I have no idea where it's true, but an Everton fan on twitter said that a source he knows told him that Barkley only went for the medical to piss The everton owners off, as they rejected a £20m move from us, which is where he wanted to come all along. The whole saga was a massive "up yours", apparently.
DGC it is different in the sense that we have an established first team order that the new signings will need to break into. The Bale time entailed ripping everything up and starting again. I don't see it similar in any way really.
Pochettino has his playing philosophy, nearly all the current squad well versed in playing it, and a few new additions. AVB had a wholesale squad change, a squad that didn't seem to have any idea as to the required style of play, and a mass of incomings we suspect he never really wanted.
Abramovic and Moshiri (the money at Everton) are very well known to each other through another crook, Usmanov. They'll have countless deals together and Chelsea paying £35m for Barkley is **** all to these guys but it's about saving face. There's no way Moshiri wants to be seen to have been 'Levy'd' and made to look foolish in asking for £50m and getting £20m after having a major asset tapped up. Following hard upon Aurier and mid-Llorente, I'm sure that Abramovic was very happy to help out. Fair play to Barkley, he played a beautiful hand. I can imagine he was under some fairly heavy duty pressure to make the Chelsea move but he stuck to his guns and ****ed them off. January should be interesting, especially when Levy bids the £9m we paid for 'Big Vic'. Moshiri says that Barkley is "reconsidering his position with Everton". Is that Iranian/Russian gangster for "He's been made an offer, he don't refuse." Everton are building a new stadium? Hmmmm.........foundations.
A source close to Ross Barkley says he never even had a medical at Chelsea. Did this source have a Russian accent or an Italian one?
My one reliable source claims that Barkley was down in London anyway as he was hoping that we would make our move for him. When that failed to materialise, he gave the green light for Everton to accept Chelsea's bid and went to have his medical. All of this was done in the hope of drawing Levy out from the woodwork. He didn't actually start the medical but was definitely physically present at Chelsea's HQ when he got wind that we had no desire to enter a bidding war with Chelsea if the opening bid was £35m, and so he turned tail and fled back to the comfort of hubcap land. There will probably be a bidding war in January, but the player's intentions have rendered that irrelevant. Unless he has a massive change of heart while recovering from injury, there is only one club he wants to join. Levy can bid £2.50p in Jan and it will still be £2.50 more than Everton will receive for him to go to the same place next summer.
The sting in 'The Sting' only works because Robert Redford is feeding Robert Shaw's 'Studs Lonigan' duff information. When Barkley, sorry Redford is feeding Levy, sorry Lonigan, the truth about the whole operation, then you've got a whole different film. It wouldn't win an Oscar. Not even for best soundtrack.
Was thinking more about Llorente's signing last night and how huge it potentially is. Not only is it now someone Poch can feel he can rely to bring on when in need of chasing a goal but his style of play can allow us to adopt a whole new dynamic. It can also give us the option of playing two up top from the start should Poch choose. When Janssen started on the odd occasion with Kane, I felt he offered nothing different or better to what Harry could already do. With Llorente it's much different, he's an out and out target man, who betters Harry in the air, in bullying CBs and in predatory instincts inside the 6-12 yard box. Whether they play together much or not, it's still brilliant to now have two stylistically different options to call upon which allows us to switch up a game plan if need be when in need of a goal. This could potentially be one of the best bits of business we've done in a long while, really hope it works out.
Chelsea fans respond to our gazumping Llorente please log in to view this image Errm... please log in to view this image
We have wing backs that can cross the ball. Having someone that can head it in the net more often than not is a huge progression. I watched Aurier on YouTube crossing the ball for Cavani to head into the crowd, which he does over and over again. Aurier and Rose can cause panic with that tactic with Llorente on the end of them. There's very few sides in the PL with good central defences and some of the top sides are the worst offenders. I wouldn't give sixpence for Arsenal's central defence........or Liverpool's.........or Citeh's. Mauricio Pochettino MUST START USING SUBSTITUTES EARLIER THAN 70 MINUTES! There's no point in having talent on the bench if they're only going to watch!
Indeed. Barkley would have been advised to try and keep his options open for January (which of Chelsky or Spurs will look in better shape for CL/PL success then) , but he has burnt his bridge to Chelsky methinks.
Crosses are a very wasteful way of trying to score a goal. As are corners. Generally a goal is scored from about one in seventy crosses or corners. Most of the ones that don't result in a goal give possession away which gives the opponents a chance to score. Passing through the defence is better.
Possibly but I doubt it would change them enough to make crossing a more effective tactic than passing. A cross is usually just a very low chance pass.
