Other football - 2020/21

[Numero Veinticinco]

8 hours ago, Chocoholic said:

 

 

That would break me tonight if I was a Manc fan. The cat would be getting kicked and the sister in law would be getting shagged. 

[Vincent Vega]

8 hours ago, Em City said:

How biased was BT's coverage tonight by the way? You could swear it was MUTV.

 

Three ex Mancs in the studio, one ex Manc youth reject in the commentary practically begging the Villarreal players to miss and Jake Humphreys saying it's not the result 'most of the country would have wanted' like the massive tit that he is.

 

Look at this shite.

 

[Jairzinho]

1 hour ago, Vincent Vega said:

Look at this shite.

 

I shouldn't be surprised, but that is fucking ludicrous behaviour from a television broadcaster. It reads like it comes from the club's official twitter page.

[Dr Nowt]

Hopefully United take heed and stick by him. Next year is their year if you ask me.

[El Rojo]

25 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

I shouldn't be surprised, but that is fucking ludicrous behaviour from a television broadcaster. It reads like it comes from the club's official twitter page.

It’s ridiculous stuff, I doubt the club’s Twitter feed would even go near it. Still, this kind of delusional nonsense does us no harm at all. 

 

Alternatively: Have Manchester United just dropped a huge hint that they'll win the Champions League in three years time?

[Scott_M]

[TheDrowningMan]

Spurs are in talks with Pochettino over his return, which is the sort of thing that seems like a good idea but never quite works out as well as the first go-around.
 

Conte to PSG, perhaps? A chequebook manager with a good record of winning titles at big money clubs before taking off after 2 or 3 seasons, although his European record leaves something to be desired.

[Scott_M]

As long as Ole continues his “progress”, I hope nobody takes his job. 

[Saintslfc13]

If I was any club in need of a manager I'd be all over Conte. He's got the right stuff whatever that is. He'd be perfect for the red mancs but I think they'll keep Ole so that's better for everyone. I think Spurs is a step down for Rodgers honestly, better to stay and Leceister and see what happens than to go to a ship that's never going anywhere.

[Stouffer]

[El Rojo]

Spurs are a staggeringly badly run club. They never fail to make the wrong decision, every single time. 

[Scott_M]

Must be something in the water about going back to your old job...

 

[Scott_M]

Raul to Madrid? Or Conte? 
 

Sure I read Allegri thinks Ronaldo is holding Juventus back. Wouldn’t surprise me if he looks to get rid of him. 

[Jairzinho]

3 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

Spurs are a staggeringly badly run club. They never fail to make the wrong decision, every single time. 

Not every time.

 

 

 

 

[El Rojo]

Moyes back to Yernited, please. 

[El Rojo]

1 minute ago, Jairzinho said:

Not every time.

 

 

 

 

I'd even forgotten about him! 

[Scott_M]

3 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

Not every time.

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately that burk did a number on us in an FA Cup Semi Final.

[Anubis]

Welcome home Chubby Hamster.

[DalyanPete]

3 hours ago, Poster said:

Avoided this, so it was nice to wake up this morning and see they lost… especially amusing they lost on penalties. Karma is such a bitch.

 

That could be from any game this season after he's been tackled, crying little bitch 

[El Rojo]

An absolutely horrendous season for us, historically so in many ways, and we end up a place behind them in the league with the same number of trophies won. 

[dockers_strike]

A good report on changed football contracts by Wallace.

 

Rejected by Spain, soon to be out of contract at Real Madrid, Sergio Ramos, inked-up and hacked off, feels like the pirate captain without a ship or crew to call his own, shaking his cutlass at the gulls on the dock and drawing puzzled looks from the tourists.

It is hard to imagine that the hitherto most feared defender in the world, who would mis-sell his own granny PPI for three points away at Elche, finds himself on the outside of a game which once lionised him and his often breathtaking cynicism. Of course, all great careers must end, but what is notable about the current big beasts of the world game is their reluctance to accept that the party is over. Got a big pre-Covid contract? Treasure it, because the game has changed.

Ramos is holding out for a two-year deal at Real when only one-year on reduced terms is on offer, and you do wonder if the 35-year-old is reading the room right. The Real of Florentino Perez are broke, with more than €1 billion (£865 million) of indebtedness even before the failed European Super League putsch which has lost them more than just their stake. The looming Uefa investigation may recommend a large fine and the financial catastrophe of a two-year Champions League ban. By the end of it they may not be able to afford the services of Juande Ramos, let alone Sergio Ramos.

