News: Teams competing for Trophies - The Other Teams Thread [R]

According to Di Marzio, PSG and Barca have come to an agreement in regards to Neymar.

https://gianlucadimarzio.com/en/barcelona-psg-reach-agreement-for-neymar

Should be confirmed by other sources in relatively short order if there any truth to this.

 

🚨 🚨 Le #PSG dément formellement tout accord avec le FC Barcelone pour Neymar. (RMC)https://t.co/bcQHm447qT

— Vince (@VinceMalouh) August 29, 2019

No one appears to have confirmed the Neymar to Barca news and now according to RMC, PSG categorically denies anything is done.
Rumblings that it's still being worked on and is close but nothing is done, yet.

 

Yawn

I don't think there is a single, especially challenging group for the top 2 seeds in each this year.

 

The most exciting group is H. Lille will be fun to watch this year.

 

Groups F and H (and G to a lesser extent) appear to the most compelling to me. In F, Barca are obviously favorites, but 2nd place is up to the taking between Dortmund and Inter.
Group H could end up being very close with all 4 teams having reasonable hopes to qualify (and no one head and shoulders above the rest). Group G is somewhat similar in that aspect as well IMO.
City with another cakewalk of a group is getting boring...

 

It would be a huge surprise to me if Inter pipped Dortmund.

 

Both teams have strengthened pretty significantly this summer but I have this feeling that Inter, personnel wise, have a team that could do well on the European theater. Not good enough to go all the way, but they cause some surprises.
Dortmund have made some good moves which could make them even more dangerous offensively but the big question is whether Hummels can improve them significantly at the back.
Should be an interesting fight for 2nd, unless one of them decides to prioritize the league this season, which is really not out of the realm of possibility as far as either team is concerned.

 

Thoughts and prayers to Luis Enrique and his family. His daughter passed away from some type of bone cancer. She was just 9yrs old.
That explains why he stepped down so abruptly from his job as Spain's national team coach in June. Just terrible and sad news.

 

RIP Little one ..

 

Things getting ugly between Icardi and Inter as he files a lawsuit vs the club.

https://gianlucadimarzio.com/en/ica...a-lawsuit-and-demanded-a-return-to-first-team

Very curious as to what Icardi's endgame is here. He's supposedly desperate to get reintegrated into the team (in the context of being part of the squad at least), yet he feels he has to sue the club to do so.
Not to mention, I get that he loves Milan but at still just 26, he should be thinking about his career. I could understand not wanting to go to Monaco, but Atleti are said to be interested as well. Talk about a potentially close to perfect situation for him: Simeone would surely help him succeed, since he could make the team better if he got his head straight and into the game. There's a more volatile and controversial guy there in Costa (who would take some of the flak and attention off of him). And if were to play his cards right, he could easily become a cult hero to the fans there.
Still time for something to happen I suppose and we'll see where it goes. But this is just kind of weird, as events certainly have taken a turn in that story.

 

He has case for constructive dismissal.

 

I wonder if the laws in that regard are the same in Italy than they are in the US or Canada. Not being completely intimate with the goings on between the club and the player, apart from what has been reported to the press. And based on that, his position would appear rather tenuous since his and Wanda's behavior since things started going south between both parties has not really been exemplary or without fault either.
Also, he's suing Inter for just €1.5mil, so it stands to reason that money is really not the reason he's doing this for. Maybe he's just looking to hurt/destabilize the club in some way as the season just started, which might further his reputation as a troublemaker. Just an odd and unfortunate situation all the way around, not least of because as mentioned, Icardi is a talented player who still has plenty to offer in the right situation.
I do hope for his sake that he does end up moving by the deadline to another club and starts fresh (or at least as fresh as he can, away from Inter).

 

21 Years old Abraham scoring for fun, meanwhile we have a 21 years old pissisng about continuously and all we can do is say "He's Only 21 Years Old", what a load of fcuking crap

 

Second brace in a row now for Abraham (won't be surprised to see go on some crazy little run). Meanwhile Haller at West Ham scored his 3rd of the season. He looks like he found his feet pretty quickly in England.

In some bad news for City, Laporte has been stretchered off the pitch, with what looks like a serious injury. If they lose him for a significant period of time, that could be damaging for them. The luck on that guy: finally gets called up to the French national team by Deschamps and he gets injured. Rough stuff...

 

We're fortunate that the clubs expected to be around us in the table are dropping points as well. Sheffield United just got the equalizer vs Chelsea, when it looked like they had this game well in hand.

 

Ref just screwed Villa out of 1 point.


VAR doesnt matter when refs are just shit.

 

PL refs sticking with their shit.. Chelsea and Manutd both giving each other hopes..

 

Fernandes on his failed move this summer.

Spurs now will presumably out of the race for him, we shouldn't be surprised if Pool end up making a move next summer (perhaps even Chelsea). Bottom line, we had a pretty good shot at getting the guy this summer, but we passed and maybe have lost our window entirely (unless we move for him in January, which we might have to tbh.

 

It's likely we weren't in for him IMO. Especially given that statement.

Sporting tried using us to get more from Spurs.

 

It's been made clear for some time that we were not (seriously) in for him. It doesn't mean that it was the right call, particularly since it's obvious that we have a serious issue with lack of creativity in midfield and at the 10 spot (if we are going to persist with the same 4-2-3-1 setup).
Seems pretty obvious to me that he still might be a viable answer to that problem for us unless someone like Gomes is given opportunities and rises to the challenge.
If we're to have any hopes to make top 4, it looks pretty evident that we'll have to do something in January to address that issue.
Eriksen and Maddison are 2 other players who would be good options, but the former obviously prefers a move to Spain and as to the latter, it would be surprising to see Leicester allowing him to leave mid season. And he is sure to cost way more than Fernandes when he does become available.

 

There is no way Liverpool doesn't win the title this year. Makes we fcking puke to say it.

 

Pool have the hunger to win the title, which could carry them some ways. But at the same time it's a long season and we simply can not overlook City. That team is just a machine that keeps rolling along, almost no matter what.
They've lost Sane, no problem. Laporte, if they lose him for a long time as feared, it could be a problem. We'll see what happens, but what we can say almost without a doubt, is that it will be between those 2, again, for the title. Unfortunately for us and everyone else...

 

Higuain just destroyed Koulibaly to put Juve up 2. They're going to run away with that league yet again.