t'premier leeg.

[col]

He probably realises he's not exactly going to walk into a modelling career when he retires and wants to maintain his lifestyle when he's done playing. .

Fire Alarm / Fire Brigade adverts are two that he can audition for.

[MightyWhite]

I've said this before on another thread, but I believe English football would be much better off if the top 5 teams would just fuck off into a European Super League and let the rest of us start again. What would be lost in glamour ties against the big guns would be gained in having a genuinely competitive league.

[eric olthwaite]

I've said this before on another thread, but I believe English football would be much better off if the top 5 teams would just fuck off into a European Super League and let the rest of us start again. What would be lost in glamour ties against the big guns would be gained in having a genuinely competitive league.

On board with that.

[The Gentleman Thug]

It's almost like we're celebrating Bates' skinflint approach because he happens to have been in football for a long time.

No. I celebrate Bates' skinflint approach because it happens to be the right thing to do in the current financial climate. Personally, I'd hate to be a Man City fan. Their club died the second they were taken over. Didn't we sell our soul to the devil before? Wasn't it a complete disaster? I do not want my club to be a plaything for a rich foreign crook.

[moscowhite]

Speaking of obnoxious Manchester City players:

So far we have been spared big column inches surrounding the future of Emmanuel Adebayor with the Manchester City striker holding out for a move back to Real Madrid after his loan spell at the Bernabeu.

In typical style, the former Arsenal and Monaco hitman has been on holiday in Accra and bizarre footage has emerged of Adebayor at a Ghana Meets Naija concert over the weekend.

Sporting the ridiculous attire of white trainers, white shorts, white shirt and tie, Adebayor approached the stage, presumably unexpectedly, and showered one of the dancers with money before returning to his seat near the front of the crowd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgeDhHS-bRs

[The Gentleman Thug]

a couple of recent stories have really disturbed me. i know it's been said many times before but are we genuinely better off out of it? i just don't get it.

two examples:

(1) Tevez

top player but what a miserable carry-on.

last season the [bizarre] excuse was some kind of 'personality clash' with citeh's chief exec garry cook... how can an argentian peasant who seemingly doesn't speak a word of english have a fall out with his [english] football club's chief exec?

this season the excuse is missing his kids. the same kids who he missed last season that he [according to the tabs of the time] fucked off to tenerife with some tart when given time to go and and visit them. kids who are seemingly happy to move to spain or even italy but not england.

who knows what the real story is. were they both [extremely] thinly veiled attempts to get a payrise? which other club does he think will pay a big fee and then the same wages as citeh - or is he hoping that citeh will pay nearly all his wages whilst he pisses off back to Boca or whoever? does the player actually understand any of what's going on, is are agents running everything? what's clear though is that it's an extremely grubby business.


(2) Ashley Young

i was skim-reading this weekend's NOTW when i noticed a passing reference to the fact that he earns £130k a week at scum. this for a player not guaranteed a first team spot at scum and who at 26 [mid to late career for a winger] has 15 England caps, most of them as sub. capable player and all that but

1. We'll always have these issues until clubs collude over transfer fees and wages. Players have been robbing clubs blind since Bosman, and the clubs have just bent over and taken it. They have been weak and spineless. Forest made a laudable attempt at creating a club union over the Van Hooijdonk strike saga - a shame this fell apart.

2. I very much doubt Ashley Young is on £130k, although I do hope so. What a strange transfer - can't see that one lasting, for a variety of reasons.

As far the PL goes, it's a franchise and has nothing to do with England. It will uproot and leave if our economy continues to implode - then it'll be someone else's problem.

PS - The NOTW? Brave, very brave...

[jackos]

Ignore for a second Ken Bates' personality and the fact that he's English, then consider the following.

We're owned by a moderately wealthy near-80-year-old man who lives in Monaco. The accounts since 2007 show zero external investment - something desperately needed to lift the burden of the rent for ER & TA.

What would be so different about someone based in the far east or USA coming running us, but actually putting some cash in, even if it was only enough to get the stadium and training ground back?

It's almost like we're celebrating Bates' skinflint approach because he happens to have been in football for a long time.

Given the choice between new foreign money and no old money, I know which I'd prefer.

For me there is a massive difference between being owned by the likes of Bates/Glazers and a dictator/Mafia godfather type. I would prefer the German model where all clubs are owned 51% by their members, or perhaps the Spanish model, but that is never going to happen. Given the choice I would prefer we where owned by a decent Yorkshire business person, but that option has always proved difficult, so we are left with the likes of Bates or Glazer I suppose - preferably a less dodgy fucker than Bates, and with a bit more cash - but none of them where available at the time. Call me old fashioned, call me conservative, but there y go ...

[Phil LUFC]

I'd like someone to convince me there's a plan, a footballing plan. Not fussed about huge over investment, but it'd be nice for a bit of ambition being shown, a small gamble guaranteed by the owner.

At the time caspian did it though, I thought it was brilliant. We need some investment for the yoof, tomorrow's fan etc. Either that or we need a ticket policy which gets them out of the sky sports arm chair and into ER regularly.

[Tommy]

If his aim is to maximise financial return on his short but lucrative career for the sake of his family, how does threatening to retire aged 26 fit in to it? He's been on about quitting football for the last three seasons. Also, when given time off by Manchester City last season to go and visit his children in Argentina, he fucked off to Tenerife with a dolly bird and didn't go near his family. I'm not crying for him.

