Update for 7/11. Looks like Bastian Schweinsteiger will be going to Manchester United. Hell of a pick up, if this gets across the finish line. Not a bad backup for Michael Carrick. LOL I'm surprised that United haven't gotten more done, like Liverpool has done. I guess people are using United a bit. I hear that Real Madrid are edging closer to 30M for DeGea, which is nearly at United's 35M asking price.
I don't know whether that makes Sergio Ramos to United any more or less likely, to be honest. There has been a lot of character assassination out of Real Madrid's mouthpieces. That makes it awfully hard to go back, although this isn't nearly at the level of a situation like Raheem Sterling. My God, what a circus that has become.
Sterling to City at 40M + add on's up to 44M would be a Godsend to Liverpool right now. I agree with Craig Burley, just be rid of him. You don't want him around your team. This kid better be on great behavior at City if he doesn't play a lot or his career at big clubs will be over before it began. It's not like he's THAT good, for all he is going to end up costing. What did he have, six or seven goals last season as Liverpool's featured offensive threat? He wouldn't start at Chelsea, I can tell you that.
Speaking of Liverpool, Christian Benteke is more of a hold-up guy that a "run behind" kind of striker. If that's who Rogers signs, I think it will be a mistake. Not that Benteke lacks quality; he has good feet and makes a nice pass. It's just that Rogers showed no signs of getting anything at all out of 2 of those kind of strikers last year in Ricky Lambert and Mario Balotelli. They were never featured in the offense. Sturridge makes those runs in behind. So did Suarez, of course. And so does Lacazette, who would be a far better fit than Benteke for what Rogers is doing. We'll see if they make the right choice.
If Chelsea is too dumb to use Loic Remy and let's him get away, and then they wind up signing Lacazette as his replacement, I will double face-palm. It's trading like-for-like. Just give Remy a fair chance and he'll give you double digit goals this year. He can come in from the wing, he makes runs behind, he has a poachers' instinct and he chases on defense.
Atletico Madrid has done some nice work so far, gotten noticeably younger. They will be very good again if they can hold on to Griezmann and Koke.
Crystal Palace did well signing Yohann Cabaye from PSG and keeping Scott Dann, their player of the year last year. If they can get Charlie Austin and a solid central defender (they are chasing Ashley Williams), they will have a very entertaining mid-table club that might qualify for Europe, and would be my pick for a fast start to the season. They've already got a lot of supporting talent, and just need a few stars (relatively speaking ...) to really solidify themselves and not be at risk of relegation again.
I am not happy about Barcelona being able to do these "pre-deals" during their supposed transfer ban. Makes a mockery of the penalty. That's not just sour grapes about Arda Turan (I would prefer Koke anyway). It's terrible for the sport and any notions of FFP being fairly enforced.
Liverpool has done a ton of business. They have bought better than last year, but for all the guys they have added, they have again added a lot of squad players again, in my opinion, and not enough elite level players. Although I suppose they are doing the best they can to attract talent, they still have a couple obvious holes in their squad - at central defender, holding midfielder and striker. They still need one of each and their rebuild will be complete (again).
Arsenal looked like they were going to get beaten to Morgan Schneiderlin by United, but then Schweinie just happened. Will they try to add Schneiderlin, too, for the most Kraut-sounding holding midfield in Europe? Eh, not at the price Southampton will want for him (30M+) - for 20-25M, sure, but it's certainly not as urgent anymore. United would much rather add Sergio Ramos (it's been very, very quiet about him and DeGea for the past week) and Thomas Muller (80M offer, wow!). I think it would be a very bad move for Pep to get rid of Muller, and can only imagine him doing it because Pep needs to retake control of his dressing room. They quit on him last year. He needs to move out some guys. I wonder if their board will let him. I don't think he'll be around that long, and they see Muller as their future face of the franchise, now that Schweinie is gone.
So, Arsenal were moving on to William Carvalho of Sporting Lisbon, who has been offered around (or talked up) for a couple years now. When I saw him in a recent European Championship qualifier, he struck me as chunky and over-weight He has bulked up and looks more like a centerback now than a holding midfielder. His distribution was not that great looking forward, but he has undeniable athleticism and can certainly break up attacking play better than anybody currently on their roster. But he seems like he was a better prospect, and was faster, a couple years ago.
So, now maybe Arsenal avoid that mistake and fall into Morgan Schneiderlin. They dallied on Carvalho and now Real Madrid have surfaced, so the opportunity to sign Carvalho has probably passed for Arsenal. They're not going to out-bid Madrid, and the player probably prefers Madrid anyway. I was hearing that Schneiderlin had better getting close for Arsenal before United swooped in - now maybe it's back on for Arsenal to get Schneiderlin, which would be a great, great piece of business for them. I would place them one central defender and Karim Benzema (they made a very healthy 43M offer for him) away from really, really serious contention. Plus I saw that they hired a new physical director, too. So maybe the annual Arsenal injury curse goes away this year. Keep an eye out for that. It may turn out to be their biggest signing of the summer. They got the guy from Joachim Low's Germany staff.
Everything's been quiet for Chelsea. They have been working at placing their kids in jobs for next year, and seem to be putting more of them in the Premier League and in Germany, once they qualify for their English permits by spending a year at Vitesse, before moving on. I'm hopeful that more and more of the young Chelsea players get closer to first team level of quality. Mourinho made the point in an interview the other day that it takes a long term commitment to the Coach to make the Coach comfortable and secure enough to blood young academy players. He said, in the past 10 years, that hasn't been possible at Chelsea. But now, hopefully it is. Mourinho is being smart about trying to be there for the long haul. He said after they won the title last May, "We aren't going to do this every single year. Nobody could do that in such a touch league. If we are 1st or 2nd every year, and we win every other year, I think most people would be very happy to have that for the next 1o years." So, if Roman gives him enough rope and really wants him to break in more young players from their academy, he has to cut Jose some slack. I think this year's focus is Premier League and Champions League, and they will sacrifice the domestic cups a bit this year to play younger players. That's my sense of things.
