European Football Thread

[Kaney]

3 hours ago, Benjamin said:

This Barcelona / Atleti game has been absolute madness.

Dani Alves has scored his first goal back and gotten his first red card back inside 70 minutes. Best game of the weekend so far, and there have been a ton of them. 

He just wanted Auba to feel at home, he's used to playing with ten men.

[Szumi]

Marc Overmars, Ajax's director of football affairs, will leave the club with immediate effect after the Dutch champions said he sent a "series of inappropriate messages to several female colleagues" 

Sky Sports

[Szumi]

FIFA announced Monday it will now allow foreign soccer players and coaches in Ukraine and Russia to temporarily break away from their current contracts and sign with new clubs until the official end of the club calendar season on June 30. Players have until April 7th to sign elsewhere.

I can't see any top club taking advantage of this, but I am expecting to see at least a few moves made. 

[Baddar]

The Camp Nou is to be renamed Spotify Camp Nou. 🤢

[DavidMarrio]

50 minutes ago, Baddar said:

The Camp Nou is to be renamed Spotify Camp Nou. 🤢

Everyone's going to pretty much still call it Camp Nou anyway. Like it was with St James' Park

[Colly]

I still call it the Nou Camp.

[Lineker]

Speaking of Barca - they gave Real an absolute tonking.

[DavidMarrio]

Looks like Dybala is set to leave Juve on a free.

[Baddar]

Barcelona have agreed to sign Kessie. There's going to be some big free transfers this summer.

[Lineker]

Quote

Former Manchester United and Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has signed a three-year contract to become PSV Eindhoven head coach from next season, the Eredivisie club confirmed.

A former Netherlands international, Van Nistelrooy will take on his first senior management role with PSV, where he spent three years as a player from 1998 to 2001. The 45-year-old will succeed Roger Schmidt, who will leave when his contact expires at the end of this season.

“I have been working towards this moment for years,” Van Nistelrooy said in a statement. “I am proud and convinced that I am ready to take a leading role at my club.

“Several things came together in the last month. Talks with the entire management and the board have strengthened my view on the unity and ambition to achieve something special with PSV in the long term.”

Van Nistelrooy scored 62 goals in 67 games for PSV before a successful five-year spell at Manchester United, where he won a Premier League title, an FA Cup and a League Cup.

He moved to Real Madrid and won La Liga twice before ending his playing career in 2012 after spells at Hamburg and Malaga.

Van Nistelrooy, who scored 35 goals in 70 internationals, has worked with the Dutch national team as an assistant coach, including at last year’s European Championship.

 

[Colly]

Story in itself is amusing but the fact he's just paid for an annual subscription so he's still got it anyway tops it off nicely.

[Hobo]

Classic Dejan.

[Malenko]

Real Madrid beats Celta 2-1 with 3 pens! Celta had a disallowed goal too!

[gunnar hendershow]

For @Szumi - A Polack

 

 

[Szumi]

The real surprise is that they were able to finally track down the Medford Messi! Fully expect by guy to be at Leeds next season and I'm so happy for him. Doing the Union proud!

[gunnar hendershow]

Carlo Ancelotti is now the first manager to win all 5 of the "major" European leagues. 

[Hobo]

now he must move on to the minor ones

[Malenko]

1 hour ago, damhausen said:

Carlo Ancelotti is now the first manager to win all 5 of the "major" European leagues. 

I know you use the term 5 major European leagues because it's common usage but I really dislike that "concept". The french league barely won anything. The dutch and portuguese leagues have a lot more European titles and plenty of other leagues have similar records if not better than the french. Yes, PSG have a ridiculous budget but I really don't see how they could ever be in the same conversation as Spain, England, Italy and Germany.

[Kyle]

1 hour ago, Hobo said:

now he must move on to the minor ones

If only he'd have waited to manage us until next season.

[gunnar hendershow]

10 minutes ago, Malenko said:

I know you use the term 5 major European leagues because it's common usage but I really dislike that "concept". The french league barely won anything. The dutch and portuguese leagues have a lot more European titles and plenty of other leagues have similar records if not better than the french. Yes, PSG have a ridiculous budget but I really don't see how they could ever be in the same conversation as Spain, England, Italy and Germany.

I agree, which is why I put it in quotation marks. Wasn't really my term and winning Ligue 1 or the Bundesliga in the last decade aren't significant accomplishments. Winning Serie A, La Liga, and Premier League are much more difficult no matter the budget because there are other clubs that can spend just as much.