Football 2021/2022 Season Football Thread

[Gwadien]

Lots of hipster chat about him playing central as an upgrade on either Bernardo Silva or gundogan, but let's be real - City have paid £100m + £370k a week for someone to rotate with Foden & Sterling, which is fucking mental. Grealish is a good player, but he is not world class by any stretch of the imagination. Bale for instance was £80m and Grealish is just not on his level. Even last year when Bale was shit he scored 11 goals in 20 premier league games.

He has a good image though.

Look at the world club, the fans were going mental for him and he only played 20 mins here and there

 

[Moriath]

He has a good image though.

Look at the world cup, the fans were going mental for him and he only played 20 mins here and there

FIFY

any way english league footy kicks off tomorrow with championship.

and the charity shield on Sat.

leics or shitty?

 

[Gwadien]

FIFY

any way english league footy kicks off tomorrow with championship.

and the charity shield on Sat.

leics or shitty?

You did a shit job of fixing it, it was the Euros

 

[Gray]

Wayne Rooney sleeping in Derby office to get Rams ready for season

Wayne Rooney says he has been sleeping overnight on the couch in his manager’s office as he works overtime to bolster a threadbare squad

www.theguardian.com

Yes Roo, that's the reason...

 

[Embattle]

Wayne Rooney sleeping in Derby office to get Rams ready for season

Wayne Rooney says he has been sleeping overnight on the couch in his manager’s office as he works overtime to bolster a threadbare squad

www.theguardian.com

Yes Roo, that's the reason...

It could be any reason:

• Forgot where his house is located
• Had some more artificial turf stuck to his head and doesn't want any one to see him
• Fallen asleep for no particular reason in his office with another set of ladies taking pictures of him

 

[Hawkwind]

Rumour is the Messi saga is some brinkmanship by Barca to force the La Liga to allowing the proposed 2 years salary to be paid over 5 years. La Liga said not allowed but a league without Ronaldo and Messi will have an impact on their product globally. Guess we will see if that is the case over the next few days.

 

[caLLous]

It sounds like he's a fanny hair away from signing for PSG so it's pretty convincing brinkmanship...

 

[Hawkwind]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58122156

Possibly realizes no one is coming for him now.

 

[caLLous]

He's made a complete fool of himself.

 

[caLLous]

Use your words, @Embattle. There isn't an angle from which Kane comes out of this not looking like an absolute bellend.

The Neville interview was blown out of proportion in terms of the content but the timing of it was awful, a lot of his England team mates came away from the Euros with the impression that he wasn't going to train with Spurs to try and force a move, his utterly incompetent agent was running around at his wedding telling everyone that Kane was going to City for £160m (which achieved nothing more than confusing/annoying both his current club and the one who's trying to sign him) and he extended his holiday without the authorisation of the club - just because he says it was "planned", doesn't mean the club agreed to it.

This piss poor statement could've been put out at the start of the week but him and his mastermind agent wanted to let it fester for a bit first to see if something would happen. Then City moved on Grealish and I imagine the chuckle brothers' masterplan fell apart. He needs a new agent, a proper agent. One that'll not let him sign a 6-year deal without putting clauses in it and one that'll suggest to him that this sort of behaviour not only won't work but will make him look like a weapons-grade prick in the process.

 

[Embattle]

There has been very little actually said by either the club or Kane himself afaik, there is no doubt he wants out of Spurs because why wouldn't he since Spurs have zero chance of winning anything again this year and I have my doubts they'll do much in the third class of European football and with his talent he deserves better.

 

[Gwadien]

I read a story (could be BS) that the only club that can afford to have Messi is Man City because he's on like 1.1m a week (I remember when Rooney was on 300k a week and everyone was like wow.)

 

[caLLous]

There has been very little actually said by either the club or Kane himself afaik, there is no doubt he wants out of Spurs because why wouldn't he since Spurs have zero chance of winning anything again this year and I have my doubts they'll do much in the third class of European football and with his talent he deserves better.

We know about the wedding nonsense (it was all over the FRONT PAGE of the Sun, not just the sports page, and spread like wildfire on social media), we know the club didn't approve this little holiday extension (they're fining him), fair enough the "England team-mates" thing might be made up but it sure looks like what they thought was going to happen actually happened. It might've been a planned extra break but it wasn't an approved extra break (Kane told the club he was taking it, they said no, he went anyway). What else do we need to know?

Of course he wants out of Spurs and if he had a competent agent I'm sure he'd already be out of Spurs but he can't just pretend he doesn't have a 6-year contract and he's only 3 years into it. If City had made an offer that everybody deemed reasonable and Spurs still refused to let him go (after this so-called gentleman's agreement), that's the only appropriate time to dig your heels in and start not turning up. He's stayed away from training for a week against the club's wishes and City haven't even made an offer that is even in the ballpark of what he's worth. So, he's coming back with his tail between his legs and he looks like a twat.

If City came in with an acceptable offer (£160m is the baseline because that's what his idiot brother was telling everybody was already happening), I'd drive him up there myself.

