European Football Thread

[stokeriño]

Maybe I'm missing something with the Alphonso Davies story above, but I don't see what's wrong with it? If RM and he both have sufficient interest in a future transfer, they can make all the 'verbal agreements' they feel like, vague or otherwise. Doesn't mean anything until it's a real contract offer, and Bayern still have to be satisfied with whatever transfer offer is eventually made to them.

I absolutely reject 'tapping up' as a concept, born from the antiquated mindset thay players are clubs' property and cannot speak to potential employers in the same way that human beings in literally any other vocation can, so don't tell me it's just that.

[Colly]

I agree fully, and I love how brilliantly consistent you've always been on the topic...

https://www.ewbattleground.com/search/?&q="Tapping up"&author=stokeriño&search_and_or=or

On 18/06/2011 at 23:26, stokeriño said:

Ah, seems in the Sunday Mirror that Spurs will be playing the 'tapping up' card.

 

 

You may recall my general opinion of 'tapping up' as mentioned the other day with regard to Manchester United and whoever it was. But even to put that to one side, it seems that the automatic reaction of any club whose player sees fit to express interest in other club must have been 'tapped up'. Never mind the Champions League or any other self-evident reason that Modric apparently gave in an interview that was, by the way, AFTER a bid was made. You don't need a pre-emptive secret meeting to point out to the guy that Spurs don't have a CL spot. For him to say "hey, I'd quite like to go play in the CL again with Chelsea (since I won't have to move house)" after the bid has been made public, that indicates nothing suspicious at all.

 

And let's make it even more comical, shall we?

 

"Chelsea face the threat of a points deduction – if found guilty of tapping up Luka Modric"

 

It says Daniel Levy "warned Chelsea in writing not to pursue Modric and has now accused them of making public a bid for the player in order to unsettle him."

 

Something that Harry Redknapp has never done, of course.

 

But even if so, how does making a bid public amount to tapping up? I mean really? Not to mention that the bid has only appeared in the papers in the context of Levy and/or Redknapp saying "we reject this bid!". Sounds like Spurs made it public to me.

 

Honestly.

 

[METALMAN]

If Chelsea didn't tap up Gael Kakukta he'd be the best player in the world right now

[stokeriño]

Having 13 year old rants of mine dragged up was not something I was prepared for today 😅

5 minutes ago, METALMAN said:

If Chelsea didn't tap up Gael Kakukta he'd be the best player in the world right now

The number of players who have had their careers quite probably stunted by joining Chelsea boggles the mind, honestly.

[Colly]

Pogbanned.

 

[therockbox]

What's he been taking? The piss?

[Gazz]

11 minutes ago, therockbox said:

What's he been taking? The piss?

Lyoto Machida drank his own piss and he only got 18 months.

[METALMAN]

We should strip France of the 2018 World Cup now.

[gunnar hendershow]

Leverkusen are now 10 points clear in the Bundesliga with 10 matches to play. Not sewn up yet but it's drawing nearer and nearer to being so.

What a job by Xabi Alonso. Even doing this against a down year Bayern team is impressive.

[Captain Kirk]

It appears the rumours of Dani Alves death are untrue, shame.

[Lineker]

Quote

Liverpool are ready to give up on plans to appoint Xabi Alonso as the club now believe he will stay at Bayer Leverkusen for at least another season.

Alonso looks set to win the Bundesliga with Leverkusen and the understanding is the Spaniard is likely to remain for their Champions League campaign.

The Merseysiders will instead turn their attention to the Sporting head coach, Rúben Amorim, and the Brighton manager, Roberto De Zerbi, as they plan for Jürgen Klopp’s successor.

The timing is a blow for Liverpool supporters who had pinned their hopes on Alonso taking over from Klopp. It also poses a significant challenge for Michael Edwards, the new chief executive officer of Fenway Sports Group, and the incoming sporting director Richard Hughes.

Even Klopp seemed to sense Alonso was the preferred choice of fans when asked about the Spaniard’s coaching career so far.

“The next generation is already there and I would say Xabi is the standout in that department,” the Liverpool manager said. “A former world-class player, obviously coaching family as well which helps a little bit. He was like a coach already when he was playing.

“The football he is playing, the teams he sets up, the transfers he did – it was absolutely exceptional. Obviously when you look through the Europa League, Leverkusen is one of the favourites there as well so that could be the season for Leverkusen. Really crazy.”

Liverpool were facing competition from Munich for Alonso but it now seems the 42-year-old is determined to build on his success with Leverkusen which has taken them 10 points clear of Bayern during an unbeaten campaign.

Bayern are searching for a new head coach with Thomas Tuchel on his way out in the summer and were hoping to lure the former midfielder who graced Anfield and the Allianz Arena. However, it seems Alonso’s camp have made it plain that the time is not right to move on. On Thursday, Bayern’s honorary president, Uli Hoeness, confirmed it would be “impossible” to secure his signature.

“We’ll have to see if we can do it this year,” he said. “It will be difficult, if not probably impossible.

“[Alonso] is more inclined to stay at Bayer Leverkusen in view of their current successes, because he would not want to leave them behind,” Hoeness said. “Let’s say if he had two or three more years of success, it would probably be easier to bring him out of there.”

Amorim is one of Europe’s most highly rated coaches, having guided Sporting to the Portuguese title in 2021. Sporting are on course to repeat that title success this season and the coach reportedly has a release clause of £17m.

De Zerbi – who has enjoyed success against Liverpool with Brighton – will have another chance to impress the Anfield hierarchy when he brings his side to Merseyside on Sunday.

