Jun 21
United’s Transfer Strategy — Is There More to Their Denial?
[Warning: Highly speculative article involving yours' truly thinking out loud for most part. Kindly bear and do add your 2 pennies' worth at the end.]
Yesterday, following Ronaldo’s interview with Guillem Balague Manchester United Football Club, issued a statement on its official site reaffirming what it’s been saying all along: that Ronaldo is not for sale.
This is the rare occasion where United are being put in a position where they don’t want to sell a player who seemingly wants away. [I personally think he does want away, but for the sake of those who think we should wait till he comes out and says it definitively, I've added the word 'seemingly']
But despite all this, and the possibility of getting big money from Madrid, United have been firm on their stance on Ronaldo.
So here’s a theory…
So often in the past we’ve seen United fall out with players and hence driven to desperation to sell their players. As a result the price of the player would eventually go down thus selling the player at a bargain. RvN’s price, for instance, was laughable. Whilst the club seem firm on Ronaldo, there is a distinct possibility that the club may be doing this consciously in order to ensure that Ronaldo’s price stays high. Thus with Madrid being desperate to buy, there can be only on way of that happening: selling the player on United’s terms.
So does anyone else think this may be a plausible strategy from the United camp?
The second part of his hypothesis is more of a suggestion than anything. Suppose, United decide to sell Ronaldo (but not decide publicly) they would ideally want to make purchase of players before selling Ronaldo. So buying a winger, perhaps, and a striker before selling would make sound business sense.
The reason? Well, selling Ronaldo would net us a lot of cash, but attempting to make purchases after that would come with pitfalls: clubs will charge exorbitant amounts for their players looking for a bite of the Ronaldo pie. So Ajax might say, “You want Huntelaar? Hmm, let’s have £40 million, thank you. You must have a lot of money now, mustn’t you?” And we couldn’t say, “No we don’t” because what we’ll sell Ronaldo for — even if the amount was undisclosed — would be huge. And that’s where the sales of our star winger would burn holes in our pocket.
So wait till the Euros are over and swoop in soon after. As the bloke from crystal maze would say, “Let the games begin.”
Related items from Red Rants:
- FIFA shed light on United’s recent transfer activity
- United’s debt situation explained
- How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sir Alex?
- Fast and hard, fast and hard.
- Ronaldo transfer money harder to spend in reality
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
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Moscow is my heaven (272)
so grognard, you going to have a rant at me, then at the end, confirm what i have said, hehe,
whatever you say, or i say, wait….
Rambo, i have a deep dark secret, im physic.
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@Rambo— Right on mate. The pre- season doom and gloom although a regular thing, is annoying as hell and dumb. Where were you hiding all this time anyway?
No real offence to others…but a united suporter at last!!
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er, grognard, didnt think i’ll every say this, but, you just got owned, and, it was by logical thinking to, good on you rambo, welcome.
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Was just scouting Soccerlens transfers page, and was quite shocked to see that a player who was linked to us has moved elsewhere, a striker nonetheless.
Stevan Jovetic (€8 million, Partizan Belgrade) to Fiorentina.
I thought this guy was one of the wonderkids but apparently he’s not United’s type.
Too bad though.
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[Grognard]
Read my post again mate. Why do you ignore the main point of my post? I said right now, if the league were to start we will still be 1 or 2. Rignt now we still have Ronaldo — whethere he’ll go or stay is not certain whatever we say. Right now Arsenal lost Flamini. Right now liverpool haven’t added to their squad. Only Chelsea have added Bosingwa. Ramsey won’t play this season for Arsenal, tbh. [Note: I am not even talking about Hleb and Adebayor leaving. Just taking all squads as they are right now.] So I think right now, we will be either 1 or 2. Which is why our feelings right now does not necessarily expect us to be paranoid.
Now assume the players that will move will move, we lose Ronaldo, Arsenal will lose Hleb and Adebayor added to their loss of Flamini — did you just realize that their midfield and forward line has been gutted by those departures. Any new players will take a while to settle down. Yet you seem more confident about Wenger than Fergie.
