Sports The Football Discussion Thread! Page 79

Started by Nihilego March 27th, 2013 6:28 AM
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Eruption

Age 27
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Posted November 17th, 2017
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Was b& when you made the post about him it seems. Can't say I know anything about the guy but his goal record speaks for itself. Also if he can score in the second tier in Spain I'm sure he can here. Is there any substance to the rumours that Boro are going after Jelle Vossen? If that's true then I'd expect your lot will be unstoppable on FM15.

McCormack's fee was crazy, I know Fulham have a loaded owner and they've got parachute payments but still, £11m for a 27 year old with no experience higher than the Champs. For hat sort of fee I'm sure they could have signed Jordan Rhodes, whilst he isn't as versatile he's just as proven at this level and he's 3 years younger.

Whilst I don't hate Fulham I'd certainly rather they were a league below my lot. We rarely play well against them and when we do we still lose. Have been cursed ever since that 6 - 0 game which saw us go down and WBA pull off their 'great escape'.

Of the relegated teams it seems Cardiff have had the most eventful summer. It's like OGS and Tan are playing Football Manager. Guido Burgstaller, Juan Cala, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Adam Le Fondre, Javi Guerra and Federico Macheda. Probably a few decent players there but I'm pretty sure this is not how you build a successful team.

I haven't seen much of Grabban but he seems to have hit form last season. 22 goals in 44 games is pretty fantastic. Of course he's only had 1 season like that at this level but in our current financial state the £3m fee is not going to kill us even if it goes tits up.

I'm pretty happy with our squad as it stand but we could do with a bit of defensive over. I think Seb Bassong will be sold meaning we only have 3 first team central defenders and 1 right back (Adams likes captain Russell Martin at CB). Also think we could do with another left sided midfielder because Pilks is made out of glass and Josh Murphy is still untested at this level. A double swoop of Dundee United's John Souttar and Gary Mackay-Steven would cover 2 of those positions.
Wow that's surprising that you were banned, I did notice you didn't post as much around the end of the World Cup.

Anyway with Vossen, I'm always very sceptical about these 'pursuits' because some of them in the past have just been clear bs such as Danny Graham for £5m in Jan 2013 or Pizzi/Eduardo Vargas last summer. So in my mind we aren't signing him until he actually does sign, but from a less sceptical person's point of view it seems a bit less likely now too because Feyenoord supposedly want him now. We're apparently signing Bamford on loan from Chelsea so that would close any need for a striker I guess.

I had the exact same thought about Rhodes when Fulham signed McCormack, surely it would have made a lot more sense to sign him instead.

I can see pretty much all of those Cardiff signings flopping and it will be very fun to see happen. I just wish there was a way for it to happen without it affecting OGS negatively.

I thought Grabban played great when he visited the Riverside last season. He didn't score, but I remember he looked dangerous every time they came forward. I'm sure he'll do at least a good job at Norwich. I can't really see any reason why you wouldn't go straight back up unless Neil Adams turns out to be inept.

I just read last night about Norwich's 13-0 mix up. Quite a funny story for a club like that to misunderstand who their opponents were. Either way I'm sure it was a nice confidence booster.

Apparently we're closing in on that deal for around £5million I believe, I hope so because we've been lacking up front for a good while. Kike has scored 3 in 4 for us which is pretty decent, although it's pre-season he seems a good player!
Another person from Middlesbrough? It's a small world. Welcome to the forum and the football thread, fellow smoggie.

Saw this on my twitter timeline and I burst out laughing:

Spoiler:


Wonder who's gonna have less players by the start of the season, Southampton or Blackpool...?
Oh dear, please tell me the Carrick image isn't an official thing. Hopefully this will be his last proper season for United.

I couldn't believe it when I read Arsenal wanted Chambers for £16m and now it's completed. If they also sign Schneiderlin and Liverpool sign Jay Rodriguez then they must set some sort of record for transfer income in one window. They still have Osvaldo to get rid of yet as well. If they use this money right and they get another generation of talent (looks reasonably positive with Sam Gallagher and of course they still have Ward-Prowse) then they should have a great team for years to come soon. Obviously this season could backfire horribly though.

I wouldn't be too surprised if Blackpool signed a plethora of foreign players who desperately want to play in England who might take the awful wages for a chance to show their ability in the league. I can imagine that's the only reason Zenjov joined them. They will be the ultimate FM challenge next season.

