Vesper

Kudus off, he put a shift and a half in

lol at Arsenal IF spuds win this they will have triple the european trophies (6) that Arse, in 138 years of football, has (2)

the Vesper curse has kicked in (Chevalier) lol

almost nil 3, lolol

well there are not that many great GKers left out there Diogo Costa (best all-round GKer still out there atm IMHO) Gregor Kobel (not so good at distribution and will cost a tonne) Mike Maignan (we had our chance already) Guillaume Restes (only 20yo, but a super athlete) Zion Suzuki (dice roll) Ederson (assuming Donnarumma goes to Citeh, BUT his wages demands make it a likely 'no go') Jan Oblak (wage demands might be an issue) Emiliano Martinez (wage demands are likely an issue) Trubin no longer interests me

his first ever european goal and his first goal in almost 16 months all comps

Spuds up nil 1 van de Ven

US prices continued rise in July as Trump tariffs impact consumer costs Prices were 2.7% higher last month compared with a year ago, and core inflation went up at a higher pace than what was seen in June https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/12/inflation-cpi-trump-tariffs US prices continued to rise in July, according to key economic data released on Tuesday, as Donald Trump’s international tariffs shakeup started to impact consumer costs. Prices were 2.7% higher last month compared with a year ago, according to the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the prices of a basket of goods and services. Though inflation dipped down in the spring, the annualized inflation rate jumped up 0.4% since April. Though the inflation rate stayed stable between June and July, core inflation, which excludes the volatile energy and food industries, went up 3.1% over the last month – a higher pace than what was seen in June. Prices for takeout and restaurants jumped up 3.9% over the last year, pushing up overall food prices by 2.9%. Prices for used cars, housing and medical care also jumped up higher than the overall rate. snip One of the biggest Trumpian lies was that inflation was 'out of control' still when the early November 2024 US elections took place. That was complete bollocks. It was actually lower then that is it now.

where will the FIFA World Club Cup badge go? I guess it will go where the club crest is on the home and away kits

2025 UEFA Super Cup

Hopefully they make the FCWC badge smaller. Every time I see our kit it just looks too damn big, bigger even than our club crest.

Grinder part of the window. Things slowing down as the other clubs dig in heels both selling and buying. I am expecting a bad finish to the window. Hope I am wrong. In terms of our buying: No CB No GK We likely miss out on Simons. Only deal of import that goes through will possibly be Garnacho, and if Man U play hardball, we may dump £45-50m on him. Selling: I really worry about us selling anything much in terms of a fair price (if we can even sell them at all) for most of the ones left to go. Especially tough times ahead I fear with selling Sterling, Chilwell, Jackson, Disasi, Nkunku, and now even Carney (as German teams are cheap cunts, almost as bad as Italians). Hopefully we can get decent money for Davd Datro Fofana and Alfie Gilchrist, plus Deivid Washington later on. Lastly, I really want to keep Veiga, now that we very likely will not buy a CB.

The thing we’ll all be saying in May is… Kay: What next for Marcus Rashford/Jack Grealish/Raheem Sterling as he heads back to Manchester United/Manchester City/Chelsea after his loan spell? Crafton: The tickets for the World Cup are HOW MUCH? Spiers: Will Manchester City’s 115 charges case be resolved this week? Miller: I wish I hadn’t fallen for the Arsenal thing, again… Hughes: Time to put your feet up, Pep. James: Fair play to you, Ange Postecoglou, for keeping Leeds up. Akinwolere: Chelsea have got their eye on another 10 players to bolster the squad ahead of next season, with more outgoings still to come. Jones: With Premier League Golden Boot winner Harry Maguire up front, nothing can stop England. It’s coming home.

