Latest posts of: Velvet78

Among PSG, Lens and Marseille trio only Lens haven't changed their manager recently. And Lens really don't need a change at all after this superb season. The way they left Marseille behind and had a huge point gap with them at the end was really impressive. It is doubtful if they can do well in the Champions League group stage though. But it is early to say something before seeing their group there.

Lens' priority would be to keep consistent in the Ligue 1 of course. They will really need to work harder because this season might be more challenging than they assume maybe. I don't think Marseille would be this out-of-form next time.

Lampard was just a temporary manager for Chelsea and he wasn't expected to do bigger things much. Because Chelsea tried Lampard as a permanent manager before as well but it didn't work out well at all as you remember. Lampard just doesn't have it in himself. He couldn't do well at Everton either so I think it would be better for his career to do a different job then being a manager.

Pochettino is a decent manager and I feel myself confident about him to do much better than Lampard. If Chelsea build their lineup in a solid way I think they will be competitive for top 4 again in a short time.

If Mbappe leaves PSG this summer he has a condition in his contract. As far as I know PSG will have to pay an amount like 150-200 million euros due to this condition. Therefore even if he leaves now PSG can't make a big profit in this transfer. They are in a really problematic situation as a result. But let's say PSG sold him for over 200 million euros then it is still better than letting him go for free.

I wonder whether Real Madrid are interested in paying that much money and sign him already. They can just be patient for six months to sign a pre-agreement contract with Mbappe in the end. I think they wouldn't rush things while there is such opportunity.

Quote from: Leviathan.007 on June 25, 2023, 11:10:24 PM

According to transfermarkt there are two teams that want to hire Neymar for the next season and there is a high chance for him to leave PSG for Arabian teams because for players at this age and in this situation there won't be many offers from top-level teams. There is a chance for Neymar to return to Barcelona but I don't think Barcelona will accept hiring a player like Neymar to pay his high amount of salary.
That's why I'm waiting to see him playing for Arabian teams like Al Hilal

I agree that Barcelona wouldn't be keen on signing Neymar right now. His cost would be really big to them and Barcelona would have signed Messi in the first place in that case. FFP rules are a big hindrance in this kind of transfers for Barcelona no matter how much money they have. They are going for safer transfers these days like Gundogan.

Rather than Saudi Arabia I think Neymar would prioritize the MLS. Because I think it is still early to sign for a Saudi Arabia team for him. It would be better to continue to watch him in Europe actually but let's see whether there would be an offer. There were rumours related to some Premier League teams.

Quote from: Cryptmuster on June 26, 2023, 08:06:49 AM

How much do Tottenham want for Kane? In my opinion, from the latest news there was information that Bayern is negotiating with Kane now. And if I'm not mistaken, this is not Bayern's first attempt to get Kane, especially since Lewandowski left the team. Mane did not live up to expectations and did not become the leader of the attack, so this is an urgent issue for Bayern. I would like to see what Kane is capable of in Bayern, in a team that is aimed at attacking Kane would have ideal conditions.

Some time ago I saw some news which was stating the asking price as around 120 million euros. Anything over 100 million euros would be considered as too high for Kane by most teams in Europe I assume. There have been so many rumours linking Kane with Bayern Munich so far but I don't feel like they will play that much for him.

Instead I expect Bayern Munich to look for cheaper alternatives. As I said before Vlahovic is one of the good candidates when it comes to that. I assume his asking price would be 70-80 million euros. Bayern Munich will need to pay a decent amount of money anyway if they want to be more successful.

Quote from: rendravolt on June 25, 2023, 05:06:08 AM

Quote from: Velvet78 on June 24, 2023, 11:22:18 PM

After talking about Milan's being in need of a better and more reliable centre-forward I have seen that they are interested in Lukaku seriously. They are even about to make an official offer to Chelsea to sign him permanently. The offer is said to be like 40 million euros. I know how much Chelsea made a loss by selling him and buying him back for a huge amount of money.

