Magic Lamps

If you had read my statements correctly and completely than you would understand that I am far from hatred to German players. On the contrary, like most Germans I have a very differentaited view on my nation. Sure Schweinsteiger is still a good player, esp when he raises his performances, I listed his pros and cons before in this thread, but looking at what he would offer to us it is easy to see why we weren't in the market for him. Of course he is better than Ramires and Mikel, but not better than Fabregas and Schweinsteiger and he would give us absolutely nothing we don't already have. Secondly, Schweinsteiger was an immature player when aged 26. It was Lvg who made him what he is now. At 26 Schweinsteiger was a slow, technically limited, average winger playing for a mediocre Bayern side who had not made the semifinal of the CL for 8 years. Only when LvG shifted him into the middle he became the player he is now. Aranguiz at 26 knows where his place is already, can work with his strengths. He is less injury prone, has more left in the tank, his best is yet to come, already a mature player, physical on a way higher level than Schweini. Thirdly about Löw and the national team, we were completely horrible before the world cup. When I made the statement that our chances were slim it was like in 2012 when there were no active German players even in posession of an international medal. In the World cup our players completed their evolution from chokers to big match winners. I was highly cricital of Joachim Löw and rightly so, because some of his tactical manoeuvres like playing Lahm in midfield despite an apparent lack of quality fullbacks, playing Özil on the wing etc. But In the end the superior quality of our side shone through. We had by far the best squad in the World Cup and a good portion of luck that Algeria, France and Argentina were so damn wasteful in their finishing. I predicted multiple times before and during the WC that we were going to win it, despite Löw. Still it needed some heroic defending from Neuer, Boateng and Hummels plus a couple of brilliant individual moves in the front the win that WC. Not really because of superior tactics. Schweinsteiger put in a commanding display in the final but did not really make any difference defensively or offensively. As said above, Schweinsteiger and Löw will be the last ones I will thank for this WC title. First come Neuer, Hummels, Höwedes, Boa, Schürrle and of course Higuain and Palacio for some really epic misses.

Thinking about it, how many midfielders Utd want to sign? They only got 1 proper senior striker, and 3.5 cbs. No wonder van Gaal used 8 midfielders in some games. Tbh I would not take any of their midfielders above Matic or Fabregas. Schneiderlin is not even official yet. Fabregas-Matic-Aranguiz is still better than Herrera-Schweinsteiger-Schneiderlin, even though it is close. They got immense depth in those midfield positions though. Schweini is not the player that will make Utd a danger again. What they need is a world class defender who can organise their D. now de gea can't save their asses, this is especially vital. Also they need a striker who actually leads them to titles with his goals like van Persie did. Rooney is a consistent scorer since 12 years but only in two seasons scored enough goals to warrant that tag. In neither season utd won a title. I don't see Utd getting either. So no worries so far. When we play Utd next season, they storm all over the ptich with their 100 midfielders, having 60% of posession, working out one half-chance after another, and after all those huffing and puffing we will win the match with a sneaky little counter attack that slipped through the 20 yards wide gate between Smalling and Johnny fucking Evans. LvG will elaborate how they deserved to win after all those chances and posession and bla bla while Schweinsteiger, in his broken English sounding like a retard, will be the first to reiterate that claim how ManU were "the better team over 90 minutes" in. None of their players will make a difference,none of them is suited to break that pattern, deviate from LVG's one-dimensional football in order to break down an organized and clever team. And Schweinsteiger would be the last one to do so.

We were never in the run for Schweinsteiger, he is not what we need. Will be 31 one before the season starts, all our midfielders are in their peak we do not need players who are past it. Charles Aranguiz is pretty close to Schweinsteiger anyway. When Basti was 26, he was not even half the player Aranguiz is now.