Now to play FM because this has randomly got me in the mood for it...

£

You're gonna have a bad time.

Age 31
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Oh dear, please tell me the Carrick image isn't an official thing. Hopefully this will be his last proper season for United.

I couldn't believe it when I read Arsenal wanted Chambers for £16m and now it's completed. If they also sign Schneiderlin and Liverpool sign Jay Rodriguez then they must set some sort of record for transfer income in one window. They still have Osvaldo to get rid of yet as well. If they use this money right and they get another generation of talent (looks reasonably positive with Sam Gallagher and of course they still have Ward-Prowse) then they should have a great team for years to come soon. Obviously this season could backfire horribly though.

I wouldn't be too surprised if Blackpool signed a plethora of foreign players who desperately want to play in England who might take the awful wages for a chance to show their ability in the league. I can imagine that's the only reason Zenjov joined them. They will be the ultimate FM challenge next season.

Now to play FM because this has randomly got me in the mood for it...
https://twitter.com/ManUtd/status/493700905217564672 It's the real deal, buddy.

Southampton have a lot of money, but they need to use it correctly. They could be relegated if they screw it up majorly, but if they get like a couple of key signings and the youth shine for them, they could really be a force to be reckoned with.

Blackpool and Southampton could both be fun to play on FM by the sounds of it; I've never played it myself, but is it realistic in terms of the whole "selling your key players is very hard to fix" factor?
Sarcasm, its what social able people have, you know wen you go out and meet chicks just not on forums 1,000,000 miles away from you and you ask them what color underwear they have. - Aristotle, 355 B.C

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Age 31
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The Wired
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Posted February 1st, 2016
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Our Italian tour was screw up after screw up. Both teams we were supposed to be playing cancelled. Then of course there was what appears to be a miscommunication with the side that did turn up to play us at the 11th hour. Safe to say we won't be going back there next summer.

Squad for our friendly tonight has been announced. Slightly worried about the omission of Martin Olsson, hopefully he's just picked up a slight knock. Also two young strikers that have 1 Norwich game between them are ahead of Becchio, safe to say he will be off soon.
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Posted August 15th, 2014
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Another person from Middlesbrough? It's a small world. Welcome to the forum and the football thread, fellow smoggie.
I am indeed, total small world! Thank you! We'll be in the premiership next season haha.


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Eruption

Age 27
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North East England
Seen April 4th, 2020
Posted November 17th, 2017
6,316 posts
17 Years
https://twitter.com/ManUtd/status/493700905217564672 It's the real deal, buddy.

Southampton have a lot of money, but they need to use it correctly. They could be relegated if they screw it up majorly, but if they get like a couple of key signings and the youth shine for them, they could really be a force to be reckoned with.

Blackpool and Southampton could both be fun to play on FM by the sounds of it; I've never played it myself, but is it realistic in terms of the whole "selling your key players is very hard to fix" factor?
Oh dear United, oh dear.

They've got even more money now, I wondered why Pochettino hadn't signed up any of his Soton players yet earlier and it looks like he's taking two at once now.

As for surviving after selling key players, I wouldn't really know because I'm usually very stubborn on it and never sell my key players. Whenever they've gotten old on my saves, it's quite difficult to replace them unless I'm rich.

Squad for our friendly tonight has been announced. Slightly worried about the omission of Martin Olsson, hopefully he's just picked up a slight knock. Also two young strikers that have 1 Norwich game between them are ahead of Becchio, safe to say he will be off soon.
I'm sure Cellino would love him at Leeds to appeal to the fans.

I am indeed, total small world! Thank you! We'll be in the premiership next season haha.
Here's hoping, I'll just be happy with any advance on 12th this season to be honest. /pessimism
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Looks like some wheels are about to move on some transfers down here. Seems as if we will be going for an ex-Boro player, Gary O'Neil on a free. I believe he has moved deeper as his career has progressed , for that reason he should complement our remaining central midfielders pretty well. Most probably means the rumours about Tettey moving to Sunderland are true. Also 95% sure Leroy Fer will be off, we'll be getting somewhere near £10m so I'd be hoping a bit more than a freebie replacement for him.

Lukaku finally moves.

Eruption

Age 27
Male
North East England
Seen April 4th, 2020
Posted November 17th, 2017
6,316 posts
17 Years
looks like someone working for MUTV is losing his/her job tomorrow

Between this and the Carrick image, all of United's media staff should probably be sacked.

