Football (Soccer) Thread

[celedhring]

No fond memories of his time at Barcelona? 

The Camp Nou remembers 

Utterly frustrating player.

[The Larch]

No fond memories of his time at Barcelona? 

The Camp Nou remembers 

Utterly frustrating player.

Wasn't he very young when he played for Barcelona?

[celedhring]

No fond memories of his time at Barcelona? 

The Camp Nou remembers 

Utterly frustrating player.

Wasn't he very young when he played for Barcelona?

Yeah, he was a spoiled brat. He somehow managed to have a fallout with Rijkaard, which is like managing to piss off the Dalai Lama.

[Sheilbh]

I've just checked the Vitoria Guimaraes squad and I'm quite astonished to see that they feature three English players, all of them quite young. Since when do young English footballers move abroad? They used to be the exception, but checking the current U21 and U20 squads there are a few of them playing in the continent nowadays.

Been a big shift over the last few years I think maybe 5-10 years. I think part of it is they see more opportunities to be playing top level football in the Bundesliga or the Portuguese league than waiting around the academy of x Premier League club - especially because certain Premier League clubs hoover up young players as a revenue stream. The clubs don't mind loaning or selling them because it's pure profit from an FFP perspective (naming no names), it's better than selling to a direct rival and, normally, they anticipate that if they do well in Europe they'll be able to afford to buy them back - Jadon Sancho at Dortmund is possibly testing that.

The other really important point is European teams now scout academy football in England very heavily because, unlike in the past, they are turning out technically skilled players. Also I think it's still relatively cheap so it's a market where Bundesliga teams especially think there's value.

In a way it's a sad reflection of certain wit lots of money having huge numbers of talented young players who, it seems, will really struggle to come through in that club which will use them to generate revenue while buying in sort of surer bets from elsewhere. Chelsea seems a particularly extreme example of this because they have a lot of very talented young players, many of them did well last year because of the transfer ban but because of the players Chelsea's been bringing in I'm not sure how much time they'll get now and they may go back to bit part players. If that happens, and it might not, then I wonder if those players will want a move to somewhere they get to play.

But even for Everton that tends to have a few academy players in the first team it seems that at least a stint on loan in Europe is now part of the path from academy to first team and can lead to a sale - for example from everything I've read if the situation wasn't so bad at Schalke they would like to buy Jonjoe Kenny who they had on loan last season. There's been a couple of articles that basically say first they want to send players to League One/Championship and then to the Bundesliga or Eredevisie etc.

[Sheilbh]

Outstanding content from Vitoria
https://twitter.com/MundialMag/status/1303052851866894336?s=20

The Golden Gypsy more than deserved that, you vile anti-tsiganist! 

I couldn't agree me, it's exactly the approach you should have in signing Quaresma - no criticism here

[Duque de Bragança]

Outstanding content from Vitoria
https://twitter.com/MundialMag/status/1303052851866894336?s=20

The Golden Gypsy more than deserved that, you vile anti-tsiganist! 

I couldn't agree me, it's exactly the approach you should have in signing Quaresma - no criticism here

Remember, Quaresma was nicknamed Mustang. 

[Duque de Bragança]

Ligue of Nations Day 2

Half-time scores

France 2 Croatia 1

Croatia started better though. La chatte à Dédé still works, given the not-so-good performance of les Bleus.

Sweden 0 Portugal 1

Yes, Ronaldo scored. Free-kick goal. Sweden down 10 following two yellow cards, the goal was on the free kick which followed the red card.

[Liep]

DEN-ENG 0-0

England was surprisingly dull. Eriksen had the biggest chance of the game and shot it about 20 m above goal.

[Duque de Bragança]

Unlike the crappy Denmark-England game   , group 3 games were more interesting.

Sweden 0 Portugal 2

Second great goal by Ronaldo, but Bernardo Silva left the pitch injured. First 20-30 minutes were rough but agressive defending by Sweden left them at 10.
French commentators said Sweden was one of Ronaldo's favorite "victims" with 7 goals scored against.

