Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Yippee.:cleader:

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

but he doesn't want to go.......not to West Ham anyway !!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19075878

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Looks like Arsenal are closing in on Cazorla:

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...-due-to-fly-in

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Looks a good signing Lex.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Santi Cazorla is a very good player. Bit lightweight but that's often the trade-off for genuine width and pace.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Yeah, I don't believe we're getting him until it's official. Plenty of time for Man City to hijack the bid.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Arsenal rumours gathering further pace:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19086404

Despite the M'villa rumours still popping up once every so often, looks like Wenger is looking elsewhere for his DM.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Yes Nuri Sahin is in my mind is a very good player and just the type Arsenal need in their midfield.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Scottish Football TV Deal update.

PA: Johnston optimistic over TV deal.

Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston expects the Scottish Premier League to retain the bulk of its broadcasting income this season with ESPN set to follow Sky Sports in confirming their renewed commitment.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukp...1343835842025A

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

The Arsenal transfer rumour mill continues. Reports in Spain now suggesting that Alex Song is less than 48 hours away from signing for Barcelona.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Thats a bit of surprise.:shocked:

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Indeed, shocker that Barca would waste money on Song. Never been impressed by him.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

He would probably do quite well outside of the EPL.

I agree though that he has not really been that impressive for Arsenal. He can attack better than alot of DMs but he DM work is very lacking.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Yeah, he can attack well but defensively he is lacking. Mind you, a lot of the Arsenal players who go on to different clubs mostly do better. Upson went to Birmingham and he did better, can't think of any more of the top of my head but they seem to be stifled a bit at Arsenal and only when they move clubs do they come into their own.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Its a mixture of both. Some players do much worse, e.g. Reyes and Hleb while others do better. But generally defenders probably do much better as most teams don't play a high line so they don't remain exposed, e.g. Senderos is actually doing a decent job at Fulham. He was a disaster at Arsenal.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Robin to Juve seems set. I hope we get a few more mil out of them for possibly tapping up

http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/footbal...#ixzz22OwYxS3S

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

A poor decision by RVP in my mind.:(:td:

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

massive payday it seems at a club who are on the up. still with the additions incoming at Arsenal it is a weird one. i wish he would stay and fight alongside possibly Cazorla, Sahin, a DM and hopefully 1 more CB

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

It's not a weird one. Big cash and a better chance of winning something. Arsenal aren't realistically going to be main challengers for the title anytime soon, Juve are.

I am not going to get to excited about Cazorla, Malaga is a mess so who knows what is going to happen!

---------- Post added at 18:50 ---------- Previous post was at 18:49 ----------

BTW I think that Metro story is bogus. No way would they sign a contract before they secured the contract. Too much risk on both sides. They may have agreed personal terms but no contract.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

According to the Guardian the medical has been completed and transfer is ready to go through for Cazorla.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Good signing but they need someone to replace RVP.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

We have Podolski, Giroud and Chamack plus Gervino and Walcott that could potentailly cover that position so I doubt he will spend anymore money on that position.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Yes you might have all those players but none of them are good enough to cover for the loss of RVP in my humble opinion.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

TBH I doubt there is a striker in the world that could replace him. There might be a couple that are better but certainly none that would be better than RVP in an Arsenal shirt. I think Podolski is an exceptional talent and worthy replacement though.

News from Spain now is that Sahin is heading to Turkey and not Arsenal.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Dundee FC is now a member of the SPL.

http://www.scotprem.com/content/defa...2&newsid=11546

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Falcao

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

I doubt we could ever afford him given the rumours of the other clubs that would be interested.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

We don't need more attacking minded players at this point.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

But if RVP leaves which is highly likely then you need someone near his calibre to get the 30 plus goals you are going to miss each season.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Wenger is going for more goals from a number of players rather than 30 plus from 1 player. I very much doubt even RVP would continue to score at last years levels.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

That isn't a realistic goal. You can never expect 30 goals a season. Instead, as Lex mentioned, we're looking at getting goals from across the park. With Cazorla (if he comes), Podoski, Giroud we'll be ok. Also we can expect Chamberlain to be a bigger feature, Gervinho will be around and Wilshere surely must return at some point.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Positive news for Petrov in battle against leukaemia

It is with great delight that the club can confirm on behalf of our long-standing captain, Stiliyan Petrov, that Stan's acute leukaemia is in remission.

mobile.avfc.co.uk/default.aspx?s=news-display&aid=2869478

brilliant news

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

If anyone wants to join a talksport predictor league, I set up a mini-league.
Just join
http://predictor.talksport.co.uk/

Then go to mini-leagues, private and use join code is

FD5FC-YHP

All you do is predict the scores each week.