But there is really not much of a choice left for Chelsea. They don't plan to have Lukaku in their squad anymore so this is a good opportunity to get rid of him. He needs to be convinced to make this move. I don't know if he can improve his performance at Milan but at least he can stay in Italy just as he wants.

What Milan is thinking is very far from the fans' expectations and if it is true that Milan makes an offer to sign Lukaku this is definitely a setback. We know Milan have just secured around 70 million euros fresh funds after successfully selling Sandro Tonali to Newcastle and I think Milan should be able to find a much better striker than Lukaku with these funds. At Inter Lukaku has often failed to prove his worth and even though Milan started their bid at 40 million euros I don't think it was worth it and it would be better for Milan to start discussing his options again.

Yeah there are surely much better alternatives for Lukaku in the market. Lukaku's recent effort has been quite poor and it is one of the main reasons why Inter aren't keen on continuing with him anymore. Milan would just need to pay some more money than 40 million euros to buy a decent scorer. They should invest into the attacking line thinking of the future of the team.

It started to look like the probability of Lukaku to sign for Milan is going down but it is just an indicator on Transfermarkt of course. Let's wait and see what Chelsea want from Milan to sell him exactly.

Liverpool have signaled a rebuild before next season. However so far there is only Mac Allister signing. This isn't a rebuild process yet as a result. Firmino is leaving for example and his place should also be filled on one hand. It would be the best for Liverpool to make additions to as many areas as possible to get ready for next season.

If they make the needed change for the team then I don't see any reason hindering Liverpool from playing for the league title next season. Thankfully Klopp is still continuing to manage the team because I think there is no need of a manager change. It wouldn't be fair to Klopp after having great years with the team.

Manchester City are getting close to happy ending about Gvardiol transfer. As far as I know they have reached agreement on terms with the player already. The harder part is to convince Leipzig to the amount they have in their mind. However Leipzig don't intend to sell him below 100 million euros now. In the meantime Manchester City's latest offer has been recorded as 90 million euros.

I assume they would agree upon a fee shortly in this case. Guardiola has been wishing to see him in his team for a long time. He will make the defense line incredibly strong surely.

Quote from: alegotardo on June 25, 2023, 12:21:26 AM

Quote from: Velvet78 on June 24, 2023, 11:07:32 PM

Speaking of the pitstop, this is perhaps good for the RedBull team, in the last GP Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen were the fastest of the day.

Pérez's pit stop was fastest at 2.23 seconds, just one-and-a-half tenths slower than the 2023 record set at the Spanish Grand Prix, where Red Bull changed Pérez's four tires in just 2.07 seconds.

In any case, the Austrian team opened up an advantage in the dispute for the "DHL Fastest Pitstop Award" (DHL Fastest Pit Stop award), since Ferrari, the 2nd place, did not do so well at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The team of Verstappen and Pérez was 43 points ahead of their Maranello rivals. The difference between the two teams after eight races is 73 points. Alpine is in 3rd place, 132 points behind Red Bull.

How much will this influence the next Austrian GP?

Red Bull are really great at fast pit stops. They are currently the best team at doing it indeed and this is helping them have more comfortable races as well. I assume this wouldn't change in next Austrian GP either. Actually if I'm not mistaken one of Verstappen's pits was a little problematic in the Canada GP but this isn't an incident that is seen often at Red Bull.

I will be expecting a Verstappen domination but I'm not very sure about a team domination for Red Bull. Perez's recent performances haven't been impressive at all. Who knows what he can do here.

Edson Alvarez wouldn't cost Dortmund much indeed. If he shows a really high level of performance with Dortmund shirt then Dortmund can sell him for a quite profitable amount later on. This is what Dortmund always do with such players in the end. I wonder if they can find a young talent similar to Bellingham again this summer.

Because I'm sure Dortmund scouts are working actively on finding new talents. Their source of income is the sales of this kind of players for huge amounts you know. Otherwise not becoming the Bundesliga champion would have been a much bigger problem for this team.

