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[Kimchi Papi]

"To be taken with a grain of salt..."

The cover of today's Mundo Deportivo... They're alleging the Pogba deal is done & that he's coming over after the transfer ban expires. They go on to say Braida & Marotta are meeting Monday to iron out the details.

Football Espana is saying there are some players that are involved in the deal in addition to the cash. Most notably Fluminense attacker Gerson whom Barca has ffirst rights on till 2019.

I'd assume if this is indeed true, it would get announced once the deal is completed so that Bartomeu can use this for his election efforts.

Last week Bartomeu said there were discussions about a player the club was interested in but the deal was still being negotiated so he wasn't at liberty to discuss...

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[chippedtoothsmile]

Should be a good game tonite. We are in great form as of late wouldn't be surprised if we murk Galaxy

 

[Kimchi Papi]

U21 Italy hung on to win 1-3. 'Arry ended up scoring England's goal. I hope Liverpool isn't paying Ings too high a wage.


Portugal vs Sweden ended in a 1-1 draw. Was again impressed with William. He was the engine that drove Portugal in this game too.

 

[rck3sactown]

anyone seen @Firepower  recently?? 

 

[AZwildcats]

looking forward to Uruguay vs Chile. I think Godin and Jimenez in the middle of that Uruguay defense is gonna be too difficult for Chile to score on 

 

[imasoleman18]

someone i follow RT'd this earlier dang

Bringing Harry Kane in permanently from Tottenham will be a big mistake.
— Leicester City News (@LCFCLatestNews) July 2, 2013

 

[noskey]

Should be a good game tonite. We are in great form as of late wouldn't be surprised if we murk Galaxy

Depends which Timbers show up. I'm hoping they're not getting complacent after stringing off 4 wins in a row. If we get a hungry Adi like last game against LA, I feel like we've got #5, but a lack of pressure and aggression from up top would kill us.

 

[Kimchi Papi]

Is it accurate to say the Timbers have underachieved? If they don't do well again this season, does Caleb Porter get axed?

 

[mastamind89]

Translated from France Football

Real still on Koscielny
In early June, the arrival of Rafael Benitez at the helm of Real Madrid, Mundo Deportivo revealed interest of the Spanish technician to the central Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny. Since then, radio silence, nothing new ... apparently. According to our information, the Real did not abandon this track and continue to move forward on the issue discreetly. The Madrid club is ready to extend € 30 million for the transfer of French, history redial the hinge of the Blues with Raphael Varane, set to become an immovable holder next season. Hopefully it did not look all benefits of the France team ...

Arnaud Tulipier

@HighburyClock Arsenal have signed 16-year-old Romanian "wonderkid" Vlad Dragomir from ACS Poli Timisoara

@GFN_France Inter Milan have changed their bid for Giannelli Imbula. A €1m season long loan with an €18m buyout option, according to @DiMarzio.
St Étienne will meet with Grégoire Defrel's agent this weekend over a possible move, Sampdoria are also keen http://goo.gl/zKq0qw
Monaco looking to close Mattia Destro deal by Sunday, according to Sky Italia http://goo.gl/fe0mB1
Dimitri Payet is currently on a plane from Mauritius to London, Marseille & West Ham have finalised an agreement http://goo.gl/RIuATD
Manchester City's Karim Rekik agrees personal terms with Marseille, talks between City & OM ongoing, according to RMC http://goo.gl/AsWDEp
Arda Turan's agent confirms that PSG are in the race, but that the player prefers the Premier League http://goo.gl/YU7Gsh
Official: Daniel Wass joins Celta Vigo http://goo.gl/2cqzqp
Manchester City & Arsenal in talks with Chelsea for Charly Musonda, alongside PSG, Monaco, Marseille & PSV http://goo.gl/wSsAOd

@samuelJayC Southampton haven't yet received any formal bids for Schneiderlin, @TeleFootball report. @SouthamptonFC want £25m.
@Cynegeticus: Luiz Adriano (Shakhtar) set to join Al Ahli (UAE), still needs to sort out contract details and pending medical.
@Squawka OFFICIAL: Samuel Eto'o has agreed a deal in principle to sign for Turkish club Antalyaspor. Strange one.