Looks like some wheels are about to move on some transfers down here. Seems as if we will be going for an ex-Boro player, Gary O'Neil on a free. I believe he has moved deeper as his career has progressed , for that reason he should complement our remaining central midfielders pretty well. Most probably means the rumours about Tettey moving to Sunderland are true. Also 95% sure Leroy Fer will be off, we'll be getting somewhere near £10m so I'd be hoping a bit more than a freebie replacement for him.

Lukaku finally moves.
I suppose O'Neil has a lot of experience of getting out of the division now so he could be a very worthwhile player to sign.

How many years will Lukaku get at Everton before Real Madrid or a team like that come calling? I'm going to say one.

Boro have signed another Spanish player (technically he's Equatoginean now but whatever), Emilio Nsue. Unlike Kike, I've heard of him before and since he's a free transfer I'm pretty confident this will be a good deal for us.
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Ryan Bertrand joins Southampton on loan for the season. That's Southampton, West Brom and West Ham with new left backs that aren't Martin Olsson.

If it's true what Mou is saying about Lukaku about him not wanting to compete with other class forwards then maybe he'd be happy to stay with them for a bit longer. Or maybe he just hated the fact that the system at Chelsea is rather restrictive for forwards.

Can't say I've seen Nsue play but reading up he sounds interesting. Also with the signing of James Husband it would appear that Karanka likes his wingbacks.

Eruption

Age 27
Male
North East England
Seen April 4th, 2020
Posted November 17th, 2017
6,316 posts
17 Years
Apparently Karanka views Nsue as a winger so I don't think we'll see him at wingback too often. Also we're supposedly in for Lowton from Aston Villa on loan which would be a great signing in my opinion.

I wonder how much interest has been shown in the Norwich players that have been held on to so far.

Also, shock of the transfer window - Blackpool have actually spent money on a player.
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It has either been kept extremely quiet or there really hasn't been much. Papers putting 2 and 2 together and getting 38 and agents doing their thing of course but genuine intent to bid, I'm not sure.

We know that QPR are interested in Fer, they have a [email protected] of a manager that openly speaks out to the press about transfer targets after all. They were supposedly quite interested in Hooper at one point, might still be once Remy passes a medical somewhere.

I can't see Olsson not being on shortlists of sides, he was one of the few player in our squad whom didn't under perform last season.

Most recent van Wolfswinkel rumour is that Saint Etienne are interested, ''the Championship is not the stage on which he plays football'' says his agent. Does just seem he is hoping hoping to stir up some interest to me but who knows. As soon as we were confirmed down I presumed he might well end up loaned to a Dutch/Portuguese/French/Russian side.

Have heard nothing solid about the likes of Bassong, Becchio, Redmond and Ruddy. Not really sure why there haven't been more departures, perhaps it is the long contracts and decent financial position.

Didn't see much of Lowton last season but in 12/13 he was good.

Edit - Looks like the van Wolfswinkel thing was true.

Eruption

Age 27
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Seen April 4th, 2020
Posted November 17th, 2017
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Off goes RvW then.

It looks like we've beaten Brighton to sign Adam Clayton. I think I'm more excited that we can beat Brighton to a player than I am over the actual signing.

Reina to Bayern seems like an odd move from Bayern's perspective, especially if he's fetching the same wage he was at Liverpool.
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I like how the general opinion of RVW over here has changed from positive things like I've been saying to ''worst signing ever''. Oh well.

Huddersfield have/have had some good players over the last few years. Pilks, Rhodes, Clayton, Smithies and I think they were the ones that took James Vaughan off our hands. Seems like another good signing for Boro.

Some sort of makeweight so that Shaqiri can go the other way?

Away from the RVW thing it was a decent day here. Both Wes Hoolahan and Ryan Bennett signed new contracts and of course the Gary O'Neil signing was confirmed. Also QPR signed Cardiff's best central midfielder so their interest in Fer should cool. I still think he'll go but I'd hate to lose a player to QPR more than most other sides.

Edit - haha how cruel, it seems that QPR fans are convinced they've had an offer accepted. Also Tony Fernandes is now following him on Twitter.

bobandbill

one more time

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Whelp, bad news for the Polish team I (and more so my dad) support...
Celtic's UEFA Champions League reprieve earned it a clash with Slovenian champion Maribor in the final playoff round.

