- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 89,158
- Points
- 113
Mourinho also said that he expects Sam to help him too. This fella never helps people without getting something in return.
-
IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here. The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.
Chitchat The Official TCSS Thread
- Thread starter Alamaking
- Start date
Mourinho also said that he expects Sam to help him too. This fella never helps people without getting something in return.
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 89,158
- Points
- 113
Mkhitaryan scores against his old club but...........................
United hammered by Dortmund in China (and look at Jose's face)
Man United were beaten 4-1 by Dortmund in the International Champions Cup. Castro, Aubameyang and Dembele gave the Germans the lead before Mkhitaryan got one back and Castro's thunderbolt settled things.
United hammered by Dortmund in China (and look at Jose's face)
Man United were beaten 4-1 by Dortmund in the International Champions Cup. Castro, Aubameyang and Dembele gave the Germans the lead before Mkhitaryan got one back and Castro's thunderbolt settled things.
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 89,158
- Points
- 113
David Moyes to Sunderland not confirmed. But Steve Bruce has resigned from Hull City (and maybe he will return to Sunderland).
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2008
- Messages
- 4,436
- Points
- 83
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 89,158
- Points
- 113
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 89,158
- Points
- 113
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 4,443
- Points
- 113
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 89,158
- Points
- 113
After his contract ends, Wenger may be bumped upstairs or they may even extend his contract.
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 89,158
- Points
- 113
Manchester derby in Beijing cancelled
The Manchester derby at Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium has been called off. The International Champions Cup fixture between local rivals United and City was cancelled "due to recent weather events" in China.
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 89,158
- Points
- 113
Tottenham slip to Juve defeat
Spurs lost 2-1 to Juventus in the International Champions Cup in Australia. Paulo Dybala opened the scoring after an error from Dominic Ball and Medhi Benatia doubled the lead as Erik Lamela struck a consolation.
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 89,158
- Points
- 113
By Richard Jolly
from espnfc.com
Everton new man Steve Walsh could be the transfer coup of the season
Perhaps it was the moment when sport's number crunchers became fashionable. It was dramatised on the silver screen, with a data geek portrayed by Brad Pitt and the actor Arliss Howard looking uncannily like John W Henry as he passed him a note, containing a number: $12.5 million, a record salary for a baseball general manager.
On film, as in real life, Billy Beane spurned the offer, rejecting the Boston Red Sox to remain with baseball's Oakland A's. Fourteen years later, football's answer to Beane was headhunted himself; not by Henry and his later purchase, Liverpool, but by Merseyside's other Premier League club. It is unlikely that an actor will ever be required to play Everton majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri, let alone that one of the industry's biggest names will be Oscar-nominated for portraying Steve Walsh, the resolutely normal-looking former PE teacher who became Leicester's joint assistant manager and, now, director of football at Goodison Park.
Nevertheless, his is a significant move, perhaps the first time in Premier League history that a club's top transfer target was not a player or even a manager but someone who had never been either.
Football -- English football, in particular -- has been a battleground between the old model of the all-powerful manager and the newer breed of executives. Some of those wielding power behind the scenes, such as Damien Comolli at Liverpool and Franco Baldini at Tottenham, suffered mortal blows. Others have been part of bigger structures, their importance concealed as more famous figures took the credit for their successes. Few are actually poached themselves. Tottenham's head of recruitment Paul Mitchell, who had filled a similar role at Southampton, is one example, Walsh another.
He highlighted the notion that the backroom staff can prove the difference maker. Beane's prowess at Oakland produced a bestselling book, Moneyball, which was turned into a film and, at their peak, four consecutive play-off finishes. Walsh achieved something his baseball counterpart did not by helping make Leicester champions.
It is likely to prove an outlier, both in a Premier League that tends to be dominated by a cartel and across the sporting spectrum. Intelligent recruitment can enable clubs to overachieve, but rarely yields the major prizes to those who figure so far down the financial pecking order.
Walsh's feat was to help construct a title-winning starting 11 for just £22 million; less, Everton may note, than Romelu Lukaku alone cost them. Equally remarkably, Leicester acquired three of the six men shortlisted for the PFA Player of the Year award for a combined total of just £7 million: Jamie Vardy, named Footballer of the Year, for £1 million, Riyad Mahrez, the PFA's choice, for a mere £400,000 and the £5.6 million N'Golo Kante.
They were Beane-style triumphs of the numbers. Mahrez, who Walsh discovered when he went to watch the Algerian's Le Havre teammate Ryan Mendes, delivered 17 goals and 11 assists last season. The scout pressed Kante's case last summer by mentioning the Frenchman's name to a more sceptical Claudio Ranieri every time their paths crossed on Leicester's preseason tour. The midfielder justified his faith by topping the divisional charts for both tackles and interceptions per game.
