General Football/Soccer Talk

[Phil89]

Time for the annual 'hope Aquilani stays at Liverpool and has a good season' thoughts.

[Phil89]

So we've gotten rid of a lot of older guys on big wages (Aquilani, Kuyt, Aurelio, Rodriguez, Bellamy)

-Aquilani went back to Italy. I really wanted to see him do well at Liverpool, but the whole saga is finally over and we move on.
-Maxi Rodriguez went back to Argentina to play with the team where his career began.
-Bellamy went back to his hometown team in Cardiff.
-Fabio Aurelio went back to Brazil (And injured his knee before playing a game and is out for the season )
-Kuyt went to Turkey with Fenerbahce and scored 2 goals on debut apparently.

Now we've signed the Welsh Xavi.



And Borini got off to a great start on his Anfield debut.



Suarez just signed a contract extension until 2018. Now we just need Agger and Skrtel to sign new deals.



There's been some interesting transfers so far. Arsenal and Chelsea look like they will be stronger this season.

Arsenal: Cazorla (Malaga), Giroud (Montpellier), Podolski (Koln)
Chelsea: Hazard (Lille), Marin (Werder), Oscar (Internacional)
Liverpool: Borini (Roma), Allen (Swansea)
Man City: Surprisingly haven't signed anyone.
Man Utd: Kagawa (Dortmund)
Tottenham: Vertonghen (Ajax), Sigurdsson (Hoffenheim)

And PSG aka Qatar oil money have gone on a Man City type spending spree of their own.

PSG: Ibrahimovic €23m (Milan), Thiago Silva €42m (Milan), Lavezzi €30m (Napoli), Verratti €10m (Pescara), Lucas Moura* €45m (Sao Paulo)

* Will happen in January.

[[Q]]

will RVP be back at Arsenal? if so, that's a stacked front line

[Phil89]

Well apparently he's said that he won't sign a new deal with Arsenal. He's been linked with Juventus and both the Manchester teams.

[[Q]]

if he signs with City. (with Tevez) their front 4 guys are ridiculously talented as it is.

if he signs with juventus, it could put them over both milan teams in italy

[Phil89]

I'd say they are above them already. They won the league last season and have brought in Lucio, Asamoah, Isla and Giovinco this season.

Inter have lost Lucio and Diego Forlan. They did bring in Rodrigo Palacio though, which is a decent replacement.

Milan have lost immense experience in Nesta, Inzaghi, Zambrotta, Gattuso, Van Bommel and Seedorf. Plus they just sold Thiago Silva and Ibrahimovic to PSG.

[Phil89]

Looks like Van Persie is off to Man Utd.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19179833

Manchester United have agreed a £24m deal to sign Arsenal striker Robin van Persie on a four-year contract.

The 29-year-old will meet with United in the next 48 hours to discuss personal terms and have a medical.

Arsenal captain Van Persie announced in July he would not extend his current deal, which expires in June 2013.

Whilst he did have an amazing season last season, £24m is an insane amount of money for an injury-prone 29 year old who only had 1 year left on his contract. They would have been better off spending in on a central midfielder.

[Houndy]

My God West Brom is aboslutely tearing apart Liverpool atm

[Phil89]

Well it was 12 men against 10 for most of the game.

[Houndy]

but still, Chelsea played better with 10 men against Manchester City than Liverpool even tried to do...

[Phil89]

Don't get me wrong, I would have accepted losing 1-0 to that wonder goal. But the two penalties and the sending off were rubbish.

Then there was stuff like Olsson not getting a yellow card for bringing down Suarez, but Lucas getting one for grabbing a shirt. And Suarez getting a yellow for throwing his arm in the air at the linesman, but a West Brom player doing the exact same thing later in the game and getting nothing.

Just have to look forward now I guess.... to Man City, Arsenal & Man Utd at Anfield in 3 of our next 4 games...

[Phil89]

Better performance against Man City. Disappointing that we didn't win, but still a positive result against the champions.

Can't wait to see Sahin in the midfield alongside Joe Allen.

[[Q]]

yeah that suarez goal was sick but lol @ skrtel giving tevez that goal

[Phil89]

Yeah it was very frustrating that both of their goals came from our mistakes. Agger and Enrique will be back for the next game though, which will sort out the defense.

It sucked that Lucas got injured, but hopefully he isn't gone for too long and Sahin should come in for him while he's out. Ironic that he could play his first game for us against Arsenal.

[imaiden]

http://swissramble.blogspot.ch/2012/09/uefas-ffp-regulations-play-to-win.html

what changes will occur in european football with the new FFP rules... it's a huge wall of text, but an interesting read, just thought I'd share

[Phil89]

^ That guy does some pretty impressive financial blogs. I remember reading a couple about Liverpool and one on Milan's finances.

Big news for the Australian league, Alessandro Del Piero has joined Sydney FC. Even though it's not the team I support and he is now 37 years old, it's still a massive boost for the league to have someone of his reputation playing here.

[Houndy]

Liverpool a struggle...

[Houndy]

Liverpool a struggle...

[Phil89]

Yeah, the last few seasons have been like torture. Especially after we were the best team in Europe like 4-5 years ago (Top ranked by UEFA).

I have faith in Rodgers and his game style, but we are terrible up front still. It's also pretty disturbing that a 17 year old has been our best player so far this season.

We play Man Utd next as well... hopefully there is no handshake bullshit this time.

[imaiden]

phpBB [video]

His english is horrible

[Phil89]

Surely Emile Heskey signing for Newcastle Jets is bigger news.

Apparently Michael Ballack is close to signing for the new Western Sydney team as well. Exciting times (even if they are all nearly nursing home aged).

[Phil89]

[Phil89]

Absolutely ridiculous how Suarez gets treated by referees. The penalty he didn't get against Norwich was the most obvious one I've ever seen. Can't believe the idiot who elbowed him in the head actually wanted the referee to book him for diving.

[kibaxx7]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=Lionel-Messi

[Phil89]