Football 2025-26

[charlierc]

10 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Don't remind me, particularly as Wissa turns 29 tomorrow.... But yeah, I thought it was a good video, and I generally think new-signing videos are pretty bland.

 

Amusingly, Cisse's still playing! In the 2nd division of the UAE having moved last summer from Ligue 2, but still a professional footballer. He just keeps dropping down leagues and not retiring. 

Crikey. He turned 40 a few weeks ago but clearly some people do just like to keep it going, whether it's wanting a last bag of cash, a desire to keep on playing for as long as possible or just people wanting to hire him. 

 

Andy Carroll playing in the French 4th tier was similarly unexpected when he was there. Apparently Kevin Nolan was interested in bringing him to Northampton and presumably rekindling a work relationship with his former lodger but couldn't offer him first team football. 

[charlierc]

29 minutes ago, lost said:

Zinchenko to forest. That one completely passed me by.

 

Fulham keeping up the tradition of Brazilians with great one word English names e.g Alan, Fred etc. by signing Kevin. 

 

Read a great stat on twitter regarding Everton signing Röhl. Apparently he was born the same week Moyes made his first signing for Everton Joseph Yobo. People saying he's going to be this teams fellaini/soucek.

I think a lot of deals went by yesterday as it was a bit of a crazy whirlwind. Matt O'Riley going from starting both of Brighton's first two games to joining Marseille on loan was a surprise for me. Zinchenko leaving Arsenal feels less of a surprise and it would be nice to see if he can play in attack again like he still does for the Ukraine national team. 

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

In other news, Ben Chilwell to Strasburg. Which comes across as dodgy and probably corrupt. Which with multi ownership of clubs, will come out in 20 years. 

Not even the first. Think Strasbourg have signed 6 players from Chelsea this summer, having signed a load last year too. But Uefa apparently only care about multi club ownership stuff if you fudge the paperwork like Palace did. 

[thetime]

24 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Crikey. He turned 40 a few weeks ago but clearly some people do just like to keep it going, whether it's wanting a last bag of cash, a desire to keep on playing for as long as possible or just people wanting to hire him. 

 

Andy Carroll playing in the French 4th tier was similarly unexpected when he was there. Apparently Kevin Nolan was interested in bringing him to Northampton and presumably rekindling a work relationship with his former lodger but couldn't offer him first team football. 

 

Some players just love playing. Rush playing at Wrexham in his late 30s, Hughes playing until he was nearly 40. 

 

Sancho will be retired at 30. 

[kaosmark2]

15 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Not even the first. Think Strasbourg have signed 6 players from Chelsea this summer, having signed a load last year too. But Uefa apparently only care about multi club ownership stuff if you fudge the paperwork like Palace did. 

Supposedly, despite ~£250m outlay on players again, Chelsea have recorded a net profit of £3-15m depending on which source you look at and how much the 'undisclosed' to Strasbourg fees are. Considering that Jackson was the only real first teamer that left - and that was on loan, it seems batshit. I know the likes of Madueke/Nkunku/Joao Pedro went for fairly big fees, but still. That club's accountants seem to do more work than most of their players.

[charlierc]

On 01/09/2025 at 12:36, thetime said:

Utd have a new goalkeeper. 😀🫣

 

Would of gone for Martins as the solid choice. Full of experience and been there done it with Argentina. 

 

 

 

 

 

Given the way Martinez seemed to be persona non grata at Villa around the weekend, the fact he's still there is a curio. Rumours suggest he has no interest in going to Turkey or Saudi Arabia, whose windows are still open for a week or two, so... guess he's just stuck there and that he & Emery have to suck it up or something.

 

Although I felt Martinez was quite error prone last season and given how much Man Utd turned on an experienced keeper in Onana for mistakes, I'm not sure if Martinez would've necessarily dealt smoothly with the noise there given how every error there is treated like an affront.

[charlierc]

7 hours ago, charlierc said:

This has been a popular thought process tbf. But I'm not sure it's that simple. Guehi didn't seem like he was as desperate to move as some of the others in this window. Plus as said he might well have landed a chunky sell on next year. 

 

It's also fair that the desperation that defined it may actually have been from Palace. Glasner seemed to be considering quitting if Palace sold him on without a replacement and after a few moves weren't going to happen, it really did seem like they had no good answers. 