Kante left Leicester for £32 million to join Antonio Conte's Chelsea project. Should Mahrez go, he could command an even bigger fee and secure a greater profit. Walsh offers Everton the promise he will earn his salary back many times in his dealings. It is notable that what will probably be their biggest ever transfer budget will be entrusted to one whose speciality has been making limited funds go a long way. But the parameters have changed: there is less need to scout the unknowns and, perhaps, a harder task to persuade a manager of their merits when he has proven performers as an alternative.
It is instructive, too, that Everton's only addition so far is the low-profile signing of Maarten Stekelenburg, probably destined to be the back-up goalkeeper. There has been talk of Moussa Sissoko and Axel Witsel, of Juan Mata and Tim Krul, but they have brought in the man to identify players first.
It is the right order of doing things. Nevertheless, it is significant that Everton have hired Walsh when their recent transfer dealings, while given a less flattering look by Oumar Niasse, have contained several successes such as Romelu Lukaku, Gerard Deulofeu and James McCarthy. Their new manager, Ronald Koeman, while operating in a successful system at Southampton, also had an input in fine buys like Virgil van Dijk, Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle.
There were reasons not to employ a director of football but Walsh's talent-spotting and bargain-hunting record at Leicester is sufficiently compelling that his appointment still seems a coup. It offers intrigue if he can repeat his exploits at a bigger club. Leicester punched way above their weight last season, Everton below theirs. After successive 11th-place finishes, they ought to be on an upward curve again. If turning Leicester into champions was improbable, the question is if transfer-market acumen can turn Everton, with the eighth-biggest budget in 2014-15, the last season when figures were available, can be transformed into top-four finishers courtesy of their variant of Moneyball.
from espnfc.com
Everton new man Steve Walsh could be the transfer coup of the season
Perhaps it was the moment when sport's number crunchers became fashionable. It was dramatised on the silver screen, with a data geek portrayed by Brad Pitt and the actor Arliss Howard looking uncannily like John W Henry as he passed him a note, containing a number: $12.5 million, a record salary for a baseball general manager.
On film, as in real life, Billy Beane spurned the offer, rejecting the Boston Red Sox to remain with baseball's Oakland A's. Fourteen years later, football's answer to Beane was headhunted himself; not by Henry and his later purchase, Liverpool, but by Merseyside's other Premier League club. It is unlikely that an actor will ever be required to play Everton majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri, let alone that one of the industry's biggest names will be Oscar-nominated for portraying Steve Walsh, the resolutely normal-looking former PE teacher who became Leicester's joint assistant manager and, now, director of football at Goodison Park.
Nevertheless, his is a significant move, perhaps the first time in Premier League history that a club's top transfer target was not a player or even a manager but someone who had never been either.
Football -- English football, in particular -- has been a battleground between the old model of the all-powerful manager and the newer breed of executives. Some of those wielding power behind the scenes, such as Damien Comolli at Liverpool and Franco Baldini at Tottenham, suffered mortal blows. Others have been part of bigger structures, their importance concealed as more famous figures took the credit for their successes. Few are actually poached themselves. Tottenham's head of recruitment Paul Mitchell, who had filled a similar role at Southampton, is one example, Walsh another.
He highlighted the notion that the backroom staff can prove the difference maker. Beane's prowess at Oakland produced a bestselling book, Moneyball, which was turned into a film and, at their peak, four consecutive play-off finishes. Walsh achieved something his baseball counterpart did not by helping make Leicester champions.
It is likely to prove an outlier, both in a Premier League that tends to be dominated by a cartel and across the sporting spectrum. Intelligent recruitment can enable clubs to overachieve, but rarely yields the major prizes to those who figure so far down the financial pecking order.
Walsh's feat was to help construct a title-winning starting 11 for just £22 million; less, Everton may note, than Romelu Lukaku alone cost them. Equally remarkably, Leicester acquired three of the six men shortlisted for the PFA Player of the Year award for a combined total of just £7 million: Jamie Vardy, named Footballer of the Year, for £1 million, Riyad Mahrez, the PFA's choice, for a mere £400,000 and the £5.6 million N'Golo Kante.
They were Beane-style triumphs of the numbers. Mahrez, who Walsh discovered when he went to watch the Algerian's Le Havre teammate Ryan Mendes, delivered 17 goals and 11 assists last season. The scout pressed Kante's case last summer by mentioning the Frenchman's name to a more sceptical Claudio Ranieri every time their paths crossed on Leicester's preseason tour. The midfielder justified his faith by topping the divisional charts for both tackles and interceptions per game.
