Back in the Real world
On Monday I wrote a blog suggesting Chelsea's win in the Cup final was yet more evidence that only three teams are going to bag the major trophies (unless Arsenal get their act into gear) and the best of the rest, Everton, are still way behind.
Chelsea fans were quick to reject the insinuation that money has bought them everything, so here's some facts, just for you:
Biggest debt in Premier League - Chelsea £711m; Biggest wage bill in Premier League - Chelsea £172m (up £40m on the previous year). In 2007-8 Chelsea became the first club to report over £80m gross transfer spending in one season.
There are no prizes for guessing which teams came second, third and fourth. Fifth was Newcastle in both cases - which tells you all you need to know about the fantasy land that club's been living in for the last decade.
So yes, it is about the money. It's also, strangely, about how much debt you can get away with. I can't get meself a new credit card for love nor money but United, Chelsea and Liverpool can seemingly still cough up vast sums of cash while bank managers fall over themselves to offer them more rope.
Presumably the finance directors of these clubs, when asked to pay a bill or two, just reply with an Arfur Daley-esque 'Slate!' and shuffle off to the latest meeting with some money-hungry football agent.
The silly season has started all over again. Gareth Barry and Kaka - the limited and the limitless in terms of talent - were both, apparently, staying loyal to their employers last season. Barry gave Villa one more chance to qualify for the Champs League last season, so we all knew he was off to Liverpool very soon.
Except clearly Gareth has more foresight than we imagined 'cos he's looking at making his Champs League debut in 2011-12 when Man City finally forge a team out of a ragtag collection of mercenary misfits.
Of course, it would help a lot in this age of outright cynicism for someone like Barry to stop using the stock phrases about ambition and set-up and just tell us what we know: 'They were offering me shedloads!'
We could do with a few more MPs admitting that 'the way the allowances worked meant you could top up your wages big time and so I thought, why not?' The truth is most of us would've done the same in their position, public money or not. Same goes for Barry.
Meanwhile we have the biannual spectacle of lots of different pronunciations of Kaka. (Car-Car, Cu-karrrrr and Cacker).
Only one club can lure the Brazilian out from the dark shadow formed by the hair dye dripping from Berlusconi's scalp. (Silvio looks increasingly like one of them bank-robbers who wears a transparent plastic mask over his face so that he is difficult to identify as genuinely human). It's unReal Madrid!
Perez is back so it's time once more for all this galacticos rubbish. In six months time the Real team'll be tripping out on to the pitch to that tune they use in Billy Smart's Circus - a bunch of jugglers, tumblers and artistes to delight and ultimately crashingly disappoint.
Perhaps Pellegrini will find a Makelele and a Puyol in there to knuckle down too or it'll be no different from the lazy fancy dans who've been fertilising the grass of Champs League teams this season.
I am in awe as to where Real find the money. At least with Chelsea and Man City you know exactly who's writing the cheques. But Real? I've come to the conclusion that in the mystical times of early Spanish football, the founders of the Bernabeu were lucky enough to build the stadium at the end of a rainbow and that pot of gold just keeps re-filling for all eternity.
Otherwise I swear they couldn't get a Ford Ka, let alone afford Kaka. Man City was a close shave for the Brazilian and ever since he's told anyone who'll listen that he wants to stay in Milan, but I fear the club have packed his bags for him.
It reminds us of why Barca are such a popular side. The team and its manager play to a philosophy, have the good fortune to have some homegrown players capable of putting that philosophy into action, and they have bought players who fit the model.
Wenger's done the same at Arsenal. You can't deny that Fergie, and increasingly Benitez, play to a set of principles and try to select the players that fit in with them. When the chairmen waft in, get out the equivalent of the World Football Argos Catalogue and pick 'n' mix a team according to their whims, that's where your troubles start.
I've said it before but there's these weird outer limits of world football where business is conducted like schoolboys negotiating football card swapsies in the playground.
So if you're reading this, Senor Perez - we'll give you Tuncay, Sanli, Stewart Downing and David Wheater for Ol' Horseface and a random Dutch midfielder. It's a bargain, mate. Tell you what - we'll give you £1m if you take Afonso 'n' all.
Meanwhile, Steve Bruce's managerial career continues to take almost as many detours as that conk of his. Apart from a loyal stint at St Andrews, a job which to be fair he was pretty much pushed out of, he's been a bit of a grasshopper has Brucey.
Still Wigan's home gates filled even less of the stadium than the Boro's, so you can't blame him for wanting to chance his arm in front of 50,000 nutters every week. Good luck to the bloke - at least he's spared himself the usual St James' Park speculation for one more season.
I'm Derek Robson. People call me Robbo. Legend has it I was raised in the furnace and smog of Teesside. Some might say I took the hard road. I like to tell folk I had trials for Middlesbrough, for Hartlepool and for burglary (not guilty). I've always loved sport. My job is to say it as I see it - whether it's in the bar of the Blue Bell or on this blog. You won't find me calling a spade a soil-redistribution implement.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~15~RS~)
Comments
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Nice blog, and your right about the money
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The reason Real have some much wonga is because they have huge worldwide support, shirt sales do help these things. Also a huge stadium packed out, and a large interest in Spanish football worldwide, in South America for example brings in TV money.
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Except clearly Gareth has more foresight than we imagined 'cos he's looking at making his Champs League debut in 2011-12 when Man City finally forge a team out of a ragtag collection of mercenary misfits.
----------------------------------------------------
ouch...
funny thou mate :-D
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Villa reportedly offered Barry £75,000 a week to stay, whilst most (reliable) newspapers report his contract at City stands at £80,000. Though £5,000 is alot of money to the man on the street, when sums this big are involved, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference.
Is it possible Barrys decision came down to more than just money?
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Well, a couple of seasons back, Real were 700 million quid in debt. They sold their training ground (for 1 billion quid) to the city council, because it was a strategic place to build houses and offices.
