johnnythefirst

You are talking about VDB when he was younger. He has worked very, VERY hard to return to the level he is now. He started playing at Anderlecht for no fee at all until he proved himself again and they gave him a real contract. You don't get to play in the national team if you don't make an effort these days. And it was not the fact that he thinks Meunier is better than VDB that was ridiculous, but that he said he was BY FAR the best player in the league. So he's better than: Ryan, Vasquez, Thielemans, Praet, Defour, Suarez, Mbemba, etc, etc...? How? Why? My clearest memory of VDB is an qualifier against Spain in 2008 - our darkest year as a national team - where he was the best man on the pitch by far and there were literally no Spanish attacks coming from his side. He was downright impressive. We lost though, but by only one goal.

Apparently Wilmots does.

He's not going to be 40 years old in 2016.

Yeah, that one actually made me laugh out loud. Let him first prove that he's better than Antony VDB - which he's absolutely not if I'm concerned - and then we can talk about being better than players in other positions. This could have only come from a Bruges fan. First in the league for the first time in 10 years and they think they're playing 11 Messis. ;-)

Kind of sad for him though...

Ok, but he's still being productive, for a full month now. At least there's some improvement.

Surely he must be well on his way to win the player of the year award in Germany?

Twice

Holy shit, Real's record against Atletico this season is getting very sad... Torres not playing though.

Just hit the bar as well...

Apparently he earned his first assist after 3 minutes of game time...

Hmm, not starting again.

His stats are beginning to look pretty impressive: 6 goals and 11 assists in the BL, 9 and 14 in all competitions.

Haha, first week at Sampdoria: Mihajlovic calls a double training session after the 5-1 loss to Torino this week and Eto'o just walks out after the first session. "I'm too old for this shit".

Barca and Real just have this magical attraction to players. It's the stadiums, the history, the players who came before. Nearly all of the absolute greatest played there once. Their actual quality right now doesn't even matter for them. Back in the 90s I'd say Milan and Juve almost got the same level of respect, and yet even Juve lost Zidane to Madrid. This said, I think he'll just sign a new contract eventually.

Looking forward at seeing him play CL with Schurrle next year.

I don't think he's leaving.

*Courtois

There's nothing wrong with his work rate (since it was mentioned again above). He's consistently one of the players who covers the most distance during a match. Most of the time he tops the list (in the NT, don't know about his German stats).

The fact that he played the game of his life on the day they were honoring his dead team mate makes it even more beautiful. Actually kind of hard to watch without tearing up.

Well, to be honest, Chelsea wasn't the biggest club in England before Abramovic came with all his money. A nice club, yes, but behind Man Utd and Arsenal and maybe even Liverpool (don't shoot me, they had a good team with Owen and the likes ) at the time. Look at what City was before the Arabs came, Utd's ugly little brother. Now Wolfsburg seem to have a nice mountain of cash to spend. Who knows where they'll be in 2 seasons or so. They seem to be making the right moves, and they don't look eager to sell, unlike Dortmund for example. No way Schurrle isn't going to be good for that team.

He's currently one of the top players in the Bundesliga and his team is firmly in second place. "Small team".

Ah, here's the same bullshit again they said about KDB a year ago. "Look at Schurrle! He's at least fighting for his place!" they said. Who should we look at now? It's better to play every week at a smaller club than to waste your years benched at a big one. You know why? Because it's nice to play football and score goals.

I've never seen him act nervous on any occasion. With this guy's mentality and physique, he'd be one of the top guys in any profession of choice..

So he scored three goals in a week playing Barca and Real. I think the last four years were just one long winded practical joke. Rooting for him now though.