The European/World Football Thread III

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Read davesmith99s post before you get your knickers in a twist. He's basically a slave to jorge mendes and kenyon sports. There's little to nothing he could do about it.

It's just crazy to think that a player has no say of what happens in his own career. Absolutely ludicrous.

Reply 301

doobucks

Original post by Four Queue

It's just crazy to think that a player has no say of what happens in his own career. Absolutely ludicrous.

Have you ever heard of third party ownership...
He probably has a little say but is very unlikely that the decision to go to monaco was his entirely.
There's a reason why chelsea had to buy out david luiz's third party ownership.

Reply 302

Akkuz

If this happens i'll feel so sorry for Dortmund. Bayern Munich will be unstoppable in the German league. http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11890/8738143/Agent-Borussia-Dortmund-s-Robert-Lewandowski-to-sign-for-Bayern-Munich

Reply 303

Zerforax

Original post by Akkuz

Dortmund still got good money for Gotze and would too for Lewandowski so if they invest well and buy the right players, I don't think it will affect them as much as people think. It might take a year to adapt before they can launch another assault on the league title.

Reply 304

doobucks

Original post by Zerforax

Do you think they have the money for it though? They will probably need to use that to sustain themselves.
But give it 2-3 seasons then dortmund could be back in it but tbh they did well this year but I highly doubt they'd get to a CL final any time soon. They played a blinder in the CL this year though, some impressive victories, even though they did a lot of gritty victories(malaga and madrid second legs come to mind) but deserved nonetheless.

Reply 305

The Assassin

Original post by jam277

Yeah in that link a few pages I think it mentioned something about Chelsea not wanting to pay his wages if they bought out the 3rd party (because they've been subsidising his wages while hes been at Atletico, would be something like 300k a week). Glad we didn't, lol. Didn't want Falcao.

Reply 306

ra-ra-ra

Original post by aa22

I did not think we'd lose the Taça as well, but to be honest, I don't even care we lost that anymore. We didn't deserve it based on that performance. It looked like nobody even cared. We played with a small team mentality by trying to keep the 1-0 lead.. I don't understand why we always falter in the biggest matches.. JJ needs to sort that out because I think he still thinks he is at a small team.

I don't blame Cardozo. I'd be angry as well. I don't get why JJ put Andre Almeida at leftback today. It really wasn't necessary to play defensively.. Melga would have helped us a great deal in attack..

Artur really messed this one up. If he had just made a proper clearance, none of this would have happened. And this isn't the first time that he has messed up in an important match.. just need to go back to the matches vs Porto at the Luz (where he tried to skill up Jackson and gifted him the goal) and also at the Dragao (bad positioning).

*siiiiiiiigh* Embarrasing month for Benfica fans...

Interesting that Moutinho and James are now gone. Two big players, Porto are much more weakened now, and if players like Fernando and Jackson leave as well, it'll be hard for Porto to be strong next season. If Benfica don't win the league next year I think we will have to part ways with JJ (unless he manages to win an European cup instead) because he should have won the league this season and also last season.

I really don't think Liverpool should be buying a player like Atsu to be honest... is he any good? I thought he was quite an average player... Porto would do well to get some money for him..

I feel it must have been quite difficult for them to be picked up for this match having seen the Europa League and the Liga slip away from them. But I would have expected them to want to at least get something from this season and give it that extra push for them to go home with something but towards the end they were running out of fuel.

I agree about Artur. He has pulled off some big saves for Benfica and has really saved them in some games but has certainly let them down when it has come to the bigger games. Soudani was slightly offside though but the goal stood. Another couple of late goals conceded though. I actually think it’s a fatigue thing too and although I only watched the second half towards the end Benfica were tiring and I felt a goal was coming. I just didn't expect Guimarães to score two!

I understand Cardozo being angry but I don’t think he should have done what he did and I actually felt quite sorry for Andre Almeida. Maybe you didn’t need him and in all honestly I don’t think he played tremendously great but I don’t think it was fair for him to be singled out.

I know all Benfica fans will be enjoying the next month away from having to watch their team.

Yeah, this team has certainly been weakened but we expected João to leave this summer with him changing his agents. So we can’t say it was unexpected but I don’t think anyone expected Monaco to be his next destination. I see it was €25m for him and a huge €45m for James. James after last season was possibly worth that figure, this season he hasn’t quite been the same. The injury knocked him down a bit and never quite hit top form like last season but they have still got themselves a great footballer as I’m sure he’ll continue to get better. But again, I didn’t expect to see him playing in France. I really thought United and the Premier League would have been his next place.

