The Barclays Premiership / Champions League Thread
- Thread starter kenntona
- Start date
Breyton
Well-Known Member
Re: The Barclays Premiership / Champions League Thread
But not many left at age 24, in the prime of their careers.... Think Ronaldo still has a good number of seasons left in him.
I think he watched Goal 2 one too many times....
You mean they are sacking Rafa?
kenntona;443984 said:
But not many left at age 24, in the prime of their careers.... Think Ronaldo still has a good number of seasons left in him.
hitmee;443985 said:
I think he watched Goal 2 one too many times....
C3P0;444193 said:
You mean they are sacking Rafa?
hitmee
Well-Known Member
Re: The Barclays Premiership / Champions League Thread
later they use the 80m to buy torres. heehee
then liverpool can join newcastle
CR just had fun with paris hilton.
C3P0;444193 said:
later they use the 80m to buy torres. heehee
then liverpool can join newcastle
Breyton;444255 said:But not many left at age 24, in the prime of their careers.... Think Ronaldo still has a good number of seasons left in him.
I think he watched Goal 2 one too many times....
You mean they are sacking Rafa?
CR just had fun with paris hilton.
Re: The Barclays Premiership / Champions League Thread
Commentary by Matthew Lynn
June 16 (Bloomberg) - It’s as if the credit crunch never happened in the soccer world.
Real Madrid has just blown all the transfer records, paying more than $220 million for the services of two players: Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo and AC Milan’s Kaka. That looks like unleashing the mother of all transfer sprees, in which hundreds of millions of euros and pounds will flow between Europe’s clubs.
At the same time, the world’s other big-money sport, Formula One motor racing, has been demonstrating the virtues of going back to its roots, creating a season in which passion and determination count more than check books and financing deals.
Soccer needs to learn that lesson. It’s time to restore some sanity to the sport by capping transfer fees, limiting foreign ownership, and forcing teams to get more homegrown players onto the field. If it doesn’t, even the world’s most popular sport may not have a future.
Real Madrid is determined to regain its status as Europe’s leading club by spending on an epic scale. Last week, it agreed to pay 80 million pounds ($131 million) for winger Ronaldo. True, the Portuguese star may be the 2008 World Player of the Year, but he will still need to score a lot of goals to justify that fee. Only a few days earlier, Madrid paid AC Milan 68 million euros ($94 million) for Brazilian playmaker Kaka. Soccer is now like an arms race. One big gun is met with another of equal force. The potential outcome is the same: mutually assured destruction.
Spending Spree: This European summer looks like it will be dominated by a series of mega-transfers. Manchester United will recycle much of that 80 million pounds into a replacement for Ronaldo. Likewise, AC Milan will want to find someone to fill Kaka’s boots. The English clubs will be looking to match that spending. Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich has already spent more than $1 billion on his Chelsea team. He might need another billion to make sure his side can beat Real Madrid.
Manchester City, now owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family, will spend big over the summer in pursuit of its rather eccentric ambition to turn one of the perennial underachievers of the game into one of Europe’s elite clubs.
And yet while soccer appears to be intent on single-handedly ending the global recession, Formula One has just been electrified by doing precisely the opposite.
Dreams and Hunger: Britain’s Jenson Button and the Brawn Formula One team have been the surprise hit of the season, cruising to victory after victory. Ross Brawn bought out a second-rate team when Honda Motor Co. withdrew its sponsorship. He then put Button, a driver everyone assumed was a has-been, at the wheel. Very little money went into its initial victories, just dreams, hunger and passion. In truth, Button represents everything that we find inspiring about sport, and Real Madrid everything that we find depressing. The collapse of big-money sponsorship has reinvigorated Formula One, transforming what was a dull contest over who could squeeze the most cash out of a bank or mobile-phone company into a surprising contest.
Soccer can do the same. Here are five steps that could bring the game back down to Earth.
One: Ban shirt sponsorship. One of the reasons clubs are willing to spend so much money on players such as Ronaldo is because companies will spend even more to get him in a jersey with their logo on it. Without that right, advertisers would be far less interested in soccer.
Two: Outlaw foreign ownership. Tycoons used to buy titles to establish themselves in society -- and newspapers to make themselves important. Now they buy soccer clubs. The clubs really belong to the communities and fans who created them. If ownership was made as local as the support base, Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern dynasties would have to find some other way to amuse themselves.
Three: Cap salaries. Nobody says footballers shouldn’t be allowed to earn a decent living. Yet the escalation in salaries is distorting fair competition. Only ceilings on what the top players earn can level the playing field between clubs.
Four: Limit the number of foreign players. Sepp Blatter, the president of the sport’s governing body FIFA, has already proposed restricting foreign players to five per team. That’s the right move. Only by restoring the link between teams and their localities can the loyalty of fans be maintained.
