Rival watch

[District Line]

If I were a Stoke supporter District I wouldn't be anticipating anything better than the last boss,in fact just the opposite.

Do you mean in terms of league finish? I'd imagine they'll be playing a lot less direct TMT

It's a bit of a climb down for him after quitting Fulham because they weren't big enough for him. Stoke are hardly favourites for top 4 next year are they.

Yeah that was a massive balls up, he quit Fulham thinking he'd get the Villa or Chelsea job and neither gave him as much as a look.

If he wasn't such a great footballer, it's highly doubtful he'd have walked into a PL job given his record at Man City and QPR. Very lucky man with a very good agent

 

[humanbeingincroydon]

Very lucky man with a very good agent

More that he benefits from the idiotic thinking that says, as he played for Alex Ferguson, he must've learned something. The same logic that explains why Roy Keane and Steve Bruce keep finding employment.

 

[Roo]

You think they'll go down Roo?

Hughes may not be the best manager but he seems a decent coach. When he's not had a bottomless pit of money he's done alright I.e Blackburn into Europe, Fulham 7th etc.

The hardest task will be the transition from one style of play to a less direct one

Yep, in fact in going to bet on it mate.

33% win rate at Fulham and 47% at city - which wasn't good enough with the money available.

Like you say, his only respectable accolade was at Blackburn where he finished 6th with them. - but that was about 10 years ago.

He's been left behind in a similar way to the likes of martin o'neil IMO, by coaches such as Laudrup, AVB and Rodgers.

 

[Roo]

I'm probably really slow with this and I expect someone has mentioned it elsewhere, but it's official that Suarez wants to leave Liverpool.

Apparently it's not due to money, but his family and his image.

Really harsh on the Liverpool fans.

They just need to get shot of him now for as much money as possible. If they spend the money, rhey may well have an extremely strong squad next summer as Rodgers continues to build.

A shame to see another very talented player leave the premiership.

 

[SpursDisciple]

I'm probably really slow with this and I expect someone has mentioned it elsewhere, but it's official that Suarez wants to leave Liverpool.

Apparently it's not due to money, but his family and his image.

Really harsh on the Liverpool fans.

They just need to get shot of him now for as much money as possible. If they spend the money, rhey may well have an extremely strong squad next summer as Rodgers continues to build.

A shame to see another very talented player leave the premiership.

Apparently there is a £40m buyout clause. I hope that uses up Real's budget for this summer, or at least leaves them without another £60m+ to spend.

 

[Bodinki]

Apparently there is a £40m buyout clause. I hope that uses up Real's budget for this summer, or at least leaves them without another £60m+ to spend.

Thats chump change to them mate.
But I wouldnt worry, I cant see Bale going to Madrid anyway, if he does leave, which I dont think he will, it will probably be to go to Utd.

 

[Spursguru]

Thats chump change to them mate.
But I wouldnt worry, I cant see Bale going to Madrid anyway, if he does leave, which I dont think he will, it will probably be to go to Utd.

Imo, you couldn't be more wrong.

FFP should prevent Madrid spending 100's of millions, but if it doesn't they will be in for Bale.

The prospect of Sunny spain, clean tackles and Ronaldo as a foil would be a big pull....



and then the main point, Levy won't sell to a prem team.

 

[No Kane No Gain]

I'm probably really slow with this and I expect someone has mentioned it elsewhere, but it's official that Suarez wants to leave Liverpool.

Apparently it's not due to money, but his family and his image.

Really harsh on the Liverpool fans.

They just need to get shot of him now for as much money as possible. If they spend the money, rhey may well have an extremely strong squad next summer as Rodgers continues to build.

A shame to see another very talented player leave the premiership.

I agree, it's a shame when a player announces he wants to leave without having quietly sorted it out with his club first and then sorted out a transfer. I don't understand why he had to open his mouth at all, he's not the only one but it's hugely frustrating and disrespectful to the fans. He owed them better.

