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On August 13 2019 20:22 Greg_J wrote:
ㅋㅋ Disgrace it is!
Meanwhile Ajax are having to play a Champions League play off game tonight despite reaching the semi-finals last year. That doesn't seem fair. But fair has nothing to do with it. We talked before about how far Dutch football has fallen. It is statistics and results that put the Dutch teams in the position they are in. Hopefully Ajax can smash their way back to the Champions League again and show their worth. I didn't follow much of the off season, did Ajax lose their entire squad?
They lost some key players, but kept others, so far. Then again, the transfer window is still long. Van de Beek is wanted by Madrid, but they might not have money for him. Ajax prefer to keep him, so aren't likely to let him go at anything less than a premium (they already made plenty of bank this transfer window). Either way, we'll see how well they do without de Ligt, de Jong and Schone, though. Those were 3 carrying players last season. The defense will definitely be weaker, but they have also bought some promising players.
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Good luck to them. They brought some fire to the Champions League last year even if I don't really follow Dutch domestic football.
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts
On August 13 2019 18:37 Greg_J wrote:
Lampard said something along the lines of 'I know what the club expects of me'. What are Chelsea's expectations this year?
Qualify for the Champions league.
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Norway28875 Posts
then you should aim for third place in your CL group. 
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts
Don't need to do that either, we will be fine, its not like we played badly at all vs Yanited im still baffled we lost 4-0 and continue to berate this argument to many people. Rudiger should be ready for a start if we look bad still vs Scouse tomorrow defensively and then from then on the season is underway and we are ready to go.
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Norway28875 Posts
ya was tongue in cheek, I'm not gonna judge your season based on one game. I mean I personally think it's a bit less than 50% chance chelsea makes top 4 but you got a fair shot.
in other news Rosenborg qualified for the europa league, beating maribor 6-2 over 2 games (2x 3-1). Beat Bate Borisov in the round before. Playoff for Champions League vs Dynamo Zagreb. It's an exciting match - Zagreb is prolly a bit better than both Bate and Maribor, but Rosenborg has started looking good (after and abysmal start of the season), and I think there's a real shot we'll get the first CL participation since 2007.. Like this is arguably the best shot we've had since then, qualifying-draw wise.
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Ajax lucked past PAOK, needed 3 penalties lol. Now PAOK is not in the champions league even though they won their league without a single loss last year :X These qualifiers suck, just let the champions of big countries in pls UEFA...
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Ajax still have to beat APOEL. It's been a while now but there was that year two Cyprus sides went really far in the Champions League. That's not an easy game for Ajax either. Meanwhile Greeks will have to support Olympiacos against Krasnador (Yeah I know that's not how it works. PAOK fans will not support Olympicaos.) Krasnador knocked Porto out to get there themselves which is probably the real headline. Along with Dynamo Kyiv falling to Brugge. Actually some pretty interesting results there.
Celtic demonstrated again just how shit the Scottish league is by crashing out against a Romanian side I have never heard of.
edit: Back to Chelsea and their chances of making top 4. Better than I thought after 1 game. They showed a lot of potential and I don't think they are going to be miles behind Yanited and Arsenal.
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On August 14 2019 09:24 Greg_J wrote:
Ajax still have to beat APOEL. It's been a while now but there was that year two Cyprus sides went really far in the Champions League. That's not an easy game for Ajax either. Meanwhile Greeks will have to support Olympiacos against Krasnador (Yeah I know that's not how it works. PAOK fans will not support Olympicaos.) Krasnador knocked Porto out to get there themselves which is probably the real headline. Along with Dynamo Kyiv falling to Brugge. Actually some pretty interesting results there.
Celtic demonstrated again just how shit the Scottish league is by crashing out against a Romanian side I have never heard of.
edit: Back to Chelsea and their chances of making top 4. Better than I thought after 1 game. They showed a lot of potential and I don't think they are going to be miles behind Yanited and Arsenal.
thats funny because most people dont even include united in their top 4 predictions.
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On August 14 2019 08:47 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote:
Ajax lucked past PAOK, needed 3 penalties lol. Now PAOK is not in the champions league even though they won their league without a single loss last year :X These qualifiers suck, just let the champions of big countries in pls UEFA...