Five: Lower transfer fees. Banks have already shown us what happens when people and companies stop living within their means. And we have learned from the financial system that it is better to fix a crazy business model before it blows up. Clubs should be limited to spending only an amount equal to their ticket and television revenue on transfers. If they can’t earn it, they shouldn’t be allowed to spend it.
Soccer is badly in need of the same injection of romance and honesty that Button and Brawn have just given motor racing. The last thing it needed was another summer of inflated transfer fees. Fans want an equal contest between teams of players committed to their clubs and communities, not a contest in which financial firepower determines the winner. Formula One was almost ruined that way. And soccer is coming close.
(Matthew Lynn is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
Commentary by Matthew Lynn
June 16 (Bloomberg) - It’s as if the credit crunch never happened in the soccer world.
Real Madrid has just blown all the transfer records, paying more than $220 million for the services of two players: Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo and AC Milan’s Kaka. That looks like unleashing the mother of all transfer sprees, in which hundreds of millions of euros and pounds will flow between Europe’s clubs.
At the same time, the world’s other big-money sport, Formula One motor racing, has been demonstrating the virtues of going back to its roots, creating a season in which passion and determination count more than check books and financing deals.
Soccer needs to learn that lesson. It’s time to restore some sanity to the sport by capping transfer fees, limiting foreign ownership, and forcing teams to get more homegrown players onto the field. If it doesn’t, even the world’s most popular sport may not have a future.
Real Madrid is determined to regain its status as Europe’s leading club by spending on an epic scale. Last week, it agreed to pay 80 million pounds ($131 million) for winger Ronaldo. True, the Portuguese star may be the 2008 World Player of the Year, but he will still need to score a lot of goals to justify that fee. Only a few days earlier, Madrid paid AC Milan 68 million euros ($94 million) for Brazilian playmaker Kaka. Soccer is now like an arms race. One big gun is met with another of equal force. The potential outcome is the same: mutually assured destruction.
Spending Spree: This European summer looks like it will be dominated by a series of mega-transfers. Manchester United will recycle much of that 80 million pounds into a replacement for Ronaldo. Likewise, AC Milan will want to find someone to fill Kaka’s boots. The English clubs will be looking to match that spending. Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich has already spent more than $1 billion on his Chelsea team. He might need another billion to make sure his side can beat Real Madrid.
Manchester City, now owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family, will spend big over the summer in pursuit of its rather eccentric ambition to turn one of the perennial underachievers of the game into one of Europe’s elite clubs.
And yet while soccer appears to be intent on single-handedly ending the global recession, Formula One has just been electrified by doing precisely the opposite.
Dreams and Hunger: Britain’s Jenson Button and the Brawn Formula One team have been the surprise hit of the season, cruising to victory after victory. Ross Brawn bought out a second-rate team when Honda Motor Co. withdrew its sponsorship. He then put Button, a driver everyone assumed was a has-been, at the wheel. Very little money went into its initial victories, just dreams, hunger and passion. In truth, Button represents everything that we find inspiring about sport, and Real Madrid everything that we find depressing. The collapse of big-money sponsorship has reinvigorated Formula One, transforming what was a dull contest over who could squeeze the most cash out of a bank or mobile-phone company into a surprising contest.
Soccer can do the same. Here are five steps that could bring the game back down to Earth.
One: Ban shirt sponsorship. One of the reasons clubs are willing to spend so much money on players such as Ronaldo is because companies will spend even more to get him in a jersey with their logo on it. Without that right, advertisers would be far less interested in soccer.
Two: Outlaw foreign ownership. Tycoons used to buy titles to establish themselves in society -- and newspapers to make themselves important. Now they buy soccer clubs. The clubs really belong to the communities and fans who created them. If ownership was made as local as the support base, Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern dynasties would have to find some other way to amuse themselves.
Three: Cap salaries. Nobody says footballers shouldn’t be allowed to earn a decent living. Yet the escalation in salaries is distorting fair competition. Only ceilings on what the top players earn can level the playing field between clubs.
Four: Limit the number of foreign players. Sepp Blatter, the president of the sport’s governing body FIFA, has already proposed restricting foreign players to five per team. That’s the right move. Only by restoring the link between teams and their localities can the loyalty of fans be maintained.
Five: Lower transfer fees. Banks have already shown us what happens when people and companies stop living within their means. And we have learned from the financial system that it is better to fix a crazy business model before it blows up. Clubs should be limited to spending only an amount equal to their ticket and television revenue on transfers. If they can’t earn it, they shouldn’t be allowed to spend it.
Soccer is badly in need of the same injection of romance and honesty that Button and Brawn have just given motor racing. The last thing it needed was another summer of inflated transfer fees. Fans want an equal contest between teams of players committed to their clubs and communities, not a contest in which financial firepower determines the winner. Formula One was almost ruined that way. And soccer is coming close.