As I said on their board too, it'd be a shame if they lost him, it's better for the league when a side like us or 'Pool can keep a top player like Suarez rather than losing them to one of the big bucks teams. Might make for an interesting experiment though next season if they lose Suarez and we keep Bale, who knows, maybe clubs not in the CL are better off selling their outstanding player and reinvesting across the squad.

 

[The Mighty Thor]

I can see Liverpool doing better without him.

 

[Spursguru]

I agree, it's a shame when a player announces he wants to leave without having quietly sorted it out with his club first and then sorted out a transfer. I don't understand why he had to open his mouth at all, he's not the only one but it's hugely frustrating and disrespectful to the fans. He owed them better.

As I said on their board too, it'd be a shame if they lost him, it's better for the league when a side like us or 'Pool can keep a top player like Suarez rather than losing them to one of the big bucks teams. Might make for an interesting experiment though next season if they lose Suarez and we keep Bale, who knows, maybe clubs not in the CL are better off selling their outstanding player and reinvesting across the squad.

I think two 20m players (say moutinho types) would make Liverpool stronger than one suarez. A good striker and a creative player should be able to make up for the loss. They didn't exactly suffer in his absence.

With us, there are some gaping holes in the squad such as inconsistant strikers, no balance when Lennon is out, no goalscoring midfielders etc etc that the Bale money could help balance us out. A team playing better is a platform to build on, whereas a standout player is not.... see Berbs, Teddy, Carrick, Modric....Bale?

 

[No Kane No Gain]

I think two 20m players (say moutinho types) would make Liverpool stronger than one suarez. A good striker and a creative player should be able to make up for the loss. They didn't exactly suffer in his absence.

With us, there are some gaping holes in the squad such as inconsistant strikers, no balance when Lennon is out, no goalscoring midfielders etc etc that the Bale money could help balance us out. A team playing better is a platform to build on, whereas a standout player is not.... see Berbs, Teddy, Carrick, Modric....Bale?

I don't think we benefitted from losing any of the players above that you listed. Bale is basically a 9 out of 10 player in a squad of mostly 6s and 7s, we needed him to get us right in the thick of challenging for the top 4, losing him would cost us points no matter who we got in after, if we went on to hit 72 points again it would be from other players in our squad drastically improving. Think about it, had Modric been playing for us last season would we not have done even better?

It wouldn't be the end of the World if we lost him because with a bit of luck you can still keep going forward as a team but it's very difficult and could take a couple of seasons, which we can't really afford right now.

Anyway, we may well see next season if Suarez leaves and Bale stays.

 

[Spursguru]

I don't think we benefitted from losing any of the players above that you listed. Bale is basically a 9 out of 10 player in a squad of mostly 6s and 7s, we needed him to get us right in the thick of challenging for the top 4, losing him would cost us points no matter who we got in after, if we went on to hit 72 points again it would be from other players in our squad drastically improving. Think about it, had Modric been playing for us last season would we not have done even better?

It wouldn't be the end of the World if we lost him because with a bit of luck you can still keep going forward as a team but it's very difficult and could take a couple of seasons, which we can't really afford right now.

Anyway, we may well see next season if Suarez leaves and Bale stays.

I wasn't saying we were right to sell those players, or that we benefited from it. That example only extended to us selling Bale to balance us out vs pool selling suarez.

Modric this year would have been great, but I would prefer Verthongan, Holtby and Lloris to Gallas, Modric and Friedel for example.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to have kept Carrick, teddy berbs etc and Having Gareth this year was a lot like when we had berbs. A world class player in a relatively poor team. However the players we brought in from selling Modric made us more consistant, and we achieved our highest points total in the prem, despite our apparent weaknesses previously listed.

Pool sold torres and got suarez for 20m.
Atletico sold Torres, and had Aguero, then sold him and bought Falcao.