After they sold their grounds, they bought some new training grounds from the city council (a few miles further away), which cost them 200 million . Thats the way they "make" money in Spain. Who need M.A.?
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The reason Real have some much wonga is because they have huge worldwide support, shirt sales do help these things. Also a huge stadium packed out, and a large interest in Spanish football worldwide, in South America for example brings in TV money.
==============================
Not to mention the fact that the spanish government has bailed them out countless times.
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Good try offering Real Madrid Tuncay AND Sanli, Robbo. You never know, they might just fall for it. Two for the price of one, literally - even Arfer Daley would be proud of that one.
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They negotiate their own TV deals too, none of this sharing the wealth that the Premier League do. Barca are the same and I'm sure if you look up the value of their TV deals, they would run into the 100s of millions!
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Barry has pretty much disgraced himself. I can completely understand the thought to go to Liverpool (won't win but at least challenge haha), or even Arsenal who were reportedly interested, but to go to City says one thing, GREED. I really hope it doesn't turn into a Chelsea. But it will. At least United and Liverpool have history, a youth system and British players. As for generation of cash...Manchester United bought Veron (28m), V.Nistelrooy (17m), Rooney (28m) Stam (12m)....I could go on, but the point being, that was as a PLC, United generated all of that money and were never in debt.
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Clearly Barry was offered a massive amount to ditch Villa to play for a team that got nowhere near any kind of european football. It just fits in with the rest of the game that is run by greed. Villa were THAT close to breaking the big four this year, and even a move to liverpool would have been understandable, but to join a club not even close to that must be insulting for villa fans.
Real madrid are a joke. why do they need all these players? Are they going to sell the likes of Sneijder, Van der Vaart, Robben, Huntelaar, or any other random dutch players they may have aquired to make room for Kaka and apparently, Ronaldo? This is a team that also bought lassana Diarra, and loaned Julian Faubert! why?! why do these players (especially the big-names) want to stay at a club, where if they're all going to play, it will be a massive rotation policy?! Kaka would do better to stay at Milan, and keep the slim hope alive that at least one footballer out there has some dignity and morality.
On the other hand Robbo, at least by going down you'll finally get some over-inflated and unrealistic wad of cash for Stuart "so-boringly-average" Downing.Probably from Spurs..........
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Real Madrid have sold off all their assets !
Also in the past galactico transfers have been funded by an interest free loan from a number of Spanish bank´s whose director happens to be on the Real Madrid board. Then at the end of the year the debt is written off so Real pay nothing !!!
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Not extactly on the point of this blog but I don't think Real will be the Caviller team we remember from Perez stint during 2000-06 if Pellegrini's set-up at Villareal is anything to go by. They will be a fantastic passing side who are hard to a) get past and b) get the ball from with kaka taking up the role once held by Riquelme.
I'm not sure Diarra is quite the same class as Senna so we might see him or someone of his pedigree (but a bit younger) turn up to play alongside with Huntelaar/raul/Van Nistelrooy fighting it it out for that one spot up front with two wide men & Kaka furnishing the bullets for them to fire.
I'd get my money on Real doing a damn sight better in the Champs Lge this year...
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Robbo,
I disagree with your opinion about CITY. The top 4 has been the top 4 forever and the Premiership is crying out for someone to break the ennui. In essence CITY have endavored to sign players who will make them better. You can gamble on foriegners or you can bring in players with proven Premiership experience "Given, Bellamy, Barry". Our youth policy at CITY is 2nd to none, with Richards, Ireland, Sturridge and Onnura all in the first team squad. I feel Hughes and the CITY board sold Barry on the "Plan", he could have gone too Liverpool for 16 mill last years so we got him 4 million cheaper.
There is a "Blue Moon" rising, join us, it will be hell of a ride, we have earned it. Those people who think we have no history only need to look back 10 years ago when we were 2-0 down against Gillingham in the play-offs.
Great blog, I do enjoy your work all the way from Weatherford, Texas, USA.
Cheers,
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Steady on Arm5trong, surly you're not daring to go against Robbos hatred of all thing to do with modern football.
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Barry is on 110k per week, over 50k more than his current Villa salary. Still not a money grabber???
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I doubt if any of us wouldn't do what Barry did if we were in the same circumstances.Please all the Villa fans condemning him should stop being hypocrites.
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Dont knock Gareth Barry !!!
I was earning 27k a year back in the late 90´s . I applied for 2 jobs and got both of them. One was for 33k a year , the other for 42k a year. I will give you one guess which job I accepted !
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Blog post is wrong, chelsea's debt is less than 400 million.
Chelsea did spend a lot under Ranieri/Mourinho to catch up to United/Arsenal.
But United spend big and buy their recent success.
Ferdinand, 30 million
Rooney, 30 million
Berbatov, 30 million
Hargreaves, 17 million
Carrick, 19 million
Ronaldo, 13 million
There is more, but it's not just one club, in order to move from 4th you need to spend big and United spend huge in order to stay on or near the top.
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I hate to disagree with Robbo but may Barry have a point. Man City aren't in Europe next year, so can go all out to break into the top four and win a trophy. They have put money into Hughes hands rather than buying random players above his head and I just have a feeling that the Dubai Arabs holding the purse strings have a plan in place that could see them displace Arsenal and break into that top 4.
C'mon, give the boy a chance
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Beautiful Piece! Otherwise I swear they couldn't get a Ford Ka, let alone afford Kaka! Robbo I'm sorry for Boro: I've always preferred them to Newcastle... bcoz they can actually beat Big teams and not claim to be a big time! It's time for a new chairman, and a takeover! I remember the Juninhio days, devastating!
A decent team actually just never had consistency
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Real also get back financially by the local councils heavily from what I heard on La Liga on Sky from Guilame Balleague. Can you imagine Newcastle United going to the Newcastle city council and applying for money???!!!! Would never happen!
