The Football Thread - Season 2013/2014

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I'm a bit surprised Alcantara went to Bayern, but then it's time of change at Utd with a manager unproven with a big club. With Bayern it's a big club and a manager he knows. It is a blow to Utd though for him to choose to go somewhere else.

I read that Utd wanted Fabgregas or Fellaini. :eek: That is going in different ways to me. Then it was both of them. :thinking:

I'm not sure Fabregas is worth the money now, as from what I've seen of him recently he fits into the Barca system and has lost some of the individuality he had imho. Whether he can just switch that back on again is anyone's guess. :shrug:

Fellaini was disappointing last season for me. Witness the teams queueing up for him. ;)

I'm glad for Spurs fans the Bale situation has calmed down. Hopefully it will stay that way.

As for Wenger not being serious, I think there is something in that. He doesn't like spending a lot of money, but it makes it look like he's willing to spend a lot. He's done it before.

Liverpool were linked with Bayern's Xherdan Shaqiri. A player they signed for £10m, has hardly played for them, and is being said to be worth £20m. :eek: How does that work? :shrug: :thinking: If that is how it works, Chel$ki should cash in on Victor Moses. ;)

On more a lighter note, Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling gets one of the worst haircuts of all time. :eek: :lol:

I can only think of the Ronaldo World Cup haircut which was a lot worse. :lol:


But then there's Chris Waddle too. :eek: Arrrgh the flashbacks.
 
fabs said:
No reason why not. It's not up and running for te new season yet but, when it is, I'll set up a TP league. Watch this space.
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Ok, scratch that, wasn't looking properly! :bang:

Have set up a league, also a head to head league as that might be fun so please join both. League names and join codes as below:

Talk Photography - 101762-29974
Talk Photography H2H - 101762-30013

The Official Premier League Fantasy Football can be found HERE

I'm thinking it might be an idea to keep the FF stuff in this thread as the dedicated thread hasn't been used much in recent years. I'll post up a sticky pointing to this post just in case anyone goes looking for it.
 
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FF and general football chat in the same thread - sounds like a good idea.
 
dinners said:
FF and general football chat in the same thread - sounds like a good idea.
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Glad you agree Phil. TBH, the FF thread tends to die off after a few weeks and it then gets mentioned in the football thread anyway so I thought I'd just make it official.

I think the head to head matches will be interesting, almost makes me want a certain ex-member back! ;)
 
I'll have to take it out on the wife and kids now though.
 
fabs said:
Ok, scratch that, wasn't looking properly! :bang:

Have set up a league, also a head to head league as that might be fun so please join both. League names and join codes as below:

Talk Photography - 101762-29974
Talk Photography H2H - 101762-30013

I'm thinking it might be an idea to keep the FF stuff in this thread as the dedicated thread hasn't been used much in recent years. I'll post up a sticky pointing to this post just in case anyone goes looking for it.
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I'm in from the start this time. :)

Put in the team I finished with last season and it came to £107m. :eek: Inflation eh! ;)

Some re jigging had to be done. ;)
 
ah where do you join the ff leauge then ive looked but cant find anything.


sorry for being :cuckoo:

bleddyn
 
Liverpool seem to be very popular in Indonesia. ;)

[YOUTUBE]qq5OFJYv7xE[/YOUTUBE]

They may be playing in front of 100,000 in Melbourne. :eek: Well the ground holds 100k, we'll see how much they can fill it. ;)
 
pooley said:
Sad news about Bert Trautman, city legend.

On the other hand, fair play to Stoke who are offering free coach travel to away matches for their fans this season. About time clubs started giving a little bit back
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Just a legend all round, not just for city.
 
RIP Bert Trautmann. Definitely has his place in British football history. :clap:


Sad that the Barca manager, Vilanova has had give up the job because of health problem.


On a lighter note, I wonder how much Villa had to put in front of Benteke to get him to sign a new deal. ;)
 
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fabs said:
No reason why not. It's not up and running for te new season yet but, when it is, I'll set up a TP league. Watch this space.
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Happy days.
 
