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The European/World Football Thread III

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The last 20 minutes of the Atlético - Tijuana match were horrible. Tijuana very unlucky not to go through. Tijuana were awarded a 92nd minute penalty too if they scored they would have reached the semi-finals. Victor pulled off a fantastic save with his foot though...



After that performance yesterday I don’t feel quite as confident about Atlético getting past Newell’s. A much needed break from the competition for them now with the Confederations Cup taking place soon.



Also, it's not only Neymar who has left Santos but their manager Muricy has left too. It has been coming though. Santos have been woeful lately and the sooner he left the club the better as Santos were just getting worse and worse. Rumour has it that Bielsa will be moving to São Paulo and will become the manager of the club.
Reply 321
Original post by pinda.college
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."?


This is true, as Cruyff has been saying all season that he doesn't think Neymar and Messi can play together effectively. I hope Neymar brings a Ronaldinho type magic to Barcelona, but we'll have to wait and see for that. On the other hand, Barca seriously need to sort out their defense. They need at least one if not two CBs, and a good alternative to Dani Alves has to come in, as Alves always goes missing defensively in big games
Reply 322
Neymar:

“I have respect for a lot of the England players as they have achieved great things at their clubs,” Neymar told The Sun.

“But, as a national team, I don’t look at England and think they are going to be a real threat at the World Cup.

“We want to win the World Cup in front of our home fans and the two nations I look at as a real threat are Germany and Spain. After that it’s a group including Argentina, Holland, Italy and one or two more.

“But England I don’t even think about.”

“There was interest from teams in England and Spain,” Neymar continued. “But my family spoke to me about joining a club where you could not just win things but where there’s stability.

“I didn’t want to play for a team that changed its coach every season.”
Original post by aa22
x


Quite a bit has happened since we last spoke... Mainly to do with managers.

Looks like VP is leaving Porto even though Everton will no longer be his destination. JJ has signed for another couple of seasons. Sporting are now onto their 11th manager since Paulo Bento left with Jardim taking charge whilst Jesualdo Ferreira looks set to return to Braga. Crazy!

I guess with JJ staying this will mean the end of Cardozo, perhaps? Unless they have a serious kiss and make up. With VP looking likely to leave i see Paulo Fonseca's name has been thrown about to replace him, i guess that is kinda inevitable though after the season he had with Paços.

Porto seem to be raiding Paços, Estoril and Guimarães for their young players. Ricardo, Carlos Eduardo, Tiago Rodrigues and now Josué and Licá have both recently been added to the squad. Add Diego Reyes in there and then recent news suggesting Hector Herrera will be a Porto player soon A busy summer for Porto already!

I see Hugo Viana has gone to Al Alhi. Stupid move in my eyes. And Bruno Alves has gone off to Fenerbahçe too.

I’ll admit I’m not looking forward to Friday’s match vs Russia either. :rolleyes:
Reply 324
Original post by ra-ra-ra
Quite a bit has happened since we last spoke... Mainly to do with managers.

Looks like VP is leaving Porto even though Everton will no longer be his destination. JJ has signed for another couple of seasons. Sporting are now onto their 11th manager since Paulo Bento left with Jardim taking charge whilst Jesualdo Ferreira looks set to return to Braga. Crazy!

I guess with JJ staying this will mean the end of Cardozo, perhaps? Unless they have a serious kiss and make up. With VP looking likely to leave i see Paulo Fonseca's name has been thrown about to replace him, i guess that is kinda inevitable though after the season he had with Paços.

Porto seem to be raiding Paços, Estoril and Guimarães for their young players. Ricardo, Carlos Eduardo, Tiago Rodrigues and now Josué and Licá have both recently been added to the squad. Add Diego Reyes in there and then recent news suggesting Hector Herrera will be a Porto player soon A busy summer for Porto already!

I see Hugo Viana has gone to Al Alhi. Stupid move in my eyes. And Bruno Alves has gone off to Fenerbahçe too.

I’ll admit I’m not looking forward to Friday’s match vs Russia either. :rolleyes:


Yep. Managers.

Not surprised VP is gone.. not surprised Everton is not his destination either. Paulo Fonseca looks like is a done deal, and tbh, that is a really good signing for Porto. We've kept JJ which I don't mind, but now I think that Benfica really should have won the league whilst VP was still there because with Fonseca, Porto will be properly strong once again and won't be relying just on their talented players :/

And Porto have already signed all of the good Portuguese talent that was floating around Portugal, so that's another "win" for Porto, and seeing as how Fonseca has already worked with some of them, he'll be able to keep improving them even more.

