Hello good people, trust you’re all staying healthy (physically and mentally) while we’ve all had to deal not only with the pandemic, but also the terrible scenes in KZN and Gauteng stoked by thugs loyal to Jacob Zuma.
Such bad timing and so unnecessary, but also a real wake-up moment for government. People are poor, desperate and it’s so volatile. Let’s hope that positive change results from the unrest.
I’ll quote Pope John Paul II, who once said “Out of all the unimportant things, football is the most important”.
And during times of difficulty, I believe football (for some of us) is a really good distraction. So it’s a real relief that there seems to have been a VERY short off-season!
With the Euro final less than 10 days ago, pre-season club friendlies are in full swing, the transfer market is buzzing and the start of the season is just over three weeks away!
Like most supporters, I can’t help keeping an eye on all the latest transfer gossip, although as we all know it means nothing until contracts are signed.
Mostly, headlines are created to sell papers and increase traffic to websites. It’s really annoying, I feel like a proper dummy when I click on an attention-grabbing line that says: “Erling Haaland reacts to Chelsea bid”. And then go and read the “story”.
Firstly, no “official” bid has been tabled, despite reading that Blues owner Roman Abramovich has apparently “released £150m” or “Dortmund reject £75m plus Tammy Abraham or Callum Hudson-Odoi”.
But then the real cracker… Haaland’s “reaction” to the dreamt-up bid was that when he was asked, he remained silent! Haha, ok, so that’s the reaction, he remained silent, let’s read something into that… wow!
There’s no doubt that the European champions are interested in him and will pursue a deal, but this kind of “reporting” isn’t even speculative, let alone newsworthy.
The reality is that the 20-year-old’s deal with his German club expires in a year, which at that time will drop his price to around £75m. It’ll be a real test if Chelsea do stomp up a mega-offer now, enabling his club to cash in on his purported valuation.
I’d suggest a good solution (even though it’s ridiculous for any player to have a £150m tag) that the Blues buy him now for the full amount and he stays in Germany till the end of the upcoming season. Anyway, I’ll continue to scan the gossip!
Back to the football itself and a couple of interesting pre-season friendlies coming up.
Given Covid restrictions, there isn’t the usual slew of marketing ‘tournaments’ abroad, barring the Florida Cup – featuring Arsenal, Everton, Italian champions Inter Milan and Colombian giants Millonarios.
At home, most clubs playing lower-division sides, except for Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs who all play each other, kicking off in just two weeks, with the Charity Shield (City v Leicester) on August 7. Apparently being played in front of a 75 000 Wembley crowd!
Football looks like it really is back in (almost) full-swing, with high attendances despite alarming daily infections currently at over 50 000.
However, due to most of the population being vaccinated, hospitalisations and deaths are relatively low.
On that note, we’re still bang in the middle of it, five million vaccinated, still a long way to go.
From my viewpoint I hope you all grab a jab as soon as you can. Stay safe, Mask up, keep your distance and wash dem handies! Chat next week.