France 4 Croatia 2

Most entertaining though the skill level was not that high, Croatia improved but a not-so-good France prevailed.

[The Larch]

I've just checked the Vitoria Guimaraes squad and I'm quite astonished to see that they feature three English players, all of them quite young. Since when do young English footballers move abroad? They used to be the exception, but checking the current U21 and U20 squads there are a few of them playing in the continent nowadays.

Been a big shift over the last few years I think maybe 5-10 years. I think part of it is they see more opportunities to be playing top level football in the Bundesliga or the Portuguese league than waiting around the academy of x Premier League club - especially because certain Premier League clubs hoover up young players as a revenue stream. The clubs don't mind loaning or selling them because it's pure profit from an FFP perspective (naming no names), it's better than selling to a direct rival and, normally, they anticipate that if they do well in Europe they'll be able to afford to buy them back - Jadon Sancho at Dortmund is possibly testing that.

The other really important point is European teams now scout academy football in England very heavily because, unlike in the past, they are turning out technically skilled players. Also I think it's still relatively cheap so it's a market where Bundesliga teams especially think there's value.

In a way it's a sad reflection of certain wit lots of money having huge numbers of talented young players who, it seems, will really struggle to come through in that club which will use them to generate revenue while buying in sort of surer bets from elsewhere. Chelsea seems a particularly extreme example of this because they have a lot of very talented young players, many of them did well last year because of the transfer ban but because of the players Chelsea's been bringing in I'm not sure how much time they'll get now and they may go back to bit part players. If that happens, and it might not, then I wonder if those players will want a move to somewhere they get to play.

But even for Everton that tends to have a few academy players in the first team it seems that at least a stint on loan in Europe is now part of the path from academy to first team and can lead to a sale - for example from everything I've read if the situation wasn't so bad at Schalke they would like to buy Jonjoe Kenny who they had on loan last season. There's been a couple of articles that basically say first they want to send players to League One/Championship and then to the Bundesliga or Eredevisie etc.

I guess that's better for players, rather than being trapped in the endless loan to lower league team wheel. Let's see if they're able to make good careers abroad rather than a few formative years.

[Sheilbh]

I guess that's better for players, rather than being trapped in the endless loan to lower league team wheel. Let's see if they're able to make good careers abroad rather than a few formative years.

Yeah. I feel that's less likely to happen because so far they seem to be going to leagues and clubs that like young players, develop them well and then like to sell them on for a big profit (Dutch league, Portuguese leage, Leipzig, arguably Dortmund too). Given wages in the Premier League I feel like it's more likely they'll go back to England unless they attract the attention of Bayern, Madrid, Barca etc.

[Josquius]

In more important footballing matters* Sunderland's pre-season is off to a good start. A 0-0 draw with Hull, lost on penalties, followed by an 8-1 win over Aston Villa U21s.
I have to say I quite like starting the season off with these less important cup games. Gives you something which is competitive but doesn't matter too much as a stepping stone between friendlies and league games.




*Slight joke in these being important but the nations league is completely unimportant.

[Duque de Bragança]

England beaten by the Netherlands in the Final Four first edition explains the "completely unimportant". 

[Josquius]

England beaten by the Netherlands in the Final Four first edition explains the "completely unimportant". 

I had no idea this had happened.

[Sheilbh]

England beaten by the Netherlands in the Final Four first edition explains the "completely unimportant". 

I had no idea this had happened.

Yeah - I don't particularly care about England. But I think it was fun and did kind of achieve the goal of getting rid of "meaningless friendlies" and also try to create level-ish playing fields in the first time they did it.

But I sort of feel like because it's - from what I understand - less relevant for qualifying for the World Cup than the Euros and also that actually the final games of this "tournament" in 2021 will actually be played just weeks after the finals of the Euros that they've actually just created a new type of meaningless friendly

I think it worked really well as an off-tournament year tournament, and it's just unfortunate covid consequence that it's no clashing with a tournament people do care about. I get why they still need to be playing these games and so on. But it feels less fun this time round, especially given the way all the other football calendars are being incredibly condensed this year.