Football - 2008/09 Season

[chand]

£10m is a massive amount for someone with a year left on their contract, not quite sure how Liverpool got that much. Evidently Portsmouth have plenty of cash swilling around in their coffers.

[Lee Van Cleef]

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/10072008/58/premier-league-blatter-ronaldo-slave.html

What a surprise, Blatter sticking his nose in when an English team is involved.

[buttgammon]

God, he's a little shit isn't he. Shouldn't be in the job.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

If being torn between being the star player for two of the biggest football clubs in the world and being paid £100,000 a week for the pleasure is slavery, then shackle me up.

[Lee Van Cleef]

I think if roles were reversed Blatter would be all over Utd telling them to lay off.

[Prescription Dinosaur]

I think if roles were reversed Blatter would be all over Utd telling them to lay off.

Funny how these things only become issues when English teams are involved.

[Lee Van Cleef]

Funny how these things only become issues when English teams are involved.

Blatter has always given me the impression that he intensely dislikes English football whether it's the national team or the leagues.

[chand]

I suspect there's at least some extent to which our perception is biased by us reading the English press, which is likely to only report his comments on English clubs.

[weekender]

Luton Town to face 30-point deduction

Wonder what odds you can get on them staying up?

[Derek Trucks]

Next year is going to be a lot of fun in League 2, them starting on -30, us and Rotherham on -15.  It'll be like our own little division.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

I was fairly nervous about Aldershot's chances in League 2 (don't know why, Conference teams usually do well when they go up, it's probably just a football fan's pessimism), but they would have to have an atrocious season to go down now.

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Looks good for Exeter as well then.

[Lee Van Cleef]

I suspect there's at least some extent to which our perception is biased by us reading the English press, which is likely to only report his comments on English clubs.

If this was one of a few incidents I'd agree, but remember this is the guy who was happy to tell the press he was unhappy England got through the group stage of the world cup: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/jun/30/topstories3.mainsection  I've never heard him utter a positive comment about football in England and his selection of the Ronaldo story as a reason to fire off a volley about player contracts just looks like another attempt to stick his boot into the side of the English game.  And the complete idiocy to compare a modern footballer on the kind of wages Ronaldo is on, with a slave is utterly preposterous and insulting.

This whole quota idea he was preaching came to the fore because three English teams were in he last four of the Champions league: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/may/07/blatterfifaquotas  Let's face it, big spenders have been at the top for ages, but it only occured to him to talk about this rule during English Dominance, not when Real Madrid were scalping foreigners and walking over everyone?

And then there's conflict in him promoting this rule change to enforce quotas, and not long after saying he wants player contracts to allow more freedom for players to move if they wish.  It's just bloody rich that he talks about how bad English dominance is for the game then advocates Real Madrid getting whatever they want.  God forbid English football teams should ever be successful, hey?

[Geraint]

£10m is a massive amount for someone with a year left on their contract, not quite sure how Liverpool got that much. Evidently Portsmouth have plenty of cash swilling around in their coffers.

Portsmouth will be fucked in 3 or 4 years time. Their chief executive is Peter Storrie, one of Redknapp's cronies and the man who let him sign 134 (!) players in 7 years at West Ham, driving them deeper and deeper into debt and forcing them to sell all their quality players. the key point there is that Harry was sacked just early enough that his successor, Roeder, gets the blame despite having no cash and a squad bloated by the many players Arry would buy for £1-5m each, play 10 games or less, then dump because they were clearly shit (while a big chunk of the transfer fees went not to the club but to agents: Willie McKay, Dennis Roach etc and also sometimes 'went missing', Brian Clough stylee).

Every club he's ever managed has been up shit creek financially after he's left, but so long as he gets his own people within the structure of the club to lobby for him (e.g Storrie and Lampard Snr at West Ham) he'll go on getting his chairmen to spend all available money on players he doesn't really want (he once insisted on signing Gary Charles for £1.2m plus £1m annual wages, and within a month was complaining to his chairman that he needs a new right-back - "but you just insisted on Charles, is he no good?" "what do you expect for £1.2m?") so long as the player is offered or represented by one of his 'preferred agents'. He's not a bad manager by any means, but anyone can see that Portsmouth aren't going to take the next step on 20,000 crowds and need a new or improved stadium. the wage bill is ballooning out of control and the club is absolutely haemorraging money, yet Arry and Storrie's strategy is to add more £50k p/w players like Crouch with huge transfer fees, the clubs only token effort to finance this is to raise all season ticket prices by 17.5%!

