Soccer thread 09/10 (contains spoilers)

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Soccer thread 09/10 (contains spoilers)

Post by Jared »

New thread for a new season.

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Post by davet010 »

For all those wishing to join the DSP league on the Fantasy Premier League site, the code is

289868-157381
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."

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Post by fsquid »

Bayern 3 - Neckarelz 1 The season is underway!

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Post by GB_Simo »

Squiddy, do you know much about Steve Haslam? Apparently he's on trial with my lot at the minute, with lots of noise being made about how he'd improve the squad and all the usual nonsense.
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Post by fsquid »

He was a youngster who was from Sheffield and came up through the Owls youth team. I believe he was supposed to be quite a player when he was coming up through the ranks (no message boards back then, so my info might be shaky). IF I remember, he played for the senior team in the Premier League the year we went down. He can play all the midfield positions and defender ones. For lower league teams that don't have a lot of depth, he is probably very serviceable that way.

I believe he was a casualty of the huge release of players we had when we were relegated to League One in 2003.

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Post by RobVarak »

Adios, Xabi. He'll be missed, but truth be told I think 30m is a bit high and I'm happy to see Rafa cash in.
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Post by davet010 »

Alonso off to Real, £30m. Can't wait to see that train wreck next season :)
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."

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Post by RobVarak »

Good timing, Dave!
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Post by davet010 »

Wonder if Real are going to buy anyone who can, you know, tackle ? Or stay in position (sit down, Sergio Ramos), or not get a big ban for going mad and kicking another player in the back (yes you, Pepe). Raul Albiol isn't going to save you...

Nice to see UEFA sounding off about City again today. After all, we have spent a massive £80m net this summer on 5 current Premier League players.

Good job no one else has spent that much....ooo, what's that Mr Calculator ? Real have spent £237m ? And not got so much of a mention from Platini's Gimp ? I f**cking wonder what that is ?

What's that - it's because everyone at UEFA is a c**t, particularly that French bag of s*** Platini ? Ah, that explains a lot then.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."

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Post by 10spro »

Let's see; Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema, Raúl Albiol, Esteban Granero, Arbeloa, and Álvaro Negredo have all moved to the Bernabéu this summer. And now Alonso. Wow, talk about spending money. I guess if you're a Liverpool fan, you'll miss Xavi, but he wouldn't have gotten so much last summer.

A. Aquilani, Benitez wants you.

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Post by wco81 »

Well the Soccernet article quotes a David Taylor, the UEFA general secretary.

EPL clubs have a pattern of big spending and generally carry bigger debt loads.

While Real has spent big before and EPL has higher revenues, Real at least generates revenues which might support that kind of expenditure.

Man. City is relying on the deep pockets of owners who don't seem to care about revenues.

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Post by Feanor »

davet010 wrote:Alonso off to Real, £30m. Can't wait to see that train wreck next season :)
Alonso should be a good, steadying influence for them in midfield.

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Post by 10spro »

Feanor wrote:
davet010 wrote:Alonso off to Real, £30m. Can't wait to see that train wreck next season :)
Alonso should be a good, steadying influence for them in midfield.
Agree. He won't sell as many jerseys, but he's a solid addition in midfield.

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Post by 10spro »

The money being thrown around is absurd, having said that, UEFA didn't seem to mind so much when Real nearly bankrupted themselves during the first Galacticos era... and they haven't minded ManU, Barcelona or Inter driving up player costs insanely in the last decade or two either. For every premiereship club that can't compete financially now, there are a dozen lower tier clubs struggling to pay lesser players.

Instead UEFA should modify the CL payout rules to encourage more fiscal responsibility (paying out more in the early stages, for example, or paying out 50% of the gross to grassroots and lower league initiatives), but have not done so historically.

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Post by davet010 »

Feanor wrote:
davet010 wrote:Alonso off to Real, £30m. Can't wait to see that train wreck next season :)
Alonso should be a good, steadying influence for them in midfield.
His job at Liverpool was as a simple link man between the DM and the forwards. He doesn't win the ball, and Diarra has proved last year that he can't either.

He doesn't fill a position of need for RM plus he's way over priced. Hence, train wreck.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."

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Post by davet010 »

wco81 wrote:Well the Soccernet article quotes a David Taylor, the UEFA general secretary.

EPL clubs have a pattern of big spending and generally carry bigger debt loads.

While Real has spent big before and EPL has higher revenues, Real at least generates revenues which might support that kind of expenditure.

Man. City is relying on the deep pockets of owners who don't seem to care about revenues.
I hate to take exception, wco, but most of Taylor's points are utter rubbish.
  • City are already in the top 20 European clubs by revenue...not bad when they haven't won anything for 33 years.

