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Well, about the advantage, the opoosite has also been true for decades, in the anual intercontinental cup, south american teams would arrive after a 70+ matches season for the tournament while europeans would be mid-season. People will always find excuses, honestly, all bad details aside, I'm just glad to have a "world cup" for clubs like this, this should be really fun for anyone who loves football, specially if this lasts for decades .

I mean I hear what you're saying but PSG sold Mbappe then went on and won the Champion's League.

The season in Brazil is less than half way through and being the world club champion has always been a massive thing in Brazil (they are perplexed/don’t believe as to why noone gives s f*ck about it in Europe. The South American teams have a large advantage due to the timing of this tournament but they are also used to playing a lot more football (believe it or not) than European teams.

I maintain that despite his output and numbers we still have no idea how to properly involve him in the offense so the prospect of who he could be is quite frankly terrifying and irreplaceable. He is generational. You don't sell generational.

surely not your only other bugbear? There's a lot to dislike about the competition. I kinda don't mind about Auckland though I agree with everything you say. It's just quite fun watching whipping boys get mercilessly pasted sometimes.

There's also the possibility of an explosive line up between big Jo and Pedro on the left. And Hall

And the Everton midfield…

Why not just let them have the moment and the money and the fun. Would be a great moment for these players despite the results

If we miss out on Guehi, then I hope we go big with a suprise signing at CB, like we did with Pedro and Isak. Think a proper world class singing would lift the team wonders. No idea who this could be mind Also, what about Scalvini? Could we do similar to Tino and buy him after an ACL injury?

Yet to date not one of the big teams has gone for Osimhen

Vehemently disagree football is / should be about winning! I know PSR blah blah but one league cup in that long is not enough to be so arrogant we ditch the cups.

Ramsay was the rumour.

It's been planned for a while tbf. Not really any excuse for it to be so slapdash from a production point of view. My only other bugbear is the inclusion of Auckland City. They're clearly the only completely non competitive outfit, which is inevitable given they're entirely amateur. Including an Oceania team is tokenistic and silly. Theres a pro team in Auckland that plays in the Aussie A-league that would batter them (plus one in Wellington). Think the OFC champions should have to play off against an Asian team and/or the NZ A-League sides first. Gives them participation, without actually having to have a team there getting battered stupidly.

They sold Coutinho don’t you know 😉

The usual shite from their village idiot.

After everything I've read, i've some to a new conclusion on all of this now. Basically, to me, it looks like we have a little bit of PSR headroom before June 30th, we are looking to use that, but we are holding our cards close to our chest to see what happens at Villa. If they get close to the deadline and need bailing out, we'll pounce and get a good deal for a player who is on out "list", if they get out of it a different way, I think we'll see either Trafford or Pedro announced before the deadline to use up the leeway we have left instead

Not sure if serious but CL football, massive support, Eddie Howe and staff, a general upward trajectory are all positives in our favour. PSR restricts us, our initial signing strategy were upcoming players abroad (Bruno, Botman, Isak) or highly rated English players (Hall, Gordon and Livra) which is risky. Tonali was the only young established signing, the other being an older Trippier. Now we’re back at the top we seem to be looking at established players (Guehi, Mbeumo) to take us to the next level but we don’t have the finances to match. I’d go back to the old strategy that got us here.

Boil it down to literally just the football and a 32-team Club World Cup is absolutely a fun thing to have, and totally justifiable in the context of football being a global game. This one has just been delivered in such an ugly and almost unprofessional way. Even the broadcasting seems semi-pro; for example I've counted three times one of the comms has done a big cough, clearly not knowing they're already back on air. Ads always seem to cut-off the pre/post-amble. I'm not complaining (because it's free) but it's one example of how the whole thing has that feeling of being hastily thrown together.

You don’t think they’d be a slight issue with wages there?

Osimhen plus David

I think it should be played a bit later and basically allow it to be effectively the pre-season for the UEFA clubs (as intertoto was for us) would make more sense. Maybe a Eurocentric view admittedly.

Not watched a full match but begrudgingly quite enjoyed watching the highlights of the CWC. The fans of South American, Japanese and African clubs have been really impressive. The principle of it is good, and I do think having this proper tournament once every four years is better than the truncated (and basically tokenistic) mini version in the middle of every season. Main issue is the distorting finances behind it and also I just can't see how the scheduling isn't just too much for players.

More excuse for Fat Todd to buy every fucking winger with a pulse.