2011/12 Soccer Thread - Because Vacations Are For Cowards

I guess Premier League equivalent would be opposition manager walking up smiling after the game to Harry and handing him a football shirt with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (and possibly number 295,000) written on the back.

Apparently Man Utd have signed a £40m sponsorship with DHL - for their training kit.

Well, Mr Platini ?

davet010 wrote:

Apparently Man Utd have signed a £40m sponsorship with DHL - for their training kit.

Well, Mr Platini ?

crazyness..... Wonder how Arsenal will do once they get out from under their sweetheart deals with Emirates.

and... Nasri off to City. Wenger now has such a huge burning pile of cash he really needs to spend before the Government waddles over and collects a large sum of it in taxes like he does every year.

Nasri - bit 'meh' about him at the moment, would rather have had Sneijder. Not too sure about the taxman getting his paws on Arsene's transfer kitty either, but if Arsene's got cash in his pocket, everyone else knows it and knows that the deadline is only a week and a bit away.

Problem for Arsenal appears not to be the funding of the original deals, but offering players wages which can compare to other big clubs and yet don't burst the existing wage structure. Offering mid-table money is not going to attract the best, as the names that are linked with Arsenal testify. Phil Jagielka ? Take a look at him completely losing the QPR player who subsequently notched the only goal of the game before blowing £10m on that one.

If he has cash in his pocket? as you pointed out the team seems to be on a mid table wage structure while playing in a 60k seat stadium and in the CL every year.

He had cash to splurge before he sold Clichy, Cesc, Nasri and Eboue... just the difference in wages alone between those 4 and the players brought in is another huge money boost.

Any reports that try to cast Arsenals financials in doubt is just hocus pocus to try and explain why Wenger doesn't spend. He doesn't spend because hes a absolute nut not because the club has no cash. Which makes it even more infuriating when the club turns around and raises ticket prices while shipping off cash in taxes. We might need an inquiry if Arsenal is actually a state owned property.

What I find interesting especially this year is the amount of transfer rumors Arsenal have been involved in that actually seem to have substance and never materialize. Eg instead of just agent driven but opposing manager/chairmen outright saying they were contacted and rebuffed the offer. To me that means they are in the market but honestly have no ability to close deals on the players they want. They drag their feet when selling players and are even worse when it comes to bringing them in.

edit: and yes you should be meh on Nasri if the supposed wage/signing bonus are even remotely true. Hes good but thats just silly money for a player who hasn't proved hes of that level.

"I want to come to England to win trophies - and that's why I accepted Chelsea's offer,'' he said. "It was also a question of sporting achievement, not money. Arsenal and Tottenham were both interested in me but they did not compare with the Blues. I want the Premier League title and this is possible at Chelsea."

Mata also revealed Chelsea striker Fernando Torres played a part in his decision.

"Fernando Torres helped influence my decision but speaking directly with Villas-Boas was the decisive factor", he added. "He explained how his style will be based on 4-3-3 and how important I will be to his plans.

"Frank Lampard is a monster of a footballer to play alongside and the prospect of that is incredible."

kick right in the nuts.

jowner wrote:

If he has cash in his pocket? as you pointed out the team seems to be on a mid table wage structure while playing in a 60k seat stadium and in the CL every year.

He had cash to splurge before he sold Clichy, Cesc, Nasri and Eboue... just the difference in wages alone between those 4 and the players brought in is another huge money boost.

Any reports that try to cast Arsenals financials in doubt is just hocus pocus to try and explain why Wenger doesn't spend. He doesn't spend because hes a absolute nut not because the club has no cash. Which makes it even more infuriating when the club turns around and raises ticket prices while shipping off cash in taxes. We might need an inquiry if Arsenal is actually a state owned property.

What I find interesting especially this year is the amount of transfer rumors Arsenal have been involved in that actually seem to have substance and never materialize. Eg instead of just agent driven but opposing manager/chairmen outright saying they were contacted and rebuffed the offer. To me that means they are in the market but honestly have no ability to close deals on the players they want. They drag their feet when selling players and are even worse when it comes to bringing them in.

edit: and yes you should be meh on Nasri if the supposed wage/signing bonus are even remotely true. Hes good but thats just silly money for a player who hasn't proved hes of that level.