Sunderland are back and buoyant with bold signings, intense demand for seats and 100,000 shirts sold https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6545745/2025/08/12/sunderland-premier-league-return/ On the corridor wall outside David Bruce’s office in Black Cat House, there is a framed piece of paper that has fundamentally changed Sunderland’s world. It is their Premier League share certificate, awarded to the club’s owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus at the AGM dinner in early June, displayed for all to see. Sunderland’s, if you were wondering, was the 128th certificate issued. “You need to look at that,” an enthusiastic Bruce, Sunderland’s chief business officer and lifelong supporter, tells The Athletic. “It shows what we’re all part of. My job is to help keep it on that wall.” Not since 2017, when meekly surrendering to relegation from the Premier League under David Moyes, have Sunderland held a ticket to the party that begins again with the visit of West Ham United this weekend. “I’ve never experienced a buzz like this,” adds Bruce. “It’s palpable.” Tickets for Saturday’s opening game all went within a day of going on sale. Season cards, too, are long gone. Kit sales have never been higher and the club shop, two floors below that share certificate, has a snaking queue of supporters wishing to add Premier League badges to the sleeves of new shirts. Eight years were spent awaiting this moment. There was the ignominy of falling into League One and then the long, arduous road back that climaxed with promotion via the Championship play-off final in May. Those dramatic victories over Coventry City and Sheffield United are already the stuff of Wearside legend. There is the very real danger of the Premier League’s formidable strength quickly putting an end to Sunderland’s rise in the coming months but this is a very different club to the one that parted with English football’s elite. The ambition now is to be sustainable and strategic after a string of wasteful, aimless years began a ruinous slide captured on the Netflix documentary Sunderland Til I Die. Even with this summer’s spending — £121m ($163m) and counting — it is stressed there will be no deviation from the plans that have brought them this far. “Kyril has a very clear vision,” says Bruce. “It’s been, ‘How do we build a football club that’s sustainable?’. Doing the right things on and off the pitch, building a club that people can really buy into. “A lot has been written about what’s been done on the pitch, young talent and creating a platform for them, but a big part of what Kyril has pushed on the business side is to understand how we build a club that reconnects with the people.” It has been no small task. “The feelings the fans had towards the club and the players that played here (in 2016-17) would suggest there was a real separation,” he adds. “For this part of the world to have that is really quite upsetting. What you’ve got now is something that fans recognise as being theirs.” West Ham’s visit on Saturday promises to be a spectacle but it will not beat the delirium felt when the Stadium of Light last hosted a competitive match. Dan Ballard’s extra-time header to sink Coventry in the Championship play-off semi-final second leg was the cue for feral celebrations and the platform for more of the same as Sheffield United were then beaten at Wembley. That stroked finish from Tommy Watson, now a Brighton & Hove Albion player, was as big as any in Sunderland’s modern history; cathartic and the sudden catalyst for what could be transformative change. Returning to the Premier League was always Louis-Dreyfus’ stated aim when taking a controlling stake in Sunderland from Stewart Donald in February 2021. The son of Robert Louis-Dreyfus, the late former owner of Marseille, made it clear at the start of 2021-22 that a five-year plan could guide Sunderland from the backwaters of League One and up to the Premier League. It took just four. There were missteps along the way, like defeat by Lincoln City in the League One play-offs and the disastrous appointment of Michael Beale, but Louis-Dreyfus, still only 27, has turned Sunderland into a club feeling good about itself once more. “Kyril is a very progressive young guy,” says Bruce, who was convinced to step down from his position as chief marketing officer at Major League Soccer to return to his home city last year. David Bruce will play a key role in driving Sunderland’s off-field growth (Sunderland AFC) “He sees the world differently to many owners, who probably grew up consuming sports on radio and in newspapers. Kyril has grown up with the mobile phone and social media. “He’s very thoughtful, he’s very thorough. There’s a lot of noise around this club with a lot of scale but he’s good at hearing the feeling and staying resolute towards good plans. “In football it’s very easy to get drawn into the emotions and move away from plans because things happen in real time to move you off course. You have to listen to some of that but you also have to stay the course with plans you believe in. For such a young person to have that