Jardim is a good signing for Sporting IMO. He has a good record, and I think he's probably the best manager they've had since Paulo Bento... they just need to give him time..

I hope JJ and Cardozo can put their differences behind them and carry on working as they have done so far. If a decent offer comes in for Cardozo I wouldn't mind if he was sold though, I do want to see some of the younger strikers get more oportunities (like Nelson Oliveira), and we still have Lima who could take the senior striker role of Cardozo.

Hugo Viana has been wasted tbh... he would have been able to play for Sporting or even be good backup at Benfica/Porto. Surprised at Bruno Alves' move.. he's quite old already..

And yes. Definitely not looking forward to tomorrow's match against Russia... I can't see us winning it :frown:
Original post by aa22
Yep. Managers.

Not surprised VP is gone.. not surprised Everton is not his destination either. Paulo Fonseca looks like is a done deal, and tbh, that is a really good signing for Porto. We've kept JJ which I don't mind, but now I think that Benfica really should have won the league whilst VP was still there because with Fonseca, Porto will be properly strong once again and won't be relying just on their talented players :/

And Porto have already signed all of the good Portuguese talent that was floating around Portugal, so that's another "win" for Porto, and seeing as how Fonseca has already worked with some of them, he'll be able to keep improving them even more.

Jardim is a good signing for Sporting IMO. He has a good record, and I think he's probably the best manager they've had since Paulo Bento... they just need to give him time..

I hope JJ and Cardozo can put their differences behind them and carry on working as they have done so far. If a decent offer comes in for Cardozo I wouldn't mind if he was sold though, I do want to see some of the younger strikers get more oportunities (like Nelson Oliveira), and we still have Lima who could take the senior striker role of Cardozo.

Hugo Viana has been wasted tbh... he would have been able to play for Sporting or even be good backup at Benfica/Porto. Surprised at Bruno Alves' move.. he's quite old already..

And yes. Definitely not looking forward to tomorrow's match against Russia... I can't see us winning it :frown:


I’m not quite sure which other clubs want VP! I imagine it’ll be in a not so big league that will offer him a nice hefty sum of money. I can’t see it being anywhere else in Europe. Well, no official statement regarding Fonseca yet, in the next few days they say it’ll be announced. I can’t complain about having him to replace VP. We’ll see what team we have when the season starts. It’s very important for us now to keep Jackson after Joao and James going. Fernando seems to be off, or wants to leave at least. Although we do have a bit of a midfield overload going on but he’s a key player who would be leaving. Mangala seems to be linked to Chelsea quite often lately and I see that Barca’s name has joined the rumours.

Yeah, a good manager for Sporting but I doubt they will give him that time. Again, it’ll be interesting to see what squad they start off with at the start of the season. RvW gone, Capel & Labyad seem to be next on the list so they can reduce their wage bill. So I think they will be expecting a lot from their youngsters... but even a few of them seem to be linked elsewhere already.

Lima isn’t a bad one to have to fill the boots especially if he has another season like this one! But yeah Oliveira will return, as too Nolito. Isn’t Rui Fonte back before the new season starts too?

One of those finger-biting games I feel. Nothing is ever simple with Portugal! I’ll be even more gutted about missing this World Cup out of all the others purely because this one is in Brazil and I have not been looking forward for a World Cup like this before.
Original post by jit987
Neymar:


Basically slagged off the english clubs with a bull**** claim, I guess chelsea are testament to that, but it's not like city and united do such a thing.
I'd get why he chose barca over madrid as well but I think this is a mistranslation, more of a why did he choose barca than madrid than why a spanish club over an english club.
Lol double red card in the Argentina Columbia game haha. Higuain and Zapata off.
Reply 328
Original post by ra-ra-ra
I’m not quite sure which other clubs want VP! I imagine it’ll be in a not so big league that will offer him a nice hefty sum of money. I can’t see it being anywhere else in Europe. Well, no official statement regarding Fonseca yet, in the next few days they say it’ll be announced. I can’t complain about having him to replace VP. We’ll see what team we have when the season starts. It’s very important for us now to keep Jackson after Joao and James going. Fernando seems to be off, or wants to leave at least. Although we do have a bit of a midfield overload going on but he’s a key player who would be leaving. Mangala seems to be linked to Chelsea quite often lately and I see that Barca’s name has joined the rumours.

