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englandcomeon

Listed below are comments made by englandcomeon between Thursday, 17th September 2009 and Monday, 26th October 2009.

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Benitez's brinkmanship strikes again 09:11am on 26 Oct 2009 How else can you explain Benitez's apparent desire to take himself to the brink +++++******************

Easy Mr Mc Nulty, Benitez has not bought the right players, sent quality players away and generally is a control freak that won't give in.

He doesn't just antagonise the directors and fans but the team too, OK at the weekend he "got out of jail" but we will see if Liverpool fall at the first hurdle in the Champions League how much forgiveness the directors and fans will have and how safe his job is then?

I think his time is up, whether LFC can find a better manager is another matter but he's had time and money and he's wasted both (Liverpool should have won the league last year given the dismal seasons that Chelsea and ManU had).

Without investment in decent players for the bench and without using the ridiculous rotation principles for the sake of it their CL and league title prospects will be dim, the trouble being that Benitez doesn't look to be the man that can pick this squad.
I mean paying the same amount for an injured player as was paid for one of the most prolific (not injured) young strikers in Europe strikes me as somewhat odd.
Football's trusts must keep the faith 1:29pm on 22 Oct 2009 @43

Yeah but it remains the exception rather than the rule. What I mean is the clubs in the upper half of the PL that (like ManU) just buy in players for ridiculous sums (they should have identified Ribery before Bayern, wasn't difficult).
This buying the finished article has a threefold effect, firstly; it pushes up the transfer fees, secondly; it raises the chance of bankrupting the club significantly, thirdly; if an expensive player gets injured, the club either has to solider on with a weakness in one of the positions or buy another expensive replacement.
Football's trusts must keep the faith 09:14am on 22 Oct 2009 The debt issue can be solved, but at the cost of success. Look at the Bundesliga, the German clubs bring players on and sell them on for vast sums.
When, not if, Ribery leaves Bayern, he will go for 60-80 mil. but they paid the half of that, another prime example being Berbatov, he had a reputation in Germany as a bit wasteful with his scoring chances, yet still cost 11 million and then sold to ManU for 30???
How can it be that the clubs in the English football leagues can't snap up players like this (Mackay also went to Bayern and was prolific).

Seems to me the scouting of foreign players is done via a network of dodgy second-hand car dealers and by the managers of EPL clubs watching major tournaments, like the Euro's or WC.

The Premiership and La Primera Division often just heat up the market by lashing out money they don't have for instant headlines and success.

Fans aren't so stupid as not to swallow the odd "below par" season if they know there's a long term well thought through plan; see Arsenal.
Look at the current crisis at Anfield (where Benitez has spent a lot of money without having CL win aside, much success) and compare it to Wenger, that with his philosophy and budget restraints set EPL records, so it can be done.
The clubs just need to hold back a bit and do more development work, it's easy to buy the "finished article" for top money, but that only works if you've got limitless reserves to "outbuy/gusump" your rivals.
Benitez faces biggest test 10:35am on 21 Oct 2009 Benitez is coming to the end, the only reason had a good shot at the title last season was due to MU having the worst start to a season that the current PL champions have ever had; Chelsea were all-at-sea with big Phil, and they still didn't manage it.
Benitez, in all fairness has always been controversial, he drove the fans mad with a senseless constant rotation tactic and has (just like his predecessor) bought handfulls of players only for them to be sold again virtually without being used at all or quality players being sent away (Owen by Houllier and Alonso by Benitez).
I said it years back and it's still the case, LFC need another manager.
What they don't need are the Americans, whose sole interest is profit and are not prepared to invest "real" money to get a really strong squad together, not just 4-5 top quality players and the rest of the squad filled with also-rans.
What could/would/should central banks have done? 9:35pm on 24 Sep 2009 and how much do you think that would cost - and who pays for it?
+++++++++++++++++++*********************

