Not Our Circus, Not Our Monkeys… but damn the show Is Entertaining – The Other Teams Thread

🚨EXCLUSIVE: Liverpool are pushing to sign Paris Saint-Germain winger Ibrahim Mbaye. The 18-year-old is understood to be keen on the move to Anfield, with Liverpool looking to strengthen their right-wing options this summer. @RMCsport

Talks with PSG are expected to begin… pic.twitter.com/a86H6rfwmy

— Fabrice Hawkins (@FabriceHawkins) August 4, 2026

 

Thought Salah would go to Saudi and be one of the highest paid players there. Ends up in Turkey. Maybe Saudi not paying big bucks for washed superstar names anymore after Neymar saga.

🚨💣 BREAKING: Mo Salah to Trabzonspor, here we go! Club confirms agreement in place for the Egyptian striker.

Salah joins on two year deal as free agent after leaving Liverpool. pic.twitter.com/JhILAobRvE

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 4, 2026

 

That's good money, but not close to what Benzema got from Saudi in salary and sponsorships. Saudi offered Salah that kind of money earlier but he was also an elite player then.

 

A classy gesture from Neymar after Santos' win over Remo. He came off the bench and assisted the winning goal.

Momento exato que começou toda confusão na zona mista do Estádio Mangueirão entre Neymar e dirigentes do Remo.

📽️ @BrennoRayol pic.twitter.com/ljcDmIMzpw

— LIBERTA DEPRE (@liberta___depre) August 5, 2026

Após o apito final da partida contra o Remo, Neymar provocou dirigentes e torcedores do time paraense que estava na zona mista do Estádio Mangueirão.

"Eliminado! Eliminado!"

📽️ Gols Norte pic.twitter.com/l3dkgeJS40

— LIBERTA DEPRE (@liberta___depre) August 5, 2026

 

🚨🇳🇬 BREAKING: Victor Osimhen has been offered to Atlético Madrid in recent days.

The player would LOVE to play in Madrid and would LOVE to play under Diego Simeone.

His agents contacted Atleti's management and offered him for a "sum of €75m", which Atleti does not believe, as… pic.twitter.com/KEx4oAk06E

— Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) August 5, 2026

 

I know, but the Kushners were involved in the FIFA case. That was very alarming. I am not concerned about JP Morgan Chase.

 

🚨🔴⚪️ BREAKING: Bruno Guimarães to Arsenal, HERE WE GO! 🇧🇷

Agreement in place with Newcastle after long talks and personal terms in place with Bruno since July. Fee worth £75m.

New midfielder for Mikel Arteta. 🔜 pic.twitter.com/bC8q2Wv8S6

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 5, 2026

While we certainly need reinforcements in midfield, it's humorous that many folks were shouting all year long that we missed out on Zubimendi. He ends up playing just 21 minutes for Spain at the World Cup and now he is going to ride the bench for Arsenal after 1 year behind Rice and Bruno

 

Yeah, this discussion has occurred in many other threads on BigSoccer and people are often mixing up 2 different things:

Was it a good/fun WC?
Was the US a good host?

Lots of good stuff from the first question - competitive matches, great stories/upsets, very exciting rounds of 32 and 16, lots of goal scoring, etc.

But those things have nothing to do with the host countries. Would have happened no matter where the WC was played.

Unfortunately, when it comes to matters that the US directly impacted by being a co-host there were more negatives than positives. Certainly, some positives (nice, modern stadiums, sold-out crowds). But a fairly long list of negatives, with this last Trump-Infantino thing probably the worst of the list (which never happens if US is not hosting).

 

Everyone said before the World Cup that this would be the worst cup ever.

That the stadiums would be empty, people from around the world would hate it & boycott it, endless negativity & what boils down to fear mongering.

None of that eneded uo

 

Football World Cup remains the biggest sporting event in the world. Nothing would match the interest and viewership it generates worldwide.

 

And those same people are saying it was a fun World Cup that was littered by Politics. The way this World Cup will be remembered will be mixed.

 

You get that stuff before literally every World Cup. At least, the last 5 (can't recall if excessive fear mongering occurred before 2006).

But plenty of bad things happened because the US were hosting. Treatment of Iran and the Somali ref, the Balogun thing, peace prize, ticket prices, lack of the usual 'WC vibe' and of course the drama of the past 7 days.

Probably not the worst WC ever but I cannot for sure say because I wasn't about to pay $2000 to watch England - Panama.

I'm looking forward to a better time in Spain & Portugal in 4 years.

 

Spain, Portugal, Morocco WC should be incredible!

I plan to go.

 

Today I join others from across our game and call for Gianni Infantino to resign as FIFA President.

Infantino has debased the office that he promised to elevate. He has lied, deceived and tried to feather his own nest at the expense of the game he is supposed to serve. 

He has…

— Luís Figo (@LuisFigo) August 5, 2026

 

🚨JUST IN: Gianni Infantino has offered Morocco the chance to host the 2030 World Cup final in exchange for support to remain FIFA president.

— @lequipe pic.twitter.com/qcO5gzao5t

— Polymarket Sports (@PolymarketSport) August 5, 2026

 

Surely this is a joke. Pretty good joke, though.