Sports The Football Discussion Thread!

PSV signed Schaars and Arias, again no investements into their poor defense, so most likely the title will go to Ajax again, or someone else, but not to PSV. As with the previous years their defence isnt the best and thats the main reason they lost points.

Also for now Alderweireld stays with Ajax, so he isnt going to Norwich, however it seems like Fer does go to Norwich for 5 million.

Going by this tweet I think Fer will be announced today. Lots of rumours that it will be a 4 or 5 year deal. I'm also hoping for a new striker as the pre season tour starts soon and we only have 2.

As for the Alderweireld situation I see conflicting information everywhere. One source is saying Norwich don't fit his ambitions, another says it was nothing to do with the ambition and it was all down to personal terms. Both of those are 'quotes' from his agent. I think I'll wait until we hear something form the player or clubs.

Edit - Fer deal done and dusted. 4 year deal.

I still think Eriksen would be a good player for Dortmund, and especially since our bench isnt like Bayern's or any other club that plays for the title in big leauges (with Aubameyang we got a extra striker, but the market is still going so Lewandowski can leave). Also i've heard Pisczek is wanted by teams in the BPL so looking for a rightback isnt bad at all. I really hope this season will be good for Dortmund, as last time they made it to the final of the Champions Leauge but unfortunately they lost the title race with Bayern early.

As a Man U fan this signing has saddened me greatly: Thiago to Bayern. Good move for all parties involved, Pep will defiantly give him some playing time even with the strong midfield he already has to work with.

Watched their last pre season game and Pep has Kross playing in a Xavi sort of role which doesnt look so bad right now.

Chelsea really need to hop onto signing a striker. I would rather sell one first though in all honesty, maybe Torres could try his luck elsewhere. Rooney seems like a likely purchase, wouldn't be too bad I guess, suits our play style. Cavani wouldn't be too bad, I've seen him play and I don't think paying over 50 million again will suffice, to be quite frank.

Even if Torres and Ba stay I'd still say they need another top tier striker.

Or they could just sign 10 more midfielders.

Do Chelsea really need another forward or do people just want them to spend big on a big name. If you look at their squad they do have fire power: Lukaku who proved himself as a scorer in the prem (watching him score a hattrick against my club wasn't fun) Ba is very capable, maybe Jose can get productivity out of Torres and we see a good season from him and then you have Schurrle and Moses who are capable of playing up front.

They don't need to go all out and spend stupidly on Cavani(Who is set to have a medical with PSG anyway) or even worse Hulk

Lukaku would do the job for them in my opinion, they don't need someone but it doesn't mean they won't sign a striker.

Thiago will become very big at Bayern I think. Worried about United if they don't sign someone soon.

An injury to one of them could easily match the timing of Torres blowing cold. If I was a crooked Russian I would be seriously be thinking about it.

Also on the topic of Chelsea. I hear their last offer for Ruddy was 7 mill + 2 mill in add ons and a player. If this is true I'm glad our board stood firm, I think we would have folded in the past.

Chelsea have five players able to play up front, that's just as much as Man U and Arsenal and more than Man City plus they play a system where they only use one forward (Maybe Jose will come with something different but I doubt it) so have five is more than enough. I doubt there would be an injury crisis so severe that would leave them with Torres as the only option.

Mourinho was brought back to the club and I'm sure he has got freedom over his squad, Roman won't force a forward into the club unless Jose wants one.

Able to play up front and able to score regularly are different things though. Lakaku would probably be that man but I don't see him getting a long run in the side at Chelsea, yet.

I think Ba will move on. The rest seem to be winger come strikers, that German fellow and Moses anyway.

Torres/Lakaku/somebody else is what I'd want in some sort of rotation system.

Man United bid for Fabregas, but apparently Arsenal are allowed to take up an option and sign him themselves. I would be very interested to see him at United I hope it happens. I'd rather he stayed in Barcelona if he was going to go back to Arsenal though.

Meanwhile, Middlesbrough have been linked with a Napoli striker who cost them £12m a year ago. Seems a bit too promising.

Kit announcement shots are always so embarrassing. Think this away shirt will look great live though. First time I've felt the urge to buy a City shirt in a fair few seasons actually.
http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/sport/norwich_city_unveil_new_2013_14_away_kit_1_2281617

In other news this Quagliarella link won't go away, fuel added to the fire by the arrival of a private jet from Turin landing at Norwich International Airport. The money being mentioned is a lot, especially for a player that won't have a lot of resale value in a few seasons time, but I guess staying up this season is worth 60mill. I guess it all depends on his character really, is he willing to move to an unfashionable city in Norfolk? Can the club impress him? I'd hope the fact it is World Cup year and his current club have just signed Llorente and Tevez play a part in his decision.

