Latest posts of: Velvet78

I agree that Nunez is actually a really solid striker. He was just like that while he was playing for Benfica. But since he joined Liverpool something has been going wrong. He started to waste so many goal opportunities. Maybe this was because of not being able to adapt to the environment quickly. At this point he differentiates from Haaland already.

Because nothing changes for Haaland about whether he plays for Dortmund or Manchester City. He still continues to be a goal machine just like we have seen in this season. Comparing the talents of these players Haaland is again way ahead of Nunez in my opinion. They are nearly at the same age but there is a very visible gap between the skills of these players. This is why Haaland is wanted much more than him.

Napoli are again one of the biggest title contenders. At least they are according to bookmakers. They are right behind Inter comparing the odds. This must be still feeling good for Napoli to be shown like this. Because in the end they aren't a team that become champions more frequently than this. They waited for this moment more than 30 years.

Now we don't even know what will happen. Rudi Garcia is here and we will see if he can create the same bond with the players which Spalletti had. Let's say he did then they will need to preserve the squad quality as much as possible to be very competitive for the title once again. If they do both of these then who knows maybe they can win back-to-back.

Quote from: len01 on June 22, 2023, 07:59:33 AM

It looks like if Dortmund are able to retain their best players I think it will not be difficult for Dortmund to dominate matches in the Bundesliga but the question is whether Dortmund can retain their best players? while there are lots of rumors that Dortmund still want to sell their best players like Bellingham.
not sure in this summer whether Dortmund can dominate the bundesliga or even just finish as runner up again. but even being runner up is a bit tough.

Bellingham has already been signed by Real Madrid yeah. And it looks like there are more to come as well. However losing one of their important players has made them weaker temporarily. But I expect Dortmund to fill his place with another talented player as soon as possible.

In the same way we will see if there will be others leaving the team as well. Dortmund are full of skilled young players and they always keep the squad that way to apply their vision. We will always continue to see this kind of players coming and leaving. It might be sad to lose some of them right away maybe but at least the profit is really big.

It looks like Manchester United have also joined the race for Declan Rice. Their deal is likely to be like money + Maguire or McTominay. Maybe not Maguire but McTominay might be favourable by West Ham side. Because Rice is also a defensive midfielder like McTominay so they might find it okay to think about it.

But of course the money part must be convincing for West Ham. Because Arsenal look ready to pay even 100 million euros for Rice now. As far as I have heard West Ham have been demanding around this amount. His market value is already 90 million euros and he is a young and solid player. I'm not surprised with this demand as a result.

Real Madrid started to seem like they will just make do with Joselu transfer in the attacking line for now. Because they are most likely to sign Mbappe when he is available and they might not want to splurge on any other striker now. But they can actually still sign a much more skilled player for a favourable amount. Because they need to think of the Champions League as well.

I don't feel like Joselu would be enough in the attacking line for being very competitive for the Champions League title. Ancelotti would like to have a reliable attacking line there I assume. As I said before they should think of Vlahovic as an alternative too. He can really be great for the team and Mbappe's arrival also wouldn't put him in a difficult spot in the lineup.

I'm not very comfortable with the amount Arsenal have spent to sign Kai Havertz. I think his performance wasn't worth 60 million pounds. I wonder how big transfer budget Arsenal have in the recent times as well. Because they have started to spend a lot of money recently. We aren't used to seeing Arsenal doing this normally. It looks like something has started to change.

It is good to see changes but it feels like they could have found a more reliable midfielder for this amount. Havertz isn't the worst player of course. He is quite decent actually but Chelsea used him out of his natural position so often that I don't know how good he would do at Arsenal. I don't expect them to do the same to him though.

Quote from: Distraction on June 21, 2023, 08:29:48 PM

Can Perez really be the kind of driver Red Bull wants now? l think he isn't as good as he needs to be just like most people share the same idea. The team must be also waiting for him to make a bigger contribution to constructors' championship to secure their title easier. But I don't feel like they want a competitive driver to Verstappen now.

Because Verstappen wants to be the number one and he wouldn't like a driver who is as competitive as himself right beside him in the team. Red Bull also wouldn't like to risk Verstappen's presence in the team by doing such thing I guess. Otherwise I would really love to see a competitive rival to Verstappen to make it more fun to watch. Grin

Alonso comes to my mind directly about that but I'm just daydreaming. I guess there wouldn't be such deal like Perez out Alonso in.

I also think Red Bull don't seem to be wishing to have two title contenders at the same time. Because there is a hierarchy in this team. Verstappen is their number one driver and he will stay that way. After witnessing his high level of performance it wouldn't be meaningful for Red Bull to suddenly decide to bring another title contender to the team.

Therefore the probability of seeing Alonso there is not much high in my opinion. Alonso is still competitive and he still wants to be a world champion once again. But he will need to do this with Aston Martin or maybe another team in the future.

This time we will be seeing a new team being added among the ones which are joining the Champions League. Real Sociedad are also going there together with the usual four teams in the La Liga. As Sevilla had a really poor season in the La Liga they focused on the Europa League and won the title. In the meantime Real Sociedad benefited from the chance to get the last spot in top 4.

Villarreal were also in this fight for a while but after starting a bad form they started to fall behind Real Sociedad. I really think Real Sociedad deserved this. Because they have been really impressive during the season. For some time they were even ahead of Atletico Madrid by a quite big point gap.

Quote from: FanEagle on June 19, 2023, 06:02:01 PM

Quote from: Velvet78 on June 19, 2023, 08:19:57 AM

Leipzig have lost Nkunku who is one of their important players to Chelsea now. He was the top scorer of the season in the Bundesliga together with Fullkrug. There are still Andre Silva and Timo Werner in the squad of course. This might be seen as a chance for them to be the main striker of the team. However I still have doubts about them for now.

Because they played in quite many games this season but the number of goals each of them scored is really low compared to the number of games they played. Leipzig need at least one of them to improve their finishing skills more to get ready for next season. This is important to keep their consistency in top 4.

Leipzig is a rich team, even though it doesn't look like they are a successful one, they are a rich club with a great backer and that means they will be capable of getting a very expensive player. One of the seasons (I think it was 2019) they even had like a 200 million budget publicly, probably didn't spent as much, but that's how rich they are. So, I think losing a few players would not really hurt them, they could just end up spending a lot of money to replace those players.

The problem is that, even as a rich club, they can't be as good as Bayern or Dortmund, usually third team, so they need to do something differently, approach the game a bit differently, so that they could end up with a better result, they should be winning the title with that much money.

Even though they are rich as you said they don't have very big goals in the Bundesliga as it seems. Otherwise they could have transferred many bigger talents so far to make the team more competitive for titles. Of course it isn't easy to convince top players to come but spending the needed amount would have made things a little easier for them.

However they have never made such signing so far. I don't remember them paying an incredible amount of money for even one player for many years. They are just building a squad a little over the average level and that is enough for them to make it to the Champions League as well. They seem happy with being in top 4 only and not playing bigger.

Quote from: Jatiluhung on June 19, 2023, 09:43:28 PM

...

We will also welcome some of the teams that will join Serie A this season from Serie B. And let's see if there will be any surprises from the teams that managed to move up from Serie B to Serie A. I personally see Frosinone might be a surprise in the coming season. but I doubt this team will compete in the top 10. but if they can compete in the top 10 then it will be an interesting surprise.

It is a really difficult thing for Serie B teams to even cling to the Serie A in their first season there after promotion. Lecce, Cremonese and Monza were the promoted teams this season and only Monza were really impressive. Because Monza finished the season at the 11th position despite coming from the Serie B playoffs stage to this league.

Cremonese are back in the Serie B again and Lecce were also nearly relegating from the Serie A as well. This time we are going to have Frosinone, Genoa and Cagliari here. Genoa and Cagliari have already a big history in the Serie A so for now I see them one step ahead of Frosinone to adapt to the environment.

Quote from: harapan on June 19, 2023, 11:24:19 AM

Quote from: Velvet78 on June 19, 2023, 08:37:19 AM

Graham Potter is still without club now. I thought he shouldn't have been signed by Chelsea in the first place as I saw it as a risk. Because Chelsea can be much more successful with managers who have at least a decent experience with big teams in Europe. Potter wasn't such manager so it is normal to have doubts about him.

I'm afraid he couldn't prove me wrong about this and his time was a big failure. I think he should go back to managing average teams in the league. I'm not saying this to belittle him of course. I'm saying it because he is much more successful with such teams. We have all seen how good he was with Brighton in the end.

Funny enough I thought Potter will do great at Chelsea. He was really good at Brighton and I felt he will replicate the same performance with Chelsea. How wrong I was. I really don't know what happened t Potter in Chelsea but he was beyond awful. His team played so badly. Chelsea should have fired him earlier.
But then again, Chelsea went ahead to hire Lampard. What exactly were they thinking? If Chelsea had gotten a better manager after sacking Potter they would have finished in a better place on the table. probably not a among the top 6, but definitely not 12th position.

Yeah it was also really odd that they just gave up on the season like that by bringing Lampard as a caretaker manager. If I don't remember wrong they could have still qualified for a European tournament by finishing the season at a much better position. Pochettino could have been signed back then as well and he could have at least tried his best to do this.

But there is nothing to do about it from now on. With Pochettino they are starting off with a clean slate and we will see how much change they will make. If we see a significant difference between last season's Chelsea and the new one's then I will still continue to blame Potter for last season.

Juventus have so many areas to strengthen for next season. Maybe this would be the only way to make Allegri's system start working like clockwork just as in their dominant times. You know how successful Juventus were with Allegri in the past. They were winning the league title many times in a row which started to make the league a little boring.

But now I like this version of the Serie A more. Grin

Because every season is open for a surprise. We have seen three different champions for the recent three years. But I still would like to see Juventus joining back the title competition again by the beginning of next season. But they need to work really hard for that after seeing their general effort this season.

I agree about the change in F1's popularity depending on the competition level. Whenever there is a hot title competition in a season there is much bigger interest in the sport. But in times only one driver dominates a season by a huge gap many people start to get bored of watching the races and stop doing it later.

That season with an incredible competition between Verstappen and Hamilton until the last moments of the season was really amazing. FIA made a very huge mistake there as well about safety car rules though. But we can't bring back that time unfortunately. It is always going to be called as a debatable ending for that season.

Quote from: Asiska02 on June 18, 2023, 11:33:40 PM

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After Ancelotti's contract expires I will also be wondering who would be next Real Madrid manager. But for now it is really difficult to predict that.

It’s simple! When a big team like Real Madrid needs a new coach, the first is to check out on experienced coaches that don’t have a team coaching presently. That leaves us with no option of either Nagelsman or Zidane. Zidane will likely most be the best choice for the team to want, he had some good relationships with them in the past and earn them some trophies too. It might be the reason he hasn’t signed for any team yet.

Yeah it is mostly easier to have a deal with a manager who is free agent. Zidane's coming back to the team would be really amazing that's for sure. He would always be welcomed warmly here I assume. However he doesn't look like he is interested in team offers these days. He is rather ready to manage France if there is an opportunity.

When it comes to Nagelsmann I'm not sure if he would be the right one for Real Madrid. Besides his name has been called with PSG as well these days. Nagelsmann has added a solid team like Bayern Munich in his manager career. But I won't be confident about him to bring successes to Real Madrid until I see it.

Quote from: hahay on June 18, 2023, 03:15:12 PM

Quote from: Velvet78 on June 18, 2023, 07:40:54 AM

It is interesting that Galtier is still seen as PSG manager on Transfermarkt. I wonder whether they are waiting on the official announcement from PSG side about it. I thought he was still the manager until coming across some news sources telling the situation. Nagelsmann is seen like the most powerful candidate for the position according to those sources.

But it looks like PSG haven't made up their mind yet. Luis Enrique and Jose Mourinho are the other candidates I have been hearing about. Luis Enrique also would be really nice I assume because he has a really successful history with Barcelona. Him and Mourinho would be my first choices rather than Nagelsmann comparing their careers.

Will PSG keep Galtier until his contract expires? Even though in reality Galtier couldn't unite players properly, so of course maintaining Galtier until the end of next season might have a big risk as well. But regarding the names of the replacements you mentioned, I personally would prefer to see Mourinho become the head coach of PSG, because I think with Mourinho's attitude like that, it looks like Mourinho could be the right coach for PSG.

I still see Galtier on a couple of websites that are showing the players and the managers of a team. But it looks like he has already been sacked by PSG. Therefore it must be just about these websites' not updating their information yet. Galtier needed to go immediately and PSG did the right thing of course.

Mourinho would also be a good choice for PSG. They should choose only managers with impressive careers from now on. There is no need to take bigger risks while they are very eager to win the Champions League title.

Quote from: asriloni on June 18, 2023, 12:55:42 PM

Quote from: Velvet78 on June 18, 2023, 07:52:01 AM

There are still news regarding Ancelotti to become Brazil manager soon. Brazil must be making a decent effort to convince him to manage themselves. After Tite's period has ended Brazil really need a trustworthy and successful manager to play bigger for championships finally. Ancelotti is obviously one of those candidates to lead this team to victories.

brazil wants him, but ancelotti already confirmed if he is willing to stay even longer in real madrid. Ancelotti has chosen to stay at Real Madrid instead of going to Brazil.It's better for brazil to find a replacement for ancelotti.

Quote

Carlo Ancelotti has said Real Madrid have assured him he will be in charge next season despite this week's 4-0 Champions League defeat to Manchester City, calling the past two seasons "unforgettable" and arguing that the team's transition to a new generation is already underway.

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37690457/carlo-ancelotti-confirms-stay-real-madrid-next-season

Im sorry but brazil needs to find another coach.

Quote from: Velvet78 on June 18, 2023, 07:52:01 AM

However I don't know what goes around Ancelotti's mind. He has one more year on his contract with Real Madrid. Maybe he would think of staying for that season as well and lead this team to get stronger with new additions in the summer.

That news was only coming from brazillian's side, but it's not coming from ancelotti itself. Ancelotti prefers to stay in real madrid rather than going to the brazil.
Ancelotti stays here for another season.

There is fresh news about this situation actually. Brazil have reached an agreement with him. However he is going to join the team on July 2024. Until that date Real Madrid are going to keep him for one last season as his contract ends on that date as well. Several trustworthy news sources have published this so it had better be true.

This is the best formula they have found in my opinion. Because I wanted him to stay as he hasn't been doing bad with Real Madrid. Maybe this season wasn't as successful as the previous one but I thought that they wouldn't like to sack him just for one season.

Quote from: X-ray on June 16, 2023, 11:51:23 PM

Quote from: Velvet78 on June 16, 2023, 11:02:58 PM

There is a new era started for Napoli with the departure of Spalletti and the arrival of Rudi Garcia. Rudi Garcia isn't a manager whose career is full of achievements maybe. But he made Lille the Ligue 1 champions in the past. If he builds up a good level of chemistry with his players at Napoli then they can still be in the title race next season as well.

He has also a wonderful journey with as roma. I think that rudi is more competence in managing italian club rather than galtier. I remember when napoli linked to the galtier. Glad to see that if the club is not hiring, galtier as a new manager. galtier would be able to destroy the club.
Rudi is a bit better as he has good experience in italian league. I remember rudi was almost making as roma to be a winner in the league but it ends as runner-up a long time ago.

It seems like that things have become the main consideration from napoli's president to sign him as a new coach. Rudi knew the condition in serie a.

Aurelio De Laurentiis seems to take it as how competence him to be a new coach for napoli. As long as it's not galtier and im fine with it.

Yeah I remember Rudi Garcia's time with Roma as well. He actually did a decent job back then as far as I can remember. He must have carried the team to the Champions League more than once. Now I'm curious about whether he can do a good work with Napoli as well and maintain the success. But becoming champion in the Serie A again can be really challenging next time.

I'm also glad to see that they haven't signed Galtier. Because he had a really poor season with PSG despite he thinks the opposite. Just because they won the Ligue 1 title it isn't a big success for them. It is already a title they are winning regularly due to the big power gap with the other teams.

Quote from: Docnaster on June 18, 2023, 12:52:12 PM

Despite the fact that Mudryk hasn't gotten as much playing times as people who had known his football prowess on the pitch before he arrived at Stamford Bridge would wish, I'm of the opinion that Mudryk is a great talented player that still possess the potentials to pick up himself and become the great footballer many of his folks would wish to see him be.
I think the player's major problem last season was the fact that he wasn't familiar with the kind of playing style that was adopted by the managers of Chelsea last season. Chelsea now has a new manager in Mauricio Pochettino and hopefully his style of play will give Mudryk that freedom to operate as an attacking midfielder that he is.

Of course Mudryk is a nice talent. But he was also similar to his teammates in terms of performance this season. But the general morale of the team was pretty bad and I wouldn't be surprised if his morale was at a bad level as well. If Pochettino's game plan works for Chelsea and we see a significant improvement then we will see who is really showing a solid performance.

I hope Mudryk also makes a big improvement in time because he was signed for quite a big amount of money. I wouldn't like to see him getting wasted like that. He is still very young and he has a long time ahead of him to put much more into his game.