Spain and the rest of Europe is very different to us.
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Of course Madrid are the most popular team in the world and they'll always have the money. The way Perez works, he spends and spends on glamorous "galacticos", while their defence is as bad as Newcastle's. Only a matter of time before it all comes tumbling down.
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I HAD A WHEELBARROW, THE WHEEL FELL OFF
I HAD A WHEELBARROW, THE WHEEL FELL OFF
I HAD A WHEELBARROW, THE WHEEL FELL OFF
I HAD A WHEELBARROW, THE WHEEL FELL OFF
COUNTY...COUNTY...COUNTY...COUNTY
WATCH THE MIGHTY MAGPIES SOAR ONCE AGAIN(the originals, not those pretenders from the north east)
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Actually I've just checked Chelsea's debt is £701m and ManU's is £699m. So thanks for adding £10m for no reason. Chelsea have also lost a lot of money sacking managers (Scolari and co. cost £12m alone).
In addition to all this Chelsea and ManU have a lot of english players in their squad with others coming through the youth system. In the modern game to be sucessful you have to spend obscene amounts of money or you end up like Arsenal.
Robbo I dont know why, but all your blogs always have an anti-Chelsea element to them so thanks for the hate.
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Probably the best Robbo blog ever.
I'm interested to see how City can do. It's pretty clear to everyone that although Chelsea wouldn't be where they are today without Abramovich, at least they had a decent platform to start from when he pumped his money in. City were, and still are languishing in mid-table. Just how long is it going to take?
As much as I like Mark Hughes, I believe he's never going to be a Premier League winning manager, let alone challenging in the Champions League.
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I have to disagree. Madrid make the bulk of their money from tv deals, tours of continents (e.g asia, america etc) and lets not forget they get 50% of a players image rights (beckham springs to mind). Lets not also forget that our stadium is packed out with loyal fans (70,000+ week after week) furthermore we have massive deals with sponsers (coca cola, audi, bwin but to name a few) As for barcelona, they may have unicef on their shirt but real madrid spend more money and time on helping children in developing countries, FACT.
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I agree with much of what you said, but guess what? whenever Monsieur Platini and Mr Blatter complain about the wages and the business dealings of English clubs everyone says they're anti English football.Until there is concrete legislation that force teams to cut down on expenditure Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool and Real continue what they do.
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This blog just portrays a british 'anti-european' component. Why call the galacticos a rubbish? If you are well informed as you think,you would know how much trophies the galacticos won, and the galacticos is perez's marketing strategy to generate income.(Remember, he was able to cover the cost of buying beckham within 1 season and even made profits before the season ended!) I'm also against the trend of to much money in football,but you have to be fair in analysing and making a comment about other clubs. Years back,Man utd did the same thing in britain, though unsucessfully at the moment,man city is trying to do it, so why be cynical about real madrid? They have the appeal, the class, and just because they had a 'bad season' by their standards (they performed better overall than arsenal, and capably challenged barca for the liga title), they never fail to bounce back,(they have a trophy atleast once every 2 years).They have money (the club, not an individual) to spend, so let them go ahead.You call manchester glorious, so don't rubbish the galacticos!
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I'm loving all these "why didn't Barry go to Arsenal or Liverpool" comments. Breaking news: a player cannot move to a club unless that club wants him. Arsenal's 'interest' was never confirmed and what is there to suggest that Rafa still wants him?
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Robbo
Cant you write a blog without taking about Newcastle? Dont get me wrong i usually like your blogs but seriously??? As a Newcastle fan all you ever hear is how deluded we are and how we think we are a 'big club'. Yet it is football writers like you that harp on about us everytime, and then all of your followers get involved and have a pop (see posts 20,21,22,23). Yet we are the deluded ones????
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Lol. Very bitter Robbo. Your last 2 blogs have been bitter indeed. Is it because Boro have gone down? Football has been about money for the last 4 or 5 years, maybe even longer, not just last year.
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What the hell. I don't know if it's a British thing or what, but these blogs get so off-topic that I can scarcely even finish reading them. Good call, that bit about big money = misfits at the Bernebeu and Eastlands. But wasn't this blog supposed to be about Kaka?
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Robbo blogging on European football?If this is going to be your subject matter from now on after your abysmal Boro where relegated then I want out.You're way outta your league(get it?)mate so stick to your drunken drivel straight outta the Bluebell or summat
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ste avfc
garry "i need champions league football" barry on a 110k per week? i'll be pissed!!! what really is footy turing into? i'm afraid our lamps will be going for a 50 percent increase soon. and here are most scallies hitting on ashley cole for jumping ships. barry is the worst cos we all know he's not getting any champions league game under his belt anytime soon, maybe when he's 45.(that's if things goes well)
robbo,
great blog as usual but i'm still waiting for your expalnation on why u changed your usual style of language. something tells me u got spanked by your bosses at the beebs due to some humour-strapped numptie's never-ending criticism .it's a shame some people are born in planet "capello"..wait a minute, i think i've even seen him smile a couple of times. get back to what u used to be robbo please..they are only minority. they sure doesn't count mate.
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"we'll give you Tuncay, Sanli, Stewart Downing and David Wheater for Ol' Horseface and a random Dutch midfielder"
I can not believe Robo is holding out on Gary O'Neil and Brad Jones. Those guys would make football very interesting for Real. I mean isn't their motto you score 2 we will score 3?
Come on Robbo we all know their money comes from their government just like Barca's. That and the fact those two teams are the real two most supported teams on Earth with Real always just in front.
But, Robbo its not just the money, its the format in the top leagues of Spain, Italy, France, Germany and England that caused the problem. Those leagues are designed to cause seperation between the Champions League teams and the spot just below them - ask any Newcastle fan right now, they are feeling the pain of that plan. Let us not forget it was Liverpool and Man UTD who authored the format. Later Arsenal jumped their wagon but the paper work was written and agreed before they came along. So all the Geordies can put some blame of their position on Liverpool and Man UTD. Of course 98% of it is the clubs own fault for trying to chase that dream in the way they did.
