It is now time to switch to a new Money AM football blog as the world cup is now over and we all look to the future.....World cup 2010 is over, Bravo Espana, and Forlan, once again and bring on the new season !.....I never expected the last thread to be such a success...thanks all.... so this new one might go on for years without the need to edit the title...we shall see...

Spinnaker Tower branding: New design revealed by council

Well done the Women !....semi-finals !.....I reckon the final is a big possibility !.....

I think it's all down to their Welsh coach :-)

I agree he has been a resounding success, long may it continue. It's amazing he got the job in the first place as from what I've read he didn't meet much of the criteria required.
2517

A bit like the recent host countries of the World cup then!

England women so close to reaching the final in what was a fairly even game, although the Japanese women probably had more of the possession. Laura Bassett very unlucky to score a wicked own goal at the death.
2517

Japan got lucky imo, England had over 22 attempts on goal, hit the woodwork twice, wee bit more composure in the final third, would have won comfortably. Cruel end!

The FA

What a pleasure to watch, no spitting (that I saw), no rolling around on the pitch as if they had been hit by a Challenger tank, and no arguing with the ref.
2517

Sterling joins Manchester City for record fee

Roberto Martinez attacks Jose Mourinho over Chelsea's John Stones bid
Chelsea manager plans new move to sign defender as Everton boss hits out at London club's tactics


By Jeremy Wilson, Deputy Football Correspondent, Singapore1:11AM BST 18 Jul 2015 Comments32 Comments
Roberto Martinez has accused Jose Mourinho of operating beneath Everton’s standards after the Chelsea manager spoke publicly of his desire to buy John Stones.
Chelsea have already had a £20 million bid turned down by Everton for Stones, a 21-year-old England international who started for Martinez in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat against Arsenal in the final of the Barclays Asia Trophy.
Mourinho suggested on Saturday he would make a new bid despite Martinez having insisted that the player was not for sale.
Mourinho, who is in Montreal on Chelsea’s training camp, said: “At the moment they say: ‘We don’t accept this bid’. They don’t say: ‘We don’t accept bids; any bids’. While they say, ‘We don’t accept this bid’ until Sept 1, we can improve the bid: £1 more, £10 more, we can improve the bid.
“If one day Roberto Martinez or the chairman says: ‘He’s not for sale; we don’t accept any bid’, game over. So during this process, it’s clear, we don’t deny we made a bid for Stones. It means we are trying to buy.
“We made a bid, we can make it — it’s an open market until Sept 1. We didn’t make an offer on Sept 2 or in March or two days before we play against Everton. We are making the bid in the period we have to make it, which is the open market.”
Chelsea’s approach has echoes of their attempt to buy Wayne Rooney from Manchester United in 2013 and has clearly angered Martínez, who may feel that Mourinho is making a deliberate attempt to destabilise his player.
“I think one think is clear we pride ourselves in playing a certain way, educating our young players in a manner in which they will always attract attention from elsewhere, and that is a footballing compliment,” said Martinez.
“The other side is that another football club is making such a statement in the press so openly. I don't think that is the way we would do it at Everton. We wouldn't speak about a player that is at another club and there is no issue from our point of view. John Stones is an Everton player full stop.
“We are not a selling club in that respect. There is nothing to speak to John about. I always speak with the players but there is nothing to comment about. We are not a club who need to be worried about what other clubs put through the press.”



Despite Everton’s insistence that Stones is not for sale, Chelsea remain determined to make Stones the most expensive English defender in history. The current record is the £30 million that Manchester United paid Leeds United for Rio Ferdinand in 2002.
Stones, though, still has four years remaining on his contract and Everton will be well aware that there is likely to be competing interest from the two Manchester clubs. They are also adamant that it is in Stones’s best interests to stay and play regularly for Everton rather than face the prospect of being understudy at Chelsea to John Terry and Gary Cahill.
Everton are not under any financial pressure to sell and Martinez has made it clear that he would oppose the loss of such a key young player at any price.
“We are working to fulfil our potential,” said Martinez. “The last few years we have been very brave giving young players opportunities to develop and we will carry on doing that.” Martinez does not believe that the Stones situation impacted on his players in Singapore on Saturday but they were defensively suspect and ultimately well beaten by Arsenal.
Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil all scored as Arsenal surged into a 3-0 lead, only for Ross Barkley to score a late consolation to deny Petr Cech a clean sheet on his first outing as an Arsenal player.


