English Premier League 2012/2013

K3V0

18 years ago

3 years ago

5,966

26 Feb 2013 01:27:36

By Sears | Permalink | On 26 February 2013 - 07:24 AM

Yeah a lot of ye are just being needless pricks tbh. All this picking on Carroll is just getting boring.

No there not. He's taking the piss because Wenger thinks Arsenal can finish second which is probably unlikely yet he was only talking about Liverpool making the top four the other day ffs.

Brings it on himself 99.9% of the time tbh.

Jonas

20 years ago

6 years ago

1,380

26 Feb 2013 14:47:49

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1221871/Spurs-flop-Gareth-Bale-January-Birmingham-boss-Alex-McLeish-eyes-3m-defender.html

Hindsight can be quite fun at times.

bluemoon.

19 years ago

6 months ago

2,411

Premium

26 Feb 2013 16:11:08

I know of an even better one - The millions squandered on Barcelona reserve Yaya Touré shows Manchester City are the whores of world football

I’ve read many frightening stories about footballers in the Sunday papers.

Mostly involving hookers who kid themselves they’re not hookers, telling us how someone who can’t manage to do it twice-a-week on the pitch did it nine-times-a-night on her mattress.

But no tale has scared me as much as the one I read in a sniffy broadsheet, last Sunday, which could have come from the business pages:

“Manchester City’s new £24m signing from Barcelona, Yaya Toure, is being paid £220,000-a-week. His initial wage of £185,000 will rise to £221,000 when the 50% tax rate comes in next April. He is due to receive £4.1m a year after tax, an image rights payment of £1.65m a year and a bonus of £823,000 each time City qualify for the Champions League and £412,000 if they win the competition. He will also get bonuses if the club win the Premier League and the FA Cup. The deal including his transfer fee, wages and bonuses, totals £79.6m.”

Holy. Mother. Of. Jesus. Where will that leave the price of everyone’s season ticket in five years time?

Even more frightening was what that report didn’t say. Toure is not actually that great. He’s not a creative genius who will get backsides off seats but a defensive midfielder who stops players who can.

He wasn’t even a regular at Barcelona, having lost his place to Sergi Busquets. He may not even get a game for City, who already have four highly-rated players to fill that role – Patrick Vieira, Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong and Vincent Kompany.

And scariest of all, Toure says he only joined City because his agent “told me I had to leave Barcelona”. To add insult to injury the best he could say about his move was “it’s an honour to be playing with my brother Kolo,” before telling Barca that he’d love to go back there if they’ll have him.

If you’re a City fan, I’m guessing you’ll have no problems with the story. It’s proof the Sheikh is more determined than ever to land you the big prizes, and after all those years in United’s shade who could blame you licking your lips at the prospect.

But how do outsiders begin to describe how depressing the implications of this transfer are? I can understand luring the sought-after David Silva to Eastlands for £140,000-a-week, but giving a quarter-of-a-million quid every seven days to a defensive squad player who no other club would have touched for that kind of money and whose name won’t sell shirts, is insanity on a previously unimagined scale.

See how those figures play with Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor’s agents, or the leeway it gives Fernando Torres’s and Didier Drogba’s advisors if they decide to listen to a City offer. What do you reckon, half-a-million-a-week minimum? See how it impacts on other clubs trying to keep pace with wage demands.

See the shaking of parents’ heads when City scouts ask to let their little fella join their academy. See the disillusion on the faces of the City youngsters who won the Youth Cup two years ago.

City aren’t alone. Most Premier League clubs will invest the bulk of their summer spending abroad. They’re just the most extreme example of why England’s national side continue to fare so badly at the big tournaments.

Our clubs sent 106 players to South Africa, and the number has already soared past 110 while the contest is still on. Serie A sent 75, La Liga 57.

Spot the link with England’s woeful performances which showed the lack of quality throughout the squad. We just don’t have the players. Mainly because they’ve had their way blocked by average, over-paid foreign mercenaries.

An objective outsider would look at the obscene amount paid to seduce Toure to England, look at the country’s lamentable showing in the World Cup, and conclude we deserve our misery because we’ve become the whores of world football.

Or hookers kidding themselves they’re not hookers, to be precise.

The Platypus

15 years ago

3 years ago

1,784

26 Feb 2013 16:27:52

Hilariously shit article. "He's not even creative, he's just a DMC. Why would they cost money?"
So not only is he wrong about Touré, he's wrong about football in general.

ianbaker

14 years ago

9 years ago

762

26 Feb 2013 16:49:20

Whats worse is this man gets paid/got paid a decent amount of money to write that article.