If you have a look at Arsenal's accounts, they have only paid a little (like about £5m) tax over the last couple of years, and that's on a turnover of over £200m...bear in mind that the rate of Corporation Tax in the UK is currently 27% of taxable profit, and that they have effectively paid about 2.5% of their turnover, so it's not like they are transfusing the British Government. I'm not arguing that the club has no cash to spend, or that it doesn't generate money - but it is interesting to note that they made a pre-tax loss in the last 6 month reporting period.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...

In other news, Samuel Eto'o has agreed to join Anzhi in Russia, for a salary of...wait for it....£380k a week. He's going to Russia, more specifically Dagestan. He's from Africa. I'm betting he's back in Europe by next summer, wages notwithstanding.

I think the 'players linked with' stuff is a slight confusion, as a number of them, such as Hazard, were players whose best position is where Cesc or Nasri play, so it was a case of not buying them before there was a player who needed replacing. I still don't get the failure to pick up a new CB though, and there are some good ones available at reasonable prices.

I do like this for a squad though

Balotelli, Boyata, Savic, Cunningham, Tchuimeni-Nimely and Razak are still classed as Under 21s and don't count so I've started with the nailed-on ones.

1. Hart
2. Pantelimon
3. Taylor
4. Richards
5. KOMPANY
6. Lescott
7. Clichy
8. Kolarov
9. K Toure
10. Zabaleta
11. Barry
12. Y Toure
13. De Jong
14. Milner
15. Silva
16. A Johnson
17. Dzeko
18. Aguero

I'm assuming we can now add Sami to the list:

19. Nasri

And if Carlos and SWP don't disappear that's:

20. Tevez
21. Wright-Phillips

I believe Weiss is on his way and the only others I can come up with appear to be, in the words of Joeh, persona non grata: Bellamy, Bridge, Santa Cruz, Adebayor and Onouha.

Does this mean we can expect to see FOUR MORE SIGNINGS before the transfer window SLAMS SHUT?

http://www.arsenal.com/the-club/corp...

I'll wait till the full annual report comes out to judge the loss up to last Nov...
as for 07/08, 08/09, 09/10....

Group
Turnover 379.9 313.3
Operating profit* 72.0 70.5
Profit before tax 56.0 45.5
* = operating profit before depreciation and player trading costs

first number 09/10 second 08/09....

group includes their property developments.

for 07/08...

Profit after tax: The tax charge for the period was £10.9 million (2007 - £2.8 million). The effective rate of tax at 29.8% is impacted by the change in the rate of corporation tax from 30% to 28% for the last two months of the financial year and the conversion of the Group’s deferred tax provisions to this new rate of tax.

I'm obviously being over the top when I say they are financing England but honestly which other club is turning such large profits and shipping a portion away in taxes? The debt laden model is starting to make some sense. You think the Glazers have payed out a dime in taxes since they took over United?

Erm, according to the 09/10 Annual Report, page 33, the consolidated position was that there was a net charge of £5m over the 2 years (charge of 10.2m for 2009, and a tax refund of 5m in 2010). That's on a turnover of £700m over the 2 years.

So they have paid 5m tax on 700m of turnover ? That's less than 1%. I can't see anyone having to pass round the hat for that.

A

Prederick wrote:

Saw this story over at the Granuidad today, and was immediately interested. I'll have to see if I can finagle the book on this side of the Atlantic. What's your thoughts Dave, seeing that Paul Lake's a life-long Blue?

Picked up the Lake book last week - it's a decent read, and Lake has a fairly sanguine outlook on life and the setbacks he's been through, there's very little of the "and then we played team x and won, and then we lost". His playing career is over before the book is halfway through.