steadiness is a real quality.” Sunderland’s methods in coming this far have barely altered in the past four years, even when irritating a string of head coaches. New arrivals have typically been under 23 with the potential to develop into assets. Jobe Bellingham went from being a £1.5m signing from Birmingham City to a £32m player sold to Borussia Dortmund this summer. The year before it was Jack Clarke, sold to Ipswich Town for £15m and the year before that, Ross Stewart, who Southampton paid £9m to sign. Reinvestment has regularly been smart, such as moves for Ballard, Dennis Cirkin, Romaine Mundle and Eliezer Mayenda, which have complemented the emergence of academy graduates that include Anthony Patterson, Chris Rigg, Dan Neil and Watson. Wages have been controlled along the way. Figures from the 2023-24 season, the last available club accounts, showed salary costs to be 81 per cent of turnover, way below the Championship average. Sustainability has always been the buzzword and it stretches to the business outlook of a club that was the ninth-best supported in England last season, with an average home crowd of just under 40,000. “For us to be successful, a modern football club at the highest level, it’s the ability to take advantage of the scale and reach you have,” says Bruce. “You have to build your revenue streams. If you sit here and you don’t grow revenue streams, then your football club stagnates. It does not grow and others go past you very quickly. You can’t become the club your fans want you to be, and from the business side we’re very cognisant of that.” What You Should Read Next Sunderland have spent over £100m on transfers. This is how they could do it – and why they need to Sunderland have been the seventh highest spenders in the Premier League this summer. And yet, it might just be necessary Sunderland, inevitably, will enjoy record revenues in this coming season. There is a guarantee to earn at least £110m from the Premier League pot (almost three times the club’s turnover in 2023-24), as well as matchday and commercial income climbing to new highs. Kit sales, in particular, have seen enormous growth. A partnership with Hummel, the Danish manufacturer that formerly supplied the club’s kits between 1988 and 1994, led to output trebling last season. “We’ve moved from about 33,000, 34,000 shirts two seasons ago (when with Nike) to circa 100,000 shirts in our first season with Hummel,” says Bruce. “That puts you top 10 in the country. What we’re seeing is unprecedented here. There were 500 people here when we launched our home shirt last month, before the store even opened.” There has also been increased demand for tickets. North of 30,000 season cards were sold before the Wembley victory and the limits were reached within 48 hours of being placed on sale in June. With corporate hospitality offerings taking season-ticket holders to 41,000 and Michelin star chef Tommy Banks now overseeing high-end food on site, it is the first time since the capacity of the Stadium of Light was increased in 2000 that supply cannot meet demand. The summer weeks have only served to heighten the anticipation. Former West Ham defender Arthur Masuaku became Sunderland’s 10th signing over the weekend, with the capture of Switzerland international Granit Xhaka underlining ambitions to buck a trend that has seen the last six promoted clubs all suffer relegation inside a year. Twice the club transfer record was broken, first to turn Enzo Le Fee’s loan from Roma into a £19m deal and then when signing Habib Diarra from Strasbourg for £30m. Granit Xhaka was a Bundesliga winner with Bayer Leverkusen in May 2024 (Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images) Sunderland’s net spend, offset by the exits of Bellingham and Watson, currently stands in the region of £85m, with an expectation for further signings to arrive before the transfer deadline. “There’s headroom based on how the club has been run in the last few years,” explains Bruce. “We’ve been sensible with how we’ve spent based on the revenue afforded to us as a football club and we’ll always have that in mind. We can’t spend beyond our means and we haven’t since Kyril took over. We make X, we spend Y. It’s as simple as that, so if we can build revenues, that gives us greater opportunity to spend on the football side.” Sunderland will be disadvantaged when only allowed to lose £61m over their next three-year assessment period but the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, says Bruce, are not a concern. “Our approach in the window has been well measured,” he says. “We spent a lot of time as an executive team on what our revenues are going to look like and where we’ve come from in the last couple of years. “What can we spend? What’s the anchor point on wages and what’s the money we can spend in the market? We’re doing it with a view to being a sustainable football club but with every chance of staying in the league. We feel confident. Like what happened in the last parts of last season, where people came together, the feeling around the club can give us a very good chance.” Sunderland have hope again.

