Zidane back to Madrid. Wow. This means a number of things: - Bale is almost certainly destined to leave. - Perez has probably sanctioned a war chest for the summer. The chest probably has pictures of Hazard and Eriksen carved into the lid. - United are probably appointing OGS permanently (although Allegri is another big, relatively young name coming up in the summer). - Poch is staying put - Isco could be back in favour.
So the "TL;DR" summary is : 1. The use of football as an "d*ck measuring" contest between Arab states + which football governing body they are bum-chums of, will ultimately do for Citeh. 2. Clubs in UEFA and PL land are using this opportunity to really put the boot into Citeh. The RDBD summary : Citeh taking the p*ss over "FFP" and being condoned by the PL et al, has denied Spurs at least 2 seasons participation in the CL.
I'll reports what I said on the subject back in December, rather than just post a link like a lazy sod * In 2013 the club claimed that Etihad paid £35m in sponsorship for the stadium naming rights, but in fact Etihad paid just £8m - the other £27m was paid via a holding company owned by a certain M. bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan * An offshore company going by the name of Fordham paid €30m a year in non-specific marketing rights, but it has emerged that €9.8m of those marketing rights are paid by an individual going by the name of M. bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan * The club failed FFP when sacking Roberto Mancini, as the £9m payoff sent their balance into the red, so their solution was twofold: increase the value of their sponsorship deals, and backdate them to the start of the season. Mancini was sacked in 2013, when 75% of the naming rights value for the stadium was being paid from the aforementioned holding company of the aforementioned M. bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan * As a result of the above, Etihad were said to be paying £67.5m a year for the naming rights of the stadium, yet were still only paying £8m - the remainder coming from the canyon-sized pockets of M. bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan * In relation to their backdating sponsorship deals to game the FFP system, when a club finance officer queried what was going on he was told by non-executive director Simon Pearce "We can do what we want" * Club president Khaldoon Al Mubarak outright threatened then-UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino in an e-mail where he stated that, rather than meet FFP regulations, they would "rather spend 30 million on the 50 best lawyers in the world and sue them for the next ten years"
You should join the investigation team. And yes, I'm currently between jobs, drinking every day and being one of the laziest sods around
Wouldn't be much of a job, I got all that from December's issue of WSC, which they in turn got from Der Spiegel
Mbappe, Cavani and Draxler heard to be hopeful they will be played in their natural positions again...
Disappointed about yesterday. The first game under OGS where Utd looked like Mourinho's team - off the pace, sloppy passing, crucial errors, missed opportunities...... And it's given Arsenal and their fans a big confidence boost Still all to play for though in the 3rd to 6th places battle. OGS is still nailed on for the job though.
Both goalscorers should've been banned for the game, following their unpunished offences against us. Standard.
And I suppose Spurs haven't benefited from poor officials at all this season? Kane not getting sent off for attempted headbutt on Azpilicueta, Rose not getting red carded for kicking Leno in the chest, Sissoko getting away with raking Redmond and then attempting to headbutt him? And this is just in the last few games... I'm not in any way insinuating we haven't had luck with some decisions this season, but let's not pretend like you guys haven't either.
I'm very surprised he went back now. Thought he'd maybe go back in the Summer, but Madrid are 12 points off Barcelona, out of all cup competitions and don't really have anything to play for. Bizarre that he's come in now. Maybe it's to give the fans a lift? Also suggests that Madrid will be spending big this Summer, as there's absolutely no chance Zidane would have accepted an invitation to come back if there weren't assurances over a massive transfer budget.
When did I say that we hadn't? We benefited from an incorrect offside and Sissoko not getting a red against Southampton, though they got a fair few too. The Kane thing against you was nothing though, as were everything else that your lot were up in arms about in that match. Xhaka should've been off about four times over, Kane got thrown to the ground all day long and your penalty was a dive. Your penalty against Utd was also a dive. We finally got a penalty against Wembley in what looks like our last league game there. It was a correct decision and all we've heard is moaning from pundits, opposition fans and officials.
For anyone that missed the Grealish attack: ****ing idiot. They're right about the player's reaction, though. Laughed it off. Surprisingly composed.
In court he claimed not to have any hooligan affiliation As several have pointed out online, the fact his jacket bore the name of Birmingham's Zulu firm makes that a statement more than a little questionable
