News: Felipe Anderson and the misguided Scottsman - OTT [R]

A Spanish youth coach has been sacked after his team won 25-0...

.. because "the margin of victory went against the spirit of the game" 😳🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/WeUoF2aTwL

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) June 16, 2017

 

The season he did all that off season work, he came out flying for LVG. Then the injury.

 

Ultimately, it may be just about more money, but I really believe it's him having a strop or at the very least, that kind of response is a way of taking the accusations levied against head on and showing his indignation for those accusations. I definitely don't believe he has any plans of leaving for sure and there is something else there in play.

 

Antonio Conte frustrated over Chelsea transfers but club will not bow

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...e-chelsea-frustrated-transfers-board-signings

 

According to the Times, Pool are trying to raise additional funds for their summer kitty, by selling Sakho (asking price is £30mil), Moreno (£12mil) and Markovic (£20mil).
And United are allegedly willing to give away the likes of Smalling and Januzaj for £15 and £8-12 allegedly. Woodward has to do better than that and be aware of the market as it currently stands.

 

20m for Markovic? Haha....no way.

 

Markovic is still just 23 and could be considered in some circles as having some kind of upside. I don't buy it personally, but Silva allegedly is interested and if he's sold to another Prem club, a 20mil fee is not impossible.
Pool are just following the market. That's the smart thing to do if you ask me. All Prem clubs are making out like bandits now with that tv money really kicking in

 

Smalls is an England international with loads of caps and there is a premium for those players in the EPL. He should be worth more than just 15

 

We're not going to command more than 15m for Smalling.

Think about it. He's not going to City. Not Liverpool, not Arsenal, not Chelsea, not Spurs and probably not even Everton. He'll at best go to midtable club like a West Ham and I doubt West Ham itself would be interested. Sure, even bottom half prem clubs have cash but there isn't going to be a bidding war for Smalling, who's been rather poor for all of the last 4-5 seasons except for a very commendable 4-5 month run last season. One half of one season isn't going to start a bidding war.

There is one ESPN report that Wenger is interested in Smalling. Great news for Smalling if that's really the case. But there's no chance Wenger will spend big money for a United fringe player who would be a fringe player behind Koscielny and Mustafi (Mertesacker isn't going anywhere). Welbeck went for 16m a few seasons ago but Welbeck had much more promise than Smalling does now.

If anyone offered 15m for Smalling now, I'm pretty sure Woody's fax machine would perfectly to accept the offer.

 

That's precisely my point. The way the market is in the Prem currently, with players fees massively inflated, it makes no sense to get that amount for him. On top of the factors listed above, Smalling is still 27, very much in his prime, not to mention that with the paucity in even just decent CBs in the game in general, he's worth way more than that.
United, by right, could easily and would get £30mil, if they wanted to play hardball. As it stands, a minimum of 22-25mil is what we should be getting from him, especially if the plan is to move him within the league, where all teams are flushed with cash at the moment.

 

It's all about wages when moving down a level. We had to give on the fee due to his wages, otherwise, it won't happen.

 

That's partially the reason why my figure of £30mil has some wiggle room, but cut in half? That doesn't make much sense. Smalling may be a luxury to us now granted, but he'd still be a very solid acquisition for quite a few Prem clubs. Under the current circumstances, the discount those clubs are entitled to shoud only go so far.

 

Ashur, this doesn't make any sense.

If United didn't want to sell Smalling he wouldn't be going anywhere in the first place. But because United are eager to sell Smalling there's no way Woody is going to hold out for "easily 30m". It's not in the club's financial or sporting interest to reject offers for a player who's surplus to requirements.

The clubs that can afford 30m for a CB will want much more than Smalling offers. Bailly went for 30m last summer and I hope most here will agree that Smalling is no Bailly. Lindelof just went for 40m and by all accounts Lindelof is a massive upgrade on Smalling, whose poor play for United in recent years is no secret.

Clubs who would be willing to take Smalling -- and JamesA makes a good point to remind us of Smalling's wage -- won't want to blow a massive amount on him. It's not exactly the predicament that we're in with Rooney, but there are some parallels. Rooney and Smalling were poor, bordering on horrifying, this season and both are no longer young prospects who just need the right club. They're both on very generous contracts and any club like a Stoke would be reluctant to take on that kind of contract on top of a 30m transfer fee. And I seriously doubt Smalling will want to downshift much, if at all, on his wages. He'll land somewhere, but there aint gonna be no 30m offer for United's fourth or fifth option at CB.

 

More on Ronaldo-gate...

www.bbc.com/sport/football/40307407

Doubtful that Ronaldo himself will want to address the situation while in the Confed Cup with Portugal, even though he will be asked about. It may go away in time but something's definitely amiss here. But if this about more money, it's frankly a poor way to go about, but everything I've seen indicate a legitimate beef on his part. So who knows?
But it's very evident, for a number of reasons, that bringing Ronaldo back to United is neither straightforward or even easy, given the circumstances around him at the moment (starting with that court case obviously).
PSG would look like the ticket for me: the football in the league may be very poor, but he'd be a massive boost to any CL aspirations they have (and which is still the primary goal). And let's face it, their team as currently constituted is closer than any team in Europe that is not Real, Barca, Bayern or Juve. And from a financial point of view, they would absolutely no qualms at all paying whatever is necessary. The city of Paris also sells itself as well.

 

Agreed. If Ronaldo is going anywhere, PSG offers challenges and opportunities that United just doesn't. On the other hand, Ronaldo bringing a CL trophy back or two to Old Trafford would put a capstone to a legendary career that winning a CL trophy for PSG simply wouldn't. Still, on the balance of things Ashur is right that PSG makes more sense than United for Cristiano.

Madrid forums are taking this development very seriously and are already consoling themselves that life will go on.

 

Douglas Costa to Juve is close to a done deal according to L'Equipe, for a mere £26mil.

 

wow and Jose wants to spend 45 million quid on mediocre Perisic.... #JoseRaus

 

Jose and United's latest offer for Perisic is £35mil. Inter are demanding 50+...

 

Great deal.

 

Absolute steal.

 

Interesting on a couple of fronts for me. Surely, there must have been other clubs interested in him (which should have increased his value), unless of course Douglas Costa empowered Juve by telling Bayern it's the only club he would leave for. 26 is simply a fantastic deal for them, no 2 ways around it.

 

Once it got to 15, I'm telling my kid to find their best player and get a straight.......

 

Right.

Call me when the biggest clubs in the game aren't angling for every competitive advantage they can get.