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2021-22 Premiere League Thread

jeffbear

Mod Squad
Staff member
Camps are open so it's time for a new season thread. As a recap, Man City are defending the title they grabbed back fro Liverpool. We're still waiting to see if there's any more fallout form the Super League debacle, and newcomers Watford, Norwich and Brentford joint the fray. We're back to something like a regular schedule, and the transfer window is open until August 31. Enjoy.
 
Man U sign Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund. They chased him last year but walked stay from the €120 million valuation. What a difference a year makes. Man U will pay €85 million but in 5 annual installments. That’s a huge savings for one of the world’s richest clubs.
 
Man U sign Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund. They chased him last year but walked stay from the €120 million valuation. What a difference a year makes. Man U will pay €85 million but in 5 annual installments. That’s a huge savings for one of the world’s richest clubs.
It's also a more accurate valuation, I think. That 120 was a shock price designed to drive away suitors. It worked. But Dortmund always seems to cave in the end, which is why they never have quite enough to challenge Bayern.
 
Man U add Rafael Verane from Real Madrid. Big move to solidify that back four. Because of the current travel weirdness, he has yet to make to Manchester and I assume he'll need to pass the physical for this to be 100% complete.
 
Arsenal sign Ben White from Brighton for €50 million, more than what Man U paid for Varane. But he has a lower wage bill.
 
Jack Grealish to Man City for £100 million. And they’re still chasing Harry Kane too. They have to be the front runners for Messi, along with PSG. If Barca couldn’t sign him and stay compliant with financial fair play, I doubt Real Madrid could either.
 
Kane makes a bit of sense for City, but Grealish? They already have DeBruyne and unless they plan on playing with two balls, then Jack won't do them hardly any good at all. He's a wonderful creator, but only when he has the freedom to dominate flow and possession and be a one man primary attacking route. Can't see that happening in City's system. Plus, he won't even pretend to press or defend so Pep's probably going to end up burying him eventually. All so he can be a "Champions League player." Ah well. At least he got Villa back to safe ground in the top flight before he buggered off.
 
This just makes me sad on all accounts other than that 100 mil is a lot of money and hopefully it gets reinvested wisely. It sucks to see Grealish leave Villa and as Jeff said, it'll suck to see him sit on the bench at Man City.
 
Another American in the Prem. Josh Sargent is moving from Werder Bremen to promoted Norwich
 
This just makes me sad on all accounts other than that 100 mil is a lot of money and hopefully it gets reinvested wisely. It sucks to see Grealish leave Villa and as Jeff said, it'll suck to see him sit on the bench at Man City.
They gave him the #10 shirt, from what I read, he’s going to alternate with Ilkay Gundogan, viewing Grealish as a replacement for David Silva. I guess they’re going to deploy DeBuyne deeper?
 
It’s back to the future for Romelu Lukaku, headed to Chelsea for €115 million, as Inter cuts their wage bill again. He was on Chelsea’s books from 2011-14 but only made 15 appearances, 10 in the league, spending 1 year on loan to West Brom and another to Everton before the Toffees signed him on a permanent deal in 2014.
 
Another American in the Prem. Josh Sargent is moving from Werder Bremen to promoted Norwich
Where he will likely sit behind Teemu Pukki, who has been Norwich's main striker for several years. On the upside his only other competition will be Adam Idah who is an actual child and has never been terribly prolific. For USMNT purposes, that kid needs to PLAY, not sit.
 
They gave him the #10 shirt, from what I read, he’s going to alternate with Ilkay Gundogan, viewing Grealish as a replacement for David Silva. I guess they’re going to deploy DeBuyne deeper?
Who gives their No. 10 to a guy that alternates with anybody? Again, there's no bigger Grealish apologist than me, but Pep would have to change his famous structure to get the best out of the guy. Pardon me for thinking that sounds tremendously unlikely to happen ... considering this is a manger who has thought absolutely nothing of nailing the likes of Kun Aguero and Gabriel Jesus to the subs bench in the past.
 
Something to keep our eyes on as we move on this year. NBCs contract with the Premier League expires after the 2021-22 season. It’s a t year/$1 billion contract. The league renewed their contract with BT Sport, Sky Sports and Amazon for $7 billion over w years. So will NBC renew? If so, how much? And how does the end of NBCSN and the loss of the NHL factor into it? Who else wants in? ESPN picked up several European leagues. Paramount picked up the Scottish Premier League, Argentina and Brazil and already hold the Champions and Europa Leagues.

Rebecca Lowe’s contract ends next summer too. If NBC does lose the Prem, who signs her?
 
I feel that NBC actually does a decent job with the EPL, as opposed to whatever they were trying to do with the NHL. Scheduling is a bit of a mess, but the broadcasts are consistently solid and Lowe is a freaking gem of a host. I'd be surprised if they didn't at least take a run at a renewal.
 
I feel that NBC actually does a decent job with the EPL, as opposed to whatever they were trying to do with the NHL. Scheduling is a bit of a mess, but the broadcasts are consistently solid and Lowe is a freaking gem of a host. I'd be surprised if they didn't at least take a run at a renewal.
NBC brought in legit analysts for soccer instead of the assortment of clowns they had for hockey. And Rebecca Lowe is in the top echelon of studio hosts. They need to drive eyes to Peacock so,I think they’ll still be players. And realistically, none of the other potential bidders can offer the league a network spot in the Saturday noon window in the fall, they all have wall to wall college football.
 
Yeah. For once, their lack of familiarity with the product worked in a network's favor. NBC admitted they knew nothing about how to broadcast soccer, picked an English broadcaster to emulate and then proceeded to do exactly that. And I think they know what they have in Rebecca Lowe seeing as how she was the daytime host of their Olympic coverage.
 
The Premier League kicks off the 2021-22 season for real starting Friday the 13th. Insert joke here, I guess ... Brentford get welcomed to the big boy league by Arsenal. Spurs and City play the heavyweight match on Sunday, but with Harry Kane only returning to camp recently the shine is off of that one a bit. He's available but can't be in any kind of shape and the reports keep flipping wildly between him playing and not playing. Best of luck to everybody's favorite team .... unless you root for City :0)
 
Brentford returned to the top flight after a 70-something year absence and laid a 2-0 beating on Arsenal by way of celebration. I don't think the Bees will make quite the dent in the table that Leeds made, but I do think neutrals will be glad to have them around. They play entertaining football and are committed to sticking with it even against top opposition.
 
Not a ton of surprises out of Opening Weekend in England. Villa looked dangerous but disjointed in their first real game without their longtime fulcrum (and missing their best striker). Spurs were plucky in the face of everybody on earth assuming they'd roll over against City after so much Kane drama. Jamie Vardy scored on opening day ... again. Biggest surprise of the weekend may have been Leeds barfing up 5 goals to Man United.
 
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