Lets Talk Football

Does this mean England are slightly better than Argentina now?

The Argies were always going to suffer without a known right back, and with a very flappy keeper, and that reliance on front 3 magic, but my god the Germans can unpick an unbalanced team can't they? The fourth goal was sublime.

Barring injuries to key types like The Swine I can see them doing the Dutch in the final. Altho Spain will probably be their toughest ask yet (if the lanky 'liverpudlian' finds his shooting boots/brain especially). Very glad this tournament has gone from catching alight to burning away merrily like a bonfire of exciting-football-against-the-odds

Thought Ghana-Uruguay was a juicy encounter too, on the underdog end of the scale. Felt bad for 'em coz I reckon they were ultimately the better team on the day. Insane jubbly-bubbly goals tho. (Keepers have always been mental, now they're going to have to be 4-armed-mutants to deal with movement like that )

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It looks like the people who said that a European team was favourite for this WC because of the seasonal climate might have been on to something after all.

Well done to those ruthlessly efficient Tutons, although this side resemble a souped-up Golf GTi rather than a Mercedes S Class - Quick, manoeuvrable and all the power going through the front.

Is it too quick to call Muller (a 6' 1" wide man - get that, English football! ) the player of the tournament? He's certainly the surprise of it, for me.

The Argies had, I believe, what's known in the trade as a Reverse Samson. Some of them need a bloody good haircut.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

And for me too. He looks fantastic. Gangly and stylish - he'd fit in nicely at Spurs although apparently he may be Goon bound .

I wonder if his value has been pushed up beyond l'Arse and Spurs? I'd heard rumours of Arsenal being linked with Khedira too (the stories about Ozil disappeared as his price went up and Fabregas seemed to have second thoughts about spending a few years on a Barcelona bench) but none recently.

It'd be nice to see some English clubs other than Man City and their squad of 200 midfielders picking up some World Cup stars. Of course, a lot of them could turn out like Daniel Amokachi - best to see how they did in the season leading up to the tournament.

Muller is just one of a number of Bayern academy starlets to generate a bit of interest over the last few monts (even pre-WC) - the rather raw pair Helgem Badstuber and Toni Kroos as well. Schweinsteiger has been linked to Chelsea and I read today that Real Madrid - a graveyard for footballers if you ask me - have offered £40-odd million for him (an offer which looks unbelievably sensible upon todays performance).

As for Khedira, word is he lives and breathes Stuttgart and does not want to go anywhere. Refreshing, even more so if that means the Goons miss out because he has been sensational, and much better than the lacklustre and injured Ballack would have been i'm sure. Wenger should know not to sign a player based on an international tournament anyway. After all I think he originally came up with that now popular mantra.

Let's be honest nowadays anyway, if great players come to the EPL, they will unfortunately be City or Chelsea bound, simply because no other club has the stupidity/audacity/profligacy to pay the transfer fee and their no-doubt exorbitant wages. I wonder if you can notice the extreme disilusionment proliferating through the last few lines

I think the way Real run their club is disgraceful but it seems likely that City will try and copy them - If they get CL football I can see the whole squad being under threat because they'll immediately become more attractive to the proper top line stars.

I remember a stat which said (I think) that of all the World and European players of the year that Real have had on their books from the original Galacticos era to the present day, not one of them actually earned the title while playing for the club.

Re: Ballack. I wonder how much the make-up of the German team would have changed had he been fit? Presumably he'd have played in Schweinsteiger's position and have pushed Bastian further forward in place of, maybe, Muller who had only a handful of caps before the tournament.

Of course, Low should have figured out pretty early on that he no longer has the legs at this level but he's been their talisman for so long...

Germany were so good today. Going one up early helped massively, of couse, but the Argies just ran about helplessly and never got a shot on goal (did they? I don't remember one.) I really did think that the pace and movement of the front three would overwhelm the German defenders, but they never got close. Football makes mugs of us all at some time, doesn't it?

Interesting to see this 'average' German team doing so well. It's odd, but they've had an 'average' team for 10 years now and, in three World Cups they've reached one final and two semi-finals (so far.) That's not too shabby, is it?

Some Saturday gossip.

