Summer Transfers 2020 - Sponsored by Corona™

[SincereTheRebel]

Well indeed.

Can't see anyone outside of Real being able to offer him the sort of wages it would take to get him out of Paris, and everything is all about money. Do they really pay Bale €600k a week? I know they have a slightly different approach to everyone else in terms of how they structure things (to do with image rights etc) but even so, lol at paying him that to act like a twat on the stands. No desire to leave either.

After his first three seasons at Madrid, he was scorching and signed a new 6-year deal until 2022. He was already on mega-money so yeah, he is probably locked in on half a million a week until then. He is still only 31.

[niko_cee]

Real Madrid don't have a pot to piss in now anyway.

Since when has that ever stopped them?

[randomlegend]

ITKs all saying Dortmund have accepted United's official offer for Sancho. Medical and contract signing all that's left.

Ornstein has confirmed this to be true by saying it's "not close". Simon Stone throwing a slight spanner in the works by saying something positive.

[Don]

What did Peter Thomas say?

[CJay]

https://www.theguardian.com/football...n-35m-transfer

What’s the view on Aké? Surely he’s damaged goods from being part of this Bournemouth team? I don’t think their defence shored up much after he joined, but I could be wrong. Seems like a typical Pep defender, really.

[niko_cee]

I'd say his injury record would be the biggest worry. He's a more than decent player, but yeah, could be quite Pep. He's not exactly the guy you think is going to make everything alright is he? More than capable but not in the top bracket. They just need to suck it up and buy Koulibaly.

£35m is nothing to them, less than they typically spend on feckless fullbacks so a player that can cover a couple of positions is probably a step in the right direction.

[SincereTheRebel]

I think man city are just trying to find their own version of Virgil

[Manc]

I suspect he'll do quite well.

Everton signing Hojbjerg is such an Everton thing to do. Forever irrelevant.

[SincereTheRebel]

I cant think of the other man city central defender besides Laporte. Has it been walker since kompany leftm

[Jimmy Floyd]

Otamendi has played 24 this year, proper stealing a living.

[SincereTheRebel]

Otamendi and Stones. Stones should be good. Whats happened to him? He has the long physique and the ball-playing ability. Defending isnt all that important.

[Andy]

Garcia has been getting a few starts since the restart.

You would think itll be Ake and one other central defender in with possibly both Stones and Ottamendi out.

[Andy]

I suspect he'll do quite well.

Everton signing Hojbjerg is such an Everton thing to do. Forever irrelevant.

25m with a year left on his contract. Thought we would be lucky to get 15.

[SincereTheRebel]

I did a quiz for work on evertons signings and they quietly splash the cash on players from the league. They have bought about 20 players for 20m+

[The Merse]

Otamendi and Stones. Stones should be good. Whats happened to him? He has the long physique and the ball-playing ability. Defending isnt all that important.

There are clubs that’ll bench a defender for throwing 1 in 5 games with a big error. Unsurprisingly, we’re linked to him.

[The Merse]

https://www.theguardian.com/football...n-35m-transfer

What’s the view on Aké? Surely he’s damaged goods from being part of this Bournemouth team? I don’t think their defence shored up much after he joined, but I could be wrong. Seems like a typical Pep defender, really.

One of the few defenders you can pick up outside the top 6/7 teams that’s used to playing in a high line and playing it out from the back I guess, and in fairness given the other players in that Bournemouth defence, he’s been carrying what little defensive quality they have for a while.

[Lewis]

John Stones has always been crap. It's just that the NARRATIVE (Good Football, ball-playing defender) covered him at Everton, and he could coast at City. If you look at his England performances you get an idea of where he is.

[Yevrah]

If we had technically gifted footballers (we clearly don't and rarely do) then I'd worry more about whether our defenders could play the ball, but as it is I'd prefer to start with their ability to defend first and foremost.

[John Arne]

Ho Chi Minh City released Lima a few weeks ago, and are apparently letting Amido Balde go this week.

Replacements, strangely, already in country and going through quarantine, Costa Rican pair Ariel Rodriguez and Jose Ortiz

[phonics]

If we had technically gifted footballers (we clearly don't and rarely do) then I'd worry more about whether our defenders could play the ball, but as it is I'd prefer to start with their ability to defend first and foremost.

