.verse - Comments

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#279684 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
2 years ago
871
Seems no clubs can put up with Mourinho for more than 3 years has he managed to make it to a 4th year yet?

Gladly take 3 years of Mourinho over 10 years of old mate Rodgers, that's for sure.

Pedro is a decent signing. He might be 28 but he's played less football than most his age, he'll also offer goals which we currently lack outside of Hazard and Costa. Decent price £19m + add ons.

Now to hopefully obtain Stones and ideally another CM.
#278899 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
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Mourinho’s last six league defeats have been to Pulis, Poyet, Pardew, Pochettino, Pulis (again) and now Pellegrini. Our next two games are against Pulis and Pardew.

Could be a very slow start to the season if history is anything to go by.
#278511 The TV Thread
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I didn't mind season 2. Certainly nothing like the first season but not as bad as it has been made out to be by some.

You just need to treat it like a whole new show and judge it on it's own accord.
#278510 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
2 years ago
871
Ake has joined Watford on loan. Hopefully gets some decent game time, could be a good move.
#278406 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
.verse
14 years ago
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871
I'm loathe to mention him but Duncan Castle's has just written about the Chelsea physio shit storm and if there's one thing you can say about him its that he does seem to be close, or pretend to be close at the very least, to Mourinho.

Anyway, the articles intended to be a defence of Mourinho but the basic gist of it is that Carneiro has been demoted because as a woman she's too distracting for the players because they can't 'be themselves' in the dressing room.

On balance it seems a completely plausible explanation, and further shows Mourinho up as a misogynist -alongside he's very questionable remarks about Benitez wife - as well as all his other character flaws.

If you believe that, you'll believe anything.

The whole situation has been blown well out of proportion, given that Mourinho didn't help the cause to make a point of the whole thing immediately afterwards. While both physio's were in the right to go onto the pitch after being given the all clear by the ref twice to come on- they can only enter the field of play when given the okay. Basically, Mourinho had words with BOTH Fearn and Carneiro (I believe there is footage of this) on the touch line, however the focus has been purely on it being Carneiro who was singled out; incorrect. She also retaliated back to what Mourinho said, didn't help. Mourinho also addressed BOTH in his after game interview. BOTH have been dropped by reports, however Fearn may stay given we need a physio on the bench.

All in all, it's a shit storm that should have been kept internal and dealt with in a in club manner. That falls on Mourinho, and not for the first time. The only thing it isn't though is sexist or has anything to do with Eva being female.
#278195 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
2 years ago
871
We've sold Romeu to Southampton for £5m. Should be a decent player there.

Wish we would sign some fucking players though, it's been a painfully stale looking pre-season and start to the season thus far.
#277831 The Armoury
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14 years ago
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871
#277655 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
.verse
14 years ago
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Not good during preseason and not good today. Not very surprising, but I hoped for more...

Was the right call by the referee. Fucking stupid Willian

Wasn't Willian's fault. Rewind the footage a further 10 seconds back and you'll see he's doing exactly as he's asked to do - track the run of Montero who would have been clean in behind had he not. The issue wasn't Willian, even though he was the one that played Gomis onside. It was the whole defensive line trying to push up, despite the fact they're all slow - in turn leaving Tibo to play as a sweeper keeper.

Irrespective of that. We were horrible and I didn't expect much different. We are set up so terrible that's it's no wonder we're so out of sorts all over the park.

A RB at LB, a CB at RB = no overlap on the attack, which gives us no width because our "wide" players are instructed to tuck inside like inverted wide forwards would. Hence we force everything through the middle. Then when that plan doesn't work we just jump crosses into the box as an awe-inspiring plan B. No wonder our forwards struggle to much in general and hardly get a sniff of a decent chance. Also explains why the the only strikers that do well here are physical ones that can play with their back to goal and use their body to push defenders around.

Could be in for an extremely long season tbh.
#276935 Old Trafford Lounge
.verse
14 years ago
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871
Not to mention the premium placed on English players.
#276488 2015/16 Pre Season thread
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14 years ago
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Haha the blanking each other was fun.

Falcao just as shit as he was for us. Horrible first touch and couldn't stay on his feet.

Falcao's had a week of pre-season to his name, anyone who expected him to be sharp or 100% fit had some wishful thinking.

Dare say had Costa been fit, Falcao would not have played at all.

We were fucking woeful mind.
#275881 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
.verse
14 years ago
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871
It's not as if we were never big spenders. The 10m we spent on Thierry is probably like 20m+ in todays market. Contrary to popular belief Wenger will spend and did so before our move to the Emirates consistently. 16m on Reyes, 13m on Wiltord etc.

