Football Season 2017-18

[Charlie]

It needs to be implemented UEFA wide for it to work properly. I'm all for it. I think it's a lot fairer if clubs have to have submitted their squad prior to the season starting. By January each club will be half way through the season having played each other team once. The winter break doubles as the January transfer window where no games are played.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I'm just looking at the dates now.

British window opens on 9th June. France also opens on that date. Germany and Italy open on 1st July.

British, French, Spanish, German and Italian all close on the same day as the British window - 31st August.

Closing the British window on 10th August (first day of this new Premier League season) is going to give European clubs...three additional weeks to sign players. That's a HUGE disadvantage to the Premier League. 

I like how all the deadline is the same for the European clubs. That needs to stay the same. Maybe a solution is to start all leagues at the same time and end them at the same time. 

 

[Mr-Paul]

As Charlie said, should be a Europe-wide thing if it's to work nicely. Open it 1st June, close it 1st August everywhere. Two months to do your transfers. Simples.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Apparently Man City are interested in signing Jonny Evans. He's versatile and I loved him when he was at United, so I can see why there would be interest. Surprised by it, though. City have bought loads of defenders already and you'd have thought that Pep would be happy with that by now. 

[killthenet]

Celtic basically through to the group stages. If Liverpool qualify too then it's almost guaranteed that Celtic will be drawn in a group with an English side. Should make for some interesting fixtures, I get the feeling Celtic are a whole different prospect in Europe this season - would be very surprised to see them beaten so convincingly like they were by Barca last year. Hope they go far in the Champions League or the Europa league, Scottish football could really do with the boost. The fact Celtic have to go through so many qualifying games is ridiculous, apparently Everton have a higher co-efficient than Celtic despite the fact that they have hardly been in Europe this last 10 years and Celtic have made the CL group stages 3 times in the last 5 years.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Fuuuuuck, Liverpool have rejected a third bid from Barcelona, believed to be in the area of £114million. 

What is going on?! 

[killthenet]

He has to be on his way out, surely. Has there ever been a time when Real or Barca have gone all out to get a player and it hasn't worked out? I think Spurs need to start worrying that they'll be going after Dele Alli if the Coutinho deal doesn't go through but surely it's just a matter of time until he goes, he wants to leave and Barca seem prepared to pay silly money for him so Liverpool must just be waiting for the right figure.

[Fierce_LiNk]

6 minutes ago, killthenet said:

He has to be on his way out, surely. Has there ever been a time when Real or Barca have gone all out to get a player and it hasn't worked out? I think Spurs need to start worrying that they'll be going after Dele Alli if the Coutinho deal doesn't go through but surely it's just a matter of time until he goes, he wants to leave and Barca seem prepared to pay silly money for him so Liverpool must just be waiting for the right figure.

Not sure who Liverpool are going to replace him with. But...that's a lot of money for Coutinho. I think the player is fantastic, but this will make him the second most expensive player of all time. As good as Coutinho is, is he really in the same calibre of player as Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, etc? Personally, I don't think so. Liverpool are brave to be rejecting that kind of offer.

I still don't know who they'd get to replace him with. That money would quickly disappear, especially as transfer fees this year seem to be insane. They might only be able to get two players for that money, as much as it is. So, they might sell the player, get loads of money for him and be in a worse position than they're in right now. From that point of view, I can get why they'd say no. We certainly didn't replace Ronaldo with a quality player or group of players of the same calibre, at least not no one of real quality until years later.

 

[Happenstance]

At this point I'd sell hum just to get funds for bloody defenders!

[dazzybee]

18 minutes ago, killthenet said:

He has to be on his way out, surely. Has there ever been a time when Real or Barca have gone all out to get a player and it hasn't worked out? I think Spurs need to start worrying that they'll be going after Dele Alli if the Coutinho deal doesn't go through but surely it's just a matter of time until he goes, he wants to leave and Barca seem prepared to pay silly money for him so Liverpool must just be waiting for the right figure.

Dele Ali would cost twice what Coutinho is going for so if they can't afford him they'll have zero chance of Ali. They'd have to pay more than they sold Neymar to get him!

[killthenet]

30 minutes ago, dazzybee said:

Dele Ali would cost twice what Coutinho is going for so if they can't afford him they'll have zero chance of Ali. They'd have to pay more than they sold Neymar to get him!

I don't worry that he'll actually be sold (I'm sure Levy wouldn't accept any less that £200m for him) but just how it would affect Alli's psychology of a team like Barca came in with a huge offer. It can't be underestimated how much it can effect a players mood and turn their heads. 

[dazzybee]

43 minutes ago, killthenet said:

I don't worry that he'll actually be sold (I'm sure Levy wouldn't accept any less that £200m for him) but just how it would affect Alli's psychology of a team like Barca came in with a huge offer. It can't be underestimated how much it can effect a players mood and turn their heads. 