Ok I am a tad optimistic, but my faith is not due to naivety it’s experience watching transfers at United over the years. To give you some perspective, I thought United would do well even after we sold RvN and only bought Carrick — when everyone was baying for Fergie’s blood. It’s because of what I saw when Ruud didn’t play in the 05/06 season.
If I strike you as naive, then allow me to tell you what your comment strikes me as: it strikes me of paranoia — certainly not of realism, not even justified negativity; something I wouldn’t expect from someone as intelligent as yourself. It’s not in anyway better or worse than my opinion, because in essence we’re talking about stuff that hasn’t happened.
I may be optimistic and forgiving right now, but I will worry only when transfers don’t happen and there are not many days left for the season to start.
If I wanted to find fault with everything, then it’s not a difficult job. I like to see things based on how I’ve seen Ferguson do his transfers in the past. And it hasn’t been much different considering the Euros and such this summer.
We agree to disagree here, because there’s no way we are going to agree to each other’s point.
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RR
poor old grog is the biggest pessimist we have over here! In a way it is good to have a person like him! He gives a very different perspective to things.
By any chance Grog are you a Hollywood (or soap opera) script writer by profession
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sell ronaldo for 280 million pounds and have ramos schneider and robinho, if real madrid think they can make more money out of ronaldo they are going to have to pay such an insane price people will almost die, you people will say lets get real that price is just stupid and it is, but here is the reality it is crazy to sell ronaldo so it is crazy for madrid to pay that price. if real madrid want ronaldo and weaken our side they are going to have to drastically weaken their side break the bank to take ronaldo.
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Boring, boring game, as expected the Italians play dirty and get away.
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Dan and R…thanks for the welcome. Love the blog, always read it. Hope to write more too.
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[Rambo]
I apologise if you were ofended, but you seem a little high strung. Chill pill grog.
And don’t be such a sudo-football elitist with dan. He has an opinion too.
This is your first time here, so I won’t be too harsh on you. But apologizing and then calling someone high strung is not on. Or for that matter calling someone pseudo-elitist. See you may think of that about a certain poster, in this case Grognard, but there are better ways of putting things without attempting to rub someone the wrong way.
Keep this in mind.
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Waah waah waah!!! Doom, doom, doom!!! The transfer window is closed, we’ve signed no one, lost our best player, our major competitors (domestically and continently) have all improved, SAF’s lost the plot!!
Oh wait, its not even July yet, none of our major competitors have strengthened significantly, we still haven’t sold our best player and SAF has just won a PL/CL double! Honest to God, get a grip. I think SAF has a better appreciation of how to build a team than most of us half wits, who make our transfer lists up like we are playing FM. But then some of us seem to be better judges of players that a manager who has won 10 league titles and 2 CL’s
Rambo: Well said. BTW I’m sure Grognard prefers ‘student of the game’ to ‘sudo-football elitist’
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Personally I wouldn’t sell Cristiano Ronaldo yet.
I would put remove the number 7 shirt from his back and stick him in the stands till Christmas to teach him a lesson.
If then he still wants to leave he can do. For £100 million and no less.
Firstly Ronaldo does not deserve to wear the number 7 shirt which so many legends have worn on their backs with pride.
Secondly Ronaldo decided where he wanted his future when he signed a 5 year contract last year.
Thirdly Ronaldo needs to come back down to earth. He wants to play hardball then Fergie can stick him in the stand.
In the end it seems he doesn’t want to play for United and he has detracted from one of the most successful seasons since 1999 to feed his own ego.
I hate you Ronnie. You DEAD for me.
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evryone back off grogy
the glazers also own my us football team tampa bay and after they won the super bowl sold off our stars to buy ManUnited.
AS a fan of united i had a fear they would do the same if we won the cl after seeing them spend so much for players last yr.
so there is merrit to his fears i just hope they are wrong.
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Thank fuck spain won. It would be a travesty of justice had Italy won.
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JB – LOL at your post mate. You sounded just like Fergie addressing panicking and negative reporters in his weekly press meetings on MUTV. I think if United are trying to do business, they are not going to talk about it publically. It will be SAS type undercover operation type manouevre, no one will know until the player is signed and presented to the press on MUTV.
