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Post by barbados on Jul 10, 2024 21:22:46 GMT
Euro final will be England v Spain.
people will complain the the England penalty shouldn’t have been, but in order for it to not be a foul the Dutch defender needs to get some of the ball, and all he kicked was Kanes foot.
Two very good goals open play as well.
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Post by efros on Jul 11, 2024 22:15:19 GMT
Just spotted this in the Coming Home video,  |
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Post by barbados on Jul 14, 2024 17:00:08 GMT
I mentioned elsewhere the the final would be England v France, mainly because France had been extremely lucky throughout the tournament.
But it’s Spain, and I fancy our chances higher against Spain than I would have against France.
So I’m going to go for an England win on penalties
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Post by tetsabb on Jul 14, 2024 18:37:57 GMT
I have put another bet on . Spain -- 2-0 at 9/1
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Post by barbados on Jul 16, 2024 10:33:43 GMT
Gareth Southgate has resigned.
It’s a pity really, he has been quite successful.
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Post by tetsabb on Jul 16, 2024 18:26:29 GMT
I imagine there will be a lot of applicants for the post, from all those who reckoned they could do better.
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Post by celebaelin on Jul 16, 2024 19:08:22 GMT
Arsenal transfer interests:
This quote (by me) taken from our previous home.
In (possibly)
Negotiations are becoming 'relatively tough' - Bologna want at least £43million.
A possible alternative to Zubiemdi.
Following Euro 2024 there is a lot of interest in Williams - notably from Barcalona - but Williams has passed a 'final audition' for Arsenal so potentially the deal is still on.
Out (possibly)
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Post by celebaelin on Jul 25, 2024 17:29:26 GMT
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Post by celebaelin on Jul 27, 2024 18:18:56 GMT
The only two South American teams at the Olympics are Argentina and Paraguay and the realistic midfield targets are therefore limited to Argentinian Thiago Almada (23, Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas) and Paraguayan Enso González (19, Wolves). Both play as Attacking Midfielders who can also play on either wing.
There is some however disagreement about the exact progress of the Merino negotiations.
Swedish Centre Forward Viktor Gyökeres (26, Sporting CP) has also been mentioned though not very assertively. The ex Coventry player has recorded 29 goals and made 9 assists in 33 matches in Portugal.
football.london also states that David Raya's place at the Emirates has become permanent.
Italian Left Winger/Second Striker/Right Winger Federico Chiesa (26, Juventus) has also been mentioned.
The Sun also reports discussions with PSG for Spanish midfielder Fabian Ruiz have been initiated.
Arsenal are also reportedly rivalling Chelsea to sign Argentinian Centre Forward/Second Striker/Right Winger Julian Alvarez (24, Man City).
Nuno Tavares (24, loan Lazio), Albert Sambi Lokonga (24, loan Sevilla), Cedric Soares and Mohamed Elneny have become free agents and Reiss Nelson (West Ham/Leicester), Eddie Nketiah (Marseille) and Emile Smith-Rowe (Fulham) may also change clubs.
Paris Saint-Germain have started negotiations with Barcelona for Nico Williams potentially stymieing Arsenal's move to sign the young Spaniard. |
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 13, 2024 16:59:25 GMT
3 days before the start of the Premiership Season...
Nketiah’s departure either on loan or as a sale would be necessary for a new winger or striker to join the team.
Coman has also been linked with Man City.
Arsenal are not short of money - reportedly there are sufficient funds already in place to buy all of their major targets; I'm assuming what is intended by that is one player in each role not literally ALL of them! What might be an obstacle would be if the price asked was not percieved as value for money.
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 15, 2024 13:29:54 GMT
With Chelsea and PSG also interested the outcome of the chase for £100M+ Napoli striker Victor Osimhen is open to question - but strikers in general do not come cheap (although Man City bought Erling Haaland from Dortmund for a fee of €60 million/£52M).
Echos of the competition for Mudryk? Who knows? Oh, and by the way "Release the mammoths!"
I imagine the intention would be to secure Swedish international Viktor Gyökeres for less than the stipulated release cause. On a personal note I played a character called Victor the Viking Swede (who was an actual Swede - as in a root vegetable) in Coventry in an RPG called Toon several years decades prior to the striker's arrival there; so a move for Gyökeres to the Emirates would be rife with resonances as far as I'm concerned - meanwhile as far as I am aware Newcastle have no interest in the player...
I'm off to check if FF has Solanke registered as a Spurs player yet.
Man Utd vs Fulham is at 8pm tomorrow.
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 16, 2024 15:09:27 GMT
In addition to the usual suspects (Gyokeres, Coman and Osimhen) in regard of transfer possibilities The Standard also mentions Bayern Munich's Leroy Sané - primarily a right winger but also left or attacking midfield. Though not the first time I've heard him mentioned I'd think the €70M associated price tag for the 28 year old would preclude any possibility that such a purchase would be a bargain.