Slashman X

20 years ago

2 years ago

6,000

26 Feb 2013 16:53:14

Surely Yaya would be the whore in that situation?

bluemoon.

19 years ago

6 months ago

2,411

Premium

26 Feb 2013 16:55:38

It's just an awful article generally.

Shola

18 years ago

7 years ago

2,708

26 Feb 2013 19:29:03

Did Yaya ever play in a creative or advanced role before he moved to Man City?

Ninja

16 years ago

9 years ago

5,341

26 Feb 2013 19:32:44

By Shola | Permalink | On 26 February 2013 - 19:29 PM

Did Yaya ever play in a creative or advanced role before he moved to Man City?

No.

Although the article is awful in hindsight, it's quite reflective of what a lot of people did actually think when he signed.

Jamieandhisego

20 years ago

3 years ago

841

26 Feb 2013 19:34:06

He's also on too much money and was signed for too much.

bluemoon.

19 years ago

6 months ago

2,411

Premium

26 Feb 2013 20:32:11

By Ninja | Permalink | On 26 February 2013 - 19:32 PM

No.

Not entirely true, he played behind a striker for Monaco, I believe. I think he was used more like Fellaini is, than he is used by us.

By Jaygull | Permalink | On 26 February 2013 - 19:34 PM

He's also on too much money and was signed for too much.

Along with Silva and Kun, he's justified every penny of the fee and wages (which happen to be wrong in that article).

Poe

20 years ago

1 week ago

3,676

27 Feb 2013 15:29:23

He hasn't justified his wages at all - they're close to that of Ronaldo and Messi. He's not that good.

bluemoon.

19 years ago

6 months ago

2,411

Premium

27 Feb 2013 16:59:25

No they're not. Ronaldo and Messi are both on £250k+ p/w along with the significantly better image deals with their clubs.

He's on ~£180k. That's undoubtedly still a lot of money but considering the influence and impact he's had both on the team - scoring the only goal in both the FA Cup semi against United and the FA Cup final against Stoke, scoring and creating crucial goals time and again - he's lived up to it.

Ninja

16 years ago

9 years ago

5,341

27 Feb 2013 17:06:52

He's brace against Newcastle was arguably as important as Aguero's goal against QPR in winning the title as well.

K3V0

18 years ago

3 years ago

5,966

28 Feb 2013 04:59:58

By Ninja | Permalink | On 28 February 2013 - 03:06 AM

He's brace against Newcastle was arguably as important as Aguero's goal against QPR in winning the title as well.

This.

I remember thinking City weren't going to score and then boom Yaya fucking Toure did the business.

Slashman X

20 years ago

2 years ago

6,000

28 Feb 2013 10:06:04

Plus him and Kolo make for awesome chants

bluemoon.

19 years ago

6 months ago

2,411

Premium

28 Feb 2013 10:14:13

Any excuse to post this.

Deleted Account #151676

28 Feb 2013 13:46:10

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/581741_10200793060414423_1461916190_n.jpg

Sam

20 years ago

3 years ago

5,092

28 Feb 2013 23:44:24

"a quality football manager - or Avram Grant"

Telegram Sam

18 years ago

8 months ago

5,083

01 Mar 2013 01:13:07

Avram Grant did alright at Chelsea. He was within one post's-width of winning the Champions League and if the league season had started when he joined then they would have beaten Manchester United to the title that year (if I remember correctly). Still, his career dropped off considerably once he left.

om4ever

19 years ago

10 years ago

213

01 Mar 2013 05:11:53

By Telegram Sam | Permalink | On 01 March 2013 - 01:13 AM

Avram Grant did alright at Chelsea. He was within one post's-width of winning the Champions League and if the league season had started when he joined then they would have beaten Manchester United to the title that year (if I remember correctly). Still, his career dropped off considerably once he left.

Like Di Matteo, he understood the importance of giving responsability to the engine Mourinho had created.

Chelsea also lost in the League Cup final agaist the Spurs after going 1-0 up (dat Drogba free-kick), and the league came down to the final game

VP.

15 years ago

1 month ago

25,280

01 Mar 2013 17:27:04

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/544207_10200853943695541_429884255_n.jpg

K3V0

18 years ago

3 years ago

5,966

02 Mar 2013 04:20:10

By A Little Bit Of Merson Magic | Permalink | On 02 March 2013 - 03:27 AM

Sam

20 years ago

3 years ago

5,092

02 Mar 2013 09:32:33

A good article summing up why Redknapp is a dick.

Vercoe

13 years ago

5 years ago

1,510

02 Mar 2013 10:43:07

I read in one of the papers today that QPR's players went on a training camp to somewhere exotic (might have been Dubai) and just got slaughtered the whole week.