Albanian Prince would have been better, especially if he always had to play his games in the national costume or robes.
I now know why I mentioned Albania, was a convergence of old Saints history as the legendary CB Fry was reportedly offered the Throne of Albania, but turned it down. My mind is a maelstrom of activity. (don't do drugs, kids)
Why speculate around fiddling with little changes..? The whole system needs to be restructured. All the higher echelon players are being paid far too much [it's almost too difficult to describe how ridiculously they are being overpaid], and the best teenagers can be on an equal pay structure if they so impress. There needs to be a senior salary cap, and it needs to be low, and teenagers, U21s and U23s should only be allowed a percentage maximum of that cap. Also, there needs to be a maximum on endorsements, the money and how many allowed. Also, the freebies have to be limited. Free cars and houses should be a no-no. The vastly overpaid footballers at the top would still be multi-millionaires, so they've nothing to worry about, but the reward system has gone wild in England and it is not sustainable. Is one top player kicking a football around really worth £5M per year..? Or £4M, £3M, £2M, £1M..? I mean, really and truly..? The numbers bear no relationship to reality. Most people aren't even football supporters, so how does the entertainment and sports world justify something that is actually a niche interest [albeit a large niche] in the minds of the population..? I blame all of this, every single iota of this situation on SKY and TV companies of this type which have evolved. Without their money, we wouldn't have this problem, and football would survive and be a sport that we could all connect with. I also blame the idiot supporters for behaving like sheep. They buy their season tickets, fair enough. But they also buy their SKY subscription. And now it's too late to put that particular genie back into the bottle.
I'm obviously late about highlighting Paul Lambert's comments about Ron Koeman's appraisal of Ron Vlaar, but these are his latest comments. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28854834 He calls it disrespecting. Fair enough, maybe it is, although I feel in the fair and open minded world that the Dutch usually inhabit I would imagine that no disrespect was intended. However, there were a few of us making comments about Danny Murphy's method of describing Liverpool's need for a complete midfielder like Schneiderlin. Indeed, presenter Mark Chapman exclaimed a Whoa..! Saints fans won't like you saying that..? I have no problem with Danny Murphy generally. I think he's one of the more thoughtful and analytical pundits. I wish they were all a little more like him generally. But perhaps Paul Lambert has a point..? It may be an old fashioned sense of respect requirement, but Saints fans generally hate it when our players are identified as a good catch for some other club. Maybe this is just the modern way and Lambert has to just get used to it.
It was ok for Paul Lambert to say this about another teams player though... http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...signing-wigan-striker-grant-holt-9057404.html
Honestly TSS. You sound like Arthur Scargill. Players' salaries are so contentious because 99% of onlookers are simply jealous. It isn't a question of value at all. Nobody gets paid what they deserve, simply as much as they can get. If any player scored the winning goal for us in the FA Cup final, they'd be worth £20M a year as far as I'm concerned and I'm sure the same would be said by any fan in the same position. The arrival of Sky has done nothing except: Improve the standard of football/player on show Improve the grounds Improve the broadcasting Improve the flow of cash to the lower leagues The fact that many clubs are still run by idiots who are excellent at squandering cash is not a result of Sky's involvement rather that of the FAPP test that fails so woefully every time it's employed and even more so when it isn't (Mr Ridsdale).
Good find. Lambert needs to stop moaning. He does 2 things in interviews: He either moans; or he says "I thought we were excellent."
I disagree and I stand by my views. Top footballers are obscenely overpaid and even they know it. Jealousy doesn't begin to enter it. Perhaps I'm your 1% representative. BTW, I've been compared to the Nazi regime before and now Arthur Scargill. I'm probably left of centre in my political views, but to no extremes or party line. One thing, I'll give Scargill due credit though. He turned out to be right about closing coal mines. That's the end of my particular political declarations on here, as forum rules are clear that we keep political views to a minimum. I never accuse single people of being something intended as derogatory on the forum. That's actually in the forum rules that posters don't use this this method, when disagreeing with a view.
And that's directly proportional to the amount of money in the system. As a North American, it's hard not to have a little giggle at "is one top player worth £5M?", because £5M doesn't get you anything approaching a top player in many sports over here. In fact, the generally-accepted formula for free agent value in baseball is 1 Win Above Replacement (a measurement of a player's value versus a theoretical replacement from the top level of the minor leagues) = $5m USD (£3m), though that's trending closer to $6m USD/WAR (maybe even $7m/WAR for starting pitchers). That means that the unspeakably appalling £5m/year buys, on the open market, a player who you expect to be an average member of your starting lineup...if that. But in the context of baseball's economics, that makes sense, just as £5m for a top player makes sense in the context of the Premier League's economics.
Do remember that my £5M was a suggested top player's annual earnings [?] not his transfer cost. If that makes any difference to your comment.
Those are the players' annual earnings via free agency...there's no such thing as transfer costs in North American sports. Players are traded for one another, but you cannot throw $20m at a team to buy a player's rights.
In the Beeb Sport gossip column again today: Southampton are planning another bid for Tottenham's England international winger Andros Townsend, having had a £10m offer rejected. Source: (Daily Mirror) Meanwhile, Saints are set to reject a new Tottenham offer of £17m for France midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin, 24. Source: The Sun, but you need a subscription, so.. http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014...t-to-fail-with-latest-offer-for-schneiderlin/ I'd quite like us to take Townsend, if only for the event of Spurs saying... Well..? We've let you have Andros, how about us having Morgan..? And Saints saying.. No, you can't have him..!
TSS, I take a little offence at being referred to as an idiot because I choose to follow the sport I love on the format that offers me the most coverage.