Fergie is going to sell Berbatov and Anderson to fund the signing of Karim Benzema.

The Daily Mirror says that Ashley Cole is desperate to leave Chelsea and that Real Madrid are putting together a package worth £30m.

They also say that Jose Mourinho also wants Steven Gerrard, and is willing to offer midfielders Rafael van der Vaart and Fernando Gago in part-exchange.

footylatest are reporting that Liverpool are looking into a transfer for Yashuhito Endo from Gamba Osaka. No mention of a fee though. They also say that they'd like to talk to Joe Cole.

In the Daily Mail, West Ham have upped their offer for Loic Remy, the Nice striker, to £11.1m. They're also maintaining their interest in Santos forward Neymar. Santos rejected a £12m bid.

The Daily Mirror has Man City spending £15m on Aleksandar Kolarov who, I believe, is a left back.

The Mail have a story about Everton closing in on a deal for Neftchi Baku's 18-year-old Azerbaijan midfielder Araz Abdullayev. There's a challenge to the blue half of Scouseland. Try coming up with a song for him.

They're also sayng that West Brom have made a move to sign Cardiff's out-of-contract midfielder Joe Ledley, which would cost around £750,000 in compensation. At the start of the off season there were rumours of Real Madrid interest. That's quite a fall, isn't it? Or just a sign of how much crap the papers shovel during the summer transfer window.

Kris Boyd's coming South of the border according to The Mirror. Middlesborough or Birmingham.

However, The Sun say Blackburn are in, as they put it, pole position, to sign the Rangers striker. They add that Big Sam is also keeping tabs on Frederic Piquionne and Stoke's James Beattie. Wasn't it Raul last week?

The Daily Record say that Kris Boyd will decide his future in the next 48 hours, but definately won't be going to Kayserispor or any other Turkish clubs.

Jamie Carragher thinks Gerrard and Torres will be at Liverpool next season. He told talkSPORT; "The aim for the club will be to try and get back in the Champions League,"

Yesterday, footylatest had a story saying Arsenal are looking at AS Monaco's highly rated keeper Stephane Ruffier who has told his club that he wants to leave this summer. Juventus, Napoli and Bayern Munich are also reported to be interested in the 23-year-old. Wenger looking at a young French player? He's as good as there, isn't he?

Of course, they also had a story saying that Spurs are prepared to pay upto £25m for Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Actually, that sounds exactly like a Spurs deal.

*Edit* Just seen a couple of things that I don't think have been mentioned.

Firstly, Yossi Benayoun has moved to Chelsea. I don't know how much the fee was, but I remember £5m-£6m being mentioned in the rumours. Secondly, Yaya has moved to Man City, which I think Brod or Fenwick may've mentioned, but I don't remember reading that the fee was £28M?!?!? OK, that's only the "suggested" fee, but still. Even in dreamland you wouldn't see Yaya Toure being worth £28m. No wonder he's gone to City. That's £60m so far this summer for City. James Milner would add another £30m to that tally. That's £90m and not a world class player amongst them. How does that happen? I know that they're not in the CL, so the real world class players probably won't go, but how do you spend £90m on 4 players without a world class player being among them? Also, with Milner (if he goes) and Yaya, they're not even trading up, IMO.

Lastly, COME ON HOLLAND!!!!

I am not usually one to look twice at paper gossip but there is some interesting stuff here:

Come home Berba, come home

This is exactly what you'd call a WC signing. Footylatest doesn't exactly sound cast-iron though does it?

I thought East Canning Town Bingo & Social Club were skint? I reckon Gold and Sullivan have adopted the Alan Sugar method: aim for players you know are above your station and out of your price range, let the fans know and feign ambition completely.

Zlatan doesn't have the best rep in England, mainly because everytime he has played in ol' blighty or in any game covered on the box over here, he has been for lack of a better phrase, piss poor. Make no mistake though he is an uber-talented goalscorer with 1 in 2 at every club he has been at. Admittedly his ego far exceeds his work rate (I think I read that in one CL match for Barca this season, his goalkeeper Victor Valdez ran more metres than he did) but if it were possible for us to somehow fund this deal (somewhat a moot point because we can't and/or won't) I would drive to Catalonia to pick him up. And pay for the petrol.

