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Sports The Football Discussion Thread!

He won the Championship player of the year award and has just turned 21, he was definitely the best player to come the Riverside this season in my opinion. If Zaha is worth £15m then Vydra is probably worth £20m, I think Norwich might just have a good deal on their hands there. I don't see why Udinese wouldn't give him a chance in their own team though, I'm sure the point of their Watford & Granada ownerships are to advance the development of their players so they should use them when they are successful at Watford or Granada.
 
Does he have more than goalscoring ability in his locker? With the striker situation seemingly sorted I'd much rather we spent big on a ball playing defensive midfielder or competition/eventual replacement for Hoolahan. If my memory serves me correctly FM lists him as an attacking midfielder so I guess it could be worth it.
 
They played him as a striker against us, but he was a bit deeper than his partner and caused havoc everywhere. Within the first ten minutes it was obvious that most of their attacking moves would go through him and he ended up scoring their two goals. I guess he good work at attacking mid, but I assume he's better used upfront. While Norwich would have an excellent set of strikers if he joined, I imagine the money would be better spent elsewhere on the team.
 
Our Chief Executive Has said Norwich will be bringing in 8 players, so 6 still to come. Unless they have a couple of real bargains planned I just can't see us getting that close to 10 mill on one player again this summer. From your comments, his strike rate and age I guess he'd be a fantastic signing for a club like Norwich.
 
If they do sign him for that amount, it would signal a great deal of ambition from Norwich. But it seems unlikely, especially with the Financial Fair Play rules soon to come into force.
 
I'm yet to fully comprehend the new ffp rules, from what I understand though Norwich would have to pull off quite a few QPR style signings to go far enough into the red that the sanctions hit. McNally and Hughton don't seem to be the type to sign players on stupid wages so it shouldn't be a problem.
 
I'm fairly certain Norwich will be fine with the new rules, as long as you said they don't go on a crazy spending spree. We might struggle with ours, as Gibson (our owner) still invests around 800k a month in the club just to cope with the costs of Strachan's terrible signings three years ago.
 
Speaking of silly money...

The Independent said:
A club-record £15m transfer fee has been agreed with Liverpool and the striker has flown back from holiday in the United States to finalise the switch.

The Evening Standard reports that the England striker will be offered a six-year deal worth £100,000-a-week. Should the 24-year-old see out his contract then he will cost the club £31m in wages. Together with his fee, it means a potential outlay of £46m for a player who scored seven goals in 25 appearances while on loan at the club last season.
Click to expand...

As it says - £46m on a player who scored 7 in 25 and has to physically assault goalkeepers to score past them (De Gea). Also, here's his Bebo page, seeing as I saw a link on Facebook: https://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=4957197631.

EDIT: Also, Spurs rumoured to be interested in Paulinho for circa£15mil? Good buy, I say. He's looked impressive for Brazil. He's not Oscar, but he can be defensive or offensive depending on what's required, and isn't bad at either (goals against England and Japan suggest he's best deployed as an attacking midfielder).

And I'd be really surprised if Norwich fell foul of ffp. City are going to get by simply by making losses of only £100mil this year.
 
Last edited:
-Lapras- said:
Surely those signings are nearing the ends of their contracts now? Or does GS not realise they're no good?
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Basically we'd be making a loss anyway due to our low attendances, so with that in addition to the debt from the fees and wages of the players Strachan signed back then, we're losing money quick. I think the only player we have left that we don't want from Strachan's era is McDonald, but he was probably the highest paid back then (on 35k reportedly). A few of Mowbray's crappy signings won't leave either which doesn't help.

Amore said:
Speaking of silly money...



As it says - £46m on a player who scored 7 in 25 and has to physically assault goalkeepers to score past them (De Gea). Also, here's his Bebo page, seeing as I saw a link on Facebook: https://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=4957197631.

EDIT: Also, Spurs rumoured to be interested in Paulinho for circa£15mil? Good buy, I say. He's looked impressive for Brazil. He's not Oscar, but he can be defensive or offensive depending on what's required, and isn't bad at either (goals against England and Japan suggest he's best deployed as an attacking midfielder).

And I'd be really surprised if Norwich fell foul of ffp. City are going to get by simply by making losses of only £100mil this year.
Click to expand...

I just read this news before looking in the thread, it's ridiculous. If he'd been a really successful player for West Ham then fair enough, but he was injured most of the season.
 
I agree those wages are silly. He's an important player in that side though, considering how Big Sam likes to play.

Can't say I know a lot about Paulinho. After a bit of research he seems useful, the sort of player Spurs need in their team.
 
