Vesper

Kante's passing is killing us

good!

is he being held out so he doesn't risk yellow card suspension for next round?

not 99%, not even close, the vast amjority are available for the right price and if we are not dropping £400m on Håland, we have plenty of cash to make it rain with even the super hard pulls (like Varane) are on teams that desperately need the cash and I do not even recco going for Varane he is not so good without Ramos not reccing De Ligt either just tossed all those up for height comparisons these are my targets Wesley Fofana is 1.90m Alessandro Bastoni is 1.90m Edmond Tapsoba is 1.94m Evan N'Dicka is 1.92m Gianluca Mancini is 1.90m Sven Botman is 1.95m

2020-21 UEFA Champions League, Quarterfinals Paris Saint-Germain Bayern Munich http://www.sportnews.to/mysports/2021/champions-league-psg-vs-bayern-munchen-s2/ https://www.totalsportek.com/page-6/

2020-21 UEFA Champions League, Quarterfinals Chelsea FC Porto http://www.sportnews.to/mysports/2021/champions-league-Chelsea-vs-porto-s1/ https://www.totalsportek.com/page-5/

2 points 1. AC Milan have the option to buy Tomori and we have not the power to stop it, nor buy him back if they do not want to sell (we had no buyback clause inserted in the loan-with-option-to-buy deal). 2. Jules Koundé is SO short (1.78m) and IMHO overrated to a significant degree I cannot abide a mini CB, we will get so abused in the aerial game in the EPL Wesley Fofana is 1.90m Alessandro Bastoni is 1.90m Edmond Tapsoba is 1.94m Evan N'Dicka os 1.92m Gianluca Mancini is 1.90m Sven Botman is 1.95m Ibrahima Konaté is 1.94m Matthijs de Ligt is 1.89m José María Giménez is 1.86m Raphaël Varane is 1.91m Pau Torres is 1.91m Alessio Romagnoli is 1.87m Matthias Ginter is 1.91m Maxence Lacroix is 1.90m Merih Demiral is 1.90m Caglar Söyüncü is 1.87m Benoît Badiashile is 1.94m Marash Kumbulla is 1.91m Nikola Milenkovic is 1.95m Ronald Araújo is 1.88m Ben White is 1.89m Duje Caleta-Car is 1.92m Berat Djimsiti is 1.90m Takehiro Tomiyasu is 1.88m

lol great headline Man City want their Kayky and eat it too. 🤣

now if we could only get these so-called xian RW'ers to do the same! (they are supposed to fast at times as well)

let's just smash these fucking prats no excuses!

Just for reference, btw, Eden is making around £407K PW gross at Real Madrid so 5 years total wage cost basis for him is around £106m versus Håland at £250m or so staggering difference