I know. I've also seen Liverpool linked with another Japanese player, Honda. Sounds like economical sense and the kind of market that Woy (and, for now, Liverpool) will be paddling in.

I hope they don't sign either player, as I was driving myself mad during the World Cup when those names were mentioned. Everytime they said "Endo" I thought about him marrying a Dutch woman called ver End and everytime they mentioned "Honda", I then had a series of passes to the rest of the brand name team, "Honda, to Sony, to Kawasaki, up to Mitsubishi..." etc. I've been doing it throughout the World Cup with just about every team and I do it with league football, too. It's a sickness, I tells ya.

I know exactly what you mean, but, as you said, I've yet to see him do much. He looked ok for the first couple of months at Barca. Well, he looked like he always does, but at least he scored some important goals, but that only lasted for those couple of months.

Can you guys believe Barça traded Eto'O + € 45 mil for Zlatan? That was a colossal mistake. Eto'O had just played a great season, but left because Guardiola has "no use" for him any more or something along those lines. Every team on the planet can use Eto'O...

In other news:

According to the Daily Mail, Fulham are set to sign England keeper David James on a free transfer. The keeper now moves to the Europa League finalists with Fulham's number one Mark Schwarzer tipped to move to Arsenal next week for £3.5 million.

So Schwarzer is going to be the new no.1 at the Emirates. I'm not sure how I feel about that.


Oh and here's to hoping Spain produces the same kind of performance against ze Germans. They'll get mauled. Especially Casillas who's not been looking well this tournament. Try putting glue on your gloves, Iker, maybe then you can actually hold on to the ball...

If you're an Arsenal fan though, Brod, surely you can see that Schwarzer is a more reliable keeper than Almunia, can't you? I'm surprised it's taken this long for Wenger to get a keeper in. I thought he needed a better keeper than Lehman, but he was much better than Almunia. Though, tbf to him, he's been behind an Arsenal defence that is much shakier than in Lehman's day.

That said, are we sure that Schwarzer is the new #1? Maybe he's been bought as good cover or maybe he and Almunia will battle it out for the #1 shirt? When these rumours first started I thought it was paper talk because I couldn't see a player of his age, with a first team place, moving to Arsenal to sit on the bench. Maybe I was wrong or maybe Arsene's promised him a chance at the #1 jersey. We'll find out soon enough.

Sunderland have almost wrapped up a £1.5m deal for right-back Marcos Angeleri from Estudiantes. They've also agreed a season long loan deal for Ahmed Al-Muhammadi. Simon Mignolet (goalkeeper) and Cristian Riveros (midfielder) have also signed for Sunderland.

It's interesting to note that Fabregas has started making noises about staying at Arsenal, now he's spent 3 weeks on the bench for Spain. I still wouldn't rule out a move, but it does appear that things may be cooling off, but I think Arsenal fans will be sweating it out until the transfer deadline has passed... If he's not gone before then, of course.

Mario Balotelli's agent claims that City are showing interest in his player, while the player himself is making noises about Arsenal. Anything there or is it contract time at Inter? Maybe if those rumours about Real looking at van Persie have anything to them, this would be a good replacement?

A little more detail on the Ashley Cole to Real deal. According to The Mirror, Ashley Cole has had enough of England and wants to move overseas. And it just so happens that 'Spanish giants Real Madrid have put together a package to sign the £30million-rated Chelsea left back Cole this summer and are extremely confident of getting their man.'

'Real Madrid have sounded out his representatives, made it clear they are willing to beat his current £120,000-a-week wages while his strong relationship with his former Blues boss Mourinho is another major factor.'

'Cole... is disillusioned with his life in England and wants a fresh start.'

According to the Mirror, Cole has even received 'death threats' after his alleged message to a friend that he 'hates' England.

I don't think that Balotelli is the most popular guy in the Inter dressing room right now. Just a hunch.

Re: Big Schwarzer. He was the most underrated keeper in the league once Hellboy went from Blackburn to Villa and, looking at his Fulham exploits, upped his game a few notches since he arrived at craven Cottage. How many Prem keepers are better than him right now? Not many.

