Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

They do. And if they miss out on 4th again next season (which is more likely than not) the they can be in serious troubles.

Fair play to him, he went where the money was. Hope he's happy.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Anyone have 4.5 million to spare ? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...-5million.html
All that just for playing football :shocked:

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

I think what is essentially £5 million and Joe Cole for Yossi Benayoun is a fantastic bit of business

Fair play to him he went to the most successful side in English football and it's not like he had many other options, Arsenal didn't even make an offer.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Everytime I search for Arsenal rumours I get that moronic goal.com site which, even for crazy transfer talk, is beyond a joke which made up rubbish. Anyone have any sites which are actually reliable?

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

The BBC rumours page is the only one I bother with, it gets update daily and sometimes throughout the day. It's a dynamic link though but just got the the BBC sport homepage and the links always on the right a bit lower down

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Arsenal did, that much is for certain. Allegedly the figures according to someone who knows:

"pool contract worth £23m over 4 years compared to spurs offering £13m over 3 and £10m from arsenal over 2 - inc signing on fees"

He is at the most successful English side, true. Now he has the Europa League and constant house break-ins to look forward to.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Didn't know that :tu:, bet they offered him more regular first team football than Arsenal to.

Europa league this season, wouldn't exactly be a shock to see them finish in the Champions League positions come the end of the season though.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Certainly. I don't think he would have got into the first team as a regular at Arsenal.

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Word is that Liverpool did, but that's just rumour. Even with Harry's favourites he would never guarantee anyone first team football. With Arsenal he has direct competitors. There's noone at Liverpool that would compete his position. So its pretty much guaranteed.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...al/8843013.stm

Eduardo has left Arsenal. Rather sad but he was never the same after he returned from Injury :(. I suspect every Arsenal fan wishes him well and he'll get a cheer if he is ever to return with his new team :)

Reminded me of the awful reception he got a Birmingham this season though :mad: Booing and chanting because he had the audacity to get his leg broken there. Compare that to Stoke who have a standing ovation when Ramsey was injured. Hope they get relegated.

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Agree on all points.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Looks like it wasn't true then......

I still don't like the Glazers though.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...td/8850553.stm

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He must have told his Mrs to put up or shut up then.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Seems like you aren't the only one...

Manchester United have been forced to place 4,000 Old Trafford season tickets on general sale.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...td/8850768.stm

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Some of todays footie results, albeit just pre-season friendlies......

Sunderland 4-2 Hull

Sporting 2-0 Man City

Burton Albion 4-2 West Ham

Stevenage 2-1 Millwall

Peterborough 1-0 Nottm Forest

Barnet 1-0 Charlton

Kaiserslautern 1-0 Liverpool

Welling 4-1 Arsenal

Bohemians 2-1 Aston Villa

Crawley Town 3-0 Chelsea :D

Alfreton 3-0 Luton

Lowestoft 2-1 Cambridge United :( Geeeeeeezzz

Hopefully things will get better for all

---------- Post added at 22:48 ---------- Previous post was at 22:43 ----------


Good stuff, if it continues I might feel sorry for the club at some point, especially when Fergie retires, the club will suffer meltdown.
Hopefully then the Glazers will go forth and disappear.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

It will, it'd be interesting to know how many first teamers were out for those results, all the World Cup players are still on holiday and most first teams are away on tour afaik.


Yeah disappear with a mountain of cash, it makes me feel sick how they are raping that club.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Very few first teamers out for Liverpool:

Kyrgiakos, Jovanovic(debut) and Lucas. Ngog and Degen as well I suppose if you can count them.

Same story for all the big sides.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Just found this article regarding the state of football financially in general, plus the turnover of London clubs specifically. I was amazed to see that WHUFC employ 945 staff :shocked: What on earth do they all do....

Have a read http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/market...y-big-money.do

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Blow bubbles? I think they're forever doing that :D

I'd imagine every football club would have hundreds of part time employees, particulary on match days. Hospitality alone must employ hundreds, then there's stewards, additional groundstaff etc.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Rio Ferdinand out for six weeks already.

