leffe186

Oh don’t worry, everyone hates them too

Chelsea’s debt, you say? https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/chelsea-fc-debt-todd-boehly-clearlake-capital-b1013833.html?amp

Wow.

I only saw the second half and ET. The winning goal was the first time I saw England get somebody running at the defense and able to create a good shooting chance - feels like that Spanish keeper would have been beaten by a lot of shots from distance if England had had any other opportunities. On that occasion she was distracted by the other runners and was surprised by the shot, but the England player hit it beautifully. Just…nowhere near the top corner, would have been a straightforward save for a male keeper at that level. Thought Spain were far better organized and tidy throughout. No obvious weak links other than long distance shots at the keeper. Terrific movement off the ball, both when attacking and defending. England may have been tiring a bit, but there were so many times the Spanish drew four players onto their back four then passed it through them to create an overload in the midfield and/or out wide. Did Russo come on at half time? If so then I can see why they haven’t been starting her. When i’d seen her before she looked better than the older forward (Ellen White?) but I think she needs to work on her fitness. If she came on at half time then she tired a bit too quickly for my taste. There’s a chance that was the best two teams in the competition. If so, then Spain were the best team. That said, there was some very professional play from England in ET, some classic time-wasting and buying of fouls. Genuinely impressed tbh. If they can learn from this there’s no reason why they can’t win it all.

Feels like he might do a job for you, if his body holds out. Useful guy to have around for a couple of years coming off the bench, until you spend some serious dough on a forward.

I like him because he plays exactly like so many Sunday football strikers I went up against, just on another level.

Wow. Tbf, I think Tielemans is the only one I’d be interested in, although I haven’t been watching closely. Anyone there you’d fancy?

Feels like this year has been crazy for poaching. Someone suggested that the gloves have come off and old “gentleman’s agreements” have been ditched. Liverpool and Chelsea were always snidey about it, but now it seems like everyone’s at it.

May you live in interesting times is a curse though (although it’s supposedly apocryphal, it’s attributed to the Chinese). Interesting times mean war, famine, pestilence, relegation, etc etc.

Message #78 will amaze you.

How are you feeling about this season? Couple of Everton fans I know are very nervous.

Really like that Norwich away kit.

Watch Arsenal at the start of this season. They have the easiest first 8 games of all teams by some distance. I’d expect them to start really strong and be in a great position to push on, but if they start poorly it will be a long season.

Their actions are what you would expect from somebody who knows they’re going to get bailed out very soon tbh.

Doesn’t mean much at this point tbh beyond a mild chuckle. Somebody did say that it took Nunez a year to settle into Portuguese football.

I mean, you can if you like, but how long do you really want this pain to last?

Am on the train and only following this with BBC text. When they say “Once again [Jackie Burns] slows down the play here and frustrates England” do they mean “once again she time-wastes and just stands there with the ball while the ref lets her do what she wants?” Genuine question, because that’s a bit of a pet hate of mine.

Yeah, this is just what things are going to look like for the top teams. This year in particular with the wanky World Cup, but there’s a decent chance the 5-sub rule will be a really significant change. It’s just not physically possible for a hardcore of 15 or so players to maintain a challenge on multiple fronts. There’s only so many Albuterol prescriptions to go round.

Man City selling all these players to Arsenal and Chelsea does rather suggest that they don’t see them as a threat, which is sweet.

Not really got a comment, just found this interesting.

So this is what it looks like to an outsider. De Jong agreed to defer essentially €28M to his next contract to help Barca out during the pandemic. Barca agreed a sale of c. £55M rising to £72M with Man U, as a way of raising cash right now plus reducing the wage bill. De Jong says “hang on, you still owe me €28M, please pay me that”. Barca hadn’t told Man U??? Here’s my question. Are you the baddies?

Yeah that’s what I presumed. Wouldn’t they just expect you to cut his price accordingly then? Seems completely insane that this wasn’t resolved earlier. Like, if you owe him 20M over the four years of his contract in deferred wages then just cut the transfer price by 20M. Any idea roughly how much he deferred? You know, to help you out after all

If it’s not really a pay cut, why aren’t you just paying De Jong what you owe him? Is it that that money will count against the pay cap over the next four years however you try to work it so you’re just hoping he writes it off? If that’s the case, then how is that not a pay cut? https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/62131753.amp

Going to be fascinating to see how you square that circle. I think Spurs did it about the best way possible, building a completely new stadium on the same site. Arsenal didn’t move far but had a ready-made plot of land with good transport links available. West Ham and Man City got lucky in being helped out handily by the taxpayer, although they both had to move. I think Man City’s success softened the blow enormously while West Ham still seem a bit pissed off they’re not at Upton Park.