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Thursday, August 11, 2022
The new season kicks off in Europe without a peep from the BBTF cognoscenti. Are the fans turned off by the stratospheric player salaries? Dismayed at increasing stratification in domestic leagues? Bored with the prospect of more meaningless Champions League group games? Gearing up for a World Cup boycott? Or, you know, just kind of tired in general. Whatever the reason, we can’t go without a soccer thread, surely!
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EPL Top 4 odds.
Relegation odds:
I do wonder when the postponed match will be played. Hopefully sooner rather than later, because it's going to be absolutely bonkers at Emirates if they're still 1-2 in the league and fairly close when it happens.
His performance has not been lost on the fans, and without the fan support he is completely useless to United and has no leverage. They really need to get rid of him as soon as possible. It would be well worth just eating the rest of his contract in my opinion.
In an ideal world he could be brought on late in games and play in some league and FA cup ties, but they already tried that and he ####### to high heaven.
I don't mean to bask in your misery, but I must say that Ronaldo's ####-eating campaign has really pleased me. The only athlete I've ever loathed in an even remotely similar way is Derek Jeter.
Ronaldo should be careful what he wishes for... If United eat the rest of the contract (and I strongly suspect they will have to, and will do so in January), I'm not sure there's a single team in the CL or considered "top tier" enough by Ronaldo who would sign him for his preferred weekly wage.
He's basically a toxic brand, and a toxic clubhouse presence. Outside of some lunatic team (and one with deep pockets) trying to stave off relegation that desperately--and I mean desperately--need a static forward who won't play defense but can score some goals if provided service... who would have him?
This sad, pathetic end also isn't going to be good for the ol' legacy... People remember the end just like the remember the good stuff (maybe even moreso).
Serious question on 706 though. I would have assumed that if United eats the rest of his contract that also means his weekly wages until the end of the season (or, at least almost the full amount of the weekly wages). Ronaldo could presumably then sign for a new team at a very low weekly wage and still be earning his current weekly salary, until the end of this season anyway. Yes they "tear up" the old contract when a player signs with another team, but no doubt the signing team and United would be able to work something out if United agreed to pay, say, 80-90% of the weekly wages until the end of the year.
Yeah I'm pretty sure I've mentioned at least twice previously in this thread that City have had a very easy schedule so far compared to the other top teams. It's entirely too easy to imagine De Bruyne picking up an injury in the World Cup and things not really ever coming together for City after the break (obviously every good team has World Cup injury risk, they're not special in that regard, it's just that he's particularly important and has been fairly injury prone over the past few years).
Just going to spend the next 6 weeks checking off the injuries and thinking about January.
It *does* make me wonder what the knock-on effects of this WC will be ... I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a bunch of mid-tier and lower teams, that don't have a lot of internationals in their squads make charges up the various top tier league tables after the break.
If you want to watch some soccer, the women's leagues are continuing. Arsenal v. Man United on Saturday is a pretty exciting matchup.
He's not the earth-bestriding genius that De Bruyne is, but Arsenal is a profoundly diminished squad without Saka on the pitch. They have other weapons, but he is easily their most imaginative player, and when he's not in Arsenal can end up in this situation where they dominate possession and never get off a good shot, which is deeply annoying.
If they were only a few million dollars apart it would have happened in the offseason and even if it didn't there wouldn't be so much public fighting about this right now.
I also believe Ronaldo is going to make a very sour face when he sees what people are going to offer him for his services going forward, but that's another discussion ...
Over/Under $15 million?
I'll take the under, but it'll be higher than many would expect.
After the WC, Ronaldo has no need to cave and can just sit it out and collect the paychecks.
I think the counterargument that people are making is that he only has a very few years left as a good player, and he is so competitive/desperate to be seen playing well he will give up some significant amount of money to get back on the field in a good spot for the next half season. The argument makes some sense, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Right now he is worth basically nothing to United probably, and it's likely that he has close to the same value to most other teams he would be willing to play for. That leaves only teams that would start him most of the time, of which there are very few that he would be willing to play for. People are saying Porto, but even if they wanted him, how much of his salary would they pay? $5 million for half a season? United eats $10 million and Ronaldo the other $5?
I'm making up numbers here, but it doesn't look great. If United could save $10 million of the $20 million they owed him I would be ecstatic. That's free money.
Dismemberment United has by far the least exposure among the contenders from players expected to suffer WC stress. Just saying...
Or midweek games in Europe to deal with, as Pep noted.
Even if he dropped in MLS's lap, each away game he would be heckled non-stop all game long (even if not on the pitch). I think there's at least a 50/50 chance he's completely done after the WC--he'll still train or do whatever it takes to get the $ out of United through the end of the season, but he won't don the shirt again, and then when he realizes no one will sign him after the season in any top league, he packs it in.