I get the feeling that this guy only has to get out of bed and pulls something :D

His career is over methinks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...td/8852258.stm

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not good news about Rio. i felt last season part of our problem was when we didn't have either Rio or Vidic we had to field Evans who I don't think is good neough for United

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

This week on Manchester City:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...ernando-torres

So far they spent £78 million on players at Milner to come. :shocked:

Then Mancini has the audacity to say:

No they haven't spent as much as City have and are doing so. Chelsea come close but not to the same extent. Arsenal and Spurs certainly don't and Fergie limits himself to a big buy now and then.

Just saying you have near unlimited funds to attempt to win the title, be honest about it.

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Altering it for inflation then he's probably right ;)

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Yeah. I'm sick of Spurs being compared to City. We spend a lot, but sell a lot at top price. On paper it looks like we spend like City but look at our financial records and it shows clearly we spend within our means. It hurts us as we don't have the money like City do to spend £50m on Dzeko or £200k/week on wages. Otherwise we'd have been top 4 years ago.

Noone is spending like City in the EPL at ther moment. Not even Chelsea in their heyday.

---------- Post added at 14:26 ---------- Previous post was at 13:55 ----------

The most innovative penalty you'll see in a while.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/...article/19275/

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Doesn't Spain play England tomorrow in this tournament???

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Nope. Like you say Spurs do not pay an absurd amount of money for salaries. United don't actually spend quite little in the scheme of things. Arsenal spent little and spend a good amount of wages but are carefully not too inflate that for any one player. Chelsea are the closest but even they didn't reach this limit. City are spending millions on players for the sake of it, even in areas they don't need (attack).

Fair enough but have the decency to admit what your doing rather than dressing it up as 'keeping up with the big guys'

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You're right United don't spend little, they spent very big until the Glazers came along to bleed the club dry. The club that escapes criticism for spending big is Liverpool, they have lavished tens on millions on managers who have wasted it, now they have one that is quite shrewd they are skint.

Not keeping up, catching up, they wont keep spending just like Chelsea didn't.

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Holy crap, Portsmouth's entire first team squad includes just 14 people and no keepers.

http://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/first-team.aspx

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

so my chance of playing professional football could still be alive :D

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At the moment, they'll need to get the guy on the front gate and tea lady in the first team to make up numbers.

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They have 2 keepers other than David James, both got injured on the US tour! Jamie Ashdown is playing without a contract.

Mascerano demands move

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ol/8859685.stm

Pity he would have been vital if they go ahead and sign Royston Denreth (sp)

Sol Campbell to Newcastle?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ed/8857775.stm

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Word is the bookies have stopped taking bets on Torres to Chelsea. Him alongside Dogbreath.....not good for the rest of us

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Royston Drenthe rumour was a Facebook hoax.... thank God.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Started by himself? You think he'd have better things to do with his time, like trying to get into the Madrid team.

---------- Post added at 16:26 ---------- Previous post was at 16:22 ----------

Doubt we'll ever see them in the same team...

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

According to his agent:

"Royston does not have a Facebook page, a Twitter page or a MySpace page. We will be taking legal action against the person who set up this false Royston Drenthe account."

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news...#ixzz0utJpRL7N

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Tottenham's teenage midfielder John Bostock believes his progress is being damaged by foreign players in the English game. The 18-year-old, who was on loan at Brentford last season, wants another loan move as he has only made three substitute appearances for Spurs in two years. (Various)

I dare say Palace fans everywhere are gutted that your progress is being damaged, I wonder how many games he'd have under his belt now if he hadn't been so poorly advised/greedy.

Midfielder David Beckham has promised to give West Ham a decision soon on whether he will end his career at Upton Park. The 35-year-old former England captain, who plays for Los Angeles Galaxy in the United States, was born in east London.
Full story: the Sun

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Maybe if he was a better player he would make the first team. Especially under Redknapp who you can't accuse of avoiding British players, in fact he brings them along wherever his merry-go-round career takes him.

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As I Palace fan as well as a Man U fan I wish he was still with us rather than signing for a big club and never getting a game. Still i bet he is on the way to being a millionaire before he even plays for Spurs.