Erling Haaland could cost £400m over five years: what would a superstar for the TikTok generation earn a club in return? https://theathletic.com/2513577/2021/04/13/erling-haaland-could-cost-400m-over-five-years-is-he-worth-it-we-do-the-maths/ “With these prices it’s impossible,” said Pep Guardiola at the start of this month, firing the starting gun of brinkmanship over the future of Borussia Dortmund forward Erling Haaland. “We cannot afford it. That’s not going to happen. All the clubs struggle financially, and we are not an exception.” Manchester City, Guardiola wanted us to believe, cannot make a deal for Haaland happen this summer. The numbers are too big, the demands too high. And if Manchester City, whose annual wage bill soared to £351 million in their latest set of accounts, are wincing at the figures attached to Haaland’s signature, what hope for everyone else? As his agent Mino Raiola said in an interview with The Athletic last month, “Haaland is the talk of the town” heading into the summer transfer window. Chelsea have a long-standing interest in the forward, as do Manchester United and, of course, City. The elite are jostling for position. Barcelona and Real Madrid have even had the Raiola sales pitch, while reports in Spain have hinted at the numbers in play. A salary of €30 million per year after tax was mooted, suggesting any suitor in the Premier League would have to find close to £1 million a week to land Haaland. Or £142,000 a day, give or take a few pence. No player in English football comes close to those wages, not even Kevin De Bruyne on his new Manchester City contract signed last week. Lionel Messi, according to details leaked in Spain, commands a base salary of €61.3 million on a Barcelona contract due to expire this summer, making him the highest-paid footballer in the world. Bonuses and image rights bump the figure up higher still. Then there is the transfer fee for Haaland, likely to top £150 million this summer for those unwilling to wait until a release clause kicks in 12 months later. And the agent fees to Raiola. All told, a five-year deal for Haaland could require a commitment of £400 million. Newcastle United, the Premier League club perennially up for sale, can be bought for significantly less. A flood of money would exit any club signing the 20-year-old this summer and, unquestionably, would represent an almighty financial gamble. Not since Kylian Mbappe joined Paris Saint-Germain from Monaco in 2018 for £163 million has there been a deal to come close to the £198 million the same buyers had spent luring Neymar from Barcelona 12 months earlier. Raiola has previously said only 10 clubs could even contemplate signing Haaland this summer. The reality, in this financially-straightened age of COVID-19, means the number is smaller still. Haaland will undeniably be expensive but whoever is bold enough to push the button will hope the money is eventually well spent. Success and silverware would see the outlay clawed back chunk by chunk, in turn driving up commercial revenue. There could, after all, be a method in the madness. “The difference between getting out of the group stages of the Champions League and winning it is worth around £50 million in a season for additional prize money,” says Kieran Maguire, a football finance expert. “Then you’ve got sponsor bonuses, match-day returns and then the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup. “If Haaland came in and delivered once or twice, in terms of the Champions League, then financially you’d get quite a lot in return for your investment. With Manchester City as well, that’s very much the prize they’re after.” Haaland’s value this summer owes as much to his potential as his current talent. Not 21 until July, he is likely to have well over a decade at the highest level before his age becomes a concern. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, this generation’s undoubted megastars, will soon be on their way out at the back end of gilded careers. Neymar, 30 next year, is another possibly past the peak of his powers. That leaves a 22-year-old Mbappe and Haaland as the obvious rising forces, a marketing meal ticket for those fortunate enough to call them their own. He could be European football’s blue-eyed boy for years and years to come. Patience, though, will be needed. “The commercial benefit of signing a player at Haaland’s level, probably not at the elite global level for fame, wouldn’t come instantly,” says Dan Haddad, head of commercial strategy at Octagon, a sports, music and entertainment agency. “With the outlay that’s going to be required this summer, it would be very hard to make a case that some of that will be offset by immediate commercial revenue growth. “If he does have a high impact on a team’s performance then you get the benefits later down the line. So, let’s say he signs a five-year deal. The first year you might not see a commercial upside but if a team goes on a journey with him and has success, then you’ll see commercial growth.” Haaland’s signing, in short, can only pay for itself should he go on and lift trophies with his next team. The Norway international is the long-term investment. Not, like Juventus signing Ronaldo in 2018, an instant hit as a global icon. “Can an individual player truly give a competitive advantage that secures a deal for one club over another? There are few players that have that great an impact,” adds Haddad. “With Juventus and Ronaldo, we did see an impact. Brands that might not have chosen to partner with Juventus or go into Serie A began to go there. A brand might’ve been speaking to three or four clubs and the fact Ronaldo was at Juventus nudges that over the line. “The same is obviously true with Messi and Barcelona. You could also say PSG have punched above their weight commercially given the limitations of the French league. That’s a collective of players, especially since