(Matthew Lynn is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
Breyton
Well-Known Member
Re: The Barclays Premiership / Champions League Thread
First of all it is FOOTBALL. Matthew Lynn must be yank.
This shows how much he knows about F1 and how much research he did. Honda spent the money early on and Brawn benefited. Plus a clever interpretation of the rules and astute (with hindsight) decision not to go with KERS. "Very little money"?
AIG's sponsorship of Manchester's United was 14million quid a year, incumbent AON's will be 20million. That cannot even buy half a top player this summer. Tops teams typically have to sign a big name at least every two seasons, if not every season. So how are companies spending more in sponsorship than the teams on players?
Just to complete the picture:
Samsung with Chelsea - 5-yr deal worth 50million = 10million a year
Emirates Arsenal with Arsenal - 100million from 2004 - 2021 (stadium name plus shirts from 2006) = 6.7million a year (for shirts alone, not counting stadium)
Carlsberg with Liverpool - 7million a year.
I think 'Matthew Lynn' is Sopp Blabber in disguise.
If the clubs are living beyond their means, by all means let them do so and combust. Leaving the well-managed clubs around. And if clubs are only limited to spending what they can garner in gate receipts and TV rights, how on earth is that going to give rise to 'an equal contest between teams' and 'not a contest in which financial firepower determines the winner'?? Look at Old Trafford's seating capacity (76,000) and then look at say, Fratton Park (20,000). Portsmouth must then charge their fans 4 times the ticket price of the United fans? And then look at how much TV coverage Portsmouth get compared to United. See where this is going re biggest cheque book? Someone connect the dots for Mr Lynn please....
First of all it is FOOTBALL. Matthew Lynn must be yank.
kenntona;444843 said:
This shows how much he knows about F1 and how much research he did. Honda spent the money early on and Brawn benefited. Plus a clever interpretation of the rules and astute (with hindsight) decision not to go with KERS. "Very little money"?
kenntona;444843 said:
AIG's sponsorship of Manchester's United was 14million quid a year, incumbent AON's will be 20million. That cannot even buy half a top player this summer. Tops teams typically have to sign a big name at least every two seasons, if not every season. So how are companies spending more in sponsorship than the teams on players?
Just to complete the picture:
Samsung with Chelsea - 5-yr deal worth 50million = 10million a year
Emirates Arsenal with Arsenal - 100million from 2004 - 2021 (stadium name plus shirts from 2006) = 6.7million a year (for shirts alone, not counting stadium)
Carlsberg with Liverpool - 7million a year.
kenntona;444843 said:
I think 'Matthew Lynn' is Sopp Blabber in disguise.
kenntona;444843 said:
If the clubs are living beyond their means, by all means let them do so and combust. Leaving the well-managed clubs around. And if clubs are only limited to spending what they can garner in gate receipts and TV rights, how on earth is that going to give rise to 'an equal contest between teams' and 'not a contest in which financial firepower determines the winner'?? Look at Old Trafford's seating capacity (76,000) and then look at say, Fratton Park (20,000). Portsmouth must then charge their fans 4 times the ticket price of the United fans? And then look at how much TV coverage Portsmouth get compared to United. See where this is going re biggest cheque book? Someone connect the dots for Mr Lynn please....
toiletsiao
Well-Known Member
Re: The Barclays Premiership / Champions League Thread
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar ... imo Man UTd seems to be lacking a fox in the box...
Real should be willing to offload him to man utd out of good will... hahah
________
CAT WHEELS
kenntona;448713 said:
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar ... imo Man UTd seems to be lacking a fox in the box...
Real should be willing to offload him to man utd out of good will... hahah
________
CAT WHEELS
Last edited by a moderator:
C3P0
Well-Known Member
Re: The Barclays Premiership / Champions League Thread
Owen linked to shock Man Utd move
BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | M | Man Utd | Owen linked to shock Man Utd move
Owen linked to shock Man Utd move
BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | M | Man Utd | Owen linked to shock Man Utd move
Breyton
Well-Known Member
Re: The Barclays Premiership / Champions League Thread
Ahahahaha!!
Relax lah. He might be a Red Devil flop yet. lol
Though even being injured for long periods his goals tally still made it into double figures lat season. Should make a good sub or maybe 60-70 min player.
C3P0;449588 said:boy, don't you love this:
"I am now looking forward to being a Manchester United player and I am fortunate that I already know so many of the players here.
PHUI!!!
Ahahahaha!!
Relax lah. He might be a Red Devil flop yet. lol
Though even being injured for long periods his goals tally still made it into double figures lat season. Should make a good sub or maybe 60-70 min player.