Kante left Leicester for £32 million to join Antonio Conte's Chelsea project. Should Mahrez go, he could command an even bigger fee and secure a greater profit. Walsh offers Everton the promise he will earn his salary back many times in his dealings. It is notable that what will probably be their biggest ever transfer budget will be entrusted to one whose speciality has been making limited funds go a long way. But the parameters have changed: there is less need to scout the unknowns and, perhaps, a harder task to persuade a manager of their merits when he has proven performers as an alternative.
It is instructive, too, that Everton's only addition so far is the low-profile signing of Maarten Stekelenburg, probably destined to be the back-up goalkeeper. There has been talk of Moussa Sissoko and Axel Witsel, of Juan Mata and Tim Krul, but they have brought in the man to identify players first.
It is the right order of doing things. Nevertheless, it is significant that Everton have hired Walsh when their recent transfer dealings, while given a less flattering look by Oumar Niasse, have contained several successes such as Romelu Lukaku, Gerard Deulofeu and James McCarthy. Their new manager, Ronald Koeman, while operating in a successful system at Southampton, also had an input in fine buys like Virgil van Dijk, Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle.
There were reasons not to employ a director of football but Walsh's talent-spotting and bargain-hunting record at Leicester is sufficiently compelling that his appointment still seems a coup. It offers intrigue if he can repeat his exploits at a bigger club. Leicester punched way above their weight last season, Everton below theirs. After successive 11th-place finishes, they ought to be on an upward curve again. If turning Leicester into champions was improbable, the question is if transfer-market acumen can turn Everton, with the eighth-biggest budget in 2014-15, the last season when figures were available, can be transformed into top-four finishers courtesy of their variant of Moneyball.
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 89,158
- Points
- 113
Antonio Conte aiming to rebuild Chelsea from a 'very strange' situation
from espnfc.com
New Chelsea boss Antonio Conte admits he's inherited a club in a "very strange" situation as he looks to rebuild the Blues into a European force once again.
Speaking exclusively to ESPN FC's Gabriele Marcotti, the Italian tactician gave a frank assessment of Chelsea's task ahead, stressing that only hard work would return the club to the upper echelons of the Premier League.
"The situation is very strange because two years ago Chelsea won the title in England," Conte said. "And last season we finished in 10th in the table and as a result out of the Champions League, out of Europa league.
"Surely, this is not a good result for our great team like Chelsea. But I think also that now it's important to forget, to forget the past and concentrate, focus on the present.
"[We must] work really hard in the present to build a great future for us, for the club, for the players, for me, for the fans, for all the people who work in Chelsea. For me it's important to concentrate to the present and leave the past."
As he looks to reinvent the Chelsea side, Conte hinted at introducing a new series of tactics while warning that the system he used to great success at Juventus might not fit at to Stamford Bridge.
"In my mind there is an idea about what system we'll play. We are working about this idea," he said. "It's important for the coach when you arrive to understand the players and to understand every single player's strength and their weakness. It's important for me to exalt my players in their strengths and to try and cover their weakness, no?"
Likening himself to a tailor, he continued: "When you work with your player, you must prepare a good coat. It's important because I can have an idea.
"For example, at Juventus I rode with my idea to continue the 4-2-4 [with which] I won two championships with Bari and Siena. And when I arrived [at Juventus] and I saw that it was [Andrea] Pirlo and [Arturo] Vidal, I understand we can't play in this system, so I changed to 3-5-2, 3-3-4.
"It's important to understand this and also it's important to have principles of the play and then you must build, create a good team with a good idea of football."
Conte stressed that he would adjust his system to fit his players, rather than the other way around.
"I adapt my idea of football to my players, not adapt my players in my idea of football," he said. "It's important because there are others players that must play. The players are the most important things in football. I adapt my idea within my players."
Chelsea have made two signings this summer, with former Marseille frontman Michy Batshuayi joining N'Golo Kante as the new faces in Conte's squad.
The former Italy manager is keen to bring in a few more players, but said the club must wait for the "right situation" to materialise before spending more money.
"They are good signings, sure. Batshuayi is a young player but very strong," Conte said. "Last season he scored 17 goals in France. Also he played the last tournament in France, the Euro.
"He's very young, but great potential. He uses both feet, very fast; good technique and I think he's a good buy for Chelsea.
"Also, Kante was a target for Chelsea, my target, Chelsea's target. It's important that we close these operations.