For their captain, who seems to think that it is still 2018, the renewal has come at the wrong time. The once great assets of the world game, and their attendant contracts, now look absurd on the balance sheets of their struggling clubs. How much Real must wish that the contracts of Marcelo and Gareth Bale did not have another year to run, or that Eden Hazard did not have another three years. Even in the moment Hazard’s deal was agreed in 2019, it felt like it belonged to another era. A tuxedo fitting for the family dog as the bailiffs come up the driveway.

It is not just Real either – at debt-heavy Juventus the pressure of Cristiano Ronaldo’s last year in Serie A weighs heavy. They cannot afford him, especially if the same Uefa sanctions are to befall them as threaten their fellow conspirators, Real and Barcelona. In Catalonia, little to nothing has been heard from new president Joan Laporta since his acceptance speech in early March as he tries to piece together a broken financial model. What kind of pay cut will Lionel Messi have to take to stay? And to make it work what kind of multi-value will have to be wrung from Messi and the Messi brand in the years to come? Veteran playmaker? Commercial powerhouse? Club ambassador? Chief groundsman?

 

Clubs have often carried once-great players in the last years of major contracts, but never have those liabilities been such a burden as now. Manchester City have dispensed with Sergio Aguero without a second glance and it is no surprise he is yet in a position to announce a new club, given the current market for 32-year-olds. Even Raheem Sterling, with two years on his deal and still just 26, does not feel like he has the upper hand in that conversation. City may decide they can afford to wait another year.

Running a deal that low for a player of that age would be unthinkable two years ago, but the dynamic is changing and now the accent is less on protection of the asset at all costs and rather more on not being left exposed with a declining player on big terms. The question seems not to be simply the length of the contract, but in some cases its effect – signalling to the player the final summit of his financial success in the game. Does that security invite a sense of complacency?

United are taking their time with Paul Pogba, who now seems likely to end this season with just one year left on his current deal. The market for a player of his global commercial appeal and mixed on-pitch track record was always something of a mirage successfully talked up by his agent, but now not even Mino Raiola can conjure the illusion.

At Arsenal, too, it feels like the weather has changed on their big summer 2020 decisions. Knowing what they do, one year on would they give Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang another three-year contract at £250,000 a week? Would they even grant Willian access to the complimentary training ground canteen buffet?

 

None of the world’s biggest clubs can survive without taking a long-term view on their major assets and in some cases that costs money. There will always be mistakes, and some bigger than others. The seven-year deal that Chelsea awarded to Kepa Arrizabalaga is so long that they might even redevelop Stamford Bridge before he is legally obliged to clear his locker. David de Gea’s last deal at United, agreed with urgency in late 2019, made him one of the Premier League’s biggest earners, but form and finances mean the club would never have agreed to it on those terms one year later.

Real agreed a single year’s extension for Luka Modric which was signed this week after negotiations that seemed to take longer than the duration of the new deal itself. Liverpool are in a dance with Mohamed Salah over his next deal with two years remaining and no serious options for their leading goalscorer. Sadio Mane’s contract expires the same summer and, while the two-year threshold used to be the moment for decisions, now it feels prudent to wait and see how the next eight months unfold.

Of all the big names in play, Neymar got his big deal this month at 29 and the three years left for Harry Kane at Tottenham Hotspur currently represents good value for his club. Although you wonder whether chairman Daniel Levy would agree a compromise that involves a lucrative extension. They would not be the first club pricked into action by fears of a forced departure, only later to wonder why they acted so hastily.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/05/27/bad-news-sergio-ramos-days-luxurious-post-peak-contracts-fading/

[Scott_M]

Zidane leaves Real Madrid. 
 

He’ll be back again in a couple of seasons. 

[El Rojo]

Saw a headline earlier about loads of online racial abuse directed at Marcus Rashford after last night's game. This stuff seems to be getting worse. 

 

Every club and player should take strong co-ordinated action on this, as the social media companies clearly don't give a fuck.  

[dockers_strike]

37 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

Zidane leaves Real Madrid. 
 

He’ll be back again in a couple of seasons. 

Allegri supposedly going back to Juve as well.

[Baltar]

19 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

Saw a headline earlier about loads of online racial abuse directed at Marcus Rashford after last night's game. This stuff seems to be getting worse. 

 

Every club and player should take strong co-ordinated action on this, as the social media companies clearly don't give a fuck.  

I don't know how you stop it? There are millions of morons around the world that will happily create troll accounts to leave racist abuse. Ban them and they simply recreate another account.