I guess the Vegas lawsuit stuff is cleared up so Ronaldo can come to the US now? I still don't see it. I think it'd need to be China or a Middle East league. Wasn't there a report of him almost getting transfered to Qatar or somewhere last summer?
Real Madrid were very smart to let him and Ramos both walk exactly when they did. It looks even better because of the CL, of course, but they let each of them go pretty much exactly when they stopped being world class.
I can't imagine it would be China; have they signed literally anybody meaningful in 5 years?
Their league took off like a rocket ... and then exploded like one.
Middle East seems a far more likely bet, perhaps he'll find the weather at the World Cup to his liking and never leave ...
Link
Tell him that you will consider a reinstatement when he offers a full, sincere apology and agrees to end all the crap, and not a moment sooner.
It looks like both sides are really pushing to break this off. I would guess United's moves may just be posturing for leverage in buyout negotiations, but a lawsuit would be fun too.
NO BEER MAKES WC FANS GO SOMETHING, SOMETHING!
Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha ... hah!
Serves everyone right.
No, I believe you will find nobody gets served.
I find schadenfreude is a dish best served ... very cold.
But hey life is a journey and it's important to keep learning.
Then again, while I suppose I can imagine taking a bribe to overlook bigotry, slavery, and other human rights violations, no way could I be bribed to overlook curtails on beer.
Yes, the cash. It's under the table, duh.
Well, that's the end of me
The thing is, once the tournament gets underway, the players themselves have a LOT of power here, and they COULD use it. The top players--while they care about their country, for sure--get their paycheck from their club teams (most of whom would not care at all if they stopped playing for human rights reasons--though of course for the selfish reason of not wanting their asset to get hurt). If Qatar starts jailing people for bullshit reasons, the players COULD simply refuse to play, the tournament stops, everyone goes home, Qatar is disgraced, and--I guarantee this, because FIFA would have sponsors to answer to--at some point later FIFA would come out with a "plan" to finish the WC in Summer 2023 at major cities across Europe simply to satisfy the sponsors.
So while it may seem Qatar has all the leverage now, I'd argue if they really decide they're going to full-on just start arresting people for bullshit, the players ultimately have way more leverage to affect change... Should they actually choose to use it. Again, I sincerely hope the leaders on these teams have at least kicked around the idea of what they might do if things go south.
From everyone's reactions? It's this.
WC FEVER ... CATCH IT!
Qatar: What are you talking about, racists!
Sure and monkeys could live in my butt ... and fly out of my butt to breed with other monkeys that live in other people's butts and then return to people's butts to lay eggs and prepare for the next generation of butt monkeys.
There's nothing as sweet as blocking the fury of bad press like ... generating MORE bad press?
These Qatari guys are GREAT at this!
Don't we all, Gianni, don't we all?
It’s been fascinating. Qatar are ####### this up so badly. Any hope they had of some good press has gone completely out the window.
I actually watched the ad believe it or not, and I just realized I don't think I've ever heard Ronaldo speak before, at least not in English. I would never have guessed that.
World Cup 2022 fever!
Tweet
Klopp and Pep realize every couple of years there aren't actually any better jobs in the world.
That's almost a harrumph!
Surprise!
However, as #762 points out, it's much more likely Ronaldo had a deal in place somewhere (likely a petrol nation), assuming he was free and clear to transfer.
Is playing in a Qatar league worse than MLS? I gotta think worse, right?
Don't let the door hit you in the arse, etc. etc.
Dismemberment Arabia
ETA: However, there are news reports that he collapsed during the game and died before he got to the hospital. It's terrible either way, but I hope the brother is wrong.
From ESPN:
U.S. media seated near him said Wahl was stricken while in the media press box at Lusail Iconic Stadium during extra time and could not be revived. Wahl was covering his eighth World Cup.
He wrote Monday that he had visited a hospital while in Qatar.
"My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you,'' Wahl wrote. "What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort. I didn't have Covid (I test regularly here), but I went into the medical clinic at the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis. They gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup, and I'm already feeling a bit better just a few hours later. But still: No bueno.''
Unbelievably sad.
Just horrible.
This piece from The Athletic tallies up the WC minutes that various EPL players & teams saw. Not surprisingly, City had the most minutes, but Spurs had Lloris play every minute of the tournament and Harry Kane played every minute of England's run.
Arsenal's players didn't see that many minutes, but they did have something I dreaded happen -- Gabriel Jesus got hurt, and is out at least until February. So instead of adding depth for a title run, they're trying to replace a starter on a team that was already thin.
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