2009/10 Soccer Thread - A Fresh Start

England 3 Mexico 1

Quick verdicts..the pluses

Glen Johnson is first choice RB
Ledley King lasted a game
Aaron Lennon is quick
James Milner is quite good

and the minuses

Theo Walcott has no natural football intelligence, and he can't cross a ball properly. If he played for someone outside the 'Big 4' he'd be on his hols by now.
Robert Green gives up too many rebounds

and the double minuses

Michael Carrick has the very rare 'can't see players in same colour shirts as you' blindness. Hope GazBaz is fit.
Leighton Baines...I so hope he hasn't cancelled his summer hols, because he's only slightly better than I am on that showing. God knows what he was trying to do guarding the post on their goal, but it was very reminiscent of Gianni Rivera's 'excuse me please' on the back post during Italy's 4-3 win over West Germany in the 1970 WC. Milner spent half of his time covering for Baines' inability to do the basics.
Ledley King gets out of position too much. I know he's not played many games next to Plug, but he's trying to make clever interceptions, missing them and getting out of where he should be.

Still could be worse. What the hell was this ?

Portugal 0 Cape Verde Islands 0

I saw that Portugal scoreline... what the heck happened?

Argentina completely bossed Canada 5-nil in their friendly and were very impressive with the ball and pressuring the Canadians into numerous mistakes when Canada had the ball. Di Maria has a heck of a left foot, his goal was absolutely tremendous, and later on he had a beautiful cross into the box which Palermo bottled. I can see why there are teams after Di Maria, what a left foot.

I had a good time watching the match even though the scoreline was pretty abysmal, and watching in a restaurant with 25 or so other Canadian supporters was a treat since that only happens once a year. It would have been nice to see Messi play but Argentina were pretty good without him.

Silly season transfer stories time! Help me decide which one is the most ridiculous:
Cannavaro and Henry to West Ham (what's terrifying is that they actually *want to buy them*),
Adebayor and Robinho to AC Milan (you gotta love them),
Sneijder to Real Madrid,
Angel di Maria to Real for 40M (radio in Lisbon announced it was a done deal a week ago),
Essien, Cole, Terry, Drogba and Stamford Bridge to Real in exchange for van der Vaart,
Yaya Toure in exchange for just about everyone, anywhere, from Fabregas to Pantsil (well, I haven't seen Toure-Pantsil story, but I'm pretty positive that it's somewhere out there)
Dżeko for Arsenal (MOST SURELY WE ARE DESPERATE FOR A STRIKER),
Joe Cole signed for Arsenal, no, really, he did, see?,
English newspapers making up all stories about Higuain just day after Valdano said that they're definitely not selling him,
Manchester City selling half of their squad every day (and every day to a host of different clubs),
Torres to Chelsea oh wait United no Barcelona but Real actually wants to stay.
Same with David Silva but for third season in row. I don't remember ever seeing him play.

Gratis: two of your favourite jerks crying:

Dzeko is supposed to be coming to City.

Adebayor and Robinho going to AC. Well, for a start they are heavily endebted. But if Berlusconi takes Robinho, I might upgrade his status to 'pile of ordure', and that is a meteoric rise from where he is now...

But, after careful consideration, I have narrowed it down to 2.

Cannavaro and Henry to West Ham (what's terrifying is that they actually *want to buy them*) - the Chuckle Brothers in charge nowhave spent the last few months twining about what a financial mess the club is. So, how is taking these two on going to help - they being paid in washers ?

English newspapers making up all stories about Higuain just day after Valdano said that they're definitely not selling him - Jorge Valdano ? AKA 'The Mouth of Perez' ? Blimey, if he said that the sun rose in the East I'd ring NASA for confirmation. I'm pretty sure he said something similar about Robben last year, and Higuain won't be happy if he gets dropped for Benzema. There again, I'd be unhappy if Benzema got into the team instead of me personally, let alone someone who can actually play football.

But seriously, the funniest one this summer is (drum roll) - "Manchester United to buy xxx". This from the team who've just paid £40m to change, not reduce, one of their lending instruments. They'll still pass all of UEFA's financial constraints though - also known as 'the G14 fun bus, not open to anyone else thank you very much'.

davet010 wrote:

Dzeko is supposed to be coming to City.

