As far as I know the new owners haven't yet given a clear statement what their vision of the club looks like and whether it is with ten Hag or without. I don't have a real clue how the new owner could look at ten Hag, but if he knows enough about football, then he should be able to realize that the team has been stagnating for a while despite their finish as 4th in last season. Finishing 3rd is all great, but a thorough analysis to check how that came about.

One of the major reasons for ten Hag's success in the season 2022/2023 was the failure of other clubs. Liverpool finished 5th, Tottenham finished 8th. It is still strong to gather 75 points and it was their strong effort at the end of that season to win four games in a row and secure that 3rd rank. But it has never been quiet when it came to feuds with players. No need to mention names here, but apart from that ten Hag got all the money he wanted to buy players. He had the chance to build the team he wants. He just is not able to put the puzzle together in the end and he destroys good mood with his bad mood. He does that whenever he can, as if it is something that's important to him.

If I were to decide, I would try to convince some of the great coaches out there and then sack him as soon as I signed another one. That's how the business works and for Manchester United it is the best solution in my opinion. Fresh start with new owners, a new coach, a lot of money and where necessary new players.

This was a rumor that I first couldn't believe, but now it turns out that it all was true I suppose.

They have been struggling in the recent weeks and months to find a great name as a coach for their team, but so many turned down the offer. Interesting to find out what their next step will be, but I am getting more and more convinced that they will revoke the dismissal of Thomas Tuchel.

That's a double-edged sword as on the one hand Tuche could see how they tried to find a different coach but they couldn't as Nagelsmann turned down the offer and Rangnick and now Glasner? At first I didn't even know who this guy is and then remembers him vaguely. Is that what Bayern realy wants? So Tuchel knows he is something like the last resort, which is never good because I think it hurts his auhtority from the get go. And when it doesn't work out well in the beginning, I can't imagine how the press will make a volcano out of every single bit that's going on. They will never be able to do their work without having explosives all around them.

There is some hope though in this case when it is about great players leaving the club for money as Bayer Leverkusen is backed by the pharmaceutical company Bayer, is that correct? I think they are. This wouldn't make it as easy for other big clubs to convince players with money only as Leverkusen might be able to at least counter any offers in regards to salaries and bonus options.

It would be good to know how many players have long term contracts and whether there are players who are soon about to leave. But I doubt there are many as they have just got started and probably all have contracts that might go until 2026/2027 or so. Which means that even if a big name reaches out to players and makes a great offer, Leverkusen might get some backing from their sponsors to say no for as long as they can.

Seeing this project thrive not only for one or two years, but maybe four or five years would be badass.

It clearly depends what indicator those conclusions are based on. As you perfectly said, Manchester United had a little bit more ball possession, a few more shots, but obviously they managed to have 2 shots on target in 90+ minutes. If the shots on target count is that low, it is the best proof you can have that Arsenal was essentially in control. They scored their early goal and then understood what to do and yet created more dangerous chances. It is not a miracle that Manchester had more ball possession, but they lack the quality to break through Arsenal's defense. Job done, that was what Arsenal was after.

I didn't know about that, but this is an astounding fact you shared here. But it shows how much is possible within a relatively short period of time. Alonso turned over every stone and established new players perfectly while getting the best out of those that are still there.

But what would we all be thinking if history repeats itself and Bochum beats Leverkusen 3-0 in this game?  Not that I think it is possible, but it would be a funny turn of events.

Did they surprise you? I doubt that everyone was surprised. Bologna eliminated Inter Milan from the Coppa Italia. They also beat Atalanta despite playing away from home. Napoli couldn't win a single game in weeks. I don't really understand where the big surprise is here.

What is much more interesting is how Juventus Turin is drifting down the table. Atalanta is one game behind and Juventus is still playing against Bologna, in Bologna!! If they lose that and Atalanta wins their games, then Atalanta is going through I think. They could still mess this season up and that would be a surprise as nobody would have thought that's possible after they were going so well for so long.

