A Chinese businessman have bought 80% of Southampton. Let's see what happens there. Obviously there are both examples of success and catastrophe with this type of thing for various clubs.

And apparently next year may have a changed transfer window in England. Seems like about two thirds of the clubs are in favour of closing it before the PL starts, rather than letting it be open for a couple of weeks into the PL season. I'd like that change.

Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, claims he wants to buy Arsenal and, if so, sack Wenger.

-Blaise Matuidi from Paris Saint-Germain to Juventus.
-Carlos Bacca on a loan from Milan to Villareal.
-Kevin-Prince Boateng and Las Palmas broke their contract, and now he's gone to Eintracht Frankfurt.
-A 36 year old Gareth Barry from Everton to West Bromwich.
-Rodrigo Palacio to Bologna after his contract with Inter expired.

Lol They don't want a guy like that running their club. Short term solution that caters to chaotic and extreme supporters. His first act of business should be a long term plan with short term goals, mixed with cyclical progressions on all fronts that can also be defined and promoted in a few short, sweet words.. and large amounts of cash.

Anyways, Juve got a steal for Matuidi. 20mil is nothing for him or what he will bring to the table. He can't be the wrong side of 30 with the athleticism he has. Great signing.

Well, doesn't look like the anti-Wenger supporters will be fewer this season... Having big problems with Leicester at home in the first round and lost today against Stoke. Though obviously it's early.

Don't get me wrong, I would want him out too. But that won't solve their problems. They actually made some damn good buys this off season, in my opinion. But they'd need a good coach to replace Wenger. Tuchel or Luis Enrique? Bielsa?

Tuchel and Bielsa are probably too unstable for Arsenal's liking. Luis Enrique would probably be the best of those three, but I'd think Arsenal would be more interested in someone who have proven himself as a winner during a long time.

After Batshuayi gave Tottenham the equalizer against Chelsea with an own-goal, Lloris gave Chelsea their winning goal with a poor performance on Alonso's finish. Since both teams are expected to be on top positions at the end of the season, it could be crucial.

Nicolai Müller scored a goal for Hamburg and got injured during his celebration, and is now expected to be gone for seven months...



Some transfer news:
-Samir Nasri from Manchester C to Antalyaspor.
-Davinson Sanchez from Ajax to Tottenham.
-Jeison Murillo and Geoffrey Kondogbia from Inter to Valencia on loan.

I can't see the video, but that really sucks.

Everton vs City was an entertaining game. Walker obviously shouldn't have been sent off. The second half though was so dominant even with only 10 men. It was really interesting to me to watch. I hate wanting City to win, but I love Pep and his style of play. I have a hard time believing anyone has fun playing against his teams. They had over 60% possession in the 2nd half with 10 guys lol I would be so damn mad and feel useless as an Everton player.

Well, since Everton had the lead for along time, they didn't have much reason to go forward alot. Though with the difference in resources, City are of course expected to be the ball-possessing team in most games, especially at home. Fun though that Rooney have scored both their goals this season, even though the goalkeeper's performance yesterday wasn't too good.

The video was removed, but here it is at 1:26:



I'm surprised it's not more common to get injured in goal celebrations. Considering how often players will violently jump up on each others backs or throw themselves in a pile.

Oh god, that didn't good. Stupid way to get injured too. Yea, or when they do those full field sprints where they run faster after scoring then they had the entire game xD

I'm happy for Rooney. I hope he keeps up the pace, but he can't score in every game. So who will if he doesn't? Other guys need to step up to the plate there.

Yeah I don't see Everton being too reliable this season. I think Koeman is a good manager though, so in the long run they may achieve something with him.

Speaking of entertaining games, the ones I saw that sticks out from the weekend in that respect is probably Girona-Atletico Madrid and Lyon-Bourdeaux. My compassion to the newcomer and clear underdog Girona who was up 2-0 and Griezmann had been sent off, when Atletico got back to 2-2 anyway. And in Lyon, the hometeam was ahead with 2-0 and 3-1 but only got 3-3 after two late goals from Bourdeaux, partly probably due to a red card for Lyon in the first half. Some cool goals too, inclduing one from half the pitch.

These official YT channels don't seem to allow embedding for some reason...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gTeH9RiQKk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGW1VPG_9U4

Azerbaijan will have a team in the CL for the first time, since Qarabag eliminated Copenhagen in the last qualification round on the away-goal-rule. The group stage draw is tomorrow.

