Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

unfortunately not. i mean the 2009 edition - yes, unforgivable that i wasn't aware of it's existence. seen it referred to loads, and on here obv, but always assumed it was just an internet joke.

yeah it was real! and the internet took it to heart and made some decent memes off it. i think ade and jimmy bullard had some dece fake brochures made of them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/5775991/Arsenal-fans-compile-joke-brochure-to-aid-Emmanuel-Adebayor-sale.html

"He is much better than Marlon Harewood and Mido put together. He is a tender and considerate lover."

maybe it wasn't jimmy bullard. someone else who was being a dick about a transfer from that sort of period had one, i can't remember who.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m838jf1h321rug21eo1_250.gif

lol 'tender and considerate lover'.

oh michael 'clean & fresh' owen brochure, where have you been all my life.

the football journo programme on Sky had them discussing the possibility of Adkins being replaced by 'Arry

Key to that rumour's in the first three words, innit?

Owen not in.

I do feel a little bit bad for him tbh, he's too easy a patsy, but his heart's clearly not in it and it should be Stoke or someone signing him anyway, not Liverpool. I'm happy enough with the 'promote some young buck' policy instead, in principle - in for a penny and all that.

in for a penny sums up yr bidding power after comolli

Meireles is being sold to Fenerbahce? Why? Always rated the guy, he could do a number of jobs for anyone, and I thought about him a lot at the weekend as I watched Borini, Sterling and Sahin continually pulling out of 40/60s.

Still, if he's only going to cameo at Chelsea he couldn't pick a better season for it.

Meireles for Liverpool was better than Mereiles for Chelsea, where he played in a deeper role. Chelsea do appear to be shedding central midfielders pretty rapidly but they still have a fair few knocking about.

Do they? There is only ff obi ramires and the highly rated young lad if meireles goes.

expect to see Luiz playing there at some point this season

you mean he wasn't vs Atleti?

didn't see it. Seems like it worked well if he was

I've just noticed it is another dull international week. Anyone else up for another ILF classic match?

Let's. I'm actually at an international this time, so careful scheduling is needed.

Let us know how Moldova is this time of year;) You must be crushed Big Andy has been ruled out.

we already have a good source on moldova:

In Kishinev this week with England for first trip back to Moldova since Wales defeat in 1994. Fascinated to see how the city has changed. @philmcnulty 17 hours ago

Fascinated to hear Phil's thoughts. He will have noticed how things have moved on in many ways, the place is now a different country, to the burgeoning early days of the republic - yet can Moldova move on on the pitch too on?

Let's hope that Roy Hodgson has thoroughly 'mulled over' the best way to deploy Lampard and Gerard in the same team, ahead of Friday's big game.

Heh no xp, it's Scotland v Serbia for me - south Glasgow is actually rather nice, I'm confident it can outposh Chisinau if the weather holds. Turns out it's the only Saturday afternoon game in Europe though, which might mess up the scheduling somewhat.

I was just in Glasgow at the weekend, it is lovely imo.

impoverished backwater riven with internecine hatred and violent crime vs serbia amirite

And still in with a shout of qualifying, got to strike while the iron's hot. What were you up to LG?

http://i.imgur.com/YyWkX.jpg

john mensah, 28

soon to sign for qpr sunderland again west ham it is

that was a p good zing imo, just sayin

Chisinau's pretty nice, to be fair. Possibly fortunate that the game's there rather than in Tiraspol which, oddly, hosts some of Moldova's international matches despite being in a breakaway republic that doesn't recognise the government.

DRUDGE SIREN MICKEY OWENS MICKEY OWENS HES AT STOKE DRUDGE SIREN

Has it actually happened? Definitely a part of me that wants this move to return Michael Owen to some degree of prominence and credibility. If he really does "thrive on knockdowns" as much as the many retrospectives and post-mortems of his career would have you believe / can keep fit for more than 20 minutes at a time then who knows? Stranger things have happened. Struggling to think of many, mind.

uninspiring stuff imo, he's a busted flush

jos hooiveld ‏@joshooiveld20

"@lukedogg1984: Just sold @joshooiveld20 a laptop and persuaded him to take insurance! Gotta say what a top, top bloke he is! #greatlaptop

Tottenham Hotspur's failure to sign Joao Moutinho on transfer deadline day was caused by a dispute over their principal transfer target's financial terms compounded by Porto's decision to increase their asking price a mere hour before Friday's window closed.

