Unnamed Trialist

My source in Spain, the guy who writes about Spanish players abroad, says that Viti had a poor relationship with his former club. He was not training well nor showing a proper attitude with discipline. The club president had actually requested he not play back in January, I do not think he had minutes from that point on, so At Madrid were clearly on top of this, or his agent was. He's a young prospect, I think he felt he could have had better chances, since he played for the Tarragona 2nd team, the first team relegated from 2nd division last year, so for him to be in 3rd tier was a let down. But to be honest, CPL is not better than Spanish 3rd tier, he may just be thinking about getting his foot in the door at Atlético.

Technically there are 122 pro teams in Spain. Fourth tier is semi pro. In England if you consider Conference level (National League), 5th tier, also pro, there are a few more, maybe it is 130 teams. I really do not think that there will be that many teams going under. And if they do, contrary to what Ozzie is arguing, you cannot refound financially, in terms of capital, and keep your licence, normally that means losing it and dropping divisions. True, you could sell your licence, but that is another story. If not that many go under, I don't see how many players will jump ship. Maybe if there is no league in September or they are still finishing up, or in off-season, but that is too late for CPL: Still, I doubt it affects any more than a dozen or two teams. Since a large % of lower tier teams lose money anyways, those not paying salary now are cutting their losses. Then, gate is important but do the numbers: so far we've missed 3 weekends of football in Spain. That is either one or 2 home games for each club. And saving the cost of travel, lodging if you were away. The teams really hurting, I think, are the sides in a third or 2nd tier with the history and stadiums to justify them being in a higher tier. They've spent to promote, they get lots of fans out and the revenue stream from gate is strong, they are amongst the teams in their divisions with the highest budgets. They've probably seriously indebted themselves regardless of revenue just to ensure promotion.

As I see it, this ranking is fragile. It has everything to do with what those players did in the last few weeks of play. If you'd done it in January it would be rather different. If they'd all kept playing, probably also. Davies probably lept 5 spots merely on the basis of the Chelsea game. I am not taking anything away from it, just think that these rankings are not too solid, they are more anecdotal. If Haaland went 3 fixtures without scoring and someone lower down had played a few top matches, it'd look different. Now with the top mature players, that does not happen, Messi or Cristiano, or whoever else you want to stick in there, tend to hold up regardless of the last few months of play.

News reports say they are starting training again at Bayern Monday, in small groups, separated.

Because he is often out of position, in defensive terms. Plenty of great defenders have compensated relative slowness with great positioning and anticipation.

If folks are looking for football related content, I highly recommend a documentary called The Other Final, which documents the lead up, game and aftermath of a match played between Montserrat and Bhutan. Memorable.

Sources in Spain say that Nacho the new keeper is injured. I have no idea of the logic of that signing.

I actually checked out to buy a shirt from a Belarus team, since I had a grandfather born in (or near?) a certain city north-east of Minsk. But none are available. It is even a nice looking shirt, but I can't get it. Pisses me off that Belarus merchandising did not seem to be ready for the current situation.

Wow, tell us about them (you can't be on a soccer message board when there'll be no football of any worth in the world until June or July without not having better things to do with your life)

In Spain Roures and Mediapro have done nothing, it is a bit disgraceful I find. My gym stopped charging for services, others may find other services not rendered are pardoned, but Mediapro keeps not only charging for football, through Movistar, but announce the tv deals with all the football packs in place, as if they could reasonably give a new subscriber Champions, League, Cup, and so on. It is a bit disgraceful. And they have not replaced the massive gap with anything but reruns, there are no new programs of analysis, no talk shows on the current situation, they are not spending a dime. Roures is all freaked out about the season not ending, his only idea is that this year has to finish, next year hardly matters. I don't fully undderstand the logic in financial terms, but in social and human terms he is really out of it. Honestly: One Soccer is generating more content than Mediapro platforms in Spain. Okay, One Soccer, most of it for me, anyways, is rather obnoxiously giddy and superficial. It is really over the top, with a few exceptions (some of these interviews with retired vets are okay).

