OT: Soccer Transfer Window Summer 2023

He's a better 8 than 10. One of those players who isn't exceptional at any single thing but is pretty good at everything, so there's an inherent tradeoff when you swap him with another player. Plus look at the management/coaching mess he's had. Still think he could kick onto another level, but even now he's a really good prem player

Edit: also he is young and english and available. The window for united now is as much about '23-24 as it is '25-26. Need a bit of a squad refresh as other players age

Mount was great in Tuchel's box midfield. Probably his ideal deployment in regards to allowing him to express his best qualities.

I could see him thriving in a similar setup again.

Oh, and the annual link to Tammy Abraham

Everyone can put this one on hold for another year, Abraham tore his ACL over the weekend.

Arsenal, because Thierry Henry. One of my favorite athletes of all time.

When I was first getting into soccer my freshman year at Tech, Premier League was the only one really ever on TV. My bud across the hall was a United fan, so I just started casually supporting them. Gotta say, I don't really watch many United games anymore. I just don't care very much about English football.

Got into German football kinda by accident. I was on duty one Saturday morning in Pensacola. Empty building, I'm just there to do rounds and answer the phone. Absolutely nothing going on, and limited options on TV, so I put on Wolfsburg vs somebody. Wolfsburg were absolutely controlling the game, and then near the end managed to fuck it away and either tie or lose. Being a Hokie fan in 2015/16, this feeling was familiar to me, so I just started following Wolfsburg.

In 2019, girlfriend and I went to Germany for Christmas. Her grandparents live in Köln, so that's where we spent most of our time. The city is great, the people are great, the soccer team was absolute dogshit, but the fans were loyal, boisterous, and tended to sell out the stadium even when they were in the second tier. Loved the culture, so I decided rooting for a club in a different division wouldn't conflict with supporting Wolfsburg. And then come May the fuckers got promoted. Over the course of the next season, I found myself paying more attention to Köln than Wolfsburg. I had more of a connection to the city, and just found that I really loved the club. So now on Saturday mornings for 34 weeks a year, you'll find a Köln flag flying outside the house (confuses the shit out of the neighbors), and I'll be chugging Reissdorf and yelling at the TV. I think my birthday present this year is gonna be a membership.

Man united and prime bald Wayne Rooney was my childhood idol, he didn't get any f*cks and was pure chaos it was beautiful.

I don't follow much in international soccer as I tend to focus on DC United these days. Only team I check in on a stream occasionally are the Wurzburger Kickers. I went to Elementary school K-3 in Wurzburg while my dad was stationed at Giebelstaadt Army Airfield. They tend to be near the top of the Bayern Regionalliga but that's really my only interest over there. I will tune in to some of the top matchups kind of like watching playoff games, not a fan but easy to watch.

Got on board with Brian McBride and Fulham during the miracle campaign of 2007. Been hardcore ever since then and been over multiple times to see games at the Cottage. What a spectacular place to take in some footie.

LFC, I remember the Gerrard slip, and I'm a sucker for sad story (i.e. VT sports). When Lebron wore the Liver bird hat at one of his pressers I said, maybe that's the team I should support. I was just getting into football, and I was doing a lot of traveling overseas for work. I was amazed at how a city/country could be shut down for events like the Euro's, so I said, it's time to choose a team. I started out with your Barca's and your Bayern's but I kept going back to that sad story of the Gerrard slip. I watched the Brandon Rodgers doc series when I was overseas, and I was hooked. I loved the history of the club.

Fast forward to today, I got a present from my wife for Xmas, a 23 and Me kit, because she knew I wanted to determine the amount of Native American heritage in my blood. Come to find out there was ZERO, LOL. I was actually part Nigerian, and part British. Some more digging, and you guessed it, my blood-line traces back to Merseyside. It was at that moment that I knew it was written in the stars that I was born to be a Scouser :)

Chelsea because I loved watching Didier Drogba and I was a big Michael Ballack fan.

