English Premier League EPL Thread

thecorsair said:

Luke Shaw is finding out how demanding Louis van Gaal is,
https://www1.skysports.com/football...gh-says-manchester-united-boss-louis-van-gaal

Several of the websites for English tabloids are now claiming Arturo Vidal has verbally agreed to a move to Old Trafford even though Juventus are still insisting he's not going anywhere

Click to expand...

thecorsair said:

Better news for Blackpool, they now have 12 players registered

Click to expand...

greygoose said:

Southampton are in self destruct mode. Tough season for them next year.

Click to expand...

The Tuggernaut said:

Good, it shows he won't accept anything less than the highest standards. Sends the right message to other players, as well.

I think it was reported by El Mercurio (Chilean paper) that his agent will meet with Juve today to tell them he wants to join United. ********, I'll believe it when I see it.







Yep, gonna be tough for them. Hopefully they stay up, I enjoyed watching them last season.

Click to expand...

greygoose said:

How is Cleverly still at Utd? He's not even mid table standard.

Click to expand...

7166charlie said:

So I just found this thread here and as a huge footy fan as well as hot toys and comic book films thought I would say hi as a massive arsenal fan! What are people's predictions for this season in regards to top 4 and bottom 3 I am going with in no order top 4

Arsenal
Man City
Chelsea
Man Utd

Bottom 3
Burnley
WBA
Swansea

And I think Southampton will struggle and with Liverpooli just think Suarez will be a huge loss

Click to expand...

7166charlie said:

So I just found this thread here and as a huge footy fan as well as hot toys and comic book films thought I would say hi as a massive arsenal fan! What are people's predictions for this season in regards to top 4 and bottom 3 I am going with in no order top 4

Arsenal
Man City
Chelsea
Man Utd

Bottom 3
Burnley
WBA
Swansea

And I think Southampton will struggle and with Liverpooli just think Suarez will be a huge loss

Click to expand...

thecorsair said:

No slacking under van Gaal....potentially bad news for Rooney

To his credit Shaw has reacted positively to the situation,
https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...anchester-united-pre-season-tour-luke-7530961

Louis van Gaal has a go at an official during the Inter game,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NbyWnPqDTI

Some slick passing from the same game,
https://vine.co/v/MEqljK6IbLQ

Last season match officials got an easier time as Moyes wouldn't say boo to a goose. LvG will make that a thing of the past as he's got the same tendency to go off on one as Fergie

That passing move contained more positivity than the entire Moyes era. If that's how he's got United playing after a handful of training sessions and 3 full games it could be bad news for fans of teams who were hoping the decline was terminal.

Southampton are gonna have a lot of money, but with Schneiderlin now wanting out as well their team from last year has been gutted. Ronald Koeman is in for a tough season.

Click to expand...

The Tuggernaut said:

I think those clubs will be in the top 4, although their positions might be different. At the moment, here's how I think it will play out:

Chelsea
City
Arsenal
United

I think Liverpool will be up there as well, and in reality, will probably finish above United.





Love the anger. Even though it's just a friendly, it's good to see some passion.

And a nice passing move, hopefully we'll be seeing plenty more of that. It's certainly positive considering the short space of time he's been there.

Click to expand...

thecorsair said:

Passion and anger is good, sitting on the bench with a face like someone who's dog has just been run over is not.

That kind of passing is very acceptable, beats trying to break the world record for the number of aimless crosses every week

Mixed news today,

The Glazers are selling some more of their shares which will make them an estimated £89 million, none of which will be put back into the club....bloody parasites.

It's also emerged that a second season without the Champions League will mean the money they get from the Adidas deal will reduce by 30%. It'd still be over £50 million a year, which isn't to be sniffed at, but obviously the priority is to get back into the top 4 straight away.

Which might be doable with a few more signings, but they don't appear to be happening.

There's better news however as Napoli have declared their intrest in Fellaini

Click to expand...

greygoose said:

The League will be between Chelsea & City next season. If Arsenal can keep their players fit then I expect them to be right up there too. I can see Liverpool & Utd battling for fourth.

Click to expand...

The Tuggernaut said:

The Fellaini news is great!

And this is some news that may (potentially) be great: https://metro.co.uk/2014/07/31/artu...-manchester-united-ahead-of-transfer-4816232/

I've seen this being reported by a couple of places including an Italian paper. There seems to have been an influx of Vidal news in the past few days. Whether this actually means anything... well, we'll see. The BS is strong this time of year, but my optimism for the signing of Vidal has risen from 1% to 5%.



I think if Arsenal can add a few players as well, they'll certainly be up there challenging again. But yeah, I think it's between Chelsea and City this season.

Click to expand...

thecorsair said:

They've apparently offered Fellaini's fellow Belgian international Dries Mertens as a straight swap.

Given that LvG's system uses wing backs as opposed to traditional wingers Mertens might not get a regular place but he looked decent during the World Cup and if bringing him in got Fellaini's useless arse out the door then it'd have to be worth it.