...and they will be the punching (Qara)bag for Atletico Madrid, Chelsea and Roma in group C.

Another big trio is found in group H, namely Real Madrid, Dortmund and Tottenham. Fourth team being APOEL Nicosia.

In other news, Ibrahimovic is rejoining Manchester U after having been a free agent for a short while. They will face Benfica, Basel and CSKA Moscow. I remember some years ago when Basel faced Manchester U in the last group stage round and had them eliminated.

May as well post the other five groups:

Bayern Munich
Paris Saint-Germain
Anderlecht
Celtic

Juventus
Barcelona
Olympiacos
Sporting Portugal

Spartak Moscow
Sevilla
Liverpool
Maribor

Shakhtar Donetsk
Manchester C
Napoli
Feyenoord

Monaco
Porto
Besiktas
Leipzig

I wonder if Spartak Moscow may stir things up with a perhaps uncertain post-Monchi Sevilla and a unreliable Liverpool. Not that I have too much knowledge about the current state of Spartak Moscow... But at least the one game each with Sevilla and Liverpool I've seen in the beginning of this season, against Espanyol and Watford respectively, both have been defensively shaky to say the least.

The following teams will advance to the next round:

ManU + ZSKA
PSG + Bayern
Chelsea + Atletico
Barça + Juventus
Liverpool + Sevilla
ManCity + Neapel
Monaco + Porto
Real + BVB

As a Liverpool fan, I'm very happy with the draw as it could've been so much worse (see Spurs' group). We've a great chance of progressing to the knock out stages. I just wish our owners would invest to take advantage of this opportunity.

Man, Turkish football is having a terrible start of the season. Earlier, Galatasaray were eliminated in the EL qualification against Östersund from Sweden, and today Fenerbahce were eliminated from it by Vardar from Macedonia.

That's horrible for the Turkish league and embarrassing, frankly. They pay good money for decent players, high-quality facilities, and other amenities. To be so easily dispatched by sub par teams is so bad.

Draws are interesting. I haven't paid much attention to shaktar donetsk of late, but it'll be interesting to see if they can still compete. They have a knack for bringing in 10/10 talent, so maybe they will have some new guys on display. They always played well against Pep too.

Spurs look screwed. Unless they truly ascend and become real contenders. Leipzig can definitely make it out of their group. Will be interesting to see how they take to the european stage. Man U got handed an easy group. Shame. Would have loved to see them get knocked out in the group stages.

From the EL draw it's noticeable that Lyon, Everton and Atalanta are in the same group, fourth team being Apollon Limassol.

It looks like it's a fight for 3rd place and the Europa League spot for us (Celtic) and Anderlecht. PSG and Bayern are 2 behemoths and the former especially seems to have made it its mission to win the Champions League. That said, we can hopefully take at least a point off one of them at Paradise! Celtic's home form in the Champions League is remarkably good all things considered. It's a really nice draw for me - 2 glamour ties where I can see the novelty of my team playing against the big boys but also a real chance of more European football after Christmas if we can finish ahead of the Belgians.

Liverpool demolished Arsenal with 4-0, Monaco demolished Marseille with 6-1, and then Real Madrid with both Ronaldo and Ramos suspended would have demolished Valencia had Benzema scored on at least half of his great chances instead of none. 2-2 in that game, and Valencia had their chances of even winning in Madrid. Looks like Valencia are heading for a better season than in recent years.

Ousmane Dembélé from Dortmund to Barcelona for €105.

Fuck that draw man, holy shit (I am Olympiacos). At this point we are not even certain to make 3rd place (I think Sporting has double our budget or something) but I am more worried about certain records being broken (Juventus - Olympiacos 7-0, blackest european day for the club).

Yeah, I guess your team will fight with Sporting for the Europa League.

So Liverpool sign Naby Keita, out from under the noses of Barcelona. Shame it won't go through until next season, but that's a real statement from the club.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain rejects a move to Chelsea because, like Keita, he wants to play for Klopp. So Liverpool bid under what Chelsea had accepted.
Virgil van Dijk is still up in the air. The consensus seems to be that this deal will go through at the very end of the transfer window tomorrow night.
Lamar is also discussing a move with Liverpool.
Coutinho to stay. It's nice to see clubs standing up to those arseholes Barcelona.