Quote from: asriloni on June 25, 2023, 06:17:28 AM

The only best thing for him to consider play for saudi club. It's better rather than trying to force himself for something that he can'd to that again in european football. There's no club interested to sign him after real madrid already confirmed to terminate his contract this month.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37788897/eden-hazard-leave-real-madrid-month-contract-terminated

The future of hazard is still uncertain. I don't see another choice for him other than going tot he saudi pro league.
He will be able to continue his career even though he will not become a big player again at least he can still use his skill there.

I haven't heard any rumours related to Hazard recently. Actually he might even go back to the Premier League but it wouldn't be one of top teams there. We might see him playing for an average level team. Teams such as Aston Villa have been interested in bringing such players recently. Maybe Hazard might be their next target in the near future.

If he can't find himself a proper European team to go to this summer then he can seriously think of going outside Europe. He can make a lot of more money for sure. As he has got a serious injury period at Real Madrid we don't even know how good he would be able to play.

Quote from: Patrol69 on June 25, 2023, 07:21:44 AM

While other teams are busy buying players in the transfer market and building their squads, PSG club is getting one after another away news. Several important players of the team have already left PSG, there is a possibility of Neymar leaving PSG. In other words, the PSG team is now almost disbanded. They are now looking for a good manager. Former Barcelona coach Luis Enrique may be on their list. If Luis Enrique is on their list, PSG should sign him very quickly. And by appointing him, PSG team is well organized again. Because if they fail to organize the team well now, they will have to suffer the consequences for the whole season.

About Neymar there is still no official offer for him. He has been rumoured to leave PSG for a long time but we will see. I'm feeling confident about one thing especially that he would get an offer from Saudi Arabian teams. They are like aiming to sign all the European stars who has a potential to leave their teams this summer.

However I don't think Neymar would like to go there just yet. He isn't still that old and he can still make a solid contribution to the team he plays for in Europe. Maybe MLS might be the second option for him just as Messi did.

Kane is soon becoming 30 years old and I don't know how many teams would like to pay an amount over 100 million euros for his transfer fee. He is actually worth this in my opinion. Because he is still playing incredible and one of the best scorers in the world. I feel confident about him to play this strong for at least a few more years as well.

But not every team think the same as me of course. These days there is only rumours linking him with PSG. This transfer might really happen actually as Messi has left the team. As Mbappe can play in winger position too Kane would be at the centre.

Quote from: OcTradism on June 23, 2023, 10:17:22 AM

Quote from: Velvet78 on June 23, 2023, 08:38:23 AM

Bayern Munich are still not rushing anything about a centre-forward transfer. I haven't seen a big rumour linking any striker to them these days. They are focused on other positions more currently. But they must be aware of the importance of signing a solid striker this summer on one hand. Because there wouldn't be a big change by only keeping Choupo-Moting and having Mane in the position sometimes.

In the last season, Bayern planed to use Mane as a replacement for Lewandowski but after a first few good matches, Mane got injury and never played well for Bayern in rest of season. Then they luckily got Choupo-Moting good performance but it is not enough for them to compete in Champions League. In addition in Bundesliga, they lost control and only won it with slippery performance in the last match from Dortmund as well as excellent strike from Musiala in last minutes of the season.

They are not in rush, maybe because they still believe in Mane come back but who are sure about that and Choupo-Moting might not be able to replace his performance as good as in the past season.

They have already experienced how things go when they use Mane as a striker or Choupo-Moting there. Mane just need to play in his natural position to give his best performance for them. Choupo-Moting's scoring effort was really not bad at all but not as consistent as they needed especially in the Champions League.

There is no other reasonable option for them to go for a new striker if they want to be really competitive for the Champions League title. They must be aware of this since the day they sold Lewandowski to Barcelona.