Oddly enough, the book kept stirring memories within me. It's the first sporting autobiography I've bought where I was present at a lot of the games mentioned, or know the places that Lake references, as I have very few player autobiogs apart from ones by players from previous generations, like Mike Doyle. In some ways it's quite a sad experience, as I can see these incidents in my mind's eye and now am realising that they are 20-something years ago, and that those players who are always young in your memory are now older and heavier...and because I am as old as those players, then by implication so am I.

I think we all knew that the Tevez saga has been crazy way back from the Boca days, but seeing the saga of his "ownership" laid bare is still stunning. Robert Ludlum wrote stories more straight-forward than that.

Conn's stuff is usually good, but there is no way City paid £45m for Tevez when he was offered to Man U for £25m. Joorabchian usually comes out of these things looking like a greasy liar though, which does very much appear to be the case.

In other news, it's being reported that the Turkish League is going to be settled this year by a playoff system among the top four, to increase revenue. I hate these garbage American-style ideas.

Now riddle me this, fact fans. The Turkish League is already beset by allegations of match-fixing, collusion and corruption at the highest levels in the domestic game. What is going to be easier to influence, or perceived to have been influenced....a 38 game season, or a single playoff game ?

So, CL qualifiers today. Clearly, the most important news is that the Turkish FA yanked Fenerbache due to an ongioing match-fixing investigatin and put in Trabzonspor.

And BATE Borisov and Viktoria Plzen will help fill the ranks of this year's whipping boys while simultaneously playing the part of "Teams I Only Know Because I Play Too Much FM".

Oh, and Arsenal.

Oh, and not content with just burning his bridges, Samir Nasri opted to burn down the forest that created the wood for the bridge, such that no bridge can be created ever again.

Not sure how City just completely avoided being drawn with Barca and AC Milan and were placed vs Bayern and Villareal....

edit: I thought i just figured it out and I just confused myself more......

you could switch Borisov and City and not break any rules that I can think of so I don't know what happened.

1740: Group F: ARSENAL, Marseille, Olympiakos, Borussia Dortmund

1739: Group B: Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor

1738: Group E: CHELSEA, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Genk

1737: Group H: Barcelona, AC Milan, BATE Borisov, Viktoria Plzen

1736: Group D: Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb

1735: Group C: MAN UTD, Benfica, Basle, Otelul Galati

1734: Group G: FC Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit, Apoel FC

1734: Group A: Bayern Munich, Villarreal, MAN CITY, Napoli

================================================

Think City had to go into the top half of the draw because ManU were in the red half, summat to do with TV nights. Bayern will be tough away, and we could have got an easier pot 4 team than Napoli.

Arsenal were looking certs until Dortmund got pulled out, they were excellent last year, but I reckon they'll progress.

Man U got their usual mix of deadbeats and ones where you have to check the atlas.

jowner wrote:

Not sure how City just completely avoided being drawn with Barca and AC Milan and were placed vs Bayern and Villareal....

edit: I thought i just figured it out and I just confused myself more......

you could switch Borisov and City and not break any rules that I can think of so I don't know what happened.

Yeah, I was confused as well. Like Dave said, it seems to come down to television. Half the English teams are in the first half of the groups (which have matches on the same day) and half in the other half of groups. Same with Italy, same with Spain. Kind of sucks if you ask me.

My local team, Wisla Krakow, were crap as usual in last round of CL qualifier, so they ended up in Europa League (as did Legia Warsaw after knocking out Spartak Moscow, good job). We have Odense, Fulham and Twente in our group, wondering which one is worth seeing.

(Pred, if you want to see Fulham, tickets for our home game should be really cheap ;))

As for Udinese v Arsenal: remember what I had to tell about people telling us about buying goalkeeper? Yeah.
(Also, that post-match interview was nice.)

edit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...
Higuain? Benzema? Tevez? Korean chap valued at €3M?

(Okay, he was my first choice striker at Monaco in FM for some time, and he fits team profile well, but you still have to admire cheekiness of Wenger in going for the cheapest solution possible even now.)

UCRC wrote:

My local team, Wisla Krakow, were crap as usual in last round of CL qualifier, so they ended up in Europa League (as did Legia Warsaw after knocking out Spartak Moscow, good job). We have Odense, Fulham and Twente in our group, wondering which one is worth seeing.