A move to the Emirates would apparently be news to Coman himself and Osimhen seems to be bound for Chelsea though with a swap deal for Romelu Lukaku lessening the impact of the €100M price tag. Sporting CP rejected a €85M (~£72M) bid for Gyokeres last January. Reports as of 2 days ago suggest an £86M (€101M) price tag on the player and I can't see that happening - not that I'd know how to go about calculating it but I'd have thought €86M would be closer to the mark. Mikel Arteta has been uncommunicative on as yet uncompleted transfer deals but appeared to voice the opinion that Nketiah, Havertz and Jesus (plus Trossard, Saka and Martinelli) were sufficient. Certainly if Havertz continues to show the improving club form in front of goal that he was doing prior to Euro 24 then it could be argued that another striker is unnecessary but Gyökeres Liga Portugal form of 29 goals and 9 assists in 33 matches (43 goals and 15 assists in all 50 games played) last season is the kind of goalscoring that Arsenal do not have at their disposal and haven't had for some time ever - unless you count Fran Mérida who played for a total of 81 minutes in 2008 and scored one goal.
The predicted starting XI against Wolves that the The Standard suggests is:
Raya
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko
Odegaard, Partey, Rice
Saka, Havertz, Trossard
That doesn't look right to me but hey, what do I know? If White and Zinchenko both (probably alternately) play higher up the pitch and Partey plays defensively then the main question is why start Trossard who played such an important and versatile role from the bench last season.
Would
Raya
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber
Odegaard, Merino, Rice
Saka, Gyökeres, Havertz
be any better? I'd like to think so!
What Arteta has said is that Jurien Timber is fit and will be in the squad for the Wolves game and that youngsters Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ayden Heaven (all 17 at time of writing) will all be training with the senior team.
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 17, 2024 14:07:06 GMT
And so it begins...
The Standard and The Sun are reporting Merino to Arsenal as a done deal - or at least their headline is; in the body of the piece the tone is slightly more reserved.
The starting XI vs Wolves was/is:
Raya White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko Partey, Rice, Odegaard (? Partey is shown on the right consistently but Rice and Odegaard's positions are swapped in some reports)
Saka, Havertz, Martinelli
Subs: Ramsdale, Calafiori, Timber, Jorginho, Nelson, Nwaneri, Trossard, Jesus, Nketiah
The conflicting reports over whether the Gyokeres deal has been agreed or whether the price has remained too high the suggestion has arisen that Santiago Gimenez (23) Mexico currently playing for Feyenoord may be a possibility at €40-50M. In the 30 Eredivisie matches last year he scored 23 goals with 6 assists (104 minutes/goal)
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 18, 2024 13:26:35 GMT
With a squad bearing hardly any relation to that of last season my FF campaign is off to a good start; well, good for me. With 1 player yet to play I have entered the rankings in my highest ever nuiumerical position (high 900,000s) - that's top 10.9% which isn't quite as high as I ever got last season but it's close. A good points scoring game from my remaining player could nudge me into as yet unknown territory - we shall see.
Events in the Chelsea vs Man City and/or Brentford vs Palace (Haarland would get you 5pts, Kovačić 8, Wissa 8 and Mbuemo 7 - any one of those doubled if chosen as captain) have caused a setback to those numbers of quite surprising proportions and I'm now languishing in the ignominious low 2 millions (~24%) - on the other hand hope remains as my single remaining player is still yet to play and might redeem the situation for me to some greater or lesser extent.
In fact the only points I gained were those for playing 90 mins so an inauspicious start in fact now that Game Week 1 is concluded. Better than my initial effort of last year however if memory serves.
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 26, 2024 15:45:33 GMT
Arsenal transfer news has gone eerily silent but Arteta is probably not done yet. Atalanta's Ademola Lookman has been mentioned as a forward possibility but not extensively.
After only 2 games played not much can be said but amongst the few things that can be reasonably noted are that only 4 teams retain a 100% record (Man City, Brighton, Arsenal and Liverpool) and that 7 teams are yet to record a win (Everton, Wolves, Ipswich, Crystal Palace, Southampton, Leicester and Bournemouth).
A disappointing FF week saw me drop a shedload more positions so I'm now about where I was at this point last year and will probably need to make a succession of changes over the next few weeks even if injuries do not additionally interfere.
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 27, 2024 16:34:54 GMT
Merino signing confirmed.
Fabio Viera moves to Porto.
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 30, 2024 0:41:57 GMT
With so little time left I may as well...
What about Michael Olise? Assuming he's over the hamstring injury...
€55.00M
Eddie Nketiah's move to Palace seems increasingly likely which suggests another forward might be arriving...
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 30, 2024 11:20:51 GMT
Less than 11 hours left.
There are Youtube reports that the signing of Viktor Gyökeres is essentially a done deal but I'm not hugely convinced as my searches for confirmation do not reflect this except in that Arsenal are 3/1 favourites to recruit the Swede.
