Southampton shouldn't have sacked Puel. They should have sacked whoever keeps selling all their best players season after season.
I'll repost my comment from the Prem board: First season in England and he finished 8th and got to a cup final. Given the teams that make up the top 7, what exactly were the board hoping for? Not an amazing performance, but a pretty solid one and I think he should've been given a chance. If they'd lost confidence in him though, then now's the time to make the move. Get rid, bring someone in and give them money and a full pre-season, so that they can hit the ground running. Letting a manager have a few games and then getting shot of them is bloody stupid.
Gianluigi Donnarumma isn't renewing his contract with Milan, which of course has nothing to do with Mino Raiola spending the past few months talking about how his client needs to move to a club who can offer him a great percentage...I mean offer his client a great opportunity, and by complete coincidence Los Ladrones have popped up with just that!
Bloody hell Everton are busy! http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40297081 Two highly-rated youngsters in the blink of an eye. Where on earth are they getting all the money?!
£100m for Lukaku and £50m for Barkley would give them the money to buy Showaddywaddy having sold Hall & Oates.
They've got a new owner. Farhad Moshiri sold his stake in Arsenal and bought 49.9% of Everton in February. I suspect that Brian's right though and they're spending the money that they'll get from sales. Very sensible to do so with Lukaku, as there's plenty of competition for his signature and he'll go for a large amount. They're also in for Niang and Sigurdsson, apparently. Clear out some of the ****, keep promoting those promising youngsters and they're on the right path, I think. They need a bigger squad to deal with the Europa, but that could be great for developing youth, if used correctly.
They've got a strangely unbalanced squad, with a strong youth contingent providing the legs for an ageing group of once excellent players (Barry, Baines, Williams, Jagielka) whose best football is behind them. I'd say they'll still need a new CB, RB to cover for Coleman's horrendous injury and possibly a new CM. Not to mention finding a replacement for Lukaku. Whichever way you cut it, it looks like their net spend will be massive this window.
They are still losing their goalscorer. As we know only too well, buying a quality goalscorer is a nightmare. Allegedly, they're in for Sandro Ramirez. He'll need to succeed because Mirallas and Bolasie aren't good enough to get double figures and they don't have any other forwards that I can recall. They have to land Siggy to get more goals into that set up. This is going to be their post-Bale season and we know how that worked out for all concerned - you end up with Gilet Tim as manager and a load of failed signings and have to start again. Just as well Koeman is better than AVB. Also, they're in for Michael Keane now that he's not going to United. He'd be a quality addition and taking all into consideration, one they are going to need.
We did something similar for a while, in my opinion, bringing in proven experience and players with a lot of potential. Both clubs are and were unable to compete directly with the big money sides, so it's a fairly sensible approach. The youngsters can learn a lot from those that have been there and done that. I think that this window will result in a move towards a more balanced and sustainable approach, though. They'll spend big on the back of the Lukaku transfer, shift a few more to settle the balance and then try and keep things settled. They've got the basis for a very good side, but need to keep hold of their best players and make sure that the youngsters push on. There's too much deadwood in the squad at the moment though, for me. They'd be better shifting a lot of them on and replacing them with either a few very good players or those with the potential to become that. Kone, Mirallas, Lennon (sadly), Bolasie, Cleverly, Besic, Niasse, Funes Mori and some of their older academy products can go. They could do a job as squad players, but they'll stifle the progress of the youngsters and take up a lot of the wage bill.
Monaco's still a tax haven, right? http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...e-spanish-tax-fraud-allegations-a7792826.html
Sunderland have been turned down by Derek McInnes, who'd prefer to stay at Aberdeen, apparently. That's rather embarrassing.
Would the last decent player at Sunderland please turn out the lights......... it's suddenly gone all dark in here.
The Gooners have made a bid for Lacazette. This is the Lyon's President's response. "Lacazette was told he could leave. We had negotiations with Atletico but things did not work out. Now we have a very nice offer from Arsenal. But for us, he will not leave." This bloke despaired of dealing with Levy over Hugo.......looks like he learned a trick or two out of it though.
AFAIK, not as far as Ligue 1 goes. Monaco FC had to cede all tax advantages therein in order to remain in Ligue 1 (the local tax regime gave them uneven tax advantage compared to clubs who reside in France) .
Lukaku and Barkley are both rumoured to be leaving, which means they would need to spend over £80M or so before there's a net spend. Last season they had the Stones money. They spent that, but their net spend was only £20M. There's no evidence yet that Everton are joining the big spenders.
The Goons are a cash-rich PL club (more so - Kroenke cup) . Why should Lyon not try to rinse them for any Lyon player ??
