Aston Villa has book Salernitana as replacement for the friendly that they were supposed to play against us. On the other hand, we’re looking forward to starting the season with only 4 friendlies, 1 key departure (at least) and 5-6 newcomers as reported. Way to go!
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That is a scary lineup for us, Rekik hasn’t shown much and the Rakitic - Jordan tandem has been ineffective, meaning Gudelj will probably play major minutes, luckily the first few fixtures are not major clashes but a few mishit passes and brainfarts could see us on the wrong end of the matches.
Same, Griezmann and Depay could benefit now they get to play in their preferred positions and have the ball at their feet instead of walking around.
We got to be positive overall. I think the sevilla DNA over the years has us fearing the worst. Overall though I like our squad, team chemistry, manager and obviously having monchi and castro pulling the strings. I still think we can do some good business for more players too. Monchi I feel will use the kounde money wisely.
Will be nice to have fans back too. Albeit only 40% at first which is a bit disappointing. I hoped for more and hope that’s just temporary but better than nothing. I think fans back proper will happen in Spain soon as us in UK are back to normal. I’m relatively confident we can start off well against Rayo with a win next Sunday night.
We only fear the worst because we’ve seen what happens when the same players and tactics are used time and time again. I like to keep my expectations tempered especially since my previous club had ways to smash you lowest expectations so I would only celebrate when everything is done and dusted. Feel free to call me out for this, as long as Sevilla benefit I would gladly take it.
Monchi is doing his work but it’s becoming increasingly hard as seen with the Lopes and Idrissi transfers. I feel there are still deals in the process but with just 1 week left till kick of of La Liga they are cutting it close.
Having the fans back will help and we did miss them last season, hopefully a boost until we get everyone back. A win against Rayo is possible but I’m seeing a 1-0 or 2-1 affair.
I think some transfers are dependent on whether Kounde leaves but Chelsea have just shelled out 98m for Lukaku so it shows
- Chelsea had the money, just didn’t value Kounde like we did and wanted to make us take some deadwood
- They might not make an increased offer for Jules now, so chances of him staying have increased.
I think Monchi would want to have an conclusion to this saga asap so he can know whether to integrate Jules into the squad or snap up his planned replacement(s). As stated before I want Christensen with 45m or Zouma with 55m.
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I’m confident Kounde is gone. I think Chelsea had a short window to make this Lukaku transfer work, so they’re stalling on our deal to see if anything changes. A smart strategy, but I don’t think Monchi will budge this time.
I’m seeing more talks about Kabak being close to a move here. I’m sure this isn’t dependent on Kounde, and simply to replace Sergi Gomez.
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Messi emotional in his goodbye speech. He’s going to say Barca is the club of his life and wanted to retire there, or something damaging (here’s hoping).
Other players also shedding tears in the audience.
Edit …
Well he composed himself and spoke well and at the end of all that I give him credit for his 21 years there and the entertaining football he’s played.
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Happy Monchismen anniversary @TimSpence2
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Messi was basically weeping that ‘la liga wouldn’t allow Barca to pay a few million more’. It was so sad I almost reached for the kleenex.
Thanks @ShendM … proud to be part of this.
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Happy Birthday Tim,
Yea I’m also a bit confused by this, I remember Messi had problems with Bartomeu resulting in wanting to leave, since he doesn’t want to play for the club ran by him, but actually doesn’t want to leave the club. Then Laporta was re-elected right and everything started to look better organization wise. So at this point if Messi really wanted they could have made something happen earlier. And if money wasn’t the issue here, why would he be tempted to sign a 120m contract in PSG? I of course have no idea what’s the real deal, but to me it reeks.
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Happy Monchismenversary @TimSpence2 Thanks for all the great contributions! You rock!
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It is confusing. In the goodbye he admitted he wanted to leave last year but wanted to stay this year. La liga told Barca to reduce the payroll by €200m, perhaps that had something to do with it because he went on to say he had done all within his power to stay at Barca.
He then said he had no planned next club but reports say his next flight would be to Paris for a medical. I guess his organizers don’t want the left hand knowing what the right hand is doing at this moment.
I wonder if PSG know what they’re doing or things will change because at Barca no player was allowed to touch Messi in training and he had more office space than the Managers.
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If they don’t sell Mbappe then it could be a serious ‘leadership’ problem with Neymar there too.
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Most everyone I know here in Sevilla has got their season ticket and I have no idea how this works with the limited crowd size. At the moment it’s 40% permitted so the RSP should allow 18,000.
In Alavéz they have 7000 season ticket holders wanting to see the opening game against Real Madrid. But the Basque area has tougher Covid measures so only 20% of the stadium can be occupied. So there’s a limit of 3,800 fans allowed.
Biris have announced their non-participation due to prices and distancing regs.
and financial problem maybe
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Aguero out for 10 weeks with calf injury. Made of glass that guy. Things go from bad to worse for Barca. They still got fati out injured too. They in for a long hard season. I backing real soceidad to beat them first game 
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I’m pleased to see some fans back in stadiums. I am a little disappointed it’s just a 40% limit though. I mean Spain have vaccinated great and now caught up to us in the UK. They have infections controlled and they have hospital admissions low and controlled just like us in UK. I don’t think masks are necessary either especially in outdoor settings.
In the UK everything is normal again and so far so good. Hopefully the likes of Spain, France and Italy will look at us and realise it is safe to go back very close to pre Covid life. The vaccines work but you just have to make that brave decision to totally open up. We did it and it’s working well at moment. Hopefully other countries follow suit soon. You have to move on at somepoint and think of the bigger picture like peoples economies, mental healthy, livelihoods and freedoms, etc
The biris notre from the Sevilla fans probably won’t return until things back to full normal with full crowds again. Hopefully that’s not far away. I hope this is just a trial for a few weeks and provided things go well then they go to full capacity in stadiums by say mid September. We will see.
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Our close friend here in the US is a nurse in the Covid Unit in the most populous area of Virginia. She sent us a message this weekend and told us that 14 of her 17 Covid patients had been vaccinated. I’m not sure if we have a different strain other than the Delta and Lambda that is moving through right now, but please consider masking if in public. I’m not so sure how effective the vaccine is anymore. 
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Oh that’s worrying. Hopefully that’s not a trend as the last thing the world needs is a new super strain variant that gets around the vaccines. I just had my 2nd vaccine dose today though. Hopefully things improve everywhere as the world has suffered enough. Fingers crossed these vaccines hold up but they are preparing booster jabs as well to deal with new variants.
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How many variants are there already? Last I heard there’s a Kappa variant that has taken 7 lives in an elderly home in Belgium - all were vaccinated.
The Greek alphabet has 24 letters so you never know. I’ve had Covid in early June 2020 and I’ll admit it wasn’t a pleasant experience even for me as a 28 year old last year. The surprising thing is that out of all the family, my grandmother who is 81 had the least symptoms and did very well, go figure.
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It’s a strange virus for sure. It affects people randomly with no logic at times. I’m glad you and your family were okay though. Stay safe and hopefully we get to enjoy life closer to normality but time will tell.
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No clue on #s of variants. I’m glad you and your family recovered. It’s a terrible virus and many here in the states thinks it just simply went away.
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