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Bayern Munich president UliHoeness opines that the inflated transfer market is dangerous for football.
The market has seen a drastic upturn of recent as rich clubs pay expensive release clauses to get top rated players.
Recently, state-backed Paris St Germain paid a world record fee of €222 million for Brazilian forward Neymar Jr. The deal doubled the previous record held by Paul Pogba for €100 million. Neymar’s move triggered Barca’ spending of €145 million in a deal to land Ousmane Dembele from Borussia Dortmund as replacement. Then more recently, Monaco reportedly agreed to a €180 million deal with PSG for French youngster KylianMbappe.
Hoeness is very displeased that clubs are paying this much for the players as he provides his own maximum valuations.
“In my opinion, there is no player in the world worth €100 million. I do not want to buy a player for €100 million even if I had the money. That would be too much of a waste of money,”Hoeness, who has served a prison term for tax evasion, said. Continue reading
Germany international Per Mertesacker played only one full match for Premier League side Arsenal and still ended the season lifting a trophy in the mould of the oldest of them you had find in England – the FA Cup.
In a season the Gunners truly had a lot going for them as early as the 11th match day fixture where they thumped three unreplied goals into Thibaut Courtois’ net as they handed Antonio Conte one of his heaviest defeat as a coach.
Ironically, that prompted the Italian to reshap the Blues into a 3-5-2 formation that served him throughout his time in charge of Juventus and to a lesser extent the Azzuri national side of the wine-loving nation of Italy.
That tweak will later propel Chelsea to eleven straightpremier league wins and in the process ensure they opened up a gap that the rest of the league struggled to close down till the final match day with Totttenham Hotspur coming closest but still ending up 7 points below the top spot.
Arsenal though ended up so close to their yearly-chased darling – the fourth spot – as Jurgen Klopp’s Red Army made sure to condemn them to fifth place by defeating Middlesborough and ensuring the North Londoners won’t be in the Champions League for the first time in 21 years. Continue reading
Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich slipped as they played a 2-2 draw against Mainz at home.
They were lucky to come back from behind to get the result against their lowly opponents. They are still the likely winners of the league but the gap is now nine points ahead of RB Leipzig’s clash with Schalke.
BojanKrkic, who is on loan from the Premier League, opened scoring as early as the second minute. Daniel Brosinski scored a penalty before halftime but goals from ArjenRobeen and ThiagoAlcantararestored parity, leaving both sides to share the spoils.
The result follows after their loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter final. Injuries stopped the team from presenting a full squad, then errors and dismissals forced their defeat to Madrid. They remain in pole position to retain the Bundesliga though.
In other games, Marco Reus inspired a 3-2 victory for Dortmund over the rivals Monchengladbach. Replay shows Reus was wrongly awarded the spot kick in the 10th minute which he converted. The hosts equalized through Lars Stindl. They went ahead courtesy of Marcel Schmelzer’s own goal but striker Pierre-EmerickAubameyang came on to equalize before Raphael Guerreirosnatched victory for the visitors. The result lifts Thomas Tuchel’s team to third place. Continue reading