Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

Ah must admit I hadn't noticed the part where he initially played the advantage beforehand, presume he would've blown up then to be fair.

 

How far away from the ball can you be and still be deemed to have made a tackle/fair challenge?

 

Again, I think Dembele is more skillful and a far better, if unimaginative, passer of the ball than Sissoko. Dembele holds the ball up well in midfield and allows others to get back in position.

My comparison with Toure was more about his strength, power, and direct running.

 

Well if the ref didn't blow in the end, it seems 6ft away is deemed acceptable for him!

 

Dembele is a bit slow to get going, but once he starts driving forward he rarely loses the ball.

 

As has been said many times, not least by Jenas who trained with him, he's so phenomenally strong you just cannot get the ball of him.

Those are Jenas's words, not mine. But, I've seen his Belgian team mates say similar things.

In fact, De Bruyne called him the best player in the world, which is obviously pushing it a bit. But he's a class act when he's firing on all cylinders.

 

Very interesting that having failed to force Schweinsteiger out at United, Mourinho's squad includes the German.

Climb down?
Pragmatism?
Good management?
Directive from above?

I'd just love to know what happened here.

 

Nobody wanted to buy him, and even for Man Utd, and Jose arrogance, he is too
valuable an asset to be left to rot. So the real reason is some combo of "all of the above" .

 

I think Spurf has posted one icon for each time our thick fishy has posted exactly the
same thing on both here and the PL boards over a 12 hr period.

 

Everything that is wrong with Football in one paragraph

Super agent Mino Railola has earned over 30m euros (£25m) in commission this summer brokering the deals for Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. That is more than the 21m euros Cristiano Ronaldo earns in a year at Real Madrid. (AS)

 

Yeah, I saw that, SD. ****ing leeches!...

Edit: I'm not sure it's everything that's wrong with football, but it's one of the bigger ones.

 

The guy doesn't have the asset base to do that every year though, does he ??

 

I disagree. I don't blame Railola for making money in this way. I'd do it, if I was in a position to.
The problem is the clubs paying people for doing a job for someone else.
If a player wants a good deal from a club, then they should be paying the agent.

I'd have some serious questions for Mourinho if I were Man Utd, though.
There's been some suggestions about other managers buying almost exclusively from specific agents in the past.
It's a dodgy path to go down, for obvious reasons.

 

Aren't there some agents that Levy outright refuses to deal with, regardless of the player ??

 

I didn't suggest I was blaming him for it and, like you, I'd do it in a shot. But the fact that there is enough money sloshing around football that agents services can cost that much, that the implied corruption those values would risk leading makes it all wrong. You hit the nail on the head that players employ agents and they should be paying them. I look at the paragraph above and it reeks of corruption - obviously I've no idea if there is any involved - and it reflects the way the game is going.

 

I hope so. Some of them are as dodgy as **** and are only interested in repeated transfer bumps to their income.

 

He then used that money to buy himself a bolthole in Miami - which just so happened to be Al Capone's former mansion.

Yes really: http://en.as.com/en/2016/08/17/football/1471429878_677655.html

 

Totally appropriate.

 

I wonder if anyone's checked his taxes?
Edit: Actually, don't bother. He "resides" in Monaco. Why aren't I surprised?

 

We said the other day that if he pisses off somebody in power in the USA, he won't be
setting foot in that place (or the USA) ever/again for fear of tax investigation harassment.