If by City you understand AC Chelsea United, then yes.

davet010 wrote:

Cannavaro and Henry to West Ham (what's terrifying is that they actually *want to buy them*) - the Chuckle Brothers in charge nowhave spent the last few months twining about what a financial mess the club is. So, how is taking these two on going to help - they being paid in washers ?

Apparently they are BIG NAME PLAYERS who can MAKE MAGIC HAPPEN. Maybe Sullivan is hoping for some Biblical stuff.

davet010 wrote:

English newspapers making up all stories about Higuain just day after Valdano said that they're definitely not selling him - Jorge Valdano ? AKA 'The Mouth of Perez' ? Blimey, if he said that the sun rose in the East I'd ring NASA for confirmation. I'm pretty sure he said something similar about Robben last year, and Higuain won't be happy if he gets dropped for Benzema. There again, I'd be unhappy if Benzema got into the team instead of me personally, let alone someone who can actually play football.

Oh, I forgot to add that Higuain was supposed to go to Milan, of all clubs. Which makes even less sense, as that would mean Milan buying someone who's, you know, actually in form.

davet010 wrote:

But seriously, the funniest one this summer is (drum roll) - "Manchester United to buy xxx".

From this morning: "Sir Alex Ferguson Interested in Teenage Sensation Bojan".
I say this quite often, but again, I have no words for this.

Two other favourites this morning:
"The Gunners have made an inquiry about the possibility of signing England midfielder Joe Cole from Chelsea." - ah, well, didn't we buy him yesterday?
The Sun: "ARSENE WENGER has lined up a Ł21.8million deal for Bordeaux ace Yoann Gourcuff " - when they even have accurate price up to decimal point, you have to believe them!

Transfer saga extraordinare: Barcelona made an offer for Cesc. Arsenal rejected it.

UCRC wrote:

Transfer saga extraordinare: Barcelona made an offer for Cesc. Arsenal rejected it.

At £33m that's not surprising. If I were Arsenal it would take a £50m bid before I started considering selling Fabregas, especially when you consider that Fabregas is under contract for a while.

Still don't see the point - he ain't better than Iniesta or Xavi, and they need another anchor now that Yaya Toure seems to be out of favour. If I were them I'd concentrate on a new CB and a central striker.

News also seems to be filtering out that Benitez has been offered a severance package by Liverpool. Nice chance for him to get the job at Inter now that Capello has signed a contract extension with England.

More on Rafa about to get the Spanish Archer.

Contractual Obligation - £16m

Lieverpool's offer - £3m

(DT settles down with popcorn and drinks to watch the action).

But why now ? Even with Liverpool only having access to a War Purse this summer, there will be relatively little transfer activity for the next month, and most players who aren't involved in it will be on a beach somewhere. Unless they are trying to get Roy Hodgson before he gets involved in the Inter sweepstakes, but then isn't that where Rafa is off to ?

C'mon Liverpool - let's make it a Scouser's wet dream-team.

IMAGE(http://footymania.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/img_2.jpg) and IMAGE(http://thesportboys.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/kenny-dalglish.jpg)

..with a John Barnes coaching role.

Kevin Keegan with US owners and no money...oh, you could make a reality show out of that.

What, no Phil Brown?

He's too orange - he'd be lost amongst all the fake tans.

And it's bye-bye Rafa.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...

Guess the 'pay me off now and then I can get that Inter job' appealed more than the 'I'll make you sack me and then you'll have no option but to pay me £16m' approach.

I'm guessing Roy Hodgson or O'Neill's agents will be waiting for their phones to ring, but I'm still hoping for comedy legends.

I second the motion for Phil Brown.

I am only willing to accept Phil Brown as a co-manager with Neil Warnock.

With Kevin Keegan as Director of Player Purchases. And John Barnes as coach - he's still revered in Glasgow after his stint as boss of Celtic.

By Rangers fans.

Obviously, just like Real with Mourinho, Liverpool with Brown will have to bring in his people. Expect strike partnership of Venegoor Hesselink and Daniel Cousin to replace Torres.

Nah

With Keegy at the controls it'll be a straight value swap deal.

