Football 2020/2021

[charlierc]

13 hours ago, thetime said:

3rd from bottom isn't done and dusted yet.

This is true - just because Fulham beat Everton the other night and have generally played well without winning doesn't mean they won't get caught up with.

10 hours ago, eastynh said:

Callum Wilson is a massive loss. Just had a look at your fixtures. After United at the weekend, the following 7 are not too bad. Fulham have Liverpool and City in that period. I think you will just have enough to stay up.

The worry is that it'll be like watching last season's Newcastle, which felt like it struggled for scoring in the absence of a half-decent focal point.

It is true that the fixture list gets harder for Fulham after their upcoming 3 games, and I don't expect them to win all 3 of Burnley, Sheffield United and Palace. But even so, it has definite scope to become a lot closer than it was looking after we beat Southampton with 9.

[Hugh Jass]

This has not been a stellar advert for Upamecano.

[Hugh Jass]

Thought Leipzig were meant to be quite good? They’ve been utter bobbins here.

[lost]

I watched the other match. Mbappe must be the best in the world right now. Also Moise Kean playing the same role Iwobi does for Everton and looking twice the player.

[squirrelarmy]

12 hours ago, charlierc said:

It is true that the fixture list gets harder for Fulham after their upcoming 3 games, and I don't expect them to win all 3 of Burnley, Sheffield United and Palace. But even so, it has definite scope to become a lot closer than it was looking after we beat Southampton with 9.

You do have Leeds at home. And Leeds don’t win games in London 

[jyoung]

10 hours ago, lost said:

I watched the other match. Mbappe must be the best in the world right now. Also Moise Kean playing the same role Iwobi does for Everton and looking twice the player.

Kean came to the Prem too early in his career. Good to see him doing well in Paris. Mbappe is unreal.

10 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

Thought Leipzig were meant to be quite good? They’ve been utter bobbins here.

They definitely didn't look as strong as they did in last years competition. 

Another thing about last night's match - the commentary was terrible. I don't usually care too much but Steve McMananaman was spouting hyperbolic nonsense that just didn't reflect the game at all. Darren Fletcher wasn't much better either... Some of the 'observations' were embarrassingly bad.

[lost]

1 hour ago, jyoung said:

Kean came to the Prem too early in his career. Good to see him doing well in Paris. 

It will be interesting to see if Everton cash in over the summer. It would be nice to see if that form could now translate to the premiership, but Everton have a hell of alot of dead wood hanging over from the Steve Walsh days which is now worthless in the post covid world of no fans. I think other positions will take priority if they need to sell to buy.

[jyoung]

Also - what on Earth is going on at Barcelona?!

[lost]

5 minutes ago, jyoung said:

Also - what on Earth is going on at Barcelona?!

insolvency

[squirrelarmy]

6 hours ago, lost said:

insolvency

The Leeds chairman was at the game. Hopefully he’s got his eye on a bargain or two

[Hugh Jass]

1 hour ago, squirrelarmy said:

The Leeds chairman was at the game. Hopefully he’s got his eye on a bargain or two

Risdale? Was he offering financial advice?

[jyoung]

Joe Cole calling Barca's academy the 'masala' was incredible.

What a numpty.

[priest17]

City look good.

[charlierc]

9 hours ago, jyoung said:

Also - what on Earth is going on at Barcelona?!

They've been broken since selling Neymar, and even more broken since covid. Weirdly it's still not the most humiliating defeat they've been on the wrong end of in the last 12 months.

[charlierc]

13 hours ago, squirrelarmy said:

You do have Leeds at home. And Leeds don’t win games in London 

Leeds beat Newcastle home and away since the start of December. So we can't back on that one. West Brom away is our most positive looking fixture in the not too distant future.

[jyoung]

32 minutes ago, charlierc said:

They've been broken since selling Neymar, and even more broken since covid. Weirdly it's still not the most humiliating defeat they've been on the wrong end of in the last 12 months.

Agreed. The way they've handled Messi's situation alongside some of their transfer dealings really leaves you scratching your head. Let's not get it twisted, they could be doing a lot worse but as you say, since Neymar left all of the decision making seems to have been rather wonky.

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

They've been broken since selling Neymar, and even more broken since covid. Weirdly it's still not the most humiliating defeat they've been on the wrong end of in the last 12 months.

I don't think they had much choice in selling neymar, he wanted to go to be the main man somewhere, I think he would have sulked of he had stayed. The trouble is the money was invested terribly including splashing the cash on Coutinho who they didn't need. Also some questionable managerial appointments and mad decision to let Suarez go to Athletico Madrid.