Yeah true. Just can’t see it. Like you say, if they go this hard for him (Coutinho) they’ll get him. 

[Fierce_LiNk]

Wouldn't be fantastic if both clubs just told Barcelona to fuck off? I really want to see what happens this season if they don't manage to find a suitable replacement. 

[Fierce_LiNk]

My luck has been absolute shit today. Trying to watch the game against Swansea and my feed cut out before ALL FOUR OF THE GOALS. I missed every single one. On top of that, just found out that I probably won't be able to go to a very old friend's wedding due to it being in term time. Don't think I've ever felt this way over a 4-0 victory before!

Edit: Full time, 4-0. Another really good performance. I really like how we're actually killing games off instead of trying to defend a 1-0 for the whole of the second half. In previous seasons, we'd have drawn this game 1-1. The intensity was really good. 

[Fierce_LiNk]

We've re-signed Zlatan on a one-year deal. Could be a very important player for us later in the season when others start to tire or go through dips in form. Really happy about this as he looked great for us last season and should give an extra dimension to our play. 

[Clownferret]

madness if you ask me. £250k a week to come on for the last 20 minutes to keep Lukaku fresh or play in League Cup games. Or the alternative is £75 million Lukaku sits on the bench. Either way, a stupid deal. Mourinho's transfer business continues to be questionable. Apparently shortly before he got the axe at Chelsea for the second time he had to explain to the board why he let both Lukaku and De Bruyne leave. I guess they were not impressed with his reasons as he was sacked after the next match.

[Fierce_LiNk]

15 minutes ago, Clownferret said:

madness if you ask me. £250k a week to come on for the last 20 minutes to keep Lukaku fresh or play in League Cup games. Or the alternative is £75 million Lukaku sits on the bench. Either way, a stupid deal. Mourinho's transfer business continues to be questionable. Apparently shortly before he got the axe at Chelsea for the second time he had to explain to the board why he let both Lukaku and De Bruyne leave. I guess they were not impressed with his reasons as he was sacked after the next match.

Zlatan scored 28 goals for United last season, with 17 out of those in 28 league games. It's a similar rate to Costa and Aguero. Why would United turn down the opportunity to sign a striker like that, especially one who has already proven to be successful and popular? Even with the wages (which United can afford), he comes with a huge brand and United will be able to recuperate that cost through merchandise. It's an absolute no-brainer. 

Players need competition, or else they become complacent. Lukaku will definitely be there as the first choice striker, but we need player to come in to replace him if his form dips or if he has an injury. It's important to have strength in the whole squad now, especially with European football.

As for the "apparently" Mourinho complaints - Chelsea are notorious and have form for sacking managers at the first sight of pretty much anything, so I pay very little attention to that.  There are already talks of people coming in to replace Conte (Thomas Tuchel being one of a list of many), which I guess just sums the club up really. They don't need an excuse to get rid of people. 

[Clownferret]

58 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

Zlatan scored 28 goals for United last season, with 17 out of those in 28 league games. It's a similar rate to Costa and Aguero. Why would United turn down the opportunity to sign a striker like that, especially one who has already proven to be successful and popular? Even with the wages (which United can afford), he comes with a huge brand and United will be able to recuperate that cost through merchandise. It's an absolute no-brainer. 

Players need competition, or else they become complacent. Lukaku will definitely be there as the first choice striker, but we need player to come in to replace him if his form dips or if he has an injury. It's important to have strength in the whole squad now, especially with European football.

As for the "apparently" Mourinho complaints - Chelsea are notorious and have form for sacking managers at the first sight of pretty much anything, so I pay very little attention to that.  There are already talks of people coming in to replace Conte (Thomas Tuchel being one of a list of many), which I guess just sums the club up really. They don't need an excuse to get rid of people. 

Zlatan had an immense season, but the bottom line is he got injured and you spent £75 million replacing him. So one of them is going to be sitting on the bench, unless Mourinho blindsides us all and plays two strikers.

As for Chelsea I wasn't suggesting Mourinho got the sack because of the players he let go on the cheap (if we were top of the league it wouldn't have been an issue) but the point is he transfer policy was already in question.

I'm sure Utd can afford the wages plus merchandise etc, but just because you can afford to do something doesn't mean you should. As a Chelsea fan we have a long history of abysmal transfer dealings, but the likes of Rashford and Lingard are going top suffer because of this.

[killthenet]

I think training with Zlatan is going to be a fantastic learning experience for Lukaku too, he's more mobile that Zlatan but otherwise they're similar powerful target men so he'll be able to learn a lot from training with him. Zlatan also has an absurd amount of Champions League experience where Lukaku has none (as far as I can remember).

