El Profesor

Yes, I think the best option is to sell a player that wants to leave. Not sure if that's the case with Salah obviosuly, but in general I agree with you. Here in Brazil, it's very common to see players burning all bridges and refusing to train and to play in order to force a move. The problem though is that even if Liverpool receives a huge fee for Salah finding a replacement is very difficult. Especially when teams know you have a need and know you have money. That reminds me of Neymar's Barcelona exit. They paid a lot of money a significantly worse player (Ousmande Dembélé) because Dortmund knew Barça had received more than 200 million euros from PSG and needed a winger.

Alvarez, Ward-Prose, Paquetá and Kudus is a really strong midfield. West Ham could repeat Roma's feat of reaching Europa League final after winning the Conference League in the previous season.

Basic question I know, but I really don't know the rules. Could a player leave his Premier League club after PL's transfer window is closed?

Talk here in Brazil is that Fluminense turned down a 30 million euros for André. It makes sense since Fluminense is at Copa Libertadores quarter-finals. André´s gonna leave Fluminense soon, but probably in January, after the brazilian season is over. IMO Liverpool should try to make that offer to Corinthians for Gabriel Moscardo. Insane talent. Only 17 years old and a starter in a big club. I think he´s going to be the best brazilian 6 of his generation. Corinthians being completely broke up is also a factor. They will definitely sell him for the right offer.

FSG transfer policy is really baffling. I mean, I really thought that with their baseball background they would explore market inneficiencies to build strong teams at ower budgets. There are so many of them, especially at a sport like football where analytics are really far behind from US major leagues. I am truly convinced, it is possible to build exciting and nice teams spending much lower sums than the likes of City and PSG. Real Madrid, for example, bought Vinícius and Rodrygo for a combined 90 million euros. IMO You have to cut the middle man, clubs like Benfica, Brighton for example. Instead of buying MacAllister after the World Cup, they should've done when he was loaned to Boca, when it was quite clear he was a class player. Moises Caicedo has been a big prospect for quite some time in south american. Buy him when he is at Independiente del Valle, instead of waiting to see if he can prove himself in Europe. I know there is a lot of risk, but Milan, for example, returned to the top of european football not when their chinese owners spent crazy money, but when a different ownership group focused on getting young players.

Definitely. He wanted Messi, Neymar and Verratti out of PSG and he got his wish. I wonder though about his relationship with Luis Enrique. If there is a coach who has the courage to oppose stars and show who really is in charge, it's Luis Enrique.

Don't really blame Neymar for taking that offer. It's just way too much money to pass and it's not like he had many options in european football at the moment. It also comes with the bonus of leaving Ligue 1 for good. IMO French league is way too physical, especially for a player like Neymar who likes to dribble. He can spend those 2 seasons in a less demanding league and still position himself to return to Europe or to Brazil in order to prepare for World Cup in 2026.

I joined, Chris. I should have posted, my bad.

I saw the goal. haha Chelsea has a really good one on its hands.

To be honest, I don't know much. Vasco was in the 2nd division and I don't really follow Serie B. But I've found on Twitter some information about him.

I think he is. After seeing Neymar picking Barcelona, Florentino is determined not to lose the next great player from Brazil. He hit two home-runs with Rodrygo and Vinícius but it seems so far that he completely whiffed on Reinier. Hopefully Endrick will be another case of success.

Apparently, yes. The Northeastern states vote heavily in Lula´s favor. There were roadblocks there and none in the state where I live, Santa Catarina, where Bolsonaro won in a landslide. Contrary to what many expected, including me, there hasn´t been any violence tonight. I´m really relieved. Honestly? I am glad it´s finally over. So much conflict and tension in the last few months. I´m looking forward for the World Cup, hopefully a good campaign will help heal the wounds of the nation.

So much suffering and unintended consequences out of this war.

Well, there's the presidential election this year here and it'll probably WWIII between Lula and Bolsonaro supporters. We should form a TF365 colony in Uruguay.

