Lets Talk Football

[quote=Tacitus;626455]My point was merely that if he's 'allowed' to buy crocked players, isn't that more of a risk than 'untested' but promising youngsters? I'd also mention Ryan Babel. Maybe he just didn't trust himself after that? Maybe he didn't trust his scouts? I have to say, most of his 'good' buys were players that anyone with a passing knowledge of European football could've chosen without too much difficulty.

I couldn't agree more and I think it's dreadful and does little good for their development. I have a real problem with kids football and the way it's run in this country. I think it's a big part of the problem that manifests at the highest level. Hell, look at the career of Joe Cole. He should've been a huge star. European clubs should've been wishing they could buy him and there should've been rumours every year about him moving to Real or Milan. But there wasn't and the reason is, IMO, that we have no idea what to do with a traditional #10. So we've stuck him out on the left or right of midfield.

I'd have thought that, as the new financial year starts in April, it would be included the next year. Is Liverpool's Alonso transfer included?

Yep, the truth is that Portsmouth shouldn't have made the Premier League (in the manner they did.) Something like Blackpool or Barnsley would've been more appropriate.

But City are living 'above' their means in the same way. Obviously they get big crowds and sell well, but not in a way that could sustain their current purchasing policy.

*If Platini gets his way, then I'll be interested to see how long the current owners stick around. That is, if as stated, their aim is to raise the profle of Abu Dhabi.*

They're doing what Portsmouth did, just on a bigger scale. The difference is that Portsmouth's owners made loans, which I believe City's aren't. It was always the worry with Chelsea, wasn't it? They were loans, which Abramovich said he wouldn't ask to be paid back, but it wasn't until that debt was 'wiped' that some of the Chelsea fans I know breathed a sigh of relief (even though they said differently.)

United are in the opposite position, of course.

Loved this.

Some transfer news now, as there's some big stuff.

Both Cole (Joe) and Ballack are confirmed to be leaving Chelsea this summer, on free transfers. The Mail says that Mouriniho is looking at Ballack.

Harry Redknapp was on talkSPORT today and said that Spurs would be talking to Joe Cole as soon as the World Cup was over (well, England's part, anyway)

Robinho doesn't want to play for Mancini at City (which is a stroke of luck, isn't it? ) and would like to go to Barcelona. Yaya Toure going in the other direction.

Chelsea are looking to pay £25m for Bastian Schweinsteiger. While Arsenal are "lining up" a bid for Mesut Ozil, Werder Bremen's young midfielder. An Arsenal signing more in line with the early 2000's, IMO. A good choice for Arsenal.

According to The Sun, Vincenzo Iaquinta's agent has said his client's off to Spurs.

Javier Mascherano will be looking to join Benitez at Inter, so says The Mirror.

Also in The Mirror, about a quarter of the Premier League are after Martin Petrov. Everton, Bolton, Villa, Stoke and West Ham are the teams linked.

Blackpool are interested in making Sylvan Ebanks-Blake their first signing.

Hodgeson and Dalglish are the papers choice, today, for next Liverpool manager. The Mirror say Hodgeson in the next 48 hours, while The Express just say that Dalglish has withdrawn from being on the panel that picks the next boss, so he can enter the race.

Fulham are the latest club to think they can get something out of Phillipe Senderos and have signed him on a 3 year contract.

Mario Melchiot has left Wigan and gone to Qatar.

TBF, Ballack will be 34 this year and I wouldn't give him another £140k a week contract either. Cole, on the other hand, wants to be on a similar wage as the clubs big hitters (Terry, Ballack, Lampard) and wants his £80k a week wages upped to £120k a week. As Chelsea are 'attempting' to become a properly run club, they've decided not to cave. All this will, I assume, have been done with Ancelotti's approval. He doesn't appear to have a place for Cole in his team and, therefore, why pay him more to do less?

Also, if I may, without Abramovich you'd have gone the same way as (dirty) Leeds, IMO. That's if you were lucky.

I wouldn't worry about these two going, tbh. It looks as if Abramovich is going to spend again and Ancelotti is a superb manager. I'd trust him to take over after Fergie leaves us, and I can offer no higher praise than that.

agreed on Ballack. But Joe Cole has done so many for Chelsea, and deserve to be treated as a key player. Ancelotti himself said he wants him at Chelsea.
I don't care about Abramovic or his massive plans, because only I care is Chelsea, they can be last or first,I'll follow them.
I don't want an international club with all the stars, I want English spirit and more English players,not less.
I've always been saying, the only time I'd stop supporting Chelsea, would be when the team comes out on the field without any English player in squad,like we saw at Arsenal.
And letting Joe Cole, simply hurts me.
And what comes next, he joins Tottenham, Man Utd, City...

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You looked but you didn't see

Yes, Ancelotti wants him, he's a great player to have on the bench, but that's where he wants him. On the bench. Cole wants to play and, the reason he's leaving, he wants equal(ish) pay with the other big Chelsea players and Chelsea don't want to pay £120k a week for a bench player. Especially one of 29 years of age (this year) with, therefore, little resale value.

That may be so, but he's the boss. You think I like what's happening at United? For what it's worth, I think he's making you better. Chelsea should've won the last two titles, IMO.

I don't see this happening. Sorry.

I have a feeling they've already done this, haven't they? They've certainly fielded 10 of 11 a few times, the 11th being John Terry.

That I can understand. We all have our favourite players and it does hurt when they go.

For the record, I think he's going to Spurs or Arsenal. It's always been said that he wants to stay in London.