So its far more complicated than just peanuts these poor guys get paid.
Robbo "When the chairmen waft in, get out the equivalent of the World Football Argos Catalogue and pick 'n' mix a team according to their whims, that's where your troubles start."
About non-manager types picking the players that come in:
The ten teams who have won or played in a Champions League Final (European Cup) the most:
Real Madrid Winners 9 Runners-up 3
Milan Winners 7 Runners-up 4
Liverpool Winners 5 Runners-up 2
Bayern Munich Winners 4 Runners-up 3
Ajax Winners 4 Runners-up 2
Barcelona Winners 3 Runners-up 3
Man UTD Winners 3 Runners-up 1
Juventus Winners 2 Runners-up 5
Benfica Winners 2 Runners-up 5
Internazionale Winners 2 Runners-up 2
As you can see the two teams that have had the most president/owner (read non manager picked players) influence on player transfers have in fact been the two most successful in Europe. The simple truth is the manager does not need to make the transfers for the team to work, if he is a good manager. In fact history shows that teams that the manager controls transfers, while working to a certain style of football generally fail. There have been cases where it has paid off but they are not the norm.
Oddly, the fans enjoy those teams more. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that it is so rare.
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kaka and ronaldo to join madrid 3/1, a steal with skybet. worth a wager.
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There's a couple of honest people here that would do the same as Gareth Barry.
Leave the man alone. If he has enough talent to get the dosh then good luck to him.....
I'd prefer it to be about the football and the Club history etc than personal and financial goals but it ain't and it's hardly Barry's fault.
How can we possibly understand his and other players situation and what is beeing sold to them by managers, agents and prospective new clubs?
Personally I think he should have stayed at Villa and been a leader and instilled pride and honour but that is so rare now or gone to Liverpool or a team playing Champions league now if that's his dream.
Man City is a gamble and I still believe Stoke, Bolton or Sunderland have a better chance season after next of Champion's league football than city
Hughes has got to mould a team with this expensive star list. That won't be an easy task. Tons of pressure on them all and no guarantees.
Only time will tell
Good luck to 'em all but I hope the likes Stoke, Sunderland, Wolves, Birmingham and Burnley beat M. City and the cocky top 4 teams again and again and again!!!!
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raul23, I'm guessing it won't be that clear-cut. Real Madrid look like they'll get Kaka, but why there'd still be money to get Ronaldo (and would they need him/think he's worth more cash?) if they're also looking at Ribery too?
It's going to be a long summer of futile rumour - there's some good analysis of it sportwithoutspin.com and football365.com/mediawatch is very good too... don't believe everything you read...
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Barry will warm the bench at City.
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With all the debt that these clubs have, I would love to see the interest payments they are paying a month, also with the interest rates on 0.5% does that mean any clubs on tracker loans are rubbing their hands together in glee. jks
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perez has said he's learnt from the mistakes he made the first time he was in charge of real..
Real DO have a makelele type player already !! LASS DIARRA !!
SO WHAT IF MADRID ARE BUYING THE BEST PLAYERS LIKE KAKA !! IS IT JUST JEALOUSY THAT SO MANY ARE CRITIZING THEM ??
One of the main reasons madrid have been so defensively bad the last few years, is because they have had players of insufficient quality to control the game and possession !
Look at Barca... the british media convinced themselves their defence was weak and that Mau U would exploit that... BUT BARCA PROVED THE BEST DEFENCE IN FOOTBALL IS POSSESSION. The other team cant score if you've got the ball !
Real Madrid are going down a similar route !!
THE last galatico team was ageing... players bought at the end of their prime years... perez wont make that mistake again...
Were do madrid get the money ?? WELL NOT FROM SHADY RUSSIAN OLIGARCHS, OR IN DEBT AMERICAN BUISNESSMEN, LIKE SOME OF THE EPL TOP 4 CLUBS..!!!
Real have the biggest TV deal in world football... Local banks help finance madrid ( LOCAL NOT FOREIGN . And because real are so important socially, and culturally in spain.. they are given a massive amount of leeway. The club cannot be allowed to fail finaancially ! yOU HAVE TO BE spanish to become club president too ( no foreign owners for madrid ). The president is ELECTED ASWELL !!
THEY ARE RUN IN A MUCH MORE DEMOCRATIC, LOCAL WAY THAN ANY BIG ENGLISH CLUB !!
how can you critise ??? is it jealousy ??
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I work for a sales company and often credit check customers, this is what is said about manchester united
Potentially High Risk
Based on the latest accounts this appears to be a large Company.
The Total Net Worth of this Company is less than the value of its Intangible Assets.
We have not provided a credit limit because there are intangible assets which make the company appear financially valueless. It would be prudent to fully understand these issues before offering substantial credit. For further clarification or information please contact our customer service department.
this is what it says about chelsea football club
Credit Rating is Suspended
I wonder why it says all of that?
Robbo this is what it says about the boro
Liqudiation is coming your way!!!!
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Excellent blog Robbo, it's about time these clubs with limitless overdraft's were brought to book. Platini has hinted at sanctions but you know if he did anything the big boys would just bugger off and set up their own "champions" league. Real Madrid have one of the biggest debts in world football, but are still allowed to bully smaller clubs (almost every other club) into selling their best players, I hope it all goes t*ts up for them again like it did with Zidane, Beckham et al.
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Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe most of Chelsea's debt is actually made up of a loan from owner Roman Abramovich - this is not the same as owing money to financial institutions. I believe Man U and Liverpool's 'debts' are also tied to the owners.
Although I find your blog generally humourous and interesting I feel the recent anti-Chelsea rants are becoming tiresome. I was glad they beat Everton as they were the better team playing the better football - why shouldn't they or Man City buy who they want or spend what they want? If I had their owners money I'd buy a club and shell out as much as I could on the best players available too. The fact that Chelsea and Man city can now compete financially with Man U is a healthy thing for UK football.
