2012-2013 Soccer Thread (Premier League, ECL, etc)

I just saw this on football365.com.

http://www.football365.com/news/21554/8029407/QPR-closing-in-on-Julio-Cesar

If Mark Hughes pulls this off, it'll be his best signing yet for QPR. Do you think he's realised Robert Green is as useful as dogshit that's smeared under a shoe?

 

Apparently Arsenal are now "ready to sell" Walcott. About fucking time. Occasionally brilliant but more often horribly inconsistent and injury-prone. Rumours abound that Liverpool will sign him - £7.5 million or so sounds about right to me, only because he scored 11 times last season and is in the last year of contract (his reported contract earning of +- £60k per week is worth about £3 million for the season remaining and Arsenal will look to recoup some of the huge outlay they made on him). I'm happy Wenger is clearing out the dead wood in the squad because there's too many overpaid, average players, Walcott being one of those due to inconsistency and injuries. I'm still hoping for an exit for Squillaci and Diaby, but with M'Vila looking like staying at Lille and Dembele almost at The Spuds, Diaby is looking increasingly likely to stay.

Spoiler

Diaby must suck a mean dick, because I have no idea how he's managed to stay this long.

Jokes aside, I think Walcott could be a great fit at Liverpool and could grease the proverbial wheels for Dempsey to join Arsenal - at 29, Dempsey is, in my opinion, not likely to move to a team that cannot offer Champions League football; Walcott, at 23, is at a different stage in his career and has already played in the competition.

 

Haven't you heard? With Wilshere and Diaby back, it'll be just like 2 new signings!
Arsenal's wage structure is so fucked up.

Predictions:
Diaby will stay. He's one of Wenger's "projects", he'll stay until he dies on the pitch or he wants more than £100k a week.
Walcott will stay. (Apparently he wants to stay, the deal is supposedly close to being worked out.)
Squid will stay because no one wants to take him.
Chamakh will fuck off to Besiktas.
We will buy somebody young, black, and French. Possibly Loïc Rémy.


Also, has anyone else noticed the reaction to Dempsey? It seems like wherever I look, I see Brits talking about how he's overrated garbage and too old/boring/American for Arsenal/Liverpool/club X.

 

Its weird and a bit reactionary. It seems like when he gets mentioned for Liverpool/Arsenal/staying at Fulham, people are excited, mention why he is needed, etc.. Then as soon as rumors cool, its all about how he's shit, overrated, old, blah blah. I've seen multiple people mention that if he was Spanish/English/French/etc... this would all be a different story of transfer fees and desire. And I don't disagree. There is still a bit of an unbelievability for some people that an American field player can be top class, but I don't know what else Dempsey can do to prove otherwise.

 

Speaking of Dempsey wanting to get some Champions' League action: UEFA Champions' League draw just finished.



It'll be interesting to watch Chelsea's title defense hopes against Juve, and Barca and Man U both lucked out. But check out that fucking Group D. Four national champions in one group, oh lawd.

 

Group D is absolutely insane. Arsenal got a pretty favorable draw.

In EPL news, Carroll officially on loan to West Ham. Not sure what this means for Liverpool, but makes me believe they will be making a move on transfer deadline day.

 

Group D might be insane but the most enjoyable group to watch is going to be group A, every single one of those teams loves to counterattack which is always fun. Just going to throw up my predictions for the top 2 from each group just to look back in a few months and see if I was a visionary or inept.

GroupA: Porto/PSG.
GroupB: Arsenal/Montpellier
GroupC: Zenit/Milan
GroupD: Real Madrid/Dortmund
GroupE: Chelsea/Juventus
GroupF: Bayern/ Valencia
GroupG: Barcelona/Spartak
GroupH: MU/Galatasaray

That being said, I tried to watch the Europa league games today on TV and it seemed like they were being shot by a circa 1995 webcam so I gave up, but I gather that liverpool managed to beat a team from the SPL, and given how the SPL did the rangers dirty, fuck any team that takes advantage of that.

 

According to ESPN, Dempsey is now with Tottenham. The fee was $9.5m and they inked a 3 year contract. While I'm glad the mess with Fulham is gone, and it's good that Dembele is there to help, Two weeks ago I would have had major doubts about this working out well for Clint, but today, given the exits of Dos Santos and RDV I think there is a decent chance of it working out.

 

OK, since we're doing predictions for the CL group stages...

Group A: Porto, Dynamo Kyiv. Kyiv have lost Shevchenko to retirement and now Popov to WBA, but I think they'll outgun the rather faulty-looking PSG, despite PSG having Ancelotti is coach and Ibrahimovic upfront, since PSG have failed to win any of their opening 3 matches in Ligue 1/Le Championnat this season.

