2010/2011 Season Soccer Thread (incl. ECL and Europa League)

OK, the new league season begins in a few weeks in the U.K., Scotland, France and Germany and then Spain and Italy later next month / early September.

Let's have at it with all the rumours, news, reviews, etc.

 

Also, I'll be setting up a free fantasy soccer league in Yahoo!'s fantasy soccer game if anyone is interested. However, the site hasn't been updated from last season yet - it'll probably only be up in about 2 weeks (i.e. you can't create a team yet). Obviously, no prizes for the winner - just bragging rights.

 

I like watching these friendlies in the middle of the summer with big name clubs, but I would like to see it on the other side of the pond.

Why don't MLS teams travel to high-profile matches for pre-season? I would love to see Red Bulls @ White Hart Lane in the spring of 2011. Fat chance at that, though.

 

Because high profile teams in Europe wouldnt want injure their players with friendlies during the end of the season when the most vital games are played. Also Spurs could still be playing european games, fa cup and carling cup and premiership games.

 

On top of what Nohik said, the MLS doesn't have a high enough profile outside of the US to justify playing games in England or elsewhere. The atmosphere and the excitement comes from Americans wanting to see their teams playing the best teams in a much more competitive league. Fans in England wouldn't be nearly as interested to see their clubs playing an MLS side.

That said, I was at the game on Thursday against Spurs and it was pretty amazing. I would've liked to see Henry play more than just the first half, but it's understandable that they took him off. The difference he made out there in the level of play was significant, although the Red Bulls wasted more than a couple solid chances in the second half.

Huge win last night against Man City though. If not for United shitting the bed against Kansas City, it would've been the result of the most impressive of the pre-season. It's not gonna happen overnight, but you can definitely see the game picking up a stronger foothold over here.

 

How big is soccer in New York? Do people even know they have a team? Would they know any of the names of the players or recognize any of them?

City was playing a bunch of youngsters and some players on the shop window in a friendly so I wouldnt make any judgements based on that but I like seeing more and more MLS teams moving to proper football stadiums. You get decent attendances and things seem to be improving.

 

Yeah I know you guys were playing alot of the kids, but Adebayor played the whole game and Bellamy, Ireland, Bridge, Toure and maybe one or two I'm forgetting saw significant minutes. Obviously it wasn't the first team and they were still in preseason form but still pretty impressive.

Attendance seems to be pretty solid. I think the Red Bulls are averaging between 15 and 20k for most of the games this year. And now Henry's here and there's rumors of signing Rafa Marquez sometime this week, so that's only going to help.

I wouldn't say they've got the profile of as many of the other big teams in the NY area, but it's definitely picking up. With the number of people in NYC from other parts of the world, there are way more soccer fans than Red Bulls fans (or MLS in general), but between the World Cup and signing well-known players, they're getting more attention. There is a pretty hardcore group of supporters that makes up a couple sections of the stadium though.

 

I saw a blurb on the news last night that Marquez has signed for NY Red Bulls. Nice. Now that Barcelona are officially fucked for money, how will they replace him? Their defence was already not awesome (despite Puyol's presence). I read something on football365.com that Rossell (the new Barcelona president) has inherited a BIG cash hole and not the several million Euros profit as reported by Laporta (the outgoing Barcelona president). Ouch.

This summer in Europe has been far too quiet. There's noises here about Siphiwe Tshabalala moving overseas - I reckon there's a few clubs in England who'd want him. Bolton have confirmed Ivan Klasnic has joined for two years - that's a great buy for the Trotters. I remember seeing him a season or two back in the ECL with Werder Bremen and he looked decent.

 

A blurb? It's common knowledge Barcelona are in serious debt. The had to loan money just to be able to pay the salaries of their players. Yet they still paid 40 million for David Villa (he's worth it, but that's not the issue). Barcelona has never been a real monetary force in the game, not because they don't make any (they earn a lot), but because they invest it like retards. They are used to buying one great player and then ten shitty ones. This policy really went through the roof after Real Madrid snatched Luis Figo. They had all this money, but had to watch their arch-rivals buy the greatest stars and win prizes. So they started paying through the roof for players who weren't worth it (Saviola, Rochemback), were past their prime (Overmars, Mendieta) or weren't given enough time (Motta, Riquelme).

This resulted in massive debts. Laporta came in and put a stop to that. Wages went down, transfer sums went down. He only paid more than 20 million for Ronaldinho, Deco and Eto'o in his first years. The worth of these players in shaping the succes of Barcelona can not be underestimated. Ronaldinho went to shit in his last two years, but his good years far outweigh the bad years. Laporta also ordered his coach, Rijkaard, to put more focus on the youth-players. So guys like Valdes, Iniesta, Messi, Busquets, Krkic and Pedro became important members of the team, in addition to Puyol and Xavi.

Then it all went to shit, financially speaking. Barcelona gained more prizes, but Laporta felt the need to keep adding players to the squad. He really strengthened the side with the additions of Dani Alves and Keita, but the rest? Woof. Let's take a look: he paid around 15 million for Abidal, Hleb, Caceres and Keirrison. All of them added nothing or were loaned out. He paid around 20 million for Henry and Chrygrinsky. Henry had one good season sandwiched by two bad ones and Chyrginsky was written of from the start. And finally, he gave Inter 50 million plus Eto'o for Ibrahimovic. Ibra's a quality player, but was invisible last year and already seems on the way out.

