That's true. By 'pull' I just meant not as attractive to the big names as they (Pep and Bayern) were perhaps a few seasons, but Vidal's a good argument against that.


Nothing wrong with short termism in small doses and judging from that list you made he is trying to strengthen more long-term elsewhere. Maybe the problem with defenders is there aren't that many young ones at the moment who the top managers really think can make the grade. Chelsea face a real challenge in finding a long term replacement for Terry - although Mourinho seems convinced that John Stones might be the one.

Attacking players are fairly easy to quantify. You score or make goals and you're by definition a success. But as we've discussed elsewhere in this thread, defenders now have such an expanded role that it's hard to gauge what makes a good one.

He can fuck off too.

I hope you do keep him but if the papers are right and Chelsea plan to up their bid to as much as 30m, that's a helluva lot of money for a 21 yo still learning his trade. Mourinho obviously wants him to replace Terry but short term I reckon he'd be standing in for Cahill, who I don't think Mourinho's ever been that into.

30mill? Christ, I don't think Kenwright will turn that down. It'll be gutting if he did go as he's growing to be a really good defender.

So it could be James McCarthy, Stones and Mirallas leaving this summer. Now I know how it feels to be a Southampton fan.

Thought Mirallas was staying after Atletico lost interest.

Now if only we can find some idiot to take Carroll off our hands.

Big weekend for Gold Cup.. Dempsey had a hat trick, Panama pulled off an upset against the sleeper Trinidad on kicks after a 1-1 finish and Mexico eliminates Costa Rica on a controversial penalty kick in the 124th minute!

i didnt watch, but saw the usa-cuba 6-0 result. must have been like seeing a grownup beat up a kid.

mex-CR i would have liked to see but was too busy. i've been plenty busy lately.

damn.

fuck-sucker is not showing highlights but only full games, and the prospect of sitting there for 2+ hours...

I knew ticos stagnant offense would bite them in the ass but i was totally rooting for them

just got curious about dortmund and looked up their current transfers

immobile loaned out to sevilla-- good riddance!

langerak sold to stuttgart-- oh no!

jojic sold to köln (he didn't do much)

coming in are:

gonzalo castro from leverkusen. good purchase. solid midifielder

roman bürki a eeper from freiburg? never seen him. a swiss.

moritz leitner returning from loan to stuttgart-- another decent midfielder, and only 22-- he's played for the german u21 team

This may have just usurped George Bush II juking that shoe yo..

Beautiful

Possibly.

My favourite thing about his reaction is that he pretends he's disgusted by the money... or maybe he's not pretending and he's just genuinely disgusted by 1 dollar bills.

ha ha ha

he was probably afraid of anthrax in the mix

which he actually deserves

Im sincerely torn.. blatter getting rained on in the club is so potent yet almost cliche where as the George Bush II shoe incident is so unique and unprecedented while manifesting a deep rooted Arab cultural practice totally modernized by way of a wonderful leather Oxford
Plus Bush II had that corrupt Iraqi warlord err president there so the optics are even more damming

^^ the only disappointment with that bush episode is that the shoe didn't hit him square in the face. that's what we all wanted to see.

YA KALB.

No, but that's my FAVORITE part, that the US President so cleanly juked that shoe like it was being thrown across a 5th grade classroom by the class clown when Georgie was giving his US State report presentations

£32m now, they reckon. It's a lot but is there even an equivalent replacement available for that kind of money who'd actually be willing to make the move? Unless you take the money and invest it in 2 or 3 mid-price hopefuls, which invariably backfires.

Exactamont rodney, exactamont. They'll not got a replacement in time. And the problem is that they already need anpther centre back after getting rid of Alcaraz (Martinez has SOME sense it turns out) and Distin. Dreading this season already.

How about you? Think West Ham can manage the stupidly long season that's started for you already?

holy shit i just reat man u wants thomas muller at the tune of 70 million british pounds. what's that in euros? 100 million?

holy fuck! is that for real?

MEIN GOTT.

i'd be happy for him-- he's being wasted with pep, i swear.