Rival Watch™ 2013/2014

in short you are absolutely right most of what you've done has been fabulous use of the money, not everything but on average a far better job that most clubs... so aside from a kone type buy or that yes i would expect the extra moeny would be well spent, however doesn't mr martinez want to build a mini hotel at your training ground and more pitches etc.

I would also agree that if you do well your profile would grow, spurs are a good example. their QF appearance got traded on i think.

 

Getting big money for the likes of Rooney, Lescott and Felliani as helped of course.

 

barry i thought was on more than 120k per week but maybe he was the poor relation at city... in the end barry moved for one thing... to get world cup. despite is season he seems at this point to have failed in that. he is i believe out of contract? So the wages is irrelevant. Its more about who offers him what. At the end of the day if someone offers him 80k per week and everton off 60k does he care about money or playing CL/europa. IF everton get CL I think there's not even a decision for him.

Lukaku is a different matter... Ithink sneakily everton can do better if they do improve but for now if you actually got him over spurs or whomever it'd be big

 

Barry was one of the early signings to help them get CL football along with Lescott, K.Toure and Adebayor. Once they got there they stepped up the spending to the next tier that saw the likes of Y.Toure, Aguero and Silva arrive.

 

sure sure... but it financed buying jagielka for instance. lescott our jagielka in right? near enough...

rooney was so long ago i can't remember who everton played upfront in his place... yakubu?

felliani financed this seasons additions like mcgeady (not so great still looks unfit), mccarthy (who's done real well)

we could say the same about utd, the ronaldo moeny dwarfed their latter spending... and for spurs they tossed huge cash at things post bebaflop/keane, modirc and post bale.

arsenal too.. .arsenal out, henry and vieira in... and the list goes on back then.

lfc torres and babel out carroll and suarez in...

 

could we say for city that barry and these guys were HUGHES' attempt at CL? Mancini seemd to like barry too but not the others. I think really city made a lot of errors with managers and now they've put in a more tehcncial staff to insulate the rich guys from the football guys to prevent it.

no?

 

When you think of the players that Man City signed once they had money and who is left, Barry, Lescott and Milner did pretty well really. Even Robinho didn't last the course!

 

so... the 4mil per year wage increase.

if we look say at a club with a player on 180k per week... just call him siuz Luarez. thats 9.36 million per year gross.

So in theory these rules say you can only play one player extra 4mill/52 = 76.9k per week... on on its won that sounds ok but what if you add 2/3 players... you just can't at the top can you?

You have to have enough players NOW to shift one out and bring one in and inflation would basically take up the 4mill near enough!!!!

It kind of hamstrings a small club but probably its not a bad thing. gradual development is better than the madness of a QPR type spend.

 

well yes.... milner did very well all things considered as an average winger he worked hard and plays a bit i nthe middle... bit part though. lescott just takes his wage and sticks there however... i don't think he did well, just took money. barry? he was important but got replaced but was aging so thats ok i guess. All in all yeah a big list of guys got put through there by eriksson, hughes and mancini..

 

The rules isn't a flat £4m per annum, there is a percentage attached as well allowing clubs to continue growing. Can't remember the exact wording but basically the £4m limit stops a Chelsea / Man City situation happening, clubs have to build slowly.

 

Milner wasn't signed because of his performances as a winger. He was playing as part of a central three at Villa and was performing superbly too, I actually wanted us to sign him as a long term replacement for Gerrard! At Man City, Milner as suffered due to us flexibilty to play various positions. He's never been a winger IMO.

Lescott is better than he is given credit for and should have been the long term partner of Kompany since they never bought another decent CB. Barry was a cheap but reliable option. I wouldn't have minded us signing him when Rafa showed a interest but not at the expense of Alonso!

 

Nicked this from the Arsenal board - link

Cazorla has given an interview and he said this:

Only one thing to say to that bit: TWAT!

 

so basically on carzorla... in case he has not noticed his time is nearly up. he looks short of the fitness he had last year, not quite as good. so frankly the guy should be grateful to arsenal for giving him CL... and thats not even a slight on arsenal and 4th place... its a fact.. he's had good times, a modicum of respect is called for here and arsenal if not wenger should land on him hard.

 

well that is true he played both at villa, was quite flexible but he played central with downing and young wider. he's still an average winger mind... hence england sticking him on there

You are right about lescott in the context of english footbal.. yes for an english league game v a target man lescott is good.... however v the modern set... like a suarez.. oh i think he's not so good.

 

I understand your point about the modern game but I would argue that he suits the attacking FB system because he is able to play CB and LB so will cover the space left by the FB.

 

thansk for that. I have done zero research so was eager to hear more. I think 4mil per year rule alinged with the profit/loss rule is as close to a wage cap as they could get. In reality it doesn't level any field as the rich are rich and can afford 20+ players on 100k ++ while some can afford 5 like that and some none.

but in theory there must be some way round it as it'd take 10 years to grow a wage bill from championship to champions league and in theory it would preclude any side from signing a messi or ronaldo... though i must ask... if you give rooney a new contract at 300k per week, up from what 200k? thats your lot right? no?

if LFC give suarez 120 to 180k rise... thats our lot too? no?

so how do you bring in 2/3 players? sell reina and johnson? flog reina on loan as it allowed in mingolet's wages and sahkos?

 

maybe... not on the ball passing though... I think he's slow and turns like a bus... Put it this way if you had suarez bearing down on an isolated player would you rather it be agger (can't run) vidic (can't run) or lescott? I'd put lescott in the can't run category too. I think skertl and kompany could deal with the threat better.

maybe lescott is like mertesacker in my mind then... i dunno...

 

Maybe it only applies to new signings? Any new contracts signed by existing players don't count? I don't know. Also, when would the cut off point be?

 

No, it is a flat £4m per annum.

The rule is that any club who's current wage bill exceeds £52m can only increase it by a maximum of £4m per annum over the next 3 years.

The idea is to forcibly stop all of the new TV revenue finding it's way into players bank accounts. There are however 2 caveats, you can increase your wage bill by more than £4m if you can show that the incremental amount has come from either increased match day revenue or incremental sponsorship.

But in our case, given that neither has happened in the current season, then the £4m maximum cap will apply.

 

I agree with that. I think Skrtel has excelled this season mainly because of the attacking FBs system. He is very good at covering the space, or sweeping as its better known. He shows no mercy when its a 50:50, he'll even steamroll through when its 60:40 in the opponents favour, got to love that approach so long as its not in the penalty area. Its also why I prefer Sakho over Agger, he has the same approach.