His Majesty
Banned
We desperately need a striker, not a lot of other cheaper options available and a lot of money (will be) available from Oscar, Aké, Cuadrado, Costa and Matic.
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Football Thread 2016/17 & Offseason |OT2| Wenger In Fam! Wenger Out Blud!
- Thread starter Lunar FC
- Start date
We desperately need a striker, not a lot of other cheaper options available and a lot of money (will be) available from Oscar, Aké, Cuadrado, Costa and Matic.
We can dream.
Dutch Gronk
Banned
You need to stop being so greedy!!!
Chelsea related: Happy about Bakayoko and Morata! Now somebody on defense and we might have actually improved the team.
Naa, we're light in his position and I think Verrati, Pogba and Herrera in the centre could do true magic, but I think everyone and their mum knows he wants to go to Barca and since it seems Barca are losing Neymar they might actually be able to afford him and PSG will probably have to let go to fund it.
Right now we look better at the back than last year with Lindelof but with no Zlatan, Lukaku is just replacing his goals. I mean, we really needed mroe goals last year so maybe he can help. But right now we don;t look much different to last year. The biggest difference will be Mou not having to shoehorn Rooney into the team for 4 or 5 months and the players having a year with him to get to know what he wants better.
Just maddening that we've only done 2 bits of business.
I mean, I'm a Madrid fan so I'm satisfied. It's just that Morata is trash, you'll soon discover it >.>
Oh boy.
Disagree - we've both watched Lukaku a bunch of times. I don't think he does enough off the ball - he doesn't bully defenders, he doesn't hold the ball up, he doesn't link play well, he doesn't run channels.
Maybe he'll develop that under Mourinho, and I hope he does, seems like a nice guy and has a good record, but until I see him do it on a regular basis I'm not so fussed about losing him.
Morata admittedly I've seen less of, but he seems to tick more boxes for our style than Rom.
Buyback clause for Iheanacho
Clever move.
Edit: Plus the way transfer prices are inflating, buyback clauses might actually end up getting a player back on the cheap if it's a pre-arranged price.
Clever move.
Edit: Plus the way transfer prices are inflating, buyback clauses might actually end up getting a player back on the cheap if it's a pre-arranged price.
With Conte Morata is going to be OP just like every average player he trained ( Giaccherini , Simone Pepe , Vucinic, Lloriente, Moses , Alonso etc )
McMoneyman
Member
Daniel Storey‏ @danielstorey85
Chelsea's longest-serving professional player is Matej Delac.
He's been loaned out nine times and never made an appearance for Chelsea.
Wow that really makes you think
Chelsea's longest-serving professional player is Matej Delac.
He's been loaned out nine times and never made an appearance for Chelsea.
Wow that really makes you think
Oveja Negra
Member
Because IMO Sánchez is an exceptional player that deserves to be in a great team. Arsenal is a good team, but nothing more than that; they have zero chances to win something important. Alexis arrived there cause Wenger assured him they were assembling a great team, but that ended not being true.
Also, while Alexis attitude on the field is always to give his 100%, in Arsenal a lot of times you see him giving way more than that -to compensate the lack of "blood" of roughly half the team- and sadly for us chileans, that means he arrives at our national team tired as hell and very worn out. That was perfectly clear in this last Confederation Cup, where he was slow and lacking that explosion he always shows.
So, I'd like to see him in a much more balanced team, so he doesn't need to take the team in his shoulders as frequently as he does in Arsenal. Man City is not a safe bet either, I give you that, but at least is a chance. Arsenal in the other hand will be same as last season.
Regards.
ambar_hitman
Member
So we got Morata for £58m only? Holy shit in this market thats quite good. So we can buy one more major signing. Conte's 200m war chest has lot of money left.
Isn't it more like £70m? Since you've paid 80 million.
cartoon_soldier
Member
Perez really does hate United after the De Gea saga
McMoneyman
Member
When you're about to go back to RB Leipzig with £70 million
He probably looked like that when he cooked for Virgil Van Dijk in Blackpool!
GoldenCrow
Member
Pep wants to play him up front not on the wing. Pep has said that he made a mistake by playing him on the wings back at Barca and is clear he is best playing upfront between lines. By having three top quality attacking players in forward positions with different skill sets it gives more options in breaking down teams, covers injury and be better for resting players which has been a big problem for strikers the last few years. The addition of any player shouldn't stop youth getting into the team if they are good enough. Plus competition between a Chilean, a Brazilian and an Argentine should be good for creating higher work rates within the squad.
