bluemoon. - Comments

No.

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

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.

I've just been reading the Swiss Ramble guy's posts on your figures up till 30/11/12, hopefully we'll see a new piece on his blog soon.

I can't say I pay close attention to your club but it was quite interesting to see that you're only posting profits due to player sales and without them and the little profit from the Highbury properties you'd have posted a £27m loss. Not to mention the 'profit excluding player sales' figure is getting worse and worse year on year.

Oh aye, forgot to open the Cash Reserves image, with 123m stockpiled that theoretical £27m loss doesn't really matter...

I think everyone could sympathise with him wanting to score a hat-trick in a cup final, but his actions seemed to indicate he was more concerned with his own fortunes than with that of his side. Jonathan de Guzman was the appointed penalty taker and if he didn't want to hand the ball over to Dyer, then he didn't have to.

Zamparini

Maths.

Remember the time SHOLA wouldn't let Kevin Nolan get his hattrick in the derby?

He was never that combative at Celtic so it's a bit surprising he's being used there. I've noticed that when he moves up Britton covers him as well.

Still, Swansea could have fielded one defender and probably still won today.

Hmm, I guess. Never really thought of that. Laudrup obviously thinks it's a risk worth taking given Bradford's poor quality of attacking talent.

I don't get where all this "Harry Houdini" stuff comes from? Sure he saved Portsmouth from relegation but he also got Southampton relegated - his Spurs season surely cannot count?

City will win this now.

Also, is City's entire atmosphere completely dependent on the referees performance? The only time I've ever heard it noisy is when they've got the hump about the ref.

Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart "We'll not give up even if 12 points behind with one game to go"!!!

— BBC Radio Manchester (@bbcradiomanc) February 24, 2013

Idiot.

Lost 4-1 after leading 1-0 at half time. What the fuck? How can just let yourself go like we did in the second half? Seriously Ash Eastham and Ethan Ebanks-Landell can fuck off now. Another transfer embargo for us as well and no quality in our squad to build on a winning streak. We are so going down. And we DESERVE to do so!