re: EPL Transfer Window Winners & Losers

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Selling David Luiz for 40M while getting Fabregas for 27M and Costa for 32M is brilliant work. Especially when you consider that United signed Luke Shaw for 30M and di Maria for 60M.

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How they sold David Luiz for what they did is beyond me. Like I've said before, my only explanation is that PSG's board uses Ultimate Team to formulate their transfer plans. Selling Luiz and Lukaku, who I genuinely think will prove to be worth it, really showed where they are as a club. These are players going places to be genuine contributors that they offloaded for fat stacks of cash. They follow this up by showing a completely different play style from last year with some scary attacking football. Diego Costa shows how much not having a single real finishing threat in the squad hurt them.

United, on the other hand, were forced to spend because everyone on Earth knows how desperate things are getting for us. Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited for Di Maria and Falcao (who I'm a little wary about due to the nature of his injury). They were emergency purchases for us, and everyone knew it. We were always going to get gouged because of our recent woes in transfers.

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If you watch both players at length you can see why some would prefer Danny. Swag is much more talented but lets face it, he is fricking lazy and when shite goes wrong it goes wrong fast.

Danny is an ultimate team player, who works his arse off to help the team even when he doesn't have the ball. He is one of the best strikes that can create space for others in the EPL. He does the things lots of super stars don't like to do.

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Let me preface this by saying that Balotelli is one of my favorite players on Earth. My sig quote has remained the same for years. All of that said, I like Danny Welbeck far more as a member of the club support. Balotelli is awesome to me because I can enjoy the hilarious and brilliant moments he has without dealing with the headaches he brings.

Welbeck has been a United boy through and through, and he always did whatever he could to make shite happen. Like SCH said, he was willing to come in and do the things that a lot of players in his position don't like to or won't do. He was one of Sir Alex's favorite players because of this. One of the biggest reasons he doesn't pile on goals is because he was used for years to fill in a ton of different roles, and Fergie even said this in his book. He also scored some pretty big goals for us. He did all of this without ever becoming too big for his role or becoming a prima donna.

I'm very disappointed that he's gone to Arsenal. I really liked him and would have loved to see him succeed with us. I know we had to get what we could because we're dropping bills like we're at the strip club. I just think that he had the mindset I want at United where the club is bigger than the player. We've been bringing in a lot of players who seem to value personal success a lot more than they do the club. I guess this is hypocritical because Rooney is my favorite player.

I just hate the fact that this year has become a "meet the new Manchester United" season in which almost every player I've enjoyed watching for years is gone. Hell, we could be fielding lineups where Rooney is the only player in the Starting XI who has been here for more than two seasons. As exciting as it is to get all of these big signings, it almost feels like hearing an old band you love reuniting with new members. You're always going to go back and give it a go, but it'll feel weird. I'll always support United, but it'll take time for this to grow on me. Supporting Di Maria was a strange one, but he won me over. It's a necessary evil, but I just hoped Welbeck could have fit into the system.

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Let me preface this by saying that Balotelli is one of my favorite players on Eart

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Who doesn't like Swagotelli?

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There is a group of AC Milan fans on /r/soccer who would rather play a 4-3-3 with Mussolini, Hitler, and Joseph Kony at the top than ever see Balotelli in a Milan shirt again.

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I don't doubt it and they may not be the craziest ones. I really like Balotelli a lot, I mean a lot and think he's really a good guy. However, at AC Milan he went uncontrollably out of his head (like he did for Italy against Uruguay in the WC when I would have personally held him down for Pirlo and De Rossi to strangle) way too often. He would just stop running or really playing at all out of frustration and their fans seemed to only tolerate it for about the first couple of matches.

I never like to see fans whistle their own players but like Jeremy Menez at Roma (good luck again Milan) it's hard to say he wasn't asking for it over and over.

That said, I think England may be better for him as he never acted out as often when at City. I actually think he just hasn't learned to deal with his emotions and felt too much pressure being "the guy" at Milan and, in the WC, as Italy's #9

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I actually think he just hasn't learned to deal with his emotions and felt too much pressure being "the guy" at Milan and, in the WC, as Italy's #9

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I think his agent said it best when he said, he wanted to find a club where he didn't have to be the leader... he could just play! And the LFC faithful will coddle his ego and give him tons of adulation as long as he gives his all...

Again, I don't care about all the silly stuff he does, my main reservation about signing him was his on the pitch behavior... He's ours now, so I just hope for his best!

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I think England may be better for him as he never acted out as often when at City. I actually think he just hasn't learned to deal with his emotions and felt too much pressure being "the guy" at Milan and, in the WC, as Italy's #9

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He did have that father son type relationship at city going on.

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I think his agent said it best when he said, he wanted to find a club where he didn't have to be the leader... he could just play! And the LFC faithful will coddle his ego and give him tons of adulation as long as he gives his all...

Again, I don't care about all the silly stuff he does, my main reservation about signing him was his on the pitch behavior... He's ours now, so I just hope for his best!

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I hadn't heard that from his agent but it makes sense just from observing. The more I think about it, I suppose it may simply that he needs to escape the pressure he puts on himself.

At Milan, Kaka and Montolivo were the captains and clear team leaders in dealing with the press, fans etc etc. The Italian NT is almost too filled with legends in Buffon, Pirlo, De Rossi and veterans like Chiellini and Barzagli.

I hope it's that winning at Milan / Italian NT were his supposedly his boyhood dreams that's where the pressure derived and being away in England makes him simply feel it's less "heavy" and more a game.

God knows Italian fans are the last ones to make you feel that every match isn't life or death and the weight of all history is always on your shoulders.


However, it's precisely his on the pitch problems that have been the issue at Milan and with the Italian NT in the WC.
Not to diminish his legend, but I actually believe Mario when he says the British tabloids outright made up 90% of the stories about him. When he moved to Milan, almost all the crazy stories died down and his Milan/Italy team mates always spoke well of him, well,up until the blowup in the locker room at the WC after his meltdown in the Uruguay match.

Time will tell, my friend.

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However, it's precisely his on the pitch problems that have been the issue at Milan and with the Italian NT in the WC.

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Milan was a dumpster fire. I don't blame him. All of the talk of his issues in the locker room are silly. Yes he blew up during the WC, but that team was disjointed before that. Anyone that claims he will break up the LFC locker room is extremely reaching. His teammates love his everywhere he goes. He works hard if he's happy and I'm confident Brendan can keep the kid happy because he'll finally be treated as an adult after all of these years.

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You know how I know you don't watch Serie A?

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bull fricking shite

I been watching swag since his inter days and hes one of my favorite players.

When he gets frustrated he gets lazy.

Welbeck does much more with out the ball.

I'm not a balo fan (as far as his on the pitch performance goes). Probably judge him too harshly, but I hate his game. I don't like welbeck's game either, but more versatility and less risk...I'm a little risk averse.hopefully we will have both struck gold.