I remember that performance. One of his many brilliant, combative playmaking games. Controlling the play with ease. Maan i almost forgot how smooth his passing and dribbling is. Never seen a player doing those flick ons and over the top balls that accurately. Also great defensive display. Won like 6 tackles. People tend to forget how complete a player he has been. Dribbling, long and short passing, heading, goals, long rangers, defenseman the whole package everything on WC level. The compilations of Vidal or cesc I watched today almost feel awkward in comparison. BTW how classic that kalou fell when scoring both goals. Miss him too

Tbh I did not know shit about this player when the topic started. Having informed myself, rewatching some Chile games, I really believe he could be an awesome addition. He is a very balanced midfield allrounder which is rare these days. Stronger than u would expect for someone this tiny, great passer and some decent long-range shots. He is an ok tackler but better and pressing spaces, so he would be of use in when playing small teams or try a more proactive approach in big games. He is pretty much what we would have got in Thiago last year just better. The other teams interested are Marseille and Leverkusen, so we could easily sing him up. HIs price and wages should be peanuts for us+he is at the best age at 26. Only getting better. He already proved himself against some of the best players in the world and he surely will improve further playing in europe.

Of course, he would be perfect. Can play any position in the front four. He is a player we are missing so far. We got players like Willian and Cuadrado who are all flair and no goals. Müller is the opposite. He is good but not excellent at everything but also no weaknesses. Works extremely hard and is always there when it counts most, scoring and assisting in Hazard-like figures. But as I have repeatedly mentioned, he will never leave Bayern. He is an extremely loyal person. ONly a big rift between him and the club would see him leave. And I mean the club, not Guardiola.

So he will end up at PSG. Good for them, another player they dont need. Given how pastors turned out I am quite happy we dodged that bullet.

welcome to Chelsea. This is your last chance to recapture some form and re-earn your place on the biggest stage so you' better not fuck this up, Mr Falcao.

Douglas Costa is not even the best Am in Ukraine, one might argue he is not even the best AM in Donezk. I wonder what Bayern sees in him. They seldom fail with such buys. But there is no way he will ever be close to the level robery were. He is about has productive as William but less work rate and less all rounded. Also he usually does not even get selected in important league games plus all his half decent performances have come against relegation candidates...

the CAS lifted that ban before it could come into effect. Was pretty much a joke. Just some small time attempt of Kakuta's old club. Some anti-English authorities slapped us with a ban, the media blew it up but at the CAS our lawyers wiped the floor with them.

But they will probably be sold with profit. There are tons of clubs who will pay huge sums for a couple of flashy skilled Brazilians. BTW from what I have seen of Kennedy he might really cut it. He is crazy fast,has a decent left foot and a bag full of tricks. Not here tho, in a place where a top10 player in the world has to earn every step over with a lungbusting tracking run.

Maybe he looks Linda awkward but he still has some killer moves and has the ball close enough to his feet when dribbling. But most importantly he knows his strengths and weaknesses and how to utilise them. Sth lukaku e.g. has not worked out even now. We should stop expecting anything from vitesse loanees if he doesn't make it as he is the best player we ever loaned there.

Atletico Madrid anyone?

Would be a strange move. But we have been messing with that leftback position for years. Playing Azpi, a rightback over Bertrand the best (natural) left back in the league after he left us and Filipe Luis the arguably best left-back in the world before he joined us and then signing a 20 y.o. nobody from fucking bundesliga who will never be anything close to one of the three mentioned for more than 20m € is just plain bonkers.

41m €/29m pound to Liverpool done. bundesliga record fee. I wonder how he will fit in. They can't possibly play Sturridge, Firmino, Sterling and Coutniho at the same time. Maybe an indication that sterling will leave this summer.

Well, busy transfer windows are fun IMO, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. But for smaller clubs, FFP has more downsides. When they need to renovate, they can't and when they have a potential worldclass player in their ranks already he will be easily priced away from them. But I guess the latter has always been they case. Of ocurse for Chelsea, it is easy to say, better everything stays at it is, as we are a team on the ascent anyway while currently being the best team in EPL, too. If everyone stayed where he is, we would win the league by an even bigger margin next year for sure. But it won't. While I don't see BArca, Real or BAyern improving signficiantly with the players available. All 3 of our domestic rivals can and will improve. Instead of reacting, we should simply be proactive, replace the leavers (Mikel, Cech, Drogba) with the accoridng squad players (Begovic/Green, Song/Witsel/Schneiderlin, Falcao(please not)) and additionally improve on some aspects that have been an issure last season. With 3 of our cbs aging, we might bring in someone like Stones, also ascoring mdifielder with soem defensive prowess would be nice as the Ramires/Fabregas connection does not work in big games. Yeah, probably he is not what we need but saying it is because of RLC is like "we don't need Messi because we have Traore". He would not fit our system, as he does not complement Matic and Fabregas enough. But I honestly doubt that RLC will be a major factor next season.

