The Lions' Pride

So far we have for sure in Group A Porto and PSG, Group B Shalke und Arsenal, Group C Malaga und Milan, Group D Dortmund und Real Madrid, Group E Shakhtar 10 pts, in second spot between Juvi 9 pts, Chelsea 7 pts, Group F Bayern and Valencia, Group G Barca in and Benefica (7) or Celtic (7), Group H Man U and either Cluj (7) or Galatasaray (7).

So far we have 13 teams in with four spots open. Germans (3), Spanish (3), British (2 possible 4 including Celtic), Italians (1 possible 2), Portugal (2), France (1), Ukrainian (1) possible Turkish and Romanian teams.

Favorites... Real, Barca, Dortmund (would not have picked them earlier), Bayern, ManU, Milan, PSG and Porto. Would not bet on either Spanish team both have played well at times but also left alot on the field.

I guess Porto are the Basel of this years CL.

Basel seems to be playing better after their coach Vogel got sacked a couple months ago. Really liked him and I could understand him when he was interviewed (he speaks real german not the swiss dialect).

Sneijder to PSG is the surest to happen. Some others: Loic Remy and Mathieu Debuchy to Newcastle. Fellaini or Paulinho to Chelsea. Nani and Walcott swap. Balotelli to AC Milan. De Rossi to City...again. Kaka and/or Lampard to LA Galaxy. Llorente to Juve, Spurs, or Arsenal. Drogba to Juve. Henry to Arsenal.

My young Liverpool side is starting to get hot, I hope they stick with Brendan Rogers for a long time. The youth movement will be big going forward. Now if only they had a strike partner for Suarez...I know it won't happen, but I'd love to see Lewandowski move to Liverpool, but if I had to guess they will probably add Huntelaar.

I think Suarez and him would go well together. Suarez is a product of the Dutch league so I think chemistry is possible. Huntelaar is not the best all around striker in the game, but he is one of the best finishers in the game.

Just like this one from the OP?

"ManU agrees to transfer fee for Wesley Sneijder from Inter."

I'll believe it when it goes down.

No just Government backed loans from the bank. At least the Oil men are spending actual cash.

I don't think Higuain would go to CFC, even though hed fit our system well. Juve or City IMO. Real will chase either Lewandowski or Falcao. Liverpool should sign Shane Long. Reasonably priced and would be both productive and consistent.

Wish I could find the article. The current president of Real is in his 3 or 4th stint as President of the Club and when he was let go, ie voted out by the population of Madrid, the club was a financial mess. Real makes money, but not that much. This guy will bankrupt the club and the government will bail them out.

This is not true. The debt load was prior to Mourinho, when they went all out in Perez's first year (Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema, Xabi Alonso) to try to win it all right away. Their debt increased to £296m.

Since then, they been increasing revenues and decreasing debt yearly. 2011-2012 revenues were €514 million with a profit of €34 million. The debt was reduced to €124.7 from a previous year's total of €169.7.

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer a business model where the debt is authorized by a board (no individual owner) to purchase assets for improvement, rather than a club being saddled by debt brought on by the owner's acquisition (United).

http://sports.ndtv.com/football/news/item/196551-real-madrid-reveals-record-revenues-drop-in-debt

tdiddy.
You are a wealth of info on the European soccer scene. Fox soccer focuses so much on the Premier League that I do not hear much on the teams that move the dial in Europe. Where do you get your info?
Monterrey did not belong on the same pitch as Chelsea and could have been a bigger scoreline. I watched the match but find it hard to still root for Chelsea after they beat Bayern.
How does Bayern's midfield look? Have they gelled? A lot of talent there.
Thanks for posting as well as the other soccer affecionados on here.

My cable provider just dropped GolTV, so I don't get to watch Bundesliga too much. Loco could best answer that question.

I read a lot of blogs. I have a few friends, one who works for footytube and another who runs a site on Serie A, that keep me up to date on a lot of stuff. BEINSport provides sufficient coverage on Spain. I also read a lot of European newspapers, both for professional and personal interests. It's always interesting to get perspective on American sports from Euro papers too.

EPL is the best marketed, but Serie A has been a great league to watch this year. In honesty, EPL has underwhelmed me across the board this season. IMO, the league only has two true gamebreakers (RVP and Suarez) who could win a game against any team in the world. Henry and Drogba were on that list, but they're gone. It's still the most competitive from top to bottom, but the top 6-8 in Serie A have been more interesting to follow.

I've been watching a lot of Barca youth football as well. If you want to really depress yourself at the U.S's future as a soccer nation, watch Barca youth squads. Their U-19 team could probably beat our national team now. I watched one of their U-16 kids nail a 40 yd free kick the other day. Nuts.

The youth system is a lot different over there. A lot of these kids have played together since they could kick a soccer ball. Messi has been playing with guys like Fabregas and Iniesta since he was like 14.

I watch the US youth and I see a lotttt of potential, but that potential is never realized. The coaches here don't know how to develop talent. They see talent, hype it up and thats that.