u/Wakanda-shit-is-that

Pep Guardiola stood in the away dressing room at Juventus’ Allianz Stadium and opened his heart to his players.

“Guys I want to confess something. I am fucking divorced from the most beautiful woman in your planet, my wife, my ex-wife. I love her unbelievably but we lost the passion. I love her? Yeah, absolutely. She loves me? Yeah, but we lost the passion.

“How do you play football? Because you play, or for something inside? In your lives, whatever you are going to do, do it with passion. I don’t want good players, I want players with passion.”

After City lost 2-0 against Liverpool in December 2024. Guardiola is naming individuals who should have done better at certain moments and addresses how Walker lost possession.

“You keep saying my name in every meeting and every fucking thing,” Walker answers back. “Every f***ing meeting, it’s my name.”

Guardiola responds by saying, “Maybe because you’re a captain.”

“You didn’t want me to be a captain,” Walker replies. “I’ve reacted to someone else, I lost the ball, you somehow bring my name into it.”

Guardiola then tears up as he gives his thoughts to the team — this was around a fortnight before he tells them about his divorce following the game in Turin.

“This is my defeat — if I am a problem you have to tell me. I won’t stay here for the money or for the fact just to stay, I don’t want to feel that I have to run away from you.

“If I am a problem, tell me. That is not going to change the love I have for you, not one second.”

Going into the season without a striker is definitely worse than keeping Lewa for one more year, yeah he was getting old but not having a striker could doom Barca, La Masia has no strikers either except Hamza but can you really put him in against Bayern or Real?

There are only 16 days left in the window, no club is selling their striker now with such little time left for them to find a replacement. Wasted the entire summer chasing Alvarez, shame.

Adidas Torfabrik, the new match ball for the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga, has been criticized by goalkeepers and praised by strikers. A lot more goals are to be expected this season. 22 goals have already been scored in the first 6 games of the second division

HSV goalkeeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes: “The Adidas ball is faster than the Derbystar. You can strike it well, so it’s more friendly for outfield players. As a goalkeeper, you have slightly less time to react because of its faster trajectory. That’s been my experience so far."

Nürnberg keeper Jan Reichert: “The Adidas ball is simply harder on the surface, which gives it a completely different trajectory. As a striker, you can hit it much harder, and it picks up a lot more speed. We told the guys: If you have the chance to shoot, go for it. Because it definitely became easier to score from long range."

Dresden striker Jakob Lemme: "We’ve noticed within the team that the ball is a nightmare for goalkeepers and moves from side to side. And when you hit it from distance, I think it’s difficult for a goalkeeper to deal with."

Paderborn striker Stefano Marino: "You can apply a bit more power when shooting without the ball flying ten meters over the goal."

The official statement from the club:

𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗘 𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗚𝗢

RB Leipzig and @realmadrid have agreed on a transfer for Yan #Diomande

With 13 goals and 10 assists in 36 competitive matches, Yan made a name for himself across Europe in his first season with #RBLeipzig. Now the 19-year-old is joining the Spanish record champions.

Best of luck for your future, Yan!

After weeks of talks, the green light finally arrived on Thursday: Yan Diomandé is a Real Madrid player. Transfer market expert Fabrizio Romano said weeks ago that the move would happen no matter what, sparking quite a stir on X. RB Leipzig, who stand to earn up to €140 million from the sensational sale of the 19-year-old forward, have now joined the debate too.

On 26 July, Romano gave his 'here we go' on Diomandé's move to Real, for a fee of 'more than €100 million'. The Italian's report surprised fellow journalist Florian Plettenberg of Sky Sport, who had been closely tracking the transfer for the German outlet.

Leipzig, in any case, appear to have taken Plettenberg's side. The club officially announced the transfer with the headline 'here we actually go', meaning: only now is the transfer really done. For Leipzig, it is an outright transfer record.

Memphis Depay presented a series of requirements to renew the contract with Corinthians for two more seasons.

Among the requests is the transfer of a box at the Neo Química Arena. The striker also requested that the club make the stadium available in two days for events organized by him. In addition, the Dutchman asked that 50% of the revenue collected from these shares be allocated to his enter. The demands were accepted by the board chaired by Osmar Stabile.

Another request made by Memphis involves an eventual conquest of the Club World Cup, which will be played in three years. The striker asked for a percentage of the prize if Corinthians lifts the cup, even if he is no longer part of the squad. In the player's assessment, he would participate in the club's sports reconstruction process and, therefore, would be entitled to the bonus.The Alvinegra board, however, refused the proposal.

Due to broken promises, Memphis Depay has reportedly demanded that Corinthians restore a debt to around R$77 million if they miss future repayments. Corinthians currently owe the Netherlands international roughly R$45 million.

Memphis has agreed to waive interest, penalties and financial corrections if the original amount is paid across four instalments every six months.
However, his representatives want the debt to return to the larger R$77 million figure if Corinthians fall behind again.

The former United attacker has also requested a 10 percent increase on previously agreed salary, image-rights and marketing payments, with that additional money intended for his agent.

His camp reportedly also wants monthly interest of 1.5 percent and a 10 percent fine included in the new contract if payments arrive late.

Corinthians are not prepared to accept all his demands and plan to submit a counterproposal, with negotiations expected to continue over the coming days.

Uli Hoeneß says he's very happy with Bayern's summer transfer window:

"We've had a perfect transfer window, just like last year, bringing in two players who will be very useful to us.

Regarding players we sold, the individual fees may have been relatively small, but in the end they still added up to a very respectable amount. We recently had a meeting with Herbert Hainer and several members of our supervisory board, and he [Eberl] reported that we've already generated more than €40 million in income.

"Ideally we would like the players not in our plans to look for solutions however I also want to make one thing absolutely clear: a contract with Bayern Munich is sacrosanct. If a solution cannot be found, the player still has a home here at Bayern."