La Liga has said Barca can’t register their new players if they don’t raise more money, but it sounds like they’ll be able to sell more broadcast rights.
I don’t really understand the financial mechanics, since they’re raising money by selling off future revenue streams that they presumably need, but at least they’ll be able to play everyone starting next week.
Also rumors about de Jong to Chelsea, which could help with their wages and RB situation.
But yeah, seeing away revenue for the next 25 years seems bad. I guess the logic is if they don’t sign these players they very well might be pretty poor and that’ll hurt their brand/ future revenue as bad as anything could.
This video talks about five rule changes at the WC.
5 New Rules Introduced To The 2022 World Cup That Will Turn The Tide - YouTube
Well now, apparently Barcelona sent a letter to de Jong saying that his previous contract was criminally entered and then it’s possible someone could be in trouble with the law. So, let’s go to the previous contract where we didn’t owe you all these back wages!
lol chaos reigns
Apologies if you can’t read the article, I subscribe to The Athletic, and often they paywall their articles, but they don’t always.
Gross. Hardball to get him off the books.
You’re the manager of MANU…whats the first thing you do.
Yes yes…“Quit”…“Get life insurance”
Myself, the very first thing is to tell the players stop throwing your hands up and yelling at each other. We go up or down together. I want to see you all with your arms around each others shoulders.
Barcelona looked like absolute trash after looking like things were clicking in the pre-season. Raphina in particular was bad. He shanked like 5 crosses/corners. I do think De Jong should be a starter, probably over Gavi or over Busquets depending how well they can avoid fast breaks. Lewandowski didn’t see the ball enough to judge. He had maybe two decent chances that would have been nice goals, but weren’t sitters. I think he was probably frustrated w/ service.
LOL at ManU.
I suspect they may be past that. In any case, Man U looked utterly unprepared to be pressed. Which, I understand, does happen in matches a bit these days.
I caught the second half. I’ve watched Lewandowski every week for however many years, and his finishing didn’t look right, but he was finding good places to be. If he continues to get those chances he’ll bring that around, I promise.
Rough UCL draw for Barcelona. If they can gel quickly they should advance Sevilla vs Dortmund for second in group G could also be interesting, but other than that I don’t expect much drama in the group stages.
There are a lot of interesting groups, this will be fun watching. That said, the brutal season is about to really start, particularly for European players – UCL, league play, and the World Cup starting in late November. As a fan there will be lots to watch, but I do expect a lot of injuries and also a lot more going to the bench. Thank goodness everybody has gone to five substitutions.
I was just talking with a friend yesterday about Haaland’s hot start to the season. I said it was a small sample size and maybe not get too excited. When I originally posted about him I was going to guarantee 40+ goals this season, but walked it back to 30. After today, no more caution. Haaland is going to break records this year. How many?
Man City Records
Most goals in an EPL season - 26
Most hattricks in one EPL season - 3
Most UCL goals in a season - 8
EPL Records
Most goals in a season 32/34 (38 or 42 game season)
Overall single season UCL record is 17 which is a much higher bar than the rest of these. The Man City top level record is 38 (before the EPL), and think that’s doable but wouldn’t bet on it for even money, I don’t think.
Since the discussion continued, and it hasn’t been 2021 for…oh round about exactly 8 months now, I extended the title to encompass the current year.
I’m soliciting opinions from the participants though. Would you peoples rather continue this thread, or start a new current thread?
This thread is just fine, I’ve posted world football related stuff here for two years and it’s my first go-to thread for anything football.
Keep it going. One of the footy threads at my other board has been continuous since 2015, with tens of thousands of posts.
I think this one could use some witch doctor updates from the French national team, however.
Yeah, just make it the rolling thread.
I’m very impressed with Lewandowski. Not that he’s shown anything new, but there’s been basically zero adjustment time. He’s come into Barcelona and immediately produced and been a leader. The biggest test so far has been Sevilla, so Tuesday will be interesting.
Keeping Ousmane Dembele, if he stays healthy and keeps this level, will have been a major coup. He’s as good a winger as exists today.
Yeah, he was going to get on track eventually. The other thing I’ll say about him, if he’s asked to press and defend, he’ll do it for the whole game - at a time that lots of strikers are putting up less than 9km per 90 minutes, he’s putting up more than 10. He was so fun to watch at Bayern.
Tuesday will be interesting!
He’s definitely not a speedster. His assist over the weekend was because he didn’t have the speed to finish it himself, but yeah, he busts his ass.
Great game between Bayern and Barcelona. I was really worried after the first 5 minutes, but Barcelona settled into it and were the better team for the rest of the half. Bayern did a great job to convert two chances early in the second and that was it.
The result isn’t what I wanted, but if Lewandowski or Pedri were more clinical it would have been. Pleasantly surprised by the quality, especially dealing with Bayern’s physicality.
I think these two advance and likely win their first knock-out ties.
Bayern started poorly and did not handle the Barcelona press well at all, but they defended well, and obviously played better in the second half.
Gavi and Pedri were really impressive.