The silly season is certainly an exciting time for all. The promise of a new season with new players and new title challenges cloud all football fans’ imaginations. It’s a lot like christmas. However, the inevitable question is, are you from a poor family or a rich family? Are you going to get the new iPad and the Rolex from that mall with some quality stores (Nasri and Clichy) or is a pair of Khakis from Marshall’s all you’re going to muster (David Jones)?
But that’s all trivial and besides the point, it’s all about the fans.
Here are some chain reaction transfers to look forward to this week:
The first round of the Premier League is under our collective belts. It was interesting, shall we say. We had a fight, if Joey Barton wants to call it that, a couple of beat downs courtesy of Manchester City and Bolton (?!), and some painfully boring play from the usual suspects, notably Stoke City, Chelsea, and any team coached by Alex McLeish.
Though this first round of games may not be the best indicators of the upcoming season, with domestic and European cup competitions set to throw a few wrenches into most team’s plans, they do give us a glimpse at the set squads and how they need to be tweaked, or in some cases revamped, in order to hold up for the season. Lucky for us, there are still two weeks left in the transfer window! Hooray! Who’s ready to spend? Arsene? Andre? Steve??
It’s looks like Robbie Keane is set to join the LA Galaxy on what sources say is a loan deal from Tottenham… damn it.
I wanted Keano.
Seriously, I was going to title this post “Kea-NOOOOOOO!” but I figured that would be overkill. I guess I’ll just have to accept that he won’t be coming to New England anytime soon, unless it’s in a Galaxy kit. Admitedly, it didn’t make sense for him to move to the Revs. His Irish roots probably wouldn’t have been a big hit in a city like Boston, whose resident Basketball team is called the Celtics, and whose favored hair color is red.
Many things repeat themselves – history, Woody Allen stuttering, and that 30 second MPEG clip you have set to loop. You know exactly which one I’m talking about. Nothing’s worse, however, than a re-run of the same, boring show. Well in the case of football, if you remember your recent history and have been watching the transfer market closely, you should be doubly pissed that the new season hasn’t started.
It’s been a busy summer already in the North-East of England. There’s been a lot going on at Newcastle with the acquisition of Demba Ba from West Ham and the surprising snag of Sylvain Marveaux from Rennes on a free transfer. Although Toon has certainly been active it’s their red rivals who have really worked the market to their advantage. Red stripes, not black, look set to mark the biggest club in the region.
Enter yet another spectacular row stemming from a footballer on Twitter. Jose Enrique, who is still under contract at Newcastle United, thought it would be a good idea to berate his club’s transfer policy. Needless to say, manager Alan Pardew wasn’t thrilled.
But this isn’t Ryan Babel we are talking about here. J.E. wasn’t whining.
This may have been the best thing he could have done. Newcastle have been on a negative tear over the past few years, selling top-level talent and not replacing them with adequate cover. Owner Mike Ashley has overseen a slew of talent leave the club during J.E.’s time at St. James Park. Shay Given, James Milner, Andy Carroll, Charles N’Zogbia and Kevin Nolan are just some of those names. Newcastle, who used to be a “big club” have turned out to be sellers, and if the trend continues, the club won’t compete for a top six spot, just like Enrique said.
Pardew can be as mad as he wants, but in reality, he is just towing the party line. If the club is near the basement by December, he will be out quicker than Chris Hughton was.
J.E. is probably on his way out. Public comments in these situations aren’t typically popular with the top brass. His quote thanking the fans for their support screams that he knows his time is up.
Morale is understandably low. The club did just lose to Orlando City. That’s probably not how they want to enter the new Premiership campaign.
It’s official. Luka Modric has submitted his transfer request to Tottenham and it looks like he could be on his way to Chelski. Although Harry Redknapp has reportedly told Modric and his chicken scratch request to f*** off, much like he has in the past, it seems the Croatians move is inevitable at this point.
Baffled by the club’s resistance to his desired transfer, Modric decided to take the next step in forcing through his move to the West London club, assumedly during the plane trip to the team’s preseason tour in South Africa. On a crumpled piece of lined paper torn out of a spiral bound notebook, Modric scribbled down his reasons for leaving, bit the eraser off his pencil, and stamped to the front of the plane to submit his official request to Redknapp:
“We know you want to leave Luka,” said Redknapp, “Writing it down on a piece of paper doesn’t make much difference to our stance. Go back to your seat, we’ll discuss this later.”
“No like sitting next to Ledley King,” replied Modric, “He smell like hot mayonnaise.”
“That’s not mayonnaise, Luka. It’s shmegma. You should smell mine…Um, go away Luka. Why don’t you go have another Balkan thumb war with Corluka?”
“Ok.”
Tottenham have already turned down a bid of £25 million from Chelsea. They’re asking for £30 million for their star midfielder.
