Football The 2013 / 2014 Season Thread

[soze]

I have been reading that 3 deals for defenders were all walked away from. Seemingly we agreed a price for Williams about a week ago but did not pull the trigger. Last night at about 21.30 we tried to complete the deal but Swansea wanted more money because they would not have time to replace him. I cant say I blame Swansea we were obviously hoping to get a better deal and just thinking we would fall back on Williams.

 

[eksdee]

megadave eksdee Vladamir

h8u

 

[Scouse]

I'm not sure about Mamadou Sakho either.

The club are lauding him as a "marquee" signing. Which I don't buy as we were supposedly after much more quality in attack (and failed to make the signings). He's not been getting played at PSG and seems to have gone off the boil, physically and professionally, over the last couple of seasons - and more importantly he playes in Daniel Agger's position, not Martin Skrtel's.

Yep, he can play left back too I understand (where we do need competition, but we just signed Aly Cissoko for that) so I'm not sure if he's the new first-choice Agger, or just quality backup.

 

[caLLous]

Sakho is quality, you have no problems there, although you might have paid over the odds for him.

 

[Raven]

Right, I really want the new FM now. Wazzerphuk pull your finger out!

 

[caLLous]

BBC Sporf ‏@BBCSporf 11m
BREAKING: Arsenal confirm the fee for Mesut Ozil is £42.5m, including a trophy bonus add-on of £10m, bringing the overall fee to £42.5m.

 

[Lethul]

BBC Sporf ‏@BBCSporf 11m
BREAKING: Arsenal confirm the fee for Mesut Ozil is £42.5m, including a trophy bonus add-on of £10m, bringing the overall fee to £42.5m.

Haha, they played RM brilliantly there

 

[caLLous]

I still can't believe how Perez could be so dumb as to spend £85m on one player and then sell a better player for half of that. It's just batshit insane on their part.

 

[Scouse]

Sakho is quality, you have no problems there, although you might have paid over the odds for him.

Yep, but he's unnecessary quality. The Victor Moses position is the one we need to fill - with proper quality. In fact, wide areas and offensive midfield is where we're weak.

 

[Lethul]

Sturridge, Suarez, ... er Aspas (maybe), er ... (I don't count Luis Alberto as a striker).

I still think we're short of quality up front.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vdAYtL3nnHw

 

[caLLous]

http://whatbaleearns.co.uk/

He earns so much he's already broken the internet.

"Sneijder received an indirect offer from Manchester United two weeks ago but it was not accepted," Bulunt Tulun, Galatasaray

United don't seem to have done anything with any conviction. They could've saved themselves £4m if they had bought Fellaini 2 months ago, their move last night looks desparate in hindsight.

 

[Aoami]

Yep, but he's unnecessary quality. The Victor Moses position is the one we need to fill - with proper quality. In fact, wide areas and offensive midfield is where we're weak.

You have 2 fit centre backs, how is he not neccessary?

 

[Lethul]

You have 2 fit centre backs, how is he not neccessary?

Stop making sense!

 

[Aoami]

Also, the reason he didn't play much at PSG the last 2 years is because Thiago Silva is a bell piece and said he wants to play next to Alex or he'll leave.

 

[DaGaffer]

http://whatbaleearns.co.uk/

He earns so much he's already broken the internet.

"Sneijder received an indirect offer from Manchester United two weeks ago but it was not accepted," Bulunt Tulun, Galatasaray

United don't seem to have done anything with any conviction. They could've saved themselves £4m if they had bought Fellaini 2 months ago, their move last night looks desparate in hindsight.

I still can't believe the catalogue of breathtaking stupidity displayed by United management over the summer. Some apologists are defending them saying players would be more reticent to go there before Moyes establishes himself, but I just don't buy it. The whole thing has "accountants" written all over it:

• The "multibuy" Everton bid. Players are not tins of beans, trying to do a combined offer basically says "we're trying to get a discount". Given that Everton flat out didn't want to lose Baines (and didn't have to contractually), how did that ever make any sense?
• Trying to lowball Athletic Bilbao on the last day of the transfer window, when all of Bilbao's history says they make it as difficult as possible to sell Basque players, what possible reason could they have to accept a lower offer?
• Trying to buy Fabregas. Just said; "I know fuck all about football".

Typical penny-pinching that ends up costing more money in the long run. Woodward may be great at bringing in the "Official Turkish Widget Sponsor for Manchester United", but fuck me, total incoherence when it comes to actual football stuff.

 

[Lethul]

Also, the reason he didn't play much at PSG the last 2 years is because Thiago Silva is a bell piece and said he wants to play next to Alex or he'll leave.

Agree, Sakho is imo a purchase of the absolute top bracket Liverpool can buy in. Defenders rarely carry the same bling as an offensive player.

 

[caLLous]

Joe Kinnear "Judge me on my signings"

Only signing - A player who is awaiting a rape trial.

 

[Scouse]

You have 2 fit centre backs, how is he not neccessary?

We have Agger, Skrtel, Wisdom and Kelly (tho I think Kelly's a bit short of match fitness). Toure is handy, injured, Uraguayan boy is injured (and has been a bit poop, which is a shame as I thought he looked really good).

