The Official Football (Soccer) Thread

[The_Ripper]

Arsenal tell City: Nasri's yours for £22m up front


Samir Nasri will get his move to Manchester City after Arsenal finally put a price on his head.

The Gunners have told City manager Roberto Mancini he can have his man for £22million, and conceded they have zero chance of persuading the France international to sign a new contract.

Talks between the clubs are progressing at a swift rate - the only real snag holding up the deal is the manner in which the payment will be made.

City are thought to have offered in the region of £15m for a player who now has less than a year remaining on his current contract and could leave on a free at the end of the coming season.

They have also indicated they are prepared to meet Arsenal's valuation by paying another £7m in performance-related add-ons, but the Gunners are adamant they want a straight-cash payment up-front - because of the need to sign a replacement.

Arsenal know £22m is a trifling matter for the super-rich Eastlands club and expect an agreement to be reached within days as they look ahead to life without one of their most exciting players.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has maintained a hard-line stance over the winger, insisting he would not sell even if that meant losing him for nothing next summer.

But relations between player and club have deteriorated in recent days, with Nasri's conviction he must leave hardening after tense exchanges between the two parties.

Wenger said a month ago that he was prepared to write off the £20m-plus the club could squeeze from City, in what was a clear attempt to put pressure on his midfielder.

But that stance brought Nasri no closer to signing a new contract, and now Arsenal have accepted they must cash in.

The 24-year-old has angered Gunners bosses by leaving the UK to play for his country in a friendly against Chile on Wednesday, despite missing a club friendly in Portugal last weekend through injury.

Arsenal have offered nasri an improved deal worth almost £90,000 a week, but he knows he can double those wages by moving to City and that, ultimately, has forced Wenger's hand.

The Gunners' manager will hold out for the transfer fee to be paid up-front, to ensure he has the financial muscle to make a late splash in the transfer market after being criticised all summer for his failure to bring in new faces.

The London club completed the capture this week of 17-year-old Southampton forward Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in a deal that could rise to £15million, but there is disquiet among even the Arsenal players at the lack of signings.

Some are demoralised by the still-impending departure of Cesc Fabregas - Barcelona are edging slowly towards the Gunners'£40million asking price, making a deal more likely.

Wenger admitted only weeks ago that Arsenal wouldn't be viewed as a 'big club' if they let two of their biggest players leave in one summer, so is now preparing to spend big to remove that impression and ease the frustrations of the club's fans and players.

Nasri could even be a City player before the start of the new season, - Mancini confirmed last weekend that he was still keen to bring his original summer transfer target to the club for the big kick-off.

[The_Ripper]

LOL 
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3742791/Wayne-Rooney-hooker-attacked-by-gang.html

[Furor Teutonicus]

Germany 3 Brazil 2.

Brazil is a shadow of their former self.

At the first sign of weakness from SPain, Germany will win a title. It's crazy how many good offensive midfielders we have


Müller - Özil - Götze

Schürrle - Kroos - Reus

+ Podolski + Großkreuz.

It's a shame that only 11 players can be on the pitch at the same time.

[K.Dub]

Kroos is a magician!

[Furor Teutonicus]

Kroos Götze is a magician!

The pass for the 2:0 was excellent tho.

[The_Ripper]

CESC FABREGAS is on the brink of sealing his dream move to Barcelona.
But the Spanish midfielder will have to fork out £4.5million from his own pocket to do it.

Arsenal are set to agree a £35.9m fee with Barcelona - plus add-ons - should Fabregas win major tournaments.

But the fee also includes £900,000 a year which Fabregas has agreed to pay Arsenal out of his own wages over the next five years of his Barca contract.

All that remains is for Fabregas, 24, to thrash out personal terms to bring to an end a three-year saga.

And last night he returned to the London Colney training ground to clear out his locker.

The Gunners skipper has made no secret of his desire to return to Barca, the team he left at 16.

Arsenal have been holding out for around £45m and boss Arsene Wenger had vowed Fabregas would not be allowed to move.