Wenger's thinking is apparently that he has faith that Flappyhandski will come good in the next couple of seasons but surely he needs a good long loan spell somewhere for that to happen. The move would work if Almunia is willing to spend a year as #2 which would probably depend on how much they're paying him - If he's on relative buttons then I can see him wanting to leave for 1st team football but if he's a big earner (I know that's a bit of a stretch but football is frequently mad ) I doubt many clubs would be willing to match his wages considering the guy is nowhere near a reliable #1 keeper.

I should be surprised that it's taken Wenger so long to realise there's a problem. Turning Alex Song into a very good player is testament to the good side to Arsene's bloodymindedness but surely it's a step too far in making Almunia a reliable goalkeeper?

Loaves and fishes spring to mind.

PS - I'm glad Spain squeaked through. We've had enough shocks, thank you.

If Spain didn't have Villa would they have got out of the Group stages? Instead of Looking like a Wenger wet dream two years ago they're now looking like what Wenger sees on his training ground every day. Ok, Alonso isn't exactly Diaby or Denilson but can he play in the same side as Busquets and function in that system?

The 2008 Spain only had one non-attacking midfielder...

They also didn't have Torres playing like a drain, to be fair.

About Schwarzer: I'm guessing Schwarzer was brought in as the new # 1. At least, that's what I hope. Almunia is ok as a replacement for Schwarzer, but as Tatty and HK already said, he is nowhere near good enough to be # 1 in a team like Arsenal.

But are we sure that Schwarzer is brought in as the new # 1 or did Wenger bring him in to duke it out with Almunia for # 1? I think it's pretty likely that he was brought in as the new # 1 though.

Now, we just need Cesc to stay (looking more and more likely, my hope of seeing him staying is on the rise again) and a solid central defender next to Thomas Vermaelen.

A comment about Manchester City: Why are they buying players that offer no significant surplus value? Ok, that Boateng guy is a tank and from what I've seen from him at the world cup, he is solid. The £10 mil may be a correct amount.

But Silva and Yaya Touré? Silva was sold for a supposed £25 mil, Yaya was bought for an astronomical £28 mil. That is insane money for those guys, that does not reflect their abilities.

I read that Shay Given is content with his team's recent signings, because it shows that the team means business. No Shay, it means they've officially become the Premier League's Real Madrid. There is no vision at all. Well, there is one: a short-term vision based on buying a bunch of individuals for mostly excessive amounts of money in the hope of winning a prize next year.

True, but he had to move Song to a different position to make him a better player. Unfortunately, you can't do that with a keeper. According the wiki, he's 33. With few exceptions, this is as good a keeper as he's going to be.

Again, we're agreed. With fancied teams going out in the group stage and first knock-out stage, it's all very exciting, but you only have to go back to the 2002 World Cup to see what it does to the latter stages.

I think this Spain team is having the same problem that last seasons Barcelona team had. Which shouldn't be any surprise, of course, as the same players are the heartbeat of both teams.

I'm not sure about Silva, but £25m was the price tag, so that one wasn't a surprise. Still not sure how he'll do in the Premier League. I'm expecting him to be brilliant early on. He's got pace and tricks that'll baffle Premier teams, but he's going to get kicked all over the place and he finds La Liga hard enough. I think he's better than what they have, but still not a superstar, world class player. Not yet, anyway.

However, as I said, £28m for Yaya is ridiculous. That makes him one of the top 5 most expensive British transfers ever, doesn't it? Maybe 6th?

I read or heard something the other day which was something I hadn't thought of. It's possible that City could put a first 11 out on opening day that doesn't contain a player that's been at the club for more than 18 months. That's a whole new game, isn't it? I don't think that Chelsea could've done that when Abramovich started splashing the cash.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but Sunday's here mean one thing in the football world....

... Bumper Football Transfer Gossip Day.

The Mail On Sunday has a piece about Roy Hodgson's wish to bring Ashley Young to Anfield, to boost the number of British players at the club. If it's true that he's got £15m to spend, I think wishing is all he'll be doing.

Whereas The Sunday Mirror has him looking at Gervinho who, they tell us, is an Ivorian right winger who plays for Lille. They also say he's interested in Newcastle's central defender, Steven Taylor.

