Jump to content

Abrak

Advanced Member
  • Posts

    3,921
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Abrak

  1. So pretty heroic effort to end the window with a weaker strike force than we started with.

    While I am all for balancing the books the actual timing is pretty bad. Liverpool along with all the other clubs will get approximately an additional 25m in additional revenue next year when the new Prem Rights deal kicks in which is only going to mean that getting players will be even more expensive. I reckon Spurs did the right thing in increasing their wage limit during the recent window.

    It seems the end of the window was a real shambles. Letting go of Carroll is understandable, not replacing him is pretty unforgivable.

  2. they haven't. he's the first ever.

    Not strictly true.

    Bale was the only player booked twice last season.

    In previous seasons Bentner, Hernandez, Eboue and Ronaldo have all been booked twice for the offense. It is really a moot point. Diving happens pretty much in every match. Bookings rarely happen.

    • Like 1
  3. By the way, how did we come to the two worst in the league thing? I think both Bale and Young were guilty of perhaps the most blindly obvious ones, that happened to be quite high profile, but in terms of dirtiest and most frequent offenders, i would say they are surpassed but a good number of others, and that would include Suarez, who towards the end of the season, seemed to really be on a roll, quite literally.

    my own opinion mostly - but backed by the stat that the only player to be booked twice in the season for blatant simulation was bale. does it all the time. suarez is a bit histrionic when it suits him but he does usually actually get fouled and just play it up a bit - unlike young who knocks the ball past opponents and then just proper throws himself over. he's not even good at diving so needs to either get better at it or stop altogether, he's pretty embarrassing.

    Listen, i am the first and loudest to slag off divers in my team, but i think with regards Young, he is far from being one of the worst offenders. There were two high profile games in which he "won" penalties in dubious circumstances. The first one (when you talk about Suarez actually being fouled and just making a meal of it) well Young was in the penalty box and someone grabbed hold of the back of his shirt. Yes, it wasn't enough to bring him down, but <deleted>, if you are in the box and someone is stupid enough to start grabbing your shirt, there's an argument you would be the stupid one if you didn't go down. Making it clear that you have been fouled when you are in the box is understandable to me, as there is so much at stake in terms of being awarded a penalty or not. The second incident was i agree a joke. Beyond those two, one of which was as i say, partially justified, i really can't think of anything outlandish that he did, certainly not to earn him your tag.

    As for Suarez, well, what Suarez was doing a lot of towards the end of the season, was not just going down in the box or even in the final third, but going down around the half way line, with all the rolling and reeling in agony crap. What's the point of that? Yes a challenge may have been coming in a bit hard, but when you can easily skip over it or around it, why not do just that and get on with the game? Is a free kick in the middle of the pitch really that coveted, or really that much more potentially penetrative than to continue down the wing and get a cross in? I think it comes down to confidence, and Suarez's had taken a hit after all the Evra nonsense.

    Anyway, i just find it a bit rich when supporters start bemoaning divers in other teams, when their team has someone equally if not more proficient in that particular skill.

    The two games (and the particular referees) in which bale was booked for diving escape me. Help please?

    One was definitely the Liverpool home game against Spurs. Referee Michael Oliver.

    My favorite Bale dive was against RM in the CL QF.

    Incidentally I dont think a player has ever been booked for diving more than twice in one season.

  4. I guess there is nothing inherently wrong with a club buying the league, it is simply a case of who has the most money wins. This has really always been the case but it was that in the past, the money was generally generated from 'internal resources' meaning the club's fan base and not one 'individual' wishing to raise his public profile.

    I guess what is happening in England is nothing quite as sad as say France where PSG are 1 to 3 'on' to win League 1 this year. Their transfer spend is 10x their nearest competitor, their wage bill is over double their nearest competitor and they will lose more money than all the clubs put together. By their own forecasts, which are bound to be exceeded, they will lose Euro100m this year and Euro70m next year ploughing a tanker through FFP. They are not really interested in winning the French League in any case and have set a target of CL within 3 years. I guess they are not too bothered by FFP on the basis that the club is French and the owners QSI, have Platini's son as their in-house lawyer.

    http://swissramble.blogspot.com/

    It is all fine and dandy I suppose - it just doesnt really have much to do with sport nor is it very sporting. Buying the PL, the French League or the CL will mean losing a lot of money but winning it gains you a certain amount of prestige. It is just a matter how 'desperately you need prestige' and how 'little money means to you to throw it away'. It is ultimately a game of trying to buy 'respectability'. From that perspective it is an interesting game.

  5. The GB v Brazil match later tonight - 1.45am kick off - should be interesting. Brazil do really have one hell of a team on paper and it has all the makings of a cricket score. Brazil are now 8/13 to win having been backed down from 8/11. Any punters backing GB are being heroically patriotic I fear.

  6. Apparently the fee of 6m isn't the stumbling block, it's his salary.

    Which is my point mrboj. Man City gave him a massive salary to sign for them. He still has that contract so if Man City don't want him any more they should buy it off him. While I agree totally £115k per week is a great deal of money it's obviously a lot less than he's getting now. Why should he loose out?

    Man City have already played the hard man with Tevez last season (in my opinion the right thing to do at the time) but then towards the end of the season they buckled and caved in to him (in my opinion the wrong thing to do). But Adebayor is a different situation, he's done nothing wrong (except maybe not being a good enough player). All he's doing is honouring his contract.

    Of course they could threaten to 'let him rot in the reserves' if he won't leave but I think that could do more harm to Man City than Adebayor in the long term. For a senior player that has proved his ability over the years Adebayor will firstly be extremely well paid for the remainder of his contract and secondly he will always find a 'good pay day' when that contract comes to an end.

    But for Man City what sort of message does that send out to other world class players they might want to sign in the future? How many of those players will have second thoughts about signing for a club that tries to bully it's players out of the club when their face no longer fits? Long term that could be a much bigger issue.

    That's why I said that in my opinion Man City created the problem themselves so should now admit their mistake and just pay the player in full for any financial losses he might incur by leaving the club and therefore terminating his contract early.

    Now wait a minute this is turning into a nonsense.

    What you are saying is that he has a contract with City but as City might not play him they should turn him into a 'free agent' by paying out the remains of his contract. Now when Adebayor becomes a free agent, whichever clubs wishes to sign him, will have to pay him a very high salary and also a very high signing on fee because they havent had to pay a transfer fee. So you are saying that the benefits of Adebayor being paid too much and not being good enough to get in the City team are 1) that is contract is cut short but that he is paid in full 2) he gets overpaid again on his next contract and a huge signing on fee. Perhaps he could turn out to be crap again and start all over again.

    The reality is that City are taking a much reduced transfer fee to reflect the fact that he is an on-going liability to them. Spurs will pay a reduced transfer fee but a signing on fee to Adebayor to make up for a large proportion of the lost wages over the remains of his contract with City. Then Spurs will put him on what I imagine is a very generous package but much reduced from what he earnt at City to reflect the fact that he was never worth what he earnt at City but he is still a striker so needs to be kept in luxury cars. I rather suspect that Spurs sorted everything out with Adebayor before they sorted it with City (they have had a season or so to discuss things) and it is just as likely that agents are sticking their ugly nose into hold up matters as anybody else.

  7. A lot of rumours that Liverpool have signed Dempsey from Fulham. (It is actually up on the FSG website but it might just be heroically optimistic advertising for the US tour.) 10m in all which seems incredibly steep for a 29 year old but then again he can beatbox as well as play football and they are perhaps in a rush to get him out for the tour. (And to think that Mochengladbach picked up 21 year old Luuk De Jong for 10m + 2m yesterday.)

    Allen sounds less certain but more promising. No bid, no transfer request but no smoke without fire. So much for gentlemen's agreements, they need gentlemen afterall. Should fit very well into the midfield and can also act as potential back up for Lucas (which is one more key position filled) if it happens, that is.

  8. BTW the 'keeping hold of the ball' argument is supported by the tight correlation between pass completion stats (particularly pass completion in the final third) and league position of the top clubs. Chelsea's final third pass completion is relatively poor.

    pcompepft.png

    Tomkins times

    The stand-out figures for Swansea came in their passing numbers; from the top five European leagues, only Barcelona (with 88.5% pass accuracy), Bayern Munich (86.3%) and the English champions Manchester City (85.9%) had a better pass success rate last season than Swansea (85.7%) did.

    At the same time though, the Swans were guilty of retaining the ball a little too much in their own half; they had the lowest percentage of their actions (22%) in the attacking third of any Premier League side this season, and they made more passes per shot attempted (62) than any side too (Fulham were next with 45). That said, as a newly promoted team, their primary aim in most games would be to avoid defeat, so retaining the ball was an eminently sensible strategy.

    Actually the key point about Swansea is hinted at in your second point and clearly illustrated in the chart below. This shows the 'percentage of completed passes' in the 'final third' compared to all the other clubs in the PL.

    percpft.png

    What you can see is that Swansea's is lowest by a factor in 'percentage terms' of a third. Essentially what Swansea did is use their advantage in possession to recycle the ball within their own half of the pitch. This also accounts for their 'massively high' pass completion rate because pass completion rates in the final third are always much lower and they have a low percentage in the final third (see original chart.) (It also explains why Leon Britton's pass completion rate is higher than Xavi's which would be an interesting answer if you knew the question.)

    So to some extent we have to take Rodger 'attacking possession football' with a pinch of salt as at Swansea he used possession fairly defensively. It is quite a challenge to translate that into attacking possession. He was incredibly effective though with almost no resources. Seems to me like a long term plan.

  9. Surprised you're letting him go to to be honest. Both he and Kuyt always looked dangerous when they came on, especially as impact subs.

    http://www.dailymail...o=feeds-newsxml

    Out of interest, what happened to the high wages he was on at City, which were presumably also paid by City when he was on loan at Cardiff? What were Liverpool paying him per week?

    he just really wants to go to cardiff apparently. and rodgers is disappointed with it. but he can't be relied on due to his knees unfortunately. we're paying him about 60k by all accounts. similar to what he was on at city i think, he was never on mental money there.

    He was definitely on quite a bit more at City - more like 90k I think - but City paid him a lump sum and released him from his contract on the last day of the window so that he could join Liverpool. I doubt it was much because I remember Kenny saying he had made financial sacrifices to come to the club.

  10. One change I wouldn't mind is Allen for Adam.

    in a heartbeat.

    rumours gathering pace about carroll though, which is weird. be mad if we're about to take a 15m loss on him and madder still if we loan him out. it's possible that rodgers simply doesn't fancy him though.

    I've been saying these for a while now I cant see Carroll fitting BR plans...but lets see.

    BR has talked the talk so far but I am really waiting to see how patient and determined he is to impose his system if results don't go our way early on, the pressure will be massive! Carrol who has found form is exactly who you need if you need a plan B in games - we still needed an extra striker anyway so if Carroll goes we need x2 to come in!

    Yep I can see Allen coming in if BR has his way ( seems a nobrainer for me) if the clubs can agree terms- which might be the issue.

    The most interesting one for me is Aqualani who you imagined would never be coming back but surely this is his best chance if he has any desires of making a career now. His technical ability, vision and passing is exactly made for Tika Taka play.I kept an eye on him and watched a few games of Serie A and he always looked good for Milan and they have a quality midfield already.

    Bellamy always said he came back literally because of Kenny, which gives us another problem to replace him if he goes, he was a great buy for his ability, experience and price.

    Gerrard will not play every game, Lucas will take time and then we have the Europa - so is Allen enough? No chance!

    Looks quite likely that Bellamy is going to head back to Cardiff (which is a shame) and what with Kuyt gone, Maxi almost certain to leave and Carroll quite possibly on the way that leaves us very short up front. I presume Borini is coming. I suspect there is something to the rumors about Dempsey (although he plays midfield - probably could play upfront in a 433) mostly because he is bound to move (1 year left on his contract) and we appear to be red hot favorites (1-5 on) to acquire him. Not convinced we are going to acquire anyone from Swansea - Rodgers is supposed to have an agreement not to acquire any players off the club for 12 months.

  11. Non sensical again i'm afraid. Last year a point needed to be made and it was. This season we will get nearly that again for Modric and as i said before i trust Levy more than you that we'll get it right with Moutinho.....just like we did with that snip of a buy from Iceland.

    Some Liverpool fans are starting to sound bitter. Something i don't don't like to see. I'm saddened by this recent developement.crying.gif

    Actually you missed my point entirely (and I actually believe that Levy is about the best contract negotiator in the Premiership)

    Smokie said he thought you would have the Moutinho deal wrapped up by the weekend.

    I very much doubted it because it is with Porto. Now Porto has numerous South American players on their team (partly due to the language) but mostly due to the fact that (1) they have loose labor laws and can come and acquire work visas and later acquire Shengen visas but more importantly (2) Porto works with players whose economic rights are owned by other individuals (most typically tied to Zahavi and Joorabchian). This helps Porto acquire the players at low cost (as they typically dont have to finance the whole deal and the players push them through at a low price) and also not have to pay the players much as the players are tied into their capital value (which is why Porto has a lower salary base than Wigan). Moutinho is Portuguese but his economic rights are partly owned by Zahavi. Moving to the PL complicates this because it is 'illegal' so has to be 'circumvented'.

    Now I actually think that you might find that AVB will prove quite helpful in dealing with the incredibly complicated tangled web that Porto weaves and unlocking some good deals there or maybe Levy can but I bet it wont happen quickly (in any case it is only mid July).

  12. Sounds like Oscar has gone to Chelsea. Not a big surprise given that he has Joorabchian as an 'agent'.

    (Would have put this in the Chelsea thread but it appears to have gone missing as it is 'sub judice' pending the Terry outcome.)

    And they are welcome to him. We will have Moutinho and Adebayor signed by the weekend.

    No idea why we are dragging our feet re Naughton...5m seems to me a fair price for a player who is never going to get a game for us.

    Ah well if you guys had liked Moutinho that much you could have sold Modric last year for 40m and bought Moutinho on his release clause for 18m. Still if you actually agree with Porto over who pays for the price of the sandwiches for lunch before Saturday it will be something of an achievement.

    We wouldn't sell him to that lot...and I agree with that approach.

    How is your deal for the Italian Championship player proceeding?

    Sorry...I forgot to describe it as "exciting!" biggrin.png

    My point is Porto is a total nightmare to deal with. They dont even own 100% of Moutinho in any case. His 'agent' (or 'super-agent') is Pini Zahavi. So I cant believe it will be resolved over tea and biscuits.

    As far as Borini goes I thought Rodgers sounded pretty confident he had tapped him up sufficiently at his press conference.

  13. Sounds like Oscar has gone to Chelsea. Not a big surprise given that he has Joorabchian as an 'agent'.

    (Would have put this in the Chelsea thread but it appears to have gone missing as it is 'sub judice' pending the Terry outcome.)

    And they are welcome to him. We will have Moutinho and Adebayor signed by the weekend.

    No idea why we are dragging our feet re Naughton...5m seems to me a fair price for a player who is never going to get a game for us.

    Ah well if you guys had liked Moutinho that much you could have sold Modric last year for 40m and bought Moutinho on his release clause for 18m. Still if you actually agree with Porto over who pays for the price of the sandwiches for lunch before Saturday it will be something of an achievement.

  14. Sounds like Oscar has gone to Chelsea. Not a big surprise given that he has Joorabchian as an 'agent'.

    (Would have put this in the Chelsea thread but it appears to have gone missing as it is 'sub judice' pending the Terry outcome.)

  15. This might be the start of it all. Reasons being your lack of money and all the opposite spending what might end up to be considerable sums. City have a very settled unit already, Arsenal and Spurs are good and spending rather a lot and Chelsea will just spend bundles as usual and are buying a new team.

    Without going into it too much i'm absolutely convinced its Ferguson holding things together and i just don't think its going to be possible to stay up there at the top baring in mind the way the americand are running the club.

    The other way to look at it is this though.

    If you undertake a leverage buyout of Man Utd, you do so with the purpose of making an absolute ton of money out of practically nothing rather than to win the league.

    The Glaziers ultimate goal therefore is to sell the business while its value is near its peak and with City spending money like water that is likely to dilute the value of Utd. So it really wouldnt be surprising to see the Glaziers sell up within the next 3 or 4 years.

    Assuming the new buyers are billionaires wishing to maximise the use of Utd's cashflows to win the PL, they will replace the current debt by interest free loans and free up an additional 55m cash flow a year.

  16. So so truesad.png but we ain't done to bad in our decline and only lost the league on goal difference to a club who has spent close to a billion at the same time, we had a horror injury list last season too, just hope we can get the central midfielder we need and we will be still one of the teams to beat this season even in our decline.

    This is very true Dev. Man Utd have done very well to have maintained a certain dominance over all the clubs bar City while at the same time spending less on net transfers (since 05/06) than Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and City. (Although that this is partly down to the extraordinary gain on Ronaldo). That's clearly good management. But it is not an entirely comfortable position to be in - spending less in order to compete.

    Now last year you spent quite heavily on transfers and this paragraph from the SR blog stands out. '

    As an aside, cash flow for the nine months up to 31 March 2012 is a large negative £125 million, partly recognising higher expenditure on transfers, but mainly due to working capital movements of minus £71 million, which are described as being down to timing, e.g. receipts from sponsors, season tickets and hospitality). This may well be the case: for the same period the previous year, working capital movements were also negative (minus £41 million), but ended up as positive £14 million for the full year. However, it does go to show that United’s cash flow is under pressure in the current business model if they pay interest AND buy players.'

  17. Interesting article on Manchester United finances under the Glaziers by Swiss Ramble.

    http://swissramble.blogspot.com/

    For the financially challenged it can be best summarized by saying that having the Glaziers as owners of Man Utd has cost the club 553m quid. This is broken down as follows: 295m interest payments, 128m debt repayment, 101m fees, swaps, refinancing and 29m consultancy/dividends.

    Wrong section!!!!

    Should be in the Man Utd in decline threadcheesy.gifcheesy.gif

    Probably not. Think how much money the club would have if the Glaziers' were not creaming a fair chunk of change off it every year to pay bankers bonuses.

    • Like 1
  18. Interesting article on Manchester United finances under the Glaziers by Swiss Ramble.

    http://swissramble.blogspot.com/

    For the financially challenged it can be best summarized by saying that having the Glaziers as owners of Man Utd has cost the club 553m quid. This is broken down as follows: 295m interest payments, 128m debt repayment, 101m fees, swaps, refinancing and 29m consultancy/dividends.

  19. I dont actually know if we are in for Clint Dempsey or not - I certainly havent seen one reputable source linking him to the club. I do quite like him though for a number of reasons and even at 29 if he could be picked up at the right price he would make a useful replacement for Kuyt.

    1) In theory, with his MLS background, he has quite low mileage on him for his age. He has only played 309 club games at the age of 29 and hasnt exactly worn out his body (Gerrard by contrast had played 480 games by 29.)

    2) After 3 years at the age of 32 he would have a ready buyer with the MLS. He is, afterall, probably the most instantly recognizable US footballer (I guess).

    • Like 1
  20. This is still the funniest thread isn't it biggrin.png

    Yeah. definitely.

    Doesn't surprise me Abrak made up that number - I think he said he used to be an accountant!

    Hahaha laugh.png

    No problem ... I have been accused of being worst things than an accountant in my time.

    • Like 1
  21. Either that, or they all live in Thailand.....

    (39 posts and [you're] counting!)

    No you are the one counting, I simply made up a number. Now why dont you try the search function for the Everton thread?

×
×
  • Create New...