Any REAL football fans here? (Page 30)

Now that the WC is over, it is onto the silly season for club football (transfer market) and the MLS. 

Liverpool has a new manager.  I doubt it will happen, but my wife hopes that Hodgson will bring Dempsey over to Liverpool from Fulham. 

That's funny, I was plugging this thread in the WC thread while you were bumping it.

Great minds think alike. 

So....whose stock increased by there performance in the WC...and whose decreased?

EPL - Torres, Rooney, Gerrard, Terry ( and the rest of the clown car that the England team drives) Drogba....all went quietly - decreased value I think..

Up are Ze germans.....Mueller, Schweinstieger, Ozil etc.....Forlan...some Paraguay players I cant name...

Did African football do itself any favors?....IMO no...usual disarray of talented but unorganized play

US..? Landon was immense so stock up..I think he is on his way to Europe permanently...more interest in bradley probably...not many others

Thoughts?

Add to the list of losers... Kaka.  What a waste of space he was for Brasil. 

I would disagree about Drogba. Broken arm significantly will change how you play.  Throw off your balance and you aren't going to be nearly as aggressive as you would if it weren't broken.

I agree about Landon.  Supposedly he is being looked at by Man City.  Which I think would be a HUGE mistake, but the places I think he would do well at probably can't afford him now.  12Euro is the going rate for him, from what I understand, including the transfer fee which the Galaxy will want.

I also think Bradley's stock went up. 

I'm going to be interested to see if the Ghana keeper Kinsdon (sp?) gets more play.  He played out of his mind and had been noticeably absent in club play leading up to the WC.

Also, what do you think will happen to Messi?  Another disappointing WC for him.

Unfortunately for Messi, the surrounding cast is pretty weak so he was heavily marked etc..still did not do well...Most of the Brazilians were average...in past WC's at least there was some brilliance to their play..now the word is "efficient"..not exactly what you think of traditional Brazilian teams

French are in a death spiral...so Ribery et al all when down....

This WC did not bring out any star qualities or talent..was overall a mundane affair for the most part..some drama but average overall...Spain deserves the victory but scoring only 8 goals to do it sums it up!

Good discussion. So what about Bob Bradley? Stock up or down? Have heard a lot of criticism falling on him for the USMNT conceding early and often, and some questions about lineups. Will be interesting to see how the coaching spot pans out.

He is being made the fall guy in my opinion...that said..England were there for the taking if he had been more bold....exploited the speed advantage that the US had....its not his fault they conceded early goals..the depth of squad needs improvement and then he would have more options

I kind of disagree with this.  But only slightly. 

If they had only given up the early goals in the WC and WC alone, then yes, I would possibly agree with you.  However, it was their typical MO throughout their entire WC qualifying campaign as well as in some friendlies.  To me, this is directly on his shoulders.  Sure, he was working at a disadvantage not having a healthy Gooch in the backfield, but frankly, we were giving up those goals when he was back there.

So to me, this whole giving up early goals is Bob's problem. 

I'm more on the player responsibility side....Bob cant clear a ball, mark someone, pull up and play people offside....he can only prepare them...if that is where you think he is culpable then I understand...however, as a PROFESSIONAL, the players need be held accountable for those lapses....

Yeah, this is what I'm saying.  Of course I can't find it now, but I remember either hearing or reading an interview with him saying he didn't know why that was happening.  THAT is a problem and a concern if the coach/manager doens't know why his team continues to do the same thing time after time.

Thierry Henry Joining NY Redbulls.

Cool. I agree with Angel--good for the Red Bulls and good for the league.

Looks like Liverpool will loose many of its gems

No surprise.  With only the Europa league to play in, they won't be getting near the international exposure.

I do too.  Still won't cheer for him though.  *coughcoughhandballcoughcough*

Ronaldhino to Galaxy?

That would be interesting. Again, good for the league.

On a totally different note, the Sounders FC beat DC on the road last night on a sweet header by Levesque in the 89th minute. 1-nil final. The Sounders have dropped off this year, but I still follow them and they still put 30k+ into Qwest Field.

So the silly season is definitely in full swing even if it is a little slow.

Chicago Fire has signed Nery Castillo as a DP.  Could be interesting as long as his head (psycho) doesn't get in the way.

Joe Cole has signed for Liverpool from Chelsea.  In the move he called Liverpool the ONLY big club in England.  Interesting.

Man City appears to be making a big move for Donovan.  MLS and Galaxy have said there is no way they will agree to the move, but $ talks and BS walks so we will have to wait and see on that one.

Milner wants to join Man City.  It guess that even though Man City will not be competing in the CL, they still want to push to win the PL next year.

Vidic could be leaving ManUre. 

Eduardo signed at Shaktar Donetsk after leaving Arsenal.

You do realize he was in Everton for a 3 month stint earlier this year, right?

Cool, thanks, Crowny--keep 'em coming.

Interesting about Cole--both the signing and his comment. I thought LFC didn't have the money to sign a big name like that.

Anyone catch the ManUre/Philly match last night? Don't know if the friendlies interest anyone, but I like watching the MLS teams match up with the foreign squads. Philly looked decent in the first half and went into halftime with a nil-nil tie and only conceded one goal, but ManU didn't bring several of their big names.

The Sounders didn't fair any better against Celtic days earlier. Their backup goalie got red-carded early, leading to a PK goal and that changed the game. They had looked good up to that point.