Mufasa Who? That’s the sentiment of many across the MLS community in the wake of Vancouver’s announcement* that the Gambian International is the club’s second DP acquisition. He arrives from Belgian outfit, Mons, whom he helped win promotion to the Belgian Top Flight last season by netting 18 league goals. Yes, he was playing in Belgium’s Second Tier, and now he’s an MLS DP. That alone has led to some early criticism of the move.
Still, some were quick to point out that Vancouver’s first DP signing, Eric Hassli, was an unknown name that made people scratch their heads, and now he’s pulling off this kind of shit:
Here’s what the Twittersphere has to say about the development:
@SoccerByIves:
Jarju might seem like a bit of an underwhelming DP signing, but then again so did Eric Hassli and he’s done pretty well for Vancouver.
@soccerreform
Wonder what it will do to team chemistry when 24 year old D2 player is making 10x more than average player.
@churchofsoccer
I like seeing younger DP signings. And one day MLS will attract players w/updated Wikipedia pages. http://bit.ly/rcXWz8
@Lord_Bob
I’m confused by the Mustapha signing. You mean designated players don’t have to be washed-up attitude cases? They can be talented young men?
And our take (@thethirdkit)
Somewhere in Vancouver, someone ought to be blasting Queen’s “Mustapha” out their apartment windows. #mls#whitecapsFC
This move is encouraging, and a bit discouraging at the same time. It shows that MLS teams are digging deep to find talent, and young talent at that. Still, it’s not a good omen that a lad from the Belgian 2nd Division is good enough to make mega money in America’s top league. Ives Galarcep (@SoccerByIves) makes a good point with his comparison to Eric Hassli, however, D2 in Beligium can’t compare to the Swiss top-flight where Hassli made his name. Or can it? According to UEFA’s Country Coefficients, Belgium is 13th, while Switzerland is 16th.
It is important to note Jarju played in the Belgian Top Flight in 2006-2007 for Lierse, the year the club was relegated, and also with Mons in 2008 when they were relegated. It’s a bit of a mixed bag with this guy. On one hand, he’s young, he’s coming off a season in which he’s scored a ton of goals, and most importantly he’s spurned the chance to play in a solid european top flight to come to the MLS. Still, his lack of quality first division play and the fact that he’s coming in as a DP from an unknown league makes him a questionable signing. Is this a good move for the league? Time will have to be the judge.
* We were totally wrong with our predictions, but we did include that last bit about him being the captain of Guniea-Bissau/The Gambia/Burkina Faso so we kind of got it right. Jarju captained Gambia’s U-17 and U-20 teams. He’s also a stand in captain for the senior team. Just some factoids for you the chew on.
Nigerian journalist Colin Udoh dropped a bomb on twitter yesterday when he said Vancouver will be acquiring the first African DP in MLS history. At 9AM, the club will be announcing the name of the new signing, but Mr. Udoh knew this would be way more fun with hints. Here’s what he had to say:
African DP press conference is 9am 2moro on Western Conference. Captains his national team
Re the player, captained his country at U17 level, scored 20 goals in all competitions in Europe last season. Not a well-known name
When asked if he’s a forward:
Yes. Forward
When asked if it’s Vancouver that will acquire the player:
Yes, it is
On asked what part of Africa he hails from:
West Africa
That narrows it down a bit, but it’s still a bit cryptic Mr. Udoh. At least he’s added some fuel to the fire to make it Christmas Eve for us all over again. I feel like a little kid shaking the box, trying to guess the surprise that awaits. Hopefully it’s one of those awesome presents that makes you poop a little. (Don’t lie guys, we’ve all done it.) However, it would really suck if we opened this bad boy and all it turned out to be was a 32-year-old Benjani or something. Luckily for us, his home of Zimbabwe isn’t in West Africa. Here are some people that kind of fit the description that Udoh has laid out:
In what could end up being the signing of the summer, Real Madrid have announced that Zinedine Zidane will take over Jorge Valdano’s post at the capitol club as Director of Football. Much like his role on the field during his playing days linking midfield and attack, Zizou will be tasked with being the connection between the Special One and the Real front office. Sources that don’t exist say that the transfer fee was minimal since the Real HR department only had to change Zidane’s email from zquared@perezrighthandman.es to zquared@DofF.es.
All joking aside, however, it’s incredibly powerful for Real Madrid to have a guy of that stature in a position that is so crucial in recruiting players. If you consider the main targets for a club like Real, they were all between 7-10 years of age when Zizou started to elevate himself to GOAT status during the 1998 World Cup. These dudes all worshiped him in their youth. Arsene Wenger may be a popular cat among French players, but if Zinedine Zidane shows up to recruit some star struck French teenager who is the next big blue chip, more than likely of North African descent, there is no question where that kid ends up playing. Zizou, the Special One’s ace in the hole.