So PSg have paid 27 million for Marquinhos! That is ludicrous money for a teenage defender surely?!
 
pooley said:
Yeah, a bit like 35m for Andy Carroll....
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Yep, when you've just got £50m for Torres, you're still in profit and living within your means. ;)

The teams I mentioned is the small change falling out of some Sheik's or Oligarch's pocket. ;)
 
redhed17 said:
Yep, when you've just got £50m for Torres, you're still in profit and living within your means. ;)

The teams I mentioned is the small change falling out of some Sheik's or Oligarch's pocket. ;)
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Living within your means? Is that what they call debt rising from £65m to £87m in the last year and a £40m annual loss? :P
 
TriggerHappy said:
Living within your means? Is that what they call debt rising from £65m to £87m in the last year and a £40m annual loss? :P
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You obviously know more on the clubs finances than I do. :shrug:

I was taking the simplistic view of money coming in and out with transfers in reply to the PSG post. :bonk:

PSG £97.5m bought. £0m sold. -£97.5m

Monaco £126.7m bought. £0m sold. -£126.7m

Chel$ki £27.6m bought. £2.5m sold. -£25m

Man City £97.6m bought. £7.9 sold. -£89.7m

Liverpool £23.5m bought. £20.5m sold. -£3m

So a small loss in transfers so far, but relatively little Net spend in comparison to the teams above. ;) There is talk of one or two more signings though. Whether they will be paid for by the sale of Suarez only time will tell. :shrug: But even compared to the rest of the Premier League, Liverpool haven't spent much. So far. ;)

Liverpool could do better though and be like Arsenal and Newcastle and be in profit from transfers, ;) (so far) or like West Brom who haven't bought or sold anyone. :lol:
 
I was actually only pulling your leg about the state of your finances :) You're doing a good job of bringing things into check with your annual loss falling by something like £8m compared to last year. The real key for you is to get yourself back into the Champions League. That alone is worth circa £40m a year assuming you progress beyond the initial group stages. Without that you can't sustain the amount you're currently spending on transfers and wages. Fortunately for you I think you're going to surprise a lot of people in the coming season. Coutinho will be a big player for you.

As for Arsenal, it's all exits so far. It's good to see so many of the players who haven't quite delivered leaving. I was sad to see a few of the players go from our youth academy and of course Arshavin who has a smile to melt a man's heart! Particular mention should go to Andre Santos who was brought in last minute to fill a hole and has never really delivered. He's agreed to terminate his contract early and taken a hefty pay cut to play first team football. I only wish Bendtner would follow in his footsteps, if his ego can allow such a thing!

Hopefully we can add a couple of players now we've freed up a huge amount of the wage bill. Dream signings would be Higuain and Fabregas. Gustavo is being linked with us extensively and I'd be delighted if he joined. Less keen on the prospect of Rooney and absolutely, categorically do not want Suarez.

Knowing Wenger, we'll announce the signing of a couple of guys I've barely heard of.

I've been watching our two pre-season games on the excellent 'as-live' service now available through arsenal player which is free for the summer and this coming season. Zalalem is a player carrying a lot of hype at 16 and I can finally get to see why. He has an eye for a pass that can only be compared to Fabregas at the same age. Already he's played some truly delicious through balls. I can't wait to see how he develops! Gnabry and Akpom are also impressing, Sagna has once played CB, the Ox is getting deployed centrally, Giroud is scoring goals for fun and Podolski is absolutely clinical. We've won our first two games 7-0 and then 7-1 so they've been great to watch. The Asian fans have been incredible, too!
 
I couldn't believe how many players Arsenal let go or sold, 22 players. :eek: Chel$ki let 18 go too. As you say, freeing up money that was being spent on wages. A lot of youth players going though, so maybe not that much. But every little helps. ;)

There is talk of Higuain plus money for Suarez. Not sure how I feel about that. If Suarez goes, he needs to be replaced, but I'm not sure about Higuain. I watched a Youtube video of him earlier which he looked amazing. :eek: But then a lot of Youtube videos can do that for average players. ;) :lol: At the back of my mind is the thought that if he was very good, Real wouldn't let him go. :shrug:

If that happened, it would mean Arsenal missing out on all counts. :thinking: Sounds like they may not need him though by the sound of the (admittedly) pre-season results.

