The_Dark_Knight

Definitely better than Tierney, but that's no insult as Marcelo is better than most left backs. To be honest, Arsenal are pretty much the last top 6 EPL team that we wanted him linked to as they're penny pitchers. If Chelsea weren't banned from buying players for the next two windows I think they may have came in for him. I don't think Tierney will move this summer.

So, what you're saying is that it's a grammatical error and not a mathematical one? That's rather pedantic. Boy is my face red. </Sarcasm>

If Tierney were in the EPL Arsenal would be asked to cough up £50m+. If they bought Marcelo it would make more sense as Arsenal usually play 3 at the back. Not that I'm saying Tierney couldn't play wing-back. Checked. I'm comfortable with it.

It'll also be worth keeping an eye on Jack Harper. Getafe done brilliantly last season. With any luck Harper can establish himself, hopefully in the first 11

I'd go back and check it if I were you. Since when is twenty-four million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine pence a world record? 2003 called, they want their world transfer fee record back.

The Kieran Tierney saga is a strange one. A day doesn't go by where the media doesn't say that Napoli are preparing a bid, but they never have. I think it's Tierney's agent trying to prompt Arsenal into making a move. Arsenal are about to bid £22m. I don't understand why Arsenal are dragging their feet on this one. What next, are they going to eventually offer £24, 999,999.99m? Arsenal made £140m last season and yet they're quibbling over £5m. Bloody hell. A new twist is that Real Madrid's Marcelo is available. If they can get him for £25m-£50m they'll probably opt for him over Tierney.

Shankland joining Dundee United and Ryan Hardie being linked to Blackpool. Just goes to show how short Scotland are in striking terms, that the aforementioned are on the cusp of Scotland call-ups. On the subject of Che Adams, hopefully he scores plenty of goals next season, he plays for England in a competitive match and in doing so puts the whole "Adams for Scotland" story to rest. In the process, hopefully a young Scottish striker emerges next season, bangs in the goals, is a natural goal-scorer and whose goal it is to play for Scotland.

Is it April Fool's day? According to The Sun (I know) Manchester United are being linked to John McGinn. That isn't all, apparently McGinn is worth £50m. If this is true English football has finally gone mad, with no help of recovery.

Isn't that the point, though? Burnley received £103.4m for finishing 15th. To be honest, receiving that kind of money for the past 3 or 4 years they should be able to beat even the champions of Greece quite comfortably. No I'm not. OK. I picked two teams (at random) who got the knock-out stages of the Europa League 18/19: Rennes and Valencia. Valencia's first match in Group H was against Juventus and their last match In the knock-out stages was against Arsenal. Five of the team were the same. But you have to factor in suspensions, injuries, lack of form, etc. Rennes first match in Jablenec and their last match in the knock-out stages was against Arsenal. Seven of the players were the same. 12 players out of a possible 22 is pretty gosh darn conclusive (If you include suspensions, injuries, lack of form, good form, etc) that teams do take the Europa League seriously. I didn't use one season's worth of Europa league results as evidence of bad the EPL is. I used 3 out of the past 4 seasons. A Greek team, a Romanian team and a Danish team have all had English scalps in those years, against English teams that pretty much finished in the top 7, might I add.

Yeah, I think that's pretty what they've done, "pushing the boundaries". In recent times they have pulled back on the VAR calls, which has been very welcomed. The male refs are better, there's no getting away from that, therefore, it will be much more effective and accurate when better refs are viewing the decisions by themselves. I've enjoyed this tournament, I have, the quality has been good. (If anyone disagrees, tell me how good the previous Male European Cup final was) but the refs have been awful. I agree of the Scotland decisions, and not just the keeper one, also the penalty decision against England.

It's clear that FIFA are using this tournament as a Guinea pig for VAR, to iron out the wrinkles and find out the best way to use it, in order to induce it to the men's game. I've seen most of the matches. At the beginning-midway VAR was being used for pretty much every single contentious incident.. So much so that the average injury time was 7-8 minutes. It would've been fine if the stoppage ultimately gave the ref the opportunity to make the correct decision, but more times than not the referee made the wrong decision after consulting with VAR. Therefore, it's the referees that are to blame, not VAR. Since the quarter final matches VAR has been used less, which means that the matches have been allowed to flow more and there's been a lot less stop-start. The more familiar the powers-that-be are to VAR the better and more effective and efficient it will become. It's about striking a fine balance between using VAR and leaving incidents to the jurisdiction of the referee. For anyone to suggest that VAR is ruining the game, or has the potential of ruining the game, is reactionary and completely short-sighted. VAR gives referees a chance to right wrongs and make the game fairer with giving the proper decisions. Whether FIFA are just using VAR as nothing but lip-service, whilst giving officials strict instructions to favour the top sides, only time will tell.

Arsenal have their latest bid for Tierney rejected: Believed to be £17.5m straight up with £7.5 in add-ons, depending on European Success, etc. I'm quite enjoying Celtic being low-balled on this one, as they're getting a taste of their own medicine. The difference is, though, they don't have to sell. Celtic will never accept anything less than a one-off payment of £25m and I can't see any team paying that for a Scottish based Scot.