Premier League tactical trends to watch in 2025-26: Flying full-backs, counter-attacks, and the ‘Lavolpiana’ https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6542301/2025/08/12/premier-league-tactical-trends-2025-26/ Tactically, the Premier League is in a real state of flux. After four consecutive title-winning years with a distinct, possession and territory-based style, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City were reduced to a third-place finish on 71 points in 2024-25 — their worst since Guardiola’s debut campaign of 2016-17. Meanwhile Liverpool cruised to the title in their first season post-Jurgen Klopp, with Arne Slot’s side developing a reputation for their flexibility and adaptability. They had 25 wins and only lost twice across the first 34 matches, by which point the trophy was theirs. Nottingham Forest showed European football can be earned with a throwback, defend-first and counter-attack strategy, while for the second season running all three promoted teams were relegated. So what might we expect from 2025-26? Flying full-backs, not inverted ones Last season, the chasing pack of European clubs seemed to realise, en masse, that they did not need to copy City, Chelsea, and Arsenal by rolling a full-back into midfield. In fact, those clubs had even more success with flying full-backs running beyond a winger. Per SkillCorner, Milos Kerkez was the only player in the division to make 100+ overlaps and 100+ underlaps, which suited the directness of Bournemouth’s in-possession approach — and with him joining Liverpool this summer, makes him a younger iteration of Andy Robertson. “He’s a player that, because of his physical condition, arrives so many times to the last third with the ball under control to put good crosses,” said Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola of Kerkez last season. Likewise, the arrival of Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen, a wing-back in their Bundesliga-winning team of 2023-24, means Slot can deploy maximal width and beyond-the-ball full-backs on both sides. (Carl Recine/Getty Images) Newcastle United’s full-back pairing of Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento were particularly frequent underlappers; Antonee Robinson put up 10 assists for Fulham last year, completing the most crosses of any player in the division, consistently running beyond from left-back. Other honourable mentions include Daniel Munoz (Crystal Palace), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (West Ham United), Michael Kayode (Brentford) and Lucas Digne (Aston Villa). As per SkillCorner, the frequency of full-backs overlapping has decreased in recent seasons, down nearly 14 per cent in 2024-25 compared to the 2018-19 campaign. Meanwhile, underlaps are on the rise — up by more than a third over the same period. This might seem strange considering the prevalence of inverted wingers, who play on the opposite side to their dominant foot, and like to cut inside, which would suit a supporting overlap. However, many coaches want their wingers to start with high and wide positions regardless, and by enticing opposition full-backs out one-v-one, an underlap can often unlock a defence. The ‘Lavolpiana’ — dropping a pivot in Premier League midfield battles are changing. We see that at goal kicks, when teams will often build-up with six players close to their own goal and position four up on halfway, leaving a hole in central midfield because opponents press man-to-man so often. In settled possession, 4-4-2 mid-blocks are increasingly common, to man-mark in central midfield. Consequently, short passing routes through the centre of the pitch have a lot more risk than reward (unless a team has a pivot with the press resistance of Rodri or Ryan Gravenberch). As per Footovision, an advanced data provider, the proportion of line-breaking passes played centrally during build-up dropped by five percentage points from 2023-24 to 2024-25 in the Premier League. Expect to see more of the Lavolpiana tactic, named after Argentine coach Ricardo La Volpe. This is where a central midfielder drops deeper, playing between the two centre-backs, and breaks lines with longer-range passes. Here is Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali playing that role, allowing right-back Kieran Trippier to push forward and create a two-v-one against Ipswich Town’s left-back. If any midfielder was made for the role, it is Youri Tielemans at Aston Villa. He ranked ninth in Europe’s top-five leagues last season for through balls (24). With Rodri injured for most of last season, Bernardo Silva used the tactic on an as-needed basis against particularly stubborn mid-blocks. Mateo Kovacic has operated similarly for Guardiola, with this being a consistent feature of his sides. And here is Carlos Baleba doing that in the build-up for Brighton & Hove Albion’s opener away at Manchester United. “We had a good balance between defence and controlling the game in possession,” Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler said afterwards. Coaches tend to value this build-up tweak not just for the way it opens passing lanes — as opponents are reluctant to commit a player too high to press the midfielder — but also because it provides extra cover as rest defence versus counter-attacks. What You