The College Dropout

Only watched the second half but well deserved I thought. 
 

Diomande is 19????? FUCK. I thought he was 21 or 22. The pace is crazy. The trickery is crazy.  Clearly a super high ceiling.   
 

Love the Cote manager. He’s kicking and heading everything. 

Nice finish that. 
 

I wanted Diallo after his Sunderland spell. They would’ve sold him to us for £20-30m when the egg head was in charge. 

3 minutes ago, cubaricho said:

Fofana is a unit  

He’s strong arming the entire midfield.  Strong arming Caicedo is impressive. 

Diamonde has super speed and has genuine 1v1 ability.  
 

2 men on him he’s still going to finish his action. 

18 minutes ago, Stifler said:

Aye, thanks for bailing Chelsea out of their next set of accounts, cunts.

Won’t have made a lot of accounting profit on him. £20m or so.  Sold for a real world loss. 
 

Only slight upside is they probably don’t need to replace him.  They must have 3 more on the books.  

9 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said:

EURRRGGHHH. These fuckers are gonna be annoyingly effective in this tournament

Not been true for what 14 years?

Quietly they’ve become England of yesteryear R16-QF level team. 
 

Think they go out to the first contender they face.  

European teams relying heavily on set pieces so far 

Don’t like his contract situation. 2 years left no renewal noises right?

Bruno

Barnes

Joelinton

Livramento 

Al have contracts expiring 28.  
 

For me?

Bruno - give him the 6-year Bowen/Son/Kane super max. Sell him to Saudi or MLS if needed in 3-5 years. £200k+ 

Barnes - renew to 2030 consider selling from next season 

Joelinton - I reckon he leaves next season or for free. Dont think there’s a big market for him now anyway and he’s a lad. 
Livramento - need to consider selling.  I get the feeling he’s going to pull our pants down Gordon style. If his form and fitness is indifferent next season we’ll end up selling him cut price.  

36 minutes ago, joeyt said:

 

Sven must be in tier 1 if you're counting Hall and Tino?

Not in my view.  The others are highly coveted and sought after - becoming full internationals. Botman would be tier 1 after his first season but signing when he did his stock was low.  
 

All the others would be genuine coups to re-sign.   
 

If Tino’s injuries persist he may also fall into the tier below.  

No dickheads refers to being a good lad in the changing room and good professionals, no massive egos. 
 

Same way Arsenal are all good lads.  People dislike Gabriel but he most likely is a god lad in terms of being on time, respectful to team mates, trains well. Arsenal lads routinely look like bible bashers, settle down with partners young.  Don’t hear much about them off the field.  
 

A big part of ‘no dickheads’ require great club leadership and management mind.  Arsenal have been paying Saka and Saliba good money and everyone believes in the project.  That is so key. 
 

We’ve only had 1 top tier contract renewal since Ashworth and Staveley left. And that was Gordon who has left anyway. Didnt get Isak one, haven’t got any for Livra, Hall, Bruno & Tonali (post Ashworth). I guess we have a different model and actually have to sell. 

He made the right choice. Good chance he wouldn’t make the squads for either England or Nigeria.  Certainly doesn’t start for either. 

Paraguay what are you doing?

2 minutes ago, leffe186 said:

 

I don’t disagree with the logic, but I do disagree with the sentiment. I’ve really enjoyed this game and it’s been enhanced by neither side being particularly great. I kinda like that two countries that never get to play each other competitively finally do so. A proper World Cup in a sense.

It’s shit patter.  Canada are the host nation and Bosnia would’ve qualified in the old format.  They beat Italy to get here. 

Canada remind me of us on a bad day at home against a midtable team 

Ref and VAR are desperate to give Canada something 

Imagine ignoring me but not a Man United fan 

Automatic skip scroll when I see people debating Froggy.  

Wouldn’t say Merino was a hit.  Similarly not a miss. 
 

Isak came from La Liga too tbf. The biggest success story from that Division. He was optimised for PL and Howe ball. This lad looks similar. 

^^^ 

specifically with buy back clauses - I’ve never seen Real Madrid buy back a player and sell them in the same window.  
 

Morata, Odegaard can’t think of others but when bought back and sold, there’s always been a years gap. 

Also if Osasuna paid €5m for him that’s profit for the player too. 
 

Youre talking €2.5m overall profit for the player . Then bonuses, sign on fees, agent costs etc. 

1 minute ago, mayubeproud said:

In case if RM is okay with the transfer at this price, I wonder why they won't buy back Munoz? Let's say it costs them €10m to buy back, and then sell him at the rumored €35+5m to us immediately, then they would get a profit of €25+5m instead of €17.5+2.5m.

Pretty sure they’ll need to keep him for a season. They can’t get him and sell him in the same window.  
 

They’ve never done it with all of their buy back clauses.  

Tbh even Europe.  It’s not hard for counties like Switzerland to qualify for major tournaments - time to play some ball. 

7 minutes ago, Groundhog63 said:

Yep, South Korea play some good football, as do Japan.

At least one of these will make the semis. Both the QF

Don’t know about all that mind. Korea looked susceptible to set plays. But I hope they go far.  Football played the right way.  
 

But I think it’s a blueprint for big but not elite international teams outside of Europe.  Particularly South America.  6 out of 10 qualify - countries like Colombia can concentrate on really playing. Fairly slick margins in Africa still mind.  

3 minutes ago, Nucasol said:

Yep - Nuno and Ruben Neves 2.0

Ruben Neves and Diogo Jota in the Champ was insane.