The Olympic stadium was always going to happen, and it was built without thinking of it's next life after 2012, hence why there wasn't huge interest in teams taking it, it's what happens at the end of an Olympics or WC, lots of infrastructure left to rot as it was a pre-requisite to qualify to host, rather than being a needed stadium or infrastructure.
Can we all take a moment to congratulate Borussia Dortmund on one of the most fantastic pieces of business in football history.
Sell Jadon Sancho to Man Yoo for 75 million quid, then pick him up on loan 2 years later, where as part of the deal United even pay half his wages for you too.
More masterful transfer dealings at Old Trafford
It takes some serious effort to continuously keep pissing off binners with ever more batshit transfer dealings. Credit where credit is due.
Yeah, but half his united wages are still probably 3 or 4 times as much as Dortmund were paying him.
Didn't Juve do the same with Pogba once?
🤣🤣🤣 Good deal for dortmund.
I actually think the 2012 bid was well thought out mainly. Several of the venues at the Olympic Park were prefab, designed to be removed after and I believe at least 2 (the pillow and the copper pot, run they homed gymnastics, basket ball and something else) were reused in Rio. The swimming pool had its'wings' removed as there was no more need for 12k of seating, and as I said the main stadium was designed to be rebuilt, dropping its capacity from the 85k ish it was, down to whatever it is now....errr 60k I think, just smaller than New WHL. The bit they got wrong in my view, was insisting the athletics stayed there, although insisting on legacy athletics made sense and tbf, the Diamond league athletics at Stratford draws a good crowd over 2 days. It's just a shame crystal palace, without the funds the Diamond league event brought, has literally begun to fall apart now. (I live nearby so for me as a local it's a terrible shame.... that park has a history like that though! The exhibition halls, the FA cup, the motor racing circuit, now the athletics)
Yeah, but half his united wages are still probably 3 or 4 times as much as Dortmund were paying him
I’m sure what they end up paying him themselves won’t make too much of a dent in the 75 million quid transfer fee they got for him
Surely it doesn't top the Pogba deal, let him go for free to Juve, buy him back from Juve for £90m before letting him go back there for free again.
At least there is a slim chance that Sancho comes back once ETH has got the boot
Yes, but this is Manchester United. I wouldn't bet against him running down his contract until he leaves on a free, a la Pogba.
The ineptitude at Old Trafford in transfer dealings is off the chart. They've had players agents running rings around them for years
Re. Liverpool midfield I think the revamp owes more to luck than any amazing plan of Klopp's. Neither Caciedo or Lavia who were the prime DM targets wanted to join so the players they did bring in were not their first choice. I have watched the last two games versus Arsenal and Fulham and was not impressed. Jones and Elliot seem to be the pick of those that played.
I think Liverpool will win the League Cup and stand a good chance in the UEFA Cup but think they will drop away in the league but still get top 4. Not bad for what I expected to be a transitional season.
To be fair to Liverpool, like Pep, the players who go to Anfield seem to develop and get better under Klopp
I'm with @Cletus on this though. I don't think they're anywhere near seriously challenging for the title. But then nobody is. Its got Citehs name all over it already
One of the most baffling moves of the window is Bayern going for Dier, that's just got to be to give Kane a friend, it can't be for football reasons.
Meh, I think Dier still has good football in him. Ange decided he didn't have a spot, didn't suit Ange ball, but I still think he has the ability to do a good job in the right team. I'd like to see him prosper there. He will at least try hard, train hard and do good best. Of that I have no doubt.
Just seen on the news that Sven’s got terminal cancer. Looks like he’s being as low temperature about it as you’d expect.
I’m just remembering the old truly inspired Citeh chant about him, which can surely now be quickly repurposed
We don't need no Phil Scolari,
We don't need Mourinho,
Hey! Thaksin! Leave our Sven alone!
Things getting very grim at Reading FC, pitch invasion and then match abandoned. Fans know they'll lose a vital 3 points but the club is likely to go out of business with a lot of job losses.
Sky are trying to not cover it, have eventually had to accept there was a protest, meanwhile the EFL livefeed went offline 'due to a technical difficulty'
Call it out, you are supposed to be reporters. Football has an ownership problem, and the EFL continually fining and docking points from a club and fans over an owner THAT THEY REVIEWED AND APPROVED is Post Office levels of being up their own backsides.
And huge credit to the PV fans who have had a wasted trip. A few pissed off of course, particularly them with kids who don't really get the subtleties of football finance but heard from a mate who was there that there was a lot of support and chanting from the away fans as well. While the club's going broke, many of Reading's fans aren't, it'd be great for there to be a travel fund created to try to pay back some of their travel costs for example.
That all looks a bit bonkers at Reading!