 

[Kimchi Papi]

^ Apparently the Koscielny rumor has popped up in case Ramos leaves... This according to the Mirror...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/real-madrid-plot-21million-bid-5943221

Some related tweets.

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[mastamind89]

@s04 #S04 junior #Caicara committed. Contract until 2018 details follow on schalke04.de.

 

[heggsy]

someone i follow RT'd this earlier dang

Bringing Harry Kane in permanently from Tottenham will be a big mistake.
— Leicester City News (@LCFCLatestNews) July 2, 2013

In whoever tweeted that's defence, Kane was absolutely terrible for us. He played 13 games and showed absolutely no quality. Obviously things change, he got better. But at the time, for us, he was ****.

 

[noskey]

Is it accurate to say the Timbers have underachieved? If they don't do well again this season, does Caleb Porter get axed?

Tough to tell. Can't decide if the team is currently overachieving or if they had been underachieving Porter's safe no matter what happens. Honestly he's put together great pieces with what he's got to work with. Timbers aren't attracting a Bradley, Kaka, Lampard, or Ronaldinho. The biggest name we've got is Ridgewell, an English castaway that no one really liked, who's been playing great footy the past year.

So until we get to, I dunno, August, it'll be tough to tell what this Timbers team is.

 

[rck3sactown]

 

this is basically my biggest fear and what I'm least looking forward to for Sac Republic when we get an MLS franchise 

from being able to connect the LA Galaxy to basically every aging, over the hill star, even getting my favorite player on the Galaxy..... to rooting for Sac Republic, my body isn't ready

 

[mastamind89]

Marseille's offseason a disaster so far

It is sad but not unusual these days, unfortunately, to see police stationed around club's training grounds to protect the players. It usually means that things are not going great for your club though and Marseille have had their fair share of fan unrest through their history with ultras turning up at the training ground to "warn" or "wake up" the players after some bad results.

Nevertheless, it is almost unheard of that police are requested to turn up at a club's training ground for the start of preseason. Yet that happened in Marseille on Monday morning.

At 8.30 a.m. local time under an already boiling sun, three police vans, four policemen on bikes and another 16 cops were blocking fans' access to the OM training ground. It was the club's response to the latest threats against chairman Vincent Labrune and the owner, Margarita Louis-Dreyfus.

Last week, "MLD f--- off" and "Labrune f--- off" were tagged on the walls of the training ground and a Facebook group named "Mouvement anti-Labrune" called for a protest before Monday's first training session. So the cops were there, in quite surreal and pathetic scenes, as only 40 fans turned up, including a lot of children who just wanted photos with the players.

In all, 15 squad members, including Florian Thauvin, Michy Batshuayi and Romain Alessandrini, took part in this first training session while the rest of the players, the ones involved in the June international break like Dimitri Payet or Steve Mandanda, have another two weeks off.

The season hasn't even started and Marseille are already in disarray. The whole "fan protest and police business" isn't even the worst part. On top of all of this, l'OM still doesn't have officially a manager for next season. Marcelo Bielsa, who turns 60 next month and is totally adored by the Marseille fans after his first season in charge, was not there on Monday to welcome his players.

Officially, he has extended his holidays until the beginning of July, the club said in a statement on Monday morning. Labrune has been adamant that Bielsa, who finished in a disappointing fourth place after leading the league for seven months, has agreed to a two-year contract extension. For the past three weeks, Marseille have been briefing journalists that it will be sorted in the "next 48 hours" and yet he has still not signed the paperwork.

The contract Bielsa signed last year was only for a year, with an option for another. So right now, Marseille are managerless. The Argentine is paid in dollars, which has been a nightmare for the club's legal team to draft another contract. According to Labrune, Bielsa is still very much committed. It is him who prepared the start of the preseason schedule and gave orders and details to his staff regarding what to do with the players in his absence.

