Let the silly season begin

[dalliance]

Let the silly season begin

On Neymar: while he's undoubtedly a skilful player I don't think he's anywhere near as good as the value of this deal might suggest. I also don't think he's what Barcelona need at the moment and he'll need a massive overhaul in both his way of playing and his attitude if he is ever going to fit in there.

Quite aside from that, buying Brazilian internationals in a season with a World Cup at the end of it is a hugely risky venture. There's a long lineage of their players switching off and coasting at club level to protect themselves for the following summer.

[ursus arctos]

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Carvalho to Monaco now official.

[Sundeporino]

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My Spurs suporting mate at work took one look at that Sunderland linked list and said "Youre doing Moneyball in a big way".
It had never occured to me. Id read the book ages ago and will do so again. Ill buy the dvd tomorrow.

[Gerontophile]

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Kolo Toure to Liverpool (say Reuters, on the Guardian.)

[loose cannon]

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L'Equipe today had Tevez lined up for Monaco

[danielmak]

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The Guardian has an interesting short piece about Monaco's transfer policies relative to buying players from other French sides versus buying from outside Ligue 1.

I think Cafu would count as another Brazilian success story. Wikipedia lists a short stint at Zaragoza followed by a return to Brazil. But the next season he arrived at Roma, did great work there before moving to Milan.

Glad to see Liverpool's latest purchase shows the evolution of the team's passing game. (That's sarcasm.) Rodgers seems to me to be one of these guys who talks a big game about a passing side but I see no evidence of this. And the arguments that it takes time to shape the team are a load of crap given some of these purchases combined with his inability to take advantage of some players' skills (e.g., Sahin).

[Daze]

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Well their passing game has vastly improved this season - especially in the latter half. And Sahin was shit at Madrid too.

Toure is a slight improvement over carragher.

[steveeeeeeeee]

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I can't see the Neymar thing working. If he'd gone to any club other than Barcelona or Real Madrid, he'd stand a chance. No matter how good he is, he'll be second fiddle to Messi and Alexis Sanchez already does what I imagine will be Neymar's role quite effectively. Or at least he did when Barcelona played at Benfica, Sanchez just hung out on left wing and waited for a long ball if there was nothing on in for Messi and the defence was under pressure, he'd then cut inside the area and cause havoc - I was impressed with him.

[steveeeeeeeee]

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Also, the amount of failed Argentinian and Brazilian players that end up in Portugal is noticeable. During my time in Portugal, I can think of the following:

Rochemback
Kerrison
Jeffren
Ezequial Garay

Rochemback was good before he got injured and fat. Garay is a decent centre back, Kerrison and Jeffren, both from Barcelona, were awful.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

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And the arguments that it takes time to shape the team are a load of crap given some of these purchases combined with his inability to take advantage of some players' skills (e.g., Sahin)

the problem with sahin was that the role of deep lying playmaker was filled by steven gerrard. Sahin could have been brilliant and he still wouldn't have played

Steveeeee, jeffren left venezuela for tenerife when he was a baby.

[cantagalo]

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Sam wrote: Neymar ought to come good as long as they're reasonably patient with him (and given their other attackers, they can surely afford to be). Plenty of talk in Brazil suggesting that moving now is the worst possible timing for him personally and the national team, though - if he struggles to settle, he'll have hit an obstacle in his career right at the start of the season building up to the World Cup in his own country.

He definitely needs the move, though. Cracking player, but I agree entirely with m'colleague Tim Vickery who reckons he'd hit a bit of a rut and needs new challenges if he's to develop.

I do hope they give him the chance to develop though.

I think that's right. He's certainly been looking rather stale for the last six months or so. This isn't surprising as last year he played a total of 58 games for club and country with all the additional travel that entails. Once last season, he played (and scored) for Santos just eight hours after landing back in Brazil from international duty. He was carrying what had become a very average Santos side.

At the age of 21, he has a young child, a new actress girlfriend and he's the most famous person in Brazil. He's coped remarkably well with this level of fame and, if anything, the media attention he'll face in Europe will be less than what he's used to.

So I think his game will benefit from playing with and against better players and from better preparation and fewer matches. I hope he makes it because he's a likeable and engaging character and there's no player whose performances have thrilled me more over the last four years.

