PSB - Pointy Shouty Bloke, also known as Notso, also known as Robbie 'can score for my country but not for my club' Keane
Part of the problem is, that top strikers only come with big wage bills on top of their already inflated prices. I think we can attract the right sort of player, but we have to be prepared to pay the going rate - both in terms of the Fee, and the wages. As I said earlier, it seems to me, that Levy is just not willing to do that. Instead, we keep searching for the virtually non-existent bargains. I will never understand why we don't just clear out the large amount of dead wood that we have on our books, we have received, reportedly, what I would consider to be, reasonable bids for some of them; and then use that money to pay the going rate for 2-3 top quality players.
Doubt we'd get 2-3 QUALITY players... unless they came at Van der Vaart prices. Wouldn't expect use to be able to raise more than 35 million from the sales of Hutton, Jenas, Palacios Keane and 1 more striker. That will pay for one quality player - and we still wouldn't be able to meet the wages that the likes of Man City are paying...
Firstly, I'm assuming that we already have the money to pay for one top player. Secondly, there are one or two more candidates that I would add to your list - Bentley, for starters. Last of all, when you lose the player, you also lose their wage bill. Which would enable us to pay higher wages to fewer players.
Higher wages but they would still have to be within our wage structure, comparatively thats lower wages than a top player could get at any number of clubs in the PL, La Liga or even Serie A. Getting rid of all our deadwood players for an incoming of two or three would require us to have players in reserve that could step into roles at times of injury or the ANC for instance. So I wouldn't be expecting us to bin that many, 2 defenders, 2 midfielders and 2 strikers max I would say. And the names won't be any surprise, Hutton & Bassong, Palacios and GDS, Keane and then one of other three. If Niko goes too, then don't expect there to be anymore than one striker leaving. As for incomings, 1 defender, 1 midfielder, and one striker/attacking midfielder wouldn't surprise me, and as I've said all along Parker and JOE BLEEDING COLE would be what I'd expect. groan.....
I remember Harry in an interview saying there was nothing in the stories of these last minute bids for players in Europe, so I'm not so sure about that. As for money, Levy has never failed to come up with it when needed, I see no reason for that to change. PS. I don't believe the Spurcat we see popping up randomly with one short sentence is the real one.
When I look around at some of the money being quoted for strikers that don't even have a 1 goal to every 2 games ratio, I can see why Levy is reluctant to put his hand in his pocket. I think we had the right idea in going for someone like Damaio, someone a little off the radar who's young and has plenty of potential. It will also be interesting to see how some of our youngsters fare the lesser competitions.
Thanks, I kept seeing people talk about PSB but I wasn't quite sure who they were on about. I hear Sven wants PSB to join his revolution.
Ah yes, Bentley - i'd forgotten about him for one blissful minute... I was actually taking into account the freed up wage bill that we would have for selling these players - it would take about 5 of our players to equal the wages of Aguero (reportedly £200,000 p/w) or Yaya Toure (£185,000). This is all hypothetical of course as I don't believe the club would break the structure for the sake of one player - quite rightly in my opinion, can you imagine the squad unrest it would cause. ( http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/footba...ntract-rebels-unhappy-with-sergio-aguero-deal )
I wasn't thinking of going as far as £200, 000 PW. However, we could certainly afford to go higher than our reported ceiling of around £70k that we have at the moment. The simple fact is, that in this seemingly never ending spiral of wages and prices, unless we start paying the going rate, we will have to accept that we will neither be able to attract top talent; or, more importantly, hang on to that which we already have. Sad, but true.
Something needs to be done about these inflated salaries. It looks like Man City have managed to circumvent Platini's new rules so clearly extra controls need to be put in place. Personally, I don't think any player should be paid even as much as £10,000 a week for playing a game they enjoy (not just footballers). I would also make the Champions League only open to the League champions. This would mean there would be a more even spread of decent players amongst clubs (they can't all play for the 1 club). The CL in it's present form has fuelled the current malaise
Of course, not so long ago, The Champions League - Or European Cup, as it was called; was just that - A competition for the Champions of the individual countries, only. Then, of course, UEFA discovered money could be made by admitting the rest of Europe and his brother. And also, by turning, what used to be a simple knockout competition, into the present day "mini-league" system. As to any abuse of UEFA's ffp rules, it comes as no surprise, that clubs as wealthy as Citeh, are using armies of lawyers to try and circumvent the regs. I totally agree, however, that it is vitally important that UEFA comes up with as water-tight set of rules, as possible. I genuinely fear for the future of Football in England if the status quo prevails; and the Citehs of the world are allowed to continue unchecked.
