Rapist Robinho and Other Winter Moves

[Antepli Ejderha]

He's swapping Sivasspor for Başakşehirspor, that's the regime and therefore Erdoğan's team in reality.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Turkish footballer ‘transfer-listed after wife posts Instagram pic of him on secret holiday’ https://www.rt.com/sport/447681-serd...y-galatasaray/

Serdar Aziz has been transfer listed and is apparently off to Fenerbahçe.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Christian Pulisic has joined Chelsea for £58 million.

Is he quite that good? I've seen him play a couple of times and the ball is clearly his friend. He seemed to be one of those modern young players who is very well balanced and has a very high degree of technical consistency. (Basically he one of those kids who grew up watching Messi on the Telly and have that fixed in their head) But looking at his appearance and goal statistics from last season, he doesn't seem to get involved in too many goals (either goals or assists) despite playing in a team that is kind of set up for a young player to shine in these respects. Did I just catch him on good days, or does he generally play deeper?

[ursus arctos]

He's the best player this country has produced in recent years, but the fee reflects both Premier League inflation and some kind of marketing premium for US players.

[caja-dglh]

The story on Pulisic earlier in the season was that Jadon Sancho arrived (at 1/7 of the price Chelsea paid for Pulisic) and has kept him out of the team, though there is likely more to it than that as Pulisic had clearly signaled he had his eye on the door.

[ursus arctos]

Yes, but Sancho has also been much better.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I wouldn't be too worried about the fee. £58 million is just what a super club has to pay for a promising young player with even a full decent season under his belt. It's also about a 30% of the world record fee, which is pretty much the same proportionally as what man utd paid for Cristiano ronaldo, or what Chelsea paid for Arjen robben back in the day.

Is it a bit too early for him though? If he's going to be successful at a premier league club he needs to settle in immediately and start producing a hell of a lot more consistently than he did at dortmund. He's going to have to be obviously and consistently better than who ever he is supposed to be replacing. Otherwise he's going to find himself with much the same problems that Shinji kagawa did at Man utd.

[ursus arctos]

You quoted the fee in your first sentence and then asked if he "is that good".

I don't expect him to start at Chelsea.

[hobbes]

This is apparently why Liverpool weren't in for him. While Klopp is a fan, he wouldn't get straight in the team and £60m for a bit-parter is too much.

[Flynnie]

He's legitimately good, probably good as any young US player since a pre-homesick Landycakes, but that's an overpay.

I also expect this to have a pronounced negative effect on the generally excellent NBC Sports coverage, as they will turn into Pulisic TV and shit Chelsea games will get put on TV that don't deserve it.

[ursus arctos]

I had the same thought, and can only hope that it will have a correspondingly positive effect on Fox's Bundesliga coverage (the current home of Pulisic TV).

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

This is apparently why Liverpool weren't in for him. While Klopp is a fan, he wouldn't get straight in the team and £60m for a bit-parter is too much.

You've got a point about liverpool not being exactly at the point yet, where they're spending that much on one for the future. If liverpool had just signed him, I'd be assuming that they had already done a deal to sell salah. Whenever I've watched him he seems to be starting from the same position as Salah. Also I think that Xhaqiri has that first attacking sub position nailed down.

The only quibble I might have about that fee is that he only has 6 months left on his contract

[Nocturnal Submission]

Eighteen months.

[Sam]

When I've seen Dortmund this season, which is four or five times I think, he's looked all right when he's played. But he doesn't seem to have played an awful lot, at least in the games I've caught, and as ursus says, Sancho is better in a similar sort of role.

I think the biggest barrier to his future development is going to be his having just signed for Chelsea, though. Imagine how Mason Mount felt when he heard about this transfer. Imagine how any of the other hundred and seventy-three young attacking players Chelsea currently have out on loan felt about it.

[jwdd27]

You can easily see Pulisic being quietly loaned back to Dortmund this time next year.
I wonder if Chelsea have a marquee signing lined up to replace Hazard, who will surely go to Madrid this summer, in which case Chelsea need to find 20+ goals from somewhere.

[Eggchaser]

When I've seen Dortmund this season, which is four or five times I think, he's looked all right when he's played. But he doesn't seem to have played an awful lot, at least in the games I've caught, and as ursus says, Sancho is better in a similar sort of role.