Any takers?

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

l have just registered Colin.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

I'll join, but the last time I did one of these I was bottom every week. Hopefully I can improve on that now.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

I normally just compete against the talksport presenters..compare my score to them.

Not much competition, normally most of them are rubbish at predicting :)

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Arsenal officially sign Cazorla: http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-arc...-santi-cazorla

Woo! Great player!

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Excellent news :D

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Yes indeed a excellent signing by Arsenal but they must rid themselves of the RVP fiasco as they risk that cloud hanging over the start of their season and repeating last summers transfer fiasco all over again.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

I doubt RVP will be anything like the Nasri or Fabregas saga last year. Wenger was quick to replace RVP before the season had even finished and then bought another striker. And now with Cazorla fans are more interested in the players that want to stay.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

The sooner Wenger and co get things wrapped in the window the sooner Robin and Theo will see we mean business and sign on.. i hope

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Song rumours seem to be quite strong plus a further Barcelona player is talking about Song recently.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

waste of time. Biscuits can talk all he wants Barca wont cough up so no deal plus we need him here.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

l don't think he will be that much of a loss as his defensive midfield game was quite poor in my humble opinion.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

agreed Den but he has become a decent CM. i hope Wenger signs Sahin and a DM. Id go as far as asking for a versatile defender but may be under new AM Bould we'll see improvements. all of which will hopefully see Robin and Theo sign new deals.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

IMO RVP should leave. His statement took it a step too far. I hope Wenger has a new captain already in mind even if RVP ends up having to stay due to lack of interest in him.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Van Persie statement as bogus. Complaining of a lack of ambition at the start of the window when he had already signed Giroud and Podoski. He wants to leave and tried to get the fans onside and against the club. He can be sold as far as I am concerned, he insulted the manager who stood by him though all the injuries and he insulted our new signings.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Van Persie is a professional footballer with a short career. This may be his last big contract. Manchester City have offered him money beyond his wildest dreams. He would be barking mad to turn down these huge rewards. The sad thing is the love of money is the root of all evil;)

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

He can go for the money or the titles. I just wish he hadn't coated it in a language that turned on Wenger and the team.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

SSN say he could fly back into the UK for talks with Utd. I don't care about this statement, he cannot be sold to Utd unless they show us monies.. 100mil will do nicely

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Arsenal will settle for £30m though. They should be happy to get anything for him, he could turn around and say I'm not going anywhere until my contract expires, then I can go to United and get the wages I want and they don't have to pay a transfer fee for me either. Whichever way you look at it, Arsenal lose.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

They will be lucky if they get 20mil for him thenry.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

He can go for whatever reason he wants. No one would begrudge him that. Only problem is he decided to insult the club, thats let be honest, was patient enough to give him a chance to even come close to being considered what he is today.

I hope he leaves soon. If not I hope Wenger at least announces a new captain for this season while RVP plays out hid last year.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

HenrikFest!!!!!! :D:D:D:romance::romance::hyper::hyper:

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

:confused::confused:

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Joe Allen at Melwood for his medical this morning, should complete the signing later today.

15 million squid release clause.... Comolli probably would have offered 50 million :)

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

The question is Uncle Pete is do you think he is good enough?.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Don't know much about him Den... probably overpaid but that's the going rate for supposedly in-form players who are on long contracts.

Having said that if it limits Charlie Adam's playing time it's money well spent!

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

I don't think he'll be a key player at Anfailed but certainly a 1st team regular. We will miss him at the Liberty.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Looking at things it seems most of the players who played for you last season look like they are being sold off and l am not sure thats a good thing for Swansea in the long run.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Most?

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Celtic V Henrik Larsson's first team Helsingborgs in final qualifier for champions league.

Think zombies have Ramsdens cup tie at Alloa that night???? Not sure :ghugs:


Death of Scottish football my fluffy buttocks. We're doin just fine

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Allen, Sinclair, Sigurdsson are three of their best players who have left or are about to leave and the speculation is that 3 or 4 more of their players will leave as well.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Allen has not yet left, Siggy was a loan player and Sinclair still plays for Swansea :confused:

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Allen will move to Liverpool for £15 million in the next 48 hours and Sinclair will sign for Man City for a fee of £5.5 million rising to £8 million in the next few days as well.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

...And if rumours were truth RVP has already signed for United :confused:

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Once they agree a price Russ Man Utd is very much the likely destination for RVP as Man City have pulled out of the auction.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Alloa sounds exotic. Is it in Hawaii? :D

Helsingborgs will be tough but doable.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Oh really? Remind me how many of TGFITW were at Snake mountain for the unfurling of the (*tainted) championship banner last weekend?