The Scottish league winner was beaten 6-1 on aggregate by Poland's Legia Warsaw in the previous round but the Polish club was punished for fielding an ineligible player.

Bartosz Bereszynski, who came on as an 86th-minute substitute as Legia won the second leg 2-0 at Murrayfield on Thursday (AEST), was suspended after a red card for violent conduct in last season's UEFA Europa League.

Hours before the draw for the next round was to be made, UEFA announced that Celtic had been awarded a 3-0 win in the second leg and therefore qualified on away goals after a 4-4 aggregate result.
Pretty rubbish, really. Sure, there's the letter of the law, but there's also the fact the guy came on in the 86th minute of the second leg with the result at 6-1. It's not like he's had any influence on the result. A previous case had only a fine given to the offending team, so why is there a different decision here?

UEFA have some history with Legia too. Last year in Europa, they forced the team's home stadium to be closed because a banner at the match had been in some text font has some nazi links or something, on top of a large fine. A banner the officials had inspected before the match (standard procedure apparently) and they said was fine then. I'll remind you that this is a Polish team as well we're talking about, so it doesn't even make sense for the club to have banners supporting that.

And curiously, Celtic benefited from a similar event only three years ago. How about that.

But then, we're talking about football administration, the same sort of corrupt folk who give world cups to Qatar despite qualified fears of plan/fan/worker safety. =/ [/rant]

Edit: regarding previous cases, 'In 2010 Debrecen were fined for something similar. In 2003 Russia fielded a drug cheat against Wales and were not slung out - a far more egregious offence.' So much for those cases.

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Eruption

Age 27
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North East England
Seen April 4th, 2020
Posted November 17th, 2017
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17 Years
That Legia decision was ridiculous, I'm hoping there's some sort of appeal being created. I didn't know about UEFA's past action against Legia though, knowing UEFA it does seem a bit fishy.

Yay football is back. In the first half hour all that has happened for us is our centre back is injured.

Blackpool just conceded their first goal, lets see how many goals end up being put past them.
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Looks like it was a good start for Boro, even against a poorish Brum side that have just lost one of their better players.

Shame that Fulham couldn't draw level. If Town can play like that in the derby I don't think it'll be another walkover like the last couple.
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Happy about the boro result yesterday and even happier that kike scored. He hopefully will be a good buy for us, now hoping that Adam Clayton signs and we get at least one other signing before the transfer window closes.


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Age 31
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The Wired
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I thought that Wolves would finish in the top half before the season started and they've proven that they will be a tough side for anyone. Don't think they have deep enough squad for the playoffs though.

That being said it was certainly a loss that could have been avoided today. Tactical naivety and a silly sending off by Martin Olsson lost this one for us. I have no idea why we didn't simply go for the 4231/433 with Bennett and Redmond tearing down the wings, it will work at home but away at a solid team like Wolves. Also not so keen on Martin in central defense, he's a proven right back at this level and Ryan Bennett imo is our best central defender. I though Adams would have learned this last season during the Liverpool game.

Eruption

Age 27
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North East England
Seen April 4th, 2020
Posted November 17th, 2017
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17 Years
Indeed, a great start for Boro. From what I've heard there were a lot of positives in terms of Kike & Tomlin forming a partnership as well. Unfortunately I don't have a season ticket for this season since I'll be off to uni soon and the price has doubled due to my age so I don't know for myself.

I'm not too bothered about Clayton to be honest, if Huddersfield are going to carry this on for much longer I'm sure we can find someone worth more value for money elsewhere.

If there's one positive for you to take from this weekend about Norwich, it's that I'm 99% more certain Fulham will stay down based on Magath's decisions.

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Mt Moon
Seen May 27th, 2021
Posted October 31st, 2020
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14.2 Years
The Premier League season's not far off now! Anyone got any predictions?

For me:
1. City
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Man United
---------------
5. Liverpool

The relegation battle looks set to be close again this season; QPR aside, the newly-promoted sides haven't done an awful lot of business (certainly with bringing in Premier League quality), I can see Swansea, Aston Villa and Southampton being down there among it, it'll be interesting to see how Hull handle the increased fixture list, and i'm not even sure West Brom have bought anybody in this window so far. I think if I had to stick my neck out, i'd go for West Brom, Leicester and Burnley for the drop.

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