I think the biggest barrier to his future development is going to be his having just signed for Chelsea, though. Imagine how Mason Mount felt when he heard about this transfer. Imagine how any of the other hundred and seventy-three young attacking players Chelsea currently have out on loan felt about it.

Loftus-Cheek is another who needs to move, right now.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

When I've seen Dortmund this season, which is four or five times I think, he's looked all right when he's played. But he doesn't seem to have played an awful lot, at least in the games I've caught, and as ursus says, Sancho is better in a similar sort of role.

I think the biggest barrier to his future development is going to be his having just signed for Chelsea, though. Imagine how Mason Mount felt when he heard about this transfer. Imagine how any of the other hundred and seventy-three young attacking players Chelsea currently have out on loan felt about it.

Yeah. The thing is though that it's much easier to give a chance to a 20 year old you paid £60 million for rather than give someone from the academy a go. The last manager to do that sort of thing in a meaningful way got fired for his pains.

I wonder what would fans today make of a young cristiano ronaldo taking nearly 4 seasons to score in the champions league.

[Ray de Galles]

Is seand still around and does he (or any other League of Ireland watchers) have any opinion on winger Dylan Connelly who Wimbledon have just signed from Dundalk?

[elguapo4]

He's a big powerful lad, done well with Bray Wanderers and earned himself the big move to Dundalk, never nailed down a first team place under Kenny, personally I wasn't a huge fan but didn't see him every week like Sean did.

[danielmak]

Well, I watch Dortmund every week and he's a very good player. His starting time has been reduced dramatically by Sancho (who has been excellent for Dortmund) and the lack of playing time has affected Pulisic's quality when he does play. For whatever reason Favre decided early on to go with Sancho. It's been the right choice since Dortmund have only lost 2 games all season, and as I wrote above, Sancho has been excellent. The problem is that Favre has also gone with other players over Pulisic (e.g., Goertze) who are not as good as Pulisic at this point. The thing that sucks is that he is going to stall at Chelsea because he won't get enough playing time and the biological clock will be ticking. If I was a young player of considerable quality, I would never sign with Chelsea or Real unless I was a center back.

Short version: he's a really talented player but I wouldn't expect to see that at Chelsea.

From a Dortmund perspective, I think this is a mistake because the alternatives up front are thin.

[ursus arctos]

I strongly believe that BvB will make better use of the windfall than they ever would have gotten out of Pulisic, who never saw the club as his long-term home.

[jefe]

Some of the reason he's not played as much this year is that he pulled a calf muscle earlier and that cost him 4-6 weeks.

[danielmak]

I strongly believe that BvB will make better use of the windfall than they ever would have gotten out of Pulisic, who never saw the club as his long-term home.

I don't disagree that the money is great. I was very disappointed that Dembele was sold to Barca last year but that money allowed Dortmund to purchase high quality players and my sense is that Dembele has not really panned out, in part because he's acted like an ahole. I don't see Pulisic developing the same ego. And the sale will be fine if he's replaced. If he's not replaced the money won't matter if Bayern win the league and Dortmund get dumped from the CL. I know you watch a lot of Serie A, UA, and we had a similar discussion in the Italian thread about Roma's sales last summer. They sold Nainggolan and Strootman for big money. I have no idea how well either player has done at Inter and OM, respectively, but I can say that Roma is much worse this season. There are many reasons for that dip in form but one of those reasons is a major drop in quality in the midfield and a the intangible leadership/desire to win that both of those players displayed while at Roma. My point is that a lot of money from a sale makes sense but dropping the talent level can cost a trophy and the trophy for fans would be more important and perhaps the trophy would be worth more than the sale from an economic standpoint (guaranteed CL spot, increased sponsorships, summer tours of the US and Asia, higher price for Dortmund TV, whatever).

I'm not saying Pulisic is the difference between a trophy and getting caught by Bayern, but I am saying that the the alternatives are currently thin: Sancho, Reus, and Alcacer are it. Gotze has been poor, Kagawa seems to be off Farvres radar (I can't remember seeing him on the bench even, so maybe he's hurt), and Philipp has never recovered his form since he was injured last year. Larsen would miss the Atlantic Ocean if he was standing on the beach.

[Gerontophile]

If, as I suspect, that those fuckers loan him out, Rangers should not be the destination.

[ad hoc]

It should be pointed out that Pulisic's sale is not going to make a difference to whether Bayern catch Dortmund this season since he's not actually leaving till the summer. Chelsea have bought him but loaned him back until the end of the season