Reports around Europe are swirling that Hajduk’s Nikola Kalinić will be the newest striker for Premier League club Portsmouth. The two sides are set to meet Friday to discuss terms. Rumors in Croatia have a proposed transfer for Kalinić at €8 million. We’ll know tomorrow for sure.
Kalinić and Kranjčar together at Fratton Prak. I’ll like it only if Kalinić can prove his cockiness was worth such a big deal and manages to score goals in the Premiership. Let’s see if this deal goes through first.
WILL WE SEE MORE OF THESE TWO TOGETHER?
Source: Sky Sports
Yeah but rest of Ukrainian league is crap. They have same problem as Croatia deep down which is no depth to their league. All their nations have same problems. If we think 20 years ago did Croats really dream of playing in EPL in the days when Liverpool were getting beat by Brondby. Its only recently that's all happened when all the money came in and suddenly the guys claim they were Manchester United fans when they were kids when everyone knows they never were. Maybe it might not stop one or two moving, but it might hold back the bulk of the players. Its just an idea anyway. One that isn't gonna happen.
But even with a superleague you still would not be able to hold on to your players. A league like this will not create multi-million dollar salaries. Kids grow up today wnating to play in the EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, not raod trips to Bulgaria or the Ukraine.
Also, why would the ukes want to join a league. Their current league just produced a UEFA cup winning squad and another semifinalist.
i personally believe that Eastern Europe only falls behind because of a negative attitude and not being innovative enough. Eastern Europe is nervous whereas everything is on the table when the west decide how to restructure. Ukraine, Czech Republic, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania all has the same problem as Croatia. If they put their four best teams all into a league together they could rival what is coming out of Western Europe. Remember they want our players all the time so its not like we have no resource. I am also not talking about sides like Boby Brno i'm talking about Stearea, Red Star, Sparta, Shaktar – these are the pride of their nations and people will turn out to see the pride of Croatia take on the pride of Czech Republic or Romania. All these teams were strong at one point in history and still produce fantastic players and would be better than they are if they can just manage to keep their stars. We all have the same problems which is that we can't keep our players cos the teams we play don't provide good competition and additionally the fans aren't turning up. I think a Superliga would bring the fans in and keep players. My idea would centre around sides like this.
Czech Republic: Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague, Slovan Liberec
Serbia: Red Star, Partizan, Vojvodina
Croatia: Dinamo, Hajduk, Rijeka
Ukraine: Dinamo Kiev, Shaktar, Dnipro
Bulgaria: CSKA, Levski, Litex Lovech
Romania: Stereau, Dinamo, Rapid, FC Cluj
Belarus: Bate Borisov, Dinamo Minsk
You have to admit these sides would be better competition for the best of Croatia. I know it won't happen, but that's the only way i think things can change. To be honest i wouldn't even send a invitation out to Hungary to join lol. They have no teams. There would be a certain amount of elitism. Maybe Hungary can create their only smaller superleague with Cyprus teams in it:)
I have no problem with anyone putting down my idea. I'm just trying for my team to be more powerful they we are. Its bizarre for us as we've reached the stage of financial stability after so long of having money problems and yet we still can't hold onto our players.
Alex is correct, the only other country that would want to explore a "superleague" is hungary. None of the other countries mentioned would want to do anything with croatia. Ukraine would only want to join a league that included russian teams. Bulgaria, serbia and czech republic add nothing. Each country only has one quality side. Austria would never do it.
Its a nice idea on paper, but will never work. Face it, leagues like the hnl are feeder leagues for the bigger countries. Once a player does anything in cro he wants to leave and he should leave. More money and better competition.
The only combination I could see at this point in time would be a Croatia-Hungary league. Both leagues are in poor shape and could benifit roughly equally ( no "junior partnership" this time round lol). Geographically, the two countries are right next to each other. Politically, there are no problems and most importantly, both nations have the experience of working together on the Euro bid which would make it far more likely of actually happening. Also, the "big clubs" like Dinamo wouldn't feel overly vulnerable since their status wouldn't (immediately) be threatened.
To retain association to each countries league i think there should also be a chance to get promoted and relegated into and from the Super league so basically the HNL league would still exist and league winners should switch places with the lowest finishing Croatian team in the Superleague if you get what i mean. That's only however if the lowest rank team finishes below midtable.