"Now we are waiting for the right situation to improve our team but it's important now to work very hard to try to play an attractive football with high intensity. Now it's important to work, then in the future, we'll see."
Hard work was a feature of the sides that Conte coached to three successive Serie A titles and Conte vowed to reward those academy players that show potential with spots in the first team, as he did with Paul Pogba at Juventus.
"Yeah, it's important. Because Chelsea has a fantastic academy. There are many players with a good prospect for Chelsea," he said. "I don't know why in the past a few players have played with the first team. But I think that the academy is a great source for the manager of the first team.
"It's important, also, that the young players must show to play in the first team. But I love to play with the young players and to improve them. It's important to have good quality to improve and to show that a young player can play with the first team.
"I haven't any problem with the choice to take a young player in the starting 11. For example, [Paul] Pogba. Pogba arrived at Juventus and he was only 18 years old and after three months he played in the starting 11."
from espnfc.com
New Chelsea boss Antonio Conte admits he's inherited a club in a "very strange" situation as he looks to rebuild the Blues into a European force once again.
Speaking exclusively to ESPN FC's Gabriele Marcotti, the Italian tactician gave a frank assessment of Chelsea's task ahead, stressing that only hard work would return the club to the upper echelons of the Premier League.
"The situation is very strange because two years ago Chelsea won the title in England," Conte said. "And last season we finished in 10th in the table and as a result out of the Champions League, out of Europa league.
"Surely, this is not a good result for our great team like Chelsea. But I think also that now it's important to forget, to forget the past and concentrate, focus on the present.
"[We must] work really hard in the present to build a great future for us, for the club, for the players, for me, for the fans, for all the people who work in Chelsea. For me it's important to concentrate to the present and leave the past."
As he looks to reinvent the Chelsea side, Conte hinted at introducing a new series of tactics while warning that the system he used to great success at Juventus might not fit at to Stamford Bridge.
"In my mind there is an idea about what system we'll play. We are working about this idea," he said. "It's important for the coach when you arrive to understand the players and to understand every single player's strength and their weakness. It's important for me to exalt my players in their strengths and to try and cover their weakness, no?"
Likening himself to a tailor, he continued: "When you work with your player, you must prepare a good coat. It's important because I can have an idea.
"For example, at Juventus I rode with my idea to continue the 4-2-4 [with which] I won two championships with Bari and Siena. And when I arrived [at Juventus] and I saw that it was [Andrea] Pirlo and [Arturo] Vidal, I understand we can't play in this system, so I changed to 3-5-2, 3-3-4.
"It's important to understand this and also it's important to have principles of the play and then you must build, create a good team with a good idea of football."
Conte stressed that he would adjust his system to fit his players, rather than the other way around.
"I adapt my idea of football to my players, not adapt my players in my idea of football," he said. "It's important because there are others players that must play. The players are the most important things in football. I adapt my idea within my players."
Chelsea have made two signings this summer, with former Marseille frontman Michy Batshuayi joining N'Golo Kante as the new faces in Conte's squad.
The former Italy manager is keen to bring in a few more players, but said the club must wait for the "right situation" to materialise before spending more money.
"They are good signings, sure. Batshuayi is a young player but very strong," Conte said. "Last season he scored 17 goals in France. Also he played the last tournament in France, the Euro.
"He's very young, but great potential. He uses both feet, very fast; good technique and I think he's a good buy for Chelsea.
"Also, Kante was a target for Chelsea, my target, Chelsea's target. It's important that we close these operations.
"Now we are waiting for the right situation to improve our team but it's important now to work very hard to try to play an attractive football with high intensity. Now it's important to work, then in the future, we'll see."
Hard work was a feature of the sides that Conte coached to three successive Serie A titles and Conte vowed to reward those academy players that show potential with spots in the first team, as he did with Paul Pogba at Juventus.
"Yeah, it's important. Because Chelsea has a fantastic academy. There are many players with a good prospect for Chelsea," he said. "I don't know why in the past a few players have played with the first team. But I think that the academy is a great source for the manager of the first team.
"It's important, also, that the young players must show to play in the first team. But I love to play with the young players and to improve them. It's important to have good quality to improve and to show that a young player can play with the first team.
"I haven't any problem with the choice to take a young player in the starting 11. For example, [Paul] Pogba. Pogba arrived at Juventus and he was only 18 years old and after three months he played in the starting 11."
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 89,158
- Points
- 113
City beat Dortmund on penalties
Manchester City drew 1-1 against Dortmund in Shenzhen but won on penalties. Sergio Aguero scored before Christian Pulisic equalised in the final minute but Mikel Merino missed the key spot kick for the German side.
Similar threads