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Excellent blog Robbo, it's about time these clubs with limitless overdraft's were brought to book. Platini has hinted at sanctions but you know if he did anything the big boys would just bugger off and set up their own "champions" league. Real Madrid have one of the biggest debts in world football, but are still allowed to bully smaller clubs (almost every other club) into selling their best players, I hope it all goes t*ts up for them again like it did with Zidane, Beckham et al.
!! utter rubbish !!!
Do you know madrid's debt level then ??? what is it ???
another anti madrid thread !!!
what hypocrits !!!
the epl is RUN ON DEBT.. RUN ON CLUBS EXISTING BEYOND THEIR MEANS... RUN BY CLUBS WHO HAVE SOLD OUT TO FOREIGN OWNERS AND CAPITAL...
LISTEN :::: REAL MADRID RUN BY SPANIARDS, OWNED BY SPANIARDS, FINANCED BY SPANIARDS... PRESIDENT DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED BY THE SUPPORTERS..
HOW MANY BIG ENGLISH CLUBS ARE RUN LIKE THAT ???
ANS: NONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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The debts these clubs owe are a very misleading figure
For example:
Chelsea owe almost all their debt direct to Roman. Very little (in percentages, not value) is owed to an banking authority. What this means is they may not be paying any interest at all, or they may be paying Roman crazy amounts. We simply don't know
Also, Liverpol for example:
We all know they now have a huge debt but not many people know a big part of it is unwritten based on Champions Leauge TV money. That means if they failed to qualify one season they would have a huge problem. But that is not really likely is it? What it also means is the debt is basically paid for from the time its taken.
Newcastle had a similar deal based on the UEFA Cup and when they failed to qualify it backfired on them. That is part of the debt Ashley absorded without being aware he would have to.
The two most important things to look at are Player Wages and Income.
Most EPL teams are not as bad in those ratios that most people think.
England to Spain is no comparison. Real Madrid and Barca are both in a class of their own. In following, club management and money generated. Man UTD and Chelsea are closing but they are not there yet.
Man City to break the top 4? I say yes they will and it will be next year or the year after
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real madrid are run by spaniards, funded by spaniards, have a democratically elected president by the supporters !!!
WHAT TOP ENGLISH CLUB HAS SUCH A SET UP ???
NONE !!!!!!
THE TOP EPL IS RUN ON DEBT, FUNDED BY FOREIGNERS WHO JUST WALKED IN WITHOUT ANY REGARD FOR THE SUPPORTERS !!
and yet you critise madrid !!!!!
pot, kettle, black
hypocrisy !!
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Robbo's right: during the galacticos era i.e. after Del Bosque was ludicrously sacked and Makelele, Real won precisely nada until Perez was sacked. They failed to sign Vieira because Perez, knowing apparently nothing about football whatsoever, refused to pay good wages for a 'defensive player'.
As for the money, it helps when you have links with the royal family of your country, and when the creditors are all pressured not to chase too hard.
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TOP ARTICLE ROBBO.
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Robbo,
There appears to be a correlation from the level of bitterness you clearly are showing and the quality of your Blogs! The last two have been corkers, has the spectre of the Championship contextualised world football for you??
Dead right about Chelsea fans, more out of touch than the beagle space rover on Mars. A club with so very little class. i think though you maybe a little awry with Man City, I bleive altough they will buy big they won't buy a whole team in one go and that will yield better results year on year, but still Sparky is under some severe pressure to achieve a tin pot of some sorts. His best bet is to play full strentgh sides in the Carling Cup
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Humour is funniest when it is based on truth. Football finance if often disingenuously reported. (The isolation of 'debt' without any explanation being the main crime.)
With this in mind I didn't get much past the first few paragraphs of this blog given it's shockingly poor premise.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/13/roman-abramovich-chelsea
I guess Deloitte's think they can quote their figures as a statement at 30 June 2008. However, the preparation of financial statements includes post balance sheet events which would show this loan to share conversion.
Robbo - have another go when you have facts to hand.
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DO YOU NOT THINK PEREZ HAS LEARNT FROM THE MISTAKES HE MADE FIRST TIME AROUND !!
He hasn't become extremely wealthy by being stupid, now has he !
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#37 I agree with most of your points, but I think Robbo has it spot on. The irritation with Barry is not so much that he has seized the chance to earn himself significantly more cash (as you say who wouldn't), but with the predictable line of nonsense given to the press about the reasons for going.
It seems absolutely standard practice nowadays to spin the 'gullible public' a load of bs when asked any kind of difficult question. I think perhaps the public are finally starting to be less gullible and are getting fed up with it.
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7. At 2:52pm on 04 Jun 2009, aries22 wrote:
Good try offering Real Madrid Tuncay AND Sanli, Robbo. You never know, they might just fall for it. Two for the price of one, literally - even Arfer Daley would be proud of that one.
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That was down to an errant comma but I'll leave it there in the hope that the Madrilenos will fall for it!
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ah, i never tire of a Steve Bruce conk joke!
unlike yet another tiresome post from SimpleFarce09 - i couldn't even bring myself to read his rubbish this time.
the quotes from Berlusconi today were classic: "Milan had a poor season because the manager wouldn't employ the tactics i suggested" to paraphrase.
so let's get this straight: the Prime Minister of Italy's expertise has expanded from 14 year-old girls and large-scale conflict of interest and corruption, to tactical football nous?! oh, Italy - what would we be without you?
why Abramovich & Silvio haven't hooked up and formed their own football league yet is beyond me.
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Alright Pekker, calm down.
As a celtic fan, I would just like a decent manager and a board willing to back him. The big four and the likes of Madrid don't even realise how big they have got that a team like Celtic can't compete in any way shape or form against them. We may play in the same competitions, but we are worlds apart.
