"and can slot in at right-back if required" - close season transfer banter 2014

yah he looked done this season. Makes losing alcantara look all the more moronic

Just got Rakitic though.

older and had to pay money for him

Another unexpected appointment, it looks like Leeds Utd are appointing former Forest Green manager Dave Hockaday. He was sacked by Forest Green, but I don't know what kind of budget he was operating under. Obviously all the Leeds fans are up in arms because they are so fucking massive etc. I think most of them assumed Cellino would be going for some big name charlie.

so who's the jerome anderson to cellino's venkys here

i mean it'd be p cool to think dude just really threw himself into researching underappreciated academy coaches and non-league tactitians but

needs to give willie mackay a call

xxp
I reckon Cellino is such a megalomaniac it will be him. It is looking like they will be a selling club in this window before they start buying. First thing it made me think of was Briatore barking orders at the bench via his lackey in 5 year plan. Cellino has got a nondescript greyman who will do as he says and take the blame if it goes wrong. He might be a bloody good coach but his record doesn't suggest that.

sky were reporting they rejected £5m from fulham for mccormack this week

He signed a four year contract extension in 2013 so they aren't under pressure to sell him yet, but he agitated for a move in January and lot of people are starting to think that Cellino isn't as loaded as he acts.

Forest Green's budget, by Conference standards, is very good. Hockaday's record isn't terrible - he's a very experienced coach and such, did time with our youth system between 2007-2009 so he'll definitely have worked with some of our big success stories - but there's not much evidence that he's the man for this particular challenge.

Speaking of us - Ronald Koeman. Is he good at the managing? I know he got Feyenoord to second last season, but given their size I'm not sure what kind of an achievement that is...

Allow me to humbly weigh in on Koeman: For a long time he was (rightfully) regarded as a mediocre manager, at best. He won my team, PSV, titles, but the sentiment was that anyone could've done that and that he was integral. He's also made some poor choices, leaving PSV willy-nilly for a terrible, and short, spell at Valencia, where he bombed.

But, as ambivalent as I am towards Koeman as a manager, there is no denying he worked wonders at Feyenoord the last three years. That club, because of debts and allround misery, was in a downfall before he came. Bankrupt, finishing at an embarrassing 10th place in the league in 2011, having suffered their worst defeat ever (10-0 against PSV, lol), Koeman had took the challenge. He had no money to spend, but proved to be a great manager in recognizing talent and giving it a chance. He believed in Pelle, a striker who was a failure at AZ, but is one of the best strikers in our league now.

He has proven at Feyenoord that he has a keen eye for talent and doesn't hesitate to play them. In Hollands's defense against Spain at this WC, defenders De Vrij, Martins Indi and Janmaat were in the starting eleven, and that is solely Koeman's doing. All Feyenoord. He also developed some great other youth players you English people don't know about yet, but surely will in due time (Vilhena and Boetius most notably).

Finishing second with this Feyenoord - above clubs like Twente and PSV - with no money to spend and merely using youth, is a huge feat, and has been considered allround as a massive achievement for a club that was on its ass for years on end.

The difference between the PL and Eredivisie however is that here, you are 'allowed' to bring in youth players and talents because there's no money. In England clubs seem to need 'big players' or big transfers, otherwise it's shite. Koeman had a very successful three year spell at Feyenoord, but in England he could be out on the street after four months. That's a big difference.

But is he a good manager? As a staunch sceptic, he has definitely convinced me the last couple of years at Feyenoord, achieving what no one expected, with attractive, attacking football and developing young talent.

southampton are v strongly youth orientated tho so it's a good fit in that respect

how koeman spends the money he'll have available (if he spends it at all) will define his time here; £10m on pelle would probably not be v astute

can see him going for guidetti actually if the lad hasn't already gone full bendtner at this point

09/08/2014 15:00 Norwich City (h)

16/08/2014 15:00 Rotherham United (a)

20/08/2014 20:00 Fulham (a)

23/08/2014 15:00 Cardiff City (h)

30/08/2014 15:00 Blackburn Rovers (h)

that's a big August

Only just noticed Millwall have snapped up Gregory from Halifax for quarter a mill. He is a late developer at 25 and has still been working part time as an electrician this season. He has got an incredible scoring record at conf north/conference level, but has seemed quite poor whenever I have seen him.