Our defence last season was good - and we've lost one and brought in two direct replacements. Which, although I don't have a problem with that (we're now at the correct levels in defence IMO) I think we still need more up front.

I think Rodgers thinks that too - considering our big "marquee signings" were all to be attacking players - until they decided to join other clubs.

Aspas hasn't convinced me yet btw.

 

[Everz]

Sakho is a class above, he was only forced out of PSG by Thiago Silva. The man was on the road to greatness, as well as being the blackest bloke you'll ever see.

 

[soze]

Is it just me that find Bendtner issuing a statement to the fans through his agent rather than the clubs website an bit insincere?

And LMAO at Podolski taking an Arsenal shirt to Ozil.

 

[caLLous]

Is it just me that find Bendtner issuing a statement to the fans through his agent rather than the clubs website an bit insincere?

It's a pretty shabby way of doing it, especially with a typo in it. And what excuse does he have for not being fit? And I know you can apply this to Every Statement Ever Released By A Footballer(TM), but that is very obviously not written by him. Or rather, it's not written by a person who doesn't speak English as their first language.

 

[Everz]

Is it just me that find Bendtner issuing a statement to the fans through his agent rather than the clubs website an bit insincere?

And LMAO at Podolski taking an Arsenal shirt to Ozil.

Iirc didn't Ozil play with Mertesacker at Werder? Wenger.. preparing a German army for when Klopp takes over eh?

 

[soze]

Iirc didn't Ozil play with Mertesacker at Werder? Wenger.. preparing a German army for when Klopp takes over eh?

You are not the first person i heard say that lately. With Wenger no closer to signing a new deal and his expiring at the end of the season who knows.

There are a few funny Bromance sites out there which show these two seem to be good friends in the Germany camp.

 

[soze]

haha Madrid fans are not happy with Bale. They are saying if he can't handle the pressure of doing a few kick ups at his unveiling in front of 20k people how is he going to cope with a Champions League game.

I did not want his welcome to Madrid suck fest but it sounds like he blew it.

 

[Everz]

You are not the first person i heard say that lately. With Wenger no closer to signing a new deal and his expiring at the end of the season who knows.

There are a few funny Bromance sites out there which show these two seem to be good friends in the Germany camp.

A friend said Podolski was one of the first to greet Ozil at his medical? Could be explained that the two are in fact friends.

 

[soze]

The Ander Herrera deal looks hideous. It sounds like La Liga rules say every player must have a release clause BUT the club can force the player to pay the release fee. But this would leave the money going into his account from Utd to cover it liable to 50% tax and 20% VAT. So if Utd had pulled the trigger there's a chance the end bill would be nearer 60m. That is mental and Bayern Munich have said they are the worst club in the world to deal with as they hate losing players. It seems like Utd were mad to think they could get this done in a day. And the 3 blokes were not imposters they were Spanish law experts who failed to help get a deal done.

 

[Everz]

The Ander Herrera deal looks hideous. It sounds like La Liga rules say every player must have a release clause BUT the club can force the player to pay the release fee. But this would leave the money going into his account from Utd to cover it liable to 50% tax and 20% VAT. So if Utd had pulled the trigger there's a chance the end bill would be nearer 60m. That is mental and Bayern Munich have said they are the worst club in the world to deal with as they hate losing players. It seems like Utd were mad to think they could get this done in a day. And the 3 blokes were not imposters they were Spanish law experts who failed to help get a deal done.

It took Bayern over a year to organize the Javi Martinez deal so that they could find a way to actually recoup the tax. The only other ways out of Bilbao is if your pretty shit or your contract runs out (see Llorente and Amorebieta), their rule to play only Basque players means they have a limited playerbase from the off, thus their 'pain in the arse' routine when it comes to selling players.

 

[Everz]

If you want an interesting read, you should find out about Bilbao's youth system. It's the definition of 'having your finger in every pie' with the exception of Sociedad.

 

[DaGaffer]

It took Bayern over a year to organize the Javi Martinez deal so that they could find a way to actually recoup the tax. The only other ways out of Bilbao is if your pretty shit or your contract runs out (see Llorente and Amorebieta), their rule to play only Basque players means they have a limited playerbase from the off, thus their 'pain in the arse' routine when it comes to selling players.

None of this should have been new information to United, and obviously wasn't, given they took these specialist lawyers on in the first place, but obviously they've tried to be smart-arses by trying to include the tax in the valuation (look at the bid mentioned and it looks suspiciously like 36m minus VAT) and Bilbao have told them to fuck off, because that's what Bilbao do (NB its 21% VAT or 50% income tax, depending on which way its paid, not both), once again showing Woodward's naivety in the market. He (and Moyes) don't seem to realise that clubs will always screw United for a premium anyway simply because they're United. Haggling may have worked at Everton, it won't work at a superclub (look at Real Madrid). Then the whole "they're imposters" thing is just embarrassingly incompetent.

One thing though, how can the "Basque players only" thing even be legal?

 

[caLLous]

United look like right muppets now, especially trying to disassociate themselves with the lawyers that they sent in after they withdrew from the deal... Nevermind Scholes, maybe SAF will come out of retirement too.