Football journalism

someone voted for paul pogba as the best player in the world

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/dec/24/cristiano-ronaldo-overtakes-lionel-messi-as-the-best-footballer-in-the-world

Could fill this entire thread with witless Chris Bascombe columns but instead let's go with his Telegraph colleague Luke Edwards

Sunderland's capture of Jermain Defoe could just be the best piece of transfer business done in the January transfer window, ever.

EVER!!!
A 3 1/2 year deal for a 31 yr old who wasn't exactly prolific when playing in a decent team for the last 3 years of his Prem career.

32, so he will be being paid £70k a week (about the same as pogba's recently signed contract) until shortly before his 36th birthday

at least if he helps keep sunderland afloat for a year or two it might just about be worth the inevitable payoff (or swp/wayne bridge sitting out of contract period) but that says a lot about the financial motivation for lower epl teams and very little about the merits of jermain defoe

oh god now i see his byline picture, this is par for the course for that idiot

In other words, they have swapped a player with Toronto who, with the best will in the world, had become a joke on Wearside – albeit a fondly thought of one – for the closest thing you can get to guaranteeing goals in English football.

To make that deal happen, they will pay Defoe around £20k-a-week more than they were paying Altidore.

this would presumably mean that since ron vlaar is marginally better than christopher samba who was being paid a mere £100k a week at qpr, he deserves 40% more than that guaranteed until he is 35 yrs old

jermain defoe has only scored more than 11 goals in an epl season on two occasions

He was better than that stat suggests given he was mostly used as a sub and even then fairly late on in a lot of games - he was probably the archetypal 'give him a run of games' striker but he was either second fiddle to Robbie Keane or not deemed physically imposing enough when we were playing one up top. Ironically probably his best run of form was as the lone striker in the early days of the AVB era.

Probably not much use at Sunderland at the age of 35 though.

I mean the statement in the article is still manifestly nonsense so hey.

Robben, who turned 31 last month, rubs his bald head ruefully in a small room on a sunlit yet freezing February afternoon in Munich

It was good to be in the company of many former Spurs stars during the week at Planet Hollywood for the launch the new football social media site Hinch.as – listening to Ossie Ardiles and Garth Crooks in a heated debate about politics and religion was absorbing.

That is among the worst conversations I can possibly imagine. Not to mention one of the longest and least comprehensible.

It was a wonderful opening salvo by Jordan Henderson when he scored against Manchester City. Here is another player who seems to relish the freedom and extra responsibility afforded him in the absence of Steven Gerrard. I don't think I've seen Liverpool play with the same intensity or tempo as they did against City. If Philippe Coutinho is the new playmaker at Anfield, perhaps Brendan Rodgers might think about making Henderson the new captain.

garth crooks. presumably sub-edited. henderson is liverpool's vice captain. this decision has already been made. bbc sport in general has always been shit but it is just full of hot air morons who drag down the reputation of sporty itself.

spoken as a sporty fan and not an autocorrect fan.

Alzheimer’s was one of the ailments which afflicted his last years and in that sad sense we have been missing this great footballer and nice man for some time already.

Over in Marca, Roberto Palomar called it “a bad day to stop sniffing glue.”

Tickled by the idea that Marca journalists look to Airplane for inspiration.

Chris Bascombe, that talent free dolt, can fuck off with his club propaganda hatchet job on raheem sterling.

how much of his time must brendan spend whispering sweet neggings to raheem sterling

he seems to be sensible about wanting to get the market rate, or about trying to get to a better club if that's what he wants......german papers think bayern's interest is serious

Bit rich of Rodgers to be playing the 'you can't give young players too much' card when Sterling has been the only fully fit and trusted member of their attack all season, and has played 90mins of virtually every game.

In a season full of badly used players he's been particularly ill served by inadequacies elsewhere within the squad.

How much do you think they're paying Balotelli per week?

do we need a mino raiola vs jorge mendes poll

pands could you see sterling at bayern in 2016? he'd have a year left on his contract and ribery would be 33, robben 32 so there's space for at least one versatile attacking mid/winger opening up before too long

Most of his very best games/performances have been in a slightly anarchic up and down fast break kind of games, like I dunno Nash era Phoenix Suns. Not sure he has the nuance to be suited to a ball dominate team. Robben/Ribery can do transition yes but they can also beat players off the dribble in v tight spots against compressed defensive lines which I haven't seen as yet from Sterling. Would more easily see him at Madrid or Dortmund stylistically. Not to say he couldn't develop.

I'm also assuming Pep hasn't the intention of being at Bayern for more than another season and a half so Sterling to Bayern could happen under a different manager as I'm not sure he (pep)is super concerned with having semi-trad wingers at all and is more likely to replace Robbery with a different *type*.

Also having a hard time imagining Sterling wanting to leave England. City seems a more likely prospect to me, dynamic, young, English, suited to a more haphazard style of play.

So I don't see it no, but tbf he has proved to be more tactically versatile than I had thought likely. His movement in the CF position has been p intelligent in the main.

don't think guardiola intends to stay, he used to say he would only spend three years in one place before he decided to stay for a fourth at barcelona, which he probably regrets or at least sees as superfluous

the main reason i can't imagine sterling at bayern is just language and to a lesser extent 'culture' but i would like to see the best english player learn to play a more advanced sort of football than just reprise the twp/gerrard force of nature crap

Would like to see at least a few times what a Pep BM would look like with everyone fit and available. ie how would he construct a line up with Robben, Ribery, Badstuber, Martinez, Thiago etc Would Lahm be in MF? I'm not sure what his platonic ideal looks like.

xp For all Greg Dyke's wire fence to keep foreigners out blueprint feel like English football would be as likely to improve through exporting large numbers of players. Of course it won't happen cos richest league in the world.

the thing that most strikes me about bayern's squad is how many of the players can play different positions to similarly high levels

even a more conservative coach would appreciate that, though hopefully neuer gets to play deep lying playmaker at least once before guardiola goes on sabbatical to a sufist monastery in yemen

do you think he'll manage the Spanish national team some time in the next 10 years?

I have no idea if he's interested

i'd imagine the idea of having a constantly shifting potential squad of 50 or 60 technically gifted players appeals to him, but i can't remember how strong his catalan identity or whatever is

https://twitter.com/wwfcofficial/status/580488732391903232

Sky: "How important is that win going into the international break?"
Ainsworth: "We're in League 2; we're at Dagenham on Saturday!"

http://www.theguardian.com/football/picture/2015/apr/07/david-squires-on-mike-ashleys-reign-at-newcastle

ahhahahaha

https://twitter.com/ianprior/status/588298570790502400

https://twitter.com/gethill/status/588332393116868608

that is magical

can't wait for david squires to draw it

13.08
Someone that speaks German has actually done some proper translating! Praise the lord. Right I'm going to pass this off as my own and hope no one notices.

Klopp: "Europe will not have peace until the Jewish question has been disposed of.

"The world has sufficient capacity for settlement, but we must finally break away from the notion that a certain percentage of the Jewish people are intended, by our dear God, to be the parasitic beneficiary of the body, and of the productive work, of other peoples.

13.08
Someone that speaks German has actually done some proper translating! Praise the lord. Right I'm going to pass this off as my own and hope no one notices.

Klopp: "These are the strategic dialectics of anti-imperialist struggle: through the defensive reactions of the system, the escalation of counterrevolution, the transformation of the political martial law into military martial law, the enemy betrays himself, becomes visible."

Enjoyed Marcotti on Müller http://www.espnfc.co.uk/uefa-champions-league/2/blog/post/2412554/thomas-muller-success-at-bayern-munich-is-extraordinary and this therein

"Pour liquid into a container with a hole, however tiny, and it will always find a way through," said one veteran director of football I spoke to on Wednesday. "He always finds the hole. There's always a way through for him. He's always useful."