Therefore the league would not be cut off from a Osijek, Zadar or Zagreb if they were good enough to reach it. Basically it should be a league of 3 or 4 teams of each country, but then they could retain their Superliga status or get relegated if they finish last of the four. I think its the only solution personally. The Yugoslav league for one is pointless being put back together and so is joining with Bosnia or Slovenia. Stay as we are and we'll be light years behind the Premier League, Spain, Italy and Germany. I also don't think i'm in favour of a league which cuts off other teams from entering it so there has to be chance to get promoted and relegated from the league.
Although in the short term at least it might not happen – can you just imagine how fierce games might be between the best of Croatia, Austria, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. It'd be majorly competitive at least and would give everyone the challenge their looking for. Countries like Germany, Russia, Turkey, Greece wouldn't enter it i doubt, but it certainly would benefit some of the nations i mentioned who have problems in the quality of their leagues.
I think still though we are in two bad situations. We first can't attract players and also can't keep players. Obviously we want to represent Croatia to best of our ability and can't at the moment.
Having said that making the league 16 teams clearly was horrific for sides like Dinamo, Belupo and Rijeka – not including Hajduk till they sign a striker that makes them better than teams like Osijek. I have nothing against Istra as i like there coach a lot and think they have some decent players, but them and Lokomotive our feeder club should clearly be in the league below. Also Seveste should have been deservedly relegated, but still have top flight status. I think that the Superleague idea is realistic and unrealistic. Clearly big teams like i mentioned are getting fed up with the leagues they play in. However football is starting to take the path where anything can happen. Despite that its not great i still like following Dinamo in HNL1, but its damn annoying when we always lose our best players and then people mock us for not keeping up with the rest of Europe. If some system was invented to elevate us to a higher level of football and allow us to keep our players i think that's basically our dream.
Dinamo always hits a wall in Europe because they play against crap sides every week. Their fitness and concentration is just not up to what is needed to compete at the top level. Yes, they can put in the odd exceptional performance but it will always be just that-an exception-no matter the quality of players.
A "super league"(of any kind) will only happen if it's in the financial interest of the big clubs involved. Would Red Bull, Shakhtar, Dinamo, etc, be willing to sacrifice guaranteed European competition and being the big fish(in their small pond) for possible mid-table obscurity? Would these clubs want to give up their main advertisement for signing quality players- a european campaign? I doubt it, mainly because of the uncertain financial incentive (ie, they might not make money).
Nope no advantage for Austrians maybe although reckon Hajduk, Rijeka, Belupo and Dinamo might add something to their current crop of top flight teams but Croatian league sure needs to think how to get better so they can keep their best players and attract ones that can move teams forward. Like Dinamo for example having to let go of any decent player just cos the rest of league is poor. Its not fair on us. May eventually have to consider some sort of league unification with another country. Or like a Eastern Euro Superleague or something. Otherwise there's no real future for Dinamo. Shaktar, Dinamo Kiev, Red Star, Partizan, Sparta Prague, Slavia, CSKA Sofia etc all feel similarly restrained by their leagues. Its getting boring being feeder clubs for western teams.
Why would Austria want to bring in teams from Cro. There league, while not great, sure does not need any cro teams.
You are correct, Dinamo is the class of the HNL. But they are not good enough to do anything in europe. They just happen to be the best out of a bunch of crap.
Hajduk has already reverted to their form of last season and i dont expect anything from them.
by the way, great move by the HNL going to 16 teams. we will have marginal players like Mandzukic scoring 20 goals and think they can don something with bigger teams…the league just keeps getting worse
I think with respect to Balaban at Villa – he never got any games there. The difference will be that Kalinic will get games as Portsmouth have no other strikers at present. They play Kranjcar behind Crouch, but Crouch is going and Nugent, Kanu, Utaka will not be able to keep out Kalinic so he will be playing – its just up to him what he does with his playing time. Kranjcar being there might help him settle. If Leko goes to Portsmouth that'd be a brilliant move. I'd love to see Leko at Dinamo but it looks like we're going with Vrdoljak and Badelj for at least the first half of the season.
Actually regards Papadopoulos i think he's actually gonna have to impress from bench as Slepicka has jumped ahead of him following his good performance on Saturday. Both these players are internationals for their countries so if Dinamo can get the best from them they may turn out to be good signings. I definitely expect Slepicka to score 12-14 this season. Papa has started more slowly. Mandza certainly will reach 20 goals if he's not sold in mid season, but Papa needs better performances to get the playing time.
I'm excited that we found a way to play Sammir, Morales, Badelj and two strikers all in the same team. Plus Glavina looks an excellant signing. If Etto can get back to his best we should be okay on that side. I think eventually we will hit a barrier in our Euro adventure as you don't have enough quality defensive players. We are good enough going forward, but not when opponents have possession.
I think Dinamo has actually become too big for HNL now. Crazy things seem to happen in Football these days. If we look at Mandza at Dinamo. We want to keep him, but its HNL which is making us accept that he's gonna have to go eventually. I think putting the Yugoslav league back together again will not happen, but maybe something like joining Austria, Croatian league might happen. Serbia would also rather join with Bulgaria that reconnecting Croatia league so think basically that idea will never happen again. I'm not sure there is point in Platini proposing to fastrack teams like Dinamo into Champions League group stage when the rest of the league is still way behind which creates problems for Dinamo in attracting players and keeping them.
I predict Kalinic to be a flop of Balaban-esque proportions if he goes to Portsmouth. For €8 million, he will be expected to score an average of 1 goal every 3 appearances- from the beginning. Considering that Kalinic only managed a good-but-not-great 15 goals in 28 apps last season(and while playing for one of the two biggest sides in the HNL), it's hard to understand how he'll manage to meet the demands of his price tag.
Dinamo hit 7 so far whilst Hajduk losing. I think we have too much this season. Nobody can compete with us. Even our give away players like Ante Tomic are better than our oppositon. Not been impressed by how players like Skender, Papa, Celiscak, Kwedi, Zec, Novakovic, Dabac and Miladin all seem on way out of HNL clubs as free agents or otherwise as its just making it easier for us.
I think Euro football is our full focus this season as looks like HNL will just take care of itself. Great that we finally learned the value of Morales.
For all those who wants Croat players at Dinamo and Hajduk thats all very nice, but at the moment there is a lot of rubbish ones and so its just the best players who are worth taking. Hajduk might have to go with a all Bosnian forward line this season of Zec and Ibricic which i know will not go down well, but i personally can understand why Hajduk would do this. I actually think Rodic with only 9 goals last season is a risk as well. Vukusic is unproven and Tomasov is really a midfielder. Personally i'd have given Busic a week to week contract to prove himself as a last ditch chance to rectify his career. To let him and Bartolovic go without any cover is taking a chance and giving Dinamo a head start. Basically Hajduk have been stood up by Kalinic this season. Really Hajduk needed more loyalty. They've been hung out to dry.
Yep he'll move i think. His career has followed same path as Balaban thus far exempting the goals against Latvia and the tantrums. Will also have same pressure due to high transfer fee. We'll see if he does better. I think with choice of Bologna, Zaragoza or Portsmouth, Zaragoza was best choice. Bologna is risky as they were close to relegation last year. Portsmouth is also quite risky, but it depends how much the new owner will put in the club. Zaragoza are a club that stays big even after a relegation.
Regards Rijeka i think like Dinamo they kind of should feel a bit sheepish at their edgy displays against easy opponent – take the win and move on. Slaven Belupo however really put it in last two games. Looks like a positive season for them. They have plenty in their squad to challenge for HNL.
Terrible move for him, go to Spain or Italy. Far better league for player development, you will actually have time on the ball to work on your skills.
Congrats to Slaven and Rijeka!! I watched the Slaven game, they were damn good. The youngster Tepuric looked good. Rijeka did what they had to, Sharbinis goal was breath taking. How the hell has no team invested 3 million Euros for this guy? He is a stud, cant wait to see him run defenses ragged in any league he moves to.
Congrats to Dinamo as well, the scoreline flattered them, but, they made it through. Hope they can take the positives and build on them.
Money is not a question at all here. Al Fahim, the new owner of portsmouth, is the equivilant of about 100 roman abromovich's in terms of wealth. I think staying with hajduk for another season wouldn't help nikola's development at all. time for a new challenge in a place where a roster spot isnt a guarantee every week