A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

I'm just hoping that Levy comes to his senses and gets another striker. Soldado is shit, Adebayor is shit and cranky, and to rely on Kane alone up front is foolhardy; if, god forbid, he gets injured, how the fuck does Levy expect Tina to win games?

Thing is, learn from Chelsea. Get Roberto Soldado back to Valencia, where he can flourish again, get someone to buy Adebayor (or hell, just terminate his contract, it doesn't matter now), finish up that Aaron Lennon thing (and be at least slightly reasonable - no one is going to pay 7 million for Aaron Lennon in 2015) and GET. A. STRIKER. Not a Jackson Martínez or an Edinson Cavani, but... someone decent?

Also, why the hell did Cuadrado come to Chelsea? I'm not complaining (it means Spurs don't have to face him in the Fiorentina game in the Europa League), but to leave a team where he'll get regular playing time for a team notorious for letting great talent rot on the bench, even if it is a Champions League team is, according to me, stupid.

Though... incidentally, Best Of, can Cuadrado play in the Capital One Cup final? He didn't play for another English team, so...

edited 2nd Feb '15 11:22:29 AM by arcanephoenix

Rumours have Lennon going to Hull or Stoke, and Adebayor perhaps moving to QPR - probably on loan with an option to buy, if his contract doesn't end at the end of this season.

EDIT: The player restrictions on the Capital One Cup are the least strict you'll find for any competition in England at that level. As long as you've got a contract with a player he can play. There's no registration - if you're eligible to play for your club in the League or would be if you had been registered that's considered good enough. In case of loan deals the main club has to give the loaning club a written permission to use that player in the cup. A player can only play for one club in a season.

For the Premier League, a player is eligible if he's under 21 (or turns 21 during the year the season begins - so if you turn 21 on the 1st of January you won't have to be registered for the season starting in August) or if he's registered. Each club is allowed to register 25 players, 8 of whom must have trained with a British club for at least 3 years before they turn 21. Note that you have to register an under-21 player if you want to count him as one of your home-grown players. Players under 17 can't be registered at all, but they can play. I think they need a special permit for that, though; I'm not sure.

You can buy foreigners who are under 21 and play them without registration. This wouldn't work in the Champions League; in that competition you're allowed to use unregistered under-20 players but only if they've been with your club for at least 2 years. The Champions League rules also require that you register 8 home-grown players, 4 of whom must have trained with your club for at least 3 years - so you can't buy 8 players from other clubs' academies, but you can buy 4 and use 4 from your own. Again, even if your home-frown players are young enough to qualify without registration you must still register them if you want to count them as your home-grown players.

The Premier League has no restrictions on players changing clubs; you can sell your entire 25-man squad and buy a new one, as long as you've got the home-grown players you need.

Anyway, Cuadrado can play and even if for some unfathomable reason Chelsea were to fail to register him for the Premier League he'd still be eligible on the grounds that his registration for the Premier league would have been accepted, had it been submitted. (Obviously, he has been registered by now for the Premier League - I'm just speaking in hypotheticals.)

edited 2nd Feb '15 11:42:42 AM by BestOf

According to Sky Sports, Aaron Lennon is heading to join Everton on loan. So much for Stoke's hopes to get another winger after losing Assaidi to Liverpool and Bojan to injury. Anyway, I hope he does well for the Toffees. I do like watching Everton and I think Roberto Martinez will help Lennon get back on track.

But yeah, the sooner Adebayor leaves Spurs, the better. I've been one of the most patient Spurs fans and even I got tired of Adebayor not giving a fuck about the games he plays under Poch. Although QPR can pretty much forget about goals if Redknapp does get him... can't see him having a Career Resurrection after burning so many bridges in the Premier League.

Also, I have no idea what Cuadrado was thinking when he signed for Chelsea. Chelsea buys so many players, they'll have no idea what to do with the Colombian and frankly I don't see him besting the fates of Salah and Schurrle. Jose prefers Fabregas, Willian, and (eventually) Loftus-Cheek in the midfield, so I'm certain the two midfielders that left Chelsea are better off without Abramovich and Jose killing their careers.

On the bright side, it looks like we've won the race for MK Dons' starlet Dele Alli. I haven't seen him in many games, so it'll be interesting to see what he has to bring for us. Especially if this club-made video of his goals, assists and tricks is anything to go by...

edited 2nd Feb '15 1:16:59 PM by sanfranman91

Everton loan Aaron Lennon for the rest of the season.

WBA are about to announce two signings: West Ham's Carlton Cole and Manchester United's Darren Fletcher.

Well done.

EDIT: The transfer window in England is now officially closed - although an extension to proposed transfer can be granted if the team provided a draft team sheet in time. I know this because Arsenal does it very often. They don't seem to have done it this time, though.

That, however, doesn't mean that nobody did: Chelsea's Champions League-winning left-back Ryan Bertrand's loan to Southampton has turned into a permanent deal. They've now adequately replaced Shaw. Good deal for them and another question mark over Chelsea's ability to develop players and trust them with a first-team role.