[Brandenburger Toro]

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danielmak wrote: I will be curious to see if Neymar can be the first attacking player since Pep started this new revolution who can succeed when coming from outside Barca's youth set up. Everything runs through Messi, which is somewhat understandable given his overall greatness, but he has basically killed off a range of very talented players who can't seem to fit into a system that runs through him: Ibra, Villa, Alexis Sanchez. And moving beyond attacking players, it seems like very few signings actually settle at Barca. Their transfer successes seem few and far between. The best I can tell, Mascherano and Alves are really the only two signings who play regularly and have actually settled well at Barca. Adriano has also done ok but he is a part-time player. The others seem to do well but are shipped off (YaYa, Keida) or come and go quickly (defender from Shakhtar whose name I couldn't even begin to spell enough to google and paste here). I expect Song to be sold off soon enough, Cesc hasn't really found a place in the team.

David Villa's done okay there... he's fitted well into the system and been occasionally devastating; I think he's mostly just a bit crocked now.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

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Now suarez has said told uruguayan media that he's sick and tired of all the criticism he gets in the UK Media, and couldn't turn down a move to real madrid. meanwhile his agent has been telling guillem balague that he has a buy out clause.

But never fear liverpool fans, you're about to sign iago aspas, who will be heading over to anfield just as soon as his battle to keep celta vigo in the the spanish top flight is over. check out those career scoring stats

[dalliance]

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Like for like. He's a good player but he's a bit of headcase.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

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£100,000-a-week to Arshavin if he signes for Khazar Lankaran in Azerbaijan

[danielmak]

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Brandenburger Toro wrote:
David Villa's done okay there... he's fitted well into the system and been occasionally devastating; I think he's mostly just a bit crocked now.

I think Villa's done well given (A) it's the first full season post-leg break and (B) he didn't play that much in the grand scheme of things. I don't think (A) had anything to do with (B). Villa is a striker who likes to drop deep, but ultimately has played as the main goal-scoring threat. He did this amazingly well at Valencia and for Spain. Soldado now does what Villa did at Valencia while Villa sits on the bench. When Villa does play, he has been pushed out to the left. He's not a winger in the same way that Sanchez is. If Messi wasn't there, Villa would play in the middle. As I noted initially, I can't fault Barca because Messi is the best player in the world, but it made no sense for a striker of Villa's qualities to sign with Barca, and Neymar will likely suffer a similar fate. I haven't seen a lot of Neymar, whereas I watch(ed) Valencia every week and in multiple competitions, but my sense is that Neymar plays where Messi plays. Meanwhile, Barca use midfielders as center backs.

Sahin wasn't bad at Real, which is not to say that he was good for Real. Rather, he was hurt and then he never played. And when he was with Liverpool it wasn't Gerrard he had to compete with; it was Alan. At the time Rodgers was using Alan in the position that Sahin plays best. Sahin is way better than Alan but Alan was Rodgers' boy at that time (not anymore?). I can't remember if Gerrard was hurt or playing further forward.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

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Suarez "would find it hard to say no" to Real Madrid. What's the question they've asked him?

[Jimmy Bignutz]

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People seem to be getting pretty excited about Liverpool signing Aspas - he's already being described as "the new Albert Luque"

[Antepli Ejderha]

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Aspas was expected to join Swansea in the summer after he wanted to wait for the season to finish before leaving Celta Vigo. It seems like a strange move to me with Liverpool paying between his two buyout clauses early just to ensure his signing.

[The Bean Counter]

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So, Real Madrid are after Bale and now Suarez? Does anyone want a sweepstake on how many dodgy penalties are given at the Bernabeu next season?

[Jobi1]

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York have signed an Estonian international! Cor blimey, we're gonna win the league, etc. etc. etc....

[JM Footzee]

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Official lists from the Premier League, on last year's clubs.

Released players (professionals only, I think).

Players under contract, or who have been offered a contract for next season (includes scholars who've been offered professional deals).

[Magik]

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Speaking of Villa - Aston Villa are about to sign bulgarian winger from Lech Poznan - Aleksandyr Tonev.

[Gerontophile]

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And of course, Arsenal can now afford to sign Wayne Rooney.

Gary Hooper it is, then. Oh, and Victor Wanyama instead of Fellaini.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

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Man utd have gone buck mad and paid £2 million for a 20 year old uruguayan right back. That'll set the pulses racing