Neymar has gone there as well. “If you accept it takes a Messi, Ronaldo or Neymar for a brand to choose one club over another, I don’t believe Haaland is at that level. I couldn’t see a brand picking Man City, for example, just because Haaland has gone there. I don’t think Haaland is at that level currently.” Shirt sales, so often cited as a chance to help fund a signing, would also bring negligible reward. The structure of deals with kit manufacturers leaves each club earning roughly £5 for every shirt sold. Cigarette-packet maths would suggest 200,000 shirts would have to be sold just to cover a week of Haaland’s wages. On-field success would be the only means of vindicating the move for Haaland. His marketability would develop in line with the heights his new team reaches, in theory establishing him among football’s best-known players. Where does Haaland currently stand in that hierarchy, less than 16 months after joining Borussia Dortmund from Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg? A long way behind Messi and Ronaldo but making an increasing imprint, according to the Fan Intelligence Network, a digital platform designed for brands to best understand culturally-led fanbases. It monitors the views of over “11,000 of the most culturally influential sports fans in the world”. Fan Intelligence says Haaland’s popularity is already clear, particularly among fans aged 25 and under. He is the undoubted poster boy for Generation Z. Although Haaland is the most discussed footballer for under-25s, he was only the 12th-most spoken about player with fans above that age bracket. “There is a feeling that he is the perfect superstar for a TikTok era,” said Owen Laverty, director of Fan Intelligence. “His highlights on the pitch are exceptional, and his comments and interviews are perfect for snapping and sharing online. “A lack of reach outside of football fans can be expected as he has not yet won any major titles, nor been featured in any large, global marketing campaigns. “Interestingly, what is unique to Erling is the speed of social media follower growth at this stage in his career. We have only seen this matched by Kylian Mbappe, and he had won a World Cup and three league titles by the time he was 20. So for a player to be driving this level of interest and conversation, despite having not ‘won anything’, is pretty exceptional.” One factor potentially working against the long-term marketability of Haaland is his nationality. Unlike Mbappe, who will almost certainly have the chance to feature in major tournaments throughout his career with France, Norway have not reached a World Cup finals since 1998. There are calls in Haaland’s homeland for Norway to boycott Qatar 2022 owing to the poor human rights record of the next hosts, but already their involvement appears unlikely in a qualification group involving Holland and Turkey. Haaland was part of a Norway side that wore t-shirts saying “Human rights, on and off the pitch” before a World Cup qualifier against Gibraltar last month. “As a generation of fans who are in tune with, and aware of social justice, conservationism, human rights, they have been wondering where he stands on these issues,” says Laverty. “The likes of Marcus Rashford have tapped into this sentiment, and he is now referenced by fans in Asia, Africa and Latin America, markets he didn’t necessarily have a big profile before, as a modern athlete. “Should Erling start to speak more about the things that matter to him, and demonstrate he is a star that understands the next generation of fans — who will dictate his own fame — then we could see him go to another stratosphere as an off-field superstar.” How Haaland is perceived in the slick offices of a marketing company, though, would count for little if he was to continue his goalscoring habits in the Champions League. No player has ever been quicker to the 20-goal mark in European football’s primary competition. It took Haaland just 14 games, 10 fewer than Harry Kane, the previous best. That — and little else — is what sets the pricing bar so astronomically high. If Haaland is that good at 20, how good might he be in another five years? That mouthwatering question is what casts Raiola as the Pied Piper, with a string of clubs preparing to dance to his next tune. The Premier League would dearly love to have Haaland. “Can Chelsea physically afford him? The answer is yes,” says Maguire. “There’s always the spectre of financial fair play to take into consideration but we don’t know where that’s headed. We know (owner Roman) Abramovich has the money should he choose to sanction it. “Chelsea and Manchester City are two clubs that could afford him in theory. Manchester United as well. Tottenham theoretically could but they won’t, of course. Their wage bill is substantially behind its peers. Liverpool would find it more challenging because (owners) FSG are more interested in bottom lines than trophies. Arsenal are trailing behind those now. Realistically, there are not too many options for Haaland in the Premier League.” It leaves Europe’s usual suspects. Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and Bayern Munich alongside England’s biggest hitters, all wondering if Haaland is worth the enormous financial investment this summer. One report from market analyst KPMG recently suggested Europe’s top 20 clubs have lost €1 billion in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Manchester City alone posted losses of £126 million in their accounts for 2019-20, published last week. “If it’s around the £30 million net mark that they’re looking for in wages, that’s £50 million gross,” adds Maguire. “I can’t see anybody paying that in the present market. It far exceeds what we’re seeing presently.” Perhaps Guardiola, whose Manchester City side face Haaland’s Dortmund in the Champions League quarter-final second leg on Wednesday night, was right after all.