I guess he is about 20m more English and 10m more homegrown than Kalas. But Omeruo is as homegrown as Stones and consequently 10m more homegrown than Kalas. But then again milner is as English as Stones and still was free, so we should get Stones for the 10m he is homegrown. wtf

Always love it when people list "big tournament next summer" as a reason for no switch. This way it would be impossible for all internationals to move every other year which is BS. Typical case of speculative jounralism

Randomly came across a player called Dani Parejo who had a couple of brilliant performances against the mighty Barca. Turns out he is actually the captain of Valencia. Running out of contract next summer he has been argaubly the best CM in la liga the past season. His style is kind of a Iniesta-Lampard hybrid (think Paul scholes), being both a decent goalscorer and creative (11/8 this season). Can play anywhere in midfield. As technical as it gets. Dribbling, passing, shooting, crossing, vision, freekicks, the whole package. Decent strengths, too. Could improve on his tackling and defensive workrate but could be worse. As there is nothing flashy about him he would be dead cheap and for some reason is not linked with any top clubs. Me thinking he would be perfect as Cesc backup and complement. can play with and instead of him, as 6,8 or 10. perfect age, too (26). what do you think, esp supporter ?

Yup but not many world class players to move this season anyway. This is the downside of the FFP monopoly. Most great players are settled in their clubs already. Shame. The only exception is sadly our very own Petr. Last season Kroos, Di maria, Costa, FAbregas, Suarez, Sanchez, Griezmann, Xabi Alonso, James all moved to a big club. This season there are even less top players at non top clubs. And most are bound by contracts and outrageous fees. I will try to make a list of possible more or less WC player moves and the clubs tracking them Griezmann - us, Bayern, PSG Pogba - PSG, Real, City KDB - Bayern, ManCity, PSG vague: Higuain, Götze, Gündogan, Schweinsteiger, Reus, Sterling, Miranda, Varane etc All in all not that impressive. With every single one we would not even improve that much like we did with FAbregas and Costa last summer, even though both were relatively cheap.

and they also had less contract. 50m pound fucking sterling on a 20 year old. that is 69,5m €. more expensive than Zidane, Kaka, Torres. I would not want us to pay that much for a player again, we can't be 100% sure he will become world class. When Hazard joined us for like 40m € he was a few months older than sterling is now, it was expensive, but everyone could see he was worth it, he had already been a major player at lille for months, scoring goals for fun left right centre, leading them to league titles and been injury free. If this was also the case with Sterling, he'd be worth 50m. but it isn't. He is a golden boy but still a boy. If anyone pays that much over the odds, I am not sure what hte pressure will do to the boy. Liverpool are crazy to demand that much. They will lose him for peanuts next year.

Exactly. It makes him unpredictable. He does not have that many options when on his own down a fixed flank against a deep sitting team. No wonder defenders had worked him out. All they had to do was cover his right foot. If so he would just pass it backwards. But with more freedom to move around, he can face unprepared defenders and gain momentum more easily. He has all it takes. Great athelticism, amazing workrate and technically accomplished. Never will be a great goalscorer but still can be an awesome provider. The assist was immense: Taking on the defender, ok with space he can always do that, but spotting the run, using the momentum for the free cross and delivering such a perfectly timed and placed ball with the outside of his foot at full speed is a world class trait. Let's hope he keeps that on. Him and Hazard hitting top form simulatenaeously and we would be unstoppable.

This would look really decent and also a good overall solution. The nearby buildings and lanes would not be impeded + the iconic Stamford Bridge Stands and facade would be retained. Lowering the ground is a common practice when a stadium gets build. Olympiastadion Berlin, Camp Nou, Bernabeu and many more have a lowered pitch. Lets hope there is not a forgotten tube tunnel below. Though I wonder how the stands would evolve given a lowered ground. they are already pretty close to the pitch. where shall the new lower stands fit?

If ManCity get Pogba and Sterling and maybe even de Bruyne we will be in trouble as soon as they get a competent manager in.

Schneiderlin is better. Schneidelrin has much better distribution, tackling and strategic sense. Witsle is more like a like for like replacments for mikel. has some skill and strength but ponders too long on the ball and has close to zero productivity.