The Official Football Thread

[SuitUp]

Apparently, Kroos is a done deal for Madrid for about 20m euros, and they are bidding on one of England's most promising youngsters, Sterling, wich has me a bit worried, if that deal goes through, would that mean that they are planning on to sell Di María? Since Sterling plays the same position and has characteristic that similar to those of Di Maria...

[Shinndou]

Originally Posted by Nerroth

I was looking into different terms used to describe the sport in different parts of the world, and was wondering about why soccer is called calcio in Italy.

Turns out there is/was a sport called calcio storico fiorentino, which was first codified in 1580! The modern revivial of the sport started in 1930, and it is still played each year in Florence:

It's a mixture of rugby and football. I've seen it live, it's amazing and pretty damn brutal too. Rules were pretty different, but you could consider it its most direct "parent" before the English officially established modern football.

This is a tactical formation, dated 1688 (tells you how much us italians are obsessed with tactics, even centuries ago )

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by SuitUp

Apparently, Kroos is a done deal for Madrid for about 20m euros, and they are bidding on one of England's most promising youngsters, Sterling, wich has me a bit worried, if that deal goes through, would that mean that they are planning on to sell Di María? Since Sterling plays the same position and has characteristic that similar to those of Di Maria...

With all due respect to Sterling who is an amazing youngster, but in my eyes Di Maria is probably the best in that role right now.

I really don't get why they'd want to get rid of him, specially when he's been so important during this season.

On a side note, it seems like there's a rumour that wants Chelsea to be offering us 75 millions for Pogba... heh. Well, I like the kid but if that offer turns out to be true it's going to be hard to resist. Specially because that money would let us get Sanchez since apparently the player has agreed to move here and the only "obstacle" is his price tag.

[germanturkey]

so dumb and possibly insensitive question. why does the premier league still care so much about the hillsborough disaster? like there are still all these investigations and stuff going on.

(mind you, i fully get that it's a tragedy, but i don't know why its still harped on)

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

so dumb and possibly insensitive question. why does the premier league still care so much about the hillsborough disaster? like there are still all these investigations and stuff going on.

(mind you, i fully get that it's a tragedy, but i don't know why its still harped on)

Wikipedia man

To summarise (based on my memory, could be inaccuracy). At first, right after the incident, the police, the media was blaming Liverpool hooligan on the deaths of their own fans, portraying them as drunk, thuggery (pick-pocketing dead bodies), prevent ambulances came in to help, while dismissing the polices roles on the incidents. Then later on even British government joined in and refused an independent investigation of the incident, and some government officers blame the victims families of "looking for something that not there"

Despite that the families of 96 Hillsborough victims, with frequent support from Liverpool FC, still try find the truth and identify the real cause of those dead.


On the media, The Sun newspaper back then made a front pages,blaming Liverpool fans thuggery on the death, and sourced from a police insider. The source ended up false , and is rumour hear-say instead. But as The Sun newspaper refused to make a front page apologise , it was banned from Liverpool since then.

Recently there has been some major developments, with old files been opened to independent panels, and they ended up finding some disturbing truth. About how local polices actually doctored their investigations, removed opinions and experts feedbacks suggesting that it was polices fault during rescues (like how 50-80% of the deaths could be avoided if the polices opened the gate open to the ground), and tried desperately to link the death cause to hooligan (like testing alcohol in blood of even dead children).

I think it was later on was dubbed by Cameron as "dual tragedy" as the community not only lost their loved one, but also was blamed for the deaths of others. I think currently they are trying to investigate who was responsible for all theses.

[SuitUp]

Zanetti will be vicepresident of Inter until at least 2016, and his number will be retired.. that's how a team should reward loyalty...

[Shinndou]

Originally Posted by SuitUp

Zanetti will be vicepresident of Inter until at least 2016, and his number will be retired.. that's how a team should reward loyalty...

I agree with retiring his number but not for the other part.

It's definetely a great thing to keep your most loyal players working with you at your club, but if they want to fill certain roles like those of a sporting director, president etc they first need to learn the ropes.

So in Zanetti's case the seat of vice-president is probably a "tad" too much but I can see how the crowd's and media's sentiment might have swayed Inter to do this.

[SuitUp]

Monaco it's asking 75m euros to sell James Rodriguez to Real, wich is akin to saying "No way in hell you're gonna get him this year"
Falcao it's also on negotiations and it's say that he will acept a pay cut of about 7m euros a year (from 15m to 8m) to be able to play for Madrid, since it's his favorite team and wants to play with Cristiano.
Also on the Monaco front, they apparently will not hire Victor Valdes since he hasn't recovered from his tore ALC, but Valdes's agent said they have already signed a 4 year contract, so it remains to be seen what will come out of this upcoming soap opera

[Shinndou]

Originally Posted by SuitUp

Monaco it's asking 75m euros to sell James Rodriguez to Real, wich is akin to saying "No way in hell you're gonna get him this year"
Falcao it's also on negotiations and it's say that he will acept a pay cut of about 7m euros a year (from 15m to 8m) to be able to play for Madrid, since it's his favorite team and wants to play with Cristiano.
Also on the Monaco front, they apparently will not hire Victor Valdes since he hasn't recovered from his tore ALC, but Valdes's agent said they have already signed a 4 year contract, so it remains to be seen what will come out of this upcoming soap opera

Didn't Falcao's contract with Monaco have a clause that specifically outlined that if Real Madrid met a certain price tag then he'd be able to immediately move after one year?