[thetime]

4 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I don't think they had much choice in selling neymar, he wanted to go to be the main man somewhere, I think he would have sulked of he had stayed. The trouble is the money was invested terribly including splashing the cash on Coutinho who they didn't need. Also some questionable managerial appointments and mad decision to let Suarez go to Athletico Madrid.

Just proves no matter who you are, get the transfer policy wrong and its curtains very quickly.

[lost]

Has Coutinho actually been that bad or is he frozen out because they can't afford to make any more payments to Liverpool for him? This is the issue now there will be a knock on effect to other clubs as clubs fail. That payment could easily be linked to Liverpool dragging their heels over buying a new centre back. There are also suggestions the TV money has now peaked and is going to start to drop. Football could look very different in a few years time.

Edited February 18, 2021 by lost

[charlierc]

12 hours ago, jyoung said:

Agreed. The way they've handled Messi's situation alongside some of their transfer dealings really leaves you scratching your head. Let's not get it twisted, they could be doing a lot worse but as you say, since Neymar left all of the decision making seems to have been rather wonky.

It is true that it's all relative, given they've still won titles since Neymar left in 2017, but it felt like they've panicked in the transfer market more often than not. The Messi situation was so poorly handled last summer and I think they could well regret not cashing in if it means leaving such a high value commercial asset for nothing in 4 months time.

11 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I don't think they had much choice in selling neymar, he wanted to go to be the main man somewhere, I think he would have sulked of he had stayed. The trouble is the money was invested terribly including splashing the cash on Coutinho who they didn't need. Also some questionable managerial appointments and mad decision to let Suarez go to Athletico Madrid.

It felt like they allowed themselves to get caught out during the Neymar discussions when he was mulling over leaving. It is true he might well have just forced a move later down the line anyway but it seems like when the deal was made, they weren't expecting him to leave for Paris and had expected him to turn them down. Which obviously didn't work as a strategy.

Dembele as a replacement was a puzzling move - especially as it's since come out Dortmund's negotiators took them to cleaners for twice what Barcelona were planning to pay, and they considered signing Mbappe instead of Dembele - and the triple digit fees for both him and Coutinho have been poor value for money. Plus yeah, the managerial choices have been erratic.

Suarez is an oddity. I think they just wanted him off the wage bill that badly that they didn't consider the possibility selling him to a direct La Liga rival for little fee (if any at all) and giving him a mega point to prove was a really shit idea.

The debt is wild though - over a billion Euros of debt is crazy to think for a club that had been making that much cash over the years.

[Dan R]

2 hours ago, lost said:

Has Coutinho actually been that bad or is he frozen out because they can't afford to make any more payments to Liverpool for him? This is the issue now there will be a knock on effect to other clubs as clubs fail. That payment could easily be linked to Liverpool dragging their heels over buying a new centre back. There are also suggestions the TV money has now peaked and is going to start to drop. Football could look very different in a few years time.

He's been fine for them whenever I've watched him, but he's never had a chance to play in his best role. He seems like the prime example of what's wrong with their recruitment and board. They spent way too much on a player without actually know how he fits into the team, and now their ongoing costs means they've got an unhappy player taking up huge wages while not contributing.

Also heard lots that Barca and Liverpool have the two best analytics groups in the world, except Barca completely don't include them at all while Liverpool's have helped with some incredible recruitment. Not that it would solve their problems but shows how they're run that they splash a load of money on a quality resource just to ignore them.

[eastynh]

25 minutes ago, Dan R said:

He's been fine for them whenever I've watched him, but he's never had a chance to play in his best role. He seems like the prime example of what's wrong with their recruitment and board. They spent way too much on a player without actually know how he fits into the team, and now their ongoing costs means they've got an unhappy player taking up huge wages while not contributing.

Also heard lots that Barca and Liverpool have the two best analytics groups in the world, except Barca completely don't include them at all while Liverpool's have helped with some incredible recruitment. Not that it would solve their problems but shows how they're run that they splash a load of money on a quality resource just to ignore them.

You mean Liverpool hacked City's recruitment files?

[pink_triangle]

37 minutes ago, Dan R said:

He's been fine for them whenever I've watched him, but he's never had a chance to play in his best role. He seems like the prime example of what's wrong with their recruitment and board. They spent way too much on a player without actually know how he fits into the team, and now their ongoing costs means they've got an unhappy player taking up huge wages while not contributing.

He has played for Inter, liverpool, Barca and Bayern and only been amazing at one of them. Maybe him and liverpool was the right match, but he just isn't a great player.

[TheGayTent]

12 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

He has played for Inter, liverpool, Barca and Bayern and only been amazing at one of them. Maybe him and liverpool was the right match, but he just isn't a great player.

He wasn’t amazing at Liverpool 

[thetime]

They certainly got top dollar for him.