Group B: Arsenal, Schalke. Schalke played in the quarter-finals 2 years ago and have a good squad (including Jermaine Jones, Huntelaar, Christoph Metzelder, Hildebrand, Afellay (!!) and Marica) despite no longer having Raúl up front. I really don't see Olympiakos (who just sold their top goalscorer from last season, Mirallas, to Everton) or the inexperienced Montpellier (again, top goalscorer Giroud left for Arsenal) finishing better than Schalke.

Group C: Milan, Zenit. An easy one to call, this. Clearly the 2 best teams. Milan to take 1st place in the group, despite seeing huge numbers leave this season, mainly because they just signed De Jong from Manchester City and, despite the departures, still have a very strong team littered with international players. Zenit have a lot of recent European experience, along with deep pockets and a great coach in Spalletti.

Group D: Real Madrid, Manchester City. I think Dortmund will struggle without Kagawa and Ajax will be lucky to not get 4th place in this group. I reckon City will fare better this season than last, mainly due to the absence of Savic and having a more settled defense, as well as not having Tevez on the goal course. Despite Tevez being a right cunt, he's still a fantastic player.

Group E: Chelsea, Juventus. I can't see Juventus finishing below Shakhtar, especially with Pirlo controlling the midfield.

Group F: Bayern München, Valencia. Easy call, this. Lille are a good team but will miss Hazard and Cole this season.

Group G: Barcelona, Benfica. Also an easy call.

Group H: Manchester United, Galatasaray. Gala might get 1st if they play at the Ali Sami Yen but that won't happen. Gala's supporters are fucking nuts.

 

I don't even understand how that went down. Rangers had a lot of debt, so they had to reapply to the SPL under a new corporate structure, okay. But they get rejected? And then accepted to the Third Division? So they basically get relegated three divisions for not having enough money. What the fuck is that shit.

 

Rangers got ejected from the SPL because the other 9 teams that would play in the SPL for the 2012/2013 season voted against the newco club being incorporated into the Scottish Premier League. Rangers under Craig Whyte had actually been liquidated (and thus had ceased to exist in the SPL in its then form) and reformed as a new company under Charles Green and the other 9 teams' representatives felt that it was unfair that a brand new company should be allowed to compete in the SPL and thus they voted that Rangers be relegated to Division 3 (the lowest professional division) and work their way up, as any new professional team would have to do (since this was an entirely new company that had been formed) and that it was important to set a precedent that financial mismanagement would no longer be tolerated in Scottish football.

Rangers' previous debt was to HMRC (i.e. the British government) AND to other stakeholders and shareholders, which was why the club was liquidated in the first place.

 

I guess that makes more sense. But it's hard to believe that their dominance of the league played no part in that.

And regarding financial mismanagement, well, that ship has sailed, hasn't it? Seems to be an endemic problem the world over. I'm not really up to date with the details of Financial Fair Play, but these net transfer spend numbers are plain retarded.

Wengernomics. And it's shocking how well Everton have done as well. David Moyes is a miracle worker.

 

Liverpool-Arsenal results, spoilered if you didn't watch it yet:

Spoiler

Liverpool 0-2 Arsenal. Suarez flopping all over the pitch. Diaby controlled the game (knock on wood). Cazorla stellar as usual, the EPL signing of the season. Really happy with that.

 

Makes me even more pissed about Liverpool's lack of movement on transfer deadline day. I don't know where the fuck the offense is going to come from outside of Suarez's streakiness. Rodgers is quoted as saying he wanted a minimum of 3 top line forwards, he has 2.5 in Suarez, Borini, and a very raw Sterling.

The Dempsey pursuit was a joke and Liverpool looked like cheap morons during the process. Sturridge would have been nice, oh well. Guess its going to be a true slow rebuild.

 

Meanwhile, RVP saves United against Southampton, despite missing a penalty with a pretty woeful effort. I'm hoping they can work Rooney into the side once he's back from injury.

Also, Ronaldo not happy with Madrid either.

 

This article confirms my thoughts about Zenit in the Champions League.

http://www.football365.com/news/21554/8049339/Zenit-splurge-on-Hulk-and-Witsel

If they don't qualify for the 2nd round with those two in the side, then I'm at a loss for words (and Spalletti will be out of a job, that's for sure).

 

Good players, but those prices are fucking retarded.

 

Good lord. I initially smirked at the Hulk total, but that price for Witsel is even worse. I didn't realize they hired Kenny Daglish to value players.

 

And now they're looking at £25m for Nani... Zenit's not fucking around...

 

http://www.football365.com/news/21554/8067194/Djourou-still-in-Wenger-s-plans

When Wenger says shit like this, it infuriates me. Djourou couldn't even stop the useless Emile Heskey last season (one of the free agents who has not found a club. Surprise, surprise), when Villa were the crappiest team to not get relegated, BY MILES. He is simply not of the quality required at the club and never has been. Just sell the useless twat, for fuck sakes.