Fuck Off Back To The Little Leagues: EPL 21/22

Dele has gone to Everton on loan.

Impressed with Burnley finding a 6’6” centre forward to replace their 6’3” one.

Not on loan! Dele signing is permanent.

free transfer with clause of guaranteed payment after 20 games

weghorst was p great last season but hasn't been at it this one, although wolfsburg lost their manager during the summer and are currently on their 2nd one this season who himself is on about a 10 game without a win streak so not the best of circumstances.

donny vdb and delli both being great would be funny.

I mean I'm in such a healthy place re Dele I literally do not care what he does anywhere else

lot of question marks over Raul de tuomas imo

― Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Monday, 31 January 2022 14:50 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sounds like a perfect Arsenal signing

sigh

Newcastle are supposedly trying to hijack the Dele deal.

Ben Brereton to Barca if the Aubameyang deal falls through would be delightful.

ramsey to rangers is a belter

can't believe they can afford his wages

max a quarter of them I'd imagine

reports he's on either £200k or £400k pw - that's a lot of ginger bottles

Well, they won a good few league titles before with not so much creative as magical accounting. When they go bust this time and have to relaunch themselves as Rangers Mk. III they'll probably have to start off in the Lowlands League.

maybe having gone bust and worked their way back up once they're confident that the existing structural factors means they could do the same thing again, and therefore worth taking a few risks to try and push on from here on the grounds that it hardly matters? in which case why not? they're too big to fail!

mildly disappointed with the decision to let Matt Targett go to Newcastle - it's not that he's particularly great or anything (he was player of the season for Villa last year but he benefited more than anyone from Grealish's peculiar brand of magic - he's always looked much less assured when not partnered with one of the best players in the world). He may be a bit of a defensive liability unless he's well-protected and can certainly be done for pace by any winger in the league

but still feels like we acquired some depth in Digne and have immediately given that away, to a team we should be praying to get relegated, no less; they'll be aiming for the same positions as us next season. idk presumably there was a financial imperative and Targett wanted it, still feels like a bad move.

Bruno Guimarães is the most intriguing move in this window - ppl who theoretically know their business won't shut up about what an incredible player this guy is. will be v interesting to see how he affects things. certainly if he is as good as advertised then between him, ASM, the new look Joelinton and their various capable cloggers it looks like they might have enough to avoid relegation. yuck.

on that first point re: Rangers - does admittedly seem strange to break the bank so spectacularly on that particular gamble but i'm flailing around for other explanations if those numbers are true

Bruno Guimarães is the most intriguing move in this window

will also be intriguing to watch Traore in La Liga. is he gonna torch the place or will his fundamental shortcomings continue hold him back? would've loved to see him in Serie A

juve are covering his wages - the rangers II have no money. not sure he'll play more than 10 games in the cinch

ah i see - i understood that the 200-400k was just the range of figures quoted from when he signed for Juve but I assumed Rangers would need to be picking up at least 30-40% (still pretty astronomical) for it to be worth Juve's while (and also thought Rangers might've had to outbid semi-interested EPL clubs - I know Villa were supposed to be taking a look a few weeks ago). just a case of getting an unwanted and unsettled player out of the dressing room, then

rangers II fobbing off Bacuna for pennies to Brum just before appearances fee kicks in says to me they aren't chucking the bunce about

Kris Boyd thinks Dele Alli will bring much needed legs to the Everton midfield oooof oh no lololol

aw i was gonna do a joke about some much-needed work ethic in an underperforming squad earlier today

Richarlison, Dele Alli, Donny Van De Beek, Anwar El Ghazi, Demarai Gray, Andros Townsend, Alex Iwobi is the most delightful rogues’ gallery from which to select the 3 in your 4231

if Dele is found with quick balls into feet or chest running and breaking lines he's absolutely the solution to some team's problems but does anyone routinely play direct risky passes anymore

I'm easily impressed and accustomed to watching defectives, but I've often thought both Alli and Townsend both looked good, even very good at times!

anyway I'll see you next season, we've just re-signed Carel Eiting from Genk

Liverpool didn't get carvalho deal over the line

levy gazump em

Lof

tbh I thought LFC should have held fire on any transfers this window and gone all in during the summer on Bellingham + Rice.

Although big name signings from Dortmund lately have had more Dembele/Sancho outcomes than Gundogan ones. Although I guess immobile worked out even though I have never seen him play well.

rice really is excellent, has he come on a lot this year as a ball carrier or is it one of those things where once you notice it you always notice it

Surely too early to write off Sancho given the circumstances

Dembele’s problems are entirely related to injuries and attitude and poor career guidance, on his day he still has the ambidextrous feet and that gliding, spectral quality on the ball. He was the most exciting player of his generation when he was coming up, it’s a shame

Aubameyang to Barcelona after all. How the fuck has that happened

I thought the whole point of all this was no more players on 200k+ wages so they were within La Liga limits

they secured a big ass loan a few weeks back

idk if or how that helps with La Liga-specific limitations imposed at the start of the season which I understood to last the whole year tho. i thought it was the La Liga rules they were struggling with rather than just the question of having or not having money. a club like Barca will always be able to raise debt so long as they can secure it against their future tv rights etc.

i don't know what i'm talking about with the La Liga restrictions though so should probably shut up

there is always room for querying voices imo

whichever podcast that homes in on it that I heard did iirc note both issues, can't recall how it resolved them other than "yeah it's a joke tbh but there it is" tho I think the extremely tight restrictions they were under last year loosen as they improve their salary/turnover/debt ratio which they've done since the Messi situation I guess

yeah i understood it as essentially a ratio of expenditure (which at Barca seems for practical purposes to equate almost entirely to the wage bill) vs turnover, and gearing up with a bunch more debt doesn't actually help them there, useful as it may be for providing the cash to make moves in the market

cutting Messi, Griezmann, Coutinho and bringing in players like Ferran Torres and Traore on what are presumably significantly lower wages obviously makes a HUGE difference, such are the wages those guys were on, but that's the confusing part of this move - unless Arsenal are picking up a hefty chunk of Auba's wages or he's taken a pay cut, I don't see how Barca can make a salary like his work under current circs.

Sid Lowe will probably sort of explain it this week

fuckin tragic that you need to be the sort of pervert who's interested in corporate finance to even begin to grasp how any of this actually works. was more fun when you could glean everything you needed to know from the Finances page on Football Manager

Newcastle look streets ahead of Everton, with Bruno still to come.

Dele has had a rough debut. Completely off the pace.

Another cracking 1-1 draw after 90 mins for super Ralphie

ASM is something special. Would love to see him and Adama Traore in the same team, fuck knows whether you’d ever win anything but it’d be such a thrill

He just quote tweeted an Everton fan who called him ‘average’ three weeks ago. I love him so much.

Incidentally, Adama looked phenomenal in the first half of Barca vs Atleti at the weekend.

too soon

unfucking believable Ben davies

park the bus ball didn't pay off for Shitford

Oh god I fuckin love Coutinho

quite an incredible fifteen mins from spurs there, should not could have conceded four and booed off like the curs they are

"Daniel James" is having a stormer 😑

Coutinho is still good, who knew

2 goals and 2 assists in like 2.5 sppearances