Viva la Silly Season

Although somewhat different, Barca going after shit players reminds me of the days Perez used to buy the flavour of the month and then sold (expendable) starters and then forced the coach to shove them into one line up

Don't worry lads, it has to get worse before it gets better.

Paulinho reminds me of Khedira, not a bad player but not a Barca level player. Will probably do better than Gomes though

And besides lets not act like Barca are doomed now. As long as they have Messi they'll always be in contention for everything. Maybe not in CL but in the league for sure

Messi likes Cancelo and has held talks with him, as Bellerin is deemed expensive, the Valencia defender could be their main target in defense. [sport]

Everton close on Gylfi Sigurdsson deal

Everton was having a brilliant summer until they somehow decided it would be a good idea to woo wooney. Now whoever they bring in, they will have to be shifted around to accommodate the golden boy of English football. If I were Gylfi I would stay away.
Its one thing a club like United not picking him. Pundits and his buddies in the media will come down hard on Koeman and co. the minute he decide to shove him out of the 11.

Biggest plus of Mourinho tenure so far. Finally letting the guy go who was our biggest block in progressing as a team. Again, I am not saying it as any sort of disrespect to the man. He is a legend. But past 3 years were just painful. Glad its over now finally.

Everton trying to revamp their entire team in a single window oh boy, when will these clubs learn...

The only Everton signing I've been impressed with is Sandro, and that's more down to the price than anything. Pickford, Keane, Klaassen, Rooney and Sigurdsson aren't going to get them any closer to the top four.

Jay29 wrote:The only Everton signing I've been impressed with is Sandro, and that's more down to the price than anything. Pickford, Keane, Klaassen, Rooney and Sigurdsson aren't going to get them any closer to the top four.

Yep i think they'll be worse than last year if anything tbh.

But this happens every summer tbh, any time a team spends a lot of money = amazing summer, most of the time it's not the case.

Diego Costa allowed to miss Chelsea pre-season:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jul/10/chelsea-diego-costa-atletico-madrid-training-crystal-palace-ruben-loftus-cheek?CMP=share_btn_tw

windkick wrote:I read the guys were looking as alternatives were Leon Goretzka, Weigl, or Kimmich

Who was the last German to play for Barca?

The current goal keeper

Swansea asking for £50m for Sigurdsson:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40550188

Some silly club is going to pay this. Watch.

Chad: come over

Benzema: im enjoying my holiday

Chad: but my parents are out

Benzema:

#NeverFollow #KBNueve pic.twitter.com/qv40pqrAQv

— Karim Benzema (@Benzema) June 26, 2017

Twoism wrote:The current goal keeper

Besides him obviously lol.

Outdated with Costa's situation, can someone pls explain the exact reasons for his current situation? Hes been so important to them its just strange to see.

Sandro....not sure why ppl are rating him. Agreed cant help but feel Everton not improving, but the other way around.

The only shocking move is splashing so much cash for that Sunderland guy Pickford. Close to the same amount we paid for Buffon ffs

Other than that, not sure what you guys were expecting.
Everton is not a Big Six club, i don't remember them playing Champions League in my lifetime. They won't attract top players to replace their gems (Lukaku, Barkley, Stones). The best they can do is try the maintain a decent level, challenge for the EL spots and hope for a cinderella season every decade or so. This is the doom of mid table clubs.

Lukaku is arguably a world-class player, even if they receive 200m for him, they won't be able to find an improvement at the CF position.
Rooney, Klaassen & Sygurdsson is honestly better than nothing.

Swansea want 50m for Sigurdsson. Lukaku went for 75m can't blame them.

Blue Barrett wrote:

Twoism wrote:The current goal keeper

Besides him obviously lol.

The late Robert Enke had a brief stint as GK, bullied into depression by van Gaal, and before that Bernd Schuster.

Schuster is basically the only German outfield player of note to have played for Barca since something like the 1920s or 30s

BarcaLearning wrote:Outdated with Costa's situation, can someone pls explain the exact reasons for his current situation? Hes been so important to them its just strange to see.

Sandro....not sure why ppl are rating him. Agreed cant help but feel Everton not improving, but the other way around.

We won the title in 2015, he came back that summer for preseason overweight.

Fell out with Mourinho and was a problem in the dressing room. Got benched a few times and threw his bib at Mourinho on the sidelines while a match was on.