When playing against them, I know how it feels to be a fan of any other Scottish club playing against us. Football is truly about how you feel when you can play with pride and get a result against these real giants, not who can sign the biggest stars. There is far more pleasure in seeing a misfit become a hero (Henrik).
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#53 alwaysindoubt
The irritation with Barry is not so much that he has seized the chance to earn himself significantly more cash (as you say who wouldn't), but with the predictable line of nonsense given to the press about the reasons for going.
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Well, since the press usually write a lot of old rubbish anyway, perhaps you could argue he was just helping them on their way!
If the press went back to reporting facts rather than stupid, gravy train riding opinion, often dressed up as facts, then perhaps they could be trusted more.
Most journalists can be described by the line from the Nirvana song Serve the Servants - 'self appointed judges judge, more than they have sold'.
Most journalists have probably never kicked a ball in anger anywhere near the top level yet appoint themselves our footballing guardians. A joke quite frankly.
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#18
Blog post is wrong, chelsea's debt is less than 400 million
Big deal, that debt is more combined than the football league I'll wager
Get real its gross over spending and has won you no friends.....apart from Glory seekers
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Back to Mr Barry.
I think many are missing the point when comparing what we might do for an extra 5 grand a year and the position that he is in. Yes we might take the money but that's because it would make us a little more comfortable and have a nicer car/house/holiday etc.
Barry already earns more than he can comfortably spend, unless he has an unreported addiction at the casino tables, and therefore is in the privileged position of being able to chase his dream, which we were led to believe was playing in the Champions League.
He has clearly lost that ambition and is only in it for the money, which he doesn't actually need. The really sad thing is that even if he does get Citeh into the CL, which might take 2 years at least, who is to say that he won't be considered past it by then and replaced by a younger model.
And as for the "playing regularly before a World Cup" line, isn't that just an admission that even he doesn't think he's good enough to be a regular starter in a CL side such as Liverpool or Arsenal?
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I'm ashamed to say that my grandson was jumping up and down in the garden earlier this week pretending to be Drogba because 'he loves Man United' - traitorous AND ignorant... we'll get the lad down the Riverside and show him that true football supporting is about suffering.
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i thnk Barry was right to go to man city. Maybe it wasn't down to just him. Sounds like O'neil knew he was going this season, as Barry said last year, so why not cash in on him with a club that wont be getting in the way of Villa next season. good business Martin!
At the end of the day, liverpool couldn't afford him or were just trying to knock the price down. If i were Barry, and a club didn't think i was worth what my current club did, i'd think sod 'em.
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Robbo, top blog as ever sir... You do seem to have more of a Bill Hicks anger edge to your last 2 blogs. But kind of understandable when a bunch of circa 2004 chelsea fans deny the fact that money has got them where they are... Oh that and the relegation thing.. that still fresh? It hurts for a while, but it could be worse (have a look what we went through in 92!)...
Anyway, to the point... Real Madrid, definately at the end of a rainbow!
Gareth Barry, if i was 6 years from retirement and not good enough to reach my idealistic goals at a CL contending club... I would take the money! But me, i got kids to feed?
On a related topic, if some one wants to buy the Shots and make us world beaters at the cost of our "soul"... PLEASE TAKE OUR SOUL!!!
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No. 30
Yes you are the deluded ones.
And next season we will see exactly how good the 'best fans evar!!!1!' are. Watch the huge drop in Newcastle attendances in the championship and know forever that not only are the fan deluded, they are also not especially great fans either.
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not sure why post always get turned round to anti newcastle. we know we are probably the biggest joke in football and very few geordies claim us to be a big club anymore. those days are well gone and we all know it. are we too big for the championship? of course. do we deserve to be in the championship? of course, we were absolutely useless last season and weve not had a decent manager since we sacked bobby for no reason.
so basically when people say we are deluded are merely deluding themselves. we watch that tripe every week and we know how bad we are.
anyways enough of that
madrid are the least professional club in the world with the least professional president also. they should get phil brown in and complete the hat trick
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#63
How do you come to that conclusion about Newcastle fans?
They are a well supported club, usually have a big crowd, presumably will reduce ticket prices and should win more matches and therefore have something to sing about.
With those points in mind, I would not expect a 'huge drop' at all.
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#64
You accuse Real of being the least professional club in the world. And you support Newcastle! You have a pop at Phil Brown. Remind us which division he is in next season.
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#45 pesker11
Firstly. STOP SHOUTING!
Secondly. So what if the management, owners and financiers are Spanish.
Nearly 70% of the first team squad consists of foreigners.
Are you saying a club needs to run by locals? To what end? So you can buy foreign players.
You don't make any sense mate.
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at what point have i defended newcastle by the way? we know we arent a professional club at all, we go through managers like hot dinners. your literally having a go for the sake of having a go.
what grouds me is you lot think that we think we have this divine right to be a huge club, we dont. we are owned and ran by morons and have morons for players.
fair play to sunderland i say, weve laughed at them for years and as much as it hurts its their turn to laugh at us.
the phil brown thing is a non arguement. hes the least professional manager in the country by a mile. you wouldnt catch anyone behaving like that
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#68
I wasn't having a go and you'll see at #65 my views on Newcastle are balanced.
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phil brown is not unprofessional. he made one mistake and learnt from it. people bang on about the media writing tripe but to be fair there's alot of fans who draw conclusions from tiny aspects of a clubs, managers or players lives. does anyone know how phil brown presented himself in his interview? or how he conducts himself in meetings with the board? didn't think so.
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57. At 4:22pm on 04 Jun 2009, MrBlueBurns wrote:
Well, since the press usually write a lot of old rubbish anyway, perhaps you could argue he was just helping them on their way!
If the press went back to reporting facts rather than stupid, gravy train riding opinion, often dressed up as facts, then perhaps they could be trusted more.
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Well quite.
