2016/17 Soccer Thread

I'll die on my "Elliott is not a good goalkeeper" hill. When he was getting plaudits for "giving the team a chance" two years ago when we got relegated his save percentage bad decisively bad and no better than what Tim Krul had been putting up since the 5th-place season. I like my goalkeepers to be at least average shot stoppers.

Krul is bad and them giving him another year on his contract last summer was dumb (gambling that he'd actually play at Ajax and boost his value, but since he's bad that was always unlikely).

No opinion on Sels but what I've heard isn't positive and although I haven't been a big fan of Darlow from what little I saw from him this year I thought he was decent enough.

What a great game so far. The Mandzukic equalizer is one of the best goals I've seen in a long time.

bigred wrote:

What a great game so far. The Mandzukic equalizer is one of the best goals I've seen in a long time.

Great stuff!

This game disappointingly fell apart in the second half. Was very disappointed by Dybala's performance (or lack thereof). There's still 12 minutes for a comeback (rooting for Buffon) but Real are in their element.

I still thought it was a good game in the second half, though probably not if you are a Juventus fan. They didn't play well, and really faded after starting brightly - the midfield just got completely outplayed by Kroos and Modric in particularly.

The quality of the game almost managed to offset my descent into nightmare. Imagine the scene, if you will. Davet010 is preparing himself for the game (radio only, it's on pay TV here). Beer - check. Comfy chair - check.

"And now, over to your commentator, Brian Green" (oh for f*ck's sake). "And with him tonight, Alan Shearer" (You've got to be f*cking joking).

Green indulged himself in his usual self-important banter, coining the amusing idea that 'this game is boring, isn't it' after Mandzukic's goal - and then proceeding to batter away at it for the rest of the first half. And the half time interval. Almost as long as I would have battered at him, given the chance.

Transfer thoughts - Pep, buy Modric tomorrow, please. Wouldn't say no to Isco either, if you like. Pjanic to United, according to ESPN...I'm all in favour of that, he was completely anonymous. Maybe they'd really make my weekend with a cheeky De Gea plus £30m bid for Bale - here's hoping.

That was a wonderful final (except for the Ramos farce at the end). I was really hoping Ronaldo would get a 3rd goal to complete the hat trick.

Couldn't help but wonder how Rafa Benitez would have done if he was permitted to play Casemiro.

Juve just didn't show up in the second half, they were unlucky that the first two were deflected as well. I think the midfield just didn't do enough really, in hindsight it probably would've been better to start Marchisio.

I'd like to think Ramos will get some sort of ban for that, it was disgraceful and totally within his character, unfortunately.

Clusks wrote:

I'd like to think Ramos will get some sort of ban for that, it was disgraceful and totally within his character, unfortunately.

This game only heightened my distaste for Ramos. Also, I really like Cuadrado, so that episode was particularly infuriating.

Cheick Tioté died today after collapsing in training in China. His equalizer against Arsenal still gives me goosebumps:

And Liverpool are apparently splashing £60m for Virgil van Dijk. I know there's loads of TV money about but spending that much on a central defender when teams are generally so bad at evaluating them seems like madness.

You could get Aymeric Laporte or Varane for that sort of dollar. Van Dyke is good, but he ain't THAT good.

Scousers are about to blow 35m on some ex-Chelsea winger they could have had for 11m 3 years ago but balked at the price.

Franck Kessie signed on a 2 yr loan at Milan (from Atalanta). He'll be a very good player soon.

In other very sad (at least to me) news, 1860 Munchen have tumbled out of 2.Bundesliga and are going to end up in the amateur leagues. Relegated in a playoff, their foreign owner refused to pay the licence fee for 3.Bundesliga because the board wouldn't give him powers to massively alter the club (some of which they couldn't give him due to the 49% rule in German soccer). So a club with a 25,000 average attendance will end up dropping into the regional leagues, despite having the 3rd highest payroll in B2..and yes, the other two went up.

Sounds like an FM17 challenge for me, if I can find a mod that has the German leagues down to regional level. Still pretty sh*t though, they've had some terrible luck since FC Arrogant snaffled their share of the Allianze from them. Still, it was pretty obvious who held the purse strings in that stadium - the Bayern club shop was about the size of a supermarket, the 1860 shop about the size of a garden shed...and when I went, the week after the season started, they had no replica shirts as 1860 hadn't confirmed a sponsor.

