Featured: That was the week that was (Jul 27 - Aug 2 2019)

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Saturday Jul 27:

 

Arsenal are paying £70m for a winger. That’s the most Arsenal transfer move of all time. Everyone knows they have no defenders worthy of the name and that their midfield is shite, but as usual they just disregard that to get some random French speaking flair player in. They can’t blame Wenger anymore either.

 

What this does do though, is leave Wilf Zaha hanging in the wind. Arsenal looked to be his best hope of joining a top six club. Now the only team in for him is Everton, and they’re not even serious about it based on the derisory offers they’ve made so far. £50m is the latest one. So let’s get this straight. Palace sell their right back for £50m, and Everton think they can get their most important player and fan favourite for the same price? Whatever Zaha’s worth is, you can probably add another £30m on top of that to get what his worth to Palace is.

 

Besides, why the fuck would Zaha leave Palace to join Everton? It’s a sideways move and he’d be leaving a place where he’s happy, comfortable and loved. I think he’ll stay at Palace….

 

…until Chelsea are allowed to sign players again.

 

Harvey Elliot has no officially signed and will be in the squad tomorrow. Saw another old tweet of his from a few years ago, he’s dressed head to toe in club swag and he’s stood next to the Shankly statue. Apparently every single tweet he ever made back then was about the Reds. I like this kid, he’s absolutely fucking obsessed with this club.

 

Had to laugh though when I saw this quote from him. “To have joined the club I supported as a boy is a dream come true”. As a boy? He’s only fucking sixteen now! He’s scrapped that original account and started a new one. Just had a look now and his twitter header is a picture of him and his girlfriend. It’s funny as fuck, he looks like an East 17 tribute act.

 

In fact no, it's like East 17 have had kids and the kids have formed a new band and he's the frontman. Seriously, look at this pic and tell me that isn’t Brian Harvey and Daniella Westbrook’s kid….

 

 

Stay now (stay now).... Baby if you've got to go away, don't think I can take the pain.... won't you stay another day.

 

Sunday Jul 28:

 

L 0 Napoli 3. Well that was fucking shit. Most of pre-season has been fucking shit actually. I’m not worried at this point and I don’t think it means anything in terms of the season itself, but fuck me, it’s been a chore even bringing myself to watch these games. I watched this as it was at a civilised hour, unlike the US tour games. I really wish I hadn’t though, as there was nothing to take from this at all.

 

In fairness, I almost swerved it when I saw that Gini and Ox were in the front three. That was never going to end well. Ox is almost as useless in the front three as Lallana is. He’s a midfield player, simple as that. Don’t play him anywhere else as he’s shite. Wilson would have been a better option, but then you have to take into account that it’s pre-season and it’s all about fitness. Ox getting a load of minutes under his belt is far more beneficial than the shape of the team looking marginally better because Wilson is in there.

 

That’s what this is about. Klopp is trying to get his main players as fit as possible, and if it means results suffer then so be it. There are also suggestions that players are doing double sessions on the day of games. That might be exaggerated but the legs are definitely heavy in these games and it’s going to have a negative impact. 

 

Really, the sensible thing is to just not watch these games at all. My mate John never watches them. Not even a minute of them. Just avoids them entirely and then checks back in when the real stuff starts again. I need to pay attention as it’s my job, but if it wasn’t and I could get away with paying no attention then I think I’d take that route. Especially when there are no new signings to watch.

 

We did see young Harvey for a few minutes today and he looked good. Lots of confidence and swagger about him. He’s going to be a player I think.   

 

Meanwhile, strange goings on in Madrid where Real have now pulled the plug on Bale’s move to China. I’d be seething if I was him. They’ve been trying to force him out ever since Zidane came back and now that he’s lined himself up a move for crazy wages, they pull the rug out on him as they want a higher transfer fee.

 

Bale is reportedly on 600k at Madrid though (I had no idea, I thought he was on half that). No-one else in Europe is giving him that, and he’s not going to take a pay cut so Madrid are going to be on the hook for some of that salary no matter what. If I was him now, I’d just refuse all offers and stay put, just to spite the fuckers. 

 

Besides, they’re going to be shite under that bald fraud so it won’t be long until he’s back in the team. Yeah that’s right, I called Zidane a bald fraud (again) and I’m not arsed about his Champions League trophies. I’ll say it one more time... in fact I’ll spell it. B.A.L.D. F.R.A.U.D.

 

What’s his playing style? All the best coaches have an identity, a way of playing that their teams are identifiable by. We know Klopp’s style. We know Guardiola’s. And Pochettino’s. And Simeone’s. What’s Zidane’s though? It used to be “shithouse as much as possible lads, and then give it to Ronaldo”. Can’t do that now though, can he? They’ll do well to finish in the top three this year, despite the hundreds of millions he’s spent.

 

He’s even more over rated as a manager as he was as a player and that’s saying something. So yeah, sit tight Gareth as this egg head might be out of a job even before Solkskjaer.

 

 

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[Dr Nowt]

Thought exactly the same about the Coutinho loan stuff earlier.

 

Once Barcelona say they’re open to it in theory and set their preferred price, they’re negotiating from a position they don’t want to have to defend.

 

[Trumo]

Dave 'boyband avatar pose' Usher talking about Harvey 'offspring of East 17' Elliott's appearance.

[Mark M]

3 hours ago, Trumo said:

Dave 'boyband avatar pose' Usher talking about Harvey 'offspring of East 17' Elliott's appearance.

Oooff! Burn. 

[dave u]

Boyband avatar pose?

 

I was going for gangsta rap.

[StevieMax]

Regarding Coutinho - has Dave been talking to Talksport?  They seem certain that 4 clubs are interested now.