There is no reason why we can't sell Gareth and buy smart, as long as we stay away from the Andy Carrols.

 

[Spursguru]

As an aside, one of the reasons I also think selling Bale will not be so bad is that him playing in the hole is to the detriment of both strikers. We could sell him and buy a world class striker and goal scoring midfielder and regain those 20 goals, and add more throughout the team.

 

[Spurf]

As an aside, one of the reasons I also think selling Bale will not be so bad is that him playing in the hole is to the detriment of both strikers. We could sell him and buy a world class striker and goal scoring midfielder and regain those 20 goals, and add more throughout the team.

I agree, the essential remains, football is a team game. A good 'team' will always win over a team of brilliant individuals. There is no doubt in my mind that our team suffered to some extent by the brilliance of Bale. It can all to easily become 'get the ball to Bale.'

The ideal would be to keep Bale AND come to terms with how the team should play with him it because I am not convinced we have sorted it. That's AVB's job. The difference between getting top 4 or not will not depend on keeping Bale or not it will depend on improving the current side and getting them to perform to their best as a TEAM.

 

[humanbeingincroydon]

I'm probably really slow with this and I expect someone has mentioned it elsewhere, but it's official that Suarez wants to leave Liverpool.

Apparently it's not due to money, but his family and his image.

Really harsh on the Liverpool fans.

They just need to get shot of him now for as much money as possible. If they spend the money, rhey may well have an extremely strong squad next summer as Rodgers continues to build.

A shame to see another very talented player leave the premiership.

You could almost - almost - see his point because he has replaced the likes of Balotelli and Joey Barton as football's hate figure...until you remember why he's replaced them.

Liverpool are now saying he isn't for sale, a claim that was undermined months ago when Suarez himself revealed that he has a release clause allowing any club that qualified for the Champions League to make a bid for him should Liverpool not finish in the top four, and it took less than two weeks before he started publicly engineering a move to join Luka Modric in the Mercanary Hall of Fame (otherwise known as the Real Madrid bench)

 

[seanDCFC]

Imo, you couldn't be more wrong.

FFP should prevent Madrid spending 100's of millions, but if it doesn't they will be in for Bale.

The prospect of Sunny spain, clean tackles and Ronaldo as a foil would be a big pull....



and then the main point, Levy won't sell to a prem team.

FFP will not harm teams like Real Madrid at all.

 

[Spurf]

FFP will not harm teams like Real Madrid at all.

Explain!

 

[seanDCFC]

Explain!

Well if we are talking about big transfers all Real would have to do is hand out really long contracts. The price of the player you buy is spread evenly over the duration of the contract. For example if they buy Suarez for 40 million and give him a four year contract, according to FFP they would be spending 10m per year (even if they pay in one lump sum) which is nothing for a club like Madrid. Increase the length of contracts and problem solved.

 

[Spurf]

Well if we are talking about big transfers all Real would have to do is hand out really long contracts. The price of the player you buy is spread evenly over the duration of the contract. For example if they buy Suarez for 40 million and give him a four year contract, according to FFP they would be spending 10m per year (even if they pay in one lump sum) which is nothing for a club like Madrid. Increase the length of contracts and problem solved.

On that basis it's no problem for anybody. In other words it won't work. That wouldn't surprise me at all when in this world does the little guy beat the big guy. Not very often!

 

[SpursDisciple]

Well if we are talking about big transfers all Real would have to do is hand out really long contracts. The price of the player you buy is spread evenly over the duration of the contract. For example if they buy Suarez for 40 million and give him a four year contract, according to FFP they would be spending 10m per year (even if they pay in one lump sum) which is nothing for a club like Madrid. Increase the length of contracts and problem solved.

That's just basic accounting. Players are assets and they are depreciated over the life of their contract. As Spurf alludes to above, why would that be specific to Real? In terms of Cash flow, then the £40m is a big payment and FFP must have some targets on total Debts and working capital, not just valuation of Assets?