Sport Club Greek Mega Thread - The Bear and Badger

cockbeard

Dinostar77 wrote:

Cocko, you should read or listen to The Mixer: story of premier league tactics by Michael Cox. That is a really good read and explains how certain types of players have disappeared from the game (at top flight) due to changes in tactics.

I keep meaning to go deep on his books, I've dipped into Inverting the Pyramid a couple of times, and had a couple of interesting chats at Kingstonian matches in the past. Really need to use my time better

Minnesänger

Shane Long signed a 2-year extension.

#winning

Dinostar77

I dont have access to the site but there is an article about how Lampard got werner to change his mind and not sign for liverpool.

https://theathletic.com/1856250/2020/06/05/the-inside-story-of-how-chelsea-landed-werner/

mistercrayon

Liverpool were all chat though. It’s one thing to say “we really want you” and then wait around for your price to be haggleable. Then someone else says they’ll pay full price to get you now. It’s not difficult to see how in practice he can feel more wanted by Chelsea (also he’s in a better position negotiation wise with a bigger fee).

LarryDavid

We're just tight. Always looking for the cheap option and unwilling to take risks. The cash we got for Coutinho enabled a brief bit of spending, but with the way club finances could be affected by coronavirus it's maybe wise to be cautious. That's the kind reading, the unkind version is that we're top of the tree for a moment, raking in loads of money from recent successes and should strike whilst the iron is hot.

Luckily we've got a great manager who can get the most out of what he's given (which is far more than many teams have admittedly). Without him we'd be fucked.

Blocks100

Werner can walk straight into that Chelsea team. If he did end up coming to us, he would have had to wait his turn. But I'm sure the 200K a week deal they waved in front of him was what turned his head.

If we end up selling Lovren, Lallana and Shaqari we could possibly scrape together £40M to fund the purchase of another player. But we'd have to offload Lovren and his ilk to those smaller clubs who are no doubt feeling the pinch even more than us, meaning we wouldn't be getting their proper market value.

Although when using the term 'market value' and 'Lovren' in the same sentence I can't shake the mental image of us swoping him for a set of dog chewed Panini stickers, a dirty half-and-half scarf and a broken Vuvuzela and the feeling we'd luckily come out on top with that deal.

LarryDavid

We could at least throw the vuvuzela at an attacker going through on our goal.

LivDiv

Prem fixture lists are out along with notification of what games will air for free on the BBC.
More games will air for free on SKY (25 games), Amazon Prime (all 4 of their games), not sure on BT.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52889445

If anyone comes across a definitive list of what games are airing where for free that would be useful.

LarryDavid

Pick? Never heard of that channel.

EDIT: Seems to be a free sky thing

The Daddy

I had this sent to me on WhatsApp last night, not sure if it’s just the freebies or what:

Blocks100

I know our Derby is on Freeview channel 11, Pick.

Diluted Dante

I completely forgot about the FA Cup. So we're finishing that too. Gonna be a load of fucked up players next month.

Dinostar77

Really good transfer window podcast yesterday.

https://play.acast.com/s/thetransferwindow/vnid://episodes/29603502?media_id=29158138

Had former WHO director and a professor of virology on who talked about dangers of project restart. Also still no guarantee the games will start on june 17th. There is no agreement between all the clubs and 6 of them still holding out for various reasons.

Werner was offered 50k a week more by chelsea. Klopp (who is not a happy bunny) did alot of work to pursude the player especially with african nations cup next jan (if it happens) and loss of mane and salah for a month. There is a chance liverpool may go back in and offer more money to Leipzig but cant raise wage offer as they'd have to give payrises to mane/salah/vvd etc to keep them as top earners at the club.

LivDiv

I would go to Chelsea anyway if I was him.

RamSteelwood

yeah...any striker thinking about liverpool needs to ask "will you be dropping Salah, Firmino or Mane for me?"...not many strikers in the world won't get the answer 'no'.

Dinostar77

The plan seemed to have been to gradually ease werner in as liverpool do, then give him lots of game time post xmas when salah and mane would be off to the tournament. Also it was future planning as liverpool expect to lose one of the two to Barcelona or Madrid in next few years. Sounds sensible idea.

