The B3D Football (soccer) Discussion

[Cheezdoodles]

Since the people talking about football here is so little, i figured if we are going to have any fun discussion, we need a universal thread where we can talk about european football.

To kick it off:

Did anybody see the second encounter of the Spanish Supercup last night?

R. Madrid - Valencia last night? Fun game, fantastic achievement to be behind 0-1 (2-4 aggregate), get to 1-1 and get another(!!) red card to finish it off by scoring 3 goals in quick succession with a 9 man team, and win 6-5! The r. madrid display sadly wasn't all that impressive, it was more Valencia that rapidly forgot how to play fotball combined with a "will" to win from R. Madrid.

Some current hot transfer rumors (goal.com):

Robinho will most likely leave for Chelsea soon enough, according to latest reports Chelsea is willing to bid €35 mill and Madrid wants €40 mill.

Schuster wants a striker and apparently Valencia are ready to talk about David Villa for €50 mill, reports also indicate that Madrid has launched a €15mill bid for Capel and €25 mill for Huntelaar.

Berbatov to Man Utd may still happend, tottenham and mutd are arguing about €5 million now.

Arshavin is likely to go to tottenham as Zenit has launched a €30 mill bid on Dani Alves (not the brazilian world class back).

Personally i'm not sure Berbatov is the right striker for Man Utd but Fergeson usually has an eye for these sorts of transfers. Ashavin i dont know much about , i heard hes an excellent dribbler, if thats the case, Arshavin can be a good capture. English Premier Division defenders tends to not know how to handle good dribblers. In that regard Robinho may really shine in england (maybe hes not strong enough though, as english players are relatively strong). He was world class during the first half of the season for r.m. last year, sadly got injured and never really found his form again (+ robben stole his place when he got his form after his injuries).

Robinho hasn't really been all that good for RM, he has a lot of potential, but i believe he plays better as a striker, rather than the wing position he has at RM. Costing the pricely €27 million or so when they bought him, if they get €35 or €40 million and manage to sign David villa for €50-60 million i say very good deal.

Feel free to discuss about anything related to football. Any league\club.

 

[Davros]

Please do not use the word soccer, it offends the queen...

 

[nutball]

Sure. I'd like to settle the following question by popular vote:

Sepp Blatter:

a) fat, lying, two-faced, corrupt, cunt
b) not

 

[Davros]

there are 2 things in his favour :

"In the early 1970s, Sepp Blatter was elected president of the World Society of Friends of Suspenders, an organisation formed to protest at "women replacing suspender belts with pantyhose"."

Blatter incurred the ire of women footballers the world over in 2004 when he suggested that women should "wear tighter shorts"

 

[Gerry]

S
Arshavin is likely to go to tottenham as Zenit has launched a €30 mill bid on Dani Alves (not the brazilian world class back).

Personally i'm not sure Berbatov is the right striker for Man Utd but Fergeson usually has an eye for these sorts of transfers. Ashavin i dont know much about , i heard hes an excellent dribbler, if thats the case, Arshavin can be a good capture. English Premier Division defenders tends to not know how to handle good dribblers. In that regard Robinho may really shine in england (maybe hes not strong enough though, as english players are relatively strong). He was world class during the first half of the season for r.m. last year, sadly got injured and never really found his form again (+ robben stole his place when he got his form after his injuries).

Robinho hasn't really been all that good for RM, he has a lot of potential, but i believe he plays better as a striker, rather than the wing position he has at RM. Costing the pricely €27 million or so when they bought him, if they get €35 or €40 million and manage to sign David villa for €50-60 million i say very good deal.

Feel free to discuss about anything related to football. Any league\club.

Probably best to call Daniel Miguel Alves Gomes, Danny, to avoid any confusion with Alves! Looks like Pavlyuchenko is on his way to Spurs, so Arshavin may be staying where he is.

 

[Mariner]

Sure. I'd like to settle the following question by popular vote:

Sepp Blatter:

a) fat, lying, two-faced, corrupt, cunt
b) not

Well, the corrupt thing kinda comes hand-in-hand with any senior job in FIFA and UEFA, doesn't it?

A couple of interesting books on the topic are Foul! and How They Stole the Game.

Believe it or not, Havelange was even more corrupt than Blatter has turned out to be!

 

[DJ12]

Berbatov will be as useful for Manchester United as a striker as Rooney is (ie not very)

Thank god Ronaldo didn't leave or we'd go through the entire season drawing or winning 1-0.

 

[Mariner]

Can't agree with that assessment. Berbatov provides a great physical presence through his height and skill, something Manyoo are lacking at the moment.

You can't blame Rooney for not threatening as a striker - he's been practically a winger for the past two seasons! The problem is, he isn't as much of a threat as he should be because he spends all game running around practically anywhere but the penalty area unlike somebody such as Owen. As long as Rooney continues to think he's a midfielder by dropping so deep to receive the ball, he'll not achieve much in front of goal.

 

[DJ12]

And that's exactly how Berbatov plays 90% of the time, which is why it used to be Keane scoring all the "strikers" goals and Berbatov scoring from outside the box.

He maybe bigger than Rooney, but that's irrelevant if you aren't there to put headers in. I would much sooner see "proper" striker coming in than someone like Berbatov. Even crouch would score more goals than him.

