Football: The summer of selling (out)

[Spockydog]

And I guess neither the Glazers, nor Eric Ten Hag, care much about the United's women's team, the female employees of the club, or the reported half of the men's squad who want nothing more to do with the rapey little shit.

 

Edited July 29, 2023 by Spockydog

[polishgenius]

Please stop biting on fake Sky accounts.

Edited July 29, 2023 by polishgenius

[A Horse Named Stranger]

So UEFA has banned Juve from its competition for a season. Juve despite being convinced to have done nothing wrong do not appeal to put an end to it (and probably felt not playing in the conference league was not that big of a punishment). So they can solely focus on qualifying for the CL next season. The punitive fee is negligible. If UEFA had made that a two year ban, I guarantee you they would've appealed.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

On 7/23/2023 at 1:58 AM, Tywin et al. said:

The ladies of Midsommar are dangerous. And really tall. 

The Midsommars are mean. And again, tall. 

3-0

Edited July 29, 2023 by Tywin et al.

[The Sunland Lord]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

So UEFA has banned Juve from its competition for a season. Juve despite being convinced to have done nothing wrong do not appeal to put an end to it (and probably felt not playing in the conference league was not that big of a punishment). So they can solely focus on qualifying for the CL next season. The punitive fee is negligible. If UEFA had made that a two year ban, I guarantee you they would've appealed.

They will pull out from the Super League idea, in agreement with Uefa so the punishment would be only 1 year instead of 2. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Ah, that's why Juve backed out, was wondering why.

In other news. Bellingham decided to get an upgrade. He has applied for an Irish passport. The Bundesliga has no direct restrictions for foreigners, and the Serie A treats English players as EU citizens, La Liga however is a bit more strict with their rules. Only 3 non-EU players in the matchday squad and English players are no longer EU citizens. The Irish passport would solve this issue, and his application is apparently a mere formality as he has Irish grandparents.

[Spockydog]

8 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Please stop biting on fake Sky accounts.

The account might be fake, but the news that Adidas still want to work with a rapist appears to be true. Widely reported this morning.

 

[Consigliere]

I don't think there's any doubt that United are looking to try and sneakily reintegrate Greenwood back into the squad eventually otherwise his contract would've been terminated already. Last I heard the club was open to a loan move (possibly to one of the Turkish clubs) but not a sale.

[Iskaral Pust]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Ah, that's why Juve backed out, was wondering why.

In other news. Bellingham decided to get an upgrade. He has applied for an Irish passport. The Bundesliga has no direct restrictions for foreigners, and the Serie A treats English players as EU citizens, La Liga however is a bit more strict with their rules. Only 3 non-EU players in the matchday squad and English players are no longer EU citizens. The Irish passport would solve this issue, and his application is apparently a mere formality as he has Irish grandparents.

Imagine if Bellingham, Rice and Grealish had declared for Ireland instead of England.  The football might even be watchable.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Anyway, at least we can now put that conspiracy theory about the Saudis buying expensive big name players past their prime to help Boehly to rest.

They are doing that to raise their profile as a footballing nation for WC bid.

I hate infantino so much.

[Denvek]

4 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Imagine if Bellingham, Rice and Grealish had declared for Ireland instead of England.  The football might even be watchable.

Kane could have played for Ireland as well.

[Mexal]

Not cheap…

 

[polishgenius]

Yeah, we're overpaying. Which puts a lot of pressure on him as a still-learning kid- hope he doesn't suffer from the same issues as Antony.

I like him though. It's a gamble on whether he can get the goalscoring consistent, but he seems to be at least an okay finisher, he's got great movement from what I've seen and by all accounts from those who watch him more, and he'll be playing in front of Bruno. He should get a few. He should also hopefully tie the rest of the frontline together too and let them get more scoring opportunities around him. 

 

Obviously someone more proven would be ideal, but Kane is not available to us right now and, well, there isn't really anybody else. 
 

[ljkeane]

10 minutes ago, Mexal said:

Not cheap…

 

I just don’t really get it to be honest. Yeah, there’s a shortage of proper strikers around and as a young player I assume there’s something to like there but it’s not as if he’s even coming off a particularly impressive season for Atalanta (in terms of goals anyway). That’s a very big gamble.

[Iskaral Pust]

That makes Darwin Nunez look like a bargain.

FWIW, it’s only preseason but he has looked more composed and poised so far.  It would be great to see him gain that development this season.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

15 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

That makes Darwin Nunez look like a bargain.

FWIW, it’s only preseason but he has looked more composed and poised so far.  It would be great to see him gain that development this season.

And he scored again today and looked very sharp!

Mac was outstanding! Excited for the Bayern game.

[Consigliere]

16 hours ago, ljkeane said:

I just don’t really get it to be honest. Yeah, there’s a shortage of proper strikers around and as a young player I assume there’s something to like there but it’s not as if he’s even coming off a particularly impressive season for Atalanta (in terms of goals anyway). That’s a very big gamble.

United have been a very poorly run club for a long time. This is what happens when people running the football side of things are morons, don't have any alternatives lined up and are useless at both buying and selling which is why United might end up having problems with the new FFP squad cost rules.

There's no such thing as 'United tax', at least not in the way that United fans generally use that term; it's just a nice way of saying 'United stupidity'. Every club in the world sees United as easy marks ripe for the fleecing and the morons running the club prove them right every time.

[The Sunland Lord]

I see United would want Amrabat for about 30m£, but only third tier sources so far. Where would he play, together with Casemiro in front of the defense I assume?

[Spockydog]

Poor Nick Pope. He's gotten so used to timewasting, he can't help himself from wasting time, even when Newcastle need a goal in the final moments of a pre-season friendly. 

Anyway, Eddie "I'm Just a humble football man" Howe is going to have to come up with an entire new strategy for next season. PL refs say they are going to eradicate timewasting. They are reportedly going to add the stoppages for free-kicks, goal-kicks, and corners on at the end.

 

[polishgenius]

1 hour ago, The Sunland Lord said:

I see United would want Amrabat for about 30m£, but only third tier sources so far. Where would he play, together with Casemiro in front of the defense I assume?

 

The first choice midfield is pretty definitely going to be Casemiro-Mount-Bruno, but Amrabat would be a good option to step in for Mount if we want to focus on defence or passing a bit more, and could also step in for Casemiro when needed. Which we desperately missed last season. A depth signing, basically. A bit more urgent now because it looked like we were going to be bringing Mainoo through by using him that way but he's now injured for a while, though not clear how long. 

 

We've been linked with Amrabat all summer but I assume speculation will step up if and when we do finally wrap up Hojlund.