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

i'm not a financial expert but i think psg may have slightly miscalculated the ffp budget if they buy di maria

http://i.gyazo.com/fc5370c2342db80682ce9c282b170637.png

Too good for Newcastle.

wait, khedira to arsenal?

It is certainly doing the rounds. Big rumours has been 2/4 so far (Debuchy/Sanchez good; Balotelli/Aurier not so much), which is actually p good for Arsenal and shows we are getting serious. I'd fucking love Wenger to bring as much of the Germany squad in as possible and Khedira is one of the best midfielders in the world/one of my favourite players in the current game. Khedira-Ramsay-Ozil-Cazorla-Wilshere-Sanchez or whatever is quite tantalising.

Still need a DM maybe. Not sure Arteta/Flamini really cut it.

really interesting/exciting signing again if so

don't think a classical dm is strictly necessary these days but khedira has always played next to deep lying play dictators in schweini and alonso... not sure if that means an unexpectedly continuing prominent role for arteta or if kheds and ramsey are just going to have to figure it out for themselves

despite supporting a harry redknapp side i'm p amenable to the latter strategy if the players are intelligent enough, which khedira certainly is. tho i suppose you do also get a veron occasionally

heh just started enumerating some fundamental reservations about nu-arse even despite the signings still but i had to abort cos it was sounding too graeme souness

can the dutch lads tell me something about kolbeinn sigthorsson

seems to be some question marks over him, looks okay for 5m to me tho

It's a bargain if he stays fit and can recover his previous form. He had a horrendous injury in 2012 and didn't look that sharp last season but he's definitely good. The fee is decent.

adebayor is adebayor

RTC: Sightorsson did well at AZ, but is seen as a massive underperformer, scoring way too little goals at Ajax. Injury prone too. 5m is dece I suppose, but I don't particularly rate him tbh. Very disappointing at Ajax.

how'd he do at ajax?

Janmaat to Newcastle apparantly, Fer to QPR?

yes please, make it so

Aaron Hughes to B&HA to replace Matthew Upson

If Newcastle end up with Cabella, Janmaat and Riviere that's a p fucking good transfer window imo

don't worry they'll be fed up and gone by next July

does anyone here know anything about romanian football? chicago just signed some dude who's biggest claim to fame is he was almost signed by portsmouth when they were still in the premiership but he also has 50 caps for romania so he can't be completely terrible... can he? I suppose he can, but still.

Conte has resigned :o

Gazzetta dello Sport report on Tuesday evening that Antonio Conte has left Juventus. Conte had three very successful years in charge of the Turin club but there were always reports of discontent over what he thought was the club's wrong approach to the transfer market.

The newspaper says that Conte is angry the club have failed to sign either Juan Cuadrado or Alexis Sanchez and he's not altogether happy with what he'll consider the cheap potential recruitment of Patrice Evra from Manchester United.

Conte is fiercely ambitious and wanted Juventus to be a real European force as well as the best team in Italy. However, finances at the Italian club are not great and haven't improved over the past year. Juventus have done excellently in the transfer market with financial restrictions and provided Conte with an excellent team at a relatively low cost.

Much more pressing than that, at least immediately, is that Gazzetta dello Sport claim Manchester United have raised their offer for Arturo Vidal and agreed terms with Juventus for the transfer.

Roberto Mancini and Massimiliano Allegri are the immediate favourites for the job.

wow

http://i57.tinypic.com/2le30om.jpg

Conte for Italy manager now?

yeah, he looks well up for it

Would be kind of a shame, would love to have seen him at a European top club. But it's not the best time of year in football to quit your managerial job.

damn that's sad

internets saying roma might have pipped them to juan iturbe for €30m too

didnt realise emre can played a lot of last season for leverkusen at left-back

truly the zeitgeist thread

Allegri in

oh dear

couldnt they have got deschamps

Pirlo out then?

David Amoyal @DavidAmoyal · 8m
Juve president Agnelli and Pirlo have a very strong bond, I assume Juve talked to Pirlo prior to appointing Allegri (just my opinion)

One would assume so, yes. But I can't imagine Pirlo being happy serving the guy who deemed him not good enough for Milan.

how many decisions does the manager make at milan?

True

atletico chelsea finally reach agreement for kasmirksi

Are chelsea shopping cech btw? or are they really gonna make either him or courtois mope about in the carling cup for a few rounds?

£20m for a left back who'll be 29 when the season starts is not bad business for Atleti, i guess.

Repeating myself I know but still amazed that with all the LB's being sought nobody has gone in for Rodriguez. Guardian reckons £15m would be enough which when you consider Shaw was twice that (English I know) and LFC have bid £16m for Moreno. I don't get it.

More than anything else I just wish these Vidal to united stories would go the fuck away.

There was some round up of transfer news/speculation in one of the papers this morning and Vidal was linked to 5 or 6 clubs!

I'm trying not to think about it

ins and outs at Barca:

Tello to Porto on loan with an option to buy

Jeremy Mathieu in for 20m. Odd one

Mathieu fee is ridic.

For a 30 yr old! Is that their big defensive signing??

Annoyingly predictable that while all this lunacy goes on Bayern have got Lewandowski and Rode on free transfers, hardly seems fair. Also £50m burning a hole in their deep deep pockets from Mandzukic and Kroos sales.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BsquPTxCQAAb44W.jpg

Looks like Spurs have agreed at £10m fee for Ben Davies. He'll probably still go to Liverpool.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bsq8vKfCQAEy34N.jpg

Speaking of full backs here's a statsbomb piece http://www.statsbomb.com/2014/07/introducing-and-explaining-fullback-radars-sagna-debuchy-lahm-alves-and-more/

P much as expected except that Glen Johnson circa 2009-10 was apparently amazingly good although all I remember from that season (Rafa's last) is LFC being v v bad. Lol at Sascha Reither tho.

There's a bit on there about ashley young if you have the stomach for it number none

snazzy-ass lvg showing moyes how to turn up on the first day