General Football/Soccer Talk

[shadowgrin]

Hames Rodriguez now official, Monaco gave in and sold him to Real Madrid for £63 million, was presented by Real a day ago.
Don't know if Sami Khedira will soon be sold to Monaco as a transfer exchange for Hames like reports said before the transfer became official.

Tony Kroos also presented before, completing his £24 million transfer from Bayern Munich to Real Madrid.

Mario Mandzukic to Atletico Madrid for £17 million from Bayern Munich.
Good to see Atletico get a Diego Costa replacement because fuck Diego Costa.

Alvaro Morata sold to Juventus for £16 million from Real Madrid, injured his knee in first practice for Juve, ouch.

Mathieu Debuchy completed his £12 million transfer to Arsenal from Newcastle.

Loic Remy (Queens Park Rangers) - £8.5 million - Liverpool
Reported to be a done deal pending a medical.
Liverpool got a bit of revenge by hijacking Remy away from Arsenal like the Gunners did with Sanchez.

Keylor Navas (Levante) - £8 million - Real Madrid
Done deal apparently, ironing out payment options.

David Ospina sold by Nice to Arsenal for £3 million.

Xavi and Frank Lampard signs with New York City FC, will join the team when it becomes active in the MLS in 2015.
Lampard, like future NYCFC teammate David Villa, will spend time playing for Melbourne while Xavi will continue playing with Barcelona for a year.
NYCFC looks like the bandwagoner's choice to support in the MLS for next year.

Juan Cuadrado (Fiorentina) - £28 million - Manchester United, Barcelona

Antoine Griezmann (Real Sociedad) - £25 million - Tottenham offer, after their initial £15 million offer was rejected.

Daley Blind (Ajax) - £17 million - Manchester United offer

Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund) - £16 million - Manchester United offer
Borussia management says they aren't selling him, same way Monaco management said they wouldn't sell James Rodriguez.

Mario Balotelli (AC Milan) - £16 million (lowered from £20 million) - Arsenal
Reportedly not happening as Mario wants a wage of £100,000 a week and Wenger says nope.

Morgan Schneiderlin (Southampton) - £16 million - Tottenham, Arsenal
Not going to Arsenal reportedly, prefers to be with old coach in Tottenham.

Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen) - £15 million - Arsenal
Arsenal's last hope in getting a defensive midfielder after losing out on Khedira and Schneiderlin.

Nani (Manchester United) - £11 million (Man Utd demand) - AC Milan
AC Milan saying they are willing to wait for Man Utd to be desperate in unloading him and lower the asking price.

Arsenal wants Manchester United to give Chris Smalling or Phil Jones for Thomas Vermaelen transfer exchange.

Paris Saint-Germain trying to bypass UEFA Financial Fair Play sanction by getting Angel Di Maria on loan instead of paying up £40 million for the transfer this season. Once the UEFA sanction ends after a year they buy him.

Didier Drogba wants to return to Chelsea.
Rumors say a 1 year deal with a coaching assistant job option after that.

[Phil89]

Hames Rodriguez now official, Monaco gave in and sold him to Real Madrid for £63 million, was presented by Real a day ago.
Don't know if Sami Khedira will soon be sold to Monaco as a transfer exchange for Hames like reports said before the transfer became official.

Tony Kroos also presented before, completing his £24 million transfer from Bayern Munich to Real Madrid.

Was always going to happen after Barca signed Suarez. I wonder who will be the shiny new toys that those two will buy next year?

Feel sorry for Atletico. They win the league and then get stripped by Chelsea of their stars. Then Barca sign Suarez and Real sign Hames.

Mathieu Debuchy completed his £12 million transfer to Arsenal from Newcastle.

Solid replacement for Sagna.

Loic Remy (Queens Park Rangers) - £8.5 million - Liverpool
Reported to be a done deal pending a medical.
Liverpool got a bit of revenge by hijacking Remy away from Arsenal like the Gunners did with Sanchez.

Good depth player for a decent price. Much better than Bony for £19 million.

Sturridge, Remy, Lambert could be enough up front. As long as guys like Coutinho, Markovic, Lallana and Gerrard are scoring goals as well.

Keylor Navas (Levante) - £8 million - Real Madrid
Done deal apparently.

Interesting. Is Saint Iker done in Madrid finally?

Xavi and Frank Lampard signs with New York City FC, will join the team when it becomes active in the MLS in 2015.
Lampard, like future NYCFC teammate David Villa, will spend time playing for Melbourne while Xavi will continue playing with Barcelona for a year.
NYCFC looks like the bandwagoner's choice to support in the MLS for next year.

Although it is nice that Lampard, Villa and Damien Duff will be playing in Australia this season, I still won't be supporting them as I follow the other Melbourne team.

Antoine Griezmann (Real Sociedad) - £25 million - Tottenham offer, after their initial £15 million offer was rejected.

Would love Liverpool to sign him. We have the money so I don't know why he isn't being considered..

Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund) - £16 million - Manchester United offer
Borussia management says they aren't selling him, same way Monaco management said they wouldn't sell James Rodriguez.

Difference is though that Dortmund are much better than Monaco and Man Utd are no where near the level of Real Madrid at the moment.

And if David Luiz sold for £50 million, Hummels (who can actually defend) would easily be £80 million haha

I liked Klopp's quote.

Jürgen Klopp about @matshummels to @ManUtd for €20 millions: "When you hear such numbers from papers, you know it's rubbish."

Paris Saint-Germain trying to bypass UEFA Financial Fair Play sanction by getting Angel Di Maria on loan instead of paying up £40 million for the transfer this season. Once the UEFA sanction ends after a year they buy him.

I think Madrid would want the money now. Liverpool should bid £40 million and see what happens..

Didier Drogba wants to return to Chelsea.
Rumors say a 1 year deal with a coaching assistant job option after that.

He will be their new diving coach.



Some Liverpool rumours:

Dejan Lovren is close to signing for £16-20 million. Southampton apparently looking at Ron Vlaar as a replacement.

£16 million bid for Alberto Moreno is still on the table for Sevilla. Nothing imminent there though.

Origi is also close to signing. Will likely be loaned back to Lille this season.

Young Atletico defender Javier Manquillo is apparently coming on loan for 2 years with an option to buy for around £5 million. Arsenal were supposedly interested as well.

And of course Remy is in Boston with the team to finalise his £8.5 million transfer from QPR.

[shadowgrin]

Alexis Sanchez would have been perfect. But he chose Arsenal.

You can blame his girlfriend for that.
His girl apparently wanted to be in the London scene because of her career in art and interior design.
I think there was even a report that the wage offered by Liverpool is a bit higher than the wage Arsenal offered.
So yeah it's all on the girl lol.

Also reported that Sanchez asked ex-Barcelona teammate Cesc Fabregas if moving to Arsenal was a good idea, Cesc recommended Sanchez to go ahead with the move, so this is why Sanchez's official presentation got this...

I'll just hate on Cesc once he scores a goal against Arsenal and celebrates, for now he's ok.

Congrats. Must be a weird feeling to see Wenger actually spend money on a quality player.

You bastard I can't zing back

I'll stop hating on Liverpool for a season if they stop the Sanchez pursuit so he can finally go to Arsenal

Should have been more patient before posting that.


As for Wenger now buying players without selling his own players, seems it's only a year or two ago that Arsenal finally paid off the full cost (principal and interest) of building the Emirates Stadium that when the club finally got a return of investment from stadium generated profit Wenger probably didn't know what to do with the excess dosh and spent the summer trolling and letting other potential transfers slip before finding Nemo at the very last minute.

Also helps that majority owner of Arsenal is Stan Kroenke, who owns the Denver Nuggets and St. Louis Rams.

It's good to note that after Kroenke the second most shares in the club is a Russian so if Kroenke decides to stop being the majority owner of Arsenal the next in line could be the Russian owner.
Russian money!
Arsenal becoming Chelsea!

[Phil89]

Alexis Sanchez would have been perfect. But he chose Arsenal.

You can blame his girlfriend for that.
His girl apparently wanted to be in the London scene because of her career in art and interior design.
I think there was even a report that the wage offered by Liverpool is a bit higher than the wage Arsenal offered.
So yeah it's all on the girl lol.

Pretty sure the same thing happened when Javier Mascherano left Liverpool for Barcelona. His wife wanted to live in Spain.

Same with Suarez a little bit. His wife's parents live in Barcelona.


Better Klopp quote about Hummels:

Raphael Honigstein @honigstein · 12h
Klopp about Hummels to Man Utd: "If that's not a bullshit story, I'll eat a broom stick" (via @SkySportNewsHD)

He is my favourite manager after Rodgers

[[Q]]

Hames "Don't call me James" is officially(?) with Real. Benzema-Ronaldo-Bale-James lineup is

[shadowgrin]

It's been official even before it was official when a club shop already had his jersey on display days before his official presentation.

[Phil89]

Makes you wonder why they don't just hire their own scouts, instead of just signing players once they become stars in other leagues.

Although I suppose they sign these type of players as much for the merchandise sales they generate, as their ability on the field.

[Murat]

I doubt that they need James Rodriguez.

[Phil89]

Southampton are rolling in more cash than Abu Dhabi at the moment.

Calum Chambers set to join Arsenal for £16m and Dejan Lovren set to join Liverpool for £20m. With Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw and Rickie Lambert already gone and Dani Osvaldo apparently up for sale.

A bit sad to see an exciting team like them torn apart. At least they have the money to rebuild.

[shadowgrin]

Been seeing reports it, Arsenal jealous of Liverpool and decided to join in the Southampton shopping spree, with some Southampton fans commenting that selling the players is the start of a grand plan to buy Messi and Ronaldo
Reported transfer fee paid for Calum Chambers varies with £7m, £12m, and £16 million.
Considering it's Wenger the cheapest price should be it but there's also a report that £7 million is the upfront price with it increasing to a max of £16 million based on performance incentives, don't know how that works same way Southampton fans don't know what the club owner is thinking selling the majority of their talent.

With the Chambers signing all but official, Arsenal no longer interested for a transfer exchange of Chris Smalling or Phil Jones from Manchester United, Nani is the new target for £9 million in transfer exchange for Thomas Vermaelen.
Barcelona also rumored to be interested in Vermaelen, could be a good push for Man Utd to agree to Arsenal's terms.

Everton to buy for £18 million Chelsea's Romelu Lukaku if Mourinho insists on the Drogba loving.

AC Milan rumored to be desperate to dispose Mario Balotelli, now offering him to Arsenal for £8 million as a bonus.
Ongoing talks between AC Milan to acquire Joel Campbell from Arsenal which used to be a separate deal until Milan offered the Mario bonus

lol at Manchester City official website leaking their video of Eliaquim Mangala even before the official announcement of a done deal. They should have followed Real Madrid's example with James by selling his jersey in the club shop even before the official announcement.
Transfer fee paid to Porto by Man City for Mangala is reportedly £32 million.
Watched Mangala in Europa League matches, seems more composed than his older teammates and arguably a better defender than David Luiz lol.

Didier Drogba back to Chelsea on a 1 year deal, now official. Wenger not too happy about it.

Is Saint Iker done in Madrid finally?

Reports saying Casillas requested Real to let him out of his contract which lasts until 2018?, with the club obliging to let him go to Arsenal for a saintly price of £4 million transfer fee. Wage is £7 million per year for 5 years or £135,000 per week.

[shadowgrin]

Atletico Madrid fans chanting Fernando Torres' name during Mario Mandzukic's official presentation.

Arturo Vidal (Juventus) - £42 million, £39 million - Liverpool and Manchester United offer, respectively.
Both teams apparently given an Aug. 2 deadline by Juve to buy up or shut up.
Vidal's wage demands could probably be the reason why a deal isn't done yet if Juve is that willing to sell him.

Douglas Costa (Shakhtar Donetsk) - £16 million - Arsenal, Manchester United
Life reason, Costa doesn't want to die by going back to Ukraine.

Reports of Sami Khedira (Real Madrid) willing to take a 'paycut' from £150,000 to £135,000 per week (about £1 million difference per year) just to get out of Real, Chelsea and Arsenal interested.


FIFPro (worldwide union for football players), not understanding the concept of value or demand, is urging FIFA to implement a transfer fee scale to stop the rising cost of transfers
Like the NBPA (NBA players association) FIFPro is ruining the earning potential of their members. Unions being dicks again.

[Phil89]

Atletico Madrid fans chanting Fernando Torres' name during Mario Mandzukic's official presentation.

Really? Bit disrespectful. But you can understand them using the opportunity to let the owners know they want Torres back. I would actually like to see him return to Madrid and play well. He has suffered enough at Chelsea, despite winning trophies.

Atletico doing a nice rebuild job with Antoine Griezmann apparently close to a £19.8m (€30m release clause) move from Sociedad.

Arturo Vidal (Juventus) - £42 million, £39 million - Liverpool and Manchester United offer, respectively.
Both teams apparently given an Aug. 2 deadline by Juve to buy up or shut up.
Vidal's wage demands could probably be the reason why a deal isn't done yet if Juve is that willing to sell him.

I've seen Liverpool linked to Vidal and Marco Reus. Great players but I don't think they would join us at the moment. And I don't think we would sign players over £30 million again after the Andy Carroll mess.

Douglas Costa (Shakhtar Donetsk) - £16 million - Arsenal, Manchester United
Life reason, Costa doesn't want to die by going back to Ukraine.

Could be an opportunity to get some good players out of Ukraine. Bernard would be nice.

Reports of Sami Khedira (Real Madrid) willing to take a 'paycut' from £150,000 to £135,000 per week (about £1 million difference per year) just to get out of Real, Chelsea and Arsenal interested.

In a way this is nice to see. A lot of players would just be content with sitting on the bench and collecting cheques. At least he apparently values playing time over money.

Loic Remy apparently took a paycut from £80,000 to £65,000 per week to join Liverpool because he wanted to play in the champions league.

FIFPro (worldwide union for football players), not understanding the concept of value or demand, is urging FIFA to implement a transfer fee scale to stop the rising cost of transfers
Like the NBPA (NBA players association) FIFPro is ruining the earning potential of their members. Unions being dicks again.

Transfer and wages are rising to ridiculous levels (Thanks Man City, Chelsea and PSG). But a fee scale? Who are they to decide what a player is worth?

It's always been that a player is worth what the buying team is willing to pay. Teams should just stop paying huge money for crap players. Problem solved.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Been seeing reports it, with some Southampton fans commenting that selling the players is the start of a grand plan to buy Messi and Ronaldo

Proof or ban. Shitting on Southampton fans and selling them as retarded.

[shadowgrin]

You find it hard to believe that fans have a sense of humor to mock the club's decision to sell most of their talent, instead you assume the fans to be retarded and I'm the one that's supposed to be shitting on them? Well aren't you retarded for assuming that.

Unfortunately Google is not that great in finding non-famous account Twitter posts/replies. Still trying to find the one regarding Southampton relating to Liverpool that I read during the Sanchez signing.

Atletico Madrid fans chanting Fernando Torres' name during Mario Mandzukic's official presentation.

Really? Bit disrespectful. But you can understand them using the opportunity to let the owners know they want Torres back.

People in the stadium did it when Mario wasn't on the pitch yet, probably out of boredom or the long wait when he was still doing interviews inside.
Trying to post a video but the quality ones I found so far have been muted or cut in certain parts, I wonder why
Thank Kobe for Fox Sports here covering the broadcast of La Liga stuff.

[Phil89]

So Lovren is now official. Bit of an overpay, but he will be worth it if he creates a solid partnership with Sakho for the next 5-10 years.




And the Loic Remy deal to Liverpool is off now. Apparently he failed his medical and we pulled out of the deal. Which is a shame because it will be hard to find another a striker as good as him for £8.5 million.

[shadowgrin]

phpBB [video]

Women

...and of course fan rivalry in the comments section!

Most of Man Utd's defenders do the exact same thing when they see Gerrard too.

[Phil89]

Liverpool signing #6 is done. Divock Origi signs a 5 year deal, but will spend the next season in Lille on loan. One for the future definitely. Belgian football "experts" seem to rate him highly.

Rickie Lambert - Southampton - £4m
Adam Lallana - Southampton - £25m
Emre Can - Bayer Leverkusen - £10m
Lazar Markovic - Benfica - £20m
Dejan Lovren - Southampton - £20m
Divock Origi - Lille - £10m

Supposedly Rodgers still wants another striker and two fullbacks. Still another month to go in the transfer window.


Oh and whoever made the PL fixtures has a sense of humour. First Liverpool game is against Southampton.

[shadowgrin]

Official ManUtd TV know their players well:




'Muricans:

[Phil89]

Well, 3 players at least.




Would it be beyond possible for Southampton to get relegated this season?

It all went wrong once their Billionaire owner died. His daughter - who has no interest in football - took over last year and fired the chairman Nicola Cortese. The guy who had guided them up from the third level in England to the premier league. He wanted to spend money and push for the champions league, but she didn't care and he was removed. Now we see what her plan was. Sell everything of value and make a nice profit.

Expect them to make some cheap signings and for her to sell the team in a few months.

Another of their key players apparently wants out too:

Morgan Schneiderlin @SchneiderlinMo4 · 18h
6 years of an amazing journey #saintsfc DESTROYED in 1 hour !!!

Tottenham are supposedly after him.

[Phil89]

Austin Powers and James Bond were at the Liverpool-Man City game.




I see Everton have decided to use their transfer funds for the next five years on one player. Spending £28m on Lukaku is a big risk for them if they can't make the champions league in the next few seasons. Great player though.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Lukaku was their best shot imo. They couldn't do much either way.

[Phil89]

Not questioning his ability or potential. But it does seem a bit like a "all eggs in one basket" move at £28m. Everton apparently spent more on Lukaku alone than they have ever spent in any entire transfer window before.

It was just a bit of a shock for me to see them spend so much money. It's like seeing a school teacher buy a Ferrari.

[shadowgrin]

La Liga third level team Cultural Leonesa in their preseason kit.

Real and not photoshopped. You can even find pics of the kit unveiling.
Still better than the NBA's sleeved or christmas jerseys.


People saying it's FIFA, looks more like PES.

[Phil89]

I can laugh at that stuff now that he is gone to Barcelona ^


Man City are trolling Chelsea. Sign Frank Lampard with their US team then loan him to themselves

Doubt he will be getting much game time though.

[SoF'nAwesome]

I just don't understand the Lampard move. All these years at Chelsea, and now you just up and join ManC? Where is the honor?

Fact: MLS is owned by ManC and Yankees.