Arena "The Beautiful Game" - The Official JCC Football (Soccer) Thread.

mata is also being groomed for a front office position with the club, i read somewhere. could be phasing him into a petr cech-like role to support the new brass that arrives with woodward's replacement.

 

sergio ramos has officially left real madrid. curious to see where he goes, imagine it will be psg or city for a monstrous weekly wage.

 

buffon has signed for parma on a two-year deal. he last played for them in 1995, lol.

 

they're bringing in alaba, who can play cb among other positions. i doubt varane leaves. every transfer window, varane and koulibaly have transfer rumors swirling, and they always stay put.

 

lollllll

spursy

 

my guess for the players that spurs would demand - one of bernardo silva/riyad mahrez, one of laporte/nathan ake, and potentially gabriel jesus. all three would be matchday 1 starters for spurs, and fill glaring needs.

in addition to a fee closer to 120-130 million. at most (per transfermarkt), that's a total package of around 180 mil in players, 120 mil in cash. sounds about right for a top striker plus the massive english tax, plus the even larger tax of selling your best player to a contender in your league.

 

uefa's outlined the "penalties" for the super league clubs (barcelona, real madrid, liverpool, united, city, chelsea, juve, milan, inter, spurs, arse, atleti):

• unreservedly acknowledges and accepts the binding nature of the UEFA Statutes
• remains committed to and will participate in any UEFA Club Competitions each season for which that club qualifies on sporting merit
• will rejoin the European Club Association, which is the only representative body for clubs that UEFA recognises
• will take all steps within their power with a view to terminate their involvement in the company established to form and operate the Super League and cease any existing related legal actions
• as a gesture of goodwill, and together with the other clubs, will make a donation totalling an aggregate of €15 million, to be used for the benefit of children, youth and grassroots football in local communities across Europe, including the UK
• will be subject to the withholding of 5% of the revenues they would have received from UEFA club competitions for one season, which will be redistributed
• agree to have substantial fines imposed if they seek to play in such an unauthorised competition (€100 million) or if they breach any other commitment they have entered into in the Club Commitment Declaration (€50 million)
• will provide individual commitments to UEFA in which all the principles and values set out in the 2019 Memorandum of Understanding between UEFA and the European Club Association are accepted

so in reality, nothing at all. this weakass stance does absolutely nothing to discourage an action like this again, they'll have to rely on the outrage of the fans to do that.

the aggregate value of these clubs is somewhere around 35 billion, and they're being asked to pool together less than what they spend on office supplies in a year.

 

uefa has abolished the "away goals" concept and rules, as of the 21/22 champions league qualifiers. men and women's CL.

more overtime, more PKs, more wear and tear on players.

potentially more airtime, more commercial space, more money.

 

i'm not defending away goals as a tiebreak. the concept has led to some incredible excitement, but I get that better teams have been punished by it in years past.

i am just not in favor of a team playing 120 minutes on a wednesday, sandwiched in between two games, with any more regularity than they have been.

 

espn has city offering £100 million to villa for grealish, and it sounds like the deal is just about done. city have transfer-listed mahrez and sterling.

united and dortmund appear to be very close on sancho, again, according to romano. chelsea never put in a bid with inter for hakimi, and he's off to psg - i'm glad we didn't overpay, we already have good young fullbacks and wingers who need to play.

so much going on.

 

when in doubt, daniel levy. i could see him as the bait, or part of the bait, in a cash + players deal for kane.

 

torres looked clueless yesterday, both he and laporte. i didn't notice verane's involvement in the swiss goals, but he was very much at fault in the first one france conceded against hungary.

pogba looked great all tournament, but by ending it with a crucial and sloppy turnover that led to the third swiss goal, certainly was not all positive. kante and rabiot were brilliant.