If Coutinho plays this season the way he finished the last season, then I think Liverpool will have a superstar on their hands. He's in my FF team. ;) :lol: Another one to look out for is Jordan Ibe. He is apparently a better prospect that Raheem Sterling. :eek: And Sterling hasn't fulfilled his potential yet. I hope Ibe keeps his feet on the ground, because there are signs that Sterling could go off the rails very easily. :suspect:

It seems that Sunderland have only two strikers. And I haven't heard of either of them. :eek:
 
Between Arshavin, Djourou, Squillaci, Santos and Mannone there's around £250k per week trimmed from the wage bill. If we can manage to move on Chamakh, Bendtner and Park then we'll have around £400k to play with. That's an exciting sum of money, but it also comes down to the talent being available and convincing them that Arsenal have the potential and ambition for more than a top 4 team.
 
redhed17 said:
I couldn't believe how many players Arsenal let go or sold, 22 players. :eek: Chel$ki let 18 go too. As you say, freeing up money that was being spent on wages. A lot of youth players going though, so maybe not that much. But every little helps. ;)

There is talk of Higuain plus money for Suarez. Not sure how I feel about that. If Suarez goes, he needs to be replaced, but I'm not sure about Higuain. I watched a Youtube video of him earlier which he looked amazing. :eek: But then a lot of Youtube videos can do that for average players. ;) :lol: At the back of my mind is the thought that if he was very good, Real wouldn't let him go. :shrug:

If that happened, it would mean Arsenal missing out on all counts. :thinking: Sounds like they may not need him though by the sound of the (admittedly) pre-season results.

If Coutinho plays this season the way he finished the last season, then I think Liverpool will have a superstar on their hands. He's in my FF team. ;) :lol: Another one to look out for is Jordan Ibe. He is apparently a better prospect that Raheem Sterling. :eek: And Sterling hasn't fulfilled his potential yet. I hope Ibe keeps his feet on the ground, because there are signs that Sterling could go off the rails very easily. :suspect:

It seems that Sunderland have only two strikers. And I haven't heard of either of them. :eek:
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Higuain is unlikely to come to us with no CL football. I wouldn't worry about the whole "if he's any good they wouldn't let him go" idea - remember people said that when we bought Coutinho.

Edit: am I the only one who think Sterling is way overrated?
 
The23rdman said:
am I the only one who think Sterling is way overrated?
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I think he has potential, and a lot of potential for one so young, but he now has to prove it as any new signing would. Coming through the youth team can only give you so much time. He may get longer to prove himself, but he should only be in the team on merit imho.

Talking of wages, apparently Pepe Reina may go to Napoli on loan to trim Liverpool's wage bill. Mignolet was said to be bought to be competition for Reina, with each pushing each other, and the most in form player getting in the team. Now Rodgers is saying that it doesn't make sense for Liverpool to be paying so much for a player to be a back up. :thinking: Now I don't know how he has decided so quickly that Mignolet will be his #1 when I don't think Reina has even come back to full training after the Confederations Cup, or if he has, it hasn't been too long. :shrug:

The top teams have quality players pushing each other for positions in the team, if you are just buying players to replace more expensive ones, then in all likelihood, the quality of the whole squad will be reduced imho, as top players normally command the higher fees and wages. Bringing in cheaper players, and not keeping the majority of the players in the same positions for competition will lower the quality. If it could be done on a shoestring, Chel$ki and Man City needn't have spent so much.