If Mertens is even half decent at crossing the ball he'll be better than Young, Nani and Valencia as well

The cynic in me says Vidal's agent has been spreading more BS to the media, the optimist says maybe there's a chance of something happening if there's been a genuine increased offer....money usually talks and after his recent outburst Woodward is under massive pressure to deliver.

Click to expand...

EDIT
Big Brother has arrived at Man Utd,
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...onitor-manchester-united-players-9641169.html

Among the things expected to show up on the CCTV,

A pig flying in the sky when Valencia finally stops crossing the ball at the legs of the nearest defender.

The rest of the squad fainting in shock when Cleverley makes a forward pass.

An awkward moment when David Moyes pops in to say "Hi".

Rooney stealing hubcaps in the car park.

Click to expand...

The Tuggernaut said:

I'd take Mertens. Not a wing back by any means, but he can definitely get a job done in any of the forward positions. And I'm certain he's a much more competent crosser than those three.

So Vidal's agent has come out today and said Vidal will definitely be leaving Juventus. Or something. And there's talk of United reserving the #7 jersey for him. Agents are paid to talk ****, but there might be something going on here. Hopefully we get something concrete within the next week.

Click to expand...

thecorsair said:

If Mertens can adapt to different roles he stands a good chance of impressing van Gaal.

I'm convinced there are civilisations thousands of light years away from Earth that don't know what football is that could cross a ball more accurately than those 3

The Gazetta dello Sport have gone as far to say Vidal has already had a medical and various sources are saying his agent has jetted in to Manchester to finalise the deal.

If he does sign he would hopefully bring some respectability back to the number 7 shirt after Sicknote Owen and Valencia.

Click to expand...

The Tuggernaut said:

I read that as well, but then people were reporting he was actually in Wales to secure Medel's move to Inter. Anyway, hopefully Manchester is his next stop.

I forgot Valencia got the #7. Should've stuck to #25.


Edit:

Some potentially big news: Juventus have signed midfielder Romulo on a season-long loan. Everything is starting to line up. Come on Woodward, don't **** it up.

Click to expand...

thecorsair said:

If the Sky Sports website starts saying a move might be on I'll get a bit more excited as they're usually quite good with their info....they knew Moyes was getting sacked before he did

LvG has made an intresting statement in the buildup to the Real Madrid game as during an interview he said "We've been doing well in pre-season. Maybe we don't need any more players".

On the one hand that sounds worryingly like a manufactured excuse because the Glazers are expecting him to do a Fergie and work miracles with what he's already got.

On the other he could have said it in a tongue in cheek fashion.

Without seeing the specific interview it's difficult to know the context.

EDIT
Sky's website are now running a story with a comment from a Juventus director who says they'll only sell if Vidal asks to leave.

Click to expand...

The Tuggernaut said:

Yeah, that was an interesting comment. It does sound like the kind of comment that is perhaps coming from the higher ups making it clear he won't get anything to spend. But hopefully it was more of a comment that was meant to send positive vibes to the players, saying he has faith them and the current squad.

Surely he knows money must be spent. A lot of money.

And that's promising to see. Better than the old "he's going nowhere" routine. Damn, I really wanna get excited about the possibility of Vidal going to Old Trafford, but the sensible man inside me is telling me to be real.

Click to expand...

thecorsair said:

In the meantime,

Man Utd 3-1 Real Madrid!!!!

What a difference a proper manager makes.

He's been on the job less than a month but Louis van Gaal has taken a group of players who's spirit was crushed and got them playing with such confidence that they've beaten two of the top sides in Serie A and have now added the current European champions to their list of pre-season scalps.

It was no fluke either, Real fielded a strong team but United controlled the game for much of the first half and defended suprisingly well when required, particularly during the second half when Madrid went up a gear or two.

The first goal was scored by Ashley Young at the end of a counter attacking move that had about 20 passes in it which was so encouraging to see as it was just like the United of old.

Young has been playing as a left wing back on the tour and has been looking more like the player he was at Villa instead of the useless plonker he's been for pretty much all of his time at United which is perhaps the most suprising part of the pre-season games so far and players like Jones and Mata are clearly benefitting from being played regularly in their natural position instead of being switched around all over the place every week.

Some things haven't changed, Valencia, Cleverley and Welbeck are still complete waste of space but in general the signs are that United are going in a positive direction again.

Click to expand...

The Tuggernaut said:

Saw the result. Couldn't believe it.

In the grand scheme of things pre-season friendlies mean very little, but a 3-1 win against Real Madrid no matter the context is a big result. And by the sounds of it, United's performance was worthy of the win. Fantastic! And let's hope this win can convince Ronaldo to return to Old Trafford.

The only goal I saw was one of Young's and it was a vine so it was only short. But it showed the nice one-two with a backheel, a nice pass to the edge of the box and then the set-up for Young. And it looks like Young was voted man of the match. Van Gaal truly is a miracle worker.

I guess no surprises with the other three you mentioned, though. So far this pre-season campaign seems to have been a huge success, especially considering the short period of time van Gaal has spent with the squad. Let's hope they can sum it up nicely with a win against Liverpool.

Click to expand...