Thoughts are with @Sergei_Shtaniuk today. Haven't heard from him in a few years but you know he's bummed. It was a fun ride watching Stoke and GC, and i dont have the heart to go on Oatcake. Can i say that NBCSports's coverage after the whistle was top notch..incredibly aware, perfect somber tone, everything. Did I tear up when they sang out City Til I Die....and the Palace fans applauding...... yes...yes I did.
Hope he gets some minutes next week. I wonder how much of the club gets picked up by various PL clubs. Crouch stays dont ya think? Shaquiri goes. Isnt 1 of their new strikers on a loan? I wonder if Shacross will remain.
Sad to see Stoke go down. They were a plucky team that played ugly effective soccer, to me the most USMNT-like of the Premiership teams. Unlike others (Sunderland, Hamburg), I feel bad about them. They went down the first season they faltered.
The realties of relegation set in after that final whistle. You got to feel for just about any club's fans. That's a crusher to know you were going to be watching that much less relevant football for the foreseeable future. We went through a similar experience as national team fans at the end of last year. And this hit me a smidgen personally because that's a club I'd followed much more than most in recent years thanks to Geoff. Too bad he couldn't have helped propel them to stay up, but either age or injuries caught up to him. Wasn't even on the field much in recent months to change the outcome. Not a club which should have went down given their spending in recent years. I can't say I'm thrilled with the bottom half of the EPL recently. Pro/rel giveth and it taketh away. Hopefully Aston Villa and Fulham can bounce back up for next season.
Not a bad place for a young prospect to land? Some pieces will have to be replaced and promotion is possible.
They can chant about the Munich disaster and Ramsey's broken leg in the Championship all they want now. ******** Stoke.
https://sillyseason.com/salary/stoke-city-players-salaries-101363/ lists his wages at 14 K pounds a week, but they also identify him as being from Ireland. His wages seem far too low. I've seen another site which lists his wages at 30-35 K a week.
I am most fond of the Rory Delap days. I know that most people here don't like route one football. I, on the other hand, appreciate it when it was done well, as practiced by Stokes and Bolton in their "prime" years. For me, it was nice to see a contrast in style and realized that there are many ways to skin a cat.
Its all a scam. A few teams have mega-bucks, no mechanism to even the league out. You are either owned by billionaires or you are on relegation watch. It's tedious.
Well, thankfully there is always MLS for folks like you. Personally I like the real competition format that rewards those who do well and punishes incompetency. Three years running of your top purchase not being able to break the 18 would do the same to most anybody, but the very elite in the game. Stoke spent enough, they just spent it extremely poor. Sparky can do fine on a budget, but as soon as he gets some money, he takes your team down, that is his M.O.
LOL...Englands number one? Hard to forget the howler he had down the stretch that cost three crucial points. Between his and Adam's mistakes they lost 8 points down the stretch, when they really needed points.
*Rewards clubs that sell their souls to become playthings for business tycoons + punishes incompetency would be more accurate.
He was referring to the transfers where players were signed for significant money but never really featured. Rodriguez, Berhanino, Affelay, Krjic and a couple of others who just never really spent time on the pitch for discipline reasons, wanting to be somewhere else, etc. His issue was with a poor transfer policy vs the guys who were out on the pitch.
We ought throw that debil media $$ in there somewhere too. I do like how the Germans at least try and make sure local fans don't get priced out even if they did sell their soul to Bayern in perpetuity.
In news that should surprise no one, Geoff is considering a move back stateside. Sources tell me Geoff Cameron is considering moving from relegated Stoke to MLS this summer, with several teams interested in the longtime US international. If he joins the league, he'd go through the allocation process. LA currently hold the top spot: https://t.co/Aypaxmierh— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) May 22, 2018
I must admit I was happily surprised he started for an EPL club that long. But, then, it was the ideal situation for him. In a way, Stoke always was like a powered-up MLS team.
If I were him, I'd stay at Stoke. I can't see him getting more than 750-800 K a year in MLS. Maybe a million if he reminds everyone he played in a World Cup. Perhaps some promoted side might take a risk on him for depth.
168 PL matches, 186 in all competitions. 6 years. It'd have been interesting to see if he'd drop down to another Euro league; but I doubt he'd wanna slash his wages so much. Other than a move back to MLS. But isn't a move back to MLS effectively putting a nail in the coffin on his NT career?