Looking at other possibilities Raheem Sterling does seem to be the best fit both to ease the workload on Saka and as a versatile forward. Of the players under consideration his scoring record of roughly 230 minutes per goal is the only one actually better than Saka's except for the more specialised centre forwards and even then Gyökeres has only achieved his astronomically high figures in the last season or so - he has, btw, scored 6 in three games so far this season.
Sterling (29) has been told he will not play at Chelsea under Enzo Maresca so if he does move to Arsenal it is likely there will be no fee involved. Additionally his wages would almost certainly drop but he would at least be considered to play moderately often in some forward capacity not necessarily limited to cover as right wing.
Raheem Sterling and Viktor Gyökeres for a total of €65.00M (transfermarkt listed price)? Unlikely I'd have thought but it makes my mouth water a bit!
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Post by suze on Aug 30, 2024 13:27:55 GMT
Viktor Gyökeres ... the Swede.
He was born in Stockholm and he plays for Sweden, so he is undoubtedly a Swede.
But his name is blatantly Hungarian. If that is not his heritage, then I'm a Dutchwoman.
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 30, 2024 15:27:37 GMT
No need to rummage around for the clogs just yet.
Merino has been injured in his first training session as a result of a collision with Gabriel; he will be out for several weeks. |
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Post by suze on Aug 30, 2024 16:46:21 GMT
Aaarghhh! I read that article - it was my source for his place of birth - and somehow managed to look straight through the sentence about his Hungarian ancestor(s).
If Arsenal are indeed to sign Gyökeres they need to get on with it. But now that Ramsdale has departed for Southampton, while the third and fourth choices have been allowed to go to Real Valladolid and Wrexham respectively, does a goalkeeper have to be top of the shopping list? As things stand I don't think they have a goalkeeper to put on the bench tomorrow afternoon, and if Raya gets injured then Arteta is asking the guys "Umm, did any of you play in goal at primary school".
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Post by barbados on Aug 30, 2024 17:18:57 GMT
They are very close to signing Bournemouth Captain Neto as a replacement.
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 31, 2024 9:45:38 GMT
Neto is a done deal as is Sterling, both on loan, but no on Gyökeres.
I think that looks pretty promising but I'd have liked to see the added firepower. Worries over the workload on Saka have been addressed and assuming a recovery period of weeks rather than months for Merino I look forward to seeing the 'perfect foil' for Rice and Ødegaard in action relatively soon.
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Post by tetsabb on Aug 31, 2024 18:47:47 GMT
By all accounts, a good performance by Brighton and Hove Albion
😉
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Post by celebaelin on Sept 6, 2024 14:05:32 GMT
Harumph!
I've looked at the Rice red card maybe 20 times and all I see is the ball being played into the back of him and then Rice being second yellowed for 'deliberately kicking the ball into touch'.
Perhaps the game was destined to be a draw anyway - since Trossard's transfer from B&HA he's played a major part in Arsenal's efficacy in closing out with a win. That said that refereeing decision was appalling and none of the explanations offered seem to match the observed events. To see Hürzeler claiming the result as a personal achievement and implying that - under his skilled leadership - a win should have been Brighton's lot makes my blood boil.
I hope Arsenal will appeal the decision and free Rice up for the north London derby but I fear your managers ill-chosen words and 'getting away with it' demeanour may sow the seeds of some dislike amongst fans.
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Post by tetsabb on Sept 6, 2024 15:45:16 GMT
San Marino won a competitive match yesterday evening for the first time. 1-0 against the mighty Liechtenstein.
Attila the Stockbroker was inspired to poetry
They've finally won their first game
So San Marino I acclaim
And note the decline
Of poor Lichtenstein
Who head back to Vaduz in shame
The bad news is, he inspired me.
Previously it was always 'poos'
They'd lose and they'd lose and they'd lose
But now things turn out fine
And they send Liechtenstein
As losers back to Vaduz
I was ever so pleased to find rhymes fir Vaduz
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Post by suze on Sept 6, 2024 17:05:54 GMT
Nick Sensoli does not bank with Coutts And nobody sponsors his boots But his volley went in San Marino's rare win Sent the visitors back to Vaduz
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Post by tetsabb on Sept 6, 2024 20:13:23 GMT
Nick Sensoli does not bank with Coutts And nobody sponsors his boots But his volley went in San Marino's rare win Sent the visitors back to Vaduz
Bravo! The BBC mentioned that the lad who scored was not born when San Marino last won, also 1-0 against Liechtenstein |
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Post by celebaelin on Sept 7, 2024 11:15:43 GMT
As acknowledged above in fact that was the second time (unless you meant the first time that evening); first time since 2004 though (140 games).
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Post by suze on Sept 8, 2024 13:25:20 GMT
The game in 2004 was a friendly though. The win on Thursday was San Marino's first win in a competitive international.
It occurred to me to wonder whether San Marino's women's team fares any better than the men. It doesn't, because San Marino does not as yet have a women's national team. Women may play on "men's" teams at all levels and there are said to be "a few" playing the equivalent of Sunday league, but the only women's team in the country plays in an Italian league.
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