However, and most worryingly, the former Chile head coach is not happy by a few things regarding the squad. And that's yet another problem for Marseille. The manager wanted to keep Jeremy Morel at the club. The defender, who was out of contract, preferred to join Lyon instead. Key players Andre-Pierre Gignac (Tigres) and Andre Ayew (Swansea) left on a free as well.

Bielsa knew they would go but so far, they have yet to be replaced. Rod Fanni is also out of contract and has an offer to stay. His manager wants him to, but he will probably leave and because Marseille only finished fourth and didn't qualify for the Champions League, they need to sell to balance the books.

Gianelli Imbula is on his way out to Italy (Milan or Inter) or Spain (Valencia). Payet is flirting with West Ham, Nicolas Nkoulou with Lyon and Steve Mandanda, who has only a year left on his contract, is unsure about his future as well. Like Payet and Nkoulou, the captain wants to know if Bielsa will be on the bench for sure comes August. And at this moment in time, he can't be assured that he will.

As the mess intensifies, Labrune is trying to please him. So far, two players have joined the club: 20-year-old George-Kevin Nkoudou, the very promising but unexperienced winger (only 34 Ligue matches in his career) from Nantes and Yohann Pele (32) as a back-up goalkeeper, from Sochaux. It is not enough and won't make Bielsa or the fans dream of a strong 2015-16 season.

Is it why the coach is taking so long to sign his new contract and commit himself? Probably. He is totally unpredictable and could easily walk out on l'OM tomorrow. It would be a disaster for the club considering that Bielsa is the only special thing Marseille have in their ranks right now.

The team travel on Thursday to Spain for their preseason training camp without Bielsa, without a decent signing and with unhappy fans. It is hardly an ideal way to start the season.

Julian Laurens is a London-based French journalist who writes for ESPN FC and Le Parisien. Follow him on Twitter @LaurensJulien.

 

[rook]

This match should be good

I'm hoping cavani shows up

 

[nomadicsole21]

Depends which Timbers show up. I'm hoping they're not getting complacent after stringing off 4 wins in a row. If we get a hungry Adi like last game against LA, I feel like we've got #5, but a lack of pressure and aggression from up top would kill us.

Urruti and Adi has been in great form, im banking either one nets a goal tonight. Gonna be all on our midfield and transition game tonight IMO. Its gonna be on how well we can go from attacking to defending. Powell and Villafana love to be wing backs and overlap but at times its unnecessary for them to push up. Honestly, I'll be happy with a draw down there, if we can push for a win, great, but a draw would be gucci

Is it accurate to say the Timbers have underachieved? If they don't do well again this season, does Caleb Porter get axed?

Ehh, hes really beloved in our city. Took us from a bottom 5 team to a top 5 team in one season. In that season though, is when I think we over achieved. Coming into this year, I don't think a lot of Timber fans including myself had high hopes. We were missing key players in the beginning and it was clearly showing. I think if we can at least play or advance in the MLS Playoffs, everyone will be happy. Next year will be his judgement year for me.

 

[dlo13]

Cavani. What a dope.

 

[lovehateself]

This match should be good

I'm hoping cavani shows up

He was there for 65 min

 

[slamcity]

Just got off work and stumbled upon the Steve Nash Showdown here in NYC.

Got to see Nash, Del Piero , G. Rossi, Luol Deng ( dude really tried a bicycle kick and had surprisingly good footwork on the ball), and Matthew Dellevadova ( kept screaming WARRIORS when he got close to us ), and Steve Nash's dad...

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[dlo13]

Popcorn ready for the post-game in Chile...

 

[tomdiginson]

Just got off work and stumbled upon the Steve Nash Showdown here in NYC.

Got to see Nash, Del Piero , G. Rossi, Luol Deng ( dude really tried a bicycle kick and had surprisingly good footwork on the ball), and Matthew Dellevadova ( kept screaming WARRIORS when he got close to us ), and Steve Nash's dad...

What a **** like thing to do

 

[Kimchi Papi]

^ Nash used to put videos for this event on youtube but he hasn't the last couple of years. They were always entertaining.