Did you ever watch him play for Tranmere? I did, and in their stadium as well. He played exactly the same as anywhere else, a dynamic quick and feisty player behind the target striker. Distributing, assisting, and occasionally scoring, lots of one touch football. Just like for our u-20s, and just like he did in India, or when he played in Spain. Hume was never very cerebral, which is why his comments about CPL teams needing leadership like he could offer was odd. Because I have never seen him adjusting his game to the specific circumstances on the pitch, he had one fairly high speed, typical of League One pace. He was skilled, but played at exactly the level he deserved, he was third tier England, and his one stint in 2nd tier Spain he was poor (which may be why he slags Ponferradina for being corrupt, which is cheap on his part--they paid him for doing basically nothing). Anyways, the world was not moving towards possession football in the early 2000s, that is not true. Not in England third tier, and not in EPL at that time either, excepting a bit of Wenger's Arsenal. Even at Barça it was barely happening, the Iniesta-Xavi combination of tiqui-taka only consolidated around 2006-07. For me he overrates himself in that interview. And then cannot name a single other player underrated--as if he were the only one. I found it disappointing and I have followed Hume fairly closely since 2003 or so.

Further comments on that piece. Lot of comments on it, which surprises me, no one is paying much attention to sports news lately. As it argues that the coronavirus will probably push bidding negotiations down by 40%, as clubs are losing money, most argue that a 15 million euro investment is better than what they are proposing to pay for Lautaro, or to get Neymar back. Barça as you have probably heard has made an agreement with the players, they are dropping their monthly paycheques by 72%. Part of that ensures the club staff are paid 100% their salaries. Since the club tried to make it look like they were unwilling, Messi and all the players put out a statement directly criticising the board for trying to sway public opinion against them. Saying they had always been clear about their decision to lower their wages voluntarily (At Madrid just did this today). Barça after-tax salaries are the highest in the world, averaging 11 million euros. I think Messi makes 52 after taxes in salary. If David walks into Barça for a 15-20 million transfer, he might accept it and insist over another club's higher bid because his salary will be higher than probably any other club, except maybe Madrid or la Juve, Man City maybe. He knows he has to let Gent get the maximum, or close, but also Gent has to let him get a deal he approves of. The board-player relationship right now is terrible, and many fans are also not too pleased with the poor management of the club. As it is fan owned, we have elections next year, so we are moving into a pre-election phase (I won't vote for this board, even though I know personally one person in upper management whose job depends on it). Since the season has not played out, it is hard to judge the performance and evaluate success or failure on the year. This makes new signings harder to read, though it is clear Suárez is getting on and is injured too much, Dembele just plain injured, Griezmann is underperforming. And even Messi has had some poorer outings, like he's slower and his finishing is down, though still leads the league in scoring. So the team does need a striker: a Lautaro - David combination could make sense.

As soon as I saw the byline I perked up: Cristina Cubero is a journalist who almost always has inside information that is reliable, I don't know how she does it, but she has been around a long time, keeps a low profile after being a lot on tv, and just does her articles. Also, Mundo Deportivo is very pro the current board and rarely does anything to rock the boat. Their leaks tend to be more official, from the club, though that does not mean much. So that article should be taken seriously. Still, it is still a negotiation and there are quite a few players, bidders, and the like, a sound suspicion is still only that. I won't get into the internal politics of the club, but they do factor in.

Anyone who has to post this sort of garbage given the current circumstances is far more desperate and worthy of being blocked than Robert. What a douche you are @Lofty you post the exact opposite of your username, you post gutter.

Great post @redcard It is clear that mass events are the ones to avoid if you want to keep some control as we move out of the crisis stage into something manageable. So that is sporting events, concerts, nightclubs, as well as weddings or religious holidays and ceremonies. Cruise ships, mass travel to resorts. We have to be realistic: the economy can get back on track in about 80% of sectors without leisure and pleasure. So we have to let that happen when the risk is under control, and do so by regions as well, not hinge the entire nation on one region or focal point doing badly. This suggests that league matches with fans is highly unadvisable. League matches without fans could work, if MediaPro and the clubs decide it is better to have some league rather than no league. But that is a question of costs. Will players consent to extreme reduction of salaries, possible isolation in certain cities or regions, and a short season, playing without fans, just to ensure that 2021 has a bit of a foothold?