I expect a number of players to leave. Sakho will leave, probably for Crystal Palace. Lazar Markovic also, though probably on loan. Divock Origi is likely to leave also, with a number of clubs keen, including Tottenham

Another Keita, Keita Baldé, goes from Lazio to Monaco.

The Ox officially signs with Liverpool. Great signing. He was wasting away at Arsenal. They also signed Naby Keira for next summer? Really? If that's true, then that's a great signing as well. It looks like Liverpool have staff specifically just for Lamar, in case they need to make a bid and such.

I think it's been a disappointing window for Liverpool. Obvious defensive deficiencies have not been addressed and I think we will suffer for it (at least until the January window, where hopefully something will be done).

Holy fuck what a transfer: Mbappé from Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain, on a loan with possibility to buy. That he would leave wasn't too surprising, since I expected him to leave earlier during the summer. But that the move would go to the league rival PSG is huge.

Some other transfers:
-James Rodriguez on loan from Real Madrid to Bayern Munich.
-Benedikt Höwedes on loan from Schalke to Juventus.
-Fernando Llorente from Swansea to Tottenham.
-Nani from Valencia to Lazio.
-Renato Sanches on loan from Bayern Munich to Swansea.
-Wilfried Bony from Manchester C back to Swansea.
-Davide Zappacosta from Torino to Chelsea.
-Danny Drinkwater from Leicester to Chelsea.
-Konstantinos Mitroglou from Benfica to Marseille.
-Douglas on loan from Barcelona to Benfica.
-Kevin Kampl from Leverkusen to Leipzig.
-Mamadou Sakho from Liverpool to Crystal Palace.
-Bojan Krkic on loan from Stoke to Alavés.

apparently galatasaray have completely revamped the squad after the embarrassing exit from the europa league and are now suddenly playing very well.

also looking forward to another season of english teams embarrassing themselves in the champions league.
I expect monaco to crash and burn this season. They sold pretty much everyone worth of note. Same thing happened to Ajax.

That's not true, to be honest. They kept their coach, they have a solid squad, and they still have some stars on their team. Said stars being; Falcao, Fabiho, Lemar, Joao Moutinho, Sidebe, and Glik. Both of their goalies are solid with CL exp too. They also brought in some really interesting signings like Joventic, Balde, Tielemans, and Rony Lopes. Also to keep hold of Jardim where I felt like he could walk into anywhere at this point is phenomenal. They've already started the season with a bang and that was without Mbappe's help. Will they reach the same highs? Probably not. Will they fall apart into irrelevancy? No chance, this team is too good.

I hope you are right....

Time will tell!

How pathetic is the USA mens national team? Why in the world would we ever bring back Bruce Arena. The people in charge of our Federation have absolutely no guts, none at all. Grass is always greener, isn't it fellas? Never missed out on a WC with Klinsman. I'm not rooting against my own national team, but we need to have realistic expectations about our quality in major tournaments. At least Klinsman got us to them all.. except the olympics. To be in danger of not qualifying now is a joke. Bruce Arena openly admitted to being out coached.. by the costa rican coach. I don't care if they have Guardiola as their coach. You have months worth of time for preparation as a national coach. I would love for him to explain to me what is so complicated and unique about CR's team tactics that he couldn't figure it out before the game, so as to best prepare our team. What a fucking joke. Surprise surprise, soccer is moving forward in our part of the world and we hire a coach that is stuck in the past. It's so ridiculous to me.. getting out coached. I would fire him just for that comment he made. Your job is to coach and prepare your players and whether or not they succeed and execute game plans or individual things on the field is on them. He openly admitted to being sucky at his job, basically. So frustrating.

Though the US losing to Costa Rica is nothing compared to France playing 0-0 at home against Luxemburg, which is what happened yesterday. Anyway, the US still have a good chance at reaching the WC, though by preferring underdogs, it would be fun with Honduras and Panama passing the US in the table.

About Monaco, I'd say they certainly still have a team that can defend the league title and do a good job in the CL.

I saw a lot of that France game at work, they hit the crossbar a few times and the keeper had some decent saves. Just as my friend and I were talking about how stacked the France team is and then they tie Luxembourg lol They will be fine though, one offs can happen. The USA team may not qualify still because Panama and Honduras aren't teams we typically walk all over. We are going to have to fight for each win.