Must feel pretty nice to be as rich as him and then join Real Madrid. It's hard to say that his stay at PSG was not worth it as they made him filthy rich beyond imagination for any footballer from 10 years ago. On the other hand I think he could have been writing history on another level for a long time already if he played for Real Madrid. I wasn't liking his decision against Real Madrid very much, but to be honest if someone offers you sums like 100 million for a signature or something, who's the one who can say no? And he did not go to Saudi Arabia, he was still playing in Europe and in the Champions League. When this offer came around that a club from Saudi Arabia is willing to pay him $700 million, I thought it would be kind of wrong if he now decides to throw away his whole career for money. In this case he went for a 50/50 solution and everyone would have probably done the same.

That sums it up pretty well! The market is unknown and while there was a time when big players like Binance probably could manipulate the market if they wanted to (or did?), it's now a point where even the big players most likely have a harder time to really tell where it goes as the number of big players is growing. Unless they collude, it' more a question of tendency than price points. And as you said, nobody knew whether it would go down or up at at the 15-16k mark and yet you find all these gurus with their moving averages and what not to tell the world where BTC goes next. I have long, very long given up following anyone of these gurus. I can't even tell when I watched someone drawing lines the last time.

If anything, the only person or entity to know whether BTC goes tremendously down is the one sitting on at least 50k BTC and decides to dump. But that person won't let the world know, so no guru can know. You can twist any data points for so long such that any drawn line and any other indicator for that matter, makes sense somehow, at least somehow, and then propagate it as if it was genius analysis.

I am not sure what to think of this statement to be honest. I hope you are not making the mistake and hold your majority of crypto in alt coins. At least you gave an explanation what you mean by a "bull run", but I am sure you understand that going from $10k BTC to $60k BTC is very different from going from $60k BTC to $360k BTC. It took about $1 trillion to pump the market during that time you mentioned. Now it will take about $6 trillion to see a similar pump in terms of percentage returns.

In my opinion it can already be called a bull run when at this stage we go like 2x or 2.5x. That is an insane amount of money that has to flow into the market. This happen in the last few months. A bull run does not necessarily mean a new ATH after a drop.

I am not saying it is impossible that we see the same and go to $360k in no time. But I expect a more incremental increase until we get there.

And again: I still hope you are not mostly into alt coins. I think it is casino, but that's of course up to you.

You didn't get the point. If you were playing on the same team as Mbappe and he is in a 5/10 position on the field during an attack and you got the ball and are in a 10/10 position to take that shot yourself, what do you think could happen? Let's further assume that you are a pretty good player, but you do not draw as much attention to yourself as Mbappe does. You might not enfold your full potential. And this is not something uncommon. You could apply that to other sports, to something outside of sports.

But now that the answer is out and Mbappe will leave the club for sure, maybe we can get an answer to this question / discussion next season.

That probably describes it best. Does anyone quickly know what the best season in Italy was like for a team ever? They are now at 92 points and there are two more games to go, which sounds to me it must be at pretty close to the best result if they win the last two games.

That's a fun fact which I didn't have in the back of my mind. Both losses against Sassuolo, must feel like a title to them even when they get relegated. Bad joke, but seriously, beating Inter twice is unreal.

Makes indeed some sense, but only because of your differentiation. Having a single super star that demands the ball even without asking for it or not expecting it, but everyone feels the pressure to pass it to him, can make a team worse overall. I think 26 goals in Ligue isn't that impressive, both parties could be suffering from each other. PSG needs more team players, whereas Mbappe should go to a team where is not the only one of his calibre.

And honestly he can't grow as a player himself in a league that is not his level. But I don't really know what his ego is. I only remember that there were some rumors about him not getting along so well with Messi because Messi took a lot of the attention away from him. No clue if it is true. Maybe he would be a diva when he plays for Madrid, but Ronaldo was a diva as well and delivered damn hard!

And there is one more thing to take into account here: it is not a home game for Real Madrid. It's a game in a fantastic stadium and Dortmund will have an equal number of amazing fans. It is a very different situation and if Dortmund can avoid easy mistakes, giving away goals for free, then Real Madrid will have a hard time to beat Dortmund in regular time. But at the same time Real Madrid is hard to beat.

