The Chippy: “Football” is “back”

The Bundesliga is “back!”

German football returned this weekend giving us glorified preseason real competitive matches. Sort of.

I’ve long made my feelings on football quickly returning behind closed doors crystal clear and this played exactly as I expected it too. It was exciting to have football back, a nice spring in my step Saturday morning, until the novelty quickly wore off.

There were some things that brought back immediate normalcy, such as Marco Reus missing out injured, and it was nice to have the Twitter timeline back to its usual discourse. But overall the intensity was very low, and now there’s just one question:

“Is bad football better than no football, or is no football better than this?”

I don’t think there’s a right answer to that, just really depends on your opinion.

Even for me, an above average Borussia Dortmund fan, it only took about eight minutes before I was like, “meh, I’m pretty bored.”

This was a Revierderby, a huge match, and that’s what made the empty ground all the more prevalent. It’s the fans inside the ground that built the atmosphere for these big matches. That’s an even bigger problem in the Bundesliga, a league that is so heavily tied to it’s fans and fan culture. Without them, a lot of clubs quickly become pretty anonymous.

But I know that even if we held everything off until next season began in August, we’d still be doing it behind closed doors, so we’re just going to have to get used to it.

We’re also going to need to get creative on the broadcast side. We may have to do some trial and error until we figure out how to make this feel more like real football.

FC Seoul apologizes for sex dolls in the stands

I know I just said some trial and error to figure it out, but this ain’t it chief!

Women’s Super League to cancel the rest of the season

So it’s not safe or feasible for the women to play but it is for the men? Right, that makes sense.

Borussia Dortmund and Aston Villa saying they won’t lower their price tags on their big stars

Quick timeline of things. Saturday night The Mirror drops this story,

“The Premier League’s Major clubs fear Manchester United’s huge resources will catapult them back into the big time after Coronavirus.”

Then on Sunday we have stories dropping about how Borussia Dortmund won’t be bullied into selling Jadon Sancho for a lower price, and how Aston Villa won’t budge on their £80 million Jack Grealish price tag, even if they’re relegated.

Yeaaaa okay. Please forgive me if I’m not going to believe any of that right now.

This is a classic negotiation ploy from those clubs to try to make themselves still seem like they’re coming from a strong position.

As I’ve already said, both BVB’s financial structure and recruitment model hinges on selling players like Sancho. Even if the market went down so much that they aren’t getting as much as they originally anticipated, if Sancho wants to go they need to sell him. That’s their pitch, we won’t stand in your way when you want to leave. If they do, they’ll certainly lose out on the likes of Jude Bellingham, and possibly the next Bellingham too.

Also, gotta love Villa fans not knowing how this works

Your owners are American investors (yes one is Egyptian but he lives in New York City and is an “American” businessman). They understand appreciating and depreciating assets. They know that Jack Grealish’s value is at the highest it’s ever been, and likely ever will be. They also know they’re losing a lot of money right now, and will only lose more if they’re playing behind closed doors in the Championship next season.

They aren’t going to pass up on cashing in on Grealish simply because they didn’t get £80 million. They’ll take what’s on the table. - PK

Like Father, Like Son

Manchester United announced last week that they secured another academy prospect when they signed Charlie Wellens to his first professional contract.

The Wellens name might sound familiar and that is because his father Richie was also a Manchester United academy product, who made one first team appearance in 1999.

The younger Wellens trained with the United first-team on the eve of their Europa League group stage opener against Astana in September and made his debut for the Under-23s in November. - VR

Bruno knows

One of us. - BM