The Football Thread 2018-19 - This is the end.

One massive positive for United is that Courtois has signed a 6-year with Madrid, which kills any talk of De Gea leaving for a few seasons at least :toot:

Glad lloris won’t be off either. De gea must be gutted at having to play under maureen.

Not signing a left back and centre back is certain to backfire this season. We’ve got options everywhere else but that is pretty poor. With city’s squad and how well Liverpool have strengthened - it is unacceptable how we’ve left it till the last day.

Not happy or optimistic at the moment.

What I found telling was that the world cup players for Man City turned up for training a week before any other club. I think they will win the league by more than 20 points this season.

Chelsea have been stitched up a bit haven't they? They've gotten £35m for a top goalkeeper they didn't want to sell, and have had to pay more than double that for a young replacement, who might not even be as good as Courtois even if he does reach his potential.

Remi Dong wrote:Chelsea have been stitched up a bit haven't they? They've gotten £35m for a top goalkeeper they didn't want to sell, and have had to pay more than double that for a young replacement, who might not even be as good as Courtois even if he does reach his potential.

I hadn't even heard of Kep before and he could be a massive flop. I don't see Chelsea in the top four, so hope Spurs can take that last champions league spot, but in all honesty I would take a lower finish and win a cup.

Well that was a pretty gooseberry fool transfer window for United, bit of a disaster really.

Going to be a fun season

Also Spurs have become the first club to not sign a single player during a summer window since they started back in 2003.

im just happy Arsenal didn't sign Vida, was hoping that wouldn't happen today. would of liked one more signing in, but 5 before pre season even started is pretty good. should be a good season ahead I feel.

We could actually finish below Liverpool now.
Ugh.

Ploiper wrote:im just happy Arsenal didn't sign Vida, was hoping that wouldn't happen today. would of liked one more signing in, but 5 before pre season even started is pretty good. should be a good season ahead I feel.

Yeah, I'm positive we can get back in the CL this year. I don't think we're able to catch City, and Liverpool seem strong. However Chelsea, Spurs and United have all had a bit of a nightmare summer. All three have almost stood stock still squad-wise. United might be managerless by November, and Spurs will be moving grounds halfway through the season. Chelsea played silly buggers with Conte and Sarri. I don't think overtaking all of those is out of the question.

Again we're one of the giants in the Europa League, although I think the initial set of teams is a bit stronger than last year, and it's not really possible to determine true favourites until the CL rejects show up. I'd love us to win the Europa League if I'm honest.

Remi Dong wrote:Chelsea have been stitched up a bit haven't they? They've gotten £35m for a top goalkeeper they didn't want to sell, and have had to pay more than double that for a young replacement, who might not even be as good as Courtois even if he does reach his potential.

It’s weird because they usually do a great job of selling players for massively inflated fees. They’re getting Kovacic on loan from Madrid as a sweetener but there’s no option to buy him afterward which does seem like a pretty gooseberry fool deal.

I wouldn’t say Chelsea have stood still.

Kante, Jorginho and Kovacic could be a great midfield. So they improved from last season. They also have Loftus Cheek back. Most importantly they kept Hazard for now.

Losing Courtois and overspending on someone who isn’t as good as him doesn’t look good business at the moment. But who knows he might turn out to be a great goalkeeper.

It’s also not like Arsenal have made some world class signings to close the gap. Their first game is so crucial. If they beat City then it gives fans optimism for the season. Lose to City and they’d be angry at Kroenke and co again.

Spurs have still kept their most important players.

I’d say West Ham have made better signings than Arsenal and have a better manager too. So no excuses for you Blue Eyes.

They have a squad that should be in the top 8 and definitely not just scraping to survive.

The way the media are going mental about spurs not signing anyone is crazy, it seems that they are more unhappy that they can't write a story about a new player signing than anything.

Whilst it's always great to sign a new exciting player i'm personally more happy with this window than the one where we signed Sissoko. I would argue that signing weakened the team rather than improved it. It's potentially cost us £30m for essentially nothing. We might as well have given the money to charity.

Also as much as some people are pretending it won't i do believe the stadium build is and will effect our finances negatively for a while.

One thing we have done this summer is sign a number of current players and staff to new improved contracts which has also impacted our finances.

The positives are that we haven't lost anyone and as we have a young team in general the majority of players should have improved on this time last year. There will be some clubs that have sold and signed a number players but will actually end up with a worse team than what they had at the end of the season. But everyone only ever focuses on the signings.

PES Fan wrote:I’d say West Ham have made better signings than Arsenal and have a better manager too. So no excuses for you Blue Eyes.

They have a squad that should be in the top 8 and definitely not just scraping to survive.

I'm optimistic about Fred I think he will improve the balance in midfield and hopefully free up Pogba more. I can understand the club not splashing the cash on another centre back as Jose has already signed two. We badly needed a top class full back and I'm not sure why the likes of Smalling, Shaw and Darmian weren't moved on which surely would have given us the cash for a full back.

Seems Woodward/Board weren't willing to invest heavily this time around.

Fulham and Everton seem to have activated cheat mode, more signings than you can shake a willy at

Preezy wrote:Fulham and Everton seem to have activated cheat mode, more signings than you can shake a willy at

Almost certainly not true, but I love the thought of Steve Bruce chasing Bryan down the motorway :lol:

twitter.com/danbcfc_/status/1027282159554494465

PES Fan wrote:I’d say West Ham have made better signings than Arsenal and have a better manager too. So no excuses for you Blue Eyes.

They have a squad that should be in the top 8 and definitely not just scraping to survive.

Quoted your smaller post for scrolling reasons.

With Arsenal things might finally be different, that's the underlying feeling, certainly for me at least. We've strengthened our defence (admittedly injuries have now weakened us at left back again but hey ho), and I think we've got some real quality in Torreira which will hopefully improve our midfield. With Lacazette, Aubameyang, Ozil and Mkhitaryan we have goals up front. But it's still the unknown. By definition this cannot possibly be another Wenger season! I would take competing against City on Sunday to be honest, because that in itself is a statement of intent and a big improvement on last year!

Chelsea, like us, also have quite a lot to do to get back in the top four, and haven't had a brilliant summer.

Keeping your best players is all well and good, but the red queen hypothesis very much applies to football teams. Standing still is moving backwards. Spurs especially have some unique challenges to contend with this season as well.

West Ham have made some good signings, but they have also brought in three players deemed not good enough for us.

The Football Thread 2018-19 - This is the end.

Who is online

Affiliates