I read earlier on the BBC teletext that Petr Cech had warned Man City that spending big will not guarantee trophies. :eek: Excuse me, that's a Chel$ki player saying spending money won't guarantee trophies? Does he not realise that his club epitomise that spending leads to trophies, and is the model Anzhi, Man City, PSG and Monaco are following because Chel$ki have shown that it works. :lol:
 
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fabs said:
Ok, scratch that, wasn't looking properly! :bang:

Have set up a league, also a head to head league as that might be fun so please join both. League names and join codes as below:

Talk Photography - 101762-29974
Talk Photography H2H - 101762-30013

The Official Premier League Fantasy Football can be found HERE

I'm thinking it might be an idea to keep the FF stuff in this thread as the dedicated thread hasn't been used much in recent years. I'll post up a sticky pointing to this post just in case anyone goes looking for it.
Click to expand...


Cool, I've played this for the past few years [actually just checked my profile on the site and played since 06/07!] , just made a new temp team up this morning [Cage FC]. Joined the TP league, and the H2H
 
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We've signed Karl Henry from Wolves. I despair.
 
TriggerHappy said:
Knowing Wenger, we'll announce the signing of a couple of guys I've barely heard of.

I've been watching our two pre-season games on the excellent 'as-live' service now available through arsenal player which is free for the summer and this coming season. Zalalem is a player carrying a lot of hype at 16 and I can finally get to see why. He has an eye for a pass that can only be compared to Fabregas at the same age. Already he's played some truly delicious through balls. I can't wait to see how he develops! Gnabry and Akpom are also impressing, Sagna has once played CB, the Ox is getting deployed centrally, Giroud is scoring goals for fun and Podolski is absolutely clinical. We've won our first two games 7-0 and then 7-1 so they've been great to watch. The Asian fans have been incredible, too!
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I would like to see some of our youngsters given a chance. Aside from Wilshire and Gibbs, we havent promoted many from the youth team (talking about developed from young rather than bought at 16/17 like Ox). There is often hype about players (Gnabry for example) yet you just know they will play 4 or 5 games then go on loan, then get sold!

Frustrated we have not signed anyone yet.
 
According to the Guardian, in response to Liverpool rejecting our £40m bid for Suarez and saying they will only entertain offers over that price, we've made a further bid of £40,000,001. If (big if!) this is true that's so brilliant I might be able to overlook the fact it's Suarez :lol: :lol:
 
TriggerHappy said:
According to the Guardian, in response to Liverpool rejecting our £40m bid for Suarez and saying they will only entertain offers over that price, we've made a further bid of £40,000,001. If (big if!) this is true that's so brilliant I might be able to overlook the fact it's Suarez :lol: :lol:
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Bale to Madrid and Suarez to arsenal. Could be a good day for the red half of North London! I feel sorry for Wenger - he's tried to buy Higuain but Madrid moved the goal posts, Suarez is good but trouble and Rooney will never go to arsenal.

I suspect they'll still end up with nobody apart from the young striker bought from France.......and still finish top 4.
 
akr said:
We've signed Karl Henry from Wolves. I despair.
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I had to go an see who 'we' were that had bought Karl Henry. ;) :lol:


Liverpool are going to be watched by close to 100,000 people in Melbourne tomorrow morning. :eek: Fingers crossed it's a good game.

It will be interesting to see how Jovetic does at City, as Liverpool were linked with him many times. Then again, Liverpool are linked with loads of players, all the time. :bang: Don't know how interested Liverpool actually were. :shrug:
 
I saw earlier that Arsenal were offering £42m for Suarez, £35m in cash, and £7m in add ons.

A £40,000,001 offer would be funny though. :lol:

Liverpool feel they have to inform him of any offers over £40m, but they don't have to accept any offers over that price. They seem pretty confident that they are in control over that. :thinking:

I don't see why the best Uruguayan is being touted for around £40m, when the 2nd best has just gone for £55m. :shrug:


As soon as Real can move Higuain on, probably to Napoli by the look of it, they may actually make a bid and give Suarez the move he actually wants. Of course if Real use the money to bid for Bale, I don't think they will go after Suarez too. :shrug:

Higuain actually sits in between Suarez and Cavani in the goals per game stats, with Suarez being the most prolific. Suarez 1.75 gpg, Higuain 1.85 gpg, and Cavani 1.97 gpg. Yet Cavani has been the most sought after. :thinking: :shrug:
 
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