leipzig-dortmund VERY lively

witsel golazo

it is insane that this game remains 1-0

should be 4-3 like the others

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it's been for me what you ingleses call, i think, "a corker"

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and leipzig beaten at home

Have to say: however well Chelsea may have started this season, they're still as overly reliant on Hazard as they were under Conte as still as toothless in attack.

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Conveniently avoiding making any comment about West Ham's performance today.

oh i saw yr result and arnie going to china

you don't need him

Not sure what's going on with Arnie, and rumours now that Chicharito might be going, too. I'm not as concerned as maybe I should be.

you should buy top shelf now instead of value

Top shelf for a club like West Ham is out of the question. Even players on the up are difficult because they'll already be on the radar of the bigger clubs. And trying to do it in January, when teams are so reluctant to sell, is even harder. Ideally we can keep hold of them both till the summer when the market opens up a bit more.

chelsea already prebought little pulisic from dortmund for 73 million dollars. 1.28 to the pounds or summat? i mean .78 (reverse) say 57 millions total

but that kid sancho, holy fuck, you're gonna love having him in your national team soon

chicharito is the past

BUY FRESH MEAT

eta

west ham needs to be a place where young stars wanna come and develop, not the place where washouts get a second life

pellegrini is key. he da man.

if he leaves, get bielsa.

You overestimate West Ham's power to attract young players - those worth investing in, anyway. And even if they land one, they'll have to pay way over the odds for the privilege and the player will only use the club as a shop window for a better offer elsewhere. This is why they tend to focus on players towards the end of their career, like Nasri or those, like Arnie, in clubs that are on their way down. I wish it wasn't like that but it is.

We used to survive because of our (once) excellent academy but the lack of investment in that means we're at the mercy of a market we really can't compete in.

It doesn't bother me that much. It's just the reality for a club like West Ham. Chelsea can look at players like Pulisic but no way would he be interested in a club like WH unless they were prepared to offer him far more money than he's actually worth.

you really dont have 60 million pounds to buy a player?

whats yr yearly budget?

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ps it’s ok to be a feeder if you buy and sell right

see: dortmund rn

It's not about matching transfer fees, it's the fact clubs like West Ham have to offer ludicrous wages just to get a player interested. Man City pay Sane 90k a week, the same amount West Ham give to Andy Carroll. Chicharito is paid more than Mane gets at Liverpool and almost twice what Rashford earns at Man U. And if Arnie had his way he'd be on roughly the same wages as Mo fuckin Salah! To get a player like Pulisic, we'd have to offer him a similar wage to someone like Messi.

So Nasri's 80k a week suddenly looks like a bargain - even if it's more than Martial gets at Man Utd.

wat

why????

Because the wages are set between the player and the club that wants him whereas the transfer fee is set independently of the player. The wages are part of what gets called 'personal terms' that are agreed solely by the player. The selling club may agree any bid that matches their transfer fee but that doesn't mean the player will want to go there. So the buying club has to offer its own incentive to him personally.

but why should west ham have to pay more than liverpool? no sponsorship deals on the side or something? or is it like “we’re so horrible here’s some additional combat pay for your lost reputation” you’re saying?

my mind is blown here cuz i thought wages were more or less proportional to transfer fees, which are proportional to demand, which is relative to player quality and other prospects.

wtf is going on? im missing a big chunk of info here

In West Ham's case it'll be no prospect of competing for big trophies and a history of relegation. Of course this only comes into play if they're competing with a bigger, more attractive team for the same player, but that's almost inevitable if they're after the kind of 'top shelf' ones you suggest. That's why they tend to go for 'proven' players towards the end of their career (Nasri) or those who the bigger clubs know are quality but have a reputation for being difficult (Arnie). Best case scenario is they uncover a little gem who the big clubs didn't know about (Anderson) but then you have the likelihood that they're really only using West Ham as a shop window (Payet) and will jump to a bigger team as soon as they're on their radar.

i see...

but if you get a quality coach to develop the youngins you could be the bundesliga of the prem

sure you’ll get players poached but you’d be promising and exciting instead of teetering on the verge of old age and death by injuries.

oh don’t get me wrong. veterans always provide sense. witsel at dortmund was hired from china. he’s a belgium bencher but here he’s on fire. nasri is class.

but you could have hired, say, sancho...

dortmund may always be pilfered but theyve also managed to remain exciting. pulisic, weigl... kids who are going places. not sure about guerreiro but he looked good once. démbéle was once there. aubameyang. lewandowski before bayern. they know how to pick them.

Not in a million years would West Ham have been able to get Sancho. It's the same with Everton. The names of players Everton have been trying to sniff out eg/Wan Bissaka from Palace, they were actually looking at getting Witsel a couple of seasons back but as always it was never going to happen. The agents know they have promise and won't let them do a move to a "lesser" team.

It took Man City, who at that time were nothing, a serious amount of money to buy Yaya Toure. As you know it's even worse now.

And it's all well and good saying "trust in the youth squad". However, if you don't have the coaches or the infrastructure to build players to their full potential then you're not going to get the next Lewandowski etc. Dortmund have an incredible set up and that's where all those great players are coming from. It's not as easy as you think.

right, this is what im trying to understand

aren’t you guys now the mega-loaded? teevee money and whatever?

why would sancho prefer dortmund to west ham or everton?

is it cuz dortmund goes to champions league on the regular?

i mean, dortmund not long ago was fucked and broke. now they’re primed to win bundesliga

but the bundesliga stock has dropped some since a few years back i think...

so, yep.... there is a lot i dont know, so things dont make sense to me

explain?

eta: how is wolves more exciting than everton for example? or lester a couple years ago?

arent you better positioned than those two?

or is it just excuses for bad management?

Yeah, the fact Dortmund are now almost guaranteed CL football and are now considered genuine contenders for the Bundesliga title makes them far more appealing to top players than teams like West Ham and Everton.

And who said Wolves and Leicester are more exciting? Wolves are having a good season and obviously Leicester won the Prem but neither have established a position in the league, compared with the 'big 6': MC, MU, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs. If anything, Everton are generally recognised as being the best-of-the-rest and might on occassions break into that 6 but even they rarely keep it up for more than a season.

Also, if there's an exciting underdog team this season I'd say it's Bournemouth more than anyone, and who knows how they'll do for the rest of this season, never mind the next one or the one after that. Every season has its surprise team but they rarely carry it into the next one. Last season it was Burnley. Look at them now.