Football (Soccer) Thread

[The Larch]

If Wolverhampton can have a "Little Lisbon" I don't think it's such a big deal nowadays to have players from anywhere in any Premier League team. 

I don't know. I think we underestimate the impact on players - especially if they have a family - and being the only Brazilian on Teesside

Wolves are a unique project in that respect. But it's not that the clubs can't sign these players I think it's more that actually they are more likely to succeed if there's some type of support network/community around them in that area or that club.

As I say I know for a fact that in the North-West it's easier because you have four relatively big-spending clubs - and players from those clubs hang-out by nationality/language group more than team affiliation. If you're signing for a club that's a bit isolated (Newcastle) then there's less of that there - so those clubs may have to pay more, or create a job for your mates or whatever to help the player adjust.

I always think this with Latin American players especially (and I suspect they'll become more of a thing in the Premier League following Brexit) - moving very far away to a different timezone, language and culture, sometimes without family or friends. It is easier if there's some lads from the national team or who also played in the Brazilian league or whatever in the neighbourhood. I understand that Premier League clubs actually now spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff to make their clubs appealing.

Currently Newcastle has one Spanish player, one Argentinian, one Brazilian and one Paraguayan. It can be done, Premier League teams have the power of monies, so they can outbid almost any other team they fight for a player with. Location can be in the list of criteria, but most of the time it's nowhere near the top.

[Jacob]

I think Chelsea will always be on the top of my hierarchy of hatred, well since 2003 anyway.

Yeah that's reasonable. Personally, they've been eclipsed by other "throw money at everything" clubs, but they still rate.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah that's reasonable. Personally, they've been eclipsed by other "throw money at everything" clubs, but they still rate.

Somehow they've assembled a likeable team though - although I acknowledge this may just be the halo effect of having N'Golo Kante in your team

It's quite the change from the John Terry, Ashley Cole and Mourinho years

[FunkMonk]

I'll always have a hatred for Chelsea primarily because of the original Mourinho years. God I hate John Terry 

Like you said they have quite a likeable team right now though, so my hatred is somewhat lessened 

[celedhring]

I refuse to vicariously root for City like a lot of my fellow Barça fans are doing. Fuck that shit.

Then again, the alternative is Chelsea. 

[The Larch]

I refuse to vicariously root for City like a lot of my fellow Barça fans are doing. Fuck that shit.

Then again, the alternative is Chelsea. 

Enjoy the detached aloofness of the truly neutral.

Me, I have a weakness for teams with sky blue shirts.   

[Josquius]

If Wolverhampton can have a "Little Lisbon" I don't think it's such a big deal nowadays to have players from anywhere in any Premier League team. 

Playing for Wolverhampton you can live an hour from London. It's a southern team. Not quite London, but it still has a huge advantage over the north.

Currently Newcastle has one Spanish player, one Argentinian, one Brazilian and one Paraguayan. It can be done, Premier League teams have the power of monies, so they can outbid almost any other team they fight for a player with. Location can be in the list of criteria, but most of the time it's nowhere near the top.

Nobody thinks it's a top critieria but to get people up here you do have to pay more.
All else being equal, given a choice between Newcastle or West Ham a huge chunk of players will go for the latter.
Sunderland lost the hunt for many players to less traditional southern teams due to this. As said it was recognised at a board room level and they were seriously looking into massive and horrible changes to tackle it.

[FunkMonk]

 

I miss Wenger

[The Larch]

It seems that Hazard's behaviour after the match (joking around with the Chelsea players) has not really been appreciated by Madrid's big wigs. I guess they'll try to offload him this summer, but I doubt that anyone is willing to pay much for him at the moment.

And apparently he's now been officially transfer listed.


On a separate note, the Super League still lingers around. It seems that UEFA is planning hefty fines for the promoters, while "forgiving" those clubs that repented. Numbers being quoted mention a possible 100 million € fine for Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus and a collective 15 million € fine for the other 9 teams.

[Sheilbh]

And apparently he's now been officially transfer listed.

Semi-related piece from Rory Smith's newsletter:

Real Friends Ask Questions

The music was funereal. Josep Pedrerol, the host, sat behind a desk, cast in silhouette. When he spoke, his tone was somber, his cadence grave. A non-Spanish speaker might have assumed that he was pronouncing on some national sorrow, some unthinkable loss, or that he had just learned a close friend had recently eaten a beloved pet.

He was, instead, telling his viewers that Real Madrid had been eliminated from the Champions League, and that they might like to blame Eden Hazard — overweight, apparently, and unforgivably caught smiling with some of his former Chelsea teammates. Hazard, Pedrerol said, had "laughed in the face of the Madrid fans." After this brazen transgression, Hazard "could not play another second for Madrid."

It would be easy to laugh off the show that Pedrerol fronts — El Chiringuito, a gaudy staple of Spain's late-night television schedule, the place that Florentino Pérez bafflingly chose to pitch his European Super League to the public at large — as a bombastic and overblown outrage factory. It is, in fact, not much of an outlier.

This sort of thing does not happen only in Spain, of course; let those who are in glass houses cast the first accusation of underperformance and all that. But there has long been a strand of coverage of Real Madrid in general, and the Real Madrid of Pérez in particular, that adopts this sort of tone: utterly jubilant in victory, a toddler's temper tantrum in defeat, with the blame always, reliably, directed away from the man who runs the club.

Pedrerol knows his audience, of course. He is doubtless sincere in his views. There is an appeal, too, for fans to see their own disappointment reflected back to them. On Wednesday night, Pedrerol was manifesting what many of them were probably feeling. But if these outlets have Real Madrid's best interests at heart, it is difficult to see how, exactly, they are helping.

Is demanding Hazard be sold at the first opportunity the best way to encourage him to give his best to Real Madrid? Is treating every defeat as some sort of crime against nature likely to foster the sort of environment that allows a team to be built smartly and sensibly?

And, most of all, is refusing to suggest that Pérez might in some way be accountable — given that he is more than happy to take the glory when times are good — really going to address Real Madrid's issues at their roots? It feels unfair to describe the journalists who work at these outlets as little more than Madrid's "friendly" news media, but there are times when it goes beyond that. They give the impression of being mere clients. Real friends, after all, ask questions.

On a separate note, the Super League still lingers around. It seems that UEFA is planning hefty fines for the promoters, while "forgiving" those clubs that repented. Numbers being quoted mention a possible 100 million € fine for Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus and a collective 15 million € fine for the other 9 teams.

Plus 5% of revenue if they compete in UEFA competitions next year. It seems like the bare minimum, if that

[Jacob]

On a separate note, the Super League still lingers around. It seems that UEFA is planning hefty fines for the promoters, while "forgiving" those clubs that repented. Numbers being quoted mention a possible 100 million € fine for Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus and a collective 15 million € fine for the other 9 teams.

That seems like non-trivial consequences. I guess super league v2 needs a plan where they can go completely without UEFA and the national leagues, whenever that is.

[Tamas]

Real Madrid is a disgusting piece of crap club. News at 11.

[The Larch]

Hey Tyr, check out Sunderland's latest recruiting campaign. 

[Josquius]

That... Seems a few years late.

[The Larch]

That... Seems a few years late.

You must always look up to the future, my man.