However, it has become increasingly obvious keeping him against his will would be a mistake.

Now Samir Nasri is expected to follow him out to join Manchester City.

The French midfielder, 24, is in the final year of his contract and, even though Wenger claimed he would let him run it down, the Emirates bean counters were not happy.

City are prepared to pay Nasri £180,000-a-week wages in a £25m swoop.


 
Striker Marouane Chamakh said: "I think both Cesc and Nasri will probably leave the club."

Meanwhile, Arsenal could be ready to snap up Birmingham centre-half Scott Dann, also 24, for £8m.

[The_Ripper]

Now Samir Nasri looks set to follow him out of Arsenal to Manchester City.

If he does, it could herald the start of the biggest evacuation since Dunkirk - with Robin van Persie joining the exodus next summer. Then where will it all end?

With Arsene Wenger being helped round the garden by attentive, attractive nurses in the seaside retirement home for managers who have stayed on just that little bit too long.

Going on wistfully, no doubt, about his lovely boys, all under 23, the most talented team in the country and one that will dominate European football for the next 10 years.

Time for your medication, Mr Wenger.

Already, exasperated Arsenal fans are talking of the Europa League and new manager by October.

This is the awful reality for a club for failing to keep Nasri out of the arms of Manchester City - and, most ironic of all, their chief procurement officer Patrick Vieira.

With the Frenchman likely to join Fabregas in the out-tray, Arsenal's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season will take a huge hit.

It will also impact on their chances of getting past Udinese and into the group stage this season - even though Nasri would have been suspended for the first leg at home to the Italians next Tuesday.

Two seasons without Champions League football will cost Arsenal a minimum £50million.

If that's the scenario they have no one to blame but themselves.

It's claimed Nasri has been "tapped" more times than Fred Astaire's dance floor.

That he was hell-bent on going and why keep a player who doesn't want to stay?

And that he wasn't all that popular at the club anyway and, hey, £20m is a great deal for a player who would have gone for nothing at the end of the season.

That Fabregas, too, was always going to leave this summer.

OK, we accept all that. So why the hell were contingency plans not laid?

And why on earth are people at the club still talking about the August 31 deadline?

Since Arsenal always had an August 16 Champions League qualifier, their own deadline should have been July 31 at the latest.

For God's sake, Alex Ferguson completed his buying before the end of flamin' June.

Had Wenger made some early market moves he might even have convinced Nasri to stay. And it wasn't as if he had to sell Nasri and Fabregas to raise funds anyway since Arsenal have been sitting on a £100m cash reserve all summer.

Arsenal should never have got themselves into the situation where they have to beat Udinese without Fabregas and Nasri for starters plus Van Persie, suspended for the first leg, and the injured Jack Wilshere.

At the root of it all is Wenger's stubbornness and the compliance of a board who never say a word against him.

Equally muted is majority shareholder 'Silent' Stan Kroenke.

As I said some years ago, it would have been far better had the Alisher Usmanov-David Dein consortium taken the club over.

Proper money would have been released and Wenger, now an increasingly isolated, frustrated and frazzled figure, would have continued to use his close friend Dein as his sounding-board. Now look at it. The transfer market policy is a shambles. Mistake has followed mistake, starting with the failure to sign goalkeeper Shay Given.

Now there is no alternative if they want to rescue something from the situation.

They up the bids for Valencia's Juan Mata and Everton's Phil Jagielka and get their men.

It's the least they can do for a set of supporters who have been through quite enough, thank you.

[The_Ripper]

Arsene Wenger has conceded defeat in his battle to keep Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri and urged his board to push through the sales quickly and find reinforcements.

Fabregas is finalising a return to Barcelona and Nasri is close to a deal with Manchester City, although his fee is undecided.

Arsenal want more than the £22million City have offered for the France star, who is out of contract at the end of the season. They will probably settle on £23m.

The Gunners will then step up their attempts to sign Juan Mata from Valencia and Brazilian midfielder Jadson from Shakhtar Donetsk.

Wenger confessed the Fabregas saga had moved into its end-game and privately accepts the 24-year-old will leave. The Arsenal boss agreed that his captain’s future would be decided before the start of the Premier League season.

He said: 'We hope it will be sorted out very quickly one way or the other. We will know very quickly.'
The deal - understood to include a down payment of 30million euros (£27million), with an additional 6million euros (£5.2million) in performance-based add-ons - will be pushed through ahead of the weekend.

Wenger described the Nasri situation as ‘stable’ and added: ‘We’re in a situation where we have to make decisions one way or the other. Ideally, you want it to be sorted out before the season starts.’

City’s hopes of signing Nasri in time to play against Swansea is receding. The deadline is noon on Friday, even though the game has been put back to Monday for television.

The Premier League insist all weekend games adhere to the deadline during transfer windows to avoid any unfairness.

A month ago, Wenger was optimistic of keeping both players, but he has been disappointed by Fabregas’s sulking,  and the Arsenal board decided to cash in on Nasri, 24, once it became clear he was not going to extend his contract.

City have smashed Arsenal’s £90,000-a-week offer with a £165,000-a-week five-year deal. Nasri played for France on Wednesday, days after missing Arsenal’s friendly against Benfica with a vague muscle injury.

Wenger’s priority now is to sign replacements as he travels to Tyneside with a shortage of central midfielders. Nasri and Fabregas are out of contention, if not quite out of the door, Jack Wilshere and Abou Diaby are injured and Denilson is out on loan.

Teenager Wilshere is facing a race against time to be fit for the vital Champions League qualifier against Udinese on Tuesday night.

Alex Song and Aaron Ramsey are both likely to start against the Alan Pardew's men with Andrey Arshavin or Tomas Rosicky likely candidates for Wilshere's role.

Eden Hazard, of Lille and Marseille’s Mathieu Valbuena are top targets for Wenger but it will be hard to get either now. Instead, he expects to conclude a £20m deal for Mata and has bid £12m for Jadson.

His scouts went to watch Anderlecht’s defensive midfielder Lucas Biglia last week, and they are monitoring Red Star Belgrade captain Milan Vilotic.

Possible centre halves include Gary Cahill, Phil  Jagielka and Scott Dann.
Denmark striker Nicklas Bendtner, linked with Stoke, has yet to find a new club, while utility man Emmanuel Eboue is expected to sign for Galatasaray.

[The_Ripper]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/E4ZMzRvgCu4" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/E4ZMzRvgCu4</a>

[K.Dub]

SMHLMFAO @ Joey fecking Barton

[The_Ripper]

SMHLMFAO @ Joey fecking Barton

are you ready for the farewell of fabregas and nasri ?

[Lunatic]

Porto open up there season later today 

[The_Ripper]

Porto open up there season later today 

Nobody cares about the Primeira Liga, its one of the shittiest leagues along with the russian league and the french league

[Lunatic]

Porto open up there season later today  

Nobody cares about the Primeira Liga, its one of the shittiest leagues along with the russian league and the french league

I'm gonna support my domestic league and not get into an argument with you about it either.

Porto are a dominant team regardless of what league we play in, we also show off our skill in major European competition with a champions league and 2 Europa titles to our name within the last ten years. That's basically as an impressive resume in major European competition as it gets as of late.

We are also one of the best in the world and finding talent that we buy for cheap and sell high. I can provide at least a dozen examples of that within the last few years alone. (Fabiano, Diego, Meireles, Alves, Carvalho, Pepe, Deco, Quaresma, Lucho, Lisandro, Cissoko, Ferreira, Valente, Mccarthy, Maniche, Costinha, etc) and now emerging stars like Hulk, Falcao, Rolando, Moutinho, Guarin etc

And that's an ironic comment. Didn't Italy just lose a champions league spot? Portugal was just awarded another one  

And also, our league is not the Primiera Liga, it's the Superliga

[The_Ripper]

I'm gonna support my domestic league and not get into an argument with you about it either.

LMAO you live in canada