It's just that we had severe constraints on our spending from 2006-2013, something Mourinho has never had to worry about. All of our funds are self-generated too, unlike Mourinho when he made Chelsea title contenders/winners. We're now in a position where we can spend around 60-70m a year without any detriment to the club or the clubs future. We have around 200m in cash reserves and we'd have to spend something ridiculous like 300m in one season to break FFP.

Mourinho had spending constraints the summer we signed Sidwell, Ben Haim and Pizarro. Which was like 07/08. Pretty sure the only money he spent that season was for Malouda and Belletti. Which was literally all off-set by the sale of Robben and Glen Johnson. Then we got Anelka and Ivanovic in the Jan window, which would have been when Grant was in charge.

While he's pretty much operated within a budget since returning, funded largely by the sales of first team players like Mata, Luiz, KdB, etc. We've taken FFP seriously and maintained the aim of becoming more self sufficient as originally intended. Which has taken longer because of the considerable revenue we miss out on with Stamford Bridge being the size it is.
#275358 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
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871
I imagine he is just a Valdes replacement. He won't be a DdG one.

Still hoping we get Lloris to replace him when he eventually goes.

Levy will absolutely milk you lot for all that he can.

Also looks like Ramos has played United well and will be rewarded with a new contact, surprise surprise.
#274945 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
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He certainly has been mismanaged, as was the case with a lot of United attacking players last season to be fair. Certainly no coincidence that Di Maria, Mata, Rooney, RvP and Falcao all struggled for much of the season and looked well off their best.
#273892 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
2 years ago
871
Apparently Ake may be joining Newcastle on loan for the season too.
#273863 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
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What's wrong with being gay? Please, I'm eager to hear this.
#273862 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
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14 years ago
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It makes very little sense selling De Gea this season.

Firstly, he's a better keeper than anyone we could get to replace him. Thats compounded by the fact that probably the most likely replacement (Lloris) is likely to command a higher fee than we would receive from De Gea's transfer. We're also not in a position where we need to sell players for any reason and any money we do receive for a player is largely immaterial - we'd have £25m to invest in players regardless of whether we sell to Real Madrid or not.

We're far better off having a year of De Gea and letting him go for free unless Real Madrid meet our terms.

That's a little bit of a moot point though in some regard. He's going to have to be replaced one way or another, the market you'll be in for a keeper isn't going to alter significantly over the next 12 months, the same likely targets will still be on the radar and command similar transfer fees as they would now, if not more. Losing someone like De Gea for nothing is a terrible business decision, particularly more so when the club has already invested £18m + wages into him since he joined. Even getting something like £20m for him is a significant deal given the predicament. At least that's an extra £20m (or whatever he is possibly sold for) into the budget that can be put towards a replacement, plus other potential end of window transfers that may occur.

If he stays and you don't win anything of significant worth, which is entirely possible, then that's millions walking out the door for nothing in return. United are better off just selling him off for whatever top price they can wrangle and invest back into someone that's going to be able to help the club beyond this coming season. Holding onto him would just be a sign of United being too headstrong over making a sensible business move with the cards on hand.
#273679 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
2 years ago
871
Get another season out of him, and get him to change in mind in January.

In any case considering we paid £18M for him and turned him into one of the best goalkeepers in the world a bid of £20-25M is a pisstake.

Keepers aren't valued highly in the market compared to that of other outfield players, which makes £20-25m a very sizeable transfer fee to invest in a keeper in general terms, let alone for one that is potentially available for free next season.

Peruzzi cost Inter £15.7m, De Gea to United £18m, Neuer to Bayern £19m and the obvious Buffon to Juve for £33m are the top 4 highest transfer fees for a keeper.

Given that United had to spend £18m to sign De Gea in the first place makes the situation worse in terms of a return on their investment.
#273591 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
2 years ago
871
I find it weird seeing Oscar described as average.

He's had a tough time pretty much since Mata left but he's definitely a good player.


Honestly, he's more frustrating than Kalou, because he actually has talent but continues to lack any sort of consistency. Every season it's the same thing with Oscar, he'll start well and have a string of good performances before slowly tapering off and becoming anonymous from Christmas onwards. It has happened every season to date. While he's still failed to nail down a starting spot while effectively being handed the AM position, even after having all of his genuine competition sold off. He's incredibly lucky to still be here after 3 seasons like this, a lot of others haven't received half of the opportunity he's had before being sold off. If he doesn't deliver this season, providing he's still not sold off before end of the transfer window, then he needs to perform or he'll be gone next season I feel, and expect.
#273484 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
2 years ago
871
Seen Vidal to Bayern rumours around. Would be a great replacement for Schweinsteiger.

Deals done by all reports. €40m + bonuses and something like a 4 year €6.5m contact.