They already spent a ton of money and they still need to address the 3 most glaring needs of the team: defensive holding midfielder, number 10 and left back (Unless Mou believes in Shaw again lol)
It baffles me how it seems United are banking so much on Chelsea selling them Matic and on Ivan fucking Perisic which unless Mou goes fully into a 3-5-2, doesn't seem to improve the current team one bit (3-5-2 would also make the number 10 need disappear).
Without a quality holding midfielder they aren't going anywhere this season though even compared with the striker void before Lukaku because Rashford would have been a better #1 striker than Carrick would be the first choice as holding midfielder.
texhnolyze
Banned
So excited to see how the new strikers fare in their new PL clubs this season, especially Morata and Lacazette.
Also, with Morata gone it means Mbappe is really going to Madrid after all.
Also, with Morata gone it means Mbappe is really going to Madrid after all.
Schick has a heart condition apparently (why Juve pulled out). Inter want him to have tests.
The excuses never change
Cheers guys, I didn't know about his tackling. I'll keep this in mind when I watch him next.
Did Zaha come out the challenge ok? No injuries I hope.
McMoneyman
Member
This clown is a Liverpool ambassador...
Bin him off and get someone like John Barnes or John-Arne Riise involved instead.
It's just not this, but when he appears on BT and calls United "we" and stuff like that.
immortal-joe
Member
My theory that Benzema has cast a secret spell on Florentino all those years ago inches closer to proven fact.
This dude wouldn't be unseated by a goddamn fusion of prime Maradona and original Ronaldo. Insane.
This dude wouldn't be unseated by a goddamn fusion of prime Maradona and original Ronaldo. Insane.
This clown is a Liverpool ambassador...
Bin him off and get someone like John Barnes or John-Arne Riise involved instead.
It's just not this, but when he appears on BT and calls United "we" and stuff like that.
Considering the abuse he gets from Liverpool fans for taking a job at United when Liverpool didn't want him back it's not a huge surprise.
He's deffo a clown tho. You should hear him when he thinks the mic is off ;-)
Yeah, he uses "we" for both Liverpool and Utd. He's a fucking tit.
This clown is a Liverpool ambassador...
Bin him off and get someone like John Barnes or John-Arne Riise involved instead.
It's just not this, but when he appears on BT and calls United "we" and stuff like that.
Don Draper's Hat
Member
Did Michael Owen play with better players in those positions at Liverpool or Newcastle? I highly doubt it.
What's wrong with giving a honest answer when, I assume, questioned?
For fuck's sake. Liverpool fans are a precious bunch.
Because he played for both sides and feels a part of them now.
What's wrong with giving a honest answer when, I assume, questioned?
For fuck's sake. Liverpool fans are a precious bunch.
Because he played for both sides and feels a part of them now.
This clown is a Liverpool ambassador...
Bin him off and get someone like John Barnes or John-Arne Riise involved instead.
It's just not this, but when he appears on BT and calls United "we" and stuff like that.
In fairness, those are the best players he played with in the PL. He definitely is a clown though.
CecilRousso
Member
He played on, and so far any injuries hasn't been reported. But he sure wasn't happy about it.
If you don't think there's anything weird about a Liverpool ambassador using "we" when talking about both Liverpool and Utd then fine, whatever.
I'm not fussed about the 5-a-side team since those were great players; Owen is just a tit in general.
Last time I checked he is a Liverpool ambassador not a football ambassador, and yes I have seen the worst of him so i think is a pair tits. Maybe that makes me part of a precious bunch but he is still a pair of tits to me.
McMoneyman
Member
I mean of course Owen can pick whatever players he want. But surely whoever put him as a Liverpool ambassador need to have hard look at themselves, especially when in recent years always seemed to lean toward Man Utd.
I mean how the hell do you hire someone who said: "If you can't beat them, join them" when he won the PL with Man Utd.
I mean how the hell do you hire someone who said: "If you can't beat them, join them" when he won the PL with Man Utd.
Dutch Gronk
Banned
I need some proper Morata scouting material aka some YouTube highlight videos with trap music in the background.