Should Read Next What last season’s Premier League data can tell us about 2025-26 Outfielders taking goal kicks, long throws and rising to the rhythm – just some of the growing trends in England's top flight Back to basics set pieces There is an irony that even as clubs focus on and invest ever more deeply in set pieces, the tactics are trending towards yesteryear. Last term, 60 per cent of all corners were inswingers, up from 41 per cent in 2018-19. Short corners have remained pretty consistent (roughly one in five) while outswingers have really fallen out of fashion. Teams largely copied the approaches of Arsenal and Aston Villa, two of the earlier Premier League clubs to hire formal set-piece coaches, who tended to pack the six-yard box and drop inswingers onto the opposition goalkeeper. Everton, too, consistently caused teams problems with these delivery types under Sean Dyche. “It is special in the Premier League because you can block, push, foul and there is no whistle,” Crystal Palace head coach Oliver Glasner said of corners last season, indirectly offering an explanation of why more teams are prioritising inswingers — because they are allowed to. “This gives you more opportunities in attacking set plays but it causes more trouble when defending set plays”. Premier League corners: a reliably busy scene (Stu Forster/Getty Images) Likewise, teams are increasingly launching the ball upfield from kick-off, and long throws have been on a steady rise across the past four years too: there were 279 throws into the penalty area in 2020-21 (and only three goals from throw-ins that season). Last season, it was 501 and 20 goals from throw-ins. Thomas Frank’s Brentford were — as in previous seasons — league leaders here, with 103 penalty-box throws and six goals from throw-ins. Frank, now being Tottenham Hotspur head coach, might give the tactic more popularity if his new side continue to use it. The potential re-rise of the 3-4-2-1 Chelsea in 2016-17 were the last team to win the Premier League playing a variation of a 3-4-3. City morphed into this shape plenty in attacking during 2022-23 (when John Stones would move from centre-back into midfield), but generally there has been a homogeneity of 4-3-3 among the league’s best. However, the 3-4-2-1 is starting to creep its way back in. It is the first-choice shape of Ruben Amorim at Manchester United, and Glasner at Crystal Palace — the pair having success with it at their respective former clubs Sporting CP and Eintracht Frankfurt. Amorim and Glasner, 3-4-2-1 enthusiasts both (Michael Regan/Getty Images) Here is how it looked for United and Palace in settled possession, able to commit a wing-back onto the last line and with dual No 10s that can pin opposition full-backs, while playing close to their No 9. It was a similar story with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Vitor Pereira. When he arrived in December 2024, the club were 19th on nine points after 16 matches. His predecessor Gary O’Neil had switched between a back three and four, but Pereira went purely with a 3-4-2-1 for the rest of the season and Wolves took 33 points from their remaining 22 games. They survived comfortably, finishing 16th. It might be a blueprint for more teams, particularly promoted sides needing a solid defensive foundation. With so many teams defending in a back four, a wing-back system can be a relatively straightforward way of overloading opponents and creating a front five. In total, there were 120 instances of the 3-4-2-1 or 3-2-4-1 (different ways of labelling the same thing) in 2024-25, with its frequency trending upwards since 2019-20, where it was only 25 times. A focus on attacking transitions The Premier League took the German Bundesliga’s crown last season: England’s top tier is, statistically, the most counter-attacking among Europe’s major leagues. Fast break shots have been on a five-year rise, as has the expected goals (xG, or chance quality) from those scenarios. After 54 fast break goals in 2021-22, the past three campaigns have seen 87, 83, and, most recently, 112 goals. More teams trying to play expansively, and in the opposition half, are increasing counter-attacking opportunities. Add to this that there is a particularly high frequency of strikers and wingers with the physical and technical capacity to exploit disjointed and underloaded defences. Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal were the top teams at scoring from fast breaks last season — it is no longer an underdog tactic — while Brighton, Tottenham, Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and Brentford were a quintet of clubs who conceded at least eight goals from those scenarios. “Everyone is talking about what we’re doing with the ball, scoring goals, but when you look at our counter-press, how we win the ball back, it’s so hard for opponents,” Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard said in March 2024. “I’ve been on the other side before. Trying to defend deep and escaping that when you are being pressed is so difficult.” Expect to see even more aggressive counter-pressing next season, perhaps more tactical fouls, and coaches with a focus on rest defence — the positioning of players and spacing between them when a team has possession, ready to counter-press should a turnover occur.