Liverpool fans will be relieved, Barca have agreed a deal for Dortmund's Ousmane Dembele so it's pretty unlikely that they'll continue in their pursuit of Coutinho.

Edited August 24, 2017 by killthenet

[Clownferret]

1 hour ago, killthenet said:

I think training with Zlatan is going to be a fantastic learning experience for Lukaku too, he's more mobile that Zlatan but otherwise they're similar powerful target men so he'll be able to learn a lot from training with him. Zlatan also has an absurd amount of Champions League experience where Lukaku has none (as far as I can remember).

Liverpool fans will be relieved, Barca have agreed a deal for Dortmund's Ousmane Dembele so it's pretty unlikely that they'll continue in their pursuit of Coutinho.

Liverpool are crazy not to sell Coutinho for the numbers being mentioned. They already have an abundance of attacking players and could really build an overall strong team with £100+ million.

I think this transfer deadline day will be epic. Several players wanting moves and there will no doubt be some last minute shenanigans.

[Happenstance]

I assume a lot of people didnt see the add ons list for the last offer, it was pretty terrible. If I remember right they were only offering 80 mill and then a load of stupid additions like winning multiple trophies in one season or winning the ballon d'or. Not the usual ones you would see like a specific amount of matches played or goals scored.

[Fierce_LiNk]

2 hours ago, Clownferret said:

Zlatan had an immense season, but the bottom line is he got injured and you spent £75 million replacing him. So one of them is going to be sitting on the bench, unless Mourinho blindsides us all and plays two strikers.

As for Chelsea I wasn't suggesting Mourinho got the sack because of the players he let go on the cheap (if we were top of the league it wouldn't have been an issue) but the point is he transfer policy was already in question.

I'm sure Utd can afford the wages plus merchandise etc, but just because you can afford to do something doesn't mean you should. As a Chelsea fan we have a long history of abysmal transfer dealings, but the likes of Rashford and Lingard are going top suffer because of this.

Well, not exactly true. We had two aging strikers in Zlatan and Rooney. If anything, Rooney is the one who got replaced as he just wasn't able to fulfil that role of lead striker anymore. We needed a proven goalscorer who could pull defences apart and get behind them. Zlatan is a different kind of striker to that. 

About transfer policies: You could look at any manager and question their transfer policies. Even Fergie with Pogba, or Gerard Pique, or Pep with Yaya Toure. Or Conte with Matic. It's not as simple as you make out. Sometimes there are multiple reasons why players get sold on or are not given a chance. Maybe there were other players who played in the same position and these players were more favoured, or maybe there were simply just better players at the time. Look at the Chelsea squad in the season that De Bruyne left. There are some excellent players that player in either the same or similar position to De Bruyne. There's only space for 11 players each week and for a handful of subs. In football, one player is always stopping another from progressing due to the limited number of spaces. It's unavoidable. What if De Bruyne's progress came at the cost of Eden Hazard, for example? De Bruyne did the right thing for his career and moved on, where he flourished in the Bundesliga. I've (obviously) followed and know the situation surrounding Lukaku and De Bruyne quite well due to @Eenuh's Belgiumness (:p) and getting to see how the Belgium media see it. General consensus was that both players made the right moves for where they were at their career at that time.

Rashford and Lingard may suffer, or they may not. It depends on multiple factors and their futures are not defined by one signing. If Rashford breaks his leg in training tomorrow, his career will be different in the future. If Lingard suddenly hits a run of form and starts scoring in every game, then his inclusion to the first team will come at the cost of someone else. Lingard and Rashford are two different kinds of players, both not really comparable to Zlatan as they are built differently and offer alternative things. As @killthenet said, if anything, these players will learn from Zlatan in training and will be able to develop other aspects of their game, such as finishing...which both players need, Rashford in particular. They don't really play in the same positions as Zlatan. He is on the wind down of his career. Rashford and Lingard are at different points to him. 

1 hour ago, killthenet said:

I think training with Zlatan is going to be a fantastic learning experience for Lukaku too, he's more mobile that Zlatan but otherwise they're similar powerful target men so he'll be able to learn a lot from training with him. Zlatan also has an absurd amount of Champions League experience where Lukaku has none (as far as I can remember).

Liverpool fans will be relieved, Barca have agreed a deal for Dortmund's Ousmane Dembele so it's pretty unlikely that they'll continue in their pursuit of Coutinho.

Completely agree with all of this. Think the entire squad will benefit from having someone like Zlatan around.

[Kav]

I'm using this tweet for the pic!

 

[Kav]

Tough draw for us!

[Fierce_LiNk]

Look at Celtic's group!

I don't think United's group will be a pushover, but you'd expect them to get through that.

Tottenham's group is interesting! It depends on what Dortmund's lineup will be like once Dembele goes.

Can't wait for the group stages to begin!