The Football News Thread 2023/24

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Mane will be playing up front with Ronaldo next season.

Mahrez and ASM also agreeing terms to go.

There aren't many defenders going to Saudi are there? Its going to be a bit attack heavy!

 

[Donegal Wolf]

Side issue though: does that mean they'd have five teams qualify automatically as hosts? Because that would be very weird.

Read somewhere a few weeks ago that plan was all would play in qualifying and if they didn't make it 2 would get automatic qualification. So imagine hope is at least 1of the others automatically qualifies with England then 2 more get in as hosts.
As it is, stadium in Belfast still hasn't started work and latest budget is £110million & rising so can't see that as a goer

 

[The Bear]

Mane will be playing up front with Ronaldo next season.

Mahrez and ASM also agreeing terms to go.

There aren't many defenders going to Saudi are there? Its going to be a bit attack heavy!

Koulibaly went to Al Hilal with Neves. That's about it.

 

[Alan]

Definitely going to be interesting to see how the Saudi defenders cope with the expensive imports.

 

[Kenny]

Telles has gone to Saudi.
Some Scottish defender also gone there.

 

[Tredman]

For those of you with an athletic sub, this is an interesting read:

https://theathletic.com/4729050/2023/07/31/al-ettifaq-saudi-jordan-henderson/

I wasn’t that aware as I should have been about vision 2030 but kinda working on Neom I’ve seen the huge amounts being spent.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

From a Sheff Utd fan:

Just in case people don't know how fucked we are next season.

- Chairman refusing (for last 12 months) to put in any money as he wants to sell the club.
- Means we paused stadium and training ground improvements.
- Didn't offer new players contracts...most important being Ndiaye.
- We are now selling one of our best players ever for half his value (£20m) on the eve of going back to the Prem. We cant replace him so we are losing our best attacking player.
- Our next most valuable player (Berge) will leave on a free next summer.
- Owner fucked around with some dodgy African, who didn't have the funds to buy the club anyway, pissing off a few legitimate bidders.
- Our most expensive signing (£2.5m) can't get a visa.
- We can't get Doyle back on loan as City want us to cover his whole wages (£55k pw) which we can't.
- We have a threadbare squad of 15 with any first team experience.

Next season is going to be a absolute shit show.

 

[darlowolf64]

From a Sheff Utd fan:

Just in case people don't know how fucked we are next season.

- Chairman refusing (for last 12 months) to put in any money as he wants to sell the club.
- Means we paused stadium and training ground improvements.
- Didn't offer new players contracts...most important being Ndiaye.
- We are now selling one of our best players ever for half his value (£20m) on the eve of going back to the Prem. We cant replace him so we are losing our best attacking player.
- Our next most valuable player (Berge) will leave on a free next summer.
- Owner fucked around with some dodgy African, who didn't have the funds to buy the club anyway, pissing off a few legitimate bidders.
- Our most expensive signing (£2.5m) can't get a visa.
- We can't get Doyle back on loan as City want us to cover his whole wages (£55k pw) which we can't.
- We have a threadbare squad of 15 with any first team experience.

Next season is going to be an absolute shit show.

That’s one, just need two more to keep us safe…

 

[lemonjelly]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66359526

anyone reckon it'd be meaningful? worst offenders for this are the sky six, but it'll be other clubs lamped by this if they did it imo.

 

[Alan]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66359526

anyone reckon it'd be meaningful? worst offenders for this are the sky six, but it'll be other clubs lamped by this if they did it imo.

I desperately want someone to track cards given out for this and break it down by race at the end of the season, to be honest.

Not suggesting they'd find anything (here's hoping, anyway), these kinds of initiatives, though well-intentioned, often fall foul of respectability politics.

That aside, something does need to be done in some way. If nothing else, it's just bad optics. I stopped watching El Clasico exactly because of antics like crowding the ref, doing a Busquets, etc.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

Adidas have just signed a deal with Man Utd for a further 10 years (until 2035) in a deal worth at a minimum of £900 Million.
That should keep the Wolf from the door....
So, what's our deal worth and is that being considered when taking our debts into account?
Chelsea signed a big one back in 2017 for 15 years, also for £900 million...

 

[Kenny]

Ours and most other kit deals are loose change compared to that but then we don't have the global reach of Man Utd.

Also a clause in that deal if they miss out on the CL for 2 years the value of the deal drops.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Castore are paying us more than Adidas did, if you believe the club (seems fair enough given they've made big investments across the board over the last five years, the England cricket deal can't be cheap):

Castore unveiled as Wolves’ on-field partner in landmark deal

Wolves have agreed a multi-year partnership with British premium sportswear brand Castore to become the club’s new on-field partner, in a landmark deal...

www.wolves.co.uk

 

[Wolf Hunting]

In other good news the FA have issued some new rules regarding players behaviour on the pitch.
"Players must not confront, invade the personal space of or make physical contact with the match officials"
Also, "2 or more players surrounding a match official in a confrontation manner will result in a yellow card and also be reported to the FA"
No mention of how transparent the referees are going to be I notice...

 

[Johnny75]

It's our last year of Castore isn't it before we go to the everbland Nike stuff.

 

[Johnny75]

In other good news the FA have issued some new rules regarding players behaviour on the pitch.
"Players must not confront, invade the personal space of or make physical contact with the match officials"
Also, "2 or more players surrounding a match official in a confrontation manner will result in a yellow card and also be reported to the FA"
No mention of how transparent the referees are going to be I notice...

What about the third running towards the Australian referee?

Special yellow card?

 

[BillyDee]

This new good behaviour charter will no doubt go the way of all other previous initiatives.
Applied unevenly for a month or so, then dropped completely.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

So, erm....

https://twitter.com/x/status/1686459601091182594

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Gianluigi Buffon has finally called it a day. Made his debut in November 1995.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Gianluigi Buffon has finally called it a day. Made his debut in November 1995.

Ah that's it then, he must be the only professional player who was still playing that's older than us?

Other than Miura.