... hmmm I stand corrected on Guehi maybe being that easy to get to suck up and calmly into the fold: Marc Guéhi angry with Crystal Palace’s decision to block move to Liverpool | Crystal Palace | The Guardian

 

I know we've had a tricky summer with Isak but Palace's - yikes. Glasner apparently threatened to resign over this, having talked for a while about being unhappy with the way they do transfer business, and apparently this fell through because attempts to sign a player from their frenemies Brighton fell through at the last minute. And this after it's difficult to make the case Eze has been adequately replaced to boot.

[thetime]

19 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Given the way Martinez seemed to be persona non grata at Villa around the weekend, the fact he's still there is a curio. Rumours suggest he has no interest in going to Turkey or Saudi Arabia, whose windows are still open for a week or two, so... guess he's just stuck there and that he & Emery have to suck it up or something.

 

Although I felt Martinez was quite error prone last season and given how much Man Utd turned on an experienced keeper in Onana for mistakes, I'm not sure if Martinez would've necessarily dealt smoothly with the noise there given how every error there is treated like an affront.

 

Utd goalkeeper has always been a hot potato, even going back to the 80s. Some right duffers, even quality ones turned to jelly. 

[Ryan1984]

On 02/09/2025 at 18:54, thetime said:

 

Utd goalkeeper has always been a hot potato, even going back to the 80s. Some right duffers, even quality ones turned to jelly. 

Between Schmeichel and Van Der Sar was a real rogues’ gallery. The Great Dane’s understudy Van Der Gouw might have been the most reliable and consistent!

[charlierc]

Apparently England beat Andorra in a World Cup qualifier last night, which... Cool. 

[charlierc]

On 02/09/2025 at 18:54, thetime said:

 

Utd goalkeeper has always been a hot potato, even going back to the 80s. Some right duffers, even quality ones turned to jelly. 

Goalkeeper in general can be a lonely position though. Even across Manchester, Joe Hart was a generally very good keeper but the longer he went on, the more he became known for dropping some absolute clangers. Hell, Shay Given was generally excellent as the Newcastle keeper for most of the 2000s but is still best known for a massive error at Coventry in his first season with us. 

 

Meanwhile I've heard the rumour Onana is potentially set to go on loan to Turkey. Bit of a comedown from when he was in Turkey being unlucky to lose a Champions League final. 

[thetime]

On 07/09/2025 at 08:15, charlierc said:

 

Meanwhile I've heard the rumour Onana is potentially set to go on loan to Turkey. Bit of a comedown from when he was in Turkey being unlucky to lose a Champions League final. 

 

Asking for a pay rise in pre season, after they get a 25% pay cut for missing out on the champions league. Should of sold him then, to be fair should never have signed him.

 

Can't even blame the glazers. Majority what Ten Hag signed was on him. 

[lost]

36 minutes ago, thetime said:

Can't even blame the glazers. Majority what Ten Hag signed was on him. 

 

I noticed one of the reasons Leverkusen gave for canning him was  only proposing to sign players who are represented by the same agency as him

[charlierc]

What a mess Forest have made for themselves. Even with the collapse in the relationship between Nuno and Marinakis, it still feels like the choice to sack Nuno could well wind up being a very bad one. 

 

Also, it was certainly a choice to announce this decision at midnight. 

[charlierc]

18 hours ago, lost said:

 

I noticed one of the reasons Leverkusen gave for canning him was  only proposing to sign players who are represented by the same agency as him

This is a report that has been doing the rounds, yeah. Not the only reason but it very much seems as though Leverkusen very quickly got buyers remorse over the decision to give him the go. 

 

It's tricky to see where he goes from here. It was one thing to struggle at Manchester United but so have a lot of people in the time since Ferguson retired. But to crash and burn so swiftly in your next job feels like real damage to your reputation. 

[lost]

3 hours ago, charlierc said:

What a mess Forest have made for themselves. Even with the collapse in the relationship between Nuno and Marinakis, it still feels like the choice to sack Nuno could well wind up being a very bad one. 

 

Also, it was certainly a choice to announce this decision at midnight. 

 

Not sure about Ange. High intensity style which caused alot of injuries at Spurs. On top of that mid-table clubs who have pushed into the top half and qualified for Europe have generally struggled on Sundays after a Thursday night match.