Money to be used to try to sign either Oscar, Ozil or Isco similar reports say.
#273366 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
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Now to splash that 49 million on about 5 players

TBH I think this deal has been done for a while and most of the money has been spent already. Don't see Liverpool splashing out too much more this window.
#273224 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
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14 years ago
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I'm not all that concerned with what Man Utd have done in the market thus far. While those signings should improve them as a side, the defence is still weak looking and between the sticks remains an unknown. Schweinsteiger will only be a good signing if he can stay fit, something he's struggled with of late. He'll be solid without being spectacular if so. In ways, his move reminds me similar to that of Ballack's. They've done well though to bring in a few solid players, but some key areas remain. Not sure if it will be enough to close a 17 point gap though.

On the Chelsea front, getting a little impatient with the lack of players we've brought in. I know the pool of quality players within the transfer market is quite small, but still, I'd have expected something at little more.
#272604 What Was The Last Film You Saw?
.verse
14 years ago
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Am I the only person in the world who doesn't love Quentin Tarantino films?

Probably.
#272602 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
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On the topic of players who won't be playing at their new club - why is Begovic going to Chelsea? He's a solid, top-half PL keeper who's now just going to be sat on the bench every league game.

Same reason most second choice keepers join bigger clubs. To challenge for a position, but to also hopefully win a few things in the process that they'd probably not get the opportunity at otherwise. Begovic is still young enough to commit a season or two as a second choice, possibly win a couple of things in the process, and then move on back to a lesser side (more than likely) and play regularly once again. As a keeper, he's still young enough with plenty of football ahead of him.
#272262 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
2 years ago
871
Not my finest I admit, but when your post boils down to "they'd find a way if it wasn't Barca", without actually providing any ways FIFA might do that I'm not going to try too hard.

Well, the reason I said that is because that's how the cookie has crumbled. I recall Portsmouth being given a transfer ban from signing new players years ago because they still owed money for previous transfers. Watford and iirc a French side, may have been Nantes, had similar bans on signing new players. So, to say it couldn't be enforced isn't entirely correct. However, Barca being Barca, the "transfer ban" they received was nothing more than a registration ban, a completely different punishment altogether. Though, you'd never guess this with the way it's been reported until you read into it properly.
#272178 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
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Yeah, you're just talking shite now.

Good discussion. A+
#272177 The Ashes 2015
.verse
14 years ago
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Figured it would be worth having a thread for this.

Couple overs in. England batting and already one down.
#272145 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
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They should but it's kind of tricky to enforce that sort of thing properly. It's way easier to enforce a ban on player registration than on transfer negotiations.

Honestly, if it wasn't Barca involved they'd have found a way to enforce it. But since they're the golden club and can basically go about doing anything they want an alternative "transfer ban" was delivered.

I'm still perplexed how their results for this season can be counted when they've effectively been fielding an ineligible player in Neymar. Without going above and beyond the rules and signing him in such a dodgy fashion, it could be argued he'd not be at the club at all.
#272037 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
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14 years ago
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There is a transfer ban though, he can't play until January 1st.

Not really a transfer ban and more a ban of being able to register any new players. They can still freely buy players as normal.

A piss weak punish to be fair, they should have been banned completely from being able to sign anybody, period.
#271670 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
.verse
14 years ago
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Juventus came 7th in both 09/10 and 10/11, but have won four straight Scudetti since and got to the CL final. Milan won't do as well as that but it shows how you can get back up to the top quickly - and Roma and Lazio (2nd and 3rd last season) can easily (and unfortunately, in Roma's case) be overtaken IMO by the Milan clubs.

Not without their own turmoil though. They did well to appoint Ranieri upon promotion, given he was a proven manner that was able to get the club back towards the top. Even though he didn't last his second season, his appointment was important. Then there was a bit of chopping and changing with managers in Ciro Ferrara, Zaccheroni and Delneri, before some big changes were had in the back room, which allowed Conte to come in. Once he joined and Juve relocated stadiums, things clicked.

Milan just haven't learnt. They've held onto a lot of players who've not been good enough. They've purchased poorly and appointed managers that simply haven't fit the mould of what has been required. Honestly, all the clubs such as Inter, Roma and AC Milan should have all been in better positions after Juve were demoted but none have really grasped the chance they had fully.
#271076 Transfer Rumours 2015/16
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14 years ago
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871
Sweepstake for when Cech first gets injured and what it will be?

Will be interesting to see how his apparent troublesome elbow fairs with the extra workload he'll likely encounter at Arsenal.

Certainly weird seeing the big fella at Arsenal, however I think we handled the situation well given his service to the club. Ideally he'd have gone elsewhere outside of the EPL but wasn't to be.