Yeah, a good manager for Sporting but I doubt they will give him that time. Again, it’ll be interesting to see what squad they start off with at the start of the season. RvW gone, Capel & Labyad seem to be next on the list so they can reduce their wage bill. So I think they will be expecting a lot from their youngsters... but even a few of them seem to be linked elsewhere already.

Lima isn’t a bad one to have to fill the boots especially if he has another season like this one! But yeah Oliveira will return, as too Nolito. Isn’t Rui Fonte back before the new season starts too?

One of those finger-biting games I feel. Nothing is ever simple with Portugal! I’ll be even more gutted about missing this World Cup out of all the others purely because this one is in Brazil and I have not been looking forward for a World Cup like this before.


Ended up beating Russia. Good result! Got a bit lucky, but its the three points that matter. Neto was excellent in Pepe's place... really impressed by him.

I watched today's friendly against Croatia as well, and I was a bit surprised we managed to beat them.. especially with many second/third choice players.

Fonseca signed today for Porto. He'll definitely bring success to Porto. And Benfica have signed another attacker/striker, Lazar Markovic. Not what we needed, but maybe this means someone is on their way out... or at least I hope it does, otherwise we will have way too many attacking players next season.. Like you said, Oliveira and Nolito to return, I doubt Rui Fonte will be part of first team plans though.
Reply 329
Original post by aa22
Ended up beating Russia. Good result! Got a bit lucky, but its the three points that matter. Neto was excellent in Pepe's place... really impressed by him.

I watched today's friendly against Croatia as well, and I was a bit surprised we managed to beat them.. especially with many second/third choice players.

Fonseca signed today for Porto. He'll definitely bring success to Porto. And Benfica have signed another attacker/striker, Lazar Markovic. Not what we needed, but maybe this means someone is on their way out... or at least I hope it does, otherwise we will have way too many attacking players next season.. Like you said, Oliveira and Nolito to return, I doubt Rui Fonte will be part of first team plans though.


:eek: When did this happen? From what I've read and heard, Markovic is very highly rated indeed - IBWM reckon he's the best young player of 2012 (in terms of impact). Both Arsenal and Chelsea had been credited with interest over the past year - Wenger is apparently a big fan (though Makovic himself is supposedly a Chelsea fan). It'll be very interesting to track his development now!
Reply 330
Original post by Abiraleft
:eek: When did this happen? From what I've read and heard, Markovic is very highly rated indeed - IBWM reckon he's the best young player of 2012 (in terms of impact). Both Arsenal and Chelsea had been credited with interest over the past year - Wenger is apparently a big fan (though Makovic himself is supposedly a Chelsea fan). It'll be very interesting to track his development now!


Well, I'm glad he is highly rated and well known to others already.. should be a good signing.

RE: Chelsea, before Markovic was announced in the evening, earlier that day the Partizan president had apparently said that he had signed with Chelsea, and was going to be loaned to Benfica for two years.. that obviously turned out to be false, because he signed a five year contract with us, but it IS a bit suspicious as to why their president said that and I wouldn't be too surprised if he ended at Chelsea at some point..


We also announced Miralem Sulejmani last night, on a free transfer. And apparently there is more football news to be announced in about 10 minutes... strongest rumours are that Cardozo has left or Lisandro Lopez (defender) has signed.

EDIT: Ignore.. it was just Filip Djuricic being oficially confirmed..
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by aa22
Ended up beating Russia. Good result! Got a bit lucky, but its the three points that matter. Neto was excellent in Pepe's place... really impressed by him.

I watched today's friendly against Croatia as well, and I was a bit surprised we managed to beat them.. especially with many second/third choice players.

Fonseca signed today for Porto. He'll definitely bring success to Porto. And Benfica have signed another attacker/striker, Lazar Markovic. Not what we needed, but maybe this means someone is on their way out... or at least I hope it does, otherwise we will have way too many attacking players next season.. Like you said, Oliveira and Nolito to return, I doubt Rui Fonte will be part of first team plans though.


Yeah, we luckily managed to hold onto the lead. Neto impressed me too, I rather he kept that place over Pepe at the moment, although there is no game until September now but he couldn't have put in a more solid performance than that.

Yeah, it's still early days so i expect to see more comings and goings between the players and their clubs so you probably will see a few on their way.

I see Fonseca has a €15m release fee. The main thing for him is doing a better job in Europe than VP BUT i feel the moment he loses his first game at Porto in the league then fans won't be happy purely because VP's record in the Liga over the past two seasons couldn't have been much better.