Fernando Torres and his medical staff ----> City

Roque Santa Cruz and his medical staff ------> Grievers

*SPECIAL* for this week only, every purchase of a Roque Santa Cruz comes with a free Benjani.

Rumours continue in the north-west of entire medical facilities being jacked up onto transporters ready for a journey down the M62. They should pass one another in the vicinity of Warrington.

Adebayor, Robinho, Roque Santa Cruz, Benjani, Jo is probably the best strikerforce ever assembled in terms of not giving a sh*t. And people who actually care, Bellamy and Tevez, both look unhappy and would welcome a move somewhere else. I reckon you need some proper forwards.

Conversely, you might want to keep all of them and bring in Adriano.

Tevez looks unhappy ? Don't think so. Bellamy, not bothered about. The rest of them can be cleaned out, possibly apart from Adebayor who obviously had a few other things going on last year - it's not like money is any sort of a handicap, is it ?

If I were Arsenal, I'd be worrying about who's going to run the midfield when Fabregas pulls his major strop. Can I perhaps interest Arsene in a slightly used Patrick Vieira ?

No. We seem to fancy this gentleman. If I could have one transfer wish I would keep Fabregas and buy him for best midfield partnership in the world next to Xavi-Iniesta. We have funds, but Wenger is probably overconfident in current squad to pay over 20M for a player just to complement Fabregas.

And he's totally worth it:

Apparently we're also after Laurent Koscielny (news coming from credible sources), who's eligible for both France and Poland and was originally a left-back (from what remember from my FM career in France) but he had tremendous season as center back with Lorient. From what I hear we're pffering part-exchange of reserve players like Coquelin and Traore who both need first-team football, so it's a perfect deal.

DT vs Sepp Blatter - Part XVII

"Mediawatch has no idea what became of her, but there were certainly whiffs of her work emanating from FIFA on Thursday, as they very quietly announced that they would be scrapping the infamous '6+5' rule, which was to compel clubs to include six 'home-grown' players in their starting line-ups.

We can't imagine why FIFA chose to mumble this announcement on the eve of the biggest sporting event in the world. We can only assume it was to ensure maximum possible exposure.

But why was the rule dropped? According to The BBC, it was because, after spending the last three years sounding out various legal types, FIFA have been given the nod and wink from the European Commission that it would be quite hilariously illegal, contravening any number of labour/restraint of trade laws as you care to name.

It's certainly a shift since June 2008, when Sepp Blatter seemed to think the almighty FIFA could rewrite the law.

Blatter said: "Speaking about it is illegal? For whom? For when? If there is a law, a law can be amended."

Go on, Blatter, take on the EU Commissioners....after all, UEFA came out of it well in their last attempt surrounding the Bosman case, didn't they ?

Good old Sepp, if he didn't exist I'd have to invent him, after all where else could I find so many examples of flawed corporate ethics, inadequate controls and sheer nepotism ? Makes my delivery of risk management training far less dry and boring (relatively...).

Oh Michel Platini, where are you ? We are waiting !

Barcelona fail to pay player wages for June
Cesc Fabregas
Midfielder Fabregas could still leave Arsenal for Barcelona

Barcelona failed to pay their players at the end of June, club president Sandro Rosell has revealed.

Rosell, who succeeded Joan Laporta at the financially troubled Catalan outfit last week, also said a loan of about £125m had been secured to pay wages.

"We found a club in debt, with liquidity problems. At this point we have to take a loan to pay the wages of the players," he told Sport.

But Rosell said Barca can still afford Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas.

Barca recently sold defender Dmitro Chygrynskiy to Shakhtar Donetsk for about £12.5m to help raise much-needed funds, even though coach Pep Guardiola had been keen to keep him.

The club is not bankrupt because it generates income

Sandro Rosell

They also sold Ivory Coast international Yaya Toure to Manchester City for about£20m.

However, Rosell has moved to reassure worried fans that Barca's problems are under control and that the process of securing a loan had already started under the previous board.

"The banks know that we have a business plan that will allow them to recover the money. The club is not bankrupt because it generates income," he added.

"The members shouldn't be afraid because it is under control. We must resolve this tension.

"It can be done in two ways: to have extra income, like selling Chygrynskiy, and/or taking a loan, which is what we have done.

"The previous board had already begun this process. We followed the same path - the same banks, the same target but with a different business plan. They [Laporta's board] also knew they needed this credit."