It's sad that people are using two Scottish players (Gilmour and Hornby) as examples of teams playing bad players in the Europa League. But yes, English teams generally play their strongest teams in Europe. I find it rather strange and unnerving that people are giving the English *lesser* teams excuses for their failures in Europe by suggesting that they don't take European matches seriously. Last season Burnley played their strongest team over two legs (as they did against Aberdeen when they sneaked through) over Olympiacos and got beat 4:1.

Anyone who has watched VAR being used in the Woman's World Cup would know that nothing will ever change. The big teams will get the decisions and the small teams won't. Simple as that. Against England, a Scotland defender stuck out a leg in order to stop the cross, the ball then hit the arm that the defender was using to balance her body. Penalty given. Last night against Norway, the ball ricochet off an England player's thigh onto her arm. Penalty not given. Not even reviewed.

Edit.

Which game? Against the galacticos of Quarabag? Maybe one or two. But Arsenal had already qualified for the knock-out stages by that point. I'm not talking about Arsenal, as they got to the final. If anyone thinks that they got to the final, beating the likes of Valencia and Napoli on the way, good luck with your recovery. And yes, Burnely, et al, used their first team players, and were beaten by teams from comparatively poor leagues.

From the bench.

I didn't check. Yes, they do.

I sense that you're being sarcastic. Magnanimous means being noble and generous. If he really was magnanimous about the Glasgow School of Art tragedy then your cheque should be in the post.

I'm not talking about the top 4/6. I'm talking about the rest of the teams. A league is only as strong as the entire league. That being the case, the EPL isn't the best, not even close, in my opinions. Apparently Arsenal are now willing to raise it to £19m today. To honest, I don't think they want to set a precedent by teams offering big money for SPL players. It seems that way.

Per-head, the French, Italian and Spanish leagues are probably better than the EPL as a whole. I watch a lot of those leagues, take out the top teams from each of those leagues, leaving the rest to play each other, the EPL teams would fill the bottom half of the league. Agreed. Honestly? I don't see him moving from Celtic, ever. He's not the type of player to "go on strike" like Paul Pogba is allegedly going to in order to engineer a move, and no team will pay what Celtic want. And I don't think he'd run his contract out, leaving Celtic for nothing, as he has more respect for them than that. If he does move to the EPL it won't be to Arsenal, at least not this season. They have a limited budget and there's very little chance they'll blow most of it on an SPL player.

Jack Harper officially joining Getafe for £1.3m on a 5 year contract. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jack-harper-heading-for-la-liga-after-transfer-to-getafe-8vfpl3xdp

I've just checked the Europa league history, French clubs, Italian clubs or Spanish clubs have never gotten beat over two legs by teams from lesser leagues. For it to happen 3 out of 4 years (and it's probably been streakier, but I haven't checked) to EPL clubs is rather embarrassing. The majority of the "B" clubs in La Liga would beat their EPL counterparts. It's the snobbery from those in England that annoy me, though. I bet there are many people in England would think Tierney couldn't cut it in the EPL. Yeah, because facing Norwich and Sheffield United, etc, you have to be Messi.... Hopefully Napoli offer £25m and it'll end the speculation.

For some weird reason English based pundits and fans think that all twenty teams in the EPL are world class, therefore, you have to be world class to be able to play against them: Wolves, West Ham, Norwich, Sheffield United, Southampton, Newcastle, Watford, Crystal Palace, Burnley, Aston Villa, Brighton, Leicester, Everton aren't exactly massive clubs who do anything in Europe. Just last season Burnley got knocked out of the play off stages of the Europa league by mighty Greek team Olympiacos, the season before last Everton were knocked out during the group stages. a year before that West Ham went the same was as Burnley when they got knocked out at the play off stages by the mighty Romanian team Astra Giurgiu, a year earlier than that Southampton got beat at the play off stages by Denmark's Midtjylland. So, in three out of the previous four seasons EPL clubs have failed to reach the group stages of the Europa League because of a Greek club, a Romanian club and a Danish club. Why does everyone rate the EPL so highly? Yes, the top 6 are awesome and mega rich, but the other 14 teams are rather mediocre, and for the money that they generate, they ought to be embarrassed. Honestly, I'd rather he went to La Liga or Serie A.

Why are people saying that West Brom are wrong? Wrong about what? They didn't say anything. It was all fairly ambiguous. People are just guessing that West Brom were talking about that Burke being dropped, but if you read the quotes they sound rather sinister. With the following quotes, I highly doubt it's about Burke not playing enough minutes. Maybe Lennon just completely blanked Burke, maybe he made him train with the youths. “Once Brendan left to go to Leicester the treatment he got from the manager that’s in place now is something we don’t expect from one of our players. “He won’t be going anywhere near Celtic Football Club. They know what’s gone on and Oli certainly knows what’s gone on. It’s just something we’re not happy with at all."