Soccer Aid 2014!

Soccer Aid 2014 takes place on Sunday at Old Trafford, with Jose Mourinho back in the dugout taking charge of a Rest of the World side as they take on England in a charity match managed by Sam Alladyce.

All proceeds raised on the night will go to UNICEF.

Both teams will be made up of football legends and celebrities, with former Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko part of Mourinho's squad.

Other players involved in the Rest of the World team include Alessandro Del Piero, Edgar Davids and Clarence Seedorf.

Meanwhile, David Seaman, Matt Le Tissier and Teddy Sheringham are just three of the players who will be lining up for an England side managed by West Ham United's Sam Allardyce.

Celebrities involved on the night include Robbie Williams, Jack Whitehall, Olly Murs, Michael Sheen and Gordon Ramsay.

Kick-off is at 19:00 GMT (+00:00) Sunday 8th June 2014

Tazza

Korea (South)1678 Posts

June 06 2014 13:51 GMT

#17569

the whole thiago, fabregas situation for barca just reeks of bad planning and management. The first problem was buying fabregas. Barca had a good thing going with the trio of xavi, iniesta, and thiago splitting up minutes with xavi still in his prime. They could have eased thiago into being the replacement for xavi in the long run and given him fabregas' minutes(and fabregas has played some of the most minutes for barca the past few seasons) the past few seasons. But no, they had to bring the "home boy" back and it basically messed everything up. To top it all off, fabregas was never really groomed to be xavi's replacement and because xavi didn't want to be relegated to a bench role, fabregas often played on the left, as a false nine, and as a super sub.

Now, thiago has already been sold, and fabregas looks to be sold. They also still have the problem of replacing xavi, and are looking at having to spend a huge sum of money on doing so because they don't trust anyone else from their youth system like sergi roberto. Buying koke would be great, but incredibly hard, and i don't think rakitic will fit into barca's system well.

RvB

Netherlands6322 Posts

June 06 2014 17:09 GMT

#17570

Barça's whole transfer policy has been a disaster for a while now. I still don't get why they bought Affeley for example he wasn't even good enough for the bench.

sharkie

Austria18750 Posts

June 06 2014 17:17 GMT

#17571

Barcas transfer policy has been the worst in the whole of Europe. Real spend as much as them but they actually improve with their signings. Barca spend shitload of money for nothing.

best examples are ibra and neymar

Micro_Jackson

Germany2002 Posts

June 06 2014 17:49 GMT

#17572

I think people forget that the dominating barca squad of the Guardiola wasnt very deep. Besides Keita and Krkic there were not much rotation.

Besides clubs like PSG or Chelsea who are just playing in the sandbox mode of Football manager the trend on the transfer market goes into either make your first 11 as good as possible with limited money and hope they stay healthy like Dortmund or Atletico or to go super deep like Real or Bayern. If you look at the last two teams they have like 3 or 4 guys at a high level for every position and already people for the times after Ribery/Robben or Ronaldo/Alonso.

Barca on the other hand tends to sell players if someone else comes for the same part of the field
Ibrahimovic comes Eto goes
Villa for Ibrahimovic
Cesc for Krkic
Neymar for Villa

I would guess this happens on purpose to keep roster space for the own youth players but it can backfire if there are some years without breakout players.

Mensol

14536 Posts

June 06 2014 17:51 GMT

#17573

Neymar is a good example but Ibra's money wasnt spend for nothing.

He scored 21 goals and 10 assists in 41 games in his "first season".

He improved Barca without doubt. It's just top 2 players playing together didnt work for them, clash of the egos.

Tazza

Korea (South)1678 Posts

June 06 2014 18:11 GMT

#17574

On June 07 2014 02:51 Mensol wrote:
Neymar is a good example but Ibra's money wasnt spend for nothing.

He scored 21 goals and 10 assists in 41 games in his "first season".

He improved Barca without doubt. It's just top 2 players playing together didnt work for them, clash of the egos.

Might not be for "nothing" but u have to admit, it was an awful deal. They gave up like 40 mil plus an in-prime eto'o for basically half a season of ibra. Barca only received 20 or 25 million from ac milan when they sold him. They basically paid like 45 mil for that half season with ibra.

Another stupid deal because good management would have at least figured out that messi wanted to play centrally the season before and maybe buy a cheaper striker or keep eto'o ffs instead of spending so much on someone that would clash with messi.

sharkie

Austria18750 Posts

June 06 2014 18:13 GMT

#17575

Barca lost money with the deal and Inter Milan won a CL.

Mensol

14536 Posts

June 06 2014 18:26 GMT

#17576

On June 07 2014 03:13 sharkie wrote:

Show nested quote +

Barca lost money with the deal and Inter Milan won a CL.

Everyone loses money. Real Madrid has spent over $1 billion since 2002 and they've just won champions league.

btw Ibrahimovic created his best Serie A roster of all time:

[image loading]

WillyWanker

France1915 Posts

June 06 2014 18:26 GMT

#17577

Pep wanted Villa that season, but Valencia didn't want to sell, so they had to buy someone else, and they got Ibra. Inter won the CL, but Barça still came really close from winning that CL...
Neymar was by far the worst deal Barça made these last years... 100M+ and a type of player that doesn't fit in Barça's playstyle (because there's already Messi).

Cesc could have been good if Pep stayed in the club, as it seemed he had a real plan to integrate him in the starting line up, playing 3-3-4 or 3-4-3. Tito and Martino just played him in the attacking line or instead of Iniesta, which didn't work so well....

sharkie

Austria18750 Posts

June 06 2014 18:27 GMT

#17578

No Zidane in the best Serie A roster of all time? Sorry but this is a fake!

Tazza

Korea (South)1678 Posts

June 06 2014 18:29 GMT

#17579

I think the rakitic deal, if they do get him, will be another disaster and basically end the barca style of playing. It's not that rakitic is a bad player, its that i don't think he will be able to fit into the system. Seriously, when was the last time someone not from la masia was a starter for the barca midfield trio? Even fabregas, who was schooled on the system until he was 16, talked about how difficult the tactical system was and is on his way out now.

jesus, i remember before barca got the fabregas deal done, i thought they'd have like another 10 years of dominating because of the ridiculous talent from their youth system. Their midfield looked basically set with xavi, iniesta, thiago, and had sergi roberto and rafinha coming through the ranks. They had wingers like tello and isaac cuenca actually looked promising then. Montoya looked like a pretty good right back. All they needed to do was buy a fucking centerback. But no, they end up blowing money on players they don't need.

maybe those youth players weren't as talented as guardiola made them seem to be, but still, their transfer policy and overall long term planning has been shit

Tazza

Korea (South)1678 Posts

June 06 2014 18:33 GMT

#17580

On June 07 2014 03:26 Mensol wrote:

Show nested quote +

Everyone loses money. Real Madrid has spent over $1 billion since 2002 and they've just won champions league.

btw Ibrahimovic created his best Serie A roster of all time:

[image loading]

You might end up losing money, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to be smarter with it