Costinha the new manager of Paços with Maniche as his assistant! :eek: Madness! First job is to get them to win their CL qualifying match... If they manage to pull that off then... wow! It's one of them that could go horribly wrong for Paços or it will surprisingly work out to be a good partnership!
Original post by aa22
Well, I'm glad he is highly rated and well known to others already.. should be a good signing.

RE: Chelsea, before Markovic was announced in the evening, earlier that day the Partizan president had apparently said that he had signed with Chelsea, and was going to be loaned to Benfica for two years.. that obviously turned out to be false, because he signed a five year contract with us, but it IS a bit suspicious as to why their president said that and I wouldn't be too surprised if he ended at Chelsea at some point..


We also announced Miralem Sulejmani last night, on a free transfer. And apparently there is more football news to be announced in about 10 minutes... strongest rumours are that Cardozo has left or Lisandro Lopez (defender) has signed.

EDIT: Ignore.. it was just Filip Djuricic being oficially confirmed..


Do Benfica need players like Sulehmani and Djuricic do you think? :holmes:

From watching the Eredivisie, Djuricic is a very good talent and should be great especially in Europe, but Sulejmani has not played for Ajax for ages because he fell out of favour. Hence why I am a little confused why he was handed a five year contract. :lolwut:
Reply 333
Original post by ra-ra-ra
Yeah, we luckily managed to hold onto the lead. Neto impressed me too, I rather he kept that place over Pepe at the moment, although there is no game until September now but he couldn't have put in a more solid performance than that.

Yeah, it's still early days so i expect to see more comings and goings between the players and their clubs so you probably will see a few on their way.

I see Fonseca has a €15m release fee. The main thing for him is doing a better job in Europe than VP BUT i feel the moment he loses his first game at Porto in the league then fans won't be happy purely because VP's record in the Liga over the past two seasons couldn't have been much better.

Costinha the new manager of Paços with Maniche as his assistant! :eek: Madness! First job is to get them to win their CL qualifying match... If they manage to pull that off then... wow! It's one of them that could go horribly wrong for Paços or it will surprisingly work out to be a good partnership!


Definitely agree about Neto.. wouldn't mind seeing him first choice at all. Pepe had a poor season.

15m shows how much PdC believes in him.. as long as he wins the league, he'll be forgiven for any losses. And yeh, it's Europe that counts. I like how even Porto want to make it to the CL final just to rub it into Benfica's face..

And tbh, I think Costinha is a very, very bad appointment for Pacos... he has absolutely no credibility whatsoever as a manager, he hasn't done anything to deserve to take that job. He got relegated with Beira Mar and now gets to manage a club going into the Champions League for the first time... I hope I'm wrong as I want to see Pacos do well, but I really don't see this ending well..

Original post by boumavilla
Do Benfica need players like Sulehmani and Djuricic do you think? :holmes:

From watching the Eredivisie, Djuricic is a very good talent and should be great especially in Europe, but Sulejmani has not played for Ajax for ages because he fell out of favour. Hence why I am a little confused why he was handed a five year contract. :lolwut:


Aimar has left and we need a new number 10. From what I've seen and heard of Djuricic, he seems like a perfect replacement. Young, talented and a lot of potential.

Because Aimar was injured so often last season, Gaitan was the only player who could do the number 10 position, and whenever that happened, there were just Ola John and Salvio as the remaining wingers. I doubt Nolito will be returning next season so Sulejmani will add another option for the wings.

I have known about Sulejmani for a long time (mainly thanks to FM), and I've seen him a few times before for Ajax. Since it is a free transfer means it is worth taking the risk at least. There have been plenty of "out of favour" players that we have managed to turn into highly coveted players recently.. Sulejmani can be one of them because he has the talent, maybe he has just never had the sort of manager that can take him to a higher level.
Original post by ra-ra-ra
x


Hey, you're a Porto fan aren't you? How consistent has Mangala been this season? I haven't watched a huge deal of the Portuguese league this season (well, not to the extent of other leagues) but from what I have watched I have liked his performances. But apparently some have said that overall, he's been poor? (As you've heard we're apparently interested in him, lol).
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 335
Original post by aa22
Well, I'm glad he is highly rated and well known to others already.. should be a good signing.