As a Saints supporter, I love Virgil.

As an old CB, he is one of my favorite CBs to watch.

No f*cking way is he worth £60m, but I imagine we'll cash that check with a smile.

Kessie was just about the best young player in Serie A last season, if Milan can get Belotti or Morata then things will will very much be clicking into place. Like the total opposite of Inter, who since their take over have seemed to just throw money at any player who seems to be the flavour of the week. Saying that though, Spaletti will be the best coach they've had in years, I find it crazy how a lot of Roma fans seem happy to see him leave, I can see a bit of a decline coming for them, especially if they lose Salah. I think they'll struggle to compete with Napoli and Juve now, more likely to chase them are Inter, if Spaletti get their house in order, which I think he will, and Milan since they finally aren't fielding the likes of Adel Taraabt.

It's sad to see Tiote go, he could be super frustrating a lot of the time (I remember one of those times though was because Pardew thought he could use him as a Cabaye replacement.) But he was there for years, and I know it's easy to roll out niceties once people have passed away, but he did really try his hardest in every game.

Hmm, Diego Costa is informed that his services are no longer required (can anyone say 'Lukaku' ?), and then comes the news that United are not going to renew Zlatan's contract.

Diego Costa, Mourinho and Manchester United. They truly deserve each other.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure how Liverpool could make themselves look more incompetent than they presently do over the Virgil Van Dyke transfer, although I'm sure their owners will try. That said, maybe they just got cold feet over the ludicrous fee and decided to get the pain over with in one shot.

Want to see a keeper (other than Claudio Bravo) have a mare?

I present the u-20 WC semi final, between Italy and England. Donnarumma is with the full squad (once he puts his exams off).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/...

davet010 wrote:

Want to see a keeper (other than Claudio Bravo) have a mare?

What does dressage have to do with a bit of footy, mate?

davet010 wrote:

Want to see a keeper (other than Claudio Bravo) have a mare?

I present the u-20 WC semi final, between Italy and England. Donnarumma is with the full squad (once he puts his exams off).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/...

Yikes. That last goal especially.

Canada should host a Men's U-20 World Cup again instead of the 12.5% of the 2026 World Cup. It was fun in 2007 - Maxi Moralez and Alexandre Pato hyped up, Andrea Lombardo being Andrea Lombardo, Begovic getting a red card after handling outside the area forcing Canada to play a midfielder in goal. That was a fun tournament.

Bookies: Southampton in running to sign departing Chelsea captain John Terry

Oh god, I just threw up in my mouth -- a lot.

The one team in the league I could see Terry working out okay is Burnley. They defend ridiculously deep so his lack of pace wouldn't be as big of a deal and they put a ton of bodies on the goal line to clear otherwise goals off the line.

Roke wrote:

The one team in the league I could see Terry working out okay is Burnley. They defend ridiculously deep so his lack of pace wouldn't be as big of a deal and they put a ton of bodies on the goal line to clear otherwise goals off the line.

He'd feel at home with the knuckle-dragging racists who make up a proportion of their crowd base as well. Either there or Stoke.

It's the first time in 17 years an Ameobi isn't in any Newcastle squad, as Sammy Ameobi has been released He had a lot of potential at first, and did very well at Bolton, but I'm sad to see him go. People joke about Shola, but he really is loved by Newcastle fans as a cult hero, particularly due to the fact he had a penchant for scoring against Sunderland.

The whole family are very much loved by the Newcastle community. I remember my Dad, who isn't the most PC person out there, saying he spoke to a family member of the Ameobi family on a flight once while Shola was playing in Turkey. He was charmed by them and said they were a lovely person (although very much worried about Shola playing in a war torn part of Turkey!) And I think that says enough.

I remember one of Sammy's first appearances in a game at Darlington in pre-season, which I went to; it was at the Reynolds Arena, which caused Darlington to go bankrupt due to its size. We had to park the car on the dual carriageway there were so many people there they didn't account for. We got inside and there was no seating, everyone just stood where they wanted to, it was one of the worst organised events I've ever been to. Newcastle fans managed to fill half the stadium; it was probably one of the biggest crowds they got.