Tottenham are lining up a £3m bid for Sunderland's 33-year-old defender John O'Shea. Daily Telegraph

;_;

That really doesn't seem credible given what we know of Levy and Pochettino. ESPN going with Spurs offloading Soldado and Adebayor to generate cash for a Lukaku bid.

more obvious therefore less trustworthy tbfh

Crystal Palace have completed the signing of goalkeeper Chris Kettings on a free transfer.

"I'm delighted because this is a massive club," said Kettings, who was released by Blackpool at the end of last season.

it's ok to get your agent to fill in while you're on holiday

hey, we're signing Herrera again :)

http://api.ning.com/files/FWS5kDBkS5gLQ*csVfVg-JYyC8aWdQ4OIQFcx74FuXgFFPEhLOMBwmjzK3ZutzOiueF9AW94loB-pkMjFKL63RwQ435P1B0j/reps2.jpg

Does Gomis to Swansea mean they're going to sell Bony?

p much ida said

would you take him at spurs?

y

Jesus y

gomis who'd always said he refused the offers lyon had on the table for him cos he wanted to go to a big club...

wants to get PAID. Don't blame him.

yeah i know. it just pains me every time i see a player leave a big(-ish) french club qualified for european competition to play for some mid-table EPL team who can pay him that much more.
tbh in the case of gomis i really liked the player and can only hope that he'll do well wherever he goes (well swansea i guess)

However, speaking to beIN Sport last night, the Arsenal manager denied the AC Milan man was on his summer shopping list. Asked by Ruud Gullit if he was a player he was hoping to add to the Arsenal squad, Wenger said, “No. No, that’s pure invention. We cannot believe absolutely everything that is on internet or is in newspapers.
“Sometimes it’s created by agents or by press who needs news. But in that case, it’s not true.”

can swansea really pay that much more?

it feels like basically any team can pay more than lyon right now!
i saw some one on a forum (so you know maybe not the best source of info) saying he'd be paid 95k/wk which sounds extremely high to me but i'm not really aware of how much players are paid in the EPL. 95k/wk would make him the best paid player in france (not counting the crazy PSG/Monaco salaries of course), or at least in that range.

also, he's coming on a free meaning swansea don't have to pay lyon but can give him a nice signing bonus - which, again, lyon cannot and would not want to pay

id be very surprised if the highest paid player at swansea is on more than 50K + bonuses

yeah i thought that was very high too for a club like swansea. as i said, based on info from some forum so not very reliable. googling all of this brings up an article saying swansea are not willing to smash their wage structure to offer 80K (i think the 95k might have been in €) which would be double the current highest salary.

Michu gets £30k a week but their bonuses are higher than average for a PL club - not that many players would have earned them last season.

fvck me £8m for livermore

and the arch levy-denier garda is nowhere to be seen

The sweet prince is leaving :(

rtc if he signs for your boys there will be mayhem

Samaras to Everton is my favourite rumour of the day.

I kinda love Samara's

Livermore is decent value at 8m, same as was caulker at 12. won't lose money on them

Samaras and McGeady being equally productive on opposite wings would be enough to cost Martinez his job.

(and rightly so!)

Has Rio signed for QPR yet?

The sweet prince is leaving :(

rtc if he signs for your boys there will be mayhem

― avicii usque ad arse (imago), Wednesday, 25 June 2014 17:02 Bookmark

lol is this poyet? v much doubt our staff have ever heard of him

besides why settle for a sweet prince when you can have a real british realness queen signing on the dotted line for another annus mirabilis

rio not offish but reported widely enough for it to be so

ferdinand hill dunne three at the back high pressing, who's ready

avb I'd say

Jesus I hadn't thought about that prick in a while

Pochettino out!