There needs to be more accountability. If it is reported in a factual manner that a club has made a bid for a player for example, and it turns out they did no such thing, questions should be asked. What was the source of the story? What checks were carried out as to it's integrity? What was the cause of the misreporting? What controls have been put in place to stop such errors happening again?
Why should we have to shrug our shoulders and move on in the knowledge that it was probably just a work of fiction?
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Robbo, Your the man. The article as always is well written. Thanks for making my day.
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Not read any comments but my view on this blog is
Real Madrid and Barcelona are sponsored by banks. Not necessarily on the teams logos but they are financed by banks. Therefore they can afford to keep buying the best players in teh world.
Also, Madrids stadium is in the city and is therefore worth copious amounts. If they are ever in debt, then they can sell the stadium for what is believed around £1billion. The same goes for Barcelona.
Therefore, they are basically given so much leeway
Also, the presidents of the club have to raise a certain amount of finance off their own money to gain presidency, this in turn is given to the club to go and buy new players.
Gareth Barry is a mercenary and i hope to god that Man City get nowhere near Villa this season.. If he really wanted to play for liverpool then he would have held out put a transfer request which would have lowered his value and liverpool could have got him.. But he held his hand out to £100k a week.
Steve Bruce transfer to Sunderland makes no sense. SUnderland are relegation fodder if Brum and Wolves buy good players in the summer. Wigan are a team challenging for Europe on a limited budget. Again, Bruce has come out and said that he is in it for the money.. Its all about money.
Kaka wont go anywhere, its a smokescreen for Madrid to buy Ronaldo and for Chelsea to get Ribery/Villa.
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#71 alwaysindoubt
Quite right mate. Most of the rumours seem to suggest a certain amount of taping up. If that is the case, why aren't the authorities looking into it in a bid to stamp out wrong doing in football. Could it be they like the profile all such coverage gives the game. Keeps cricket off the back pages perhaps.
Did you see yesterday that The Express (I think) owned up to having no basis whatsoever for the story that Michael Owen was on the verge of retiring and therefore had to pay damages.
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#73 karim1981
Also, the presidents of the club have to raise a certain amount of finance off their own money to gain presidency, this in turn is given to the club to go and buy new players.
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Actually, I've read that they are specific prohibited from using their money for the club. The rub is that as wealthy businessmen they are well connected enough to be able to fund things from elsewhere.
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Say you were given £1billion to spend on your team, who would you buy?
Im a Scouse Red
Reina
Lahm - Bayern Munich - £20million
Insua
Carragher
Vidic - Manchester United - £30million
Gerrard
Mascherano
Messi - Barcelona - £100million
Ribery - Bayern - £30million
Torres
Villa - Valencia - £40million
Pretty good first XI id say. I know ill come under criticsm but Vidic is superb and with Carragher would be immense.
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@bredtobered
aye keeping your players on the pitch at half time to bollock them after they have had an amazing start to the premiership was really professional*. it worked a treat as well.
if i could count the times fergie has done that...........
*may not be true
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Pekster,
Usually I'd be with you on the patriotic Spanish/English club run by Spanish/English people front. But I'm not. You don't back up any of your points, you write like you've got tourettes; in capitals to get attention and then when nobody gives it to you, you repeat yourself. Over and over.
Why is it better that Real Madrid is funded by Spanish banks and not wealthy foreigners? It's still not club profit they spend on players and they're still getting ridiculously rosy interest deals; there's no difference.
Also, you talk about how democratically great Real Madrid is but remind me how many people ran for President against Perez? Like someone else said earlier, you don't make any sense mate.
P.s.
"Real have the biggest TV deal in world football... Local banks help finance madrid ( LOCAL NOT FOREIGN . And because real are so important socially, and culturally in spain.. they are given a massive amount of leeway. The club cannot be allowed to fail finaancially ! yOU HAVE TO BE spanish to become club president too ( no foreign owners for madrid ). The president is ELECTED ASWELL !!"
Take your tongue out of Real's a**ehole.
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I was under the impression that Tuncay and Sanli were the same player, but apparently not...
And as for Barry being limited, maybe so, but theres no doubt that he compliments Gerrard and/or Lampard perfectly, so there is no question as to whether he should start for England in my opinion.
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# 78 Ranger in the Bush
My point exactly (#67). I like your tongue insertion comment too. But I think poor old angry pesker11 has his head up his own orifice.
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robbo,
great blog as usual but i'm still waiting for your expalnation on why u changed your usual style of language. something tells me u got spanked by your bosses at the beebs due to some humour-strapped numptie's never-ending criticism .it's a shame some people are born in planet "capello"..wait a minute, i think i've even seen him smile a couple of times. get back to what u used to be robbo please..they are only minority. they sure doesn't count mate.
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Have you not twigged that 'Robbos' blogs are not all written by the same person? Seriously, look back through the archives and you will spot that every few weeks the style of writing changes from a phonetically writen version of the northern dialect to a more standard english- normally just for a single blog, and then it reverts to normal.
I thought everybody knew- maybe I'm more observant than I thought...
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"So yes, it is about the money."
But didn't you just mention how the team who was 5th in spending was just relegated? And the fortunes of Man City have bough them what? 10th place? Seems to me like you just proved theres a lot more to it than just money. Sure it helps, but if you think it is the end all be all I suggest you stop writing about sports, as you would apparently know very little about it, just go ask Everton.
"Barry has pretty much disgraced himself. I can completely understand the thought to go to Liverpool (won't win but at least challenge haha), or even Arsenal who were reportedly interested, but to go to City says one thing, GREED. I really hope it doesn't turn into a Chelsea. But it will. At least United and Liverpool have history, a youth system and British players."
