By JesalR Go To PostImagine Ollie Watkins and Benrahma end up in the prem regardlessWatkins seemed pretty dangerous but he had a few chances to score that he could have done better with.. still looks like a good talent though. Looks like he scored a ton of goals this year as well so yeah, definitely a target for some clubs I'd bet. Was not impressed by Benrahma in this game in particular but looks like he's had two nice seasons in a row so I'd imagine he'd be ripe for the picking.
By Laboured Go To PostThink Chelsea are looking at finances, tugging at their t-shirt necks and thinking if they should maybe not fuck their entire big budget on their not-the-problem area.I guess it will depend on how long he's out for, but if I'm them and I see just how good Pulisic was actually performing, it gives me a little pause on spunking down 100m on Havertz after having signed Ziyech and Werner. It seems hugely unnecessary. They already couldn't play CHO enough so even losing Willian this summer, they're still a little bit imbalanced. Should give up on the Havertz deal and sign some defenders.
By Meier Go To PostI guess it will depend on how long he's out for, but if I'm them and I see just how good Pulisic was actually performing, it gives me a little pause on spunking down 100m on Havertz after having signed Ziyech and Werner. It seems hugely unnecessary. They already couldn't play CHO enough so even losing Willian this summer, they're still a little bit imbalanced. Should give up on the Havertz deal and sign some defenders.
Agree and in some ways hope they do buy Havertz. Lampard could be gone by Jan.
By domino Go To PostAbyss brehs is this stuff about Ilicic true?
apparently he went home and caught his wife cheating on him and now he's depressed and considering retirement
Don’t know what the cause of it is, but he is no longer part of the squad and the suspected rumour is depression. Telling people he was injured just seems to be a cover.
By Laboured Go To PostAgree and in some ways hope they do buy Havertz. Lampard could be gone by Jan.They're not exactly operating on a one window budget. And sitting on nearly £150m in previous sales with more to come and Willian and Pedro's wages shifted to their replacements.
£300m gross spend is not out of the question before October 5th.
By Shanks D Zoro Go To PostDon’t know what the cause of it is, but he is no longer part of the squad and the suspected rumour is depression. Telling people he was injured just seems to be a cover.Read that the whole Corona situation in Bergamo really brought him down, since he was one of the players that actually stayed in town and we all know how horrible it was.
Given that he's got a certain nickname and is someone thinks alot about stuff, I can see that stuff being true.
Whatever, as long as the club gives him enough time to recover.
By GQman2121 Go To PostThey're not exactly operating on a one window budget. And sitting on nearly £150m in previous sales with more to come and Willian and Pedro's wages shifted to their replacements.Taxes and stuff will melt those 150m quite a bit.
£300m gross spend is not out of the question before October 5th.
Pretty sure you still got a shitload of cash around and Havertz wouldn't cost 100 right away and most likely in installments, it's still an absurd amount of cash. Given that you've got a buttload of problems with squad quality and depth for the defence, I can see people arguing for spending elsewhere.
Already said it to Wooden. About time that Chelsea lets alot of players leave for free or for small fees. Either you keep the likes of Bakayoko, Michy etc. around and push their value down even further or you just get rid of them.
By inky Go To PostI love this man
By Pennywise Go To PostAlready said it to Wooden. About time that Chelsea lets alot of players leave for free or for small fees. Either you keep the likes of Bakayoko, Michy etc. around and push their value down even further or you just get rid of them.I believe they'll try and get rid. The players obviously want to play and if they're told it won't be at Chelsea then their reps have to find something else for them.
There's about ten that they absolutely have to be shopping around. A few will likely end back up on loan.
By Pennywise Go To PostRead that the whole Corona situation in Bergamo really brought him down, since he was one of the players that actually stayed in town and we all know how horrible it was.
Given that he's got a certain nickname and is someone thinks alot about stuff, I can see that stuff being true.
Whatever, as long as the club gives him enough time to recover.
Must have been brutal, maybe didn’t lose people directly related to him, but I think everyone lost someone that they interacted with during their week(shopkeepers, etc) because of it.
Worst time for him to be out, as they really needed him against PSG.
By Pennywise Go To PostRead that the whole Corona situation in Bergamo really brought him down, since he was one of the players that actually stayed in town and we all know how horrible it was.
Given that he's got a certain nickname and is someone thinks alot about stuff, I can see that stuff being true.
Whatever, as long as the club gives him enough time to recover.
ah that makes more sense. still terrible but its not as shitty as the story i saw on twitter about his wife.
By inky Go To PostIt's pronounced Thwaite.
Can't say I know much about Watkins but at 18m quid got to be better value that whatever shite the promoted clubs usually buy.
£18m seems a pretty good price for him. I was thinking he'd struggle to get a move purely due to being priced out of one but then I remembered, Brentford lol. He is decent like... but not so decent I think it's a given he will perform in the PL.
Regarding Ilicic and the article I mentioned yesterday.
The enigmatic story of Josip Ilicic
The Slovenian striker is the most important player at Atalanta Bergamo. During the lockdown he stayed in the northern Italian city - this put him under so much mental strain that he can no longer play football for the time being.
In Bergamo they call him "la nonna", grandmother, and that's quite astonishing for a football star at the peak of his abilities, who on good days swings up to world class: with fast dribblings and powerful storm runs. Josip Ilicic, 32 years old, a quiet and reserved Slovenian with Bosnian roots, has the habit of always worrying and listening to everyone's concerns. Just like a grandmother, his comrades from Atalanta think. The nickname has so far seemed like an ironic joke. But now it seems that this melancholy in his eyes reflects a "dark pain", as "La Repubblica" writes.
At the end of the Serie A championship, which saw the small and splendid Atalanta of coach Gian Piero Gasperini finish third behind champions Juventus and Inter Milan, and before moving to Lisbon, where the Bergamasks will actually play the Final Eight tournament in the Champions League, they are talking in Italy above all about the enigmatic story of Josip Ilicic. He is not injured, not in the classic sense. The club isn't saying much to protect him, just, "We're close." - "We embrace him." He has been allowed to go home, to Slovenia, to his own, indefinitely.
He fell deeper every day
Until Corona, he had been the hero of Atalanta, the most important player at the most glorious moment in the club's history. In the last match of the competition before the lockdown, in the second leg of the round of 16 in Valencia, the Slovenian had scored all four goals of the northern Italians. " Poker" in an away game, not many had managed that before him. Then football closed down, and with it soon all public life. Ilicic stayed in Bergamo for the entire period of the lockdown, while other foreign stars flew home immediately and only returned when training was allowed to resume.
The "Gazzetta dello Sport" writes that he experienced a "psychological blackout" during this time, with each day he fell deeper. No other city in Italy was hit harder by the epidemic than Bergamo and its surroundings, hundreds died. The pictures of the seventy military transporters that came to collect the bodies on the night of March 18th went around the world.
Perhaps, according to the "Corriere della Sera", these images contributed to "Ilicic's Drama". The consequence of a flashback? Josip Ilicic was once born in Prijedor, Bosnia. In 1992, when he was four years old, there was a terrible massacre in the village, Serbian militias murdered hundreds of Croats and Bosnians. His father had died when Josip was only seven months old. The family fled to Slovenia, and the memories of the war travelled with them.
Participation in Champions League unlikely
Ilicic came to Italy at 22. He spent three years in Palermo, then four in Florence with the Fiorentina. In 2017 he moved to Bergamo and became a symbolic figure of the "Miracle of Atalanta". He still rarely gives interviews, and when he does, he never lapses into self-glorification, on the contrary. Once he told us how much he was affected by the sudden death of national defender Davide Astori, with whom he had played in Florence. The shock was taken away from him.
After the lockdown, Ilicic was thinner than before, his condition was right and he trained with the same intensity as his team-mates. But the flame was gone.
Gasperini always brought in the striker after the restart, although he was lost for his own reasons: against Lazio, Udinese, Cagliari and Sampdoria. Then there was Juventus Turin, and Gasperini insisted once again, putting him in the starting line-up in the hope that the top game would free him. In vain.
Atalanta fans show their solidarity by replacing their profile pictures on social networks and Whatsapp with photos of Ilicic. He should be able to feel them. "Ilicic", Gasperini said a few days ago, already quite resigned, "is to us what Dybala is to Juve, Immobile is to Lazio and Lukaku is to Inter". And when he was asked how things are going now, the coach said: "We're watching from day to day, but it's very, very unlikely that he'll go to Lisbon with us." All that glory without one of the very glorious ones.
By Hixx Go To Post£18m seems a pretty good price for him. I was thinking he'd struggle to get a move purely due to being priced out of one but then I remembered, Brentford lol. He is decent like… but not so decent I think it's a given he will perform in the PL.
Yeah, 18m is like 10m three or four years ago. He’s better than Wesley and Samatta, so if he’s available at that price it’s a good move.
Curious to see what Fulham do this year; Sheff have proven you don’t need HUGE investment (not discounting Mousset, Berge, McBurnie etc. have done well for them) to compete.
Arsenal yikes. It’s a no-win situation, really. Gonna look bad spunking money on Willian the same week they make 55 people redundant, but then it’s sport and you have to be competitive.
By n8 dogg Go To PostYeah, 18m is like 10m three or four years ago. He’s better than Wesley and Samatta, so if he’s available at that price it’s a good move.
Curious to see what Fulham do this year; Sheff have proven you don’t need HUGE investment (not discounting Mousset, Berge, McBurnie etc. have done well for them) to compete.
Fulham reek of going down straight away again to be honest. Which is a shame as of the clubs who've gone up they're by far the most likeable.
"Your club". The club that belongs to some douchebag overseas billionaire with no accountabilty?
This might be the most excited I've been for Europa League ever. Fútbol please don't go again.
This might be the most excited I've been for Europa League ever. Fútbol please don't go again.
By n8 dogg Go To PostThink the presumed wage is a little high, but the point standsThe shitting on football clubs for the ills of capitalism always seems misplaced to me; the 20 Premier League clubs in total bring in about £5Billion in revenue between them. By comparison the FTSE 100 firms have an average revenue of £20Billion per year, meaning anyone one of these actually large companies makes 4+ times per year the entirety of the Premier League. Football clubs are really medium sized firms that are relatively tiny compared to actual big business, but have vastly more press attention paid to them. It seems like people expect Arsenal to just shoulder the cost of all these employees whom I'm guessing are likely to do nothing until next year simply because their business dealings are well known.
By sohois Go To PostThe shitting on football clubs for the ills of capitalism always seems misplaced to me; the 20 Premier League clubs in total bring in about £5Billion in revenue between them. By comparison the FTSE 100 firms have an average revenue of £20Billion per year, meaning anyone one of these actually large companies makes 4+ times per year the entirety of the Premier League. Football clubs are really medium sized firms that are relatively tiny compared to actual big business, but have vastly more press attention paid to them. It seems like people expect Arsenal to just shoulder the cost of all these employees whom I'm guessing are likely to do nothing until next year simply because their business dealings are well known.Arsenal and other football clubs try to position themselves as pillars of their community and with that comes obvious social responsibility for the people of said community. I don't think it's misplaced to criticize them for this when their actions do not reflect their words.
By rerixo Go To Postmedia folk just don't like to see ex-working class athletes become as rich as the ruling class
Stan Kroenke is worth ten billion dollars
Think it's disgraceful that clubs/businesses as big as Arsenal are making redundancies while continuing to spend big. Those wages are a drop in the ocean.
Anyway, I'd be just as critical at any £20bn company sacking people and then spending big money on company cars or whatever fucking extravagance as I would if a £5bn football club sacked people and then signed Cedric Soares on a free transfer, or if my school sacked a few non-teaching staff and then bought a new projector for the IT suite. It's all about the #optics.
By Punished* Go To PostThink it's disgraceful that clubs/businesses as big as Arsenal are making redundancies. Those wages are a drop in the ocean.Remember when Wenger blamed the kit man for not buying more players
You don't get to position yourself as a key part of the community, as a family, and then abandon people like this, not without distrust from observers. Football Clubs are businesses but football clubs are not businesses. You can't take the good of that position without the responsibility of it too.
We all, rightly, criticised Spurs and Liverpool for using public funds to furlough staff, until the about faced under that public pressure
We all, rightly, criticised Spurs and Liverpool for using public funds to furlough staff, until the about faced under that public pressure
Unless they frame every news update in that way, then I think the usage of "your club" there is pretty gross. It's obviously calculated to try and minimize the negative response to it. The whole situation is a bad look either way.
I don't believe we ever learned what sort of contract reductions the players took in the PL (unlike most leagues) but you think they should have saved enough from that to help cover staffing costs for the foreseeable future. We know Madrid and Barca and other big clubs had their players take something like 60% reductions for the rest of the season.. that is a huge number that would save let's say something like 50m for a club of Arsenal's size for the period of time covered. Even if it was only 20%, they still should have saved 15-20m at a minimum. Understand that there are a lot of other lost revenues but you'd like to think they should be able to protect these people.
I don't believe we ever learned what sort of contract reductions the players took in the PL (unlike most leagues) but you think they should have saved enough from that to help cover staffing costs for the foreseeable future. We know Madrid and Barca and other big clubs had their players take something like 60% reductions for the rest of the season.. that is a huge number that would save let's say something like 50m for a club of Arsenal's size for the period of time covered. Even if it was only 20%, they still should have saved 15-20m at a minimum. Understand that there are a lot of other lost revenues but you'd like to think they should be able to protect these people.