    If you think Premiership clubs are on dodgy ground financially, then consider this. In Spain, 7 of the 18 clubs in the top flight have unsecured debt of €150m plus, and 5 of them defaulted on player wages during last season. In Italy, half of the top flight clubs are technically bankrupt, and both Lazio and Roma were only saved by a 2003 tax law which the head of the Italian equivalent of the SEC described as a 'national scandal'. I don't recall hearing Taylor then, but after all he is only Platini's stooge.

    Real spent big before ? Oh yeah, Perez's last disastrous presidency, when he ruled over Real's worst ever period for winning trophies. It's not as if they could afford it then either, as he saddled them with €500m of debt which was only extinguished by the sale of their city centre training ground to the city of Madrid. A sale that was subsequently found to be illegal, as the proposed high rise flats could not be built owing to the ground being on the path of the glide slope to Madrid airport.

    The bottom line ? Taylor's an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about, and is merely a glove puppet. But then we already knew that.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."

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Post by wco81 »

I know generally the lesser Spanish and Italian teams are struggling. But if I recall, Real, Barcelona and Manchester U. are the top 3 in revenues.

Did UEFA have anything to say when the Russian started spending at Chelsea?

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Post by davet010 »

wco81 wrote:I know generally the lesser Spanish and Italian teams are struggling. But if I recall, Real, Barcelona and Manchester U. are the top 3 in revenues.

Did UEFA have anything to say when the Russian started spending at Chelsea?
I don't think so, and there were a couple of summers when they spent absolutely bagloads on players.

In any case, what has the current economic climate got to do with transfer fees ? The clubs are almost always only paying each other, albeit with borrowed money - apart from the Sky Blue Juggernaut, of course ;)
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."

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Post by fsquid »

Argentine Season suspended indefinetly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8185095.stm

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Post by 10spro »

fsquid wrote:Argentine Season suspended indefinetly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8185095.stm
Which is a bummer for me...big time. But I do trust that with the help of TV and other third parties will resuscitate a league that has been very competitive the last couple seasons and saw Champions other than the usual top teams in Argentina. Take 'Estudiantes' for example, recently winning the 'Copa Libertadores'.

To continue selling their big name assets is just a band-aid solution, hope cable and other CO's come thru soon.

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Post by Feanor »

davet010 wrote:His job at Liverpool was as a simple link man between the DM and the forwards. He doesn't win the ball, and Diarra has proved last year that he can't either.

He doesn't fill a position of need for RM plus he's way over priced. Hence, train wreck.
Which Diarra? :)

Alonso is not a Makelele-style DM, but that doesn't mean he won't be very useful for Real in midfield if the coach is smart enough to play him ahead of players like Guti and Sneijder.

Claiming that Real getting Alonso equals a train wreck is absurd. He makes the team better not worse, and the fact they paid over the odds for him is irrelevant given how much they've already spent and how deep their pockets are.

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Post by Jimmydeicide »

I think Scholes may be a better tackler than Alonso. :twisted:

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Post by davet010 »

Feanor wrote:
davet010 wrote:His job at Liverpool was as a simple link man between the DM and the forwards. He doesn't win the ball, and Diarra has proved last year that he can't either.

He doesn't fill a position of need for RM plus he's way over priced. Hence, train wreck.
Which Diarra? :)

Alonso is not a Makelele-style DM, but that doesn't mean he won't be very useful for Real in midfield if the coach is smart enough to play him ahead of players like Guti and Sneijder.

Claiming that Real getting Alonso equals a train wreck is absurd. He makes the team better not worse, and the fact they paid over the odds for him is irrelevant given how much they've already spent and how deep their pockets are.
Lassana Diarra, who was there last year.

Alonso by himself does not make RM worse, but I feel (and most Liverpool fans would probably agree deep down) was that he merely acted as the link between Mascherano and Gerrard. That's OK if you have world class players to break up the play, but RM don't, hence my comment about Diarra.

No, the train wreck part is Jorge Valdano's comment that RM have now finished spending (ie have spent all the cash they raised over summer from the banks), and that the squad is now complete.

Given that their defence was crap last year (they lost the final 5 games, which was the worst sequence in their entire history), and has effectively been subtracted by losing Cannavaro and gaining Arbeloa and Albiol, then they have a midfield and forward line that cannot keep all of their purchases happy while still being weak at the back.

Now THAT's the train wreck. Perez has appointed a glove puppet manager with no experience of managing a circus like this (5 years at little Villareal punching above your weight doesn't compare), and his previous reign was notable for him putting his oar in at every opportunity. He'll be at it again, and 2 losses on the trot will have the white hankies out at the Bernabeu.
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Post by RobVarak »

Jozy moves to Hull City. Saw his tweet and had to look up the schedule to confirm too LOL.

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_i ... -done.html

Liverpool buy Aquilani.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 186102.stm
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