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Football Thread |OT21| Robben learns to score in finals three years late

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S

Salazar

Member
Vivalaraza said:
Seems we are signing this RB from Penarol then.
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For practically nothing, at least.

It's not such a wild signing, considering that Raf doesn't have that much legit competition. Smalling is a CB. Jones is a CB. Valencia is probably turning into more of a RB than a winger, but fuck.
 
Y

Yurt

il capo silenzioso
BI8fD3nCEAITMgN.png:large


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jb26bCgICoa3Np.jpg


Fiorentina's season ticket campaign. Jovetic and Ljajic are missing.
 
M

Meier

Member
Tc91 said:
You should be. Incredible player who will give his all for the team, never stops all game. He'll chase every ball, his closing down is immense and he's a superb finisher.

Maybe City fans took to him so fast cause he came from United but I bet there won't be many City fans who will be glad to see the back of him even after his Argentina antics.
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This for sure. He was our player of the season IMO. Even though he didn't score a ton of goals and had a lengthy drought, he was constantly involved and gave 100%. Will be very sad to see him go.

Saw some papers claiming Liverpool were interested in him at £7m. Lol, as if that's even close to being worth selling him within the league. If City took less than £20m to do that then I'd be shocked.
 
derExperte

derExperte

Member
V

Vivalaraza

Member
Salazar said:
For practically nothing, at least.

It's not such a wild signing, considering that Raf doesn't have that much legit competition. Smalling is a CB. Jones is a CB. Valencia is probably turning into more of a RB than a winger, but fuck.
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Yeah i'm cool with it. Always good to sign up young promising players, even if there isn't an obv need in the first team. We tend to buy 2/3 every summer for a million or so so I suppose it's in line with that.
 
U

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
Tc91 said:
Talk of Michael Laudrup leaving Swansea.
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Doesn't really surprise me. Laudrup will want to push on, without transfer funds it would be impossible for him to better what they did last season. I was surprised he signed that contract extension in the first place.
 
J

José Mourinho

cocknose
Tc91 said:
:lol that Fifa 14 trailer.
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I got rid of FIFA 13 after, I think, a month. I'll not be touching this years.

Trailer actually looks terrible, graphically it looks... the same. Same old, "Amazing physics! Amazing ball control! Precision movement!" and yet every year it's basically the same infuriatingly terrible game. Trunks!

In other news, I like our away kit. Once again, would it kill them to just have it be plain white a la Swansea home. Don't care for the blue socks either. However, shirt looks well enough which is the only part I'm likely to by. So good enough. Hope we have a black third kit -- but a nice one this time.
 
M

Meier

Member
Batigol said:
Are Swansea broke? Why won't they give him funds?
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They aren't but I'm sure they're worried they will be if they spend a lot. They're a small club and unfortunately for them, FFP means they always will be. But you've got to be willing to spend every summer and they probably want to take a more measured approach while Laudrup just wants to improve. Every club should spend at least half the new TV revenue IMO.
 
W

Willkiller

Banned
I struggle to understand people that are 'disappointed' in FIFA trailers. I love the series but I can't think of one way a trailer for it would get me excited. It's all about the feel, surely people that play it get that.

I could understand why my mum would be confused if she watched the trailer as it would look like the exact same game to her, but people that play it should understand that any amount of media and previews essentially mean fuck all until you get it in your hands.

The trailer is the current gen version anyway, so it's not going to look much better graphically
 
B

Broder Salsa

Banned
Tc91 said:
Talk of Michael Laudrup leaving Swansea.
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I did predict he would all of a sudden get unfriendly with everyone at the club, like it has happened at every fucking club he has managed, but still a bit surprised as it's not many months ago he was talking about how he appreciated the stability and wouldn't want to leave Swansea as he had already been a player at bigger clubs and didn't really thrive for that.
 
B

Broder Salsa

Banned
Willkiller said:
I struggle to understand people that are 'disappointed' in FIFA trailers. I love the series but I can't think of one way a trailer for it would get me excited.
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Add blur song 2 to it. Instant excitement in form of nostalgia.

But yeah, football game trailers are... Always kind of shit, I never cared for them.
 
L

Linius

Member
I also never cared for the trailers. I just read on what's new and what people think of it. Though most of the time I buy it anyway. Have FIFA 08, 10, 11 and 13 for my 360 now. Skipped two games since 2008 :p
 
S

Scum

Junior Member
Have you signed us a striker yet, Ush?

Sleeplessnights said:
Do you guys think Sony will go with a form of DRM other than just incorporating online passes as a system feature?

I've been thinking, that surely Microsoft wouldn't go through that great length of making sure second hand games are undesirable unless they know Sony are with them! Right?
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Word has it that Sony has a patent for some sort of DRM/used games sales. I reckon they'll keep online passes and leave the DRM/No Used games to the very same publishers asking for this in the first place.
 