It's a turn of phrase from a footballer with no words of his own lol.
Good to hear. Grujic is a fucking dumbass from what I've seen of him.
Don Draper's Hat
Member
Precisely. It's the fault of whoever made him ambassador, not Owen's. I think the bloke is as dull as dishwater, but that doesn't mean he should pretend Chris Kirkland is better than Van Der Sar.
Sums of academy players mins played in the PL last season
1 Manchester United 44,055
2 Tottenham 19,995
3 Manchester City 16,226
4 Southampton 14,340
5 West Ham 13,907
6 Everton 13,855
7 Arsenal 13,599
8 Sheffield United 13,564
9 Chelsea 13,445
10 Ajax 12,617
11 Feyenoord 12,589
12 Barcelona 10,858
13 Crystal Palace 10,851
14 Aston Villa 10,686
15 Middlesbrough 10,487
16 Genk 9,263
17 Liverpool 8,753
18 Sporting Lisbon 8,499
19 Derby 7,240
20 Schalke 7,090
Manchester United academy graduates played a total of 44,055 Premier League minutes in the 2016-17 season, more than double the number of minutes for any other academy.
That total featured contributions from 35 players, with West Brom midfielder Darren Fletcher the single biggest contributor with 3,235 minutes.
Angel Gomes - who played two minutes in United's victory over Crystal Palace in the last league game of the season - became the first player born in the 21st century to play in the Premier League.
Tottenham were second in the list, with Harry Kane contributing 2,536 minutes.Ajax's reputation for producing young talent was underlined by their academy being 10th overall in our study - the highest placing of any academy outside of England.
Sheffield United were the biggest English contributor from outside the top flight, with 13,564 minutes. That put them eighth overall.
Of the teams finishing in the top six in the Premier League last season, Liverpool's academy made the smallest contribution, with 8,753 minutes overall. That placed them 17th, one place behind Belgian side Genk
Hull's 501 minutes was the lowest total of any top-flight academy, over 1,000 minutes adrift of the next-lowest ranked (Watford on 1,513) and also the only one accounted for solely by their own first-team players, with no Tigers graduate appearing for a different Premier League club.
Among clubs outside of Europe, Argentina's River Plate were comfortably the biggest contributors with four players - Manuel Lanzini, Ramiro Funes Mori, Roberto Pereyra and Erik Lamela - racking up 5,883 minutes, led by Lanzini's 2,715 for West Ham.
GoldenCrow
Member
I'd be more interested to see the percentage of academy players that manage to make the jump to professional football and the overall mins played (league doesn't matter).
This isn't a great measure of how academies are doing currently rather than a historical overview of how they've done over the past ten years or so.
If you look at u21s players or below who played in the PL it doesn't look so good...
Everton being the only side who really played youth by choice, instead of United who had so many injuries people like Rashford were the only option left.
Note this is half the minutes they got in 15/16.
As for the turning professional (from 2015)
ReplacementPelican
Member
Makes me feel a bit sick. I guess in America at least you get a University scholarship out of being good at a certain sport.
This isn't a great measure of how academies are doing currently rather than a historical overview of how they've done over the past ten years or so.
If you look at u21s players or below who played in the PL it doesn't look so good...
Everton being the only side who really played youth by choice, instead of United who had so many injuries people like Rashford were the only option left.
Note this is half the minutes they got in 15/16.
As for the turning professional (from 2015)
As I said at the end of the season. Change the sub rules so that you're allowed 2 free subs if the player coming on is say, under 18 and has maybe under 20 appearances. Still only allowed to take 7 to the game.
Do more to encourage teams to actually play youth.
Chelseas longest serving player is now a kid who's been on loan for like 8 years. It's mad.
His Majesty
Banned
Djibouti has dissolved its national football team in order to 'stop poor results'.
Not a bad idea, maybe something to think about for Liverpool.
Not a bad idea, maybe something to think about for Liverpool.
GoldenCrow
Member
They make it sound a lot worse than it is. It's really no different than playing for a local team and it is usually a handful of kids that show exceptional talent that get drafted at young ages. There is only a few that go onto the next level within the academies at that point some like Man City provide private education, others don't.
The biggest problem from where I see is that the English youth don't seem to want to travel, which essentially limits their employment pool within football. Whereas those that come from other nations have great attitudes and seem to always end up playing professionally.