Whether the odds are well chosen, probably too much of a favorite role for Real Madrid? But I think the oddsmakers are themselves confused that Real Madrid just doesn't lose no matter what. Maybe for the Dortmund fans this could be a great opportunity to place some money, enjoy an amazing day and then get a nice return if they win it.

I read that they are willing to spend over 100 million for a player and in this case the talk was about Wirtz. As a midfielder with 22 scorer points and 20 years old, it is risky I think. But competition will be there in the transfer market and Bayern might have no other chance but to pay that much. I was sceptic about the Bellingham transfer as it was more than 100 million I think, but looking back it did pay off for Real Madrid. On the one hand you want such a player when they are that good and that young, on the other hand there is some financial downside risk. But I am surprised that some Bayern official talks about it publicly because now he himself set a price tag.

It still doesn't change the fact that all his goals still left his team miles behind Al-Hilal in the league. He will be a top scorer for as long as he plays, but he thought he would win the title on his own. I wonder if he is still having fun. He cares more about his goals than about his team winning, but it is a fact that he should probably still be a happy guy given that he is taking home half a billion for playing in a bad league while being the top scorer. Sometimes I think he left the top stages a bit too early. Too much trouble was going on in Manchester United, but he is definitely as fit as Ibrahimovic was and he came even back from the USA to play in the Serie A. Ronaldo is going to turn 40 years of age next February and he is mostly without injuries. Maybe he keeps playing for several years.

The disappointment for Bayern must have been out of this world and Tuchel is quite emotional after all the games, but this one was crazy. He was literally destroyed and I think he was right when he said that an apology is not enough from the referee. Sure, what else can the referee do, but it's still close to impossible to bite that bullet. There is so much on the line in these games, it was so emotional and the game went back and forth, which is what all the fans want to see. But I am always mad when these top games get decided by false referee decisions. It should not happen like that and both teams would have deserved to advance to the final. For Germany it would have been amazing to have the Dortmund - Bayern final. But Dortmund - Madrid is ok, too. It seems to be easy to tell who is going to win, but hmm

I don't know, I am following the discussion like everyone else when it is said that the Premier League is better than Germany and then teams are counted and how far they made it in UEFA competitions and then everyone changes their mind and now believes the Bundesliga is back. When you consider how close these games were in the UEFA competitions, I can't actually have an opinion which league is the best. I think it is still the Premier League and Manchester City will always play a favorite role.

By far the most exciting team in Europe was Bayer Leverkusen so far. Too bad they are "only" playing in the Europa League. It would have been very interesting to see them play against Real Madrid in a final, but we probably have to wait until next year

Bayern plays well in the CL and then weak in the Bundesliga and nobody can explain how that is possible. But I am sure Bayern will deliver again very soon. They can be active on the transfer market and spend a lot of money.

It is hard to tell how they will be doing next season. No doubt that De Rossi has delivered as a coach, but at the end of the day the player material is the limiting factor. Let's see if they can get a good job done in the transfer period, but if they want to compete with teams like AC Milan and Inter Milan, I think they will need more players of higher quality. The team is ok at the moment, but it's not the best team in Serie A and you can see how Leverkusen outplayed them.

But this is so amazing about these competitions. You would never expect them to go that far and yet they did it. I thought that it would be game over for them against PSG, but they delivered a fight that made them earn it. However, the reality is that PSG hit the post like five or six times in the second match

Yet, they got lucky that they qualified for the Champions League already since the Bundesliga now has 5 starting teams instead of 4. Good question whether the participation in the final in Wembley saves Terzic the job. If they didn't get into the final, I think it would have been the end for him.

Isn't this game kind of a reminder what happened to Bayern when they lost the Champions League final against Manchester United? In this case there was of course an error involved from Manuel Neuer, but in a sense it is very similar to that game back then. Until the 87th minute nobody thought that Bayern could lose this, but what a crazy turn of events. Real Madrid is Real Madrid, you can't stop being concentrated against them until the last second of the game is played.