The 2014-2015 Football Thread

The biggest strength/threat of United will be the lack of CL football. Moyes for all his faults has handed them a huge advantage by failing to qualify for Europe.

LvG will be able to focus all his £550m worth of resources on a top 4 charge with no European distraction.

Its the same slight advantage Liverpool had last season.

Then again the squad is still lacking which could prove to be an achilles heel. Time will tell.

In other news i'm starting to put West Brom (haven't strengthened) and Southampton (being stripped for parts) down as relegation contenders.

Bad news Man U fans. Chevy just issued a recall for the new kits. Millions effected by oversized logo.

Looks like the United team will continue to lack for a while longer

Vidal to United may not happen. Could be good news for LFC who are apparently sniffing.

Vidal is the right age for Liverpool but I can't see them matching or bettering Man Utd's rumored £39m/£200k per week offer. The only thing Liverpool can offer this season that Man Utd can't is the Champions League. Liverpool are also linked with Benzema for similar money.

Meanwhile, Andy Carroll is having surgery on a foot problem and will be out for up to four months.

Seems no one will ever get what Newcastle got out of Carroll anymore. His best days might be behind him.

Well looks like Austrian 2. League Club St.Pölten managed another miracle(after winning the cup last year): with a 2:0 home victory they made it into the next Euro league qualifying round....Hilarious... Next up might be PSV

SV Grödig managed the next round as well... Not bad for a team who got promoted to 1st league just last year

Also in the weekend the austrian league started and Red Bull Salzburg absolutley trashed Rapid Vienna 6:1
And Rapid was 2nd last year. I hope they go through in the CL qualifying, because Salzburg has some seriously great squad currently

Drogba returns to Stamford Bridge. Why?

daneoni said:

Drogba returns to Stamford Bridge. Why?

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He could hardly do worse than their roster from last season...he'll probably make a solid pile of dough too.

Wonder what will happen to Lukaku now. Chelsea now have 4 strikers (even if 2 don't really count). Mou must be desperate to win something this year other than "we beat the champions and Liverpool twice".

Speaking of Mou, he's taunting United on Shaw.

Meanwhile, the Southampton exodus looks set to continue as Calum Chambers is being linked with the Emirates. Nice also confirm Ospina is on his way.

Are Southampton one of the favorites for relegation now? They've lost at least half of their starting 11 and the exodus probably hasn't finished yet. They haven't signed many replacements yet either.

If I recall, Southampton's owner recently died and left the club to his daughter, who wants rid of it. But rather than keep her best players and try to sell it as a successful operation, she seems to be running the club into the ground.

Meanwhile, Adam Lallana adds injury to insult by damaging a knee ligament. He cost more than Kroos....

^
Sad for Southampton fans and staff really. But you have to wonder why the owner left it to the daughter knowing how she feels about football.

I fear you may be right.

Half the squad is being gutted for money with no replacements in sight. Might also explain why Pochettino bolted. And why the players are looking over the fence.

New England 1-2 Columbus.

Two wins in a row now for Columbus. That's called a winning streak. An important away win against a team who are close to us in the playoff race.

Wonderful curling free kick by Federico Higuain for the opening goal.

Is he related to Gonzalo Higuain?

Meanwhile, Remy's move to LFC has collapsed. But Origi a done deal for £10m.

Kariya said:

Is he related to Gonzalo Higuain?

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Yes indeed, his brother. He's slow and relatively small but has excellent touch, passing and vision. His deadball delivery is world class.

Kariya said:

Meanwhile, Remy's move to LFC has collapsed. But Origi a done deal for £10m.

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Origi looked decent at the World Cup. He's very young - that can be good or bad.

Lovren completes his move too.

Do United have any center backs other than Evans, Smalling, and Jones?

Nope. Club linked with Arsenal's Vermaelen, Villa's Vlaar and Dortmund's Hummels.

Vermaelen the most likely of the three. Hummels the least.

swiftaw said:

Are Southampton one of the favorites for relegation now? They've lost at least half of their starting 11 and the exodus probably hasn't finished yet. They haven't signed many replacements yet either.

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It's ok, they've still got leading scorer Jay Rodriguez...Well, that is until Liverpool buy him as a replacement for Remy...

Chambers completes his move to Arsenal.

Meanwhile, today in doppelgänger.



Uncanny.

swiftaw said:

Do United have any center backs other than Evans, Smalling, and Jones?

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Michael Keane.

Lord Blackadder,

You mentioned G. Gonzalez; he had a good World Cup - also a good fantasy pick.

Cheers,
OW

oscillatewildly said:

You mentioned G. Gonzalez; he had a good World Cup - also a good fantasy pick.

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Most Columbus fans are resigned to see him leave this summer, though I have not heard of any specific concrete offers. Personally, I hope we keep him but he should probably be playing at a higher level than MLS. Alongside Michael Parkhurst he gives Columbus one of the best center back pairings in the league.

Vidal joined ManU! Unbelievable how much money is spent in the PL!

edit: ehm, might be a fluke though

I see that Liverpool have loaned Origi back to Lille for the season. More strikers to be signed perhaps?

twietee said:

Vidal joined ManU! Unbelievable how much money is spent in the PL!

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The post-World Cup transfer deals really show what tremendously poor value English clubs get in the transfer market - they may have access to most of the best players but they pay disgusting amounts of money for them. Spain (outside the top two), Germany and Italy build great teams on far less money in most cases (and those nations also keep producing amazing players).

Vidal is a pretty skillful player though. LvG is going to have a much better squad to work with than poor old Moyes did; arguably a better squad than Ferg did the last couple times he won the league as well.

Well, not sure the Vidal news is legit. But the two statements of mine weren't really connected. Vidal would be exactly the player the need, other than a good CB or two...