honestly with all that and a chairman in Gaydamak who has made his money through his daddy selling arms to african dictators the club should be banned from signing likeable players such as Peter Crouch :( I know their Leeds-style meltdown will be tremendous to watch but they can probably put it off for a couple of years at least.

unrelated, but all this PLATINI AND BLATTER HATE THE ENGLISH conspiracy-mongering over seemingly every forum for the last couple of months is now more of a tedious non-issue than the REAL MADRID TAP UP WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR, USUALLY FAIL TO LAND HIM non-issue. damn that French/Swiss/whoever it is this week conspiracy that continues to hold back english football from literally taking off into the sky and colonising alpha centauri through quality of football and PASSION~~~~~~~

[Lee Van Cleef]

unrelated, but all this PLATINI AND BLATTER HATE THE ENGLISH conspiracy-mongering over seemingly every forum for the last couple of months is now more of a tedious non-issue than the REAL MADRID TAP UP WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR, USUALLY FAIL TO LAND HIM non-issue. damn that French/Swiss/whoever it is this week conspiracy that continues to hold back english football from literally taking off into the sky and colonising alpha centauri through quality of football and PASSION~~~~~~~

*puts his tinfoil hat on and goes back into the bunker*

Seriously...

[chand]

I've never heard him utter a positive comment about football in England and his selection of the Ronaldo story as a reason to fire off a volley about player contracts just looks like another attempt to stick his boot into the side of the English game. 

Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. I'm sure he'll have been asked about that by English journalists fishing for a quote. Our press don't give even a small percentage of a fraction of a fuck about anything beyond the Premiership, as illustrated by the recent tale of a Sky Sports News hack bursting into a Euro 2008 press conference the Dutch were hosting, right after their thrashing of Italy when they were suddenly everyone's favourites, to demand a quote from Edwin van der Sar about whether Ronaldo should leave. He'll have been asked a question about whether Ronaldo should be allowed to leave if he wants to, and he's just rambled on with whatever half-baked shit pops into his head. I agree that the 'slavery' comparison is at best misguided and at worst deeply offensive, and I won't argue that he's not a complete tit, but I don't imagine he's convening press conferences solely to sound off about Ronaldo in order to drive him to Real or anything like that.

[Geraint]

it's worth pointing out that sepp blatter is an utter fuckwit who talks shit about 90% of the time and has done for umpteen years. suddenly since about april, everybody seems to be turning a blind eye to his past idiocy and most of his current idiocy, picking up on the fact that he sometimes talks, as you'd expect, about a league of such high standard as the premier league and SHOCK! HORROR! sometimes talks shit about that as well. and I mean, the quote that lee van cleef posted here for example, was basically just saying that England played negative football in the WC - you might question whether it's appropriate for him to publically judge teams like that, esp when the tournament was still ongoing... but he WAS telling the truth, surely?

the Platini-as-angry-frenchman stuff all over the internet dumber still, real Jeff Powell stuff

[George Oscar Bluth II]

And Ronaldo told Portuguese broadcaster TVI: "You know what I said, what I want and what I would like. I agree completely with the president of Fifa."

ie, Ronaldo: I am a slave.

This is moving into the territory of "jaw droppingly offensive" now surely?

[Prescription Dinosaur]

From Football365.com:

Quite apart from the hilariousness of his comments, Mediawatch did wonder what prompted Sepp Blatter's insane ramblings yesterday.

There have been enough tedious transfer sagas over the past couple of years, so why did he feel the need to wade in over this one?

Then our attention was brought to the following item on FIFA.com, posted on November 21 2006:

'FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter today received the title of honorary member of Real Madrid and a gold and diamond club badge from Real Madrid president Ramón Calderón at a ceremony held at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid.

"I am proud to receive this important distinction and sign this collaboration agreement with Real Madrid, a club which was a founder member of FIFA in 1904, was declared the Twentieth Century's Best Club in 2000 and was awarded the FIFA Centennial Order of Merit in 2004" said Blatter at the time.

"I am convinced that together we can make a significant contribution to making the world a better place and, above all, bring joy and hope to young ones through our sport."

We were also rather amused, in the light of Blatter's assertion that footballers were 'slaves', to read the closing passage on the piece:

'This agreement is part of FIFA's strategy to work in conjunction with clubs to develop social responsibility programmes that help to build a better world through football.'

Good going there Sepp.

[jimmy jazz]

He's not a bad manager by any means, but anyone can see that Portsmouth aren't going to take the next step on 20,000 crowds and need a new or improved stadium.

Except the fact that Portsmouth had a monumental waiting list whilst they were languishing in the bottom end of the Championship, of course. I worked at Fratton Park and even when we were fighting relegation getting a season ticket was Pompey's miniature lottery. Add in attractive football and a great location and they will fill it easy. As for the wage bill, if you look at the records you will see that Portsmouth have always had one of the biggest wage budgets in whatever league it is in, it is held up by devoted supporters, overpriced tickets and clever financing. Being a fan I'm biased but everything you said there is clearly rubbish, Portsmouth football club is as financially stable as it has ever been, and will have no trouble filling seats in the new stadium. Coupled with the revenue brought in through the shopping centre and its sorted.

[Geraint]

Except the fact that Portsmouth had a monumental waiting list whilst they were languishing in the bottom end of the Championship, of course. I worked at Fratton Park and even when we were fighting relegation getting a season ticket was Pompey's miniature lottery. Add in attractive football and a great location and they will fill it easy. As for the wage bill, if you look at the records you will see that Portsmouth have always had one of the biggest wage budgets in whatever league it is in, it is held up by devoted supporters, overpriced tickets and clever financing. Being a fan I'm biased but everything you said there is clearly rubbish, Portsmouth football club is as financially stable as it has ever been, and will have no trouble filling seats in the new stadium. Coupled with the revenue brought in through the shopping centre and its sorted.

i'm sure you'd fill or nearly fill the proposed new stadium once it is built, i'm not questioning that or having a dig at the FANS of the club at all - i'm just not sure how on earth they're going to afford it, and almost certain they can't while Redknapp is at the helm given his previous record on using his many, many press contacts to pressure his chairmen into giving him money he doesn't need for transfers (obviously, this is even more pronounced with a stooge like Storrie at the club).

Portsmouth had one of the biggest wage budgets in the championship, that much is true, but with Venables AND Redknapp involved in a short space of time that's a given - and they were in deep deep financial shit before money-laundering scrotum-faced (citation needed) Mandaric bailed them out - for example, Venables bought the club for £1 (ONE POUND), used the club as a training ground for 5 of his Australian squad (2 of whom, John Aloisi and Craig Moore, were remotely good enough for that level) and left a year or so later having personally taken £550,000 from a club that was beleagured financially beforehand.

everything i've said there is clearly rubbish? have i imagined some of those 134 (134!) west ham signings? have the unaccounted-for chunks of countless deals suddenly turned up somewhere non-dodgy all along? were Willie McKay and Dennis Roach not involved in loads of the transfers there and at Pompey (including nearly all the ones that 'didn't work out')? was the well-respected investigative journalist Tom Bower staking his reputation on an imagined conversation about Gary Charles? did they pull back from plans to massively hike season ticket prices this year?

of course, there's a ton of things i could have mentioned in the previous post but momentarily forgot about, such as Redknapp and McKay's literal capture of Amdy Faye in 2003 (i think this article http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article2963697.ece is the one but nothing on the times website seems to be loading tonight), the way he shafted Billy Bonds to get the West Ham job (Bonds hasn't spoken to his former assistant since) or the way he drove Bournemouth into such deep debt that they still feel the pinch from decades later, then jumped ship and was involved in the cut price strip-mining of their key players - or the way he abandoned your lot for your fierce local rivals, only being able to return without major resentment because he wrecked them good and proper (vastly inflating the wage bill in the process, natch) and because 'his people' were leaking stories to the press to discredit his successor Alain Perrin, whose win/loss record was similar to Harry's that season.

but hey, i'm obviously biased and 'making it all up' because your club has a decent fanbase, which I have never ever disputed (although that absolute cunt with the bell is bad enough to discredit the thousands of decent fans singlehandedly if we're being honest). It's not your fault that you're managed by one of the most corrupt men in modern football, or that your chairman is infinitely more dubious than Shinawatra and as bad as Usmanov (but is immune from similar tabloid criticism while good old 'arry is the primary ENGLAND FOR THE ENGLISH figurehead - i.e until Allardyce gets his career back on track) - but don't go throwing a tantrum when someone points this out, backed with actual arguements beyond "our club is great"

I mean, you've just said "Portsmouth football club is as financially stable as it has ever been" after your club has recently announced massive, massive losses for the season before last and have since increased their wage bill by approx 60% and spent over £30m in transfer fees? that says it all

[My Giddy Aunt]

Well quite. Portsmouth eh.

We shall see!

[jimmy jazz]

But your argument confuses me, I'd never dispute that Harry is perhaps the dodgiest man in football but I don't see how you can go from relegation battlers to upper-mid table in a couple of seasons without vastly inflating the wage bill. I know cash injections have rarely been good for a football team, but your wage bill rise came in the season that Gaydemak's account was unfrozen, giving us money that we never could spend under Mandaric (at least partly explaining it.)

Portsmouth's wage bill hovers around the £30 million mark at the moment, 10 million less than Blackburn Rovers (who finished a place above them). The losses in general is scary, but the sale of any two or three of the Kranjcar/ Diarra/ Muntari trio will mean we will break even. Our real worry is the net closing around Gaydemak's assets, but its still entirely theoretical. We could find that Peter Hill Wood has been arrested for downloading child pornography tomorrow and Arsenal can be in as bad a situation as we are.

Sorry if I got a bit touchy, but I'm a bit irrational when it comes to my football club, but looking at those figures you've only pointed out we have a criminal for a chairman (I'll give you that) and a shrewd manager (I'll certainly give you that).

[Vitalstatistix]

Bit late on this but Andy Cole will end his career at hometown club Nott'm Forest - Link

I've always liked Cole so am fairly happy about this. He's 36, but he may still be dangerous against Championship defenses. Sad to see Agogo, Holt and Commons off. Never liked Earnshaw, but I'm strangely optimistic that he may come good alongside the pacey Tyson and/or the experienced Cole.

[Geraint]

Portsmouth's wage bill hovers around the £30 million mark at the moment, 10 million less than Blackburn Rovers (who finished a place above them).

sorry, but as far as I can tell this isn't even remotely true. In 2006/07 Pompey's wage bill was £36.9m compared to Blackburn's £36.7m - furthermore Blackburn's had only risen 10% from the previous year - easily sustainable, while Pompey's had grown 49% - by far the biggest rise excluding newly promoted teams (whose income from TV money goes up enough to cover a huge increase). It has grown at at least the same rate since, with the expensive additions of Glen Johnson, Lassana Diarra, Peter Crouch, Jermaine Defoe, Sylvain Distin and Nwankwo Kanu, all of whom will be on at least £30,000 per week at an ultra-conservative estimate (I understand Lassana Diarra is on nearly £60k!) while off the top of my head, Blackburn's only major new expenses would be Roque Santa Cruz and a hefty new contract for Bentley? They also look to be tightening the purse-strings somewhat this summer (they MUST be if they're taking Robbie fucking Fowler in 2008) while Redknapp does his usual "i need 5 quality players to keep us moving forward". Assuming Crouch is one of those 5, you've got a manager demanding around £200k more to come on that weekly wage bill.

Their financial model reminds me so much of Leeds Utd under Ridsdale, with the advantage of a richer chairman and the disadvantage of a chairman who trusts his manager and chief executive far too much (this is what did for Bournemouth - Redknapp did a good job in terms of results so they kept feeding him cash for his promises of another promotion just round the corner - he bled them dry then left). The reason why I mention the 20,000 crowds is not to be disparaging about the clubs fans but to point out that even with the big ticket price hikes your club is taking in much less in matchday income than 75% of the league - yet it's spending is right up there with Spurs and Newcastle, who have much bigger incomes before cash injections come into play. The likes of Blackburn, Aston Villa etc are spending more sensibly, improving slowly rather than Portsmouth's mad dash for success NOW (because Harry doesn't plan on being there in 5 years even things go swell til then) and i'm sure they'll be rewarded for it in the long-ish term

[weekender]

Uzbekistani side sign Samuel Eto'o???

For some silly reason I'd like this to be true.

[chand]

Uzbekistani side sign Samuel Eto'o???

For some silly reason I'd like this to be true.

Almost as silly as the idea of Ronaldinho signing on to spend the next couple of years at the Council House for Man City. That may actually happen though.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

How bizarre.

[Viero_Berlotti]

Ronaldinho to sign for AC Milan

Well, Man City missed out then. I bet Hughes is secretly relieved though, Ronaldinho would have undoubtedly been an expensive flop and a bit of an albatross at City. I think there will be more motivation for Ronaldinho to get his career back on track at Milan then there would be at City. At least Hughes can start building his own team now, at least until the next time Shinawatra gets his cheque book out and starts picking who they should buy.

[Geraint]

Baffling signing by Milan given the price-tag, they've already got Kaka and the deeper-lying Pirlo to create, yet badly lack a fit proven centre-forward that isn't Inzaghi, and could do with some quality young defenders for when Maldini (soon) and Nesta lose it. and a keeper in fact, Abbiati is alright but not quite world-class, Dida and Kalac both way past it