all excellent players), and we have a solid if maybe unspectacular midfield. There seems to be work to be done at the back, though. Can't say much about the GK, she's very fresh at this level. But both CBs have been better before (Thorirsdottir has regressed, I feel, while Mjelde has been injured quite a bit) and our backs are all brand new and untested. 

So we control the game today, but we let in a goal because of communication problems and passive defending. That we can do vs NI, but not for the rest of the tournament.

[The Sunland Lord]

 

[Iskaral Pust]

Joe Gomez signed a new contract with Liverpool for a further five years.  Great that he’s staying.  It must have been tough to lose his starting spot after injury — he was the starting CB alongside VVD as we won the title — but he looked fitter and sharper toward the end of last season.  He and Konate can be the future CB pairing.

[Teng Ai Hui]

It's been a very slow work day, so I've been doing a lot of tinkering with my fantasy team.  We will reform our league again this year, right?

[Rorshach]

Ah, Fantasy Football! 

Where I learn every year that I suck at Fantasy Football. Can't wait to do so again.

[Spockydog]

No alcohol on game weeks? That's almost every single week of the year.

Forcing players to sack their personal chefs and take their main meals at the training ground? 

I give him half a season before the players revolt and he is out on his ear.

 

[Soylent Brown]

A big part of what United need to do to sort themselves out is to back their manager over their players, so whilst this may see some people leaving, that might not include ETH.

Those all seem like fair rules, mind.

[Spockydog]

26 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

A big part of what United need to do to sort themselves out is to back their manager over their players, so whilst this may see some people leaving, that might not include ETH.

Those all seem like fair rules, mind.

Not one pint during the season? All season. So you cannot have a cheeky half after a game on Sunday, even if you're not playing for another week. That's a bit draconian.

And players will be summarily dropped if late to training or a meeting - no exceptions whatsoever. According to talksport, not even if you're stuck behind a serious RTA or if your children are sick. That is just bullshit, and a terrible approach to man management.

I've had bosses like this before. He sounds like a right arsehole.

Love it!

[baxus]

38 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

A big part of what United need to do to sort themselves out is to back their manager over their players, so whilst this may see some people leaving, that might not include ETH.

It would help fix at least some of the problems they're facing but United haven't really backed their manager over their players since Fergie, have they?

19 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Not one pint during the season? All season. So you cannot have a cheeky half after a game on Sunday, even if you're not playing for another week. That's a bit draconian.

And players will be summarily dropped if late to training or a meeting - no exceptions whatsoever. According to talksport, not even if you're stuck behind a serious RTA or if your children are sick. That is just bullshit, and a terrible approach to man management.

I've had bosses like this before. He sounds like a right arsehole.

Love it!

I remember watching the BBC documentary about British men's coxless four preparations for Sydney Olympics (I think it was called "Gold Fever"), when Redgrave was trying to win gold in his fifth Olympics. There was a scene when they filmed rowers at New Year's eve parties and Cracknell said: "This is my last pint until Sydney final race is over" and that race was scheduled for mid-August or something like that. And he wasn't getting paid anywhere near the level of United youngsters, let alone their main players so they can suck it up.

Problem with being dropped if late for training or meeting is that you need to stick to it 100%. If one excuse is taken then the can of worms is open and there's no closing it. Otherwise you get a lot of "and what about when he..." questions that you can't really give a valid answer to.

[Spockydog]

"Sorry I'm ten minutes late, boss. The baby's got meningitis."

"So what. You're dropped for Liverpool away."

You can't run a team like that. Doesn't matter if they're footballers, or telesales agents. You can't treat people like that and expect them to respond well to your methods.

 

 

[polishgenius]

Given that our sources for the extent of this strictness are TalkSport and the Express, I'm gonna doubt it until I see players revolt over it. As far as I can tell he's on good terms with most of his Ajax players (and ex players judging by trying to buy them all), which doesn't seem likely if he was like that all the time. 

 

 

[Consigliere]

I doubt Ten Hag is going to be as draconian as that. He's not some noob who just started managing recently. If he were that draconian and unreasonable, there would have been issues at his previous clubs and we'd have heard about it. The Express and Talksport are not that reliable either.

[Heartofice]

There is always a story about new crackdowns on discipline when a United manager starts, because it helps the narrative that the squad is full of lazy celebs who want to party and eat chips every day. 

[The Sunland Lord]

How can a manager forbid the players to talk to THEIR agents, who work for them? I know it sounds popular because agents are widely disliked, but that (if true) isn't going to work.

[Spockydog]

57 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

 The Express and Talksport are not that reliable either.

That's not to say that neither has ever broken a genuine story.

I'm not sure what to believe. It seems a very specific list (monthly BMI checks, airing of grievances).

Maybe Ten Hag decided he wanted to out-Arteta Arteta, by making his list of non-negotiables patently ridiculous. Though, something he should definitely consider emulating would be Arteta's personnel clear out. That's what they need more than anything, I think.

Maybe he sees these demands as a means of expediting that process. In which case, it's quite crafty.

 

 

[Consigliere]

I'm sure Ten Hag is going to have some rules laid down as every manager does but I doubt those rules are going to be as draconian as The Express and Talkshite are making it out to be. Looks like the usual sensationalism from shitrags to me.

[Spockydog]

Well, fuck.

Premier League club of arrested player knew of rape allegation last autumn

 

[Darryk]

Man U need a tough coach like that right now. The players who don't abide by it can be cleared out, provided the Glazers are willing to back their manager.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

4 hours ago, The Sunland Lord said:

How can a manager forbid the players to talk to THEIR agents, who work for them? I know it sounds popular because agents are widely disliked, but that (if true) isn't going to work.

Not really fobidding it. All he says: if you have an issue (playing time, tactics whatever) talk to me in person first. 

I wasn't aware that that crybabyism was so prevalent at United, that it needed spelling out. I know it used to be quite common at the academy levels a few years back, that agents bothered the coaches and threatened a move players, when their assets were benched for a few games. The right response would of course be for the player to talk to the coach in person: I have not been played a lot recently, why is that? Is there anything I can do to get back into the Starting XI? 

As for some of the other stuff. Showing up late for training = not getting selected is also rather standard thing. Firmino learnt that bit in Germany, where he had a habit of showing up late for training early on. When he learnt that he was getting benched for being late for training, he adjusted his behaviour. Problem solved. I don't think he had any such issues at Liverpool.