2016 summer he tries to force a move back to Atletico, tells Conte he wants to leave. Atletico say they don't want him. Comes crawling back to Conte like he didn't just ask to leave.

January 2017, we're flying in the league again and he's in good form. Receives a monster wage offer from China and all of a sudden throws a tantrum demanding to be sold. Right in the middle of our *bleep* season. Almost single handedly tanked our season. Conte put up with the nonsense for the sake of the team.

It's generally agreed that he'll be sold in the summer to China for 70m. But the season ends and the Chinese Super League imposes a new 100% tax rule which forces Chinese clubs to pay the same amount they paid for any transfer (over 5.6m) towards a development program for grassroots players in China. This would have meant that the 70m deal would essentially cost the Chinese club 140m as they'd have to pay another 70m towards that development fund. It essentially kills the China interest for Costa.

All of a sudden he acts like he never wanted to leave (now that the China move is off). By now, Conte has already had it with him and we're already targeting new strikers.

Conte sends a group text to all the players ahead of their holiday, wishing them well and telling them to make sure they ate the right food and stayed in shape to avoid coming back for preseason overweight. Costa sends a silly reply back at Conte. Already out of patience with Costa, Conte replies him telling him he's not going to be in his plans for the new season.

By now Atletico are interested in him again. In my opinion, in an effort to try to drive Chelsea's asking price down in favour of Atletico, he comes out after a match for Spain and reveals Conte's text to him, playing the victim card. "I just want to play football. I want to stay here but if they don't want me, I will go to Atletico"....something along those lines. Clever, dirty move by the c**t.

At the moment, he's done as a Chelsea player. There have been several credible journos today who've said there's no way back for him with Conte. And I won't miss him.

Yes, he scored for us but he was an incredibly frustrating player. First of all, in the 2 title winning seasons, he performed for maybe 35-40% of the matches. The rest of the time, he played worse than a pub player. Missing easy tap ins, breaking down our attacks repeatedly, seemingly unable to hold up the ball or make ridiculously easy and obvious passes that would lead to a goal, etc. For 60% of his stay here (even when he was on form), he was more concerned with fighting opponents than playing football.

Man has the emotions of a bipolar teenage girl on her period....on steroids. One minute he's happy, next minute he's asking to leave. He can fck off back to Atletico for all I care. Good riddance.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Blue Barrett wrote:

Twoism wrote:The current goal keeper

Besides him obviously lol.

The late Robert Enke had a brief stint as GK, bullied into depression by van Gaal, and before that Bernd Schuster.

Schuster is basically the only German outfield player of note to have played for Barca since something like the 1920s or 30s

Quite interesting considering the fact that Germany have a longer history of very skilled technical players than Spain do and yet they've hardly had German outfield players play for them. They should be trying to get Weigl instead of trying to force a mission impossible for Verratti.

https://twitter.com/RealBetis/status/884368405482135552

President of Real Betis confirms a move to Madrid for Dani Ceballos

Warrior wrote:The only shocking move is splashing so much cash for that Sunderland guy Pickford. Close to the same amount we paid for Buffon ffs

Other than that, not sure what you guys were expecting.
Everton is not a Big Six club, i don't remember them playing Champions League in my lifetime. They won't attract top players to replace their gems (Lukaku, Barkley, Stones). The best they can do is try the maintain a decent level, challenge for the EL spots and hope for a cinderella season every decade or so. This is the doom of mid table clubs.

Lukaku is arguably a world-class player, even if they receive 200m for him, they won't be able to find an improvement at the CF position.
Rooney, Klaassen & Sygurdsson is honestly better than nothing.

This. From a club like Everton stand's point they were having a really good window.
Keane is an improvement on all their current CBs. Sandro cannot replace Lukaku. But still I reckon is a tidy signing plus they are in the market for Giroud. Klassen I dont know, although they do have similar level of players in Schneiderlin and the young Davies. Pickford eventhough they overpaid could become really good in the future. So, all in all they were doing well until ofc rooney graced the turf.

Atletico Madrid have reached an agreement in principle to sign Fabinho from Monaco, report AS. He'd move in January, player has also agreed.

Sky: Bayern want to replace Douglas Costa with James Rodriguez

Sky: Juventus to set up a Kickstarter campaign to buy Douglas Costa after loan offer rejected by Bayern board