Looking at the stats you've got to appreciate just how overrated Carroll has been. He scored 19 goals one season in the Championship, and when he left Newcastle he'd scored 11 in 20. Even in the silly money leagues at 20-goal per season striker isn't worth the same money as Lucas Moura.
Although I suppose similar arguments could've been made when United signed Rooney, except he'd just set an international tournament alight, so that's quite impressive (he scored 4, one less than Fernando Torres scored to get the Golden Boot / Shoe / Clog at Euro 2012).
 
Lots of clubs would pay massive money for a 20 goal per season premier league striker.

He isn't only goals though, winning the ball in the air, holding it up and annoying opposition fans are all great attributes for a striker.

I think most clubs would love to have Carroll in their side.
 
Well, mid-table clubs. Top-end you need to have more than just strength and a decent right/left foot, increasingly so these days. Most top clubs want a Robert Lewandowski - tall and bulky enough to not be pushed around too easily, but with some serious ball skills as well.
I'm not saying he's not a good fit for West Ham. More that he was initially overpriced by about £20million when Liverpool bought him, and now I seriously can't see why people value him so highly.
Actually looking at the current tables I see your point about a 20-goal per season striker. But what's more likely is that if he hadn't left Newcastle he wouldn't have hit 20 goals anyway. Also a little interesting note - Dimitar Berbatov scored 15 goals in the league last season. Really can't understand why Fergie spent so much money on him only to ditch him to the bench with Owen after getting two good seasons from him (09/10, 10/11). Oh and also that Michael Owen hit 3 in 4 in 2011/12. So tragic that he became so injury-prone. Was one of the best strikers England have ever had.
 
If utilised correctly he'd be a good player at even the top clubs.

If I was England manager I'd set up with him leading the line.
 
Really? I think Sturridge, Welbeck, Rooney and Walcott combined is the way forward. I'd play a form of 4-2-3-1 / 4-4-1-1 employed by Liverpool and United. Sturridge as No.9 (he scored 11 in 16 for Liverpool mainly playing that role), Rooney as No.10, Walcott out right playing very offensively, Welbeck either as a sub, taking Sturridge's place in the starting line-up, or stuck out on the left doing tireless running like Giggs - how United have played him.
 
I was really disappointed with Berbatov's treatment at Man Utd, he's one of my favourite players (one of only two players I've had names printed on a shirt) and was clearly doing more than a good enough job still at United. He had been the top scorer the last season then suddenly he was demoted to the bench behind average players like Chicarito, so that was disappointing. He could have went somewhere better than Fulham also.
 
I think Berba is the type of player that needs to have a team built around him, I can see why United moved him on and why other top sides didn't go in for him. He's a brilliant player to watch so I'm just glad he stayed in England.

My England squad would include names like Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Kevin Nolan.

I think if Sturridge works out that passing the ball is an effective method of retaining possession he might come good.

There are so many players from recent squads that shouldn't be. I cough up blood at the thought of James Milner in an England shirt.
 
Yeah, but I think part of it was wanting to get out fast now RVP was here, and also he probably wanted to be main man after being reduced to a similar role to Michael Owen at United. He got both.
Just saw this on Twitter:
[PokeCommunity.com] The Football Discussion Thread!


The only point I overwhelmingly disagree with (you can argue Ronaldo's both 2 and 3, I know I would) is "4. Mourinho destroyed Kaka". Kaka hasn't been destroyed, his role has been reduced vastly, and that in turn has limited his effectiveness (I saw Madrid vs. Celtic in a pre-season friendly last summer on t.v, Kaka was the star of the show). Part of the reason is that in 2009-10, when he joined, so to did Cristiano Ronaldo, for an even larger transfer fee. Both of them actually got injured in that campaign from what I remember, but Kaka was out significantly longer. Then in 2010-11 he was replaced by a much superior player in Mesut Özil - the man's provided >10 goals and >20 assists per season for the next 3 seasons. Kaka's output had dropped slightly in 08-09 anyway, perhaps Madrid just accelerated his decline. But it most certainly wasn't Mourinho's fault - he arrived at the same time as Özil, after Kaka had already been there a season.

Phew, rant over.

EDIT: YES -Lapras-!! Milner has his qualities, well a quality - he never runs out of energy. Neither does Park Ji Sung, and look where he's at. If he were to play anywhere for England it should be in the middle, and we have too much quality there. Playing him on the wing is going out declaring ourselves underdogs - hence why we usually live up to that tag by losing - like when United stuck Rooney out wide against Madrid.

I would almost certainly stick Wilshere and Cleverly in the midfield as our future dynamic duo. Oxlade-Chamberlain probably on the left. The only place that worries me is defence - I can see Jones and Cahill at CB, Baines on the left with Bertrand as an understudy, but who at RB?
 
Well there's still another few years to be had out of Glen Johnson and then anyone from Kelly, Smalling, Walker, Flanagan or maybe other young RBs I haven't heard of could take his place. That said if you're allowing Baines in the team, Johnson is younger than him anyway.
 
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