Gianluigi Donnarumma on PSG future: ‘Someone has decided that I can no longer be part of the group’ https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6549540/2025/08/12/donnarumma-psg-transfer-luis-enrique/ Gianluigi Donnarumma has claimed “someone has decided that I can no longer be part of the group” at Paris Saint-Germain. The Italian goalkeeper’s comments came after PSG head coach Luis Enrique said his omission from the squad for Wednesday’s UEFA Super Cup match against Tottenham Hotspur was because they want a “different goalkeeping profile”. Donnarumma said in a statement on Tuesday: “Unfortunately, someone has decided that I can no longer be part of the group and contribute to the team’s success. I am disappointed and disheartened. “I hope to have the opportunity to look the fans at the Parc des Princes in the eyes one more time and say goodbye as it should be done. If that doesn’t happen, I want you to know that your support and affection mean the world to me, and I will never forget it.” Donnarumma was PSG’s first-choice goalkeeper last season, playing 47 matches and helping the Paris club to win the Champions League for the first time with a 5-0 victory over Inter. The 26-year-old featured in all of their games at the Club World Cup this summer, including the 3-0 defeat against Chelsea in the final. What You Should Read Next Gianluigi Donnarumma: From a liability to PSG’s ‘titan in goal’ in the Champions League The Italian looked shaky and uncertain earlier in the competition. Against Arsenal, he was superb and kept his team in the driving seat Last week, PSG signed France international Lucas Chevallier from Lille on a five-year contract. Donnarumma has entered the final 12 months of his deal with the French title-winners, and The Athletic reported on Tuesday that he is willing to leave PSG. His future was on the agenda at Tuesday’s pre-match press conference, featuring Luis Enrique and PSG captain Marquinhos. “These are always difficult decisions to make,” Luis Enrique said. “I can definitely talk about Gigio, because he’s one of the best players in his position, without a doubt. He’s even better as a person. We’re looking for a goalkeeping profile different from Donnarumma. It’s always difficult to make the decision in these kinds of situations.” Marquinhos was questioned about Donnarumma’s future and he said that the Italian “is part of this (club’s) history and always will be”. “We’re so proud of what he’s done, we thank him from the bottom of our hearts, we don’t know if he’s staying or going yet and if he’s staying we welcome him with open arms,” the Brazilian added.

looked really solid

Pedro: 25 trophies 1 World Cup 1 European Championship 6 league titles 8 domestic cups 3 CLs 2 World Club Cups 3 UEFA Super Cups 1 Europa League He has over 800 games played, over 300 goals/assists for club and country. One of the most underrated players on the planet in the last 25 years.

He scored 20 goals in 2747 minutes in 2023/24

Jeffrey is my copilot.

I would much rather Donnarumma goes to Citeh than United. It's just them switching from one great keeper to another, whereas Donnarumma to Man U is them replacing a shit keeper with a WC one.

Want to keep Veiga unless a £40m or so real, not fake offer comes in

https://www.instagram.com/p/DNRBUxFAYwg/?hl=en&img_index=2