And how did the rest of the diddy teams get on in their European matches?

:D ;)

Scottish football is in for some mighty tough times ahead
, the coefficient is going down even further and crowds will drop away. :monkey:

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

They'll certainly drop away from Ipox. Even at diddy league prices they couldn't fill it for their first competitive game.

The tainted championships were from previous seasons when the team formerly known as Rangers were cheating.... but I'm sure you know all that... or has your obvious hatred of the only SPL team in Glasgow completely blinkered you like so many ex-supporters. ;)

I see the reincarnation are still in difficulty with officialdom..

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish...1&newsID=10362

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Relax. You're BOTH right. Rangers are in the small time and Scottish football is doomed. :D

---------- Post added at 17:58 ---------- Previous post was at 17:54 ----------

We'll see. It doesn't make too much sense. First of all why would United pay £20 million on a 29 year old player with injury problems when it doesn't address a key squad weakness? It's unusual for United to so publicly chase a player and risk tapping up charges from UEFA.

There is a suspicion that they were doing this because their IPO was today (and hasn't started well).

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Not sure about doomed, I think this a positive step for scottish football.

If we had continued with old firm as only game around, purely to keep the money, the game would have slowly eroded to nothing. As it is now.

Rangers going down, money tight, might force teams to play younger players. Over a few seasons, i think that is positive step.

Our problem is paying players money they are not worth, in pursuit of a rather poor league.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

That's the point I was making. A rumour does not make a story true.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Course he isn't, if Liverpool's record over the last twenty years is anything to go by, in terms of value for money apart from a short period when rafa was in charge its been abysmal, tens of millions wasted year in year out. In other news we signed allou diarra today, remember him, one of houllier's wonder kids, probably moved far to soon and. Think he and diame will be absolute monsters in our midfield.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Well TD we all live in hope for the future.;):D

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Hes turning you into a real big sam team now ;)

Shame you didn't get Carroll then it would be complete.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Good, I'm sick of playing "nice" football and getting nowhere besides the.matches I went to last season weren't that bad, except for Doncaster, that really was terrible.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Rangers being thrown out of the Scottish premier league will effect the players and fans more, they are the innocent party. Seems crazy to me. Like a body is devouring itself.:mad:

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Innocent Party? Have you got your information from the Scottish mainstream media?
Every tax payer in the country subsidised Rangers for at least a decade, probably longer.

Rangers weren't thrown out of the Scottish Premier League. The team called Rangers from last season are currently being liquidated. a consequence of this is they no longer have a licence to play in Senior Football.

If they'd paid their taxes and other bills like the rest of society have to do then they'd still be in the SPL...... simples.

The new "can't believe it's not Rangers", are impersonating Rangers as best as they can to attract the Fans of the former Club.

The fans of Scottish football, including those of the former Rangers, have been cheated for years..... the vast majority are looking forward to a cheat free season.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Liverpool pay £15m for a man who made 2 assists last season and completed just 3 through balls. I think we came off best there.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Really? :dozey:

I think you'll find they didn't pay tax since Craig Whyte was in charge so less than a year. Before that they used a tax avoidance measure used by a large number of clubs (including Celtic)

They declared the use of EBTs in their annual accounts (unlike Celtic) so hardly getting subsidised by tax payers.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Well this season will be the judge of that dear Russ.:)

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Oh dear. Still trying to deflect.

It was the way that Rangers used the EBT scheme that made it tax evasion rather than avoidance. The Craig Whyte year wasn't enough to liquidate Rangers.

Celtic's use of the EBT scheme was to pay off one Player.... my understanding is that they declared this and on the advice of HMRC never used it again. The same advice was offered to David Murray.. it was ignored.

Again my understanding is that there was no side letters or dual contracts to pay off this player. If this isn't the case and Celtic are deemed to have broken the laws governing the game then I fully expect them to be punished.

The punishment should be changing the result of any games that involved that player to 3-0 defeats. If that results in Celtic being stripped of any titles or trophies then so be it.

