[Football] - The Transfer Window Is [OPEN]

[drberbatov]

The Ronaldo story has replaced the void left by there being no England team at Euro 2008. The sports media keep rolling on what is essentially a non story that will not get resolved before or even during the Championships. Real Madrid over the last decade have inreinforced their branding as the Galacticos by signing the best players, the fact that they want Ronaldo and will pay whatever it takes to get him should not surprise Alex Ferguson, United's fans or Ronaldo himself.

Ronaldo is preparing for a major tournament, the spotlight is on him and he is expected to be one of the tournaments leading players. Why should he have to say anything about his club future at this moment in time?

[Lee Van Cleef]

Ronaldo is preparing for a major tournament, the spotlight is on him and he is expected to be one of the tournaments leading players. Why should he have to say anything about his club future at this moment in time?

And yet he has, he's been vague and non-committal to increase speculation.  If he'd kept his mouth fully shut I wouldn't have even batted an eyelid, but evidently he has been talking.

Anyway, it's funny to see people leaping to his defense for a change.

[Geraint]

And yet he has, he's been vague and non-committal to increase speculation.  If he'd kept his mouth fully shut I wouldn't have even batted an eyelid, but evidently he has been talking.

that's one way of pointing out that this weekend's reports contain precisely no new quotes i suppose. it's just tabloid bollocks mixed with big spanish club bollocks where they and/or Barca promise whoever is the current best in the world any summer where their president's popularity is flagging, becuase they have to be re-elected. of course, one of the main reasons Real Madrid's president is currently quite unpopular considering his team's success is that he promised Kaka a year ago just as loudly as he's currently promising Cronaldo, and yet Kaka remains happily at Milan...

[Sovereign]

My beloved Huddersfield Town have recently sacked their chairman and decided to make a run at the big time. Local businessman Dean Hoyle has taken over and promised us a 7-figure transfer budget and promotion within 2 years. Andy Ritchie has been replaced by Stan Ternant, and for the first time since the late 90's the team has set ambitions beyond merely suriving another financial year.

After the demise of Leeds, there is a massive vacuum in the area for a big club to step into. At the moment Hull, yes Hull, are the best team in Yorkshire. Which is fucking surreal because about 10 years ago there would've been 10 clubs bigger than them. It would appear that Dean Hoyle is going to make a move and try and make Huddersfield the area's "big club". After all, if Hull can do it, and if Doncaster can be in the Championship, then it is surely possible.

Basically all the former big clubs in Yorkshire are now either championship sides, good league one teams or shit premiership teams. Such as :

Hull - Premiership (going straight down no doubt about it)
Sheff Utd - Championship
Sheff Wed - Championship
Barnsley - Championship
Doncaster Rovers - Championship
Scunthorpe - League One
Leeds Utd - League One
Huddersfield Town - League One
Bradford City - League Two

Sheffield Utd, Sheffield Wed, Leeds, Barnsley and Bradford have been in the premiership over the last 10 or so years. Huddersfield were a top-tier championship side not too long ago. Scunthorpe, Hull and Donny have always been shit and are trying to emulate Wigan's rise to the top flight.

All of those teams are in the mix to take over Leeds' mantle and try and become a legit top-half-of-the-premiership team. Which one will succeed? I like the idea of Leeds, Scunthore and Huddersfield going up, so that 8 of the 24 teams in the championship are in south and west yorkshire.

Anyway, the point is there is potential for one of those teams to break out and become a genuinely big premiership team. But which will it be?

Huddersfield's new boss has signed two new players on free transfers since his arrival, Blackpool striker Keighan Parker (who is perhaps more famous for shagging Jade Goody and selling the story to the papers) and Scunthorpe midfielder John Goodwin. Dean Hoyle has also put season tickets on a ridiculous offer to mark the centenary of the club's creation in 1908, £100 for an adult season ticket. This means that the fans will be paying less than a fiver per home game. As a result 16,000+ people have snapped them up, which is incredible for a 3rd-tier club. To average 16,000 a week would be phenomenal achievement and it would mean only Leeds would get more fans per week.

Does anyone have any good player suggestions for Stan Ternants Football Manager-esque spending spree this summer?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Haha, Jim Goodwin. And you signed him on a 3 year contract!

Play him regularly and watch Huddersfield SINK like a stone. Relegations stud his CV like cartoon bullet marks.

And he's rubbish.

[Sovereign]

Haha, Jim Goodwin. And you signed him on a 3 year contract!

Play him regularly and watch Huddersfield SINK like a stone. Relegations stud his CV like cartoon bullet marks.

And he's rubbish.

Yeah a load of Scunny fans I know back home seem glad to get rid of him, is he really that shit?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Dogs howl ever time he's passed the ball.

Eventually your team will decide never to do this, effectively making you a side with ten men and a bloody nuisance.

[drberbatov]

Good post Sov, the decline of Yorkshire as a Footballing Territory is rather puzzling. My theory on the matter is that Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday during the late eighties and through to both of their disastrous collapses were the footballing catalysts of Yorkshire, you would often see players move from one Yorkshire based team to another. Their decline seemed to reflect the malaise and the petals of the white rose began to fall. It was almost as if the success of those two clubs breathed life into the other clubs in the surrounding area.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Scunthorpe isn't in Yorkshire anyway.

[Sovereign]

Good post Sov, the decline of Yorkshire as a Footballing Territory is rather puzzling. My theory on the matter is that Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday during the late eighties and through to both of their disastrous collapses were the footballing catalysts of Yorkshire, you would often see players move from one Yorkshire based team to another. Their decline seemed to reflect the malaise and the petals of the white rose began to fall. It was almost as if the success of those two clubs breathed life into the other clubs in the surrounding area.

definitely true, the history of Huddersfield Town is scattered with former failed Leeds players and so on.

[The Culture Bunker]

As a random aside, it's worth noting that Huddersfield Town and Leeds United have won the league and the FA cup the same number of times.

Alright, maybe it wasn't worth it.

[buttgammon]

Scolari will take over at Chelsea after the Euros. He's got more of an international pedigree (well, in Europe anyway though I think he managed a few decent club sides in Brazil) and it will be interesting to see if things go well for him/if he upsets Abramovich somehow and makes a swift exit.

[ziggy starbucks]

he can't speak english can he?

so he's already got something in common with John Terry! Ha! I went there!

[Beagle 2]

Apparently he can already speak a little English and since he was linked with the England job he's been learning it with an eye to taking a job here. I have also learnt from that bastion of truth Sky Sports news that he comes from Brazil's equivalent of Yorkshire. Whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean.

In the 2002 FIFA World Cup he gave each of his players a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War, a Chinese military treatise written during the 6th century BC.

Can't see Joe Cole getting stuck into that one really.