That I'm afraid has to be priced into a trading tax where any movement has a surcharge placed upon it, what you suggest is to allow all to carry on as before and bail out the money grabbing casino players.
How many more crashes of this magnitude can European governments (tax payers) pay for?
It can and will not carry on like that in the future, a small group of people (bankers) will, with any luck, not be holding a loaded gun at the heads of govt in future.
What could/would/should central banks have done? 4:03pm on 24 Sep 2009 There's no law against casinos and bookies just as there's no law against such "virtual trading" !! The problems arise when these "traders" are bailed out when they lose. When was the last time this government bailed out a casino or a bookie or members of Gamblers Anonymous
**************** *********************
I disagree there, the option you suggest is "cutting one's nose off to spite one's face". This let them fall by the wayside attitude is what caused a most of the industrial base in the UK to die off, that and the crippling taxation.

The alternative is to set up effective regulation of finance products and markets so that this thing cannot happen in the future so that "saving the wreckless" is no longer necessary.
What could/would/should central banks have done? 12:00pm on 24 Sep 2009 Don't people have very short memories? I see lots of people going on about the "last crash" being in the eighties, what about the dotcom bubble at the beginning of the decade, exactly the same signs of the markets completely loosing touch with reality, pricing companies that only had "ideas" and no real assets at 10-15 times that of real highly-successful manufacturers, phone companies etc etc.

This is the exact same, "hedge funds" selling ideas and nobody actually knowing what it was that they were trading.

This form of "virtual trading" has to be dampened right down. There may be cases when this mechanism can be used to everyone's benefit, but this form of selling has clearly gotten out of control and those making such deals have to be able to demonstrate the "real market value" of any share packages.
What could/would/should central banks have done? 11:28am on 24 Sep 2009 I do think that this analysis of the crisis is very "City" friendly.
It was there far all to see, all the signs of a market out of control were there, house prices running wild, huge amounts of speculation on the energy markets with "cheap" money to fund it, especially the madness of smaller companies trying to take over larger ones, Porsche and Schaeffler in Germany as prime examples.

The regulators were looking the other way for too long, saying that doing little or nothing is right is questionable at the very least.
The simple fact of the matter is that several finance products are subject to either no regulation at all or at best very little is madness, these products have to stop these products being offered or remove the possibility to initiate such transactions.

Even the most ordinary of folk can see this coming, so people that spend their entire lives immersed in this world have a far greater responsibility to act not just pretend the events just happened over night and hold up their hands.
Premier danger for South America 11:08am on 21 Sep 2009 With all due respect to Argentina, it is the job of the (or any) FA to ensure that the game and talent is developed in the locality and for local players (preferably those born and brought up in the respective country).
As you mention Messi, look at Barcelona, they don't have to be forced to use locals, they do so voluntarily, and it has brought them huge benefits.
If this under 18 transfer ban is brought in then clubs will not be able to sign players (children) of 14/15/16 years old.
What people seem to forget is that players are handled like goods these days and cannot just (like any other employee/thanks to FIFA btw) walk away from their job and work for another club, if they do FIFA and the club sanction them (how the EU hasn't stopped this is beyond me).
It's time that this sort of practice was stopped, btw the transfer window, another of Blatter's grand ideas has inflated the market prices enormously, so for Blatter to barrack the clubs is all well and good but a bit hippocritical.
Briatore bows out in unsavoury style 4:45pm on 17 Sep 2009 Second attempt after BBC sensorship.
The team is allowed to enter the championship to "race" not to endanger others just to gain prestige and points.
If this is the sort of morality and sense of fair play that is all that is left in professional spectator sports (where those supposed to be looking after their athletes, drivers etc. are placing them in danger not doing all in their powers to safeguard them) then this will spell the end of them.

I don't see how some can call this exciting, it's like diving in football, it ain't nice and it needs to be stopped. The murky machinations of Ecclestone and that which he and Max allowed Bennetton/Schumacher to get away with needs stopping once-and-for-all, to clean up the sport for good.

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