Might as well start a general Footy/Soccer thread

[retirwntm]

Looking increasingly like BM vs. PSG. That would be a barn burner.


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[subtle plague]

Woah. Neuer has won the championship. All alone. He didn't score, but he has his hands on everything.

[Kinnikinnick]

Messi doing Barcelona dirty.

“We will sell him for no less than $700M!”

Messi:
“I can leave for free”

[shafty85]

I see it more as Barcelona running the club into the ground and Messi not wanting to spend his last years playing for a club that is falling apart. In the same way Messi ‘owes’ the club loyalty, doesn’t the club owe Messi the loyalty of not ruining itself?


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[Kinnikinnick]

Yeah they screwed up, they made a serious mistake a few years back by not selling at his peak. Paying him and the 30+ crew so much that they cant buy other good players.

Suarez is where they jumped the shark IMO. Mas que un club and you employ suarez, yeah right.

[berko]

I agree that is was a transfer from Liverpool that really laid bare the rot in Barca's front office.

But it wasn't Suarez.

[retirwntm]

The physicality and athleticism of the game has gotten ahead of Messi. He’s amazing and maybe the GOAT but teams like Liverpool can press tirelessly and having a team built around Messi that requires it go through him in the final third have figured that out.

Barca made a lot of interesting buys - Turan, Suarez (he worked until he didn’t), Dembele, Coutinho now Griezmann. None of it is working and they can’t figure it out. No one wants to be just a cog in a team for Messi anymore.


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[dunfree]

Suarez worked well for Barca, it’s The Neymar departure shitshow and the inability to move on after that are the keys.

[PlayItLeo]

^^^ this. Messi is still the best player in the world - over 20 goals and 20 assists in la liga this year (never been done before) doing it all by himself in a mediocre team. There’s not a coach in the world who wouldn’t take him right now or a player who wouldn’t want him in their squad. Messi isn’t the issue (sure he doesn’t press anymore, but nobody’s perfect...), Bartomeu and the board are. Letting the squad get too old, signing big name players that don’t fit in the squad, turning Barca into a team of (old and mediocre) galacticos, and decimating the academy (upon which the Barca dynasty was built), all in the service of chasing cash, are Bartomeu’s fault. Fuck him and the socios that allowed this to happen.


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[Kinnikinnick]

Well never mind, says Messi.

Should be great for team spirit.

[nwslider]

What does the collective think about transfer window winners/losers in the Prem? Still a couple weeks to go but the season has already started.

Seems like United have lost out on every player the were pursuing.

Spurs/Liverpool were having a non-existent transfer window until the Bale/Thiago pickups.

Relatively quiet by City's standard but a decent window for them. Could still snag Upemacano or Koulibaly if they want to splash some cash.

Totally biased, but I think Arsenal had a strong window which could only be better if they pick up Partey or Aouar or both. Need to sell more than just Martinez to make that happen though.

Unrelated to the transfer window, good to see Leeds back in the prem and playing an exciting style as well.

Edited because somehow I forgot Chelsea, who made a handful of great pickups but didn't really address their leaky defense and atrocious goal keeping. Not entirely surprising that they did a lot of business just a bit our from their transfer ban.

[tintin5]

I’ve also been impressed with Everton. Rodriguez and Doucoure are good signings for them....


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[jackstraw]

My kid was at the perfect age when he arrived on the scene. His coach had coached him at a U-something level and the hype was over the top. We took him to a game when he played in Boston and then the hype just faded away.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8844119/Freddy-Adu-ex-MLS-star-dubbed-Pele-signed-fishing-village-Osterlen-FF.html

[Woodsy]

My kid was at the perfect age when he arrived on the scene. His coach had coached him at a U-something level and the hype was over the top. We took him to a game when he played in Boston and then the hype just faded away.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...terlen-FF.html

Crazy, now there are so many good young Americans that the hype just transfers to a new one every few months...
Pusilic->Reyna-> McKennie-> Dest...

[~mikey b]

I am impressed with both Christiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimavich. Fkn animals