And Rosell even claimed that over 50m euros (about £41m) would still be available to spend on new players.

606: DEBATE
I would not let Fabregas go, no matter how much he wants to

MK

Despite their financial issues, Barcelona have been pursuing Arsenal star Fabregas for some time and recently signed Spain striker David Villa from Valencia.

Rosell intends to meet Gunners manager Arsene Wenger in South Africa shortly to discuss a deal for Fabregas, who started his career at the Nou Camp.

"It's now or never. We'll do it fast. It won't be protracted," said Rosell.

"I'll try to see Wenger in South Africa, then we'll tell you what happens.

"We would not pay the 50-60m euros that I have read about. If Arsenal do not go crazy, he might play at Barca.

"There will be 50m euros to sign more players. This is the case every year. This is our plan for the future.

"Technically, as of now we have 50m euros plus 15 for Chygrynskiy and 24 for Toure. In total, 89m euros (about £75m)."

======================================================================

Glad it's not just City r...... f...... then.

Hats off to them for getting someone to pay money for that hopeless Russian no-mark, though I assume the 14m fee quoted is actually washers or something, as no one with access to film of last year's matches could possibly have used actual currency.

Quick question re: online fantasy leagues for the upcomming EPL season. My group used ESPN's system for the past season. It is a "salary cap structure" as opposed to a "draft" structure. UK Times has a "draft structure" but it's scoring seems a bit crazy (players generate points for number of successful passes, defensive tackles, the success of their real life team, etc.). I am aware of the Barclay's/"Can You Kick It" salary cap system but I was wondering if any GWJers successfully used any other online fantasy systems. I would prefer a draft system but one with a points structure more similar to the ESPN's and Barclay's/"Can You Kick It" approach (which awards more points for goals scored by midfielders and defensive backs).

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Also, send me a PM if you want an invite to whatever system we decide to adopt. Always happy to have more teams in the fantasy league.

I'm usually in a couple of leagues on the Prem's own site, which is a salary cap league.

http://fantasy.premierleague.com/

Woo, finally, back to proper football! I was getting pretty tired with World Cup coverage.
btw: Have you heard that Torres probably done his hamstring in that last minute of final? Pretty much sums up his World Cup.

Just tagging this thread since I only just saw it now.

Prozac wrote:

Just tagging this thread since I only just saw it now.

I think we will be making new one on couple of weeks for 2010/2011

I'm a little slow okay

UCRC wrote:
Prozac wrote:

Just tagging this thread since I only just saw it now.

I think we will be making new one on couple of weeks for 2010/2011 ;)

You waiting til City have finished their transfer business (most of the Prem and La Liga are, it's the only way they can spend any), or you going to have a go after each deal ?

Boateng, Silva and Yaya Toure already in the bag (I did predict the latter on p1 of this thread, back in August 09), few more yet - I reckon Dzeko and poss Balotelli.

On way out - SWP, Onuoha, Richards at least.

PS - I've now depressed myself thoroughly....City's official site has video from the first training session in the US before the friendlies start, and guess who's there - bleeding Jo, for christ's sake. Surely we can con someone into buying him....maybe if we convince Fingers Redknapp that he's a 'triffic triffic' player and that Spurs would actually be able to afford him. That might save him illegally attempting to tap him up, like he does every other player.

And I quote....

"Fabiano, 29, enjoyed an impressive World Cup with Brazil and has indicated a desire to join Manchester United or AC Milan. He has just one year remaining on his current deal and, while Redknapp admits his wages could be a stumbling block, he is eager to bring the player to White Hart Lane.

Redknapp told Soccernet in an exclusive interview: "Yes, I like him. He's a fabulous player and would be a brilliant addition to any team.

"It was put to us that he might be available, but we've not made contact with his club Sevilla and, to be perfectly honest, I haven't sat down to discuss any transfer targets with our chairman Daniel Levy, apart from trying to do a deal with Joe Cole.

"I am not unhappy with the squad I have, but of course if a special player came along I would look at it, and Fabiano is a special player all right.

"For sure, he is a class act, but I don't know what he earns. He might be on mega money, so it might prove to be impossible for us."

I'm counting down the days to your court appearance, Harry.