Had some lucky goals the first game too. Our defense isn't looking very solid at all...
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PSG asks for Coutinho + Semedo +€120m, Barça offered Coutinho + Rakitic +€80m. Huge amounts considering that PSG need to sell. Neymar wants to leave as he's had 2 poor seasons and he is 2 years older than when PSG paid €222m for him. [@efabascalUK]
I would love to know how the Barca accounting office is going to make this work. Considering they are now over half a billion dollars in debt.
Paris Saint-Germain are unhappy with the way their first direct meeting with Barcelona went on Tuesday regarding the potential return of Neymar to Camp Nou, sources have told ESPN FC.
Despite numerous exchanges over the valuations of multiple players, there was no breakthrough, although the French champions have made clear to their Catalan counterparts what they will and will not accept.
As revealed by ESPN FC sources, negotiations over a cash-with-a-player exchange started in Paris this week with Philippe Coutinho and Ivan Rakitic the players Barca were keen to include in any potential deal.
However, PSG told the La Liga giants during this meeting that they want Coutinho, Nelson Semedo and €120 million in exchange for Neymar, while Barca's best offer so far is Coutinho, Rakitic and €80 million.
ESPN FC sources added that no major advances were made during the meeting, which the Blaugrana are viewing as the first contact between the two clubs as negotiations step up.
There will be another meeting between the pair on Thursday during UEFA's European Club Association gathering, which the Ligue 1 outfit's chairman and CEO Nasser Al-Khelaifi will be present for -- as will Barca counterpart Josep Maria Bartomeu.
The occasion, say ESPN FC sources, will give Real Madrid president Florentino Perez the opportunity to start negotiations with PSG as the Spaniard will also be present and maintains a great relationship with Al-Khelaifi.
Neymar and his father were in Portugal on Tuesday and both are now very confident that the Brazil international will be returning to Barca before the end of this summer's transfer window.
Meanwhile, ESPN FC sources indicated that Barca want a public gesture -- possibly via social media -- from Neymar to prove his commitment to the potential move.
Source
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I'm feeling vertiginous amounts of schadenfreude this week as a Benfica fan with Porto's elimination from the CL. Fun facts:
- Porto were counting on 60M of UEFA revenue, which now means they'll now have to desperately sell a bunch of players;
- Porto being eliminated directly means Benfica gets to go in pot 2 instead of 3;
- Benfica gets around 5M (tough estimate) more revenue from not having to share marketpool and going up 1 place in the UEFA revenue distribution system.
- Their house is on fire and we play them at home in 10 days.
That being said, one should never underestimate a man who scored a hat trick against Germany.
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Chelsea up 3-0 would be a completely fair score at this point, Liverpool is lucky that chelsea chance conversion is almost nonexistant, very unconvincing performance
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Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts
Ok if Kante leaves Chelsea the club is no more. The guy is an absolute beast. Strolling around this midfield winning balls back and taking people on like mad. Much better performance from us at the moment even if it is a changed Liverpool side i do like what we are doing.
Just look at this
+ Show Spoiler [Kante God] +
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everyone loves Kante, its also funny as how is the most un-chelsea player the club ever had
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Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts
This game so back and forth haha!
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Poor Tammy Abraham.
Great game, yeah
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On August 15 2019 04:15 warding wrote:
I'm feeling vertiginous amounts of schadenfreude this week as a Benfica fan with Porto's elimination from the CL. Fun facts:
- Porto were counting on 60M of UEFA revenue, which now means they'll now have to desperately sell a bunch of players;
- Porto being eliminated directly means Benfica gets to go in pot 2 instead of 3;
- Benfica gets around 5M (tough estimate) more revenue from not having to share marketpool and going up 1 place in the UEFA revenue distribution system.
- Their house is on fire and we play them at home in 10 days.
That being said, one should never underestimate a man who scored a hat trick against Germany.
Fear not, this year we end up behind Sporting and that says much about the expectations we have. I reckon this will probably be one of the easiest years for Benfica. Porto played 3 disgraceful games so far and no expectations of improvement, Sporting is errr the usual and Braga has Sá Pinto as coach so it will be less of a threat than usual.
We do not need to go on a selling spree now but if there is no guaranteed CL next year, most player will have to go yes.
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EPT
