Evening lads, i'm sure this article will be of interest to you Spurs fans... http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2011/12/tottenham-grounds-for-optimism-or.html?utm_source=BP_recent Looks at your finances in great detail. I think it's an excellent read.
Thanks for the link. Some of his "facts" are wrong and I didn't like the way he draws a few rather odd conclusions and makes unreasonable comparisons, obviously it's going to take a miracle to close the gap on Manchester United's earnings. A good read nonetheless. Anyway, CL draw: MARSEILLE v INTER MILAN ZENIT ST PETERSBURG v BENFICA CSKA MOSCOW v REAL MADRID BAYER LEVERKUSEN v BARCELONA BASEL v BAYERN MUNICH AC MILAN v ARSENAL NAPOLI v CHELSEA LYON v APOEL Very tough draws for the English teams, Chelsea in particular are going to need to be playing better than they are at the moment.
Breaking down where the clubs in the last 16 are from... Italy 3 Spain 2 Russia 2 France 2 Germany 2 England 2 Portugal 1 Switzerland 1 Cyprus 1 ...makes me wonder when Sky will start calling the Premier League "the league that's a bit better than Portugal's" in their endless hype.
English teams in 2010-11: 6 English teams in 2011-12: 2 Italy, Spain, Germany and Russia are more consistent in qualifying - whilst Dutch teams appear to have falled off a cliff... :::EDIT::: Anyone else see HIGNFY? Nick Hewer confirmed our suspicions by implying Karren Brady is thick...
Suarez.Now he's the one with the teeth,isn't he.....? Could Liverpool get Torres back on a free transfer I wonder.......?
Just in case anyone missed this, you'll all be delighted to hear that The Powers That Be have made another brilliant decision. For the Spurs v Chelsea game on Thursday, the 4th official will be none other than... Chris Foy! Yes, that's the same Chris Foy that both Redknapp and Villas-Boas have both publicly criticised after recent games. You couldn't make it up, could you? They're normally just there to get abused by the managers, but this time he'll deserve it.
My first visit to this pub, what days do the dancing girls perform? Anyhow, with Mr Foy being number 4, what's the betting that both Harry and AVB get sent to the stand and Joe Jordan gets a night in the cells? Unfortunately I'm not in the front row or I might take a few pairs of my old spectacles to the match and 'offer' them to Mr Foy. I can see it now, he'll get the decimal point in the wrong place and we will end up with 50 minutes extra time.
Article in the Guardian with Mancini complaining about players staying at his club without playing because of the large wages. He dosen't understand this!! It's very simple Roberto; City signed all these players at inflated fees and gave them contracts with ridiculous wages, it could just be that they won't get paid like this elsewhere, couldn't it Roberto! Roberto Mancini's frustration with Carlos Tevez broadened into a critique of Wayne Bridge's lifestyle as the Manchester City manager expressed his distaste for the way footballers can bank vast sums of money without kicking a ball. Mancini's exasperation with Tevez was accompanied by a clear sense of regret as he considered a congested fixture schedule that begins with Stoke City's visit to the Etihad Stadium and could see the Premier League leaders play eight games in January. His falling-out with the Argentinian was "strange and frustrating", he said. "With Carlos in the squad, we're a better team. Carlos is a fantastic striker, so we were better, 100%." But it was when the conversation turned to Bridge, the best-paid non-playing footballer in the league, that Mancini was at his most outspoken. The City manager is unwilling to protect a player who earns £90,000 a week at a club but is no longer wanted. "I don't understand this," Mancini said. "For every player, it should be important to play football. I don't know why someone would want to stay at one club when they know they cannot play. Wayne has had two or three chances [to leave], maybe not in the Premier League but in the Championship. In the summer he had the chance to play for Celtic, and this is an important team." Bridge turned them down, as well as rejecting offers from Turkey and Russia, and Mancini was asked what the former England player did on his average Saturday. "I don't know," he replied. "Golf?" Bridge has earned around £4.7m since his last league game for the club, a year ago. His only appearance this season came in a Carling Cup tie against Birmingham City in September and he was not in the squad for Sunday's match against Arsenal despite two left-backs, Gaël Clichy and Aleksandar Kolarov, being unavailable. The Gunners are the latest club believed to show an interest in signing Bridge, on loan, after suffering injuries to Kieran Gibbs and Andre Santos. "When we are young and start to play football, we don't play for money," Mancini said. "We play because we like football. Every player should have this target in mind: play football. Wayne is a good guy but it should be important for him to play." Bridge, signed from Chelsea for £10m in January 2009, often trains with City's youth team. Mancini was asked if this was humbling for a player with 36 caps. "It's for this reason he should want to play," he said. "He trains with us sometimes, and sometimes he trains with the young players. I hope [he will reconsider in January]. It's difficult for a player to stay here every day then we get to Saturday and no [not playing]." At least City are getting closer to unburdening themselves of Tevez and his £250,000-a-week salary, which is still being paid despite the player going on strike and flying to Argentina on 8 November. A delegation from Milan will be in Manchester . Mancini, however, said the Serie A club would have to change their offer of a loan arrangement. "Milan know they can't get Carlos on loan, and they know this very well. But if they want to buy Carlos, then for us it's OK. We don't have a problem with that, we want Carlos to find a good solution, but no one can get him on loan. "When Manchester City bought all these players we paid a lot of money but every time we want to sell one, the [buying] clubs want to get the player on loan. This is not good for this club or the other clubs. City paid a lot of money [for Tevez] three years ago and I think it's only correct that if Milan, Juventus and PSG want him they should pay the value." Mancini also revealed that he planned more talks with François Zahoui, the manager of the Ivory Coast national team, after learning that Yaya and Kolo Touré may be called up for the Africa Cup of Nations earlier than expected.Zahoui, who knows Mancini after spending two seasons at Ascoli in the 1980s, had agreed to waive Fifa's two‑week rule and allow the Tourés to play in the FA Cup third-round tie against Manchester United on 8 January and the home leg of the Carling Cup semi-final against Liverpool three days later. The Cup of Nations starts on 21 January, in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Mancini also wanted his players to face Wigan a week earlier. However, other clubs have made similar requests, citing the precedent at City, and the offer has been revoked. The brothers may therefore have to leave after the United match.
Maybe they should stop overpaying on every player to stop them from signing for another club. Players joined City for the money and nothing else so why expect them to care about anything else later?
The buffoons at City that sanctioned these deals, can now lie in the bed they've made, they have absolutely no case for moaning.