If there’s one thing apart from pace I’d say the current England team has is technical competence.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I call him Juan Piedras, as it better reflects his more cultured playing style. How the chattering tacticians of Montjuich tapas bars must coo when they see him play-it-out-from-the-back (or 'Fuerabaloncísimo' as it is properly known) against Burnley on satellite TV.

[Yevrah]

Are you alright Jim?

[Giggles]

He just cannot abide anything foreign, nothing new there. He went balls deep with that at one though.

[Don]

Let's not gammonise posting flair like that, we haven't all surrendered our soul quite yet.

[Jimmy Floyd]

They actually call it la jamonización over there, which I'm sure Giggles would know if he wasn't busy hating foreigners.

[Manc]

It's a character issue with Stones. He's a cunt by all accounts.

[Lofty]

Didn't Holberg tell Everton he'd rather go to Spurs?

[Andy]

Everton are the only club that can afford him, it was reported Spurs offered less than Evertons original 15m bid.

Kyle Walker-Peters has been great on loan so I assumed we would do some sort of swap deal. Seems like they may have realised KWP is actually decent and want to give him a proper chance.

[niko_cee]

7 years to the day since Arsenal made that bid for Suarez.

[SincereTheRebel]

7 years to the day since Arsenal made that bid for Suarez.

From what I can remember, Liverpool snitched saying Arsenal made a million and a pound bid because he had a release clause, and he did have the release clause which was met?

[randomlegend]

Google says he had a clause in his contract which meant Liverpool had to inform Suarez of any bid over £40m. Arsenal thought it was a release clause and bid 40m and one pounds, which Liverpool told Suarez about and promptly rejected.

[niko_cee]

The exact details are a bit sketchy. I think he had a release clause, Liverpool's ownership just laughed it off (basically saying contracts were worthless in football when players wanted to leave so they'd have a bit of it the other way round) and Suarez had no desire to kick up a major fuss to go to Arsenal.

It was basically the beginning of their descent.

[Lofty]

Nah the beginning of the descent was before that I'd say. Bennacer rumoured to PSG or City for £40m, the next Gnabry style regret tale for Arsenal.

At least we have a nice new home kit.

[Waffdon]

Sane just basically confirmed Chelsea are signing Havertz in a press conference. At least they’ll still be fun to watch. Over 3.5 in every game with that defence

[Jimmy Floyd]

If you score 10 then there shouldn't be time for the oppo to get more than 7 or 8.

[Waffdon]

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Mbappe will cost about £20

[SincereTheRebel]

Birmingham City have retired Judes number 22 shirt

[Jimmy Floyd]

I was thinking the other day how it's surely unlikely that anyone other than PSG will ever win the league again (or at least until the Qataris leave town, which they won't, because having money in Paris is a safer bet than having it in a tiny desert oil state), in which case why do the rest of the teams even bother continuing?

You would surely gang up and vote PSG out of the league if you could.

[Lofty]

Birmingham City have retired Judes number 22 shirt

tin pot behaviour

[Don]

Jesus, I thought that was a joke. That is stunning

[Lewis]

That is shameful. It's bad enough when clubs do it for their actual legends.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

[Giggles]

Christ, I thought he was pulling the piss too.

[John]

Someone should check on Mellin. He might have laughed himself into a collapsed lung.

[Ian]

Close the club down.

[Jimmy Floyd]

There's some lovely footage going around of Lampard telling Klopp to fuck off, has really made my day, as if that German fraud can come over here and lord it over our homegrown legends like he owns the place.

[Ian]

What was SFB all worked up about?

[niko_cee]

The freekick that wasn't that led to the second goal.

[randomlegend]

The story I read re: Bellingham from one of the Birmingham fans on Reddit is that because of his age he could have left on a free, but he 'arranged' it so that the buying club paid Birmingham a fee and he took lower wages. They reckoned Birmingham were in enough financial difficulty that the fee was significant enough to have not far off saved the club.

If that's all true it's slightly more understandable. Sort of.

[Giggles]

If it’s true then in fairness you don’t get much more of a club legend than saving it.