Staying with the Mirror, it reports that United will have to pay £30m to get him from Sevilla. I don't see that happening. He won't cost that much and I don't think he'll go to United either. If Fergie had wanted him, he'd have stumped up £15m-£20m a year or two ago. I think he's off to AC Milan and Sevilla are just trying to up the price now. Of course, I said a similar thing about Owen Hargreaves, who United could've bought for about £5m, before shelling out £18m. I guess, sometimes, Fergie either changes his mind or sees things later than he should. Anyway...

In the News Of The World they have United buying Gary Cahill from Bolton for £15m. Anything in this? He seems to be the defender of choice among the papers. The price stays the same, it's just the team that changes. I really can't see £15m there. Anyone who wants to lay the blame for Englands defeat on the amount of foreigners in 'our game', need only look at that price tag to see why it's happened.

The Mail On Sunday say Chelsea are 'back in the race' to sign Atletico Madrid wunderkind, Sergio Aguero. "Back in"? Were they ever 'out'? Anyway, £20m is the price now. If I remember correctly, that's about half what the rumour mill was saying at the start of the close season.

The NOTW are also reporting that Chelsea are interested in Benfica's Ramires.

Spurs will make a bid for Luis Suarez if they fail to persuade Diego Forlan to leave Athletico Madrid. That's in the Sunday Mirror.

While the NOTW has Harry wanting to bring Micah Richards to White Hart Lane. That'd be a good move for Micah and, possibly, England, but only if he can find that early form and promise he showed a few years back.

If it wasn't for Spurs and Man City, I don't know what the papers would do. Anyway, the Mail On Sunday have Craig Bellamy in Harry's sights.

The Sunday Mirror have a story that I like very much. They say that Stephen Ireland may well be leaving the Wastelands, with United waiting with open arms. I think that'd be a great signing. One I've hoped for since City were taken over. They also say Mancini may turn his attentions from Milner to Arteta.

The NOTW agrees, but says Mancini may offer Stephen Ireland, Nedum Onuoha and Michael Johnson in exchange for Arteta.

The Sunday Express are flogging this Neymar to West Ham story for all it's worth. Today they have the Hammers upping their bid to £12m. Isn't that the £12m offer that the Mail said had been rejected the other day? Also, am I wrong in thinking that Chelsea have already signed a deal bringing him to London in a year's time? Or is that a different Brazilian wonderkid?

Whatever the case, the NOTW say that Steve Sidwell will reject Fulham and join West Ham this summer. I'm assuming that, if he's going, that the deal to sign Curbishly as manager is all but done then?

Birmingham are 'considering' a bid for South African striker, Katlego Mphela.

I'll bring this up just because I can't be sure if it's the reporting or something to be worried about. Fabio Capello has told the FA that he'll get rid of the big name players if they don't show an immediate improvement. Erm... Shouldn't that be his job? If he didn't do it, why not? And if he doesn't believe he should do it, why will he? Anyway, just thought I'd mention it.

Continuing my disbelief at the cost of signing Yaya Toure, the NOTW say that he's become the first player to break the £200,000 a week barrier. They say he's on £220,000 a week, which will net him £55.6m over the course of the 5 year contract. Anyone think he'll leave City before his contract's up, whether he's playing or not? Yaya Toure, the C21st Winston Bogarde.

Lastly, The Sunday Mirror have an 'unnamed' England player telling us that they were worn out by Fabio Capello's training session before the Germany game... But has the good grace to tell us that they weren't good enough. So, as usual, we do have a foreigner to blame for our departure from the World Cup. It's just that, this time, he was on our side.

Germany versus the Netherlands in the final. Germany wins.

The one exception, I suppose, is David James but that's a sad indictment on the state of English goalkeeping in general. The other indictment is that people were even touting Almunia for a call up last year when he became 'British' through residency - A guy who's never represented Spain at any level.

We'd have him, though. As backup to Maik Taylor.

It was argued that Spain have a great crop of keepers anyway but, as an aside, hasn't Casillas looked shaky recently?

That's one of the big problems for English football in a nutshell. An uncapped player in his mid 20s who's nothing more than promising at this stage in his career and he's worth (paper talk I know but I'd be surprised if any transfer fee was much less) £15mil? There was similar madness with Lescott and Barry last year and Carrick a few seasons ago.