 

[Mariner]

My thinking is that with Berbatov doing the leg work, Rooney could concentrate on being a striker in a similar way to Keane. If he spends more time in the box, his goal tally ought to increase. Tevez is much better than Rooney at dropping deep and building the play so he should be left to do that job - if only Rooney can get it through his thick head that he would be more useful playing further upfield!

 

[Gubbi]

if only Rooney can get it through his thick head that he would be more useful playing further upfield!

Don't think Rooney calls the shots at Man U., Ferguson does.

Cheers

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Crap. David Villa signed a new 5 year contract. Guess the only hope left is huntelaar.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Berbatov to Man Utd for £30.75mill.

Robinho to Man City for €42 mill.

 

[chavvdarrr]

And that's exactly how Berbatov plays 90% of the time, which is why it used to be Keane scoring all the "strikers" goals and Berbatov scoring from outside the box.

huh?
Berbatov played this way in Spurs because they had no midfield players able to give a good ball to strikers , in BG national he plays straight at the top of attack - he already scored 41
It really depends how Ferguson wants and will use him. We'll see soon. I just hope with this deal done Berbatov now will concentate on playing football, our first match for WC2010 is next saturday vs Montenegro

 

[Mariner]

And suddenly Chelsea are no longer the moneybags team of the World game...

Man City's new owners make Abramovich look like a pauper!

Craziness. How long before the bubble bursts, I wonder?

 

[DJ12]

My thinking is that with Berbatov doing the leg work, Rooney could concentrate on being a striker in a similar way to Keane.

Rooney will never cut the mustard as a proper centre forward, he has scored very few "strikers" goals throughout his entire career. He is good at what he does I would sooner let him carry on than try and change him into something he's not.

Fine we've got Berbatov now, it's him or Ronaldo up top as far as I'm concerned, hopefully Ronaldo.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

And suddenly Chelsea are no longer the moneybags team of the World game...

Man City's new owners make Abramovich look like a pauper!

Craziness. How long before the bubble bursts, I wonder?

Crazyness indeed.

Will be funny to see Manchester City destroying Chelsea and Man Utd in a few years. Hopefully their managment will do better transfer wise to what chelsea did.

Chelsea wasted a lot of money on alot of players that where rather crappy and\or old. Im confident that you could build a much more impressive team with the kind of money chelsea has spendt on players during these russian golden years, with somebody else than Morinho in charge.

I wonder whats going to happend to Man Utd financially in the next coming years. They need some new owners, or the spending spree has to stop. The owners have, instead of spending their own money, amassed Man Utd with extreme debt to found their transfer spending. Interest payment alone is enough to eat up most if not all of Man Utd's profit per year. Their debt is around €900 million.

 

[Gubbi]

I wonder whats going to happend to Man Utd financially in the next coming years. They need some new owners, or the spending spree has to stop. The owners have, instead of spending their own money, amassed Man Utd with extreme debt to found their transfer spending. Interest payment alone is enough to eat up most if not all of Man Utd's profit per year. Their debt is around €900 million.

The Glazers used borrowed money to purchase Manchester United. A large part of this debt was later transferred to Man U. It is the same that has been done with LFC. I understand why fans are worried.

Man U. can cope with the debt burden as long as the are succesful. But what happens when Ferguson retires ?

Cheers

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Man U. can cope with the debt burden as long as the are succesful. But what happens when Ferguson retires ?

They would have to become much more sucessfull than they are now. Man Utd will have to start paying principal on this debt in a few years. What happends then?

How will Man Utd stay competitive (ferguson or not) financially in the next few years? They will need cash to buy players, where will this cash come from? Take up more debt? Thats a bubble is will crack sooner or later, and then its to late. Man Utd would get demoted back to little league and decleared bankrupt.

They either need an owner who really loves the club and thats rich, or change the way they go about business. There are quite a few big clubs that don't need financial backing and sustain themselves.

Annual interest payments alone is in the £70 million range. Man Utd's profit last year was £30 million. When they start paying principal payment, there will be no profits, there will be red numbers unless they boast a tremendous growth. (last season got €70 or so mill profits, but winning the CL every year is not going to happend, CL is to much based on luck.)

 

[Gubbi]

Annual interest payments alone is in the £70 million range. Man Utd's profit last year was £30 million. When they start paying principal payment, there will be no profits, there will be red numbers unless they boast a tremendous growth. (last season got €70 or so mill profits, but winning the CL every year is not going to happend, CL is to much based on luck.)

The Glazers financed the purchase of Man U. with expensive hedge fund loans. They have been refinancing these over the past 2½ years. The £70 millions also cover charges taken when refinancing. The *real* interest payments are around £40M, - still a staggering amount.

I wouldn't worry about Man U. They are on top of their game. Last year's succes and the recent expansion of Old Trafford is already paying off with >60,000 season cards sold for this season. On top of that you have increased revenues from merchandising (>£100M in total) and the new three year TV deal for premier league. I wouldn't be surprised if Man U. increased their turnover from £250M for 2007 (up from £205M in 2006) to £300M for 2008.

I'm much more worried about LFC. Same financial structure, weaker management and much weaker results.

Cheers