Michael Cox ‏@Zonal_Marking 14m14 minutes ago

Which Premier League footballer would be best at footgolf? I think Charlie Adam would be hard to beat

https://twitter.com/BestJournoTweet/status/592440688152817664

What Pirlo has done in the last two decades has transmogrified the way Italian football treats deep-lying playmakers. Previously, perhaps fuelled by famed journalist Gianni Brera’s beliefs that Italians were naturally a physically weak race and should thus focus on defending, Italian coaches have found fitting grace into their systems a struggle and, as such, have found limited value in playmakers. Traditionally the idea that the playmaker could sit in front of the defence, a la Pirlo, was thought of as inherently risky, for his type were considered foppish when what was needed in this area was brute strength and unflinching tenacity.

One example of this perspective in action came when Fabio Capello took over at Real Madrid and considered Fernando Redondo to be too elegant a player to play in front of the defence. Capello had always preferred a strongman in the position; he used Marcel Desailly at the base of midfield while at Milan, and felt Redondo’s skill set was better suited to a role further up the pitch.

Capello left Madrid a convert with a much better understanding of Redondo as a player and his usefulness as a deep-lying playmaker. This perception seems to have permanently changed in modern Italian football, for there is now plenty of room for the likes of David Pizarro and Mirko Valdifiori. Enforcement remains a valued commodity when it comes to sitting in front of Serie A defences, but those who prefer having the ball to chasing it have found opportunity too, and Pirlo continues to lead the way in that struggle at the age of 35....

The regista rages against the dying of the light, fighting to prove that there remains a place for pause, poise and unhurried, rhythmic passing in the modern game. In this fight they are given solace by some coaches who see the benefits in having them. Guardiola knows these benefits more than most because he was once one of them. Now more than ever, with the advanced playmaker becoming crowded out by double pivots and defensive midfielders, there is a strong case to be made for their retreat.

For some the case is not strong enough, however. Gerrard is an example of a player who was moved back out of necessity but failed to totally adapt to the new role. This is an indication that the regista isn’t some utopian fantasy concocted by the believers to add aesthetic beauty in a sport increasingly conquered by the tall and forceful, but is in fact a role with its own genuine subset of specific skills. It isn’t a mere excuse to include ageing greats; if they lack the required attributes, they will fail in the role. Consequently, although the best registi in the world are, generally speaking, in their thirties, advanced age is not a prerequisite but a coincidence.....

We remain in what Arrigo Sacchi saw to be an era of specialism in the sense that the regista must still be helped out by those around them. Sure, playmakers are sitting deeper now, but they must still be balanced out by more destructive players. The only difference is that while advanced playmakers required a destroyer in behind them, registi require those players in front of them.........

Naturally in such circumstances, the regista becomes more important. Their calmness on the ball and ability to play out of tight situations is more of a necessity when attackers are more willing to pressurise and harangue and more organised in doing so. The evolution of the game therefore calls for specialists in the regista role, not simply the adaptation of other midfielders to it. While the role is still seen as a retirement home for ageing icons, the trend seems to indicate that; in future, players like Carrick won’t have to wait until they are in their thirties to enjoy the adulation their unique talents deserve.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/these-football-times/2015/apr/24/age-position-football-michael-carrick-andrea-pirlo-xabi-alonso

MARTIN SAMUEL: Gerrard back to Liverpool as boss? For him to return, they must build a home fit for heroes

hard to think of a current Prem darling less likely to be capable of big league management than Stevie G

Graham Hunter's latest ESPN column even more unhinged and pompous than his Revista appearences http://www.espnfc.co.uk/club/barcelona/83/blog/post/2455130/barcelona-la-liga-title-is-more-than-just-lionel-messi

His record may fall but Sir Bobby Charlton will remain greatest British sportsman

Martin Samuel dropping Wiley 'Bow E3' in his debate column today.

lol