How many players have been reported as being on United’s shopping list or radar?. I think every player on the planet is supposed to be wanted by us. Feckin ridiculous really!. Whoever Fergie has in mind, you can be sure he will not be making it public anytime soon.
Very sad to hear Tevez agent saying that he is unsure of his future, and if it isn’t settled soon, he will have to move on. Don’t you think the agent is trying to use the present CR7 situation to Tevez advantage, and push United into a corner yet again. These agents are getting worse by the day, in trying to unsettle and move players on. This will show whether Tev is truly a Red though won’t it?. Agents – the worse thing that’s happened to football. CR7′s agent will make 10 million if he moves to Madrid. I just wish the whole unsavoury saga was over, and CR7 was away. I do not believe he will help Madrid to win the Champions league as they think. After all, they have not got Edwin in goal to save CR7′s arse when he does his dilly dallying and misses from the spot.
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[Craig]
Tevez didn’t say that. Some “inside source” according to News of the World.
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Oops, I thought it came from his agent though RR. I know I read it in other newspapers in recent weeks too. So I wonder if it is without some foundation. We will soon find out I guess.
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[Craig]
All those papers refer to NOTW in their reports.
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huntelar is not even the first choice for nederlands… Very slow to the point that can ruin our Attacking foodbal strategy which is based on pace, changing position and playing out of box with more than one option…RVN was departed to increse our speed in oponent`s half od the pitch….and look at the result… we are the best team in world now…We have the best players for our type of foodbal but he is injury prone… so…. nani tevez rooney , ronie -maybe and this slowmotion giant cannot be in the same sentence…Just look what other nederlands legends said about him…cannot compete on important matches at all, slow, invisible during the matches and non-creative at all… buy berba … and stop craing for this player
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RR – I’ve read it though in weekly newspapers, that haven’t referred to NOTW. But guess we’ll find out soon enough RR!.
Johnsom, what you trying to relate about the Rooney rants, because I’m not getting it mate.
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where is the optimism folks? We were dubbed to finish fourth when we only bought carrick two summers ago and look what we did…..last year no one knew what was happening with our transfers (except hargo) but in the end they weren’t that bad right? So now is the time when each and every red devil thats out there is a bit anxious(which seems fair)…but that does not mean that we doubt a man who has led this team through thick and thin(mostly thick
)….if ronaldo is acting like a spoilt SOB then be it….I would rather have a players who loves the badge rather than ‘dream’ of something else…..we have had a knack for surviving and this too shall pass….its only the end of june!!!
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Did anyone else Spot Ramon Calderon at the match tonight, Im telling you lads the more I see him and the more i read his quotes Im convinced that he is the Emporer from Star Wars.
He was quoted today in one one of the papers as saying [ everything is going according to to my design] which the Return of the Jedi fans amongst you will realise was the line that the Dark Lord of the Sith used when he was trying to turn young Luke Skywalker [or should I say Puke Skywalker in Ronaldos case] over to the dark side. Seriously lads, picture him in a hooded cloak, I think Im on to something here.
I dont normally get caught up in the whole sci fi make believe nonsense but Im hoping Fergie Wan Kenobi will come to the rescue.
May The Force Be with You
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lol @fred the red’s comment
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Hahaha – Fred The Red, I swear this blog is getting feckin wierder and wierder, we are now into Jedi Territory. Trouble is, I think Luke Skywalker is already as bad as the bad guy, he doesn’t need to be perverted, he’s already there – hahahahahahah – as bad as the badies already – no kidding!. You hope that Fergie can save Ronnie the Luke, but problem is, some people are just un-saveable – haha!.
I am just hoping that Luke Ronaldo Skywalker is off to doomed planet Real Madrid sooner rather than later. Because the enemy within, is the worst kind of enemy, and so is CR7 to the army of the reds. I am glad that he tried to be one of us for a while Fred, but he was found out as not one of us in the end. However I don’t want to hate CR7, but I don’t wish him all the best when Real Madrid is playing us. United forever.
