Football Thread 2017/18

[McFly]

21 minutes ago, redbloodcel said:

 

Wasn't the idea of having the extra sub spots to allow teams to have youngsters on the bench? Doesn't seem to have worked very well.

I believe so. Its worked aswell as the respect campaign

[Dude Ranch]

3 hours ago, Mr Do 71 said:

 

Or they try and nick them. Like when Man City tried to get Callum Gribbin from United, until Giggs go wind of it and stopped them.

Very heroic of Giggs to stop a player from swapping Manchester clubs. 

[McFly]

Who knew Joe Hart was such a huge West Ham fan? Appraently he has "always loved the club" i love it when folk say that.

[Scruff]

13 minutes ago, McFly said:

Who knew Joe Hart was such a huge West Ham fan? Appraently he has "always loved the club" i love it when folk say that.

 

Well it's better than "they shouldn't have moved away from their ground and the owners are a pair of penny pinching twats and only bought the club with the sole intention of selling it down the road for the OS, binning it off to a rich Arab and running away with hundreds of millions of pounds of profit"

 

Even though the second part is the truth, I don't think it'll endear him with the board as much

[McFly]

I hope he gets a free porno mag subscription

[the_debaser]

https://tomkinstimes.com/2017/07/shock-transfers-now-cost-more-plus-top-100-signings-after-inflation/

 

This guy has calculated the real terms price of past signings using a rate of inflation equal to that of the increase of the price of players each year subsequently. 

[McFly]

Great stats 

[Boothjan]

Just finished reading a brilliant book on youth development called No Hunger In Paradise by Michael Calvin.  Thought I'd post the link to my post in the book thread.

 

 

[Fry Crayola]

Dundalk were at least a match for Rosenborg last week in the home leg of their Champions League tie, but needed to go to Trondheim tonight and get a goal after a 1-1 draw.

 

Well, they've got it now after 12 minutes. 2-1 up on aggregate, winners play Celtic or Linfield. They've started quite well tonight, so hopefully they don't try to sit on the lead too much.

[gospvg]

Chelsea going in for Morata.

[Revival]

Hope we land him and can get rid of Costa.

 

btw I've made a post in the bargains section that anyone can get a free Now TV sports day pass from tomorrow. So if anyone wants to watch the opening day of the new season or a different weekend please check it out:

 

 

[Azrael]

Aren't Atletico banned from signing players until January? What will happen with Costa until then if they bring  Morata in now? 

 

[Revival]

Probably it'll be covered under terms of an initial loan with a sale price already agreed.

[Steely]

Didn't something similar happen with Arda Turan for Barcelona, he signed in the summer but then just had to wait until January before he could play.

[Fry Crayola]

Just like last week, Dundalk score first but can't hold it until half time. Bendtner flicked it on well and De Lanlay was played in behind to finish. Thankfully though, there was no further breakthrough from Rosenborg despite looking the more dangerous, so it's gone to extra time.

[Fry Crayola]

Unfortunately not to be, Rosenborg scored halfway through the first half of extra time, and Dundalk's best chance was brilliantly tipped onto the bar soon after. Could have been different but for the keeper also making a terrific save minutes after Dundalk took the lead.

 

Just Cork and Shamrock Rovers left in Europe now, both with work to do in their away legs.

[Tourist]

Nobody else excited by the amazing news about the new Juventus shirt sponsor??

 

http://www.juventus.com/en/news/news/2017/juventus-team-up-with-cygames.php

[Naysonymous]

16 hours ago, Azrael said:

Aren't Atletico banned from signing players until January? What will happen with Costa until then if they bring  Morata in now? 

 

 

15 hours ago, Steely said:

Didn't something similar happen with Arda Turan for Barcelona, he signed in the summer but then just had to wait until January before he could play.

 

Clubs can employ whoever they want, whenever they want. It would be illegal to forbid them from having freedom over who they employ (or indeed to deny people the right to work where they wanted to in countries they have a legal right to work in) so Atleti could sign Costa today if they wanted to.   However, players cannot play in competitive fixtures sanctioned by by FIFA/UEFA/LFP/whoever unless they are registered and bodies who organise competitive fixtures such as major domestic leagues and cups do have the right to withhold a club's ability to register new players if they feel the need to, as has happened a few times in Spain recently.  @Steely pointed out that Barcelona signed Arda Turan (and Alex Vidal) when they were banned from registering new players, but they still recruited them as employees of Barcelona FC and those players were free to train with the first team squad until they were eligible to be registered as players when the "transfer ban" period had ended.  I guess if you are Atleti then you've got to decide whether it's worth having Costa for five months when he is unable to play or not, and I guess a lot of that depends on how willing Chelsea would be to do business when essentially you are skimping on wages for a while. 

[Sirloin]

They are going to loan him out aren't they?

[futureshock]

Big changes ahead for the African Nations Cup, shifting it from January to June.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40657296

 

[Headache]

Good for the Premier League and other European leagues, but miserable for the footballers having to play in the African summer heat I'd imagine (depending on which nation hosts the tournament of course.) 

[futureshock]

26 minutes ago, Headache said:

Good for the Premier League and other European leagues, but miserable for the footballers having to play in the African summer heat I'd imagine (depending on which nation hosts the tournament of course.) 

 

It'll make African players more attractive to the European clubs, without a doubt.

There are obvious hot-spots, but lots of countries have temps in the 20's this week, putting them on par with sunny Glasgow. (!) 

[Girth Certificate]

Lulz, they should play the final on the beach in Troon, draw a good crowd.

[McFly]

One of my brothers friends, an Aberdeen fan, was in the pub that was attacked by the rival fans in Bosnia this evening

[Loik V credern]

Quote

 Benjamin Mendy set to join Manchester City from Monaco in record £52m deal
• France left-back set for medical ahead of proposed move
• Mendy will eclipse Kyle Walker as most expensive defender in history

 

lol

£100m on full backs within a week. Why am I less confident of Guardiola succeeding next season than I was when he first arrived here ?

[ryodi]

City will have the most expensive backline in the world by some margin. Mendy, Walker, Stones, were all around £50m and Ederson was £34m. You'd expect them to be rock solid this season with that much money being spent but somehow I doubt that will be the case.

[neoELITE]

What about Neymar for £196m and a £27m after tax a year contract? Paris St Germain. That's quite frankly obscene. 

[dizogg]

I'll believe it when it happens! Problem is say they want to replace him with Coutinho/Dybala it's a situation of "well you just got £200m for Neymar so its going to cost you £150m" which I guess is one of the key themes that has driven the prices up and up.

 

Surely we're going to a hit a ceiling soon? 

[Adrock]

I don't think it'll be a ceiling, more an erosion of income from TV money because audiences are dropping. Eventually revenues will either stabilise or drop.

[Oh Danny Boy]

Are United actually going to spend  £50m on Matic?!