Whelp, The Guardian is reporting Ramos has asked chief executive Jose Angel Sanchez for an exit from the team after a decade with Madrid. His current contract has 2 years left with a £128 m buyout clause. Is Woodward ready to spend that kind of money? I realize that's a starting point & expect for DdG to factor in the equation.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/24/sergio-ramos-real-madrid-leave-manchester-united

 

[mastamind89]

Esteban Cambiasso’s refusal to go quietly is the mark of a great player
Gregg Bakowski

“Do not go gentle into that good night … Old age should burn and rave at close of day … Rage, rage against the dying of the light” – Dylan Thomas.

There is a depressing inevitability about the decision a garlanded but ageing footballer makes when choosing one last challenge before ending his career. It is a choice coloured by fear. Too often they’re spooked by the voice whispering in their ear: “You’re past it, it’s over, give up.” It’s why many cop out, choosing a kind of footballing semi-retirement instead. Somewhere warm and well-facilitated to wind down, where the staff tell them what they want to hear and the locals understand their growing limitations. The money helps too, of course.

It’s why it was so refreshing last season to see Esteban Cambiasso, at 34, resist the lure of the Middle East or the United States for the challenge of helping Leicester City survive on their return to the Premier League.

When players of his calibre make this kind of move, it’s probably the closest we get to an answer to what lies at the heart of the cliché about Messi and wet, windy Tuesday nights in Stoke. Watching a European Cup winner with stacks of league titles recalibrate his talent and try to haul more limited players up to his level was an absorbing micro-story within the compelling narrative that was Leicester’s successful battle to stay up. Cambiasso really did rage against the dying of the light – with all his might.

It’s just a pity we don’t get to see celebrated players do it more often. Cambiasso may now choose to wind down his career somewhere more comfortable than the King Power Stadium but his achievement in helping to preserve Leicester’s Premier League status only adds to his lustre rather than diminish it. He put himself out of his comfort zone, showed his ability was pliable and adapted to new surroundings, a manager probably like no other he has ever encountered and an enthusiastic but more prosaic cast of co-stars who desperately needed someone to give them direction. He won no silverware. But he finished last season wearing the glow of a man who looked like he had.


Football quiz: at which club did these players end their careers?
Read more
He is not alone in choosing to risk ending a successful career ignominiously, but examples are becoming more scarce as modern-day footballers become ever more like unbeaten boxers afraid to damage unblemished records. For some it works out. For others it doesn’t. Either way, hats off to a famed player willing to risk ridicule for the experience of truly trying something new.

Roberto Mancini was perhaps Leicester’s original Cambiasso – he just didn’t last as long. Parachuted in on an initial one-month loan deal by Peter Taylor on 18 January 2001, the 36-year-old playmaker was thrown straight in against Arsenal – a match for the defensive purists that ended 0-0. A defeat to Southampton followed before he helped Leicester beat Chelsea 2-1 at Filbert Street. “For a time Mancini looked like a bottle of Frascati which had found itself in the company of brown ales,” wrote David Lacey in his Guardian match report. “It appeared a toss-up as to which would occur first: a goal for Chelsea or the withdrawal of Mancini because of a crick in the neck.”

Mancini left at the end of the deal. He took the Fiorentina job. But the Premier League had left an impression on him that would last longer than a sore neck. It may not have been the best place for an ageing trequartista to ply his trade, but he has since spoken fondly of his time at Leicester and said his decision to manage in England was as much down to the curiosity that was piqued by playing in the Premier League as it was to the huge transfer kitty he was afforded at the Etihad. Whether that’s true or not, who knows, but it seems that the arduous task of trying to tune his antennae into Robbie Savage’s wavelength hadn’t put him off returning to England all together.

Mancini’s former Italy team-mate Gianfranco Zola could have opted for a much easier way to see out his twilight years than the challenge of trying to haul Cagliari in his native Sardinia out of Serie B and back into the top flight. It was some undertaking at the age of 37. Nevertheless he signed in July 2003 and did just that, showing scant regard for Father Time and defying his slowing reactions with some stellar displays to propel Cagliari into Serie A and then help keep them there. Signing off with two goals away against Juventus wasn’t a shabby way to end his playing career a year shy of 40 either.