This isn't just a UK problem was reading the team Liverpool are playing tonight have 6 Brasilians in their team. I'm pretty sure these are just average players doing anything to make a wage abroad when they could be replaced with local players too

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

You have missed the point, he'll never be a better player if he doesn't play competitive matches, which he was getting with Palace at the age of 16, in terms of development he has gone backwards and now may never develop into the player he could have been, who's fault is that though, not Spurs imo but the player himself, no one forced him to sign.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

He should have stayed at Palace another year or two but its not all his fault. We have our own decent academy and youth players and you wonder how they'll break through. Cheap foreign imports don't help but when you are chasing a top 4 place it hard to see how they can jump from being a talented youngster on loan to playing in the EPL where every point matters. The gulf is huge. I think the new squad limits should help that though as teams are limited to 25 with unlimited kids.

However he isn't innocent in this. He does have a poor attitude (like a lot some others of his age that think he should be a first teamer). Apparently his dad and Redknapp had a conflab in the summer so we'll see if his attitude is any better. Likewise with Giovani Dos Santos.

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Somehow i doubt the earnings in Macedonian football are better than Brazilian! And this isn't a problem, it's the solution. Brasilians go from Macedonia, China, Spain or wherever because they're willing and able (despite then drastic change in cultures and difficulties many face). English players playing abroad however, are a rarity. There are probably more Macedonians playing abroad than there are English players.

What's stopping John Bostock going to play abroad? You can tell this idea hasn't even entered his, or a plethora of other English players heads. More people need to realise the football world exists outside of the overhyped Premier League and too many players are content to not play football, earn a load of money and moan about not playing football instead of seeking pastures new, playing football, and earning less money.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

This is a very good point. Other countries players have many options open to them if they cannot break into the first teams of their own clubs. How many top players have come here and made their name? Fabregas couldn't get into the a Barca midfield so he came to Arsenal, now they want him back and is a sure replacement for the ageing Xavi. Would that ever occurred if he stayed at Barcelona, a bit part players for when the the others need rest?

When you think about it so many players have moved to wherever in the world they can play first team football. British players usually stay with their existing clubs because there are only a handful of clubs they can move too, and due to moving to a competing team the price is high. They would never consider going to a league where they will play top flight football in a first team, Ligue 1 for example.

Maybe that's why we don't have a team capable of competing for the World Cup. All these 'foreign players' here have done whatever they can to play football and as a result far more players come though. Our players sit on the benches of English teams while people complain on their behalf that they should be playing because they are English.

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The trouble is when people talk about the foreigners in English football they all mention the Zola's, Fabregas' , Ronaldo, Henry and all the top line stars. Has Joe Pantsil and Altidore done anything that an English player couldn't do or set the world alight ? There are the sort of players I would like to see go and replaced with English players. Even lower down the leagues we have a lot of foreign players who again aren't really any better than any English players but come in cheap and just do a job.

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Cheap for a Footballer, do the English players cost for the same quality? Again, if the English players were the same or better they would be taking these places. There is no incentive to have a Foreign player over a English player when all things are equal.

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the problem is it is cheaper to bring in a foreigner who can play straight away rather than bring a English youth player through the ranks

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I think you're looking at it from the wrong perspective. Its not the players choice where, when and how they go, it's the prospective clubs. A player can put in a transfer request but if noone wants to buy him, he isn't going to move.

I think its more to do with the fact that other clubs just don't scout our league as much as our clubs scout their's. I can't really remember the last time a foreign club bid for one of Spurs' homegrown players. Mourinho (when he was at Inter, maybe still does at Real) wanted Jenas but I think that was because a) Mourinho managed in the EPL and b) The link to Bobby.

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Even so we have a pretty famous league, even the big players rarely move. I think there is a resistance to British players going abroad otherwise we would see a lot more of it happening.

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Our league is famous but amount fans, not other professionals and not really fans from other european leagues

Most of the foreign support for the EPL comes from the middle east and asia. Players from abroad come here because our league is so powerful. I don't think the average Villareal fan would want... say.... Dawson or even if the management knew anything about him (prior to wednesday)

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Following on from

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/88...l#post34900079

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...ester-10811077

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

dont think its the strength of the premier or any of the lower leagues why the other european clubs are going for players here but the price of them when is the last time that you've seen a player from say the championship being sold for less then 1 million. In the minds of the euro clubs the english players are just to expensive