Anyway, not too much happened, apart from the odd hostility, but after 70 minutes Sammy Ameobi came on. Immediately, chants of "if Sammy scores, we're on the pitch" started all around the Newcastle end. Well, two minutes after coming on, Sammy got in on goal and scored. Duly, people ran onto the pitch and went wild, much to the confusion of the Newcastle players, mostly Sammy. Darlington fans got onto the pitch as well, starting a fight that lasted quite a while. It made the news on Sky Sports due to Newcastle's predicament as a bit of laughing stock, but for me I'll never forget that game due to Sammy's impact.

The same chant started at Leeds, away, that pre-season, in which he almost scored, at which my non-supporting Newcastle mate almost knocked my out with excitement. All I want to say is, the Ameobi family is a treasure of the North East, they are part of our fabric and I'm proud to say they represent the north east!

I never really warmed to Shola but that's probably because I'm a miserable bastard. He was decent enough but Pardew regularly giving him what I thought were way too many minutes in the Tyne-Wear derby late in his career. As an "in case of emergency, break glass and hoof the ball up" option he was fine. Probably one of those things were following the team overseas means the connection isn't as close as the local supporters.

With Sammy who knows if he could have developed better but he really didn't get enough games from 2010 onwards. The club should have been loaning him out to help his development but apart from 9 games at 'Boro in 2013 he didn't get loaned out until it was probably too late and his games for Newcastle were sporadic.

Tomi Ameobi's still at FC Edmonton. Shame they'll never be in MLS because I think Sammy could be a decent non-DP player there.

Oh, Hugo Lloris.

Scotland 2 England 2.

Not a game either goalkeeper will look back on with any fondness.

Oh, and Pep - give Brendan Rogers a ring and offer him Joe Hart for Tierney - perhaps with another 12 month loan for Patrick Roberts to seal it.

A lot is being made currently of England's strength at u-21, u-20 and u-17 levels. Well they'd better hope that those players progress, because that full England side was pedestrian, lacking in pace and ideas.

I mean, Livermore ? That's the best they can come up with ? And while Eric Dier might be good at a number of positions, he doesn't seem to be very good at anything in particular.

Apparently Spurs believe Kyle Walker is worth £60m. Oh really.

Pickford being reported as inbound. Price is a little steep, but he's definitely an upgrade, and hopefully will continue to develop.

Still going to need several more signings with Europa Leage next season, even with youth players to help round out the squad.

£30m for Jordan Pickford doesn't seem so bad when you remember it's what Spurs paid for Moussa Sissoko, and Pickford is a better midfielder.

That's about £5-10m more than I was expecting for Pickford but with all the TV money floating around I don't have a good handle on the transfer market anymore. I do think he's a very good keeper. It's probably my hockey following infecting my thinking but I think for anyone but a top team you're still better off dumpster diving for keepers and spending the money on outfield players.

Puel sacked. I guess he didn't exactly do well, but it's still top half of the table, would've thought there'd be more rope there to see how things play out.

The fans have been on his ass all year about a number of things -- player rotation policy, boring tactics, odd substitutions, etc. Rumor mill has been that a number of high profile players were unhappy with him as well (most notably Tadic). When by the end of the year we couldn't buy a goal with all the money in London, folks were really done.

I think the writing has been on the wall since the lame fall from the Europa league. He put out some youth heavy, somewhat weak teams in games that we really should have won, all the while overusing the word rotation.

While not as entertained as I was under Poch or Koeman, I didn't think he was bad. He definitely showed a willingness to play the academy, which is huge in my book. It was nice to see the kids in Saints kit instead of Swindon Town. His system really let the fullbacks and 6 shine as well. Bertrand, Cedric, McQueen and Romeu all had a solid year.

EDIT: Similar viewpoint in print: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/sai...

Basically, he didn't necessarily do anything "wrong", but folks turned on him.

Anyone else watching the Confederations Cup right now? Russia has been taking a lot of shots against New Zealand, but no score yet.

Yes, that's it, Fernando. Keep Bernardo in the bench while the good for nothing André Gomes plays on. Just remember that 3rd place won't be enough this time.