"We've got bucketfuls of agents throwing players at us. We'll trawl through it." - The PL/CL/EL/world off-season transfer thread '17-'18

Watford, Brighton, Burnley, Stoke, Palace, Swansea(?), West Brom, Newcastle and possibly Leicester could all be in the mix to go down.

Huddersfield 2000-1 to win it is probably a better bet.

Always better wasting a quid on a longshot, than putting a grands onto a bad odds-on bet, I say. Never forget the punter who tried to buy some money with 50 grand on Man Utd at h/t when they were 3-0 up against Spurs, and they lost 4-3.

.....

5-3

oh yeah it was 5-3, it must have been at least 15 years ago that - I was still working in a betting shop at the time.

and it was a reverse, my memory is fucked these days!

We're quite good at blowing 3-0 HT leads. We also managed to do it against a Man City side reduced to 10 men at the stroke of HT.

We once squandered a 5-1 lead against 10 men with 29 minutes to go, and lost 7-6. And that was with the great Shankly in charge!

Tbf we at least signed defoe the day we fucked it to man city

And I was in Paris at the time whereas we were three up against united as I entered the no-phone zone of my grandmother's funeral

To think, she was anointed and consecrated at the very moment the dockyard lizard king hissed "ladssszzzszz itszszszsz Tottenham

It is strange how bad results get weaved into your memories, like yeah that day so and so died, and we lost 4-0 etc...

technically, "lads, it's tottenham" was a pre-game exhortation

sorry for your loss

spurs fans weren't the only disappointed ones that day against man u

please dont go coutinho

if liverpool can't force other teams to sell i don't imagine they'll do the same, unless he's desperate to leave. 80m feels almost worthless to a liverpool who can't even sign players by bidding 80m

Kondogbia lobs his own keeper from the middle of the pitch

https://streamable.com/3io27

Oh wow

lol great touch

Were getting killed out here should be five or six down

just beat full-strength ipswich 6-1

We lost a not very friendly against Udinese, 2-1. It is immoral charging people to watch a disjointed training session type game with a different XI each half imo. But it was live-streamed on the Udinese web site, so they were fully committed to getting a result, if not so much to staying on their feet. MOM was Kevin Lasagna, cue a load of our easily impressed fuckwits googling hilarious pasta puns!

Matic appears to be a done deal

well, it's a midfielder

surprised chelsea would sell to a rival

Conte's making some risky moves this summer. He's moving on two of his most experienced players and replacing them with younger, inferior (right now, anyway) models

Can't say I'm massively enthused by this transfer, mind. But it does give us a very balanced midfield trio

it won't be pretty but he really is building a mourinho team now, between this and lukaku.

I think we can field an entire XI of players over 6ft tall now

surprised chelsea would sell to a rival

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Sunday, 30 July 2017 15:13 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Meow

Inconceivable that Matic wouldn't immediately improve United's first XI, not just adding a degree of defensive solidity and dynamism that's obviously been missing there but also allowing Pogba to play further forward in a position where he might start justifying his price tag.

Re: selling to a rival, by all accounts Matic and Abramovich get on well which might have smoothed the path somewhat.

posted it on the FW thread but this is the biggest move of the summer, imo
http://www.football365.com/news/exclusive-james-richardson-to-leave-guardian-football-weekly

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jul/31/darron-gibson-disciplinary-proceedings-sunderland-video-comments

When Gibson’s decision to be out in a bar soon after the Celtic loss was raised, he replied: “I might be off my face in here but I still want to play for Sunderland.”

didn't even notice gibson moved to sunderland, could anything be more inevitable?

The outcome

ok new contender for the non-Prem thread title

darron gibson is off his ting

Understand fee for Matic is actually £35m plus £5m add ons. #mufc #cfc

— Mike Keegan (@MikeKeegan_DM) July 31, 2017

that's actually...not bad

In context it's not

Sturridge scores a beautiful chipped goal against Bayern and injures himself in the process...

that must have pissed on his chip

^^ underrated expressions I have loved.

Despite ManC, and the staggering amount paid for Arnautovic, this transfer period so far is a tad disappointing. Are we waiting for the Neymarapocalypse for things to unfold? And where's 'Arry? Thought I saw him at the airport today etc.

Early days but Bayern and Real have lost nearly every match so far. Esp seeing how Bayern is squandering the ball and being scored against (AC Milan, Pool) is... unusual.

The goal is here: https://streamable.com/r3745

Absolutely sensational. The most Daniel Sturridge thing that has ever happened.

Apparently tomorrow's Racing Post football guide, which is quite respected amongst seasoned idiotic fules that are born to loose! football punters, has predicted Town to finish rock bottom. And to go down with 2 of Burnley, West-Brom and Stoke. I think they have taken note that many of our fringe players are indeed very shit, and despite the new influx - there is still a glaring lack of depth. But fatally, just like last season they haven't factored in David Wagner into their calculations. I might be reading this from a shit source, but no way are Brighton finishing above Town this time. And also not considered a part of the potential relegation dogfight mix.

Absolutely sensational. The most Daniel Sturridge thing that has ever happened.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, August 1, 2017 3:58 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

jesus g-d christ

3-0 win against bayern - obv gonna win the league.

what's doubly annoying about sturridge is adam lallana did an interview this week saying he was fit and firing and like a new signing. shouldn't have let myself hope.

It looks like Aurier is likely to go to United, which pretty much leaves Toljan as the only FB linked with Spurs who might still be on.

Still very odd to be eleven days away from the start of the season, with Poch talking about the importance of bringing in more players, and only really being linked with Ross Barkley (who has already turned down £20k a week more than Spurs are willing to offer him) and Riyad Mahrez - who apparently wants to go to Roma instead.

Janssen and sissoko season 2 boost tho

I'm guessing we're going to promote Walker-Peters and stick with Trippier as first choice. If we're going to spend that money it should really go on a CB or a striker though, but I don't think major surgery is needed.

I'd be sceptical about reports of a fee being agreed for Aurier given his legal situation

I'm surprised ManC didn't go for Aurier. I rate him higher than Danilo. Maybe said legal stuff scared them off?

not sure many teams have ever gotten away with not buying anyone at all.