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Thought you might like the wee Star Wars joke craig, but in all seriousness I think SAF has to realise that this has went to far and it would be in our best interests to let him go so we can plan for the future. Our squad is fine and will be competitive with or without him but would be greatly helped by a couple of quality signings, particulary up front. If Ronaldo was staying then I think someone like Santa Cruz could have done a job for us, but if he goes to Madrid then I think we will have to set our sights at the top end of the market and although I still feel positive about things it would definately please me if we brought in 2 or 3 proven top quality players or even a few top class young players like last year.
Arshavin, Huntelaar, Berbatov, Villa or Benzema are the more obvious candidates but there are also a couple of young players that I am keen on that dont get spoken of very much, one is Villas Ashley Young and the other is Rakitic of Croatia who is only 20 and showed some lovely touches whenever I watched them play, I think he plays for Schalke in Germany so maybe Grognard could enlighten us about him.
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You know what I am getting sick and fucking tired of on this site? It’s clowns that won’t let people rant whether they are right or wrong or whether what they have to say is popular or not. Fine, if some of you want to call me a pessimist do so, if some of you want to tell me a to take a chill pill do so, if some of you want to refer to my posts as “Waah waah waah!!! Doom, doom, doom!!!” do so. I won’t say that sticks and stones won’t hurt my bones. Far from it. Many of you seem to relish and have field day not so much attacking my beliefs, but attacking me along with it. Am I pseudo football elitist or am I a student of the game? Does it really matter. All I know is I am not the one throwing the snide remarks or the personal insults to anything I am responding to unless I am provoked. Earlier today I defended Schweinsteiger to Dan by claiming that I have seen him play more than 100 times and i feel qualified because of all those hors to make an accurate rating of the player. Dan on the other hand hasn’t seen him play as much. I wasn’t putting him down. I was just letting him know that a few games is not a fair way to evaluate a players’s ability. Was I wrong? That my friends is not being an ELITIST. I was speaking from experience, not superiority.
Some of you are on personal crusades to stifle people’s way of thinking so that it does not offend your sensibilities or pin headed, narrow minded perspectives on how people should view the game or the business behind the game. I’m not giving names so nobody can claim I just threw insults or snide remarks at them. If they think I did, then they already know they are guilty as charged. OOPS! How dare any of you tell me I cannot question Fergie if I damn well feel like it. Whether I am qualified to say squat about United is beside the point. This is a rant site and freedom to speak one’s mind without being personally attacked or vilified is essential. None of us know shit about the game compared to Fergie. Hell, none of us no 1/10 of what a muppet like Steve McClaren knows, but as United fans and as supporters who spend their hard earned cash whether it be game tickets, merchandise etc, we have a right to express ourselves to our heart’s content.
Many times I am just playing the Devil’s advocate to see what others think. It’s based not so much on what I believe but what my inner most paranoid and insecure feelings will conjure up in my mind. Is it possible Fergie is dropping the ball? Honestly, I don’t thinks so but other examples like the ones Nico brought up, Ballack, Ronaldinho, Gasgoigne, and Batistuta are examples where he wasn’t aggressive enough. I am honest when I really don’t trust the Glazer’s and what our true money situation is like. Once Fergie starts buying quality players I will gladly shut up. But as Al put it, I should feel like a pratt if he ends up buying Arshavin. I say that’s not true and it’s certainly unfair. What I should feel like is relieved, overjoyed and justified for my good taste, not my fears and insecurities as a devoted and concerned fan. None of you a bigger or better fans than me. Whether you live across the street at OT or whether you are in China. We are all a brotherhood and we should respect and appreciate each other whether we are always in agreement or not. Our goals and dreams are the same. So what the Hell is the problem here and why can’t some of you find some civility and class when it comes to discussing or debating things with me? It’s always got to come with a snide remark, an insult or a rude sarcastic comment referring to my personality, loyalty, intelligence or temperament. Why do some of you continually continually lower yourselves to the lowest common denominator when it comes to talking with me? By all means disagree with me but can’t you try to do so without having to insult me or my views? are some of you so limited that that kind of polite and respectful behavior is beyond you? Honestly, I’m getting a little fed up with all the crap and what really gets me pissed off is that poor Red Ranter has to deal with this shit and just two days ago he published a major policies post on how we should all act and respond to each other. Not 5 minutes after it was posted did it take an ass clown to come and start insulting and calling me names for absolutely nothing. Unbloodybelievable! I just want to discuss footy. To quote Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”
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RR; Sorry but I read your comment rather quickly this morning and the “right now” part just flew by me because I was in a hurry to go out. You are right. Right now we are OK because the rest seem like they are all in the same boat as we are in. But once we lose Ronaldo, not if, things will decline big time. I have more confidence that Arsenal and Chelsea will improve their squads and not so much for Liverpool. I think Liverpool are in worse financial shape than we are. Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal will buy and improve in my opinion. It is essential that we keep up with them as we are a year older and less the best player on the planet. So perhaps you can see why I am thinking 4th if we do little to change what looks to happen within the week. What everyone fails to see with me though is that I AM THE FIRST to pop if I am wrong and the first to say I am relieved when I am proven wrong. I am not in this to stroke my ego and prove myself wrong. In fact, whenever I play the Devil’s advocate, I am hoping the team or Fergie prove me wrong.
