Deadline Day
Yes, I know it’s not actually for another week. The deadline day I am actually on about was the one imposed by Barcelona on Liverpool regarding the sale of Philippe Coutinho. You have to admit, Barcelona have some arrogance. First of all they believe that Neymar is sound with being second fiddle to Lionel Messi and that he’ll never go to PSG because, after all, he is at the great and famous Barcelona. Then, when Neymar does leave and the world know they have £200 million burning a hole in the back pocket, they decide that they will try to bully clubs they are trying to buy players from. They’ll unsettle the player publicly by declaring their interest in the press, they’ll send directors over to “finalise” fictional deals even though the selling clubs have categorically stated that these payers aren’t for sale, they’ll set deadlines for their transfer bids. And now one of the greatest clubs in the world have ended up looking like absolute gobshites. The deadline was probably the funniest thing about this for me, being a Liverpool fan. It wasn’t a deadline to accept the bid as such, it was more a date that Barcelona had set that they had promised they’d fuck off and leave Phil Coutinho alone. In a bit fellas, good luck with Jean Michael Seri and Ousmane Dembele.
Early Fallers
The footballing Grand National that is the Premier League is now back in full swing and already some teams have started to falter. Poor Spurs played their first home game at Wembley on Sunday and were beaten by Chelsea, who almost looked dead and buried themselves last week. Their fear of playing at the national stadium looks like it could upset their season. The mental block they have for playing at Wembley really is something that hasn’t been since Derby County had the same fear of playing any type of football during the 2007/08 season. Don’t worry though Spurs fans, it’s only a couple of weeks before Mauricio Pochettino makes his annual declaration of interest in the PSG job even though it isn’t vacant. Maybe his replacement will be Rafa Benitez. His Newcastle United side already look completely inept for Premier League football. Not only were they dominated by Spurs last week (Spurs were away of course), but they were absolutely outplayed by Huddersfield Town on Sunday in the Yorkshire sides first top flight game since 1972. When you’re playing Rob Elliot in goal then the writing is on the wall really.
Transfer Story Of The Week
This week’s transfer story of the week is one that actually only came to light late last night. It looks like Paris Saint-Germain have managed to convince Monaco to budge on their stance of not selling Kylian Mbappe. All summer, Monaco have remained strong on this one – Mbappe wasn’t going anywhere for this summer at least. But it looks like the promise of £128 million, which they will eventually receive at some point, was enough to convince them that one of the brightest young players in world football is probably better off with their rivals and not with them at all. This may seem pretty routine in the current market to pay so much for such a player, so why does it make this week’s transfer story of the week? Because it is initially a loan. You have to admit, that is rather strange. Some are saying that PSG are wary to complying with Financial Fair Play, but since nobody is arsed about FFP anymore then that simply cannot be the case. My Spidey senses are telling me there’s something dodgy about this one especially when you factor in that PSG are also buying Fabinho as part of the same deal, taking the total cost to a staggering £201 million! Someone is defo on the tax dodge here.