If some teams are allowed to break the laws of the games, i.e. cheat, then it's no longer a sporting contest.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

The Rangers EBTs were declared every year, never hidden, and the same schemes used by a large number of other teams in the UK.
Celtic didn't declare their use of it until HMRC started looking at Rangers when they scrabbled to get their house in order.

Well considering the 'independant' tribunal thats investigating them has numerous links to Celtic chief exec I'd imagine they will be punished regardless of them being innocent or guilty.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Though Rangers declared EBTs, they weren't legal because of the way they were used.

EBT must not be used to supplement wages, as an expected benefit. that is the issue.

HMRC say
EBTs have increasingly been used for avoidance purposes, with the aim of providing employees and directors with benefits in ways that aim to minimise or avoid liability to income tax (and PAYE) and employers’ National Insurance Contributions

Problem with Rangers was they got greedy, they built the EBT as part of the expected remuneration, and they got caught. Sending letters out stating that was kind of stupid, similar to robbing a bank and leaving your address for them to come pick up the empty bags :D

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

scrambled (I assume) to get their house in order? One phone call to HMRC to clarify the position for the one EBT doesn't constitute a scramble in most people's eyes.
Rangers EBTs weren't declared as being contractual which is where the problem lies. EBTs can't be contractual or they're liable for tax.

In trying to evade tax they had the problem of hiding part of the contract from the football authorities.

Why the quotes around the word independent? Do you know who is on the tribunal?

If the EBTs (Employee benefit trusts) were all above board why were ex-employees receiving large sums of dosh 10 years after they'd left Rangers employment? The normally publicity seeking Mr Souness seems to be very coy on answering questions on that one.

Does it not raise any concerns that at a time when Sounesss was the highly paid manager of an EPL club he ws also receiving money from Rangers EBT scheme?..... at a time when he is buying players from Rangers. :shocked:

Surely as a trained law enforcement officer your eyebrow must have raised a little when this was revealed?

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

and well done to Scotland's New 3rd division club managing to rescue a point against the mighty Peterhead. ;)

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Yes, Rangers are top of the league..good point :D

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Second in alphabetical order, whether they're called Sevco or The Rangers ;)

Apparently they had to play in the training kit of the team formerly known as Rangers because there was a clash of colours :D

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Yes, i heard. I thought that odd, as they must have known peterhead's colours. (maybe not :D)

And joint top..same goal difference etc..away goals don't count double..and you can't win league alphabetically...unless you mean they should dot i's and cross t's and win games :D

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

They haven't got an away strip yet.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Did they come up through the juniors? Well done anyway, don't worry the whole of Scotland aren't laughing at u :D

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Manchester City have agreed to sign Jack Rodwell from Everton for an undisclosed fee.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19232773

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Liverpool have had a bid accepted for Gaston rameriez, apparently...

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Vurnon Anita due in Newcastle soon for a medical ahead of a £6.2million move.

Meanwhile Debuchy is still screaming to move to Tyneside.

Remains to be seen whether we'll sign a centre-back but we are still very much in the market for a striker and the latest target has been a view for a £15million move for Loic Remy.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

A good player if we can get him.:hyper:

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Nice to see an expert in tax law giving his input. If its so cut and dried why bother with a tribunal, why is it taking so long for the tribunal to report back and why have several players from that era come out and said the independent advice they received was the EBT scheme was legal and there were no side contracts.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

It's normal for an first tier tax appeal to take this length of time.
I don't know if Colin is a tax expert. I know I'm not but I am capable of reading the wealth of information on the subject on the internet.You shouldn't rely on the Scottish mainstream media for any reliable information.

Several players have said they only signed one contract. The BBC program revealed evidence, emails and letters, promising payments that were contractual. This evidence is underpinned by the fact that the payments promised matched the amounts paid into the player's EBTs. The 'independent' advice the players received was clearly at odds with how HMRC see the EBT scheme should be run. It's very clear that there cannot be any contracual element to an EBT.

Quite simply, any contracted payment into an EBT changes the tax avoidance into tax evasion.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

Amazing that a club riddled with corruption still plays the victim. What is more concerning to a large section of Scottish people is how the main stream media help perpetuate this myth. Disgusting really :(

On a more palatable note, got my Helsingborgs tickets. Looking forward to at least 8 more games in Europe, with any luck in the champions league. Good to see Premiership back too.

Re: Football Season 2012/2013
 

What he said :)

I am a qualified accountant..but I don't need accountancy skills to read. And EBT were always illegal if contractual as part of salary.

And i saw the BBC show, it was quite revealing.