Stones, Barklay, Coleman, Baines, McCarthy. Roberto you can complain as much as you like. Until the Everton board come out publicly and state any of the players above are not for sale in this transfer window so you can all foxtrot oscar. Open market.

The best comment from this article imo :-



The sooner the `top 4 clubs` are made to join a Euro super league the better . Let all the `sugar daddy` subsidised teams outbid each other for success .

Like Kane, Stones should stay for at least 2 more seasons; he looked poor in his last couple of games - can bring the ball out but has a lot to learn re defending. He can do that at Everton, including more playing time. He'll still be wanted in 2 years providing he doesn't stagnate and is injury free, will still be young, and because of experience he may be better placed to make a decision re staying or going - rather than grabbing the first chocolate bar he sees at the checkout. If he decides to leave, Everton will have had some service and receive a fee at the same level or more - reduced contract time v better player.

---

Women's football shouldn't exist, it should just be football; the same with tennis - no Men's/Women's/Mixed just singles and doubles, athletics etc.

Cheers,
KidA

Yes - same with the showers! :-)

Didn't Blatter suggest that?

Cheers,
KidA

Missed the World Cup draws completely...England have a good group....difficult but they should get at least one of the two top spots.....in fact I would expect them to win the group....Scotland will not be easy to beat though !....Spain and Italy in the same group ?...nuts....France, Holland ,Sweden ?......I think England have done well to avoid that lot .......really Fifa are going to have to look at the way draws are being made : because this is crazy putting such strong soccer nations together....the Europeans are dominating the world cups yet this is what they come up with.....promoting the beautiful game (as Pele might put it) across the world is one thing but putting formidable football countries in one basket with only one outright qualifier is bonkers....

The Epitome of integrity!

FIFA passes resolution offering full support for holding 2018 World Cup in Russia

'He deserves a Nobel prize...' - comedy gold.

Meanwhile, the No Balls prize looks to be on its way to Di Maria.

Cheers,
KidA

Reports: Everton reject another Stones bid from Chelsea
29/07/2015 150 Comments [Jump to last]
"Sky sources" claim that Chelsea have made another official offer of £25m for John Stones and that Everton have rebuffed it.
If true, this second bid would still fall well below Everton's valuation of the player and the £34m - £38m figure that the media seem to have agreed between themselves would seal the deal.

Some of the national media are suggesting the Londoners' new offer is £26m, however.

Roberto Martinez was adamant earlier this month that the 21-year-old is not going anywhere and that has been reflected in a later tweet from Sky whose sources report that Everton have twice told Chelsea that Stones is not for sale.

Quotes or other material sourced from Sky Sports

Reader Comments

Second Stones bid rejected.

£25m apparently.

£25m is clearly designed to unsettle the player. He will go if they bid £30m or over

London Standard reckon they will offer £30m + add-ons. We want £34m apparantly. If there's a compromise and they pay £30m with add-ons that figure should be approaching a further £8-10m IMO.

Money aside, that would properly shaft our defence.

Take £25m plus Remy, spend it on a CB and No 10.
I see Diego Costa has a hamstring injury so presumably the Chelsea medics/trainers are crape too?

Far too much over-reaction at this point -- relax and give the squad a chance before going in hard on them!

This story has dominated the close season. I guess that if the lad wants it, he will go for c£34M as forecast.
I don't think the club has done much wrong in how they have handled the situation although the longer the uncertainty goes on the more difficult it will be to sign a decent replacement.

Most Evertonians I speak to are not enamoured of the Evans answer to the problem !

I would think that Stones, Lukaku and McCarthy will be here this season, or at least till January. Almost guaranteed they won’t be here at the start of the 2016-17 season unless we start acting like a club that wants to win things. The upside to selling them in 2016 is that we will probably get over £100 million for them.

Breaking News. Officials at Everton inform Chelsea Stones not for sale.what did Maureen say, when Everton say the player is not for sale, we won't bid again. Fuck off mourinho!!

That's scared him

but why are we even targeting a player like that (at that price) ?

Joe - Crazy money I agree. The irony is John Stones is a Man U fan, if the lad himself does have his head turned, pure press speculation by the way, chances are he will end up at Old Trafford LOL!! I won't be laughing if Jonny Evans (again press speculation) is mentioned in the same breath.