B

brokenbeans

Banned
Meier said:
They aren't but I'm sure they're worried they will be if they spend a lot. They're a small club and unfortunately for them, FFP means they always will be. But you've got to be willing to spend every summer and they probably want to take a more measured approach while Laudrup just wants to improve. Every club should spend at least half the new TV revenue IMO.
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I can't see any team in the league being broke the Prem is far too lucrative for that.

You do have a difference in teams though.,

Some are owned by billionaires, some a weathly but with debt, others are just reluctant to spend money.
 
S

Salazar

Member
Ducker blog about City being full of shit.

Deals for Fernandinho, the Brazil midfielder pictured, and Jesus Navas, the Spain winger, have already been agreed with Shakhtar Donetsk and Seville respectively and should be completed in the coming days. Isco, the Spain playmaker, could follow from Malaga shortly and Diego Novaretti, the Argentine defender who is out of contract at Deportivo Toluca in Mexico at the end of this month, is another firm target.

Perhaps only the pursuit of Edinson Cavani is likely to drag on, although that is understandable given the amount of interest in the Uruguay striker, Napoli’s desire to keep him and the small matters of that £52 million release clause and the huge salary he would command.

So far so good then for City, to the point where Roberto Mancini could be forgiven for boring the Indonesian maids at his sumptuous villa in Sardinia with tales of how differently things might have panned out for him at the Etihad Stadium had only the club adopted the same approach 12 months ago, a matter the Italian had not been afraid to complain publicly about.

City’s argument for not doing as Mancini wished was simple. Although aware that it was probably naive to expect they would be able to offload most or all of those players deemed surplus to requirements early in the summer, the risk of making a series of signings and then being left with a bloated squad that they could not trim was considered to be greater than the risk of losing out on key targets by waiting first to ship out the deadwood.

It was an unsatisfactory compromise for all, not least Mancini, and the consequences were evident last season as City finished 11 points behind Manchester United in the title race and crashed out of the Champions League group stage with no wins in six matches and the lowest points total by an English club since the competition was reformatted 21 years ago, even if the club’s hierarchy were right to have expected more from such a talented squad.

Still, the edict from Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the chairman, had been clear – the club must sell before they can buy, and with no appetite to pick a fight with his ultimate boss, Mancini instead trained his sights on the messenger, Brian Marwood, who was the one to repeatedly deliver the bad news to the former manager.

Balancing the books took precedence, which, given the £97.9 million losses City would come to announce in December last year and the revelation that the wage bill had topped the £200 million mark, was something of a no-brainer, particularly bearing in mind the spending constraints being imposed by Uefa’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, which come into effect from the 2014-15 season but the monitoring periods for which are already under way.

City, came the message, had to think long-term. They wanted to build a squad that could grow together over time, and running parallel to that create a development system, supported by their impending move to a new 80-acre training complex, that produces talent capable of breaking into a team with ambitions to win the Premier League title and Champions League every season. Sustainability was and is the buzz-word.

Al-Mubarak has banged about it repeatedly and even Ferran Soriano, the chief executive, addressing reporters in New York last month, referenced its importance regularly.

It is why City’s approach in the transfer market so far this summer makes little sense, beyond a short-term desperation to reclaim the title and improve on their dire record in the Champions League, and appears to constitute a deviation from the plan that was being formulated in the last few years to assemble a squad of players with resale value who would be in a position to offer long-term service.

They were wise not to move swiftly in the market this time, aware that last summer’s approach could not be repeated and no doubt emboldened by the knowledge that a lot of the players they plan to move on this summer are very saleable assets and will help to significantly reduce what promises to be a huge gross spend – think Edin Dzeko, Joleon Lescott, Aleksandar Kolarov and, if it comes to it, Carlos Tevez.

But why City have targeted players in their late 20s, some of whom are demanding huge fees, when the squad is already brimming with experienced, established players and if anything needs a greater injection of players in their early 20s is hard to ascertain. Perhaps in the need to strengthen the club’s global brand the emphasis has to be on having a winning team next season, and with the pressure mounting and little time to waste, Soriano and Txiki Begiristain are going for a quick fix.

Fernandinho will be 29 and Navas 28 by the end of next season. Together they will cost around £50 million. The case of Fernandinho – who could cost up to £34 million – is particularly striking because many thought the days of City paying over the odds for a player in his late 20s were behind them. Novaretti would be a free agent but he too would be 29 by the end of next season.

Cavani – who individually will cost more than many Premier League squads — turns 27 next February. So far at least, only Isco, who is 21, appears to be the exception.

Of the 20 regular first-team players signed since the Abu Dhabi era started in 2008 who are still at the club, only two who can realistically expect to be there next season – Yaya Toure and Gareth Barry – were aged over 25 when they joined City. Tevez, Kolarov, James Milner, David Silva, Dzeko, Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri, Sergio Aguero, Matija Nastasic, Javi Garcia, Jack Rodwell and Scott Sinclair had a combined average age of under 23½ when they arrived.

Lescott and Kolo Toure – both of whom will depart this summer – were 27 and 28 respectively, although at least then City could genuinely argue that their outlook was much more short-term as they sought to build a team quickly that was capable of challenging for silverware.