Quote from: shinratensei_ on June 24, 2023, 01:00:27 PM

Quote from: Velvet78 on June 24, 2023, 06:36:46 AM

Some Barcelona players continue to leave the team one by one. Busquets is also leaving now. Therefore Barcelona did the right thing by signing Gundogan. Their characteristics aren't the same though. Because Gundogan is more like an attacking oriented player. Maybe Barcelona would bring a defensive midfielder as well in the coming days.

They were leaving caused by barcelona is only looking for young player to stay in the club, busquets was old enough to play in european competition.
It's the time for him to give a chance for young talented player to take his position. Barcelnoa was able getting gundogan to replace him. Busquets has become a captain in barcelona and will gundogan also become a captain in barcelona?
That's very interesting to wait.

Quote from: Velvet78 on June 24, 2023, 06:36:46 AM

But these departures are good ones for Barcelona actually. Because they really needed to get rid of some old players to play according to Xavi's system better. Barcelona were born again with young players and they will need time to become much more successful.

Old players are still needed. Even though busquets were leaving from the club, bug gundogan was coming to replace him. Young talented squads are good but it's still lack of experienced player.
That's why gundogan has been needed to fill busquet's position. Barcelona needs a fully experienced player like him. He can also become a captain for the club.
He will able to give more experience to the young player.

When it comes to the captain question who knows maybe Gundogan can really get it from Busquets. Because he has already been the captain at Manchester City. He is very experienced with that role but let's see. Maybe Xavi thought of someone else to give it to before this transfer. Besides Gundogan is going to be new around here as well.

Old players can still contribute well to the team with their experience yeah. Gundogan isn't even that old actually. He is younger than Busquets and his performance has still been really decent.

We are getting close to entering another race week in Formula 1. Austria track is one of the shortest tracks among the ones in the calendar. Therefore the number of laps would be quite high and I guess there would be a strategy of two pit stops for most of the teams. This would be another race that hard tyres would be preferred quite much.

Here in this race I will be expecting a very big dominance by Verstappen. This is Red Bull's home Grand Prix so Verstappen would bring the win home by a dominant performance. There is no Leclerc who can compete with him and win the race now as he did in the previous season.

Federico Chiesa is likely to leave Juventus and Italy at the same time. Because Liverpool are trying to sign him on a permanent deal and there are two other teams monitoring him like PSG and Bayern Munich as well. The asking price is said to be like 60 million euros for him. Considering his market value which is 40 million euros the amount Juventus want for him is quite bigger than that.

But Chiesa is a really skilled player. He isn't only a left winger. He can play as right winger or second striker as well when there is a need. He is only 25 now so he must be open to improve his game as well. I don't know whether Juventus is the right place to do this right now.

Quote from: Uruhara on June 23, 2023, 11:26:17 PM

Rudi Garcia will obviously bear a heavy burden. Because last season Napoli managed to win the title in Serie A. So Napoli fans will certainly want the same thing in the next season. Everyone will be curious about every step that will be taken by the new Napoli coach, Rudi Garcia.

Rudi Garcia has a big responsibility indeed. It won't be easy for Napoli to retain their title as it wasn't for the other champions in the recent seasons as well. However there is a good thing that can help Rudi Garcia in his job. Spalletti and him have used the same formation mostly. I mean Spalletti's formation with Napoli and Garcia's with Roma in the past.

This can be a good point to start for Garcia because he won't need to make a big change in that. But other than that his job is still difficult of course. They are on the verge of losing some important players this summer. In this case their places will need to be filled with new ones and who knows how the team performance will be.

I don't know about Mount to be sold from now on. Because Chelsea have made a change in their management and brought Pochettino to the job. I wonder what he thinks about Mount now. Maybe he can win Mount back to the team and Mount can again start to play really decently like his old performances. This isn't impossible and he is still very young.

Mount was actually eager to stay at Chelsea already. He just wanted a fair contract from the team. But it looks like Chelsea still don't have such intention. If Pochettino also can't revert things here I don't know how Mount's future will be. They will need to accept Manchester United's offer somewhere reasonable.