I'm only talking about the supply and demand aspect which affects transfer fees and salaries. There are still regulations in football, or at least in English football, which help to level the playing field. For example, TV rights are distributed fairly here, in contrast with Scotland and Spain where the two big teams have total control. And it's only fair that some clubs have more money to spend than others, because it is mostly the case that they have earned that money through success and obtaining a large fanbase. Obviously there are some situations, like with Chelsea and Man City, where they haven't earned their vast wealth, and this is another area where I think we need market intervention. I just don't think intervention regarding salary is the right way to go about it.
Football finances are a desperate mess, from Chelsea to Chester(remember them?) and all points inbetween. The whole system needs root and branch reform imo, as does the banking sector. Just over 70 years ago President Roosevelt told the US Congress that never again would unregulated banks be allowed to gamble with the wealth of nations. Humans have short memories and often fail to learn the lessons of history, but surely now the political will must exist to address these problems, in sport and in every other business.
Yep, that was about it. I think the pork scratching were an economy pack too and the milk was UHT. From Redknapp's perspective, he's just wanting a similar scenario that Saints have wanted all the time they've produced brilliant youngsters, i.e. don't leave, because you can find success with us. The BBC commentator at the Saints vs Coventry game posed the question of what if Saints brilliant youngsters had all stayed for a couple of more years, they'd all be playing in the PL now, adn Southampton FC would be doing well. To which Mark Bright answered that brilliant youngsters will always want to go to the top clubs. The thing is, if you want to progress from being a cannon fodder club to a top club, you ultimately have to have brilliant players. So effectively, the PL system has a built-in mechanism that ensures that, barring disaster, the top clubs stay being the top clubs and the alsorans stay where they are too. Of course, that's reckoning without a certain Mr Cortese.
Didn't we get Tommy Forecast as part of the settlement...... so not as much as your pork scratchings and pint of milk!
If I was Bale and with no real serious emotional connection to Spurs I would be off to Barcelona in a heartbeat. That is no disrespect to Tottenham because you're talking about one of the best teams in the world. I also think it would be a good signing for Barcelona. Bale has a great engine and experience at Left back with ourselves. With Alves on the right and Bale on the left Barcelona would be dangerous from both flanks. Chelsea stopped Alves and Barca struggled because they had little on the opposite flank.
Baseball's markets aren't rigged; it's the only North American major sport without a salary cap, featuring only a luxury tax that scarcely affects more than one or two teams in a given season. Revenue-sharing exists, but not in a form any more muscular than the distribution of national TV money in the PL. It's as close to unregulated as can be...the only thing strictly regulated is the draft, and even there (up until this season) it was very much possible to run roughshod by being willing to meet the bonus demands of drafted players when smaller-market teams would not.