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gator; Thanks for the support. Really, it’s much appreciated because t least you get the number one reason for my angst. Many forget that we NFL, MLB or even NHL fans know a lot about the Glazer’s, Gillette’s and Hick’s of the world and how they operate and destroy what they touch often. As you know a lot about the Tampa Bay Bucs and your call name is Gator, I take it you are from Florida and you are a Florida Gators fan, correct?
If so, join the club. Love the Gators.
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Fred the Red; I’d like to offer you my take on Rakitic but some on this site would refer to me as a “pseudo football elitist” if I did. After all, what the Hell do I know. You can thank them for my silence. Sorry mate, not your fault! And I appreciate the fact you appreciate my contributions. Perhaps when I cool off a bit.
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Grog – agreed that United could have done more, but I hope you also agree that I think the clincher was Ramsey staying at Arsenal and not going back to Cardiff plus the London life. Agree to disagree, eh?
And for the record – Grog’s knowledge of the game surpasses most others on this site. He can be a biased cunt at times (who isn’t?) but he’s still one of the good guys, so before you go rip him a new one just remember that he’s probably got a very good point, and you’re probably wrong. So try thinking for a change, mmmkk?
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my friend actually pointed this out to me recently. other clubs will not sell their players to United until the Ronaldo debacle comes to a conclusion because of what you said above. so until this whole drama is over, United can’t bite the carrots dangling in front of them. maybe this is also why Tevez is still only on loan? in short, Ronaldo is fucking up our transfer plans, big time.
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Ahmed; Thanks for the support…….I think.
Seriously though, I do appreciate the support. And I’m a biased vagina. Now lets be more PC, OK 
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[Grognard]
Trust me, he’s all support.
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RR; I realize that and like I said to Ahmed, I really appreciate his support as well as others because there are a few on this site, that if given the rope would schedule a lynching party with me as guest of honor.
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Grognard – I think Zhirkov is only 24, so he’s actually younger than both Arshavin and Pavlyuchenko. To me, he could be a very interesting signing, because he’d certainly push Evra. But I doubt, we’re in for a left back.
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[Tomas]
He plays as a left winger. Dubbed the Russian Ronaldinho — so that’s some big expectations of him.
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RR – I don’t know, what I was thinking
I’ve watched all their matches and been very impressed by his performances as left winger lol. Anyways, still think he could be a good signing, but I doubt, we’re in for a left winger 
.
If we were, I’d like Silva just as much.
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Grog, tell us what you know about the croatian player that Fred the Red asked about – PLEASE!.
RR says – Trust me he’s all support. Somebody pass the sick bucket please LOL!. I find all this ‘back slapping’, love trumpeting appreciation society thing a bit girl-ish to be honest. But hey, each to his own. I thought you had decided to stick to talk about United matters only RR.
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[craig]
I never stopped you all from talking about anything as long as no snide remarks/personal abuse are being thrown around. Talk about your girlfried, talk about frogs, hell, not too long ago there was a mini-Irish-Scottish love-in for which I had nothing against. Be my guest.
Tbh I don’t care one bit as long as you don’t get personally offensive. Capiche?
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grognard-can you also tell me about hamit altintop.how many games did he play for bayern?
PS.i find your posts really interesting. I completely agree with your view that suspensions in big tournaments are very harsh and they must go.
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About the unfairness of the suspension rule in big tournaments: Imo it’s an absolutely necessary rule. If you allowed players to get booked in each match without consequence, things could get out of hand. Some players would certainly take advantage of such a rule, and the idea of us missing out on the so-called big players holds no water. Most of the time, these big players don’t get booked. In stead you’d allow free reign for those hard-tackling midfielders and defenders, who put fear in every creative and skillful players out there. Erasing such a rule would not allow us to see more good players, it would eventually erase the type of players, we all want to see. And if it comes at the price of one or two of these big players getting suspended, because they dive or make clumpsy challenges, then so be it.
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RR – tbh, if you go over the GF and the Irish/Scottish convo, it was football related, and I was accused of national bias because I loved the banter in pubs and on the terraces of the Irish/Scots fans, because I have Irish/Scots ancestral roots, and its normal to love ones ancestral inheritance. Well for me it is anyway. But fair point if you saw it as a love in, I can live with that.
As for the Capiche bit, got it loud and clear, and since your article on the Comments policy on this blog, I have tried to do my best to adhere to it. Yet I see that it is being broken day after day, and people who are offended are bringing it onto the blog, when you clearly said that was not to be the case anymore, but to be done thru emails to you. So yeah Capiche, what I’ve got loud and clear that things of policy are not really carried through are they?. Anyway all this oversensitivity and self righteous proclamations of some on this board is pathetic, and schoolma’am-ish reprimanding and rapping knuckles of those of us who are supposed offenders is also pathetic. So I am off to join Connor, and others who have left this blog for pastures where the debating is not mainly monopolised by one hypersensitive person. RB, Fred the Red, Tomas, RealRed, Wakey so enjoyed your posts and debating. See you at the greatest ground in the world, where we’ll probably meet on the terraces sometime, and scream, shout and debate to our hearts content, whether we agree or not.
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http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_3726049,00.html – Arshavin wants to play in Spain, what a surprise -.- Funny picture though!
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[grog]
Check out the United Rant forum. RR knows what i’m talking about.
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RR – sorry I meant to include you in my end of post people I have enjoyed chatting with on this board. You enjoy the new season and the continued romance with the best club in the world – See you around. Keep up the good blogging.
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Craig – don’t know if you read this, but I can only say likewise. It’s been a thrill blogging with you in here. Sad to see you leave.
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I’ll second Tomas comments Craig, it’s a shame to see another regular leave.
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[Craig]
Cheers. As I said, it’s your own choice that you come here, and your own choice that you leave. It’s a pity you see it that way, but to set the record straight I’ve never discouraged people from discussing about just anything as long as it doesn’t get personal.
Oh well, thanks for visiting. Always welcome.
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Tomas; The problem with yellow cards is the way they are given out and who they are given out too. In a 6 or 7 game tournament where the world is watching, the most vital thing FIFA and UEFA can do to showcase their spectacle is to ensure that the stars are there to play. In my humble opinion, more stars miss big tournament games because of an accumulation of yellow cards than they ever miss due to injury. I’ll never forget the fact that Germany had to play the final in 2002 without Ballack because he got his second yellow against S Korea in the Semi. If you are going to suspend players then modify the rules at least so that players don’t have to miss the final.
I have no issues with a straight red card. If it’s red the player usually deserves it and he should be suspended, but for no more than one game unless FIFA feel his crime is so severe that specific sanctions must be imposed. But to just basically get a second yellow over 3 games in the knockout stage and therefore miss the final is just grievously unfair. 75% of all yellow card fouls are not justified anyway. Most referees are idiots and many wear blinders or have hair trigger tempers and reactions. I have watched hundreds and hundreds of games from the 70′s and early 80′s where yellow cards were given very sparingly. Players did less diving and theatrical crap as well, referees would warn players more before issuing yellows.
I propose a few rule changes that would make it a lot better for the fans and the countries involved. Two yellows in the group stage and you miss a game, thats fine. Once you make it to the knockout stage however, any yellow card you got earlier is of course null and void and then you need to get three more yellows before you are suspended. In the World Cup a player would have to get a yellow in all three games leading up to a final in that stage, and in the Euros, the player would have to get three yellows in only two games therefore, he would receive a red card in the semi before he missed the final.
The game needs it’s stars to be showcased. The game is about marketing and allowing countries a fair chance despite the rules. The rules are often too rigid and leave no flexibility in situations like this. Not having Paul Scholes in the 99 final was a shame but The Champions League is a longer more drawn out tournament as well as a club competition. In the two big international Euro tourney’s the maximum games a team can play is 6 or 7 games. Players need to be showcased and nations need to be given a chance to compete. Suspending key players for aggressive but non lethal fouls or poor behavior should be tolerated a little more for the good of the game instead of catering to the clubs who insist their players are protected because of their financial investment. Fair play is nice but not when it stifles the game and reduces a spectacle due to the absence of great players. Far more players have missed big games in the final of a tourney due to poor behavior than have missed it due to injuries that came from a yellow card offense.
It’s really typical of gasbags running FIFA and UEFA as well as some fans to overreact and in a sense yellow card the entire competition with their bloated fair play ethics and moralistic BS that strangle and punish the game. I’m sorry but this kind of girly crap does not wash with me or many people in the world especially in North America where the game has problems taking root because of nonsense like that. My father who played the sport in Greece and actually apprenticed with Panathinaikos used to call referees “malakas” or jerk offs in his later years for brandishing yellow or even red cards during games. He said they were reducing a game made for men into a dance recital or children being punished by the school master. I couldn’t agree more. You need to have rules and laws to control the game but not to the point of smothering it. And if a player is injured by a poor tackle that should be a yellow. Punish the crime according to the effect it has on the player who was fouled. If that player cannot continue due to his injuries, then maybe a player needs to be suspended. But when you see these blatant play actors cry bloody murder to induce a yellow or red and then get up 30 seconds later with nothing wrong, then why isn’t the yellow rescinded? Obviously no harm was done. Why punish an entire team and an entire nation for a little misdemeanor or the actions of a cheating actor? Just rubbish and the game is poorer for it.
Last week Bastian Schweinsteiger received a straight red card for overreacting to a tackle and pushing the Croation player in the chest. OH MY GOD! Did he hurt him, kill him put him in hospital? NO. Go back and watch the 1968 European Cup Final where our own and beloved George Best was fouled on several occasions and in each occasion he overreacted and pushed th player. Did he get sent off for that? NO!
The game used to be a game for real men. Now the game has become a showcase for little girls like Ronaldo and a bunch of sissy’s at a Gay Pride parade. At least in North America we play the sport like men and don’t require rules that demean us or that ruin the game for the millions who watch it. After all, lets not forget the fact that it is first and foremost, a business, and finally, the game has nationalistic pride and worship attached to it. Lets take the game away from drama critics and give it back to real men. To those of you who don’t agree, go back and watch some games in the 70′s to see how the game should be played and how real men not spoilt little girls played the game. With, pride, poise and dignity and self respect. Booking offenses were few and far between and I never saw the number of injuries to players that are occurring these days. Some people in the game need to wake up and smell the coffee.
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Craig; Sorry to see you leave mate and I’m sorry that you feel I am the main reason for it. I’d have to be stupid not to read between the lines and not realize you were talking about me. I think you misunderstand my intentions and for that again, I’m sorry and it is a shame your contributions will not be around to stir up debate. I am hoping you rethink this through and come back. After all, it’s not like an Irishman or a Scot to cut and run when the fight gets a little dirty. I for one hope you reconsider. I just wished you and some other on this site could see things my way. All I want to do is talk footy and voice my views without getting personally attacked all the time. Really, is that to much to ask for? It’s certainly not worth losing your contributions over. Think about it and cheers.
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