transfer round up
Chatter from the sidelines
- Move Noticias: Cristiano has bought Jorge Mendes a €3m ($4.5m) to €50m Greek island as a wedding gift. Baller. Even with Greece's economic state as it is, it's still a helluva gift
- Sunderland offer £5 million for Sāo Paulo’s Pato I guess that's one way to do it. Just bypass the Spanish and Portuguese leagues for SA players and go straight to source
- Kevin de Bruyne wants Bayern move, knows he won't get it this season Don't cry for Bayern, eh?
- Silvio Berlusconi agrees AC Milan stake sale Um, yay?
- Yohan Benalouane confirms Leicester City transfer Didn't want to leave Atalanta, but money
- Simeone pleased with Atletico progress Nice, Simeone is working out new tactics with his players (you hear that, Pochettino?!)
Community Shield
The result of the community shield means nothing to results on the PL table, or champions league, and the money is a pittance compared to what you get paid per game in the TV rights. Neither team are mine, I didn't care about the match, and since I live with two Arsenal fans, I bounced and watched MI: Rouge Nation instead
Ozil now speaks good English. Huzzah! But himself and Arsene Wenger speak in German in private. This is him with Mourinho. Wenger walked off, his first win in fourteen match ups against Mourinho. No handshakes, and Mourinho was a bitter betty. He threw his loser's medal into the crowd, and it was caught by a young fan. Moving on.
Stoke's Butland meets Casillas, a role model for him growing up. This is the match after Stoke played Porto and Casillas became a hero
Duncan Ferguson (an Everton player who was mental) came back for his testimonial. He should have had one under Moyes (given that he'd been at the club for over ten years), but he and Moyes fell out, and Ferguson went to Majorca to chill. As you do
Time heals old and bitter wounds. I remember when Rooney left Everton for Manchester United. Rooney was an academy lad who burst into first team at 16/17, and might have fired Everton to glory. Then Ferguson took one look at him, and Rooney's legacy at Everton was history.
Even though it was good for both parties (Everton needed the money, Rooney wanted to go to Manchester United) the split was bitter. It ended up with Rooney refusing to play for the side if he didn't go, so Everton let him go. But the money from Rooney rescued Everton from administration! So, win win. This is Rooney and Cartwright.
Since then, Everton try not to sell their players if they can avoid it. Hence the Stones drama with Chelsea now
Did they sing the granny shagger song to him, I wonder? Probably not. Time and place and all that
OP: done! A lot of pointless friendlies got played yesterday, so I'm letting those pass. Anyway, cheers, jeers, corrections and commentary pushback, you know the drill