Jul 30
Saha, Giggs and Agents, EVDS and Other Stories
Morning all from the Red Rants towers — er, I don’t think I’ve greeted anyone like this before.
Let’s quickly settle down to what we do best — rounding up the news stories of the day (and yesterday).
The Guardian speculates that Sunderland might be keen on securing the services of Louis Saha — presumably, to give their physios a good work out, and ensure that they always have their hands full and earn their chops.
Roy Keane has been very active (and arguably more successful) than last season in the transfer market. However, it must be said that he has been getting mostly mediocre players and, typically, players we already know awful lot about. Whilst, for a United fan, it could be worrying that he hasn’t managed to broaden the horizons of his scouting network much, he has at least gotten off the ex-United player bandwagon and moved towards signing players from the Premiership. But Louis Saha? Unless Keano can glare his way into making Saha fit, I don’t see the point of him trying to buy Saha.
Ryan Giggs had a pop at the mecenary nature of the modern footballer, where a player may jump ship for a ten grand. When Giggs says such a thing, you know you can’t dispute it because of how he’s conducted himself all these years. And ex-Arsenal man, Gilberto, couldn’t disagree either:
“When you win things, you achieve more than anybody else. You get better contracts, and more money, anyway. I can’t blame a player who wants a good contract. But I believe if they stay at the club, they can earn good money and do a lot for the club and themselves. So if they win something, it means more and they are more appreciated by supporters.”
Chris Eagles has moved to Burnley. I saw this coming anyway, although I believe he could have moved to a premiership side like Hull or Stoke or West Brom. We wish him luck and we’ll certainly remember his icing-on-the-cake goal against Everton to make it 4-2.
And finally, EVDS is still not ready to reliquish his No. 1 spot to Ben Foster and intends to remain our goal keeping mainstay this upcoming season. He’s a proud and hungry lad, and I think, unless Fergie deems it right (or if Edwin makes a gaffe or two) EVDS will continue being our No. 1 this season too. That said, I’m sure it must be really hard for Kuszczak to read in the papers that he’s not even being mentioned in the same breath as Foster — let alone VDS. Must be unfair on the Pole because he has played more games for United, and is a decent shot stopper.
Oh well, Foster is English. So all eyes will be trained on him this season.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Saha’s Injury: Who do we believe?
- Brum 0-1 Reds: Another Scrappy One-Nil Win
- In defence of Louis Saha
- Man Utd Stories of the Day
- Fergie, The Raging Bull | Terrified Vidic | More Quotes from Hargreaves
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
Stephen (485)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (345)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
@Grognard: If you’re that worried about impressions, remember that prevention is better than cure. Personally I have no problems with calling Pascal a chimpanzee (see, I just did that) but if you have a problem with people calling you rascist then you should think twice about putting such stuff in print (or just learn from the experience).
I’ve been accused of far worse (some people still believe i tried to run them over with a car, but that’s a different story) and the best thing i’ve learned is – if you’re worried about reactions, minimise damage beforehand, not after the event.
and to everyone else – Grog is NOT a miserable ogre. He’s just miserable because he can’t take a joke (i’ll bet $100 that he doesn’t take this one well either)
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@Stephen: Those teams exist for one reason mate. To pad the stats of the giants and thats all. They have reason or purpose to exist in the EPL other than to give the elite teams an excuse to have a feeding frenzy. Keane spent money this year and last year and what exactly did he buy? Castoffs and players like Yorke and Cole who should have retired 5 seasons ago. Hardly a sign for wise spending. And if he beat Sheffield Wednesday, who bloody cares? What the Hell is a Sheffield Wednesday or a Wolves or Burnley for that matter? They are small teams that don’t belong in the big show.
My proposal is simple and would create more parity and incredible competition from week to week. It would also guarantee that a team could not take a fixture lightly and that at the end of a season you wouldn’t have teams that lost only a few games. Every game would count and every point dropped would matter even more so than now. I honestly think it would create fewer draws. Picture this, a league that starts with just these teams for starters;
Manchester United
Arsenal
Chelsea
Liverpool
Manchester City
Tottenham
Aston Villa
Everton
Newcastle United
Middlesbrough
Portsmouth
West Ham United
Sorry Blackburn fans, You just missed out on it.
The teams fight it out in a 36 game schedule style that is similar to the one being used in Scotland and only two teams get demoted and two get promoted every year. This would still punish futility and reward two winners from lower divisions while still keeping the league more competitive.