EDIT: West Brom have no news yet on Fletcher and Cole, but they did sign Callum McManaman (hopefully because his name) from Wigan.

EDIT: For me the best bit of business today was Kane's contract extension with Spurs. That's not a transfer but it's close enough.

I'm also happy for Schürrle - at Wolfsburg he'll certainly get to play, and he'll prove Chelsea wrong for selling him.

EDIT: So it did happen: Darren Fletcher to West Brom on a free. I must say I'm surprised he went for free - I thought it would've been a couple of million at least. Good for West Brom, I suppose - and good for Fletcher, in that he won't have to carry the expectation imposed by a transfer fee.

edited 2nd Feb '15 3:48:24 PM by BestOf

Shit...

Fuck's sake. Back to the old ways: outspend their rivals, take trophies that way. We'll have our work cut out to win the Championship now. Heard some rumors that clubs will challenge the loan given the Mike Ashley influence at both clubs, but even if there is something to go on - which I doubt - there's no way the SFA would take action. On the contrary, they'll be delighted.

Dirty hun bastards!

Yeah, I recently found out that Newcastle's owner has invested in Rangers and frankly it was no surprise that Newcastle started sending not-quite-first-XI players on loan to Rangers. To be honest I'm not sure any of those players are good enough to star in the SPL, but maybe this is just the chance they've been waiting for.

They don't need to be in the SPL, they need to be in the Championship and get Rangers promoted and back into that sick TV money. Hearts cannot drop any points now.

edited 2nd Feb '15 4:47:27 PM by Achaemenid

I have no idea how I made that mistake.

Well, these Newcastle loanees probably will be good enough to earn Rangers lots and lots of points, then.

...

Now that I've looked into it a bit: Hearts are 16 points ahead and Rangers have 2 games in hand. Even if Rangers win both of those games they'll still have 10 points to go to catch up to Hearts. With 22 of 35 fixtures played Hearts are in a great position to win the league. Even if Rangers perform very well Hearts will only have to keep doing what they've been doing so far to stay ahead.

We can but hope. Wasn't impressed by what I saw at Tynie when we lost to Falkirk. Also worried about Hibs - we've been lucky in our last two games against them to get draws. Too many opportunities to drop points - and Hearts have form of dominating a season only to completely screw it up. 1986 and 2008 spring to mind.

It seems Mike Ashley has converted Gers into a minor league club for Newcastle to call up and send down if those loans are anything to go by. Vuckic is a decent attacking midfielder who couldn't break his way into the starting 11, so I figured he would be loaned off somewhere. The other players look like they'll have a solid, if rather ordinary, mid-table PL careers and spending some time in Scotland might be what they need to develop the physicality needed to survive in England.

If Davide Santon's fiancee is someone to go by, Ashley's Executive Meddling of the Magpies is getting out of control. Could his antics backfire on him in the next few seasons? Could he be a worse owner than Vincent Tan or Venky's?

By the way, Sky Sports is reporting on the aftermath of last night's transfer deadline. They've been recapping the Cuadrado move and displayed an eleven based entirely on players sent away by Mourinho.◊ The skill of Jose's rejects may not be not title-contenders, but they could definitely compete with Everton and Spurs for those last few European spots.

Not to double post, but Harry Redknapp has resigned as QPR's manager today. He did good for Spurs, but I'm starting to think maybe Harry should just retire and settle down somewhere. I figured in the beginning of the season that QPR could survive if he's able to get the squad's act together and if he did what he did at Spurs and Portsmouth. He hasn't gotten QPR's act together and he's been found out tactically.

Apart from Charlie Austin, Leroy Fer, and maybe Joey Barton, I don't see anyone else in QPR's current squad returning to the Premier League again either because they're too old or they're too lazy to be reliable. And given QPR's horrendous away form and lack of dedication, I can't see them surviving relegation now. I'm going to adjust my beginning predictions to say that QPR, Leicester, and Aston Villa are going down to the Championship at the end of the season. Thoughts?

edited 3rd Feb '15 5:47:52 PM by sanfranman91

I've always thought Redknapp to be a hugely overrated manager.

First time fan, 10, has three teeth knocked out and a hairline fracture after his bus is attacked by Celtic fans.

Scotland's missed this fixture right enough. Greatest fans in ra wurld.

edited 3rd Feb '15 7:51:47 AM by Achaemenid

That was fucking disgraceful. The fans responsible for this atrocity should be lifted, huckled, tried, sentenced and jailed. With the charges including attempted murder.

Reminds me of my first game, I think it was a cup tie between Celtic, which was my team at the time, and Aberdeen, and my uncle took me to the match - I believe it was Hampden before the refurbishments. Which was nice. Which wasn't nice after all when he took us to the Aberdeen end, in the middle of all their Casuals. In the Eighties, so you know where I'm going with this if you know anything about Scottish football. (tiny little me cowering and frightened to say anything when Celtic scored in case a Casual ate me.)