West Ham - my wife and I went to London in 2011 and wanted to go to a PL game. We got to the Boleyn Tavern a couple of hours before the match and had a fantastic time singing along with all of the hammers fans (Stamford Bridge is falling down was our favorite). The game, the atmosphere at the Boleyn Ground, and the fans immediately had me hooked and I've been following them as closely as the Hokies since then.

Looking forward to the ECL final this afternoon and hopefully, finally seeing West Ham win a trophy.

I'm not really sure how this would help Barca financially unless Miami is paying some of his wages while he's playing there? He's a free agent, so Barca wouldn't need to pay a transfer fee.

That guy is not particularly reliable, but others have heavily hinted at or reported it as well at this point.

Inter Miami wages + some sort of profit sharing plans with Apple and Adidas. Also the possibility of some kind of club equity/future ownership stake plan.

It makes a lot of sense. Those kind of third party financial incentives + living in Miami, the biggest Spanish Speaking/Lat Am city in America vs the huge wages to live in SA. I can see how he would choose Miami.

Ticket sales for all Inter Miami matches are about to EXPLODE. Apple+ subs for the MLS package as well. Which, for the record, I think the MLS Apple+ deal has been awesome. Having no blackout games + you can toggle between the broadcast announcers and the home team radio call for home matches is awesome. I much prefer to listen to Jason Longshore and Mike Conti for Atlanta United matches.

Picking up Messi is great for the commercial aspect of MLS. For Miami, it brings more tourists to the stadium and more season tickets for locals as it has one of the largest Hispanic populations in the US. As for how he performs, it will be interesting to see. Messi has been running less and less as his age advances. As he has gotten away from goal, his ability to make the last pass or create chances for teammates has increased.

From what I've seen (and it's not much) the MLS seems to be a high-intensity, physical league. Players who have gotten there past their peak have struggled to get into a rhythm so we will see how he does. In any case, it's great for the league as a whole since there will be much more attention to it globally, and more importantly, locally.

How much does he go for though? Do Madrid go and throw more cash or do they play hard ball and try to get mbappe next summer for free? Sure they can't put him to market but if he only wants Madrid and Madrid play it tough there aren't too many willing to pay a big fee 180 plus probably that can actually do the deal right now.

Grealish is giving Ovechkin a run for his money.

Edu has pretty much nailed it for the last two or three years, so I'm going to choose optimism here. Yikes, I'm nervous though.

Saw it reported in euros by orny which means spurs even less likely to accept

With this and the goalkeeper signings. Tottenham has used 57 million out of the 100 million Levy have gave Ange to use

I think he'll do well there. They're big on defending and counterattacking, so if they play him on the wing, he's gonna run his ass off and he's gonna have more defensive duties than at previous clubs.

I don't care if he plays as a 10 or RW at Milan (definitely won't play LW as long as they keep Leao). He needs to be playing week in and week out. That's more important to me than anything else. It's a bonus to get to watch him playing for such a historic club with a cool kit to boot.

So happy to see our club making the commitment to try and be great! Do you all think our transfers in are done for this window? Presumably, lots of business on outgoings to attend to

Missed opportunity for the Riyadh based Saudi clubs to let Riyad Mahrez end up in Jeddah.

I think they will be fine. Would be stunned if they let Silva go with mahrez out the door now and with gvardiol coming in they will be fine. Halaand will be better etc probably more stones in midfield and foden will be better as well

I'm so tired of the Mbappe sagas, I just don't want to hear about it. I hope he does go to the Saudi League, they deserve each other.

Yeah I'll take the 15 million for Davidson. Next person to unload imo should be Tanguy. To bad we gonna offload for probably 25 million when we bought him for 60 million 😂😭

Call me crazy but I'd prefer we go the youth route then overpaying for a kane or older guy past 30 with injury issues. Too many old strikers lately and a young guy who ten Haag identifies I'm good with. Price tag is well over but that's the united tax and inability to do deals for players with clauses and cheap tags. Will be fascinating to watch but if he can get in the 15 goal contributions in the PL it may be worth it if he develops.

I have the sinking feeling he'll stay and leave on a free after the season, to another PL team with a huge bonus. Accusations of tampering will fly, but any big 6 team can pay a fine without blinking an eye imo.