I guess the big winner today is Dundee's Ian Harkes. With Leeds going down, no one noticed he also got relegated.
There’s a reason even the military rotates personnel back home. It’s more difficult to work abroad for extended periods of time than people think. But feel free to consider that soft if you must.
Leeds deserved to be relegated and were. Idk why there was so much optimism entering the season. Leeds squad wasn’t good enough.
A combination of a Yank hangover from Marsch keeping them up and a decent start to the season. Orta allegedly chasing the signatures of players like Gakpo over the summer while letting the backline rot is quite funny in retrospect.
A shame for our guys there, but knowing their fan base all I can say to Leeds is, "I'm glad you're dead."
Just think of what that can buy you on the CB market.... at the very minimum I high quality EPL level defender. Or they could have split it up and bought a better CB and LB. But they spent 35 million pounds on a player that hardly played and never scored. Yikes. And I actually liked Rutter coming out of Hoff. But 35 million was an awful lot considering their defensive woes.
How would Juve fare in the PL? Bottom of the table PL sides are outbidding the Milans and Juves of the world. This Juve is not the Juve of Pirlo and Nedved, et all. Maybe one of those guys could've come into a relegation threatened side, and from sheer "class" (subjective) risen the play of the guys around them, and ultimately saved them but we'll never know. Which midfielder from their current team could've done that? I think this exposed a few things: Wes is off mentally, and maybe physically. A run of the mill player for Juve also looks run of the mill for a relegation side in the PL. We won't know what version of Wes we have until next season when, hopefully, he finds a team and project that he can and wants to succeed in.
If you read their boards at the time, you'd know they thought he barely played for Juve and that Allegri wanted him out.
You're comparing the experiences of soccer players, who have a say in where they live and get paid to kick a ball, to those of military personnel, whose jobs are a bit more important than soccer, and who do not have the same agency in choosing their job conditions? Really? You should be ashamed of yourself.
Leeds is just a broken team right now. They better fix it or they may get relegated next season - and how long was Sunderland in the first division?
If true, he's got no business being in the sport in the first place. Certainly not in a professional capacity, at least.
That‘s good isn‘t it? It‘s making our guys tough. Only through being mentally hardened by this sort of thing will we ever hope to compete for a WC one day. That‘s what I have heard for 30-40 years. This is the only way we will get there.
This is off. Not touching the financial side of this, because you're right that newly promoted clubs can spend more than every team in Serie A except for Juventus. As for players making a difference, I'm extremely confident that just in the midfield Rabiot comes in and shows his quality, same for Locatelli. Szcesczny makes the backline and organization better, as well as overall shot stopping capability. Just about any defender except for Bonucci and Alex Sandro would increase the defensive solidity. The attack wasn't too bad for Leeds, it would have been enough to stay up. It just didn't work out for him at Leeds, it didn't turn out to be the right fit, I was fairly sure that was the case when he made the move. That doesn't mean he shouldn't be criticized from the Leeds supporters and I think it's perfectly fine to call the loan a complete failure. At least they aren't stuck with him and he isn't stuck with them.
Well looking at stats would show that he played plenty. As for Allegri, I think Allegri was fine with Wes but wasn't going to fight to keep him around either.
Interesting statistic: over 3 EPL seasons Leeds have conceded 157 goals, which is more than any other team in Europe's Top 5 leagues over the same period. This season was an accident waiting to happen.
No doubt the goalkeeping, defense, and probably number 9 options are better at Juve, but midfield is roughly equivalent, which says a lot given their respective statuses. And we have no idea how much money Juve has or doesn't have, especially since they've gone to such great lengths to cook the books. One would suspect not a lot, or even negative. Do you anticipate a firesale there this summer? Are any of the main guys clamoring to get out?
No need to look any further than Exor for how much money Juventus have. The plusvalenza case was about buying and selling players for more than they were worth (in the eyes of the courts) habitually. The prisma investigation is about paying players under the table and not recording it correctly and they are a publicly traded company. It was all about "financial fair play," and not about having insufficient funds to pay players or purchase new ones. Juventus does not have to sell players, but some may want to leave because of no CL or if Allegri sticks around. Rabiot, Paredes, and Di Maria are all not going to be at Juventus next year. Rumors that Valhovic and possibly Chiesa would want to leave if Allegri stays.
Loco Bielsa taken to its logical conclusion: "look ma, no defense! Just attack, attack, attack...." "But they get tired!" "Not if motivated correctly... yes, that's it!"
Rough news. Especially since most of those guys are big players for the team. I wonder how many of them end up at Chelsea. For some reason I picture Chiesa there
Everyone knew it was going to be a horse-race down the stretch, but Leeds was in charge of its own destiny not that long ago, they just never made the adjustments they needed to (and I don't know if they had the ability.) In the end, they needed 6 more points to stay up. They had a few spots they could have snuck them. Giving up an 80th minute goal to LC was the worst of the recent ones. Fulham they played fairly even, and perhaps could have nabbed a point, and somewhere they needed a surprise. Had a chance at that v NUFC, but really, with Everton finally getting some points, it was always a long shot. Everton with 4 ties in last 10 games - all but one against higher-table teams as well as the shocker win v. Brighton. 7 points where it easily could have been 3, or even 1... Everton did what they had to. Leeds, not so much.