The US is overestimating itself. They have an above average team for sure but can't compete with Mexico or Costa Rica in general and shouldn't expect beating them too often. A loss against them doesn't come as a surprise to me. They are more or less on the same level with Honduras in my book. That said, bringing back former coaches is something I don't hold in high regard. Maybe it was time for Klinsmann to go because he got everything out of this squad that he could but it wasn't time for Bruce Arena to come back. The team needs some fresh inspiration and a more modern coach. I heard Thomas Tuchel doesn't have a job right now...

I would kill for Thomas Tuchel to be our head coach lol A man can dream.

the netherlands is close to dying again this qualification cycle. The players are in theory good enough to become 2nd in the group but there is just some imbalance right now. The confidence isnt there either.
Also lol @ turkey losing 2-0 and also dying in the qualification because of 2 goals that should have been disallowed. Does Cristiano play for ukraine these days?

Astoundingly, Scotland are not out of this World Cup yet! After being thrashed away to Slovakia and being held to a 1-1 draw at home with Lithuania, it looked like the same old pish but after 3 wins and a draw back to back we're right back in contention for second in our group. If we beat Slovakia at home and Slovenia at home then we're guaranteed 2nd place....that's a very big IF but being a Scotland fan, I'm used to always being mathematically eliminated by this stage so it's exciting!

Although knowing Scotland we'll amazingly win these next 2 games and being the one team of the 9 second best placed teams who does not advance to playoffs. After all, we are the masters of glorious failure, always finding new ways not to qualify.

I watched Honduras-USA (1-1), and Honduras really had chances to go up to 2-0, but failing either in finishes or the last pass. The US defense wasn't good at all. But the US plays in a continental federation where they can advance to the WC even when not being good.

Also watched Uzbekistan-South Korea (0-0). Disappointed in Uzbekistan which I thought was going to be better since they had the chance to reach the WC in the last group stage round at home, but South Korea dominated the game and reached the WC. Apart from a longshot in the bar and sort of one good chance, Uzbekistan didn't really have anything compared to South Korea. Syria(!) equalized in Iran on added time, thus reaching the playoff against Australia on goal-difference. The winner of those two will then face the fourth-placed team from the CONCACAF.

Anyway, the AFC teams guaranteed in the WC are Japan, Iran, South Korea and Saudi-Arabia. Too bad, for those of us who like some variation, about the lack of upsets, concidering how close some were.


Well, since beating Croatia they are still only two points from both first and second place. And they have Iceland at home and Finland away remaining. Though I prefer both Croatia and Iceland.



The Slovenia game is away. I remember watching Scotland-England some months ago where Scotland took the lead in added time but still "managed" to only get a draw... But still, the chance is there.

The Slovenia game is away. I remember watching Scotland-England some months ago where Scotland took the lead in added time but still "managed" to only get a draw... But still, the chance is there.[/quote]

Ah yes, I meant to put away. That Scotland-England match was actually on the day of my sister's wedding. It was played while we were all sitting down to the speeches and then dinner so I missed most of it however it was being played in a games room next door. After we scored the second goal a big group of the men got up and literally ran to the room with the TV (including the priest!). Those few minutes of sheer joy and ecstasy rapidly turning into the all too familiar feeling of bitterness and crushing disappointment is the perfect encapsulation of being a Scotland fan. I'm 26 and the last time we made a tournament was World Cup '98 when I was 7 so too young to really enjoy and appreciate my country on such a grand stage. I am keeping everything crossed but given our recent history I can't help but have a nagging air of pessimism about me haha.

I was also rooting for Uzbekistan by the way. It'd have been so cool to see such a relatively obscure nation make the world cup. Similarly in Europe with Montenegro who are in for a very decent shout at making the finals.

That '98 WC was the first one I followed and the earliest I remember really following football at all. And coincidentally, the opening game was Brazil-Scotland (2-1), with Cesar Sampaio scoring already in the fifth minute.
----
Anyway, Argentina only got 1-1 at home against Venezuela and is still outside the direct-spots for the WC. Imagine the scandal if they were to miss it all together. And speaking of obscure countries, Peru are currently on a WC spot, but have two difficult games remaining. Very tight between places 2-8: