They won't let him go as a free agent. That would be the worst case scenario for Tottenham. He will leave Tottenham this summer and they are not even in the position anymore to ask for 100 million because if nobody is willing to pay that money, the risk is too high that he will indeed leave as a free agent and the incentive for Kane is quite high. If a club doesn't have to pay a transfer fee, they can offer Kane a massive signing bonus and Kane knows that as well. His position is comfortable and I am sure he is looking forward to all sorts of negotiations. He will finalize those negotiations as the winner. That is already certain.

But lacking tactical understanding doesn't seem to be the case for Nagelsmann, does it? He turned two teams (Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig) into two great competitors in the Bundesliga. He had the financial support from the club owners and then turned the players into a unit that played very intensive soccer and from my understanding there was lots of tactic involved. When he went from Hoffenheim to RB Leipzig it was easily recognizable that Nagelsmann was the new coach because RB Leipzig's tactic had the same handwriting as that of Hoffenheim. I wouldn't say he lacks high level tactical understanding.

But it is still the same problem that he would be developing a team that can win Ligue 1 without getting tested by the best European top teams The risk is that as a coach it is difficult to tell where the team stands until they finally are up against one of those high calibre teams in the Champions League. The feedback is weak within the league itself.

It depends on what you subsume under positive qualities. If you only consider him as a player on the pitch, he is probably not worth a few hundred million. But if you also take into account any merchandise revenues he generates and the buzz around the club as a whole, it might still pay off for the club to sign him for 200 million.

The transfer fees are to high these days and can't be justified in my opinion.

Spain isn't below Italy. It is true that Spain suffered a bit in the last two to three years and has not been as competitive as before because Atletico Madrid is also not as strong. But Spain isn't a weaker league than Italy. The Premier League is above all other leagues though.

Nobody really knows what else is going on. Did Conte actually get sacked or is there a mutual agreement that he will leave the club? It is not impossible that Conte himself has already been negotiating with other clubs and expressed his intention to leave the club. I remember the harsh words he chose about the club and I actually agree with @KTChampions that Tottenham isn't aiming very high for next season. I think calling their ambitions modest is quite right here. What other coach could they have hired? They aren't even playing in the Conference League and coaches of a higher caliber usually require the club to play internationally.

Maybe it should be mentioned that Beckham has been working on a Messi transfer for years now. Those who followed the news the last couple of years likely thought that Messi will go back to either Barcelona or go to Saudi Arabia, but the devil is in the details here. Messi did signal in the past that he might be willing to play in the US and since this topic is about the World Cup 2026, there might be more to this transfer to Inter Miami than just Messi's mood to play soccer in Florida. He will create a lot of enthusiasm and new fans in the US area and that could spark an extra wave of excitement that will further mobilize the masses towards this huge event in a few years from now. The timing makes a lot of sense in many respects.

Could you please not quote me with your own text, implying that what you wrote was actually me. That's important as your post otherwise makes no sense and people believe that your opinion is my opinion, which it isn't.

I referred to you saying that Real Madrid always makes the right decisions and I added that they are not always right. Sometimes it isn't their fault because a player is injured all the time like in the case of Hazard and sometimes it is both like in the case of Bale who was injured a lot but who was also reluctant to live the Real Madrid player lifestyle. He started behaving unprofessionally and made clear that he doesn't feel like a part of the team. Both investments were very expensive and didn't pay off.

This isn't correct. Real Madrid can also make mistakes and be wrong in their judgment about a player's quality or also about whether or not a player really fits into the team and can contribute a lot to the squad as a whole. You want two examples?

Gareth Bale, the record breaking transfer by Real Madrid who brought him in from Tottenham for more money than they paid for Ronaldo. But I think I don't have to explain to you how it worked out and a comparison between Ronaldo and Bale is also not necessary, but it demonstrates perfectly how decisions made by a club can play out.

Second example is Hazard. This wasn't a bad decision, but nobody can tell whether out of a sudden a player is permanently injured and can't contribute to the squad as expected.

They are making decisions to the best of their knowledge and with high responsibility, but that doesn't guarantee them to be free of mistakes and other fallacies. For now it seems that Bellingham was a great transfer, but give it some time to see whether the expectations will materialize.

I don't understand why you think that a country with Muslim traditions could host a World Cup? I think you are confusing a few concepts here. Muslims can be extremely hyped for soccer. Look at the Turkish people and how passionate they are about the sport. I guess you are referring to the restrictive policies in Qatar and the violation of human rights and free speech. It is the Qatar interpretation of Muslim religion that made you think they couldn't host a World Cup I suppose?

I think Turkey, even though lots of things go wrong there as well, is still a Muslim country with almost 99% of the population being Muslim. Yet I would say that Turkey is quite different from Qatar or Saudi Arabia. They have secular tendencies that are more in harmony with the Western idea of free speech and equal rights for women and men. In Qatar people were afraid of women getting banned from the soccer games and also other forms of discrimination against them (clothing especially).

In general I think Muslims can be hardcore fans and Turkey is a good example for that. We should always try to allow countries host the World Cup throughout the whole world regardless of the dominating religion. In Qatar it wasn't about the religion, the concerns were about their fundamentalistic interpretation of the Muslim religion and the politicization of the event as a means to global positive fake recognition.

I thought at first that this must be a joke because this isn't really the standard route that players take who once transferred from Leipzig to Liverpool and he probably had quite a significant salary there as well. If I read correctly he is now going to get 1.5 million Euro and bonuses dependent on performance and achievements. But still this must be a huge step back for him financially. I don't know when I heard the last time that a player at the age of 28 is transferring from a club like Liverpool to a club like Bremen. The guy is so young and it is hard to imagine that this was basically the only offer he had. At Liverpool he earned around 7 million Euro. I was trying to find the specific reasons for his decisions but couldn't find anything convincing yet. If someone knows more about this transfer I would like to know about it.

I think you are right here, but someone else already said that there are also things that come into play that nobody can predict and that nobody can influence too much. In the game against Manchester United there was a penalty given against Manchester City and it was a lucky one. One of those handballs where the player didn't even see the ball and then it slightly touched the hand and the penalty was given. These unlucky events can happen in any game and this is something I wouldn't cross out of the range of possibilities for this game. There is always a little luck factor that can bring Inter back into the game even if they concede a goal early. Yes it will be infinitely more difficult for them if they concede a goal early because Manchester City will hardly give the ball away afterwards, but they won't be able to prevent any and all ball possession for Inter Milan. They will get a few chances as well and whether that is a corner kick or some cross balls, nobody can tell, but Inter is still Inter and not some lower level team. I also think that the winner of this game will be Manchester City, but I hope that it stays exciting for as long as possible.

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Gundogan is in top shape and he is a player who plays a kind of style that is less of a burden to the body. He is similar to Kroos in that regard. I am not saying they are the same , but similar. Their style allows them to play on a high level for longer than others who play very physically. lf I had to make a guess I think that Gundogan could still a play very valuable strategic midfielder role for at least two years and maybe even three or four years. To me it would be no risk at all to give him another contract for a couple of years as he has found his perfect place within the Manchester City squad and he has a high reputation and the respect of the players within the team. Letting him easily leave now would be a mistake. 

The sad truth is that Dortmund has no choice but to sell those players. If they decided to not sell and instead keep the player until the contract expires, it would not be sustainable for Dortmund at all in the long run. It is almost like consolation money when they have to let their best players go but at the same time earn record breaking transfer fees in the Bundesliga. I was just going through a thought experiment and tried to remember which players they had to let go in the past that then became world class in other teams. There are quite a lot of those players and nobody can tell where Dortmund would be today if they were able to keep those players and convince them of a future with Dortmund. But the offers from abroad are often too tempting.

Inter Milan hasn't been as passive in their last Champions League games as I thought they would be. The opponent wasn't Manchester City of course, but still they weren't just playing defense all the time. I can imagine that they will be more active in the game than would be expected. It doesn't have to be the typical 75:25 ball possession game by Manchester City. Inter Milan will need time to rest and recalibrate during the game and that is best done when they have the ball themselves. They will try to not leave the game to Manchester City for 90 minutes and instead have their own time windows when they try to keep the ball to themselves. But for the most part of the game it will be highly concentrated defense and a lot against the ball.

Indeed and Zverev is showing his second ego. This guy is full of surprises both in the negative and the positive sense. Within only three days he can show an amazing performance and a devastating performance. Against Tiafoe he had some very strong points and I thought he possibly has overcome his injury and also the impact on his mentality. It looked as if he trusted in his body again and could show his best tennis, but now it is all gone again. Djokovic almost didn't have a single weakness for most of the match. Ruud looks strong now but that is because Zverev is so weak.

It goes a bit too far if you say they don't care where they play. I think their home performance has been consistently a bit better than their away performances although we are talking about nuances when a team wins almost all the time anyway. But in this case the game is on neutral grounds anyway. It will be an interesting information to get when we know how many Inter fans there are and how many Manchester City fans will take on the burden and support their team. The Inter fans have been known to be crazy enough to go anywhere in the world in large numbers and do everything they can to get as many tickets as they can. I would not be surprised if they do represent a majority in the stadium at the Champions League final.

Yes Dortmund is indeed used to it and have been going through this a dozen of times by now I guess, but they have been doing an impressive job at finding replacements for these super talents. Financially this has been paying off for them for a very long time now, but I understand when they think that they are still facing a loss in terms of the quality of their team and the upcoming season. Once you see that someone has integreated perfectly into the existing team, it would be preferable to keep him if possible. But that is how the business goes. Bellingham won't be the last young super talent that they have to let go.

But you are raising an important point here. The millions that come after the first few hundred are not that significant anymore, but seriously what would Mbappe do if they offer him a billion for two years? And if you think about it Mbappe would be a huge deal for them, even bigger than Messi and Ronaldo because Mbappe is so young and has all these World Cups to play and a growing following as well. That would be a deal which guarantees a growing audience for a very long time. Since you mentioned this now, would you be totally shocked when in a few weeks from now there is a rumor that Mbappe was offered 1.5 billion for 3 years? As you said, I would also like to see it and then see how he reacts.

I find it confusing also as a fan when you never really know whether there are still serious investigations or not. In the case of Juventus Turin it was with heavy consequences and then you do the math back and forth and analyze the games thinking whether this team or that team is going to make it into the top four, and then another message is going around in the news reconfirming a penalty but this time less severe. Frankly speaking, nobody even knows whether there will be problems for Juventus as well.

I know that these investigations take time, but they need to implement a procedure where the penalty is more related to the present. When out of a sudden a team receives penalty for what they have done six years ago, the penalty feels right but the timing feels wrong.