wolf stansson

For Real Madrid's purposes, Ozil was a better player than Bale. Modric should fill in well as the creator in the middle, but I'm just mystified by the entire Bale saga. Sacrificing Ozil to help finance it is just one more angle I don't get.

Mata to PSG & Ozil to Arsenal...did not see those coming.

Bale to Madrid done. Ozil to Arsenal in the works. Kaka to Milan done.

Jozy out with a hamstring injury. Not good. Johannsson might have to start in CR.

MLS rejected $750,000 from Stoke to buy Agudelo (who has been GREAT when healthy this year) now rather than wait until January when he's already agreed to a contract with them. Hughes wants him to compete for the stating role, he wants to go but if NE sells him, they lose his rights. Thing is, by the time Juan Agudelo comes back to MLS, the allocation process will probably be gone. So dumb. He's stayed ballin during this whole process, which is commendable, but his development has been stalled by MLS. NYRB traded him to Chivas who sold him to NE for $75,000 worth of allocation funds and now an EPL team wants to buy him for almost a mil just to get him 4 months early. He was ALWAYS going to Europe and he would have sold for a lot more a year or more ago if NY hadn't had a manager and GM who didn't understand the league managing its roster. The Chivas move was bad luck. Worst organization in sports. Vergara and his clown troop took over and traded him for nothing because he's not Mexican American without even telling their manager at the time. Chelis was pissed, got fired a month later and the Revs have been absolutely killing it with him leading the attack ever since. Chivas and NY both own a portion of his sell on rights so,now NE has no incentive to sell, he's unhappy, NY and Chivas want him sold and NE is holding him in case of a deep playoff run in their huge stadium in front of 10,000 fans (which is possible in the east the way they're playing) and because they want first dibs at him if he comes back to MLS as a non-DP salary. So, to recap, NY traded him for Heath Pearce. Horrible trade. Chivas sold him for 75k of ML$BUCK$ within the league when they could have gotten more than $750,000 of actual moneyfor him last January from a European club (Celtic offered) but while he was on trial, the dumbest owner I've ever seen, Jorge Vergara, took over full control of the club and Juan came back with Celtic's offer rejected because their new manager wanted to build around him. New owner sold him. For 1/10th without telling said manager and then fired the manager. WTF. MLS is still MLS, I guess.

Pretty easy roster call. ------------------------------TH BE-----------------OG----------------MB------------------DB ---------------------JJ----------------MB Donovan--------------------------------------------------FJ -----------------------------CD ------------------------------------JA

Landon Donovan's new multi-year deal will make him the highest paid player in the league if he hits incentives. Sounds about right.

Jozy goal -

Rosales is one of the only players on that roster who can think at Clint's speed. EJ, his best bro, slows him down and can't combine with him fast enough. EJ can only play as a pure striker to be his best. Neagle is best at striekr. Martins can only play as the target or withdrawn striker and that's where Clint's going to play. They've got a log jam and desperately need some width. They can't build through the middle if Joseph and Alonso are in. If you move Evans centrally to partner with Alonso you solve a lot of problems, but they still need width on the left.

The corpse of Shalrie Joseph is getting worked in Seattle. If Portland could finish, it could easily be 3-0 rather than scoreless. Thoughts: Seattle too narrow. Valeri is a baller. Neagle is really fast and Nagbe makes him look like he's running in sand.

Sunderland's CM's are horrendous. Jozy's service, horrendous. This is why they bid $10,000,000 for Bradley. They were rebuffed but they'll raise their bid.

They needed another attacking mid? Jose whipping it out on AVB? What's the point of that signing?

Word is Chepo is leaving Guardado off of his roster for Columbus. Must be a locker room cancer. To which I say, LOL.

AZ played today which of course means that Aron Johannsson scored a goal today. http://www.noshortcorners.com/2013/08/if-this-doesnt-get-tongues-wagging-in.html Ankle breaker.

NBC Sports' Neil Ashton reporting Bale deal is done. No details yet.

Twitter, No Short Corners is usually first for American players and Greg Seltzer isn't on twitter so I go there for his scoops.

ok, explain it to me because i need to know these things, how are they better now that they sold their two best players? They filled their biggest hole already with Soldado. Paulinho is a much better central midfielder for AVB's system than Clint. I don't know much about Willian or Chadli to be honest, but Lamela is a wonderful, young attacker that can play wide or drift centrally and Coentrao would be a huge upgrade over Assou-Ekotto. They essentially turned a superstar and a star into 6 stars that better fit AVB's system.

I'm also going to predict that Landon Donovan is a Roma player this January. Despite this. http://www.noshortcorners.com/2013/08/lets-get-this-goodie-started-riiiiight.html

Sounds like the Bale sale is almost done. If the rumored return and players they plan on buying go through, Spurs could easily be title contenders with a better manager. Out: Bale In: Coentrao, 100,000,000 Euros. They're sniffing around Erik Lamela and a couple other players too.

In just mad at how they did Deuce.

I get it, Sulley. You want to be a front runner but you don't want to be tacky about it. It's like choosing to be an OKC Thunder Fan. Front running with integrity.

The balls on Juan Agudelo. Check out this goal. http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2013-08-17-NE-v-CHI/highlights/230498

Johannsson. Again.

You should be a Swansea fan. They're outside the mainstream, they play a collective style but they combine it with lower half of the table thuggery. It's entertaining stuff. It's like thugs doing ballet. Tottenham is all about individual exceptionalism (Gareth Bale) and a bunch of unworthy coat tail riders (his manager, most of his teammates, Daniel Levy, their dumb fans) trying to exploit it for personal gain.

You hate Arsenal.