The KUMB bits 'n' pieces & off-topic thread

[YorksHammer]

Over the last few days, 2 topics were discussed on the transfer thread. As they obviously are off-topic, I prefer ask the questions they raised in my mind here.

Guardiola playing without striker at Barcelona
I was very intrigued by this statement as he counted on a player who is probably one of the very best strikers I have ever seen: Eto'o. The man was an absolute beast, scoring from any position, any possible way and being properly unstoppable (pace, power, footwork). So wasn't Eto'o a striker by your standards? Does a striker have to be tall and sit in the box waiting for the ball?

TV deals
From what I know, the Premier League TV rights (not the coverage, of course) are more or less equally split between all the teams, right? I always found it a clever way to do it compared to the unequal system that prevails in France, or worse, the Spanish club by club deals. It gives some means to the smaller clubs to build better squads, infrastructures, and so on, making it a virtuous circle to improve the level of the league. Well, on the paper, it looks like that. So, I'd be curious to know what you think about it, as you obviously know better how it works and what consequences it has.

Eto'o was a lot better than, I think, most people gave him credit for. I think there are a couple of things to consider, and that's whether a 'striker' is different from a 'centre forward'. For me, a striker is your traditional 'fox in the box', the type of player that finishes chances off but doesn't necessarily offer much more than that. A centre forward is more involved in the play, linking and creating as well as finishing chances and being interchangeable with the wide forwards around him. You could argue that even with Eto'o Guardiola wasn't playing with that traditional striker, but more of a fluid front three where Eto'o was a centre forward. It's semantics, though.

TV deals in the Premier League - it's a bit of both, and it's not perfectly equal. 50% of the TV deal is equally split between the clubs, then 25% is the 'merit' payment a club gets for finishing in a position within the league (I think, generally, this is estimated to be ~£2.5m per position) and 25% is distributed as a facilities fee - basically the more games a club has televised, the more money they get for the use of their facilities. This last bit ends up a bit more skewed - the last set of numbers I can find is for 2018 (https://talksport.com/football/365285/h ... 502281230/) where Burnley only had 7 games televised compared to Man United having 28 (West Ham had 17).

So, I think it's a bit more fairly distributed than the examples you present, but I don't agree with the televised games skew and think that a) it should just be evenly distributed except for the merit payments, and b) TV companies should be obligated to show each team an equal number of times, or at least as equal as possible.

[norse]

[only1post]

Is there a thread anywhere on The European Women's Championship?

My wife is asking me why I love Football so much but have no interest in it.

Was hoping to see the views of fellow Kumbers.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

from the dropdown menu go to WC/Euros one it's right there..

[only1post]

Thank you.

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

PL player accused of rape 'not suspended by club'

"We are aware of the allegations which are currently the subject of a police investigation," the club, which has also not been named, said in a statement.

"We have confirmed that the player denies the allegations and is on police bail pending the outcome of their enquiries. There have been no charges laid and the player can fulfil his professional commitments including permitted travel.

[the pink palermo]

Moderation Notice

A polite reminder not to name anyone associated with JBB's post above, no hints, jokes or anything "clever" please.

Thanks all/

[The Straw]

I hope we do manage to sign the 6'5" Italian, the 6'3" Albanian and the 6'5" Belgian.

Purely because I want David Moyes to call a snap press conference just to tell the world’s news outlets that he is building something here, and that under his guidance West Ham will literally be the biggest team in the country.

[YorksHammer]

Figured this discussion was better pulled out here than in the transfer thread:

What I would say is that some of those players you listed above as relatively sure things turned out to be poor signings. Ayew, Hernandez, Diop (as well as Haller and Anderson who aren't listed but I assume you include based on the 'first time' comment). This suggests that realistically, we don't know how this is going to play out and that having too extreme of a view either way is probably not the best way to approach it.

Haller and Anderson at least looked like they would have the traits to succeed and, in fairness, started off well. Anderson clearly tailed off at the end of his first season and never got it back, and arguably Haller had a similar experience. I think the issue was that they are both front foot players and, when we stopped playing on the front foot as much, either due to being defensively challenged more or having less of the ball, they struggled. I felt pretty good about their signings.

Diop, I know some will cite his intermittent form, but the elements of him being a good player were definitely there when he started with us, and I think Ayew gets a weirdly bad rap because the deal was weird. He was, at least, PL proven at the time of signing him - same with Hernandez, who probably was OK with us really but just not the player we needed/wanted. There was at least some continued, high level pedigree behind each of those signings, even if they didn't necessarily come off in actuality.

[norse]

A bit of preseason friendly fun;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... cante.html

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

Uwe Seeler RIP

Former Germany striker Uwe Seeler, one of the greatest players in his country's footballing history, has died aged 85.

Seeler scored 43 goals in 72 games for the then-West Germany and featured at four World Cups.

He spent his entire club career at Hamburg, from 1954 to 1972, scoring 490 goals in 580 appearances.

"We will never forget him and will always cherish him," said Hamburg board member Jonas Boldt.

[Misko]

On a West Ham way scale, how would OL preseason record score? Our two star players, Paqueta and Lacazette have been injured. The former got his hand badly cut by a kite, the later was stung 10 times on the face by wasps yesterday.

[Xabbu]

On a West Ham way scale, how would OL preseason record score? Our two star players, Paqueta and Lacazette have been injured. The former got his hand badly cut by a kite, the later was stung 10 times on the face by wasps yesterday.

You appear to be our twin club if only we had your success. You never fail to make me smile Misko.

[norse]

At least he wasn't

[Cuenca 'ammer]

Manager Frank Lampard watched on as his side were thrashed 4-0 by Minnesota on Thursday

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... -Park.html

Furious Everton supporters protest against owner Farhad Moshiri outside Goodison

[btajim - mcfc]

The new stadium should help Everton for the future as it will attract investment. Moshiri has otherwise been a disaster. I know many Everton and it appears near unanimous.

[S-H]

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

The FA, the cloud and England

[iLoveLasagne]

What on earth is big brother doing?

https://www.engadget.com/cisco-manchest ... 36767.html

[norse]

&