Oh yes, he's certainly known. :p: Just going by Wikipedia - he made his first-team debut for Partizan in 2011 when he was only 17, and went on to make 33 appearances - getting seven goals and six assists in the process - in the 2011-12 season. At the end of the season, he was included in the Serbian Superliga Team of the Year (and remember, he's still 17 at this point). On the 28th of February, he made his debut for the Serbia senior team by starting against Armenia - three days before his 18th birthday. Last season, he made 31 appearances for Partizan, getting 7 goals again and 10 assists - and again being included in the Superliga Team of the Year. He also appeared in all of Partizan's Champions League group stage games, and got his first international goal (he now has seven caps for Serbia).

It might also interest you to read what Stramaccioni said about Markovic following Inter's 1-0 win against Partizan in the Champions League:

"He is a player with exceptional qualities. He possesses a very impressive acceleration and has a bright future ahead of him," Stramaccioni told reporters.


I believe Zanetti also mentioned that he was impressed by Markovic following that game.

Basically, you have a potential gem on your hands. :wink: Sensible of him to go to a club where he's likelier to get games as well, rather than go off to a massive club straight away.
Reply 336
Schurrle is off to Chelsea, then, but also interesting is that to replace him, Son Heung-Min will be joining Leverkusen from Hamburg. Son was excellent for Hamburg last season and had been linked with both Arsenal and Tottenham before signing for Leverkusen. He's been compared to Cha Bum-Kun, who was so good for Eintracht Frankfurt and - wait for it :awesome: - Leverkusen in the 80's and has been earmarked by some to become the best player South Korea has ever produced. Counted amongst the best young players in the Bundesliga, which is really saying something at this time. :cute:

One of his standout performances last season was against Dortmund, where he scored twice (one an absolute peach) to help Hamburg to a 1-4 victory:

[video="youtube;OWx-TQSqzBs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWx-TQSqzBs[/video]
Reply 337
Original post by Abiraleft
Schurrle is off to Chelsea, then, but also interesting is that to replace him, Son Heung-Min will be joining Leverkusen from Hamburg. Son was excellent for Hamburg last season and had been linked with both Arsenal and Tottenham before signing for Leverkusen. He's been compared to Cha Bum-Kun, who was so good for Eintracht Frankfurt and - wait for it :awesome: - Leverkusen in the 80's and has been earmarked by some to become the best player South Korea has ever produced. Counted amongst the best young players in the Bundesliga, which is really saying something at this time. :cute:

One of his standout performances last season was against Dortmund, where he scored twice (one an absolute peach) to help Hamburg to a 1-4 victory:

[video="youtube;OWx-TQSqzBs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWx-TQSqzBs[/video]


You reckon Min isa direct replacement for Schrulle?
Original post by aa22
Aimar has left and we need a new number 10. From what I've seen and heard of Djuricic, he seems like a perfect replacement. Young, talented and a lot of potential.

Because Aimar was injured so often last season, Gaitan was the only player who could do the number 10 position, and whenever that happened, there were just Ola John and Salvio as the remaining wingers. I doubt Nolito will be returning next season so Sulejmani will add another option for the wings.

I have known about Sulejmani for a long time (mainly thanks to FM), and I've seen him a few times before for Ajax. Since it is a free transfer means it is worth taking the risk at least. There have been plenty of "out of favour" players that we have managed to turn into highly coveted players recently.. Sulejmani can be one of them because he has the talent, maybe he has just never had the sort of manager that can take him to a higher level.


Djuricic is perhaps a little light weight and he won't get in and around the box too much to score goals, but apart from that he's a fine passer of the ball and can create chances from nothing. Also look out for his bow and arrow celebration! :biggrin:

Fair enough...I'm more surprised at how the contract can be so long for a player that hasn't done anything for a while now. :tongue: De Boer is a fine manager, the best in the Dutch top flight, but the break down in relationships between him and other players means if he doesn't like them they disappear... :K:
Reply 339
Original post by boumavilla
Djuricic is perhaps a little light weight and he won't get in and around the box too much to score goals, but apart from that he's a fine passer of the ball and can create chances from nothing. Also look out for his bow and arrow celebration! :biggrin:

Fair enough...I'm more surprised at how the contract can be so long for a player that hasn't done anything for a while now. :tongue: De Boer is a fine manager, the best in the Dutch top flight, but the break down in relationships between him and other players means if he doesn't like them they disappear... :K:


Is strootman really that great a player? Have only seen an handful of apperances by him and, well he didn't really excite me. Must have caught him on off days I guess.

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