And then there’s Mark Hughes, who perhaps had Dylan Thomas’s fiery words echoing in his mind as he chose not to end his career after a disappointing spell at Everton in which he played just 16 times in two seasons. He had never played outside the top flight but at 37 he joined Blackburn and, from a role usually in midfield, gave his playing career a late shot in the arm, his bulging thighs and tight grey curls a reassuring presence among callow but talented team-mates such as Damien Duff, David Dunn and Matt Jansen.

Not only did he help haul Blackburn out of the Championship in 2001 but he was a huge influence in their League Cup final victory a year later too, frightening off Tim Sherwood and Gustavo Poyet in Spurs’ midfield with a towering, time-bending display in which he planted a metaphorical flag in the Millennium Stadium turf and declared this patch of land his own, laying the platform upon which Blackburn built their 2-1 victory to end their 74-year wait for a major knockout trophy.

A 10th-placed finish in their first season back in the top flight was secured a few months later, with Hughes becoming the Premier League’s third-oldest scorer at the age of 39 when he converted against Leicester City in April 2002. Would he swap that experience for a couple of years in the sun and a bucket of cash? You can imagine his answer.

There are more surprising examples of players who have taken on a late-career challenge. Mercurial types, such as Christophe Dugarry, a player who could never be accused of being in the Hughes mould; an enigmatic, often frustrating but hugely talented forward who Birmingham City fans will never forget. The Birmingham Mail had him in their list of the club’s top 10 players of all time despite him playing only 30 times and scoring six goals. Having won the World Cup for France alongside Zinedine Zidane five years earlier, accepting a gig with Geoff Horsfield as his strike partner in 2003 was akin to Jimmy Page agreeing to play guitar for Shed Seven. But his impact at St Andrew’s in the run in was phenomenal. He scored five times in the final six games of the season, keeping Steve Bruce’s side in the division with a dash of panache to boot. He chose to wind down his career in Qatar but never actually played a game. But like Cambiasso before him, there’s a dirty piece of turf in the midlands where his name will always be remembered fondly for a feat of remarkable escapology rather than anything he won in a glittering career.

Maybe Dugarry didn’t fully realise what he was letting himself in for when he signed for Birmingham. But other lauded players do. Rafael Marquéz, twice a European Cup winner with Barcelona, took a pay cut last season to embrace the challenge of keeping Hellas Verona in Serie A. The 36-year-old helped them do just that – the physical and mental challenge of facing younger and more tricky opponents in a league that he felt was the most competitive he could play in being a crucial factor.

It’s the reason Chris Waddle chose to play in the Unibond Premier League for Worksop Town for two seasons aged 40 when the easier option was to not play at all or to turn out occasionally for his local pub team. “I know I can’t go on forever - I’ll probably stop when I reach 50 – but I love playing football. It’s as simple as that. Last season I played in a local pub league here in Sheffield so Worksop actually represents a major step up.”

What would be below many players who had played at Waddle’s standard, was actually a test for him, having seen his career dwindle due to a number of debilitating injuries.

But perhaps the greatest example of a player risking his reputation by taking on a late-career challenge came when Johan Cruyff signed for Feyenoord, aged 36. Having returned to Ajax after a jaunt around the US in which he appeared to be happy seeing out his career in his slippers, he won the title with the club where he made his name two seasons on the bounce. But in May 1983 Ajax chose not to renew his contract. How could Cruyff show them how angry he was? By signing for the club they most hate. And how could he make them regret that decision more than any other? By winning the league and cup double and being voted Dutch footballer of the year, that’s how. Bravo Johan, you brilliant, antagonistic swine you.

If only others would rage, rage against the dying of the light as Cruyff did.

 

[rck3sactown]

Looks like a worse decision when you see Jara give Cavani a couple slaps first. #CHI #URU anyhow, 20 mins to go now. pic.twitter.com/iNWjmEPJGh
— Perfect Pass (@PerfectPass) June 25, 2015

Jara touches Edinson Cavani's butt. Then, he sticks a finger up there. Cavani doesn't react. 

Jara then dives and pretends Cavani punched him in the face.

Jara wanted to win more.