Reply With QuoteI know it’s not Premier League but Darren Moore leaves by ‘mutual consent’ too. What a strange day, two decent managers out of a job.
Agreed and whilst 50% of me wants Iraola to fail and prove everyone's point the other 50% wonders if it was just a case of of the owners ambition to be better than 15th-17th in the league.Originally Posted by ryanb741
Maybe his links in Spain is a decent route to some cheap talent?
Certainly not a fair and reasonable decision and will be interesting to watch.
I know it’s not Premier League but Darren Moore leaves by ‘mutual consent’ too. What a strange day, two decent managers out of a job.
Looks like Arsenal have come back with a 90m bid for Rice (75 guaranteed and 15m in add on's)
West Ham holding out for 100m are City actually interested or is this just paper talk?
Whether they are or not it is in West Ham's interest to create a bidding war. The understanding is he prefers to go to Arsenal and that the rejected offer was based on the payment schedule of the £15m so I suspect it will be 3rd time lucky.
Tchouameni might be but camavinga isn't
The report (Sky sports) says they want a minimum of 100m and add ons but would accept 90m and a player in exchange.
Seems pretty steep IMO and 60m for the Chelsea player they are after
Got to spend the Rwanda sponsorship somewhere . ;)
Looks like they are signing an Ajax defender for probably £40m as well as Romeo Lavia from Southampton for £40m.
Seems like Gundogan prefers Barca over the Emirates so that won't happen.
Anyone watching Scotland, bit wet up there.
Hope they can get going again.
Those in oil houses stone people or some saying like that etc ;)
What’s that on?
Viaplay1. Game currently suspended due to waterlogged pitch. Scotland 1-0 up after 6 mins. If abandoned they play again tomorrow at St Mirren.
A piece of commentary I’ve never heard before, the half time whistle has been blown with Scotland scoring the opening goal 2 hours 25 mins ago - classic.
Yeah very good 🤣
Scotland have been excellent so far.
If United don’t want McTominay I would be happy for him to sign for Everton, but it won’t happen. Not because we are shit, but because he has never played for Burnley
It's interesting to see people's reactions to this news...and to compare it to the reaction of people who've seen Bournemouth play this season. GON did the job he was asked to do, but for many games in Jan, Feb and March the football was hopeless, uninspired, directionless, and the defending was dire. We had a great April which kept us up, and then the last 4 games of the season were woeful again. Staying up triggered a 2 year extension to his contract, which is effectively a bonus payment for him. I agree that the way the news came out was less than ideal but the following are true
1) he leaves with his stock higher than it was - a Championship post will surely be his for the taking
2) Bmth fans are truly grateful for the job he did, whilst recognising that he was more of a firefighter than the man to take the next steps for the club (whatever they are). He leaves with the fans' best wishes for his future
3) he'll be aware that the club were looking for a new manager, and that he wasn't first choice to take the role. My speculation is that this was factored in to his contract talks
How it works out with the new manager is anyone's guess - our August and September fixtures are pretty horrible! But, there is genuine excitement at the appointment of Iraola, whilst respecting the job GON did for us.
Kovacic to Man City for £30m
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65966385
Does this confirm Gundo exit ?
z
Gundo gone 😢
Looks like he’s opted for Barcelona .
City will miss him a lot . An unsung type with a great footballing brain .
A big shirt to fill .
Indeed. Where did you see confirmation of his exit. Last I saw was interest from Borussia Dortmund, but he does not want to return to the Bundesliga. (Goal)
z
City released him from the club out of contract last week.
That happens all the time as his contract had ended . Negotiations were still going on with the club . Likewise , DeGea at United has been released ( I think )
All the Spanish journalists are on the Gundogan to Barca story so it’s definitely got legs . I don’t begrudge him his move . A genuine world class footballer who will have a couple of seasons in La liga before going into coaching . He’s left on the highest high too .
It's very convenient that Chelsea, with their significant Saudi shareholding via Clearlake Capital, is able to offload players at pretty high prices to Saudi Arabian teams, thereby freeing up their ability to re-enter the transfer market. For sure they'd receive far lower bids for these players if selling them to European sides so it is very helpful to Chelsea.
I'm sure the by proxy Saudi shareholding in Chelsea, and the sales of dead wood players to Saudi sides at top dollar are unconnected......
Last edited by ryanb741; 21st June 2023 at 16:29.
West Ham have had their fans banned from the next European away game they play as a result of the throwing of objects during the Conference League Final
Um Arsenal isn't Saudi yet, we've given them £12m for Jorg, and another £65m (inc add ons) for Havertz (subject to medical). 29yo Kovocic to Citeh for £30m (inc add ons) with 1 years left on his contract seem reasonable for their best player, £100m for Rice with 1 year left perhaps less so. Plus looks like we are offloading Partey to a Saudi side (as in the country not the EPL ones) so not sure we have a moral high ground.
Maybe I'm a pessimist but give it a few years of mature mercenaries attracted to Saudi money, then the snaffling of players at their prime, and then young bought and loaned out and you end up with the Saudi Champs league competition (featuring those old historical clubs from Europe as guests) and their league being the best in the world (think of a scaled up Man Citeh/ Chelsea model) see Golf for recent example- I hope I'm wrong but I get the feeling that they like power and the trophies to go with them.
Two games
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...-b1089361.html
What did the team whose fans attacked West Ham family members get, I missed that.
Indeed EPL will be soon on the same level as Scotland.
Saudi/Middle East teams can pay as much as they like for players and no doubt will attract some big names but they simply play for nothing in the way of silverware, most young talented players will want European titles so I can see the Middle East teams ending up like China from a few years back..
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This, plus the lifestyle, access to girls, bars etc isn't the same.
And I always feel Saudi Arabia is a terror attack waiting to happen.
Dubai ain't far and also where there's a will there's a way.
Newcastle apparently loaning neves from Saudi.
Absolutely laughable if that is allowed to happen.
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Havertz deal done. £65m.
The last time such an inexplicable purchase was made was late at night on ebay after a heavy day's drinking.
Besides owning Newcastle, the Saudi fund PIF also owns four competing clubs in the Saudi League: Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad, Al-Nassr and Al-Ahli. These four clubs have just bailed out Chelsea, another financial participation of Saudi Arabia, by buying six players from them. They are also buying players across Europe, like CR7, Benzema, Neven and others.
And Saudi Arabia is not a terrorist state, allegedly.
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
Not heard about this but loaned Frank Lampard from an American team after he had signed for them. Whats the difference apart from geography?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65980397
He'll have to improve on 19 goals in 91 games for Chelsea to justify that price tag.
I think they are looking at him for skill set rather than as an out and out forward. He was arguably played out of position by Chelsea and what he adds is height as assuming Xhaka leaves our next tallest attacking player is Odegard at 5'10!
Best wishes to him. Great player and an absolute gentleman too.
What do you think of Kovacic? There's a player there and I suspect that like Havertz, the toxic chaos at Chelsea has made it difficult foe him to show his true quality.
it’s quite similar. If memory serves, Frank signed for New York City, part of City Football Group and then was loaned to Man City.
Al-Hilal is owned by Saudi PIF who own Newcastle (despite assurances there was no links to MBS during takeover but since evidenced in LIV golf PGA Tour court case) so the similarities are there.
Saudi are clearly looking to be a major disruptor in the football world. What’s the betting next World Cup bid goes to Saudi?
It's worse.
The three first teams in the Saudi League are all owned by the government, and are allowed to "compete" against each other, buying any player they want with unlimited government funding. As a side show they are also subsidising Newcastle by giving them players on cheap loans and Chelsea by buying their overvalued players that nobody else would buy. It's going to become even better, with Al-Ahli just having been promoted from the second league: next year the four biggest clubs will be government-owned.
Long live fair competition, and human rights (allegedly).
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
Good old Chelsea, they certainly do attract some unscrupulous owners/investors..
I hope we can get Tonali over the line as he’s a good player. Only 23, won Serie A, played 14 times for Italy and 29 Champions League appearances for Milan. Scores a few goals for a CDM.
Agree probably your biggest loss in recent years.
That’s the jigsaw piece we’ve been after to release Bruno further up the pitch. Fingers crossed.
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That's how I see it too. Bruno has been brilliant despite having to do a lot of the donkey work. I always said we needed a proper CDM to sit and hold while Bruno plays higher. Exciting times at half the cost of Declan Rice.
To be fair I don’t think you have been on SC for a while.
Man City in for Rice now, have been told he is open to the move
Long way from London! Thought he wanted to stay around there.
Hard to turn down Pep though. Depends on how serious he was about his word to join Arsenal and also being a guaranteed started at Arsenal vs that being less likely at City.
City also have their financial limits if bidding gets too high - hence pulling out of the Harry Kane deal when Levy asked for £120m
Must have been all that ‘tapping up’ from his England teammates earlier this week.
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