The Kane Curse will end Bayern’s Bundesliga dominance with Spurs now tipped for FA Cup glory
Sunday’s Mailbox is dominated by Harry Kane, who could not end his wait for a trophy after Bayern Munich were battered in the German Super Cup.
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The Curse of Kane
This may be lost in the furore of the Premier League kicking off, but I just wanted to give those who missed it an update on Harry Kane’s quest for trophies. He has joined Bayern Munich and made his debut in the German Super Cup, which Bayern have won each of the last 3 years. Suffice to say they could not make it 4.
Kane came on as a sub in the 63rd minute. His first touch came in the 72nd minute, his second 3 minutes after that and we are still waiting on his 3rd.
Bayern do not look like the force they once were, having been torn apart repeatedly by a Leipzig side shorn of their two best players from last season, one of whom, Konrad Laimer, lined up for Bayern for the first half. Thomas Tuchel may have managed to stumble over the finish line with them last season but that had far more to do with Dortmund sh*tting the bed than anything Bayern did particularly. On this evidence it would be a shock if he were to survive the season because, frankly, Bayern were crap.
So Daniel Levy has got his way, Kane has left for a massive pile of money and not immediately won a trophy to add himself to the list of former Spurs players to have done so. The question now is, will his arrival mean Bayern will end their run of Bundesliga inevitability? Has he taken the curse with him to Munich? Does this mean Spurs are now nailed on favourites to win the treble this year? No, but a man can dream.
Anyway, wish him the best of luck, but I have to admit it would be grimly funny if his big move backfired.
Looking forward to seeing Ange’s new Spurs in action,
Harry, THFC (keep an eye on Xavi Simons, he looks a real baller)
Hurry Kane
So, Harold Kane left these shores to win trophies in Germany, how’s that working for ya? Hurry hurry has no blessings, ey ‘Hurry’ Kane? Should have done a Mbappe and stayed the season before boarding a free gravy train to glory glory Man UTD…
Money Magnet
Kane’s curse
Two minutes ago I posted a throwaway comment under the article about Bayern losing a cup during Kane’s 1st game, and realised that either I am a genius,(100 percent unlikely), or an idiot who happened to notice a very simple pattern that has been staring me in the face (a dead cert).
The article states that Sir Harold has been a senior player at spurs for 14 years and even I can figure out that Spurs’ last trophy was 15 years ago.. merely coincidence or the evil plotting of childhood Arsenal fan, or some sort of curse?
Spurs for the FA cup and Dortmund for the German League are my predictions for this year.
Dave PVFC.
The Kane Curse
Well, that confirms it, The Boy is cursed, put your mortgage on Spurs to win the league this season.
TGWolf (Barry Fox is some genius level trolling) THFC
Cursed Kane
In the last seven seasons Bayern have won the DFL Supercup (German Gemeinschaftschilt) six times, securing the last three consecutively.
Basically a free trophy for Die Bayern..
Kane: ‘hold my beer’
Tonight, they lost.. at home.. 0-3.
Stijn, Amsterdam
Don’t mess with Liverpool
Here my tuppence worth on the Caicedo transfer saga for what’s it’s worth, what a bizarre sequence of events.
He’s a quality player, I’d have loved him to play for Liverpool and I think it would be better for him if he did but if wants Chelsea/Chelsea out in the proper leg work and he wants to honour that/Chelsea are just offering better personal terms then who are we to argue.
What I think happened is this:
Liverpool were slowly but surely moving towards an agreement with Southampton when Chelsea piled in with their 48m bid. This pissed Liverpool off no end. Chelsea had no intention of ever signing Lavia and just wanted to bid on him to say to gain bargaining power with Brighton in an effort to lower Caicedo’s price.
This meant Liverpool were unable to buy Lavia below Southamptons asking price. This pissed them off, the big 6 generally don’t do this type of thing to each other: fake bid on a player pushing up their price for the buying club so Liverpool said if you let going to be dicks we’ll be dicks too, here’s a 110m bid on Caicedo.
They knew most probably Caicedo was always Chelsea bound but wanted to say if you can increase our player by 5m well watch us increase your price by 20m and that’s what’s happening. Caicedo will cost Chelsea 115m now and before they would’ve paid max 100m and we’re hoping for 90-95m.
Sure Liverpool won’t get Caicedo, can’t lie, he’d have been magic in our team, but Liverpool have sent out a message to Chelsea that you mess with us, you get messed with.
I predict Lavia will arrive at Liverpool in the next week and Caicedo at Chelsea but they’ll have paid 5mil and 20mil more than they expected respectively. No one wins in this scenario but Liverpool have sent a message out, don’t f**k with us again.
Dave LFC
Putting the Toon in Toonali
I figure a debut goal, a classy performance, and a deeply Italian dive following a slight foul from Pau Torres invalidates any continued “unhappy flop” narrative for Sandro Toonali. His defensive performances in the US had me worried, but he’s clearly caught on, and an early bath in Geordie adulation will help his bedding in to no end. I think he’s going to be huge.
I have to admit: I was deeply nervous before this match. I’ve actually seen more Newcastle matches this summer than I ever have, and we were good and getting better. But I think the world of Emery, and Villa’s recruitment has been marvelous. The scoreline was surely deserved, but Villa were quite threatening through most of the match. I came into the match thinking that Villa would dog us throughout the season; I still don’t think I was wrong, but it sure is nice to seize this early advantage. Newcastle’s fitness is already remarkable.
Alexander Isak was a constant threat – the guy is a freak, built like Peter Crouch but with Ronaldinho’s feet — and Almiron was an absolute menace and probably deserved his own goal. Martinez’ yellow card for hauling him down should have been red by the letter of the law; a run at goal with the goalkeeper behind him is an ironclad goal opportunity for a player like Miggy. I thought it was one of a number of cowardly decisions from the referee, and the score might have even uglier without Martinez, who made some fantastic late saves; Callum Wilson should have had a substitute hat-trick.
Boy howdy, though: Moussa Diaby showed exactly why Newcastle wanted him so much. He’s delightful, but even more delightful was Newcastle showing him what a stupid decision he made. When Tyrone Mings went down, I immediately knew it would be great for the Magpies – and Villa really did miss him — but obviously took no joy in it; the injury was obviously extraordinarily painful, and I hope it wasn’t as bad as he must fear. But I thoroughly enjoyed watching Matty Cash have such a rough day at the office. That pretty -boy is as almost as annoying as Jack Grealish.
Pundits have generally placed Newcastle outside the top four for this season, and I’ve reluctantly agreed, as Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all look likely to be better (not to mention Villa). But we looked amazing today: scrappy in defense, quick-thinking in transition, fit as f*ck, and bloodthirsty in attack. We’re in first right now, and we’ve got a clear chance to finish in the top four again, but what I’m really excited about is the Champions League. There are maybe ten clubs in Europe that I’m scared to play with this squad. Six of them are in the Premier League.
Oh, and another thing: the EPL introduced two new laws for this season that appear to have been specifically (also, incorrectly, pettily, and/or unfairly) designed to address Newcastle’s success: the new added-time interpretation and the new limit of one coach ion the technical area. I’ll leave aside the rightness or wrongness of the rules themselves, except to say that, previously pointed out here, NUFC handed out a lot of beatings last season, and that made clubs waste time against us, too. But both feel – and I believe were — directly addressed at NUFC . I absolutely understand wanting to obstruct Newcastle’s owners; it’s a feeling I share. But the league targeting one club on the pitch this way feels deeply unfair and quite worrying.
PS – Another delight was Isak’s finishing the match in a torn shirt. Dirty defenders are nothing to him.
Chris C, Toon Army DC
OPINION: Unfancied Newcastle highlight how much further Villa must travel to catch up
Toonali
After all the chat about how Newcastle might find this season harder, and how we might have overpaid for Tonali and Barnes, and about how Tonali didn’t even look like he wanted to be there…
Its nice to have the football back to do the talking.
Roger (Villa will do well this year too), Newcastle in London
Australia vs France experience
I have just returned from a road trip from Sydney to Brisbane to watch Australia vs France in the WWC.
I took my 12 year old son and 10 year old daughter. It was a mission, but the flights were not available when we tried to book this week.
It was a mission, but the best weekend we have had as a family(their mother is no longer with us). 50k sold out stadium, entertaining game between 2 well matched sides and the longest penalty shootout in WC history(men’s or women’s).
There were also 10s of thousands at fan sites across Australia in every capital city, the AFL was delayed so they could show the games on the big screen(for fear of people not attending to watch on TV. There was also a record tv audience for a sporting event in Australia.
The match itself was edge of the seat, one of the most intense you will see with all 3 goalkeepers making brilliant saves during the game and the shootout. One of the best 0-0 you will see.
But special mention to Mackenzie Arnold the Australian keeper, 4 penalty saves and the same number of top saves in the game. Her attitude was brilliant, after saving one penalty she was adjudged to have moved off her line(she did, but both keepers did for all penalties so it was harsh to ping her for it), but no bother, no major arguments…. just saved the retaken penalty too.
It went to the 10th taker after Australia had 3 chances to win it(kicking 2nd) and it seemed Australia wouldn’t be able to close it out… but we did and the stadium erupted, my son still has tears of joy and would still be dancing around the stadium if i let him.
It was a proper night to remember, not just for those that were there(lucky us), but everyone watching around the country.
It did make me think how “Australia isn’t a football country” though and i’ve seen a few stats since in that regard. So here they are, comparing different world cups Australia has hosted recently. Keep in mind i am comparing a women’s event vs men’s events:
WWC total attendance – 1.9m(so far)(France had 1.1m total when they hosted in 2019)
Rugby League WC attendance – 382000 total
Cricket WC – 1m
WWC TV Audience – 6.5m(plus the 100s of thousands at fan sites for the quarterfinal(earlier Matilda’s games had 4m which also outranked any other sporting event)
Rugby league WC – 850000(for the final)
Cricket WC – – 2.2m(for the final)
WWC Estimated revenue – $5.7billion
Rugby League WC – 5.9 million
Cricket WC – 1.1 billion
Obviously there is no AFL WC to compare to and the Rugby WC was 20 years ago. But it makes me wonder what those figures would look like if Australia was in fact “a football country”….
No on to England in the Semi on Wednesday, unfortunately we’ve not been able to get tickets for the semi or final but we will be watching from a fan site. England are one of the favourites, but the competition is supposed to get harder as it goes and should be a brilliant game/experience with 75k at the stadium.
It’s been a brilliant WC so far, no matter how it turns out for the Matilda’s and it is good to see the entire country getting behind such a likable team.
2 more games girls.
Liam(would sell a kidney for 3 tickets to the semi… would probably sell the other one for the final if Australia make it)
Who is Amrabat?
I got neither love nor hate for Amrabat, and other than his standout performances at the world cup, I do not know much about him. Looking through various different scouting websites, a similar pattern emerges.
I assumed he was a hard hitting ball winning midfield destroyer in the mold of a Casimiro. Turns out, that is not what he does.
He appears to be a defensive midfield with some average defensive numbers, but where he truly excels is with his passing. He is in the 90th percentile for passes, passes completed, final third passes and scores reasonable well for progressive carries. He’s known for his long balls, tenacity and getting booked.
Potentially costing just £20M, knows how to play the 10H way, and appearing to be a much better passing upgrade on McFred, this may be a sensible transfer after all if it comes to fruition.
Calvino (he could equally become the next Kleberson)
Caicedo saga = amusing
The funniest transfer ever for these reasons,
1. watching scousers lose their collective sh1t over their club over-spending on a player
2. seeing other pool supporters try to apply their scouse maths to justify it’s a good deal
3. Seeing Carragher and the Liverpool echo laud this transfer as a big coup
4. Realising that Hojlund and Mount were absolute steals in comparison
5. Hearing the kid rejecting Liverpools record British transfer fee.
And this all for a player with a whoscored rating last year of 6.92 compared with Fred’s in 2021/22 of 6.87
Absolute gold.
On a mildly related note, why are Chelsea trying to stump up 115 million if the Liverpool offer has been rejected? Why not offer 100 or there abouts. Then again, overpaying for players really is a Chelsea way these days (yes, I know, ironic coming from a utd fan).
And are there any Chelsea fans to comment on how spending 600 million or so in less than a year yet you still don’t look like you have a team? If any of the rest of the top six had spent that they’d be challenging for sure.
Jon, Cape Town (will be funny if Chelsea gazump Liverpool for Lavia as well)
Chelsea money
I’m seriously not trying to be sarcastic or argumentative here; I don’t know the financial details concerning Chelsea and was wondering if someone could please explain how they can possibly afford all these signings without FFP breaches. I know they’ve been giving long contracts to players but what else are they doing? They seem to be buying players non stop.
Rob Carey
Life as a Villa fan
Spend the Summer looking forward to football being back and then that happens.
Fair play Toon. Get better Tyrone and sort your sh*t out Villa.
Football eh.
Paul
Declan Rice
After watching our first match, mine is an easy question: What exactly is the purpose of Declan Rice (£100million)? Would anyone be kind enough to enlighten me?
-AP Gunner, Singapore
Arsenal flags
Do Arsenal supporters know that they will never be taken seriously if they wave the stupid flags behind the goals? Cheesy. Pathetic.
A, LFC, Montreal