 

[Moriath]

I read a story (could be BS) that the only club that can afford to have Messi is Man City because he's on like 1.1m a week (I remember when Rooney was on 300k a week and everyone was like wow.)

Surely he has enough money now. If he really wanted to play he could afford to for 300k a week.

 

[caLLous]

Lukaku on his way back to Chelsea...

 

[Gray]

He'll be begging to come back to Everton when it doesn't work out again






....

 

[Moriath]

Messi apparently on a 25million a season deal at psg.

and rangers just lost for the first time in 40 league games.

 

[Moriath]

Jack Grealish loses his first op to get a medal.

 

[Embattle]

I do wonder how PSG are going to cook their books a bit more if Messi does indeed end up there.

 

[DaGaffer]

Jack Grealish loses his first op to get a medal.

Second. He was in a little game against Italy last month.

 

[DaGaffer]

I do wonder how PSG are going to cook their books a bit more if Messi does indeed end up there.

They're claiming because he's effectively on a free they can make it work, but tbh it sounds like cooked books already (some bollocks about increased south American revenues from the tie up with Neymar, which is horseshit).

 

[Raven]

If he actually cared about Barca, I mean really, then he would have cut his wages, he has so much money that his family and generations to come will not only never have to work again but live in absolute luxury. He will gain nothing professionally from going to PSG, just more money. Realistically, how many more years has he got in him? 2? Tops. Barca being in the position that they are in could really do with the help. It's getting close to an existential crisis.

 

[DaGaffer]

If he actually cared about Barca, I mean really, then he would have cut his wages, he has so much money that his family and generations to come will not only never have to work again but live in absolute luxury. He will gain nothing professionally from going to PSG, just more money. Realistically, how many more years has he got in him? 2? Tops. Barca being in the position that they are in could really do with the help. It's getting close to an existential crisis.

He cut his wages in half last year and was doing it again in the new deal. Even with him gone Barca as still fucked because their wage bill even without him is 95% of their turnover (cap is 70% I think), and their turnover is about to take another bath because Messi was calculated to be responsible for 25-30% of all Barca's income on his own. Their woes aren't over yet; Aguero may never kick a ball for them despite coming in on a free, and others will have to go, but quite a few are apparently sitting on their old wages and refusing to even talk about pay cuts or transfers.

 

[Raven]

Why would they, though? They have no real connection with the club, Messi is Barca.

Personally, I am enjoying their demise, horrible club, but I just think that if Messi actually really cared, when his career as a footballer is realistically pretty much over he might as well just hang about, even for free. His earnings from non-football are astronomical. He will go to PSG with all the other mercenaries and win absolutely nothing, except the French league, which is a bit of an empty victory, it might as well be the Scottish league.

Edit, I would love to see him in the prem on a cold winter's night up north, and I hope he goes to City.

Edit, edit, if he did go to City it would be amazing for England, pretty much our entire attacking midfield playing with probably the best that ever was would be a massive boost.

 

[DaGaffer]

Why would they, though? They have no real connection with the club, Messi is Barca.

Personally, I am enjoying their demise, horrible club, but I just think that if Messi actually really cared, when his career as a footballer is realistically pretty much over he might as well just hang about, even for free. His earnings from non-football are astronomical. He will go to PSG with all the other mercenaries and win absolutely nothing, except the French league, which is a bit of an empty victory, it might as well be the Scottish league.

Edit, I would love to see him in the prem on a cold winter's night up north, and I hope he goes to City.

He's still a professional football player, and he's supposed to get paid for plying his trade. I guarantee Barca have got more out of him than he's got out of them over the last 18 years. Anyway, apparently he couldn't pay for free even if he wanted to; in Spain the largest pay cut you can take in a single year is 50% (this is not a football-specific thing); its to combat tax avoidance.

 

[Embattle]

As I understood it they couldn't get him for free since they can't sign players while over the salary cap or something, but I wish people would at least realise part of the reason they are in the hole so much is the exorbitant salary they've been paying him and others for some time now.

 

[Raven]

Oh yeah, completely scummy club. I hope they get absolutely reamed. They can only rely on state hand outs for so long, same as Real.

 

[Embattle]

Barcelona lawyers move to BLOCK Messi's PSG transfer

A lawyer working on behalf of the Spanish club's loyal section of fans has filed a complaint to the European Court of Appeals, stating the Parisians should be stopped in their pursuit of Messi

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[DaGaffer]

Barcelona lawyers move to BLOCK Messi's PSG transfer

A lawyer working on behalf of the Spanish club's loyal section of fans has filed a complaint to the European Court of Appeals, stating the Parisians should be stopped in their pursuit of Messi

www.dailymail.co.uk

I don't understand; are they working on the "if we can't have him, no-one can" idea? There also seems to be some confusion about FFP here; the FFP rules that are Barca's problem are the Spanish FFP rules, not the UEFA rules, which seem to be largely abandoned at this point. I have no idea if the French have their own rules, but even if they have, that's an internal French matter, not a Barcelona one.

 

[Raven]

FFP went out the window years ago, little point if most ignore it and it's not really enforced properly.