I know market forces dictate the money involved but when you're adding £8-10mil to a player's price just because he's English it's little wonder most clubs are put off taking a punt on a player and shopping in Europe or Africa instead.

Dunno if there's a similar premium for native players in Spain or Italy. Probably, but I doubt it's anywhere near as daft as in England.

Casillas has looked shaky but, unless there's an underlying cause, I'd still love to see him at United. There have been noises that he may leave Madrid at some point in the not too distant future. I would, however, worry that once he left Madrid, his heart wouldn't be in it.

I've not heard of players in Spain or Italy (or any country for that matter) having a premium on them and certainly nothing like the British clubs do. Over the years I've seen plenty of transfer in Spain for about £2m-£5m which, unless it's United/Chelsea/Real, etc then the price stays the same.

Can't see Cassillas ever leaving Real, he's arguably the best keeper in the world and has been up there for many years now, Real would be stupid to let go of someone like him who has given his life to the club.

I think realistically keepers who could replace VDS would be the likes of Akinfeev, Lloris, Frey, Neur or even Kamini.

I really want to see Fergie make a big signing this summer, whilst Smalling and Hernandez have bags of potential, they aren't going to be the difference between 2nd place and winning the title.I believe United need an excellent central midfielder and out and out goalscorer to take the burden off Rooney. Suarez with his goalscoring and 'keeping record would be great to see as I also think Dutch league players seem to adapt well to the Premiership as seen by the likes of Nistelrooy.

I'd liked to see Suarez come to United as he's an attacking midfielder/striker who can play in a wide attacking role and that's what I think United need to play #2 to Rooney. He can play alongside him, if necessary, out wide (ala Ronadlo) and is good enough to play on his own instead of Rooney.

I didn't see Casillas leaving either, but there have been murmurs (probably just press talk) that Mourinho is talking about getting a new keeper. Both United and City have made their interest known in him and he's said that he's aware of it. No, he doesn't want to leave, but he's prepared to if Real want to cash in.

Of those you listed (and I agree that they're far more likely) I really like Lloris and Frey. I hear and read good things about Akinfeev, but I've only seen three games he's played (two against United last season and another CSKA game) and he's looked good, but it is only three games.

Anyway, onto the transfer talk.

Lots of chatter about Torres leaving Liverpool. Nothing new there, but this time there's quotes. Not from the player, you understand, but from his agent.

Ooh. Chelsea are said to be first in line. That's not a huge surprise is it? My guess is they're the only team in line.

The Mail says this about Torres and the situation.

Would he go to City? I know it's not United, but it's still Manchester and that not exactly the Scousers favourite city, is it?

The Sun chips in with this.

After his, rather good IMO, performance at the World Cup, the Daily Mail say that Arsenal have approached Sporting Braga about keeper Eduardo. They say he has a £3.4million buy-out clause in his contract. Apparently he was off to Genoa, but I'm guessing that he'd choose Arsenal over Genoa, unless he wants to play in Italy for reasons other than football.

The Mail also has Man City spending oodles of cash in the next few days, as well as tracking every big name striker in Europe that may move/the journalist can think of. They say that Aleksandar Kolarov and James Milner will sign in a few days for a combined fee of £42m Up front, they're checking/considering out the following:

Torres, Edin Dzeko, Mauro Balotelli (who they've asked about apparently), Edinson Cavani, Mirko Vucinic, Karim Benzema.

I read, though I don't believe it's true, that they're being put off a bid for Dzeko because Wolfsburg are asking for £50m. Erm... Seeing as anyone with a passing interest in the player (or just read this thread) knew that he had a £34.5m buy-out clause in his last contract (which ended last month) and that Wolfsburg were worried someone would trigger it before they could get him to sign this new contract (which doesn't have a buy-out contract, to my knowledge) I can't see just why that'd be the case.

Diego Forlan has said that he's staying at Athletico Madrid. So, The Sun, says that Spurs are now looking at Luis Suarez.

According to The Telegraph, West Ham are frustrated that Matthew Upson hasn't told them what he wants to do. But The Sun says that West Ham are ready to cash in with Sunderland said to have tabled a £7m bid.