That's an awesome kit. In other news, I'm quite happy Southampton are sitting pretty with our dealings so far. Obviously Lovren is a huge signing and Wanyama is a HUGE man (seriously, he's a unit). However, easily our best signing (and possibly best ever) is the renewal of Luke Shaw's contract. Luke Shaw is seriously the real deal and has the potential to finish the season as the best left back in England and he's only 18.

Remember watching Shaw a few times last season, so composed on the ball and still loads of time to develop. That 5 year deal is indeed a good thing, even if he does move on you're going to be getting a lot of money.

Was speaking to a Celtic fan about Wanyama the other day, he reckons a few good years at saints and he'll be off to one of the Uniteds or Barcas of the world, he rates him that highly. Again, should have some massive resale value.

There sure are lot of parallels between our two clubs at this point in time. That being said I hope the Norwich vs Saints games are a little more exciting next season (I still can't believe Holty missed that peno at Carrow Road, however dodgy it may have been).

Very nice kit there, awful way to show it off though.

Manipulation said:

That's an awesome kit. In other news, I'm quite happy Southampton are sitting pretty with our dealings so far. Obviously Lovren is a huge signing and Wanyama is a HUGE man (seriously, he's a unit). However, easily our best signing (and possibly best ever) is the renewal of Luke Shaw's contract. Luke Shaw is seriously the real deal and has the potential to finish the season as the best left back in England and he's only 18.

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As we keep coming back to in this thread, a lot of the previously 'weaker' teams have made some good signings. This could be a very strong PL this season, bigger teams could do with some big signings to make it even better.

-Lapras- said:

Remember watching Shaw a few times last season, so composed on the ball and still loads of time to develop. That 5 year deal is indeed a good thing, even if he does move on you're going to be getting a lot of money.

Was speaking to a Celtic fan about Wanyama the other day, he reckons a few good years at saints and he'll be off to one of the Uniteds or Barcas of the world, he rates him that highly. Again, should have some massive resale value.

There sure are lot of parallels between our two clubs at this point in time. That being said I hope the Norwich vs Saints games are a little more exciting next season (I still can't believe Holty missed that peno at Carrow Road, however dodgy it may have been).

Click to expand...

There has been quite a few parallels between the two clubs in recent history, both were in League 1 not so long ago and now they've progressed to respected PL teams (admittedly the Saints had already been a respected team within the past decade) pretty quickly.

The link with the £12m striker appears to actually have some reality in it. Eduardo Vargas could become a big name around Middlesbrough soon. :P or he'll be crap like anyone promising we sign.

I don't know anything about him but Chileans are always gr8 on football manager. Looking on Youtube he looks good, of course anyone can be made to look good in a 5 min vid*. If this happens it could indeed be good times for your lot.

*no amount of eurodance and flashy cuts could make James Milner look good

That penalty was incredibly dodgy. Super save from Boruc though, can't remember the last time I saw us save a penalty until this season and we saved like 3 or 4 (Davis' save against Aguero on the opening weekend the most lasting memory). I'm not too sure about Wanyama, the only times I saw him myself were against Barca and Juve and in both games he was exceptional (how many players can say they marked Lionel Messi out of a game in the past 3 years?), however it's not about one-off performances and it'd be great to see if he can turn those performances into every day occurrences.

Speaking of Shaw there was only one instance last year (when fully fit) that he was outclassed by an opposition player and that was when we lost 1-0 to Spurs near the end of the season and Bale cut inside him and scored a screamer in the dying moments. It's quite funny actually, a neutral tweeted Shaw asking him why he didn't stop Bale because it was obvious he was cutting inside and Shaw said he tried but Bale was too quick to catch.

I really think 'Hat'Ricky Van Wolfswinkel will be a huge one to watch this year, gonna be a potential star.

>Juventus reject €10m Norwich bid for Fabio Quagliarella but will sell for €12m

Or at least that is what Sky Italia are saying. I'd certainly be more excited him than Hooper signing I must say.

Obviously excited to see van Wolfswinkel on the pitch after months of hype. I watched him in a few Lisbon games after the deal was announced and he certainly seems clinical. I'm just as excited to see how Leroy Fer adapts to the Premier League, thinking he's our biggest coup thus far. As for our other signings Redmond could turn out to be bargain of the century and Garrido and Olsson are very sensible. Oh, I forgot about Nash, in a way I hope we never have to see him play.

My mate's a Birmingham fan and doesn't really rate Redmond. Maybe it's just Lee Clark that's ruined him, definitely reckons he's taken a couple of steps back since Hughton left, it'll be interesting to see if being reunited with him brings him back to his best. No need to worry about Hooper though, pretty sure he's about to complete a move to QPR lol.