Threatening to retire at 26 is just hot air. He's either decided for himself or more likely egged on by his agents to make as big a nuisance of himself as possible so as to increase the likelihood of orchestrating another transfer. That brings in money for the people he technically works for, who make a small fortune every time he brokers a move or a new contract.

I doubt he gives much of a fuck about his family beyond providing for them financially, so the second point is basically par for the course.

[WHITETHROUGH]

Call me a miserable old fucker but let’s say a few Premiership sides got themselves in a serious financial mess leading to a serious retraction in TV money and overall sponsorship deals resulting in a downgrading of the PL brand....well for me that would level the playing field and lead to more local investment in players and a return to a golden age of English football when a number of teams with poorly paid players competed for a prize which had pride and real achievement written all over it....we had it before in the late 60,s and 70’s...to have lived in such an era...for some it can only be a dream!

[Tommy]

The insane amount of money being spent in the Premiership might be daft but personally I think it's an entertaining league for the most part. As a percentage, the quality of games is fairly high. I struggle to watch any other leagues as a neutral but the Premiership games last year were mostly exciting. Last year was especially amusing because it seemed for a while that every game could go either way. None of the top clubs were invincible and the teams which came up put in some solid performances. I think Swansea and Norwich will be interesting competition, though I suspect QPR will struggle.

For all the talk of it being money fixated and all that, I don't know who will win the league next year, or even qualify for Europe. There's some great footballers in every team too.

[MightyWhite]

For all the talk of it being money fixated and all that, I don't know who will win the league next year, or even qualify for Europe. There's some great footballers in every team too.

Oh come on. It's 5 into 4 for the Champions League and 1 of 3 (at most) for the title.

Having said that I don't think the Premier League is entirely to blame. The title was an open house up to the 1970's, but from then onwards Liverpool took over everything (when football was in the doldrums and nobody had any cash) for a good 10-12 years. The likes of Arsenal and Man Utd were already emerging as major forces before the Premier League began. So it's 40 years since it was genuinely ultra competitive.

The reason I think the only way to change things is to pack the big guns off to a Super League is due to the fact that the pecking order is so ingrained now that I can't see it every changing. Man Utd are supposedly billions in debt but there's still no suggestion that they might go pop. Indeed, they're still able to go out and spunk tens of millions every summer. I can see the top order being as it is now forever unless something major comes along to shake it up.

[Tommy]

Oh come on. It's 5 into 4 for the Champions League and 1 of 3 (at most) for the title.

Well, my instinct says either Scum or Chelski for the title but I can't pick between Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester City for the other places. In fact, you might argue whether any of those clubs could make the top two if the results go a certain way. Maybe this'll be the year that Manchester City will outstrip their rivals. Who really knows? I think that's a fair mix of teams regardless.

[MightyWhite]

Oh come on. It's 5 into 4 for the Champions League and 1 of 3 (at most) for the title.

Well, my instinct says either Scum or Chelski for the title but I can't pick between Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester City for the other places. In fact, you might argue whether any of those clubs could make the top two if the results go a certain way. Maybe this'll be the year that Manchester City will outstrip their rivals. Who really knows? I think that's a fair mix of teams regardless.

I can't see Spurs getting anywhere near the Champions League. Chelsea, Scum or City for the title. Liverpool no way, Spurs no way, even Arsenal no way.

[the flying pig]

i do like balotelli. he's pleasingly bonkers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/24/mario-balotelli-roberto-mancini-friendly

[AndyPaul]

i do like balotelli. he's pleasingly bonkers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/24/mario-balotelli-roberto-mancini-friendly

Fair play to Mancini - taking the cunt off.

But I do like this too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVd08IR5-A0

[eric olthwaite]

i do like balotelli. he's pleasingly bonkers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/24/mario-balotelli-roberto-mancini-friendly

Fair play to Mancini - taking the cunt off.

But I do like this too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVd08IR5-A0

I like that Mancini subbed Milner on for Balotelli; it's as if he wasn't thinking about tactics at all and just went, "I need to put the definitive anti-Balotelli on".

[the flying pig]

i do like balotelli. he's pleasingly bonkers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/24/mario-balotelli-roberto-mancini-friendly

Fair play to Mancini - taking the cunt off.

But I do like this too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVd08IR5-A0

I like that Mancini subbed Milner on for Balotelli; it's as if he wasn't thinking about tactics at all and just went, "I need to put the definitive anti-Balotelli on".

yup. mancini's comment is quite telling: "In football you always need to be professional, always serious... in every game – not just in a final or a semi-final but every game...", 'cos in the fa cup final balotelli really was on his very best behaviour, playing unselfishly/competently & afterwards giving a sensible [swearwords aside] interview in really quite good english [contrast with tevez who's been here forever and seemingly can't speak a word of it], but this friendly suggests he's not a reformed character after all...

[The Gentleman Thug]

Am I alone in thinking Balotelli is utter dog shit? I'd have taken him off because the attempt was so embarrassing, not for attempting it in the first place.

[Mustafaster]

Am I alone in thinking Balotelli is utter dog shit? I'd have taken him off because the attempt was so embarrassing, not for attempting it in the first place.

There may be some truth in this. If you watch the video on about 38 secs he gives Mancini a very well known Italian hand gesture just after he comes off, which Mnacini certainly understands.
Capisci stugats