My World Cup predictions

Winners Spain

Failures: France, South Africa and possibly England

Top Scorer David Villa

Suprise USA

.... and ITV pundits to bore us all to death (particularly Andy Townsend)

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If at his council I should turn aside, Into that ominous tract which all agree, Hides the Dark Tower. Yet aquiescingly I did turn as he pointed, neither pride nor hope at the end descried, so much as gladness that some end might be.

Robert Browning 'Childe Roland to The Dark Tower Came'

I spouse you are just being realistic. But I wouldn't agree on Ancelotti part. Cole in his eyes should be in first 11, it's just those injuries that kept him away from playing.
And don't think Chelsea came out with no English players in their squad, at least since I followed them.

Well, just hope that this case with Joe Cole leaving ,isn't a done deal yet...

you might be too young for this one!

oh its soccer.

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"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo.

yeah, I didn't even follow football that much back then.
But, anyway Chelsea had english players on the bench.

I just hope uefa will conclude the rumors by setting a rule about must have home-grown players. I think football in general would be much more interesting...

I once sold Andy Townsend a delivery mileage Daewoo Leganza as a present for his parents then a new Fiesta for his wife a few months later which I delivered to his house. I think he'd just signed a pension-topping up contract for West Brom at the time and was only slightly less portly than he is now.

Lovely bloke. Awful pundit.

At least ITV have got Chiles in their presenting arsenal and he's a far better anchor than Lineker, who's just a wancher. I'm cursing my dreadful RTE reception in Tatty Towers because Dunphy, Giles, O'Leary (with Bill O'Herlihy stopping them ripping each others faces off) are infinitely better than anything British TV has.

HK - I dunno what it is with Liverpool's scouting policy either. In the case of Aquilani, every man and his dog knew that the guy was an exceptionally talented playmaker who rarely completed anything like a full season for Roma. They didn't even have the excuse that sometimes gets trotted out for Arsenal - They pick up a few relative bargains because they're signing a player known to be injury prone, like Rosicky.

Dunno if I believe that one, to be honest, but I do remember reading somewhere that Rosicky's former club had done extensive tests on him and found some sort of bone or tendon weakness which he'd had since childhood and was untreatable. They then started listening to offers for him.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

The Giants are defly gona take this one

Great post. I no longer have to read my usual football websites, you just give me all the information here. I like .

I heard though that Yaya Touré is no longer interested in Man City

Haha, if this is true, things are looking good for Man City fans.

Other news:

Source for both: Soccerway

I certainly don't think that Yaya would go to Man City if he could help it, but I'm not sure how many takers there'll be for him among the more prestigious clubs, so he may have to. Of course, it depends how much Barca ask for him.

Everton have signed Joao Silva, a 20 year old striker from Desportivo Das Aves (Portuguese division 2)

Long rumoured United target, Angel di Maria, is said to prefer Real Madrid over a move to England. This tallies with what the Spanish press have been saying for some time now.

Chelsea's striker Anelka has signed a 2 year extension to his contract.

Inter are said to be offering £33m for Javier Mascherano and Dirk Kuyt.

Wigan are asking £15m for Hugo Rodallega. Villa and Arsenal are said to be interested.

Wolfsburg want Ballack.

Martin Petrov, Sylvinho and Benjani will all be released by Man City this summer.

Just read, it was Abramovich's decision to release Ballack

source:http://www.sportinglife.com/football...TEAMHD=chelsea

You're not gonna get a league season at this level from Ballack any more. Even for a club like Chelsea he's a drain on resources but because he'll be on a free there are gonna be a fair few clubs willing to pay him big bucks for a season or two.

5 or 6 years ago he was arguably the best midfielder in the world, but he then had a bad injury (didn't he? I'm a bit fuzzy here) and came to Chelsea.

I'm actually surprised that Abramovich has stuck with football (not just Chelsea) for so long - I was telling everyone who would listen when Jose got the boot that I could see him up sticks and buy a Formula 1 team.

If I was in his position that's what I would do, but that's probably just because I can't see Jessica Michibata becoming a WAG. What a woman!

Ballack is very grateful player. Almost 10km per match. So age is irrelevant. He said he was shocked that he's released. I hate to see those kinda players leaving.

Still, there's always hope Joe Cole won't leave...

Thanks for the info Hon. What's this Joao Silva like then, any gen?

I don't think it's irrelevant when your other star central midfielder is 32 in the summer and he's always gonna get in the side ahead of the German when Essien is fit. Ballack is a very experienced and very expensive squad player who I'd much rather see on the bench than, say, Mikel but I think decisions had to be made to inject some new blood. You don't want a large proportion of the team's stars getting old at the same time - this ain't Italy.

Looking at it in a cold, hard fashion (always hard for a fan - I almost murdered someone when I found out my team was signing Keith Gillespie even though I could logically see where he would be useful) Ballack was always a prime candidate for the chop.

No, it's football. The game played by kicking a ball with your foot. The one with the Federation Internationale de Football Associations as its international governing body. Check the first page of the thread.

http://www.movieforums.com/community...d.php?p=102859

Here's what I can find.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...on/8731588.stm

Hope that helps.

New Celtic manager Neil Lennon has said he wants to talk with Robbie Keane about staying and is also looking at getting Sol Campbell to look north of the border.

In addition to Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Blackpool (or newly promoted Blackpool, as you have to call them) are also looking at ex United youngster Danny Webber and Burnley defender Clarke Carlisle.

The Mail say that Fulham are hoping to land Dieumerci Mbokani for £8m. There's also interest from Birmingham and West Ham.

I truly thought it was just paper talk, but it seems not, as the Arsenal chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, has confirmed the Gunners are interested in signing Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, according to The Star. OK, as it's The Star, it could still just be paper talk.

Lastly, The Mirror informs us that Martin O'Neill has given up on keeping James Milner and has launched an £8m bid for Mbark Boussoufa of Anderlecht.