Add to that a horrible outgoing transfer policy. In all his years as president, Laporta managed to sell only three players for more than 6 million euros; Ronaldinho (20 mill), Deco (10 mill) and Zambrotta (9 mill). It's one thing to hold on to great players while they're in their prime, knowing that after that you can't sell them for outlandish sums. But they couldn't even offload their surplus players for some decent money. Even clubs here in Holland manage to sell some really rubbish players for more than six million. No matter how much money you make from tv-rights and merchandising, such a reckless spending policy will get you into debt.

But serious debt means something entirely different for Spanish clubs than for you and I. No Spanish bank will deny the big clubs a loan and nobody will ever try to get the clubs to file for bankruptcy. Valencia had a debt of about 500 million euros for fuck sake. Spanish clubs will never go down. Rossell is a retard if Barca's debt comes as a surprise, but he shouldn't worry about any negative consequences.

 

Yeah, Barcelona seem to recoup very little from their transfers.

It looks like Wenger's at it again, going after Emir Spahic for about 5 million pounds from Montpellier. Great. Another French Ligue 1 unknown. Why is it Wenger cannot seem to attract an established defender to the club? He just signed Koscielny for a huge fee and the guy has had ONE SEASON in Ligue 1. Jesus.

These two clowns are supposed to replace Gallas and Silvestre? Gallas and Silvestre are useless, yes, but Campbell wasn't, and I'm certain these two new guys will not be good replacements. Wenger's been very hit-and-miss in the transfer market over the last few years...

 

What about Chamakh for a free. Arsenal just needs a GK now to be serious contenders for the title. Who would you want him to buy then?


I have a serious mancrush on Yaya Toure, he is so big and looks extreamly confident on the ball and has great vision. Silva looked fantastic for the 35 minutes he played and also Kolarov and Boateng both are way better than what we had before for those positions. Im excited like a kid on Christmas eve for the next season even though I know it will probably be a disappointment again...

 

I know its pre season but its only a week away and some really bad fuck ups at the back for Arsenal.

 

Chamakh's move was announced in like October 2009 - it was no secret. He was also a well-established player at Bordeaux, who had been on the scouting radar for quite a few clubs. Upfront wasn't nearly as much of a headache as the (largely useless) defence, only exceptions being Gibbs (before his injury) and Vermaelen, who was outstanding. Campbell's return, albeit brief, was a definite boost. Arsenal still need one established defender with experience in England - I was hoping for Ryan Shawcross from Stoke, since he looks decent (apart from that horrible tackle on Ramsey). I hope Koscielny works out well...

However, goalkeeping has been a problem for Arsenal for YEARS. There seems to be a lack of English goalkeepers with the required skills - just look at the England side in this past World Cup: Green, James and Hart. Green was hopeless and simply isn't international quality, James is nearly 40, but Hart was largely excellent last season for Birmingham and wasn't given a look at the WC. As an addition, there's no high quality young keepers coming through at any of the clubs. Name me five decent Premiership sides that have English goalies as their number ones - exactly, you can't. That means you then have to turn to overseas teams, most of which have no interest in selling their goalies, because there's few young goalies coming through their ranks either.

I hope maybe Arsenal can lure Dudek from his comfortable bench seat at Real Madrid, despite his near-retirement age...

 

Yahoo's Free Fantasy Football game is open for the English season. As I have done for the last 5 years, I've created a custom league.

Anyone who wants to join, shoot me a PM. You are limited to 100 points for purchasing players and can only purchase 11 players for each weekend, so be careful how you spend (e.g. you can't have Robin Van Persie, Petr Cech, Fabregas, Lampard and Drogba all in the same team...).

Also, remember to check <a class="postlink" href="http://www.physioroom.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">www.physioroom.com</a> before picking players - they have a guide of players who are injured in the English Premier League (look under the Injury By Sport bar on the right side of the screen), so that can help with team selections.

 

I'm in for the Fantasy league if others are as well.

 

Since I forgot the URL, here it is:

http://uk.premiership.fantasysports.yahoo.com

You'll need a Yahoo! account to play, but it's pretty easy to set up if you don't already have one. It DOES keep data from one season to the next, so, youy'll only have to create the account once.

Once you have selected your players, your team will be locked for the specific period of time shown in the fixture list on the right - any changes you make will be effective after the date of the last fixture for that week. So, if your player plays twice in that fixture period (i.e. Saturday and then the following Tuesday), more points for you.

 

To be honest id prefer if we set up a league in <a class="postlink" href="http://fantasy.premierleague.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://fantasy.premierleague.com/</a> at the official site of the premier league. You pick a team and you are allowed only 1 transfer per game week or get deducted points if you want to transfer more players.

 

Holy shit. I didn´t really expect this. I knew that he didnt want to sell any of the players but wow.


<a class="postlink" href="http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/ClubNewsDetail/0,,10265~2116445,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/ClubNewsDeta ... 45,00.html</a>

 

I'm not surprised O'Neill's left. Lerner had told him he'd have to sell-to-buy and that is not a policy that O'Neill will work with - he's had to do that too much in the past. Villa are in serious trouble - who will step in with only 3 weeks left until the transfer window closes and less than a week until the league starts?

I was hoping O'Neill would stay anyway because of the fans, but sometimes that just isn't enough, is it?

 

I think it wasnt sell to buy it was that they might sell Young or Milner without him agreeing to it or not allowing him to spend the money they might get for them. Thing is that Villa is already heavily spending over their means.