David Squires on … how a streaker tried to end the great Alexander-Arnold Wars Our resident cartoonist on the right-back debate between Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville and one hero that is willing to risk it all https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2021/apr/13/david-squires-streaker-tried-great-trent-alexander-arnold-wars-england

Five goals, 37 shots, 16 corners and 472 little Fiver moans Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! It’s Big Cup, baby. Photograph: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images Rob Smyth PARIS IS LEARNING The Fiver feels unclean. Admittedly this is not an unprecedented state of affairs, literally or figuratively, but we’ve got to write about something so that’ll do. You see, we feel guilty about our relationship with Big Cup. On the one hand, we loathe everything it represents, and are 110% disgusted by the Even More Greed Is Even Better proposals to make elite football even less jeapordous. But then we watch a game like Bayern 2-3 PSG, making funny little moaning noises throughout, and it makes us feel so darn euphoric. Deriving such visceral pleasure from something we essentially detest is the closest the Fiver has come to having one of those lovebuddies we keep reading about it in Granny Fiver’s lifestyle magazines. Fran Kirby to NLD derby: the best five moments from first 10 years of WSL | Suzanne Wrack Read more There’s another layer of guilt to our pleasure. Because although the first leg of the quarter-final between Bayern and PSG produced five goals, 37 shots, 16 corners and 472 little Fiver moans, deep down we know some of the gegenpressing and Big Chance Conversion left a fair bit to be desired, and that makes us feel sad. In the pursuit of emotional clarity, and because The Man has ordered us to do so, we plan to sit down for tonight’s second leg and leer at our big screen with a slightly gormless expression. The match, a repeat of last year’s final in case you’ve been at a digital retreat on the Kerguelen Islands for the last nine months, is impossible to call, even though PSG have three away goals. PSG’s home form this season has been ropey, and in the previous round they flirted with blowing a 4-1 lead against Barcelona. They will also know that with a bit more luck last week – and a lot more Lewandowski – Bayern could be 48-3 ahead on aggregate. But there will be no Lewandowski tonight either. Both teams have fairly grotesque injury lists, which adds to the thrilling feeling of unpredictability that makes us feel so guilty. PSG’s biggest loss is their captain, Marquinhos, but they do have the trump card of world football: Kylian Mmmbappé, who roasted Bayern on the counter-attack in the first leg and should have ample opportunities to do the same tonight. If he scores a hat-trick, PSG might just sneak through. Tonight’s other game should be a formality: Chelsea have a 2-0 lead over Porto from the away leg, although both matches are being played in Seville. But Thomas Tuchel will be slightly wary, having lost a similar lead against Manchester United two years ago when he was PSG manager. If it happens again he’ll be filthy. We know how he feels. LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE! In case you didn’t notice above, there’s Big Cup action on tonight, both starting at 8pm BST. Rob Smyth will be MBMing PSG 2-4 Bayern (5-6 agg), while Barry Glendenning is on Chelsea 3-1 Porto (5-1 agg). QUOTE OF THE DAY “I always get fed, I can assure you of that” – Noah Solskjær might as well have said ‘my captors are treating me well’, even if his statement to Norwegian media was meant to dampen the little war of words between his father, Ole, and José Mourinho, after Manchester United’s weekend win over Spurs. Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær poses with his sons Noah (left) and Elijah. Photograph: Ntb Scanpix/Reuters FIVER LETTERS ““You just had to do it, didn’t you? Barely as I’ve just about got over the 16 years of bitterness at Pedro Mendes’s shot from the halfway line at Old Trafford being disallowed and Spurs being denied a certain last-minute winner, you went and published a picture of Roy Carroll (yesterday’s Quote Of The Day) at about the same position inside the goal from which he made his heroic ‘save’. With presumably the same smug grin on his face. Thanks a lot, Fiver” – Tim Clarke. “Re: Justin Kavanagh and Antoine Griezmann’s exceptionally accurate child creation (yesterday’s letters). I’ve done the maths so no-one else has to – these are the major events approximately nine months prior to the birth of each child: 11 July 2020 - “thigh injury” against Real Valladolid which ends his season. 15 July 2018 - wins the World Cup Final. 28 July 2015 - scores for first time in the season against Real Oviedo. I guess 2020 was hard for everyone” – Luke Justus. “I hate agreeing with Mourinho. I mean, I really, really hate it. But he ain’t wrong. Bread IS bread. And, most of the time, cheese usually is cheese. But he’s still gonna get fired in a few weeks, isn’t he?” – Mike Wilner. “Re: recent stories on refereeing. Many moons ago I was playing in goals in an amateur league match deep down in the west of Ireland. The referee that day was huge, the kind of fella who was probably sinking 10 pints a day during the week and gallons of porter at the weekend. Needless to say he couldn’t keep up with play. Our opponents took a corner and managed to get a shot away towards my near post. The referee who had taken up a position near the post out of sheer laziness, managed to deflect their shot from going wide with his beer gut back into play from which they scored. To add insult to injury he gave me a yellow card for pointing out his fat belly had provided the assist” – Eoin Balfe. Send your letters to [email protected]. And you can always tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day is … Luke Justus. NEWS, BITS AND BOBS Forest Green are pondering appointing the Football League’s first woman manager, having booted Mark Cooper through the door marked Do One. Manchester City are poised to swoop for Fluminense’s teenage sensation Kayky, who has been billed as the ‘new Neymar’. No pressure then. Talking of which, Jadon Sancho will not face City for Dortmund tomorrow due to ongoing thigh-gah. Which might have given Pep Guardiola some confidence. A 49-year-old man has been charged with racially abusing West Brom’s Romaine Sawyers online. The decision to bar clinically extremely vulnerable supporters from the League/Fizzy Cup final is “direct discrimination”, according to a group of disabled Tottenham fans. It was Big Sam’s turn to be in a right funk over VAR, as it meant a 4-0 win over Southampton ended up being only 3-0. Asked whether the technology was making football a laughing stock, he chuntered: “I’m afraid so.” In other unsurprising Premier League news, Brighton created a load of chances and didn’t score from any of them. As per. Lucy Bronze is a doubt for England’s friendly against Canada this evening with groin knack. And Florentino Pérez has been re-elected Real Madrid president for a sixth term in an election contested by … *checks notes* … no one else. STILL WANT MORE? Tuesday marks 10 years to the day since the Women’s Super League as created, so Suzy Wrack listed the five biggest moments so far. Moments! Composite: - Meanwhile, Suzy also sat down for a chin-way with Kelly Simmons, the head of the professional women’s game, to see what’s next for female football in the UK. Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO! STOP IT!