What a stupid thing to say. "We're allowed to spend obscene amounts of money because we have history and you don't". How did you gain your history? Oh right, out spending other clubs. Man U and Pool just can't accept the fact that other clubs are going to be leveling the finiancial playing field. First it was Chelsea, next Man City, then Portsmouth...looks like a pattern, and since clubs like Man U and Pool weren't willing to level the field by spending less, the other clubs have to level it by obtaining owners who can allow them to spend more. I'd rather use Chelsea's system of inhouse debt, than the system Man U does. You know the system that has gotten the world into one of the biggest recessions in modern ages...Good on ya Man U, obviously a delightful model to follow.
Oh and English players? Guess Lampard, Terry, A.Cole, J.Cole are all fake Brits? How many of your starting 11 are British Man U? mmmm too bad hypocracy doesn't win matches or you'd win the treble every year.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
but to go to City says one thing, GREED. I really hope it doesn't turn into a Chelsea. But it will. At least United and Liverpool have history, a youth system and British players.
Vivelejess,
So City have no history? i suggest you check Man City on wikipedia, it covers history before the Premier League was formed. As for the Youth System does that mean that SWP, Richards, Ireland, Onouha, Sturridge, Weiss and all the Youth FA cup winners from the 07/08 season just appeared from nowhere? As for no British players City's match day squad features a good proportion of British players thats not including players from the Republic of Ireland, SWP, Richards, Onouha, Bellamy, Hart, Evans, Bridge and next year of course we can add Barry to that list.
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#81 Wash-CARU FC (17) wrote:
"Have you not twigged that 'Robbos' blogs are not all written by the same person?"
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Crikey Robbo, I think they are on to us. Perhaps I should stop using "standard English" when I write blog for you on your days off.
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N.A.
Does your Tuncay slip mean that you're not investing enough time in your research anymore? Maybe you've already decided to move on to another persona next season.
Grandson?? You started young, mate!!
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For your info ROBBO ROBSON, MAN UTD are projected to be in 1 BILLION DEBT as of 2010 so beat that!
I still know you have a problem with Chelsea and are jealous.
If you had done your research you would have seen Man Utds debt levels are going to be far worse than Chelsea's. The Glazers cant afford to pay interest on their ridiculous loans but we don't hear none of this from you.
Again it was another rant about Chelsea and the money they spent.
As BaronFC said Man Utd have spent millions on players but you never seem to highlight this.
Ferdinand, 30 million
Rooney, 30 million
Berbatov, 30 million
Hargreaves, 17 million
Carrick, 19 million
Ronaldo, 13 million
Its people like you that are continuing to give Chelsea a bad image and name. Chelsea are trying to be a self sufficient club by 2010 which i doubt will happen but at least the plan is in place
It seems like people can accept Man Utd's success but find it harder to swallow when Chelsea are succesful. Chelsea are by far the most hated club in the EPL and maybe the world.
Mark my words the Glazers will sell up to a new billionaire owner most likely a ARAB to compete with Man City (as they can't afford to pay the interest on loans, and are rolling over on it). When they do, I guarantee your rants will still be aimed at Chelsea!!
By the way as i said in your last blog, you contradict yourself. Funny how you praise Barca and their philisophy when 2 blogs ago it was SENTIMENTAL CLAPTRAP (referring to the way Barca play and their philosphy i.e fans owning the club) (Your words). Y this sudden change of heart ROBBO (becoz I had a go at you Y'day???).
I dunno how ppl can't see you got such a CONTRADICTORY nature its laughable!!
thanks!
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You think that is contradiction
He works with Opera/Theatre/Stage and tries to come off as a hard guy while writing as Robbo.
I suppose its possible but I mean - Think about it
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All this chat about Villa being in Europe. As soon as they got near the final O'Neill played his kids. What is the point of putting more effort in qualifying for Europe than actually playing in the damn thing.
This is less about money and more about Villa fans pride in that they accept Liverpool are bigger than them but Barry has basically put Man City above Villa in size and ambition. Dented pride.
Also, 12m is a bargain, i love the guy but 15m for Fellaini last season, I would swap him for Barry straight away. Good business from Hughes.
Like Everton and the Rooney sale, Villa fans sitting in fourth 5 months ago have had a reality check of being a smaller club (in terms of money i mean). Everton had the same pain but put faith in loyal players and paid off almost this season..
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Have to add having being critical previously that this is a really strong article. All that Boro angst is over and Robbo's form is on the up...good work
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Hahahahaha #76...not too biased are we. 7 of your 11 stars didnt even win a medal this year. You must realise that being a Liverpool fan?? Though of course Carragher the England drop out is a world beater. Please Moyes bid 100m for this star, his ability on the ball and passing is sooooo impressive...hilarious
Reina
Lahm - Bayern Munich - 20million
Insua
Carragher
Vidic - Manchester United - 30million
Gerrard
Mascherano
Messi - Barcelona - 100million
Ribery - Bayern - 30million
Torres
Villa - Valencia - 40million
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Gareth Barry a mercenary? Is that why he has spent his entire 15 year career so far at Villa. That must make him the least successful mercenary in English football, just behind that other mercenary Matt Le Tissier. Just suppose he has actually gone there because there is a possibility that next year or the year after 5 clubs can possibly with the league rather than 4, or 3 or 2 as we have seen in the last few years. Now during the 70's and 80's there was usually only ONE team in with a shout and THEY were constantly buying the best players available. Barnes, Beardsley, Hansen, Lawrenson, Rush, Aldridge, McMahon, Keegan, Clemence, Toshack, Robinson, Johnson, Hodgson, Kennedy A, Kennedy R, Davitt, Wackitt, Souness, Wark, Molby, McDermott, Dalglish, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud and Walks Far Woman.... Mind you they had Sammy Lee and David Fairclough too so it's nowt new. It wasn't just Liverpool's history it was their money. Players want to win something as well and the money clubs attract them.
Yes, I support Newcastle so at least we have a sort of derby next year Robbo old son. The following year the Mackems can join in if the monkey hangers, the Quakers or the Cumbrians divvn't come up.
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What's all this unmitigated rollