Bucko

Things moving pretty fast since we discussed this.

Depay confirmed as is the re-signings of Garcia and Emerson plus Messi's renewal finally set to be confirmed in the coming days.

On top of that, the swap deal with Atletico brings Saul in and gets a high earner off the wage bill in Griezmann although probably blocks Ilaix's pathway to regular first team action so a bit of a trade-off there.

We've also managed to shift dead weight in Fernandes, Todibo, Firpo and Alena to the tune of €28.5M plus whatever they were on annually

Little by little, the squad's looking a lot better rounded than it did at the end of last season

Think we can say with absolute certainty that Messi is staying now they've signed up his mate

Wijnaldum incoming too

Might as well give the fella that dresses up as Avi del Barca a run-out at this stage

Spurs are now claiming that they didn’t know agreeing to join the Super League actually meant *drum roll* agreeing to join the Super League.

🤓

The nine abstainers are getting off very lightly on this one. Just because they tried to clean it up doesn't change the fact that they still s**t the bed in the first place.

If UEFA decide to ban us from European competitions for a year along with the other two, refusing to backtrack will look very foolish indeed. It's like they won't give up the ghost in case it comes to fruition.

Let us know how that works out when Sociedad are taking our place in next year's group stages

Expected nothing less tbh. Considering some of the spin still going on (e.g. Kroenke jnr telling fans ‘we thought you wanted to play Barca every week’) it’s just background noise

Perez going full despot at the moment on his circuit of joke Spanish TV shows. I doubt he has even half the power he's threatening to wield against the clubs that broke away from the Super League but curious to see how it all plays out

35 minutes ago, ALEX said:

Only to his own club’s fans. Not to all the other clubs and their supporters 

Exactly. Henry only fronting up to Liverpool fans after 8 hours and even that’s two days since fans revolted. They’re not sorry for causing this mess, just that it wasn’t swallowed freely by the game at large

One apology among all of the six withdrawing English clubs. Sickening.

Perez has also used this to push the envelope with his idea to minimise the length of games from 90mins, probably to throw US-style commercial breaks in the middle of them. The blame lies with the American carpetbaggers as much as him but I still can’t believe we’ve gone along with it. Any organisation that has him at the head of it should be avoided at all costs, and yet here we are

Chelsea and Man City already getting cold feet about the idea they (allegedly) never fully signed up to in the first place. Drove past Anfield earlier and it looks like a battleground with protest banners literally a few feet apart. Fans are doing similar outside CN albeit in smaller numbers. Convinced this won’t last the distance especially with players and managers denouncing it publicly

10 hours ago, ALEX said:

Clubs like Arsenal do not want to bother themselves with playing teams like Southampton and Burnley. Ironic as they have trouble beating such teams. 
 

However, if this goes ahead then the top teams will view Arsenal as they currently view such clubs. I can’t envisage that a league solely based on money will have a restriction on what teams can spend. If you receive £300m and most others can outspend you then are you really rich at all? If you have been banished from your home league then the money gets you nowhere. Instead, Arsenal may become to Super League what (and it pains me to say this) Everton are to the PL. There from the start, not getting relegated and never winning anything either. 

Arsenal were held by Fulham at the weekend and United barely scraped past Burnley with a flattering score line but the fact they think getting tonked by us and others weekly is a better alternative shows how little they’ve actually thought this out.

On the subject of Everton, they’ve released an absolute stormer of a statement this morning calling the ‘Big Six’ out for this entire sham.

8 minutes ago, Johnny Punkster said:

Hasn't that already been happening for years now?
El Classico at noon?
World Club Cup in UAE, Japan, Morocco, Qatar... all those footballing hotbeds?
 

They played a pre-season 'Clasico' in Miami with tickets as low as $200 apiece so this has long been on the agenda. It f*****g stinks

Actually of the opinion that any team who signed up for this should be made to fall on their sword, including our own club. Ban them from the domestic leagues as well as the UEFA competitions. It's the only way this bloated s**tshow and everyone involved in it need to be given a huge wake-up call.

Talk of the Premier League's other 14 clubs having a say in how to make the absconders pay in their meeting. Personally, i hope they send out a message that if you sign up for this, you will suffer. Might make those in La Liga and Serie A take note.

Really don't like it on multiple levels.

It's anti-competitive for a start, then you lose the prestige of the domestic and European competitions. For all the criticisms of the Champions League's current format, it's still undeniably the European Cup.

I can see there being games shunted to more economically appealing locations than where clubs reside with the 'Clasico' (I use that term very loosely) played in the States a few years ago clearly a sign of things to come.

Whether we've signed up for this in our own right under Laporta or been saddled with it by Bartomeu's metaphorical crap on the desk is still unclear. I'd like to hope it's the latter but honestly wouldn't bet on that.

Either way, it's a horrible mess that's going to decimate football as we know it

Both cards received. Will process the online regs later today. Nice one Tony

Seen him on a regular basis while covering Liverpool and have to say that he's not all that. Very industrious player and has a good fitness record but that's not worth risking players like Ilaix and Puig seeing their routes to first-team football blocked

Same as everyone else: they can get in the bin. Take it from first-hand knowledge, Liverpool still can't believe their luck at flogging Coutinho for the price they did. We'll be lucky if he goes for anything north of 10M in my opinion. Pjanic is actually surpassing Ibrahimovic for the worst player trade in the club's recent history

19 hours ago, ALEX said:

Given recent events, anyone know the going rate for a pair of Maradona’s socks?

Found this article which puts his testimonial shirt at 2 grand or thereabouts. 

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1101464/maradona-and-pele-items-up-for-auction

So whatever that's going for, maybe halve it and that's a rough estimate. Still worth getting it appraised though

On 12/7/2020 at 7:23 PM, Scott said:

Nicely done 😆😆

Pretty much, yeah. We managed to get a test last-minute on Friday evening but there were no slots available on Saturday plus I was in work so difficult to fit it in around that. Whatever the situation in the New Year, I'll just book Barna and take the two-week hit if it's still in effect.

Hoping for your sake that the testing turnaround is a lot quicker than it is at the moment. Supposed to be 24 hours so slowly getting there judging by mine returning in 27.5 hours which didn't help with the trip but still a sign that they're belatedly coming up to speed. The whole thing is an absolute s**tshow still

Covid test returned negative in the early hours of Sunday morning but apparently the NHS tests aren't recognised unless done in a 48-hour period prior to flying so faced with the choice of spending half of the trip holed up in a hotel room, we reluctantly conceded defeat.

Fortunately we had the foresight of putting an insurance policy on the trip so we'll get all bar about 50 quid back from our flights. Gutting but managed to book a last-minute break in London to cushion the blow.

In hindsight I'd have just gone to Barna for 10 days and taken the fortnight quarantine hit but you live and learn I guess.

We did think this might be a problem so got a test yesterday. Should have the results before we fly all being well.

We're flying out on Monday and I think once you're in the country, you're on fairly safe ground although could be wrong. Only there until the Friday so it shouldn't affect us too much hopefully. It's interesting that Wales and NI are included but nowhere else. Can only think they're basing it on the national restrictions there as opposed to the rest of the UK