Pep is going nowhere and if not Citeh, Håland will go to Barca Real is going to move for Mbappe

I will do a fucking dance if West Brom beats Leicester next, and they also play West Ham and Pool, so they can do us HUGE solids wish to hell NUFC had lost to Burnley, as the pressure would really be on then

They have a real shot at catching NUFC, who have crazy hard last 7 games if SU somehow beats NUFC, Newcastle might lose the next 7

West Brom just tore apart SOTON last 2 games both wins (arfff, we were one of them) 8 2 aggregate

2020-21 English Premier League Brighton & Hove Albion Everton http://www.sportnews.to/mysports/2021/premier-league-brighton-hove-albion-vs-everton-s1/ https://www.totalsportek.com/everton-epl-match/

Best clubs for young players: global rankings Issue number 333 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the percentage of domestic league minutes by footballers who had not yet turned 21 at the time of the matches played this season for 999 clubs from 71 top divisions that are currently running worldwide. The highest percentages were recorded for the Danish side FC Nordsjælland (48.9%) among the 30 major European competitions and the Singaporean team Young Lions (47.1%) for the clubs surveyed outside of Europe. At big-5 league level, the highest figures were measured for Borussia Dortmund (28.5%), followed by three French Ligue 1 teams: OGC Nice (24.3%), AS Monaco (24.1%) and Stade Rennais (20.7%). The greatest proportion of minutes in the other major championships were registered for Wolverhampton (16.2%), FC Barcelona (15.0%) and Hellas Verona (11.7%). At the opposite end, eight teams did not field any U21 player, among which Tottenham and Inter. The highest percentage overall was observed for FK Metta (88.0%), the team of the Riga’s University of Latvia. U21 footballers played a majority of minutes in two other Latvian top division teams: Valmiera FC and BFC Daugavpils. Ecuador’s club Independiente del Valle (34.3%) and Alger-based Paradou AC (27.8%) lead the table for America and Africa respectively. The average age on the pitch for clubs in the 31 main European leagues are available in the CIES Football Observatory Demographic Atlas.

Mou will get the sack if they miss out on EL

technically 6 teams with spuds on the ropes IF Everton beat them

2020-21 English Premier League Sheffield United Arsenal http://www.sportnews.to/mysports/2021/premier-league-sheffield-united-vs-arsenal-s1/ https://www.totalsportek.com/page-6/

fuck off spuds goal chalked off for manure now they score

and Zouma has far less league minutes 1710 in 19 games than Dunk 2430 and (literally) exact same Stones (also 1710) and same games played, 19