[balti-pie]

cant see Forest doing very well at all under Ange. Their strengths under Nuno were in defending deep and in numbers, and swarming the counter to take advantage of the few chances they made. And it worked by and large, cos teams in the top flight want to take the game to the opposition and have a go, and everyone assumed Forest were there for the taking - only to get stung by a parsimonious defence and an attack which took its chances. So many away wins! Murillo an absolute rock of a deep lying centre half heading everything away! MGW controlling a fast moving midfield! 

 

With Ange in charge everyone will be twenty yards further up the pitch, and some very good players who work very well in a drilled team pattern will find themselves isolated and hopelessly outnumbered. I should know, I'm a spurs fan, ive spent the last two seasons seeing home defeat after home defeat as our fullbacks marched up the pitch leaving two centre halves with half an acre to cover between them 😄

 

They'll be relegated with seven points. Marinakis and Big Ange will physically fight on the pitch. Itll be tremendously watchable scenes. I dont particularly like Forest, so this will be enjoyable for me. Ange is a lovely fella, i'll always be grateful to him for the fun and games, but he cannot manage at this level. He just cant. 

[pink_triangle]

I think it’s great news for Nuno. Big pay off and it was almost impossible for him to do better this season. Leaves with his reputation as high as it could be.

[charlierc]

11 hours ago, lost said:

 

Not sure about Ange. High intensity style which caused alot of injuries at Spurs. On top of that mid-table clubs who have pushed into the top half and qualified for Europe have generally struggled on Sundays after a Thursday night match.

Well, he's confirmed. So I guess one way or another they'll be trying to figure it out. And yeah it's quite the large scale transition to go from Nuno to Ange, but it's questionable if this is mixing oil and water. Plus I guess there's that central question as to whether his methods are refined given we all saw the centre back injuries that derailed their season last year. 

[thetime]

I don't take much interest in internationals, managed the 1st 10 minutes of the England game last night.

 

Crazy Tuchel was getting criticised though. Yes its a weak group, but 5 games and 5 wins without conceding a goal. 

 

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

I don't take much interest in internationals, managed the 1st 10 minutes of the England game last night.

 

Crazy Tuchel was getting criticised though. Yes its a weak group, but 5 games and 5 wins without conceding a goal. 

 

I usually only watch tournament football, but for the first time in nearly 20 years I watched a qualifier last night. Mostly because I was interested in how Tuchel had set his team up.

 

I think Tuchel getting criticised is an inevitability of being England manager with how the media is here. There's the expectation of winning 4/5-0 every game that isn't against big name countries. In Europe, only really the Spanish media is comparable with the huge expectation and dramatic negative responses to wins.

[charlierc]

3 hours ago, thetime said:

I don't take much interest in internationals, managed the 1st 10 minutes of the England game last night.

 

Crazy Tuchel was getting criticised though. Yes its a weak group, but 5 games and 5 wins without conceding a goal. 

 

There's clearly an expectation to beat Andorra 10-0. Although curious that Andorra conceded less goals in 2 games than Serbia did against England yesterday.

 

Maybe it's the nature of the beast that we've got used to World Cup qualifying being treated as glorified friendlies. 

[charlierc]

Hooray for Woltemade and a debut goal. Plus a first win of the season too. Shame Wissa is out for a month already though. Damn international break, plus the fear his national team might try to rush him back in the next round of games and get him injured again.

 

Certainly it's a happier place for us than others. Wolves on a 100% losing streak, Villa somehow being yet to score a goal and the total unhappiness at West Ham all seem to be starting this campaign off on the wrong foot. Maybe there's hope for one of Leeds, Burnley or Sunderland or maybe even multiples of them to stay up. Brentford also look to have belied my pre-season prediction of going down and look pretty solid thus far.

[lost]

4 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Maybe there's hope for one of Leeds, Burnley or Sunderland or maybe even multiples of them to stay up. Brentford also look to have belied my pre-season prediction of going down and look pretty solid thus far.

 

Sunderland 7th which feels wierd as the last time I saw them they were played off the park in the play off final vs Sheff utd who are now rock bottom. They have bought well though it shows when you get to this level its small margins.

[kaosmark2]

6 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Brentford also look to have belied my pre-season prediction of going down and look pretty solid thus far.

Flekker -> Kelleher always looked like good business to me, but I thought Frank, Mbuemo, and Wissa would be big losses, and Norgard -> Henderson would be a big problem. Seems that Andrews had enough respect of the players that remained to step up, and they've recruited well.