I agree. But at the same time, I understand why people do that. Hitler is for us what the Napoleon and the French revolution was to people in the 19th century. Any historical event is measured and compared to Hitler and the World War II. We still very much live in the shadow of that war. By the way, I saw a guy on Twitter comparing Putin´s invasion of Ukraine not with Hitler´s agression of Czechoslovakia but with Mussolini´s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. I agree, that was a very good point. It´s a much better comparison. It was a widely condemned attack and it isolated Mussolini, driving him to the arms of a more powerful ally, Nazi Germany. Before the invasion of Somalia, Mussolini and Hitler didn´t get along very well, considering both had conflicting claims regarding austrian territory. I think the same could happen with Russia. Ukraine will make Russia into a pariah state and will drive Putin to the arms of China.

I was thinking about this question last night. I´ll answer with what I came up. I´m still collecting my thoughts, but this is what I believe it happened. Putin is a predator. He smelled blood on a wounded prey and decided it was safe to attack. I mean, the West can´t reallly hurt him in any meaningful way. An exhausted United States ,from costly and bloody interventions in Middle East is not going to deploy boots on the ground to aid the ukrainians. In Europe, Germany the main EU power, refuses to spend the NATO minimum of 2% in defence. Another good question would be: what difference it makes for Russia if Ukraine joins NATO and the EU? I mean, Poland and the Baltic countries have already joined. I´d say Ukraine is different, for historical and ideological reasons. Russians believe it to be part of Russia. The origins of what is now Russia begin with the Kiev Rus. A democratic Ukraine in contrast to an authoritharian Russia would become a source of instability for Putin´s regime, as young russians would look up to Ukraine as a model to be followed. Much like a communist Cuba attracted thousands of young latin americans during the Cold War, as it from the outside at least, Fidel Castro´s regime appeared to contrast with the corrupt and violent regimes backed by the United States.

As promissed, the reading list: Russian and Ukrainian History: - The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine - Serhii Plokhy - Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine - Anna Reid - Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - Timothy Snyder - Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine - Anne Applebaum - Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation - Serhii Plokhy - From Peoples Into Nations: A History of Eastern Europe - John Connelly - Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia - Orlando Figes - The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union - Serhii Plokhy - Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis - Serhii Plokhy Present-Day Russia and Ukraine: - Man Without A Face - The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin - Masha Gessen - It Was a Long Time Ago, and it Never Happened Anyway – Russia and the Communist Past - David Satter - Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? - Karen Dawisha -Ukraine and Russia: From Civilied Divorce to Uncivil - Paul D´Anieri - Godfather of the Kremlin: The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism - Paul Klebnikov - One Soldier's War In Chechnya - Arkady Babchenko - Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell in and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin - Ben Judah - Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War: Power, Politics and the Making of Post-Soviet Society - Tony Wood - Babylon - Victor Pelevin. * (The only fiction book on this list. This looks like a very interesting read of post-soviet Russia society).

The 90s look now a decade of lost opportunities. It was the one chance to make Russia a stable and prosper democracy. A shame. Instead of an Adenauer, what the russians got was financial crisis, humiliation and a drunken Yeltsin. (Later, I´ll post a reading list, with the names of some books that can help us understand this crisis).

I'm rotting for the Rams because I'm a Dodgers fan. I guess that makes me prefer LA over Cincinnati. haha

Paquetá is such a fun player to watch.

Endrick is 15, competing at the the U-21 level and scoring those kind of goals. European teams are already after him. He won't stay at Palmeiras for long. Real, Barça Man City, Man United and Liverpool are said to be interested.

Moving to Chelsea was the right decision for Thiago. IMO He's one of the best defenders of his generation but few people realized that because he spent so much time at PSG. Doing well at Chelsea changed his status in football. I'm happy he's staying. Hopefully, Chelsea will also save Marquinhos from a similar fate.

IMO Thiago is a generational defender. Probably the best brazilian CB I've ever seen. I was afraid that this move to England at such a late stage of his carrer would ruin his reputation and I'm glad the opposite happened. The move to Chelsea took his legacy to another level.