I was wondering when Mane would become a target, if not this season, then definitely next season, and of course he will go....
Jesus. they're not doing that to stop teams like Saints or Swans from challenging them, in Chavs case theyre doing it as a way of helping them out with FFP. Teams as good, as successful and as big as the likes of Utd, City, Arse,.Chavs don't give a flying fig about teams like Saints or Swans. There is no need for them to as they will never be a threat to them in terms of winning the title or outbidding them for players like, say, Hazard. It just won't happen and now with FFP firmly in place it will never happen. FFP stops any new clubs from buying there way to the top like Chelsea and City did. They were lucky to get in before the draw-bridge was pulled up.
At what point do all the big clubs become "full up" with all our players, let out a collective burp, put their feet up on the table and say: "I'm done. I'm done."? It seems that four or five clubs have a collective appetite which ensures that any player in any other team who ever does well will be targeted, wooed and then consumed. Personally, I do find it is a sympton of a "sport" which is more about wallets than sporting integrity, and it saddens me.
Stay at teams like Saints: 1: End up around 7th nearly every season. 2: Maybe gate crash the top 5 now and again. 3: Get into Europe maybe once every 5 seasons. 4: Decent contract ( in football terms). Move to a bigger club 1: Get into the CL nearly every season. 2: A far bigger chance to win a trophy and some medals 3: Far bigger contract. 4: End up top four nearly every season. People keep on saying things like " if players give us time we could strengthen and compete with the top 5". But a players career is very short. Yes they get paid well, but don't rule out wanting to win trophies etc as well.
Yes, and Ings and Trippier, both who we have been supposedly after. Until Liverpool saw we were after them, and jumped in to try and stop us and halt our success emoticon-0105-wink. We strip Celtic and Burnley for sure, and long may we continue to, as we have picked up some great players. Clubs of varying sizes all reach a point where they can't do much more for players of extraordinary talent, so those players need to move up a notch - if their extraordinary talent is too big also for the next club, they move on up the tree again. Sometimes too high, and end up benched - eg. Scott Sinclair, whose fate also potentially awaits Jay Rod. It really is as simple as the biggest clubs buy the best players - Chelsea are genuinely not worried about Southampton's threat, nor will they ever be. Man City are not concerned one iota about Swansea. They bought Bony to play him - whether or not they actually do: giving a team you're concerned about £30m for one player is not a good strategy as regards nullifying that threat. I do believe individual clubs sometimes resort to transfer competition for the sake of denying a perceived rival, though - but not through collusion. An example would be Chelsea's last minute hijacking of the Willian deal (Spurs karma from hijacking him from Liverpool in the first place). Also, see Fat Sam's blatant buying up of every single rated Championship and League One forward player during our promotion season, who he just stockpiled on the wage list. A desperate blocking attempt to try and lift West Ham from third place hell.
The thing that most bugs me is how little time the press give us with them. Mane didn't even make it to us until a few games into the season, and has been out injured for a fair portion. Since when did players start hanging around for under a season's worth of games? Lovren I thought would be an outlier, not the norm. Give a team two seasons, at least!
I hope you regularly kiss your company's logo or letterhead and point aggressively to the floor on a regular basis, as you have earnt the right to do that without shame.
Matt LeTiss Tony Adams (who never had an agent) Can't think of many others,past or present. People like that are rare, but not so rare they don't exist.
2 out of thousands of players. There aren't many and you could argue that Adams stayed at a top club so was a little bit different.
But this only backs up my point. There is no sporting integrity in chasing an easier ride to trophies or in chasing the pounds. Wealthy clubs act like businesses, buying up the assets of smaller businesses to ensure market dominance - not like sports bodies enjoying the competition of a level playing field. Likewise, footballers don't want to build a legacy but to simply walk into one - like buying a wife from russianbrides.com rather than wooing her yourself.