Look it’s just an idea I have played with and even if nobody agrees with it, that’s fine. I just have a hard time getting excited with games against bottom feeders as well, is there anything more painful than watching two unimaginative, uninspiring and talentless teams go head to head in an mid season fixture? Whats even more painful is watching Manchester United try to poke a hole against a team that never came to compete but to survive by placing 10 men behind the ball and erecting the Berlin Wall. It’s rubbish and you all know I am right on that note. Football should be competitive and tight, but unfortunately now there is such division between the have and the have not’s instead. Reason, reform and common sense are needed before things progress to such an unwatchable level that the league will have financial and ethical issues to deal with.
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@Hakieran: It should never be about money. It should be about winning. Trying to stay up because of money is pathetic and sad. A league and competition is designed for teams to want to win and be declared champions. The present system unlike US sports does not promote much of a chance for more than 3 or 4 clubs to be declared champions because only one team at the end counts. There is no playoff round to allow other teams that had a good season to be rewarded for their efforts. Instead England has bothersome and annoying cup competitions intermingled within a season that cause nothing more than distractions and fatigue for the top clubs fighting it out for first overall and for supremacy in Europe. I just do not believe in the left wing ideology that says all teams should be able to compete for the FA Cup when we all know that the chances of a team from the lower division below Coca Cola actually making it to a final and winning is slim to none. Sometimes a miracle happens and you get a Millwall or a Cardiff in the final but nobody but their local fans give a damn in the end. I have watched every FA Cup final sin 1976 and I didn’t bother with this year’s. Sure it’s fair and all, but really, only the honest and bold have the guts to admit that it was rubbish and that the majority of fans want big teams in the final because they crave a spectacle.
The league right now has too many dull encounters and that has to stop. More has to be riding on the top 8 positions in football than just a place in Europe. A playoff scenario where the top eight meet in a two game knockout competition where 1 plays 8, 2 plays 7 and so on and then progressing to the semis and a one match final on the home ground of the team with the best record is the best and fairest way to determine a champion and keep all teams interested in the season right to the very end. I’m sorry but it works in North America despite the age old British and footy argument that the team that finishes first overall in the season, deserves the championship. Perhaps they do, but is it the best scenario for the health of the league and the game? And regarding your argument about no room for British players. Frankly mate, if they aren’t good enough to play in a twelve team league, they don’t deserve to. I want the EPL to become an elite league where all teams from 1 to 12 can kick ass in Europe because they play very competitive games domestically and they don’t waste energy and resources playing meaningless games against minnows who have no business playing games at that level. It’s common sense and yet it is radical thinking. But then again, that’s what English football needs to become better in style and in substance. RADICAL THINKING.
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@Jig: I too would love to see Keano take Sunderland to great heights. They are a team that deserves more because they are trying to think bigger and because any team with a large fan base and a fantastic stadium deserves to succeed. I just question his player purchases. I’d call these players bums but that would be an insult to bums all over the world.
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have we signed anyone yet? sheesh….*exasperated*
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@scoop: Scoop mate, sometimes it’s very difficult to interpret what a person is thinking by the words they use. Your intentions may not have been to wind me up, but when I read your comment, it felt like you were telling me how to think. Sorry for that but please understand that I am awfully controversial on this blog and because of that, I have been attacked many many times. This makes a person a little defensive at times. I’m sure if you and I had a beer together at a pub, you’d have a completely different opinion of me. It’s the nature of the Internet. Quite often intentions and motives are completely misunderstood. So, lets forgive and forget and get beyond that. I apologize for having jumped all over you on that day, OK. PEACE!
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@johnsom33: You said it mate. And you got to love those Germans eh?
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@Ahmed Bilal: I’m trying to figure out what the article has to do with the pretty young thing in the picture. Ah Hell, who cares? She’s cute.
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@Ahmed Bilal: HA! HA! HA! fooled ya. I can take a joke. But it helps if it’s funny.
And unfortunately Ahmed, I’m just not a politically correct person. As you, RR and others on the site know very well by now, trying to suppress my thoughts and expressions just brings out the worst in me. Still, I am not the miserable old windbag everybody thinks I am. I’m a controversial and often misunderstood but gentle windbag who is sometimes a bit too sensitive for his own good.
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@Wink: No kidding. It’s extremely difficult watching us lose players left and right but nobody is coming in. It really goes against my nature as I do not believe in standing pat. Even a champion needs to improve from the past season. Mark my words, if we don’t add that striker the team needs, we will not repeat as champions. Everybody except Arsenal is improved and hungry to fight on. And Arsenal should not miss the overrated Hleb too much. And I still think they will replace Flamini. We on the other hand have been bogged down by the Ronaldo affair and to top that off, he will miss many games in the beginning of the season when our schedule is hardest. I don’t know. Still, despite all the doom and gloom, I think Ronaldo has no choice but to stay and Berbatov I feel will end up at OT as Spurs really have little choice but to sell him if they are going to afford Arshavin and Pavyluchenko. Man I have to say that I really like the potential look of that Spurs team.
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I do like the look of spurs too, but I liked the look of City last year, and look what happened to them. They can bring in whoever they want. They will still be looking up at us, chelscum, and the scousers. hard to believe Le’Arse will drop out of the top 4 also. So as long as the give us Berbatov, bring in anyone they want. I’m sure we’ll buy them in 2 years time for 4x the price.
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@Comma: Don’t get me wrong, I’m not touting them for the title but I think if Ramos works his magic and they adapt well to each other on the pitch, they have a chance of 3rd or 4th. I don’t think anybody comes close to United or Chelsea but Liverpool and Arsenal can be had in my humble opinion. I especially think that Liverpool will continually be compromised by the lunacy of their manager. Arsenal are good and young but they have lost a few players and have yet not replaced them adequately. I think Spurs can really mount a threat but they still need to sign Arshavin and one or two more strikers like Pavyluchenko. If they were to shock the world and get Villa, then who knows. They still need a CB of top class to help Woodgate. King is done and Dawson was garbage last season.
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Is it me or is it becoming more and more obvious that the only persons who really wants Ronaldo at Real Madrid are Calderon and Ronaldo himself. The players don’t want him, the board doesn’t want them and in a poll 82% of the fans favored van der Vaart and Villa over a Ronaldo swoop. I’m also starting to believe that even Ronaldo may have second thoughts after the negative comments of some Real players and of course the breakup with his Spanish slut. I don’t know but I don’t think Calderon has the necessary support to make this deal. Which means that we may be off the hook for this season but I’m sure the same soap opera will start up again next season. God give us strength!
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@Grognard: your constant belittling of clubs is something that I have to disagree with. These clubs are as important and have as much history as United and I think should be respected. For fans of these clubs they are extremely exciting and great teams to support. For instance how many times when one of these teams are playing Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool have you become nearly a fan of them for a day, cheering when they score and cursing when they let one in? These teams’ cup finals are against the top 4 and if they beat a member of the top 4 it gives them bragging rights comparable to if we win the league. Not exactly unexciting IMO.
PS. I’m not telling you how to think I’m just disagreeing with you
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@Liam: i agree, i think the only team that doesn’t have history in the league are the chavs, i always root for a team when i watch a match without united playing, because football has become a drama and every match always has repercussions.
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@Grognard:
Fair enough mate. All done lets move on
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well, when keane missed the last spurs friendly(thte one before tonight) we all know what happend their, berbatov has missed tonights friendly, i wonder what this could mean…
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@jos: When did you read or hear him saying this????
@Grognard: *Sigh* said it before and i’ll say it again, we’re being a little over dramatic aren’t we? Besides Pique(who has promptly being replaced by a better player namely Evans) which first significant first team player have we sold again? I don’t quite get the part about losing players and not bringing in any. Our team is still the most cohensive of the big 4, so i don’t see what the fuss is about. I too would like to see a player come in, but i doubt i’m worried by the ones who’ve left(so far).
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@Liam: Sorry Liam, they are a waste of time and boring as Hell to watch. I admit that I’m a bit of an elitist when it comes to my football and I just can’t tolerate mediocrity. Team history means nothing to me if it’s all been done in the lower divisions. What, I’m supposed to become a big Blackpool supporter and respect the team because the Great Sir Stanley Matthews once played for them? I don’t think so. I’m a Manchester United fan and so I loathe all other teams in the English game. And that doesn’t make me wrong. It’s just the way I see things.
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@Rd: I’m not asking for a mass influx of players RD. All I have been asking for for two months now is for a striker. I will continue to beg for a striker because we badly need one. Yes our team has a lot of cohesion and style but we need a central striker who can be counted on in the clutch. And lets not forget how long Ronaldo will be out and how long it will be before he finds his game form and fitness. Not finding a RW or RMF just to back up what we have may also be a spreading ourselves a bit thin. I’m not asking for lot here. But what I am asking for I wish would happen finally so I can get some peace. I know I speak for many when I say the sooner the better.
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@Grognard: true true grognard, we do need a striker, and I see one comin in this friday (prob’ly Berba). We also need a young RW or RMF that can play understudy this season like Nani did last season (unless Fergie is considering Lee Martin
), cuz golden boy giggsy is gonna retire nxt season and I would like to see us continue with 4 experienced first team wingers then (Nani, Ronaldo, Park, new kid).
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@Grognard: Is it end of euros + 50 yet?
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It’s all doom and gloom. We haven’t signed anyone, i might as well slit my wrists…
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I will say this with all the boldness i can acquire. We must not buy a striker unless we lose The Eternal Idiot. Why? Because we would simply have 2 offload Rooney first. Thats how it works. Say we get Berbatov or Thierry or Eto’o Fils. Who should make way? I dont think it should be Tevez because in my opinion he was marginally better than Wayne. Those who believe Tevez is going 2 be our super sub,are simply speaking JRR Tolkien fantasies. Look at the following examples of having 2 many top strikers in your ranks. 1. Chelsea-Drog,Sheva,Anelka,Malouda. What happened 2 Sheva? 2. Real Maggots- Ruud,Raul,Robinho,Baptista, Saviola. Is Robinho rejoicing or Saviola? 3. Barca- a team which plays with one traditional CF- Eto,Henry,Ronnie,Messi. Not so great 4 henry or ron. Thats y i believe we dont need a striker unless of course we sold rooney and/or the Idiot
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@Grognard. I’m sure if I was bothered I could name a ton of high scoring and dramatic games that involved the lower clubs. On a lot of weekends I’ve preferred some mid-table games to United’s (which I usually spend criticising every little mistake a United player makes) These teams play against us the way that we played against Barcelona so to criticise them for negative tactics would be hypocrisy.
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@Grognard: I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said Grog, the point of my post was just in reply to the part of your comment about losing many players and not bringing in any, i was just trying to point out that unlike Arsenal and Liverpool, none of the players that have been sold were part of the first team.
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Tottenham are shaping up to be pretty useful. It is hard to keep track how much theyve spent. Anyone able to do the numbers?
They are packing one helluva midfield and no doubt are going to play 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 with wingers, but their central defence still looks like an injury waiting to happen and hard to see where the goals are coming from if they sell Berbatov as well as Keane.
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Im also not sorry 2 say this. The english league is void of quality. The lower teams are a waste of money and time. I watch five European leagues every weekend and the epl is last in terms of quality. Ahead is the french,spanish,italian and portuguese leagues in no particular order. I have never found joy in watching blackburn take on the mighty Fulham or Reading going “2 park the bus” at the Emirates and achieve a mind numbing draw,only 2 have the incompetent English commentators hail their exploits as “disciplined”. Watch Marseille vs Lille,or Recreativo vs Mallorca and u will realise that some people in England are wasting time and financial resources
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@Grognard: You are missing the point here though. The point is most of these clubs are there because they have been supported by fans through thick and thin. It is a part of the very fabric of English (and European) sporting society. To relegate these clubs into a position of a lower league would be to uproot their years of standing by their teams through thick and thin.
You are a Manchester United fan and loathe all the other teams. So then lets cut down the league to just Manchester United A and Manchester United B and let them play kick about throughout the whole season. Since you like both teams I’m sure it will be immense fun watching them play each other for the whole season. I hope you are getting what I am driving at.
Those teams may be boring to watch, but again, more often than not, when two big teams clash they become cagey and boring affairs too. Cutting down to 12 teams is not a solution. The traditions of the FA are some of the few things that are actually laudable where even a league two team hypothetically has a shot at reaching the very top.
The fact is, in your case, you need to see a team win day in and day out. But a vast majority of fans in England stick by their clubs, and I find that sort of loyalty in the modern age of attention deficient people, laudable. When you talk about the modern footballers having their principles eroded, the fan remains the one hope for football. So I think curtailing the Premiership to 12 teams would be unfair on 8 clubs which percolates down to the lower divisions.
No one’s telling you to support Blackpool. But why make the already suffering Blackpool supporter suffer more by riding roughshod over them? Small clubs lend a sense of drama with David v Goliath encounters at times, so I don’t see anything wrong with some of the small timers to mix with the biggies.
The league system is good the way it is now.
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@Just1n: We will sign Berbatov.
Hold on to the blade.
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@colver:
Spurs must be laughing all the way to the bank after offloading 28 year old Keane to Liverpool for £20m. It’s not that I think he’s particularly old, but his game relies on pace, so age will catch up with him quicker than someone like Berbatov.
If Spurs get their signings right, they are potentially better than Liverpool. They need a centre-half of real quality and a DM. I heard they’re being linked to Veloso. If they sold Berbatov and brought in Arshavin (as expected), another striker (Milito or Pavlyuchenko), and Veloso, then they’ve got a mighty fine side right there.
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@Jay wire: what are you on about?; “we don’t need a striker”. Of course we do. At the moment we only have TWO, who actually are supporting strikers. We do not have a centre forward, and don’t u dare mention saha, campbell, or ronaldo!! We probably have the most crowded and toughest match schedule in the premiership nxt season, given the amount of competitions we’re in plus the fact we have consecutive vital games during a limited period. Do you expect only Rooney and Tevez to play in all these games?
Just because we played around ronaldo last season and got away with it, doesn’t mean it’s gonna be the same this time around. Other teams have improved and wisened up to our game, so we have to adapt/evolve. Besides, ronnie would not feature till late october, so even if we decided to stick to our old system, the key player there would be missing for the first two months, putting us at a disadvantage.
Btw, Rooney, Tevez and whoever we get are gonna play a fairly equal amount of games, with whoever performs better gaining a slight edge over the other.
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@Red Ranter: Spot on mate! I mean, why should you fix something that isn’t broken already? The EPL is the most watched league in the world and the fact is I could watch Liverpool v Stoke, or Chelsea v West Brom, just for the reason that I would love the big team to lose, I mean last season Derby, the worst team in EPL history nearly drew 0-0 with us, and Barnsley beat Chelsea 1-0, BARNSLEY!
Back to the whole transfer saga, I don’t understand how Fergie is leaving everything to the last minute this season, when he was so quick with his signings last season and it was a success. It seems like more and more options are going to be lost for us, and we have been lucky that the Hunterlars and Berbatov’s of this world have not gone yet.
I just want to wake up one god damn minute and see someone we have signed, its got to the point that a fucking squad player wouldn’t be so bad, just ONE signing! ONE!
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@Traverse: No, it’s end of EURO 08 +33 days and all is quiet. Happy now?
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@Just1n: Just remember to use cold water afterwards.
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@Jay wire: So what you are trying to say is that we are fine playing a season that’s over 50 games with only two reliable forwards correct? Sorry pal but I just have to laugh at that one. Go back to playing your FIFA 08 with the injuries option off. Get real!
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@Rd: Yes I realize that RD but still, that was potential depth we let go and if we get a rash of injuries some of those players may have been needed. Still, we seem to be letting players go and Eagles is now gone, hopefully Saha will get his useless ass out of town soon too. We are definitely thin at striker and we really need depth at RMF/RW. Fergie needs to address these issues. Don’t assume that he’s so smart that he knows what he’s doing because I can god damned guarantee to you and everyone he knows he dropped the ball when he let Rossi go last year. We cannot go into the season with two strikers. It would lead to a potential catastrophe.
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@Jay wire: I agree with you partially. I think there are ten teams in the EPL that are a joke but come one, please don’t give me crap like the French and Portuguese leagues are better. Thats ludicrous and completely false assertion. Every league is in the same boat. You have 8 to 10 good teams and then the rest are crap. It’s just the way things are. The Italian league for example is a shadow of it’s former self. Germany is fairly competitive but they too have many crap teams. But they are better than France or Portugal. I think you are being far to harsh considering how well English teams are doing in Europe. What the Hell have Portuguese and French teams done? Lyon and Porto get knocked out quickly and then it’s a cloud of dust fro the rest.
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@Liam: All I can say mate is you please very easily. Some of us like our wine a little finer.
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@Red Ranter: Your reaction is an overreaction and an over exaggeration. Three teams get relegated anyway and the world does not stop. The top teams and financially successful teams in England don’t owe anything to these teams and their followers. This is a business after all and lets face it, the game needs refinement. Increase the size of the Coca Cola Leagues or start another division. Two teams will always get promoted every year. The EPL needs to offer a top product every week and to Hell with tradition. Life goes forward and if we keep sticking to old school thinking nothing ever improves. I don’t live in England so I am an easy target to poke ridicule regarding my ideas because I’m thought of as someone who doesn’t get it. The fact is the English don’t get it. They don’t get that their league is a watered down product with 10 teams that probably don’t deserve to play at that level. They don’t need to hang their heads in shame. Simply put, they aren’t good enough or competitive enough. A league should operate with the idea and theory that in any given season, with all the breaks and turns that happen, any team can win. There is nothing positive or great about a league that has two or three teams dominate year after year. That used to be the case in many North American Leagues too but the individual sports and their administrators woke up and smelled the coffee. Rules were brought in and massive reform began. Changes in the drafting of players, divisional alignment, salary caps etc. The word often used was “PARITY”. Why not make it fair for all. Get rid of teams that will never have the money or the means to compete with the Chelsea’s or the Man Utd’s. Create a league where the 10th place team can beat the first place team on a more regular basis because their roster is stocked with quality as well. Have a league where the champion may actually lose close to 10 games in a season due to the extreme competitiveness in the league. Instead of what happens now where there are 20 easy games every year and where the good teams usually win 17 or 18 of those 20 games. Am I so wrong to call for a reformation and a change of perspective all in the name of tougher and more exciting competition. I feel like Henry VIII trying to convince a bunch of Catholics that they are too old school with their religious beliefs. Come on people, open your minds to some new ideas and stop living in the past.
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@Grognard: If you are going to again compare this with the American leagues, I’m sorry you cannot convince me. I don’t like the way the American leagues are structured. Yes sports is a business these days, but with the way it is in north american leagues, the sports bit comes as an after thought. Sorry. If that’s the sort of change we are going into then you are not doing a good job of selling me your idea.
Your argument has contradictions and is flawed — especially the part of taking out teams that can’t compete with United and Chelsea, financially — and since I completely disagree with most of it I won’t bother going into a detailed response. I am sure you won’t see my point of view nor will I. So let’s leave it at this, and agree to disagree.
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grognard…. i have to agree with you on this one, but i wont take it to the extent you did… i’ll explain how and why
i agree that we need to cut the teams in the EPL… but I propose that we cut it down to 15 (not 10-12 that you proposed) with 2 teams getting relegated…. we play a 30 game season
i propose this for two reasons…..
first, this will leave the teams with some margin for error, evvery year we see teams that are ravaged by injury and as a result go on a bad run (usually newcastle) this is not because they dont have the spending power or the players to compete with other teams… its simplu because their best players are injured and they cant bring in replacements outside of the transfer window (all american sports have a trade deadline thats after about half the season, so if the team gets it wrong in the start and/or has injury worries, they can fix the problem, in european football they cant do it that promptly)….. the cost of these errors/misfortune shouldnt be relegation…..
and secondly, this would give us a yearly cinderella story that the media just laps up and which adds to the intrigue of the league and make it more fun to watch (everyone likes to root for the underdog every now and again!!!
)
i would also like to take this one step further, i propose that the championship (the division below the EPL) be also reduced to 15 teams and they be given a fairly lucrative TV deal too(lets call it the lower EPL), so that they can maintain fairly strong squads…… this again serves two purposes… one, the gap between the EPL and the lower EPL wont get too large and so the teams dont have to make drastic changes when moving to the top league (this would facilitate in a smooth transition)… and also this would the top clubs a more competitive enviornment to test their academy graduates…..
ok then, if this happened tomorrow, this is what the new EPL would look like
Manchester United
Chelsea
Arsenal
Liverpool
Everton
Aston Villa
Tottenham
Newcastle
Blackburn
Portsmouth
Manchester City
West Ham
Middlebrough
Sunderland
Wigan
I admit, its not perfect, but this better than what we have right now, what say you???
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@Grognard: as far as removing teams that are incapable of competing with Man Utd and Chelse is concerned, that can only be done by curbing the spending power of these two…… i dont want to see that because unless it is done to all the major clubs all over europe, it would mean that english teams would be at a disadvantage in european competitions.