There is a significant chance Liverpool and Klopp will come up against Alonso and Leverkusen in the Europa League final in May.

 

[Hobo]

To me, it always felt a bit of a leap for him to go from his first season in his first top flight job to replacing Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool. It just gave me Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, and Ole Gunner Solskjaer vibes. Albeit, Alonso's managing at a higher level than any of those were before getting the managers job at their old clubs.

Of course, it has worked out before and Liverpool did well in recruiting managers from ex players and coaches in the 70s and 80s. Not so much in the 90s though.

It would also have been a crappy move to pull on Leverkusen.

 

 

[DavidMarrio]

If Alonso hadn't played for us, think a lot of people on social media etc wouldn't have reacted the way they have at the news. 

Feels to me he is going to do another year at Leverkusen trying to retain the league and Champions League football whilst waiting for the Madrid job. 

Looks like we'll turn our attention to Amorim or De Zerbi. 

[METALMAN]

Next season Leverkusen will get sucked dry of their talent, finish 15th in the league and sack Alonso who will end up managing Empoli or something and we’ll never hear of him again.

[Adam]

2 hours ago, Hobo said:

To me, it always felt a bit of a leap for him to go from his first season in his first top flight job to replacing Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool. It just gave me Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, and Ole Gunner Solskjaer vibes. Albeit, Alonso's managing at a higher level than any of those were before getting the managers job at their old clubs.

Of course, it has worked out before and Liverpool did well in recruiting managers from ex players and coaches in the 70s and 80s. Not so much in the 90s though.

It would also have been a crappy move to pull on Leverkusen.

 

 

It's absolutely nothing like them, to be honest. It's his second season as well - he is about to do something that is extremely difficult by winning the Bundesliga ahead of Bayern, with a club who have never won it before, and they haven't just edged it - they've blown them away. Lampard, Gerrard and Solskjaer have achieved nothing between them in a top European league.

It only emphasises the point that the likely successor to Klopp now instead is either Amorim, who has never managed outside of Portugal, and De Zerbi, who has never managed a top team. Both will be a risk themselves.

Plus, Alonso has nowhere to really go but down at Leverkusen after this season. I can't imagine the club expect(ed) him to stay to be honest, so I'm sure they had plans on retooling in the event he does leave now, especially with two of the top 5 clubs on earth after him.

If he does stay another year, it's really admirable and I do think it's because his preference would be the Real Madrid job. Do anywhere near as well again and he's cemented himself at that point as a world-leading coach.

[gunnar hendershow]

I think Alonso has all the respect from this season that losing a lot of his talent at Leverkusen won't hurt him. Klopp left Dortmund at their nadir and walked into Liverpool. A rough season following this fantastic season would be attributed to circumstances beyond his control I suspect.

Plus, given Madrid's reputation it wouldn't shock me if they already have a verbal agreement for him to make the move in the summer of 2025. I would confidently say that's the top job there is and if they're interested in you, then you take the opportunity to manage them. Especially since you get Mbappe now.

[Hobo]

4 hours ago, Adam said:

It's absolutely nothing like them, to be honest. It's his second season as well - he is about to do something that is extremely difficult by winning the Bundesliga ahead of Bayern, with a club who have never won it before, and they haven't just edged it - they've blown them away. Lampard, Gerrard and Solskjaer have achieved nothing between them in a top European league.

It only emphasises the point that the likely successor to Klopp now instead is either Amorim, who has never managed outside of Portugal, and De Zerbi, who has never managed a top team. Both will be a risk themselves.

Plus, Alonso has nowhere to really go but down at Leverkusen after this season. I can't imagine the club expect(ed) him to stay to be honest, so I'm sure they had plans on retooling in the event he does leave now, especially with two of the top 5 clubs on earth after him.

If he does stay another year, it's really admirable and I do think it's because his preference would be the Real Madrid job. Do anywhere near as well again and he's cemented himself at that point as a world-leading coach.

 

I bring up those names because there's a sense that you should never go home about them. Solskjear and Lampard shouldn't have been let near their former clubs as managers but they felt like good stories.

But the fact it felt more like a good story than anything else made me wary of Alonso coming back to Liverpool as manager. Even if he's likely to be a better manager than any of them it still feels like the idea of it was the most attractive thing. 

Alonso is better off staying where he is a bit longer.  At least an Amorim or a De Zerbi can come in and fail and it's not the ex-Liverpool player Xabi Alonso failing at Liverpool.

[gunnar hendershow]

6 minutes ago, Hobo said:

 

I bring up those names because there's a sense that you should never go home about them. Solskjear and Lampard shouldn't have been let near their former clubs as managers but they felt like good stories.

But the fact it felt more like a good story than anything else made me wary of Alonso coming back to Liverpool as manager. Even if he's likely to be a better manager than any of them it still feels like the idea of it was the most attractive thing. 

Alonso is better off staying where he is a bit longer.  At least an Amorim or a De Zerbi can come in and fail and it's not the ex-Liverpool player Xabi Alonso failing at Liverpool.

Not just ex-Liverpool player but a former player who is noted as being a very proud supporter of the club. It's not just "I used to play here" it's "I have an emotional bond here" and I think that's so volatile. Much better to never manage there and appreciate them from a distance; or come in only after a line of managers have failed spectacularly and therefore have relatively subdued expectations I guess.

[Szumi]

Leverkusen did it. Won 5-0 just now, with Wirtz bagging the last goal to complete a hat trick in the 90th minute. Match ended there because the fans invaded the pitch early.

Neverkusen, Never Again.

[METALMAN]

No longer the Spurs of Germany!