the_eristic

Yeah the scouting team have been playing Football Manager Sadly, most of our signings pretty much sucked in FM until after we signed them, so I hope they weren't using it! ;^)

Ref Cam was introduced at MLS All-Star game vs Roma. Wish to god some such would become standard so we could at least try to figure out what fecking game the ref is watching! http://youtu.be/w8g6rAmHtAk

Stop passing it to the other team, jesus!

yeah I was wondering if it would be worth switching gabby and andi and having gabby out strengthen him but we probably want gabby running at ivanovic Imo, it'd be better having Cole's threat partially mitigated by his having to worry about Gabby getting in behind.

Can we please play the ball to OUR players?

I believe the NBC commentators mentioned it at some point after his goal, as well.

5m? Hell no. They're just banking on our scouts having found another Benteke and are trying to get in on the action before his value skyrockets.

That says 1,94 and 1 in = 2.54 cm, 194/2.54 comes out just shy of 76.4 inches, which would be 6' 4.4". So, nearly halfway between 6'4" and 6'5". The OS mentions 6'4" at the bottom of his bio, though the OS STILL says Weimann is 6'2", so who really knows!

He should be 20-21 now and was already quite tall several years ago when we picked him up, 6'4"-6'5", so he may be a bit taller now. He has seemed to drop off the map a little for whatever reason. Think he's kinda stuck in limbo, as some of our other young keepers went out on loan while he was being tipped for first team's 3rd choice, but Andy Marshall was brought in which scuppered that and now Steer. I would imagine Jed will get most of the reserve games since Given is essentially out of the picture, but Siegrist is possibly too old for the youth sides (?), so maybe that 3rd spot will finally be open to him.

Weimann made the great pass through to Luna for his goal.

We still really need a dedicated DM and AM, imo. The trio today had a lot of hustle and bite but neither offered real protection to the defense (though they're looking quite good at the Gilberto Silva "niggly foul to break up attacks in the center circle" technique) nor used the ball very intelligently in attack. Virtually everything came through our strikers.

Here's the tackle for the second: Working on finding the first.

Clllllllarrrk???!?!?!?!

Welp.

I still think the most fitting ending would be If it's a "good vs bad" showdown or an "Oh God, what have I done?" thing (or any sort of morality play, for that matter), I'll be disgusted.

Being a massive cheapass, "Unused Substitute Fee" is going to scupper sooooooooo many deals for me. I do love the loan back option, though, as I pretty routinely buy young players and either set the transfer date to end of their current club's season or immediately start spamming them out for loan. I'd love it if I could sign a 17yo who is starting regularly at Ajax and let him continue there for a year or three longer. On that note, I would like to see a squad status requirement be part of the loan process when offering players around, to essentially rule out clubs just looking for cheap backup.

Would that job be eating the left over half time pies? Huddlestone is actually quite a good player, lots of presence (perhaps from the pie consumption), a hell of a shot and fantastic passing range, just rarely fit enough to play a whole season, it would seem.

Maybe a more affordable alternative to the Wijnaldum link. Not sure he'd be as successful in this league, though, and still not the passing #10 I think we really need, but at that price, it's almost a no-brainer.

You do have to coach a whole team, though.

Call me old fashioned but I prefer centre backs to be strong,good in the air,good positionaly and strong in the tackle. Yes Vlaar can play out of the back but in all the areas I mentioned he is rather poor especially his positional sense and in the air. Infact he is atrcious in the air. Maybe a bit too harsh but he needs to improve his ability to deal with crosses coming into our box. It is no coincidence our record on conceding from set pieces but as many have said that part of his game might improve this season when he has a better CB beside him? We've been unmitigated rubbish at defending set pieces for ages, well before Vlaar was brought in. It has to be something in the coaching (or lack thereof).

With the attacking options they're bringing in, might Sigurdsson be available? There have been a few rumours about him being unsettled, clubs having bid for him and so on.

If you carry the 1, you get Jesper Gronkjaer.

Let's leave the fiction in the Film thread... I know there's no chance, the idea is to hurl out whatever mad thing comes to mind because it's twitter bollocks. Rationalization optional. For example: twit implies it's a signing that would be viewed as important, that has some degree of notability. Kiyotake, while notable on here due to his thread about JulieB, probably wouldn't be one to catch the average non-VT eye, meaning we have to think a bit bigger. We know the policy is to sign young players with potential, so index all promising "big" names under ~23. We know we won't be offering huge wages, so exclude players at big $$$ clubs. We know we'd need to have some draw, most likely the quality of the league and PL's "project", so probably can exclude the better German, Spanish, Italian clubs. It's Villa, so exclude Brazil in its entirety. Now we start looking for dodgy ways to make positive connections. The national buddies line of reasoning is very helpful here. We have, for instance, Benteke, who is Belgian. However, many of the Belgian "names" are already at bigger clubs and/or would demand a larger fee than most believe we'd pay, so perhaps unlikely. We have, however, brought in two well-regarded Danish prospects this window. Hmmmm, yes, yes, it quickly becomes obvious, plain as day. Who is under 23, is widely considered to have great potential and would be viewed as a major buy for us, plays in a league with less prestige, would be on lowish wages, isn't Brazilian and is, in fact, Danish? Voilà, Christian Eriksen.