Just watching Citeh and Newcastle and yet another example of these ridiculous late offside flags. 2 Newcastle players were clearly a mile offside but the flag didn't go up so the play continued. In making a save, which he should never have had to make, Ederson has collided with the Newcastle player, been injured and has had to go off. I hope its not serious, but the whole situation is ridiculous
And now, because of the injury, the linesman is flagging straight away when someones offside
Why the hell aren't they doing this all the time? If someone is clearly off then bloody flag it straight away! Otherwise whats the point of having a linesman in the first place?
Totally mad rule. Maybe the Ederson injury will help end it.
Blimey, theres been 3 absolutely top notch finishing in this match! 😳
Nice assist there from Sancho for BVB
What a game that was!
Aaaarggghhhh!
Gutted.
Oh Kevin De Bruyne!
Bit scrappy for large parts, but can't remember a game with so many quality finishes.
Looks like Citeh are getting into their stride with Kev back
Kevin De Bruyne should have got MOTM even for a brief cameo. City juggernaut will roll on now.
I should take up gambling. Said to a mate it would finish 3-2 as soon as de Bruyne came on. Frustrating but at least the toon made a game of it. We desperately need more muscle in midfield. Miley and longstaff get pushed over too easily.
Joelinton’s job that - but he’s injured.
They get leggy in the last 15-20 and especially when against a side like City or Liverpool who can move the ball around at will. That's where the injuries and lack of depth hurts them, they're top 4 for 60 mins and then mid to lower half thereafter. Desperately need another 3 or 4 quality options, that Eddie and Jason will get the best out of. Fans have got to keep the faith, when they have bolstered the squad, if they've let Eddie go elsewhere they'll be massively regretting it.
The owners seem too savvy for that, surely they will take account of the injuries as mitigation and that last year they maybe over achieved? Mind you once the fans turn the writings on the wall.
Mind you once the fans turn the writings on the wall.
The fans aren’t turning. Anyone who has half a brain knows the score and Howe’s going nowhere (until England come calling). Doesn’t change the fact though that without joelinton the midfield is lightweight. Think tonight they just gave city too much respect and were backing off too much rather than being aggressive.
The fans aren’t turning. Anyone who has half a brain knows the score and Howe’s going nowhere (until England come calling).
I agree, but Twitter doesn't wholeheartedly. Of course, some will be heat of the moment tweeting but there are some real dicks out there too, and while they're clearly wrong, they are entitled to their opinion
Well, they did just lose to "the best team in the world" and they probably are. I think Eddie Howe can build a very good team given time. Ferguson had 3 years before the seeds began to mature.
I didn’t mean to imply the fans have turned BTW.
I saw some comments on the bottom half of the internet slating Howe, I assumed they were trolls rather than actual toon fans, especially as one thought he should be replaced by Mourihno.
Going back to the flagging for offside issue, I didn't think Isak was that far offside, the linesman was right to not raise his flag IMO, there were a couple of other Newcastle players more clearly in offside positions, which made it look worse than it actually was, but they were not impacting the play.
Even though we have lost a couple of players to offside incidents in recent weeks, this is still a good rule IMO, over the years I think city have suffered more from well timed runs being flagged for offside when they shouldn't have been, so in balance I prefer that linesman give an advantage to the attacking team and a var check if a goal is scored.
^ this.
If the defending side are so convinced it's offside, they could always avoid the risk of injury by letting the player walk it into the net, and then get the free kick afterwards.
Thought not......
Well, somehow ManU nearly lost a game that looked like they should win, going 1-0 up early, up against a team who are absolutely decimated just now, and at home, that team they had out should have been doing more than that, it's just weird how they can't get going.
I only saw the second half, but spurs were pretty dominant and united offered nothing but a couple of "moments", united are pretty lucky to get away with a draw IMO, if they had won it would have been a bit of a robbery.
Yeah, weird game, saw the teams, then saw ManU go 1-0 up after 3 minutes and thought this could be 3 or 4 nil, Spurs are a weird team just now, half a team down, but they just plug in other players and it works, Werner has more assists this season in the PL than Antony 🤣
Didn't see it. Had the kids at the playground. Given the injuries and players Away at asian and African cups I guess a point away is OK. Cuti and vdv back and survived, an assist for werner and goal for richy are all positives. Feel a bit like we missed a chance to close right in on villa though.
Werner had quite a good game, but showed some of the faults he displayed at Chelsea
Well, somehow ManU nearly lost a game that looked like they should win, going 1-0 up early
As soon as we scored so early I thought “here we go… we’re going to lose 4-1”
Absolutely awful yet again. As Gary Neville observed, Spuds have all their best players missing but this is all United have got. We bought Antony on at 80 minutes, like that’s going to make a difference.