As for Rodriguez, it's best for him if he stays at Monaco. Real is already chock-full of players in his role, he'd risk wasting his career and he's still very young. If he really wants to move to another club that plays CL and has potential to win trophies, a club like Atletico Madrid would suit him a lot more (though they'd never offer 75m euros, unless they've earned twice as much by selling other players).

[germanturkey]

so suarez to barca seems like its almost a done deal. sanchez to arsenal is also gaining steam. i'm a little sad we're going for doubuchy (or whatever) instead of aurier though. as a 29 year old, he's probably a stop gap for 2 or 3 years before jenko grows up.

[SuitUp]

Originally Posted by Shinndou

Didn't Falcao's contract with Monaco have a clause that specifically outlined that if Real Madrid met a certain price tag then he'd be able to immediately move after one year?

As for Rodriguez, it's best for him if he stays at Monaco. Real is already chock-full of players in his role, he'd risk wasting his career and he's still very young. If he really wants to move to another club that plays CL and has potential to win trophies, a club like Atletico Madrid would suit him a lot more (though they'd never offer 75m euros, unless they've earned twice as much by selling other players).

Yes I think it does, but what I'm getting at is that Falcao is so desperate to play in Madrid that he'll rather give up half his salary to play there.

And also, I agree, I don't know why would Real sign him, since there's already a AMC that plays as a 10, Isco, the supposed golden boy of spain and a magnificient player, who is also 22, but since Ancelotti doesn't like to play with a clear 10, he was force to sit on the bench, and to do that to James career would kill it...

[KiraYamatoFan]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

so suarez to barca seems like its almost a done deal.

As if the number of despicable characters isn't already high enough over there with Dani Alves, Sergio Busquets, Javier Mascherano and Alex Song. I thought Barcelona would be a hell lot more clever than signing this huge living sackload of trouble.

[SuitUp]

Well, Barca has a love history with troublemakers, Cruyff, Romario, Rivaldo....

[Nerroth]

As referred to in the above poster's avatar and tagline, Alfredo di Stéfano (known as "The Blond Arrow") has passed away at the age of 88.

[germanturkey]

SANCHEZ TO ARSENAL!!!!! its nice to finally have money..

[LoveYouSaber]

Yep, and great not to have to endure a transfer window till the last day for a major signing.

Emotionally, still regret having to pass up Fabregas, but I agree Sanchez offers much, much more to the current Arsenal. Now, if we can settle the right back position (Debauchy?) and perhaps get a top defensive midfielder, this is going to be an awesome season...

[Shinndou]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

SANCHEZ TO ARSENAL!!!!! its nice to finally have money..

Great buy, though I was hoping he'd join us instead, but the price tag and his salary are too much for our financial resources.

On the other hand, it seems like it's a done deal for Morata (and Evra too). And it looks like we're going to get Iturbe as well (unless Verona decides to sell him to Atletico Madrid instead). I like this, after getting Coman from PSG we're getting two more promising youngsters who will hopefully play regularly during the next season. We definetely need to step it up in the next Champion's League.

It's all going according to Conte's plans to rejuvenate the roster and at the same time keep a few veterans to help the kids grow properly.

[germanturkey]

suarez to barca for 70 mil? i don't think he's twice the player sanchez is. it'll be interesting to see how they use him. he's at his best playing through the middle, where messi normally plays.

[risingstar3110]

i don't know, maybe i should stop watching football.

I means i thought it is a sport, and i means what harm could it do right? But there this whole incident with Qatar where thousands of workers are dying to get it prepared.


And just recently, Adidas just offered MU a 75 mil a year deal , 250% higher than the record fo Madrid. Really impressive really, and no doubt it gonna spark a bidding war where every clubs will demand more from their shirt providers.

But then you look at how these sportswear corporations got their profit from: operating sweatshops , laying off workers and denying them benefit. Nike is famous enough. Same to Adidas with that famous case in Indonesia where they laid off 3000 worker, and denied them up to 3mil in associated benefit. Now all that money where thousands of sweatshop workers should be entitled to, will go to some 18 years old kid like Januzaj or Jese to sit on the bench and occasionally come in to kick a ball. And we are not even talking about players like Rooney or Ronaldo who earned 4-6 times that amount


I don't know it's just feel really immoral thinking about this whole thing. Sport nowadays have slowly became the equivalent to Rome's gladiator. Where blood are spilled to our... not even true enjoyment. Do I want the future generation and look back and see me the same way as i see those high class Roman, feasting at the mass murdering of the arena?

[germanturkey]

people are greedy and most athletes are overpaid. it is nothing new. i personally blame the foreign investors into european leagues. traditionally, Madrid would buy players for stupid amounts of money, but they were already established. the advent of chelsea, man city, and their ilk made it so you needed to have financial backing to play at the highest levels.

as for the shirt deal stuff, i don't know why adidas would pay that much. it boggles my mind. there is no guarantee that they'll even be in the champions league next year (or whenever the shirt deal starts) and their best players are getting old (namely RVP).

and a more off topic rant: Shaw: not worth what they paid for him. Lallana: also not worth his transfer price. its a stupid english premium. and they wonder why the english national team is so bad? no one wants to buy actual english talent because they're charged through the roof. so they import an equal, if not better, player. the most exciting english player was probably ross barkley. i hope he keeps his head and doesn't move from everton (see: Jack Rodwell).

[Nerroth]

Yesterday's World Cup final marked the end of Bill O'Herlihy's role as lead presenter for Raidió Teilifís Éireann's television coverage of major international sporting events. With ten World Cups and ten Olympic Games under his belt, and a distinct dynamic with the soccer panel a feature of Irish sporting life for generations, his absence will be sorely missed.

Or as the man himself says... we'll leave it there so.