china is the new england, tv deal be damned

I'd say it's more like the new USA, except China's rich enough to tempt great players at the peak of their career, rather than at the end of it.

Imagine if Man City didn't qualify for the Champions League this season...

the mls has a lot of competition though-- has to squeeze a weird season between the nfl, the nhl, the nba, and baseball. it might conquer 100 years from now maybe but it's tough to get a bigger slice.

china on the other hand is ripe for explosive growth in professional sports and wide open. football is their most popular one already, basketball their 2nd. so maybe the nba will be their next victim. but right now european football is on the crosshairs.

im getting my guangzhou evergrande shirts while they're still cheap

... meanwhile ... Everton .... EVERTON!

It's all ifs and maybes. The Prem built on an already very strong profile. Right now China's throwing lots of money at something but where's their structure for real growth? Right now, at best, they seem to be building a very expensive version of the Harlem Globetrotters.

I honestly don't think they will. Are they better than any team in the current top 4? And I can easily see Man U overtaking them. Imagine if they didn't qualify for the Europa league?!?!

Laughed at Everton fans singing "sacked in the morning"

haha true

but theyre big prem fans already

and the prem can make further inroads there--but this being a tribal sport and china being nationalistic, theyll want theirs

he looks like hes literally taking a shit

It's unknown territory. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Maybe they can grow and grow but what if their government have a change of heart and stop subsidising it (which they're already talking about). And will they ever be able to build an iconic team, to rank with Real, Man U, Barca, Bayern, Liverpool, etc? Right now, I think most fans still follow teams over players. I still think we're more likely to see big European teams being Chinese owned than a dominant Chinese league.

Back to Everton ... If Diego does go to China, then I wonder if Chelsea will go back in for Lukaku. On today's performance he's almost a like for like replacement and he's made no secret of his desire to go back there.

Yeah, that was my first thought when I heard about this supposed bust up. Why Chelsea would go for Llorente over Lukaku I've not a clue.

However, today was a perfect performance by Everton in every way. Now they'll get beat by Crystal Palace next week, I'm sure of it.

And hopefully a brace for Lukaku, given I've just put him straight into my fantasy football team!

No way. That'd rank up there with Nugent if he claimed that goal. It was Davies' all day long.

that man u-liverpool game was bananas

loved it

Didn't watch it cos I thought it'd be another crap-o-rama as usual. Got that one wrong!

Totally! The last 15 minutes were insane.

I meant next week, against Palace

i read (via wikipedia) that their government wants 50,000 football academies or something. for their (currently) 1,400,000,000 people. they teach football at school now. massive numbers.

china doesn't even have to be the most dominant economy in the world for this to happen. witness la liga, blooming harder the greater the unemployment rises.

it also doesn't have to have a great national team. england has the prem but also hasn't won a world cup in half a century. not sure about euro titles.

but true-- i'm not a fortune teller/seer/ whatever. and other things could happen like-- the prem or bundesliga or serie a or la liga start to have matches in shanghai. but the future is global in spite of recent hiccups, so other leagues (not just china) should grow as well.

There would be huge resistance from fans and the media about European league games being played in China or any other foreign country, but that won't necessarily stop it happening.

Meanwhile, Pep's postmatch after Everton was just weird.

Apparently they're dominating possession (obviously) but are weak in both boxes. Could this have anything to do with Pep making Aguero (still for me the best out and out finisher in the league) play deeper than he's ever played before, and for still believing that Kolarov is a CB?

No way would the board ever sack him but if things don't improve I can seriously see him walking. He really doesn't seem to be enjoying himself and I'm starting to wonder if he's having doubts about his own ability to turn things around.