RamSteelwood

i get that from liverpool's side of course. i just mean as a top striker - he's got a choice of more money at a team that will play him as the star striker from the off, or less money to go on the bench and try to unseat one of the most settled and consistent attacking triios in world football.

Dinostar77

Yeh if i was werner id go to chelsea. Feck trying to breakup that trio.

yourfavouriteuncle

I imagine most players with half an eye on self improvement and the longer game would play for Klopp over just about anyone else - bar maybe Pep, even for 50k a week less. He’s clearly that kinda coach.liverpool would need to bid though for that to happen.

mistercrayon

Klopp might go soon though. If they win the league what is there left for him at liverpool. He has form for pouring everything of himself into a project and leaving when he’s not peak performance (and after consecutive years of CL and PL it’s hard to maintain that)

optimark_prime

Klopp was quoted as saying, all clubs are losing money at the moment, so without crowds for this season, refunding season tickets, maybe no crowds for the start of next season, and that impacting on season ticket income too.

Liverpool appear to be run correctly, adhering to FFP etc, so finding £54m to sign Werner right now, isn’t feasible. Chelsea are fortunate to have an owner who’ll throw money in regardless.

yourfavouriteuncle

optimark_prime wrote:

Klopp was quoted as saying, all clubs are losing money at the moment, so without crowds for this season, refunding season tickets, maybe no crowds for the start of next season, and that impacting on season ticket income too. Liverpool appear to be run correctly, adhering to FFP etc, so finding £54m to sign Werner right now, isn’t feasible. Chelsea are fortunate to have an owner who’ll throw money in regardless.

But doesn’t that still fail ffp? Idg how it works really. There’s a fair few clubs just do whatever and never seem to get a real lashing for it.

LivDiv

I suspect there may be a certain amount of flexibility around FFP, some clubs may find themselves breaking the rules even without signings.

As for Chelsea, I guess they off loaded Hazard and couldn't sign anyone else so they have a large gap in their wage bill. A bit of creative accounting and they can probably shift some of his transfer fee around as well.

RamSteelwood

I think FFP is a bit broken, and skewed more to protect the existing top teams than anything else.
Controls to stop clubs spiralling into debt is fine, limits on overall wages, sqad numbers etc I would be happy with too...but i don't really agree with stopping clubs spending what they've got if the club/owner has money in their pocket.

I say that now with a hint of hypocrisy as there's still a chance Newcastle end up with mega rich owners so obviously i'd want the leash to be off if that situation occurred, but I do genuinely think the current setup stops a smaller club becoming big more than it stops the big clubs staying there.

yourfavouriteuncle

RamSteelwood wrote:

I think FFP is a bit broken, and skewed more to protect the existing top teams than anything else. Controls to stop clubs spiralling into debt is fine, limits on overall wages, sqad numbers etc I would be happy with too...but i don't really agree with stopping clubs spending what they've got if the club/owner has money in their pocket. I say that now with a hint of hypocrisy as there's still a chance Newcastle end up with mega rich owners so obviously i'd want the leash to be off if that situation occurred, but I do genuinely think the current setup stops a smaller club becoming big more than it stops the big clubs staying there.

Yeah, I do agree with that point but overall I think it has actually had a positive impact on slowing overspending by day dreaming boards and owners. There was a point a few years back that literally every time you read an interview every club was aiming for top four within the next 2 years and eyeing the lovely CLmoney as a reward for getting there. It’s just getting there often involved thrice mortgaging the training ground to keep paying your CB wages. I think it’s had a net positive effect but I can also see how clubs like Paris and City feel like they’ve been prevented from joining the big boys.

Diluted Dante

Spurs got to a Champions League final by being well run. PSG and City are 5th and 6th in the Delloite Football Money League, compared to Spurs 8th for that final season. The winners Liverpool are 7th.

I think FFP has had a positive effect, even as clubs have tried to skirt around it. Premier League clubs largely make profits now, compared the the days were most clubs were technically insolvant. As to why its a good thing to limit owner spending, this is usually loaded onto the clubs debt, and if an owner gets bored like Ashley or dies, the club can be thrown into chaos.

Blocks100

LivDiv

League 2 done.
Seperately Lallana has signed an extension to end the season at Liverpool.

Blocks100

After which, he can go back to League 2.

cockbeard

Gotta feeling he'll be at his boyhood club next term

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