Photoshop Thread

Needs this on a t-shirt

 

Sissoko working hard in training this week...

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As it was Pav's birthday yesterday...

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Good old Pav and his score goals in the last 5 mins of games
(I always swore his circadian clock was stuck in the Russia time zone) .

 

Pav was one of the best finishers I have ever seen. The angles and accuracy of many of his goals was were mesmerising at times.

Just sorely lacking in just about every other department, unfortunately.

 

I don't think you can judge Pavlyuchenko on his time at Spurs because he was never given a proper run IMO. He was a far greater force playing for Russia when I saw him and looked like a big star. With us he was always a bit part player.

It's extremely difficult to just come into a team occasionally and then play at your best. Especially for a striker who must rely on building understanding with teammates to produce goal scoring opportunities. Strikers, above all other players in a football team, require that intuitive relationship with teammates, and that takes time.

 

They used to say the same about Greaves, all he does is score goals. Yeah right

 

Bill bought Greaves for 99,000 quid.He didn't want to stick Jim with the first 100,000 British player.

.....and now we are into 10's of millions to buy a special player.

10 years from now........?

 

It's a frightening thought Smithy. The next big transfer will surely break the £100m barrier. In 10 years, who knows? We may have players generating more investment than some entire countries. The money in the game is the only aspect that I wholeheartedly hate. That and Chelsea. At a time when so many hard working people are struggling just to put bread on the table, it really is unnecessary.

The MLS in America has some type of system where they cap how much a team can spend in each window. This theoretically stops the wealthier teams from the coasts dominating the league. I'm not too sure of the ins and outs but there are clearly loopholes within the system or else the likes of Fat Frank, Pirlo, Keane, Beckham, Villa etc wouldn't have been signed exclusively by the coastal franchises.

With the Chinese now flexing their financial muscle, the amount of money in the game will increase exponentially and potentially spiral out of control. If FIFA had a spine, they would impose strict controls and regulations on fees and wages. Perhaps a tribunal could arbitrate transfers above let's say £30m. They can start by stripping agents of their power and cutting the insane comissions charged by them (Pogba's agent Raiona reportedly pocketed £23m for 5 weeks' work!). Then they can adopt a stricter version of the American system whereby the total amount a club can spend on players and wages is capped, relative to the league in which the club plays and their annual revenue. This would still give leagues like the PL and teams like United and Real an advantage, but NOTHING like the current situation.

The inevitable result of these controls will be that the wealthiest clubs will begin to rely more and more on a scouting network to unearth young talent. Which means much more will be pumped into grassroots level and academies rather than paying people like Rooney 350k a week to miscue 10 yard passes. It would also lead to a decrease in ticket prices and merchandise as clubs wouldn't need to generate the revenue to prop up a £70m marquee signing.

But this is all for when FIFA grows a pair, so give us a call when the moon turns blue. Cheers.

 

Pav was a great 'highlights' player who scored great goals and anyone who only watched him MOTD wondered why the hell doesn't he play every week - and then they would see a whole match and understand. Would love a reserve of his quality now though, he was here with Keane, Defoe and Crouch imagine that 4 Strikers!

 

Or basically turn round and say to the players that they are your agents, representing you. You pay them. Though I suppose that would lead to just ridiculous signing on fees with most of that then being pocketed by the agents.

 

It would. The only approach I see as sustainable would be for FIFA to arbitrate via tribunal how 'important' a player is and how much 'effort' their transfer involved, and fix an hourly rate for the agent to receive. Yes, many of my suggestions increase the bureaucracy in an already bloated organisation, but by the same token there is clearly more than enough money sloshing around for the administration to run quite smoothly.

The bottom line is, FFP should have been designed to resolve these issues once and for all. But all ended up doing was punish the likes of Oldham Athletic and Portsmouth. The likes of Real and Barca still flout the system with astounding arrogance.

 

I don't know how the biggest spenders can be kept under control without a lot of legal confrontation which the authorities seem very reluctant to indulge in. If restricted to some percentage/multiple of earnings, a team like ManC will suddenly find that "certain sponsors" will give them more money, and hence have higher revenue for which to calculate how much they can spend. Maybe rather than regulate overall income a team should have it's sponsorship or other off field income capped? That way there will be some advantage to the bigger clubs with bigger grounds, but nothing like the dodgy sponsorship or subsidy deals around now. The fact is that even with guaranteed CL income every year, a club like Spurs can still not compete with clubs like ManC who can simply engineer as much money as they want.

 

Brighton keeper Stockdale saves penalty against Fulham.
Probably just as well he didn't take the advice of his teammate as to which way to dive!!

 

Brace yourselves...

 

I wonder who flushed the toilet........?

 

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