The Portuguese champions are said to have "behaved very badly," according to a participant in the negotiations.

The transfer looked set to go through by mid-afternoon on Friday when Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, agreed a transfer fee of €25 million (Dh112.5m) plus a further €3m in performance-related variables.

Moutinho, whose salary in Portugal is close to €2m net, then rejected the personal terms on offer at White Hart Lane, so Porto instructed the midfielder to fly to the Algarve for Saturday's league match at Olhanense.

Several further rounds of negotiations ensued during which Andre Villas-Boas telephoned Moutinho to persuade him to accept an improved contract offer, ultimately securing the player's consent at 10pm UK time.

Porto, however, refused to complete the deal, asking for a 25 per cent increase in the transfer fee on the basis that the player's financial terms had been improved so theirs should be, too.

Infuriated by Porto's brinkmanship but anxious to furnish his new coach with the strongest squad possible, Levy increased the total value of Tottenham's offer to €30m.

Though Porto agreed to these terms 10 minutes before England's 11pm deadline, contractual documents they provided to the Premier League contained errors that could not be rectified in time to complete the transfer.

At 11.30pm, Tottenham conceded defeat on the deal.

While Tottenham may move for Moutinho again in the January window assuming Porto do not sell him to Zenit St Petersburg this week, the club are generally satisfied with their business in the summer window.

Liverpool were outbid for Clint Dempsey on Friday night, and they see the £6 million (Dh34.8m) United States international as a more dynamic version of Rafael van der Vaart - sold to Hamburg for £4m more.

Villas-Boas is said to regard Moussa Dembele as an ideal replacement for Luka Modric, with the Belgium international possessing a similar ability to create scoring opportunities and drive possession forward.

Also acquired from Fulham last week, Dembele cost £15m, while the unsettled Modric was sold to Real Madrid for an initial €30m, a further €8m in variables, and a cooperation agreement including two lucrative friendly matches between the club.

Meanwhile, Tom Huddlestone will look to secure an overseas loan move this week with the French, Russian and Turkish windows still open for incoming transfers.

The Tottenham midfielder wants regular first-team football as he seeks to complete his recovery from a recalcitrant ankle problem. While Benfica inquired about Huddlestone's availability to replace the outgoing Javi Garcia last week and agreed financial terms on a season-loan with Tottenham, the Portuguese club failed to complete the deal.

The French and Turkish transfer windows remain open until Wednesday, Russia's until Friday.

thudd to europe- otm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Tom_Tomsk

^^^

Somehow levy, contractual hardhouse, slipped up just one goddamn time.

The transfer looked set to go through by mid-afternoon on Friday when Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, agreed a transfer fee of €25 million (Dh112.5m) plus a further €3m in performance-related variables.

....

Porto, however, refused to complete the deal, asking for a 25 per cent increase in the transfer fee on the basis that the player's financial terms had been improved so theirs should be, too.

Infuriated by Porto's brinkmanship but anxious to furnish his new coach with the strongest squad possible, Levy increased the total value of Tottenham's offer to €30m.

thats no hardman

ronan u hate fun myths so much

The Porto board out-hardman Levy any day. This is the club that managed to sell Paolo Ferreira and Bosingwa for a combined €40m. And got €30m for Anderson.

http://i.imgur.com/sbXTD.png

Could have got more for Deco. Wastemen.

the Hulk fee is the most absurd though. He simply isn't that good. At least Anderson was 19 when he signed so Utd were gambling on potential. Hulk is 26, he's not really going to get any better

the hulk fee is not the eyebrow raising business porto did this week tbph

?

That table is magnificent

Did hulk go this summer? Where? I've heard nothing about it. Shitty stepover to inter is the best thing they did on that list. (wish we'd hirer their levy.)

Zenit.

It only happened yesterday or Monday, Zenit dropped €32m each on Hulk and Witsel

Florent Malouda
‏@realflorentm
This is where I'll train for my last season with the blues !!!

https://p.twimg.com/A2BmzD5CMAA2zPR.jpg

looking at the official 25 man squad lists am delighted to see that 20% of LFC's squad are goalkeepers. Leaving us with 16 outfield players.(okay not counting under 21's) Thus our goalkeeping contingent is at a higher percentage than Spurs'.

haha xp

he didn't make the CL squad, but he was in the Prem squad