In a shocking swerve, it wasn't the Aberdeen Casuals who nearly killed me or at the very least made me fear for my life at the end of the game. It was the Celtic fans, who incensed at their loss in the game, decided to attack the Aberdeen fans with everything they could get hold of. I wondered what the noise on the roof of the tunnel I was leaving was, and it turned out to be rocks hitting it. I saw a kid not much older than me with blood oozing out of his scalp, running out of his crew cut hair do after a grown man lobbed a brick at him. It could have been me. Pretty much was - my uncle guarded me from the worst of it as we got the fuck out of there.

edit. Wait, what? Spurs have binned Redknapp?

Whoofucking PEEE!!! I cannot stand that sleekit corrupt bastard. Regardless of the outcome of his recent trial that prick should be eating porridge at Her Majesty's Pleasure.

edit again. Whoops. He was at QPR this time, not Spurs. My mistake.

edited 3rd Feb '15 8:09:20 AM by TamH70

It was abysmal right enough. Nobody Hearts fan I know with kids will take them to a game with either side of the ugly sisters. Usually it's 13 before most Jambos see a game against them.

Bunch of total sadsacks. Between this and writing slogans in shit about the Ibrox disaster in Tynecastle toilets, I'm really not impressed.

EDIT: Another Rangers fan was battered, possibly to the point of brain damage, outside a pub in Newarthhill. Also heard chat about brawling between "fans" of the OF in Belfast airport.

edited 3rd Feb '15 11:17:22 AM by Achaemenid

Jesus. I know the Old Firm is notorious for its... unfortunate roots, but battering people nearly to death or hurting kids is going way too far. Plus, I think this edition wasn't really anything to write home about, so I don't see the point of Rangers fans chanting racist and sectarian songs nor Celtic fans beating people to a bloody pulp. I think I've heard enough of this topic, so I would be up for changing the subject to the FA Cup replays if you don't mind.

Speaking of which, Cambridge United is about to take the pitch against Manchester United. Can David beat Goliath in the latter's own house? Guess there's only one way to find out...

In the FA Cup,

Manchester United 3-0 Cambridge United

Sheffield United 1-3 Preston North End

I predicted United-Sheffield, and seem to have got the other side wrong, as Sheffield seem to have gone into halftime 1-0 up, Preston got three goals in the second half, including a penalty. United, however, were dominant, as expected, against Cambridge at home. Honestly, it needs some introspection that a team of Manchester United's stature needed a replay against, of all people, recently into League 2 side Cambridge United.

It also seems that Sunderland got the win over Fulham, so I think that's all the FA Cup replays done.

edited 3rd Feb '15 7:17:23 PM by arcanephoenix

Actually, there's one more coming up tomorrow (technically later today, but whatever) between Bolton and Liverpool. One would expect Brendan Rodgers' side to have a straight-forward replay, but I think Neil Lennon's going to convince his team to give it a go...

News for Quag, because I think it's a bit important: Pune City FC has sent two players, Manish Maithani and Israil Gurung, both Indian, on loan to Vitoria de Guimaraes (sp?). Heard of it?

Thanks for letting me know. From an article I found through Wikipedia:

I think it's for 5 months (it certainly is the case for Manish). They'll probably enter in action in a couple of weeks.

According to the BBC, QPR are looking to sign Tim Sherwood as their next manager.

How nice for Tottenham to have a retirement home for their managers in London.

Meow!!!

North London Derby news: Alexis is ruled out with a hamstring injury. At the moment it doesn't seem that this will have a significant impact on Arsenal's performance but of course it would've been nicer to have all key players available. Oh, well.

COYG!

...I am a Tottenham fan, and I approve this message. I actually wouldn't mind Sherwood back, but I guess Tina's done decent enough now.

In the FA Cup,

Bolton 1-2 Liverpool

Both teams went in at halftime goalless, but Bolton struck first with a 59th minute penalty from Eidur Gudjohnson (he used to play in the PL, I remember distinctly), but they went down to ten men after Neil Danns got his second yellow card. It seems that Liverpool went pure offensive at about 70' with the introduction of Daniel Sturridge, and Henderson and Can had shots off the post before Raheem Sterling equalised at 86' and Philippe Coutinho got an assist off Henderson right at the end, in injury time for Liverpool to go through and break Bolton hearts in dramatic fashion.

It's super Saturday! Spurs against Arsenal! Everton against Liverpool! Atletico against Real! Juventus against Milan! Freiburg against Dortmu... okay, that's just being mean. But big, BIG games! What are your plans, guys?

Don't forget the Lisbon derby, Sporting CP - Benfica, in terms of big matches. Even if it's on a Sunday.

I'm going to watch Arsenal's game with a couple of friends so it's likely that I won't post until fairly late.