(Pred, if you want to see Fulham, tickets for our home game should be really cheap ;))

As for Udinese v Arsenal: remember what I had to tell about people telling us about buying goalkeeper? Yeah.
(Also, that post-match interview was nice.)

edit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...
Higuain? Benzema? Tevez? Korean chap valued at €3M?

(Okay, he was my first choice striker at Monaco in FM for some time, and he fits team profile well, but you still have to admire cheekiness of Wenger in going for the cheapest solution possible even now.)

Come visit me and see the Odense match in Odense :P.

It's at the end of November, and that's a long time away so we'll see.

I'll be in Krakow for Wisla - OB (15.09), so I might want to ask about tickets now.

XI for ManU game missing three defenders from our best back four. Can be a lot of fun.

Take that, Twitcher !!

City pulverised Spurs, from the first minute to the last. Highlight, other than Dzeko's 4 goals, was Aguero ripping the p*ss out of Michael Dawson, who on this showing is as much an international standard defender as I am.

Humourous moment on the commentary provided by that sad, second-rate ex-Chelsea bitter lemon Craig Burley - "City have picked Tottenham's pockets". No they haven't, you bile-filled jocko, they've walked up to them, smashed them in the face, beaten them unconscious in their own backyard and then emptied their pockets.

Any bets on the number of deals Redknapp tries to swing before end of the window ? I'll start the bidding at 10...Friedel didn't play too badly.

Apologies also for my 'meh-ness' with regard to Nasri. Three assists isn't a bad start.

Arf - mate just retweeted me something from Danny Simpson from last week "Edin Dzeko - he's pony for £27m"

That's the Danny Simpson who plays for Newcastle. No, me neither. He's now backtracking faster than the speed of light.

davet010 wrote:

That's the Danny Simpson who plays for Newcastle. No, me neither. He's now backtracking faster than the speed of light.

The picture in my head: Simpson to get tangled up in his own feet, fall, and allow his opponent to waltz around him.

I guess he must know £35m strikers though - he did play with Andy Carroll.

Every time I type that, I laugh a little.

davet010 wrote:

Take that, Twitcher !!

Dżeko's last goal was wonderful. Generally nice to see City play some good attacking football.

edit: Arsenal's six possible substitutions for second half: Oxlade-Chamberlain, Chamakh, Lansbury, Miquel, Ozyakup, Sunu
Says it all, really.

Crocky Santa Cruz sent on loan to Real Betis. He better hope that City are still chipping in for his wages, their players haven't been paid for 8 months.

Nice of City to let him keep his company car as well.

IMAGE(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01413/Ambulance_1413374c.jpg)

Anyone else see the Empire State Building-sized bowl of irony in this complaint ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...

So tired. I'll sum up my reaction to the Arsenal game in a meme.

IMAGE(http://cdn2.knowyourmeme.com/i/000/041/343/original/index.php.png?1267048195)

Lightweights - supporting City I've had entire seasons like that.

Watched Barca - Villareal last night. Some conclusions..

1. So that's how Fabregas is going to be fitted in - Barca played 3-4-3.

2. Xavi and Villa on the bench.

3. Villareal looked like they were a pub team, if they turn up like that at the Etihad they are going to get a proper doing.

4. Spanish league is becoming the Scottish league only with good teams...Villareal turned up with an expectation of being in the top 4 and they got spanked. The key dates are going to be the Clasicos.

davet010 wrote:

4. Spanish league is becoming the Scottish league only with good teams...Villareal turned up with an expectation of being in the top 4 and they got spanked. The key dates are going to be the Clasicos.

Disappointing, but 100% true. Unless Malaga can really turn a revolution, it's a sad state of affairs in Spain right now, as noone can even reasonably touch the top two. When Valencia needs a wonderful comeback to beat Santander, and then Barca and RM win by a combined scoreline of 11-0... I mean, we knew last year it was this way, and now it seems almost worse. A fantastic result against these teams is a draw.