The only other arrival aged over 25 has been Maicon, who was 31 when he joined City on transfer deadline day last August, but beyond bowing to Mancini’s wish to bring in the Brazilian, there was little appetite elsewhere at the club for the transfer.

Moreover, by the time the season starts, City will have only two players under the age of 25 – Nastasic and Rodwell; three if Isco signs — who will believe they can force their way into Manuel Pellegrini’s plans on a regular basis. Contrast that with their likely main two challengers for the title next season and Manchester United will have nine and even Chelsea – who traditionally have always had a very mature squad – will have six.

Micah Richards and Nasri turn 25 and 26 respectively this month, Aguero is 25 while Sinclair, 24, is unlikely to still be at the club.

The average age of the present recognised first team squad, excluding Fernandinho and Navas as well as Kolo Toure, who will shortly join Liverpool as a free agent, and Roque Santa Cruz and Wayne Bridge, who will also be out of contract, is just 26¾. Not old, of course, and well positioned age wise to reclaim the title they surrendered in meek fashion to United last term, but with so many senior players already to call upon, filling the squad with more older players represents anything but a long-term view.

There is also a debate to be had about whether the arrival of someone like Navas is more of a gamble than signing a younger British-based player given that he has spent his entire career at one club and has wrestled with chronic homesickness and anxiety issues in the past. Although he appears to have had those problems under control in recent years, no one can confidently argue that he will settle easily in Manchester when he has never before been asked to uproot and base himself far away from the family he has always had around him.

City may well win the title next season and that, of course, would provide the club with any vindication they need. But the talk about taking a consistent long-term view rings a little hollow at this moment in time.
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J

José Mourinho

cocknose
Willkiller said:
I struggle to understand people that are 'disappointed' in FIFA trailers. I love the series but I can't think of one way a trailer for it would get me excited. It's all about the feel, surely people that play it get that.

I could understand why my mum would be confused if she watched the trailer as it would look like the exact same game to her, but people that play it should understand that any amount of media and previews essentially mean fuck all until you get it in your hands.

The trailer is the current gen version anyway, so it's not going to look much better graphically
Click to expand...
Well for me it's because every year the trailer promises all these incredible improvements and then the game comes out and it's virtually the same thing as the previous installment. With tactical defending being the only genuine change I can remember in years.

So there comes a point where you realise that it's just the same thing -- barely -- repackaged. Every year. Which of course, makes the trailer disappointing because it's just promising a bunch of stuff that will never improve the game -- at least noticeably as it is in its yearly installments .

I genuinely don't think FIFA is a good game. It's the best football game by default, which is reason why it probably won't be good until it gets a real competitor given that Pro Evo is pretty poor.
 
S

Salazar

Member
Kylehimself said:
I genuinely don't think FIFA is a good game. It's the best football game by default, which is reason why it probably won't be good until it gets a real competitor given that Pro Evo is pretty poor.
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iPad FIFA occasionally distracting me on the train is all I need from the franchise.
 
M

Milchmonster

Member
So, I've been asking myself, does Bayern actually want Lewandowski?

Sure, looks like Gomez will leave and there's only Mandzukic and Pizarro but it's Guardiola. I don't think it would surprise anyone if Götze or Müller played as fake 9. So Götze and Mandzukic, Pizarro as backup, that's more than enough. I kinda have a feeling they're just using Lewandowski to give us problems.
 
M

Meier

Member
Salazar said:
Ducker blog about City being full of shit.
Click to expand...

This line doesn't make much sense.

But the talk about taking a consistent long-term view rings a little hollow at this moment in time.
Click to expand...

Khaldoon has consistently said the plan is to have players come from the academy. If you sign some older guys who are veterans, it's more likely that you can replace them with HG players a few years later than if you sign a young star who will continue to improve and keep other young players out of the squad. Contrary to his article, signing guys in their late 20s is exactly in line with what City's stated goals are.
 
3

3Sixty

Member
Southampton are close to agreeing an £8million deal for Uruguay winger Gonzalo Bueno.
The 20-year-old, who plays for Nacional Montevideo, is known as El Zorro and has been hailed as the next Diego Forlan.
He is predominantly a left winger but can also play on the right or as a striker and has made a big impact for his club by coming off the bench to score crucial goals.
He has been called up to Uruguay's U20 and U23 squads and also has a Portuguese passport. The move to Southampton would allow him to link up with compatriot Gaston Ramirez.
 
V

Vivalaraza

Member
City's youth policy is going to be something like - yeah if you're really really good and as good as the players we can pay £30m to buy then sure you can play in the first team otherwise get fucked.

A commitment to youth does ring hollow if you're commitment is on hold. Why not start now? City have some decent young talents currently, none of them are even close to the first team.

I think City fans don't really appreciate there is another aspect of homegrown talent aside from just how good they are at football. There's an affinity and appreciation for young talent and giving it a chance to shine which IMO isn't something Sheikh Mansour's Man City care about - not yet anyways.
 
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