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@Red Ranter: You may not like the way North American leagues are structured but having grown up with them and seen them evolve I think I can see their merits much more clearly than you. And obviously you see the English football league in a different manner due to your experience. I was throwing out some valid points and ideas that you and others can’t wrap your heads around because you are stuck in football century old dogma. That’s fine but it’s really stubborn and unwilling to see the reality of the situation. North American leagues like the ones for football, basketball and baseball are extremely successful and now they operate on a more level playing field with changes having been made to offer more parity and better competitiveness. It’s not broken but through my eyes, it’s not as big a joke as football leagues that have the same few teams win year in year out. That is just a total joke and whether you agree or not, it’s bad for the game. Trust me, my head is not stuck in the sand. I do get it. I just don’t agree with it nor do I like it. So yes, we will agree to disagree.
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It looks like Spurs will sign Arshavin within a week or so (at least according to the player’s agent). He will, of course, be Keane’s replacement. A bit of a turn from the Ruski, I’d say, since his first statement after the Euros was that he only wanted to join a big club playing in the CL. Seems to me like no such club is willing to pay well over his value, and so Zenit have forced a lesser club into paying that huge amount. He’ll probably go for something like £20 mil, which is ludicrous.
I reckon, Spurs will buy Milito as replacement for Berbatov, once we sign him.
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@samg: First of all I agree with you about not imposing a salary cap for the reasons you give. As this sport is universal and has many strong domestic leagues, imposing a league salary cap would not work unless FIFA got lucky and were able to impose a global one. And we know that isn’t going to happen in our lifetimes.
Secondly, I see your league plan is well thought out but 30 games is far too short of a schedule. Let snot forget the number one thing here is that all teams need to make money first, and win second. 30 games just won’t bring in enough revenue. I would accept 15 clubs though but then the schedule would have to increase 42 games like in the pre EPL days. That might be too much football fro the big teams who also play late into the domestic cup campaigns and of course Europe. But hey, that’s why we have big rosters. Play more of your bench. Everybody would be forced to do so. And the 15 teams you pick look good although I would not include Wigan.
It’s nice to see someone else who is open minded to new ideas and not so stubborn and set in their old school ways. The world does not move backwards, it moves forward. And future equates to change.
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@Tomas: It may seem ludicrous but he is a fantastic player and he’s certainly worth more than Robbie Keane. I just wish a lot of you out there had watched a number of Zenit games this year to see just how much he imposes himself in a game and how their offense clicked with his skills and vision. I just hope Spurs get him because if they don’t, I still think Arsenal might.
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@Grognard: I am not being stubborn mate. I said I don’t feel it necessary to debate with you on the merits of the system in the English game because this topic has been debate over and over again on this site. Yet, because I don’t agree with you it is I that’s stuck in dogma. Well, bravo!
Mate, just because I don’t agree with you doesn’t mean I am stubborn. If you’ve been regular enough on this site to know me, you would know better than to brand me as someone not open to other ideas. I have read extensively on the north american leagues and I am not stupid to not see its merits. But I see the European system, and despite all it’s flaws, I find it to be the better format.
I don’t want to be drawn on the details because I don’t want this redundancy. Trust me, a few months down the line someone will again bring up this debate on the league system being flawed. So I’d rather let the others take over from here than me talking about this. But don’t mistake even for a moment that my silence is a sign of weakness or stubbornness — I’m sure you’d know better than that.
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@Grognard: I know, he’s good, and I’ve always liked him, but the price is still too high for him. I reckon £15-16 mil would be adequate, especially because he’s traded from a Russian club. And why is it that as soon as someone doesn’t share your opinion, you assume that they haven’t done this and haven’t done that? It’s simply a matter of different opinions. Different opinions can emerge even when people have the exact same knowledge about a certain issue. It’s the nature of human beings to make their own opinions based on the way they see things. I might see Arshavin a little different than you, but I have surely watched him enough to make my evaluation (which is that he’s good, and I like him, but he’s not worth £20 mil).
I too hope that Spurs will get him. Both because he’d be very good for Arsenal and because it’d improve the chances of us striking a fast deal for Berbatov. Spurs simply cannot release both their main strikers before signing someone – it would be too risky. But if they manage to sign Arshavin, they’ll suddenly only be one striker short, when Berbatov leaves, which they can easily deal with in the remainder of the window.
Funny thing is though that Spurs, for all their interesting signings, will still struggle in the league, because their defense is rotten as usual.
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@Red Ranter: The doom and gloom comment was sarcastic mate. I’m not in the least capable of cutting my wrists over non existent transfers.
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