With Falcao gone it looks like Atleti are hoping to steal Jackson off us now.

I have to say it’ll be quite tough to watch James, Falcao and Moutinho all playing together but for a different club.

Atsu started off good, but has completely faded. I think the rumour had him priced as €8m because that’s his clause price.

Reply 307

Liamg2468642

So... Neymar going to Barca, should be fun?..

Reply 308

King Leonidas

Regarding Neymar and I realise this is not the best source in the world but is there any truth behind this quote from Wikipedia "The deal, though, was opposed by former Barcelona player and coach Johan Cruyff, who appeared unconvinced that Neymar could work effectively in the same side as Lionel Messi."?

Reply 309

Zerforax

Original post by pinda.college

Time will tell if it works or not - one issue is that both players will want and will demand the ball.

However, you now have 2 individual match winners - both who can drag players out of position, can finish and can beat their man. It should drop the "Messidependence" that we saw this season but if anything, I think it will mean that Barca will score even more goals next season.

Barca need to sort out their defence (find the right balance between Alba/Alves and get some more CBs who will play!).

Reply 310

King Leonidas

Original post by Zerforax

Agree with your first point, Barca's dependence on Messi really did shine during the CL this season, perhaps Neymar will allow a lot of pressure to be taken off Messi.

Reply 311

Liamg2468642

Apparently he went to Barcelona because he idolises Messi and wanted to play with him.. he said that he'd rather play one game with Lionel Messi than a season with Ronaldo. Madrid also offered more money per week and offered more to buy him, apparently...
I can't see him doing well in Europe as much because of the defence being just as good as those in La Liga and the Brazilian leagues, he may struggle to live up to expectations but i hope he does well.

Reply 312

boumavilla

Monaco already have some decent international players, added to that they now have some top class European talent...PSG have some competition but what a shame for the French league, it'll be even less competitive in a way because the other clubs will have no where near the spending power to be up near the top. A boring league made even worse... :sigh:

Reply 313

Zytex

Some good news for Schalke fans :smile:

.

Signed Felipe Santana

Signed Peter Hermann, the assistant to Jupp Heynckes

Reply 314

doobucks

Original post by boumavilla

Not even, it's better than it being a one team league with PSG at the top(scottish league I'm looking at you)

Reply 315

Zerforax

Original post by Zytex

Some good news for Schalke fans :smile:

.

Signed Felipe Santana

Signed Peter Hermann, the assistant to Jupp Heynckes

The first one probably means that their going to sell Kyriakos Papadopoulos.

Reply 316

419

Original post by Zerforax

The first one probably means that their going to sell Kyriakos Papadopoulos.

Heard he's moving in the other direction to BVB.

Reply 317

doobucks

Original post by 419

Heard he's moving in the other direction to BVB.

Hmm, next season is going to be a very interesting season at the top for all the leagues. Barca have neymar, madrid have a new manager, dortmund losing key players and rebuilding, bayern got guardiola, chelsea and city new managers, united with a new manager, juve getting llorente and jovetic, milan continuing the rebuilding process and arsenal now having money to splash in the summer.

Reply 318

Zytex

Original post by Zerforax

The first one probably means that their going to sell Kyriakos Papadopoulos.

His agent (apparently) has come out and said that he is not going anywhere as he doesn't want to leave. Things can change quickly however. He is still recovering from injury anyway; I don't think any team will sign him until he is fully fit again. If he leaves my guess is in January.

Original post by 419

Heard he's moving in the other direction to BVB.

I think you mean Sokratis Papastathopoulos he has just signed for Dortmund.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 319

ra-ra-ra

Both Boca and Fluminense were knocked out of the Libertadores last night. Boca will be kicking themselves. Before Clemente got sent off they were looking likely to score, once he was off they sat back and played for it to be taken into penalties. The penalties were the best bit over the whole two legs with Newell’s coming out on top. Sadly the Atletico-MG vs Boca game I wanted won’t be happening this year.

Out of the remaining teams left you’d expect it to be Atletico to win their first Copa Libertadores in a few weeks time... They need to get through tonight’s match before I begin to believe this could be their year! But they have two away goals, it’s at the Independencia and it’s believed the 20,000 fans will be turning up all wearing Scream masks. It’s not one to miss if you can stay up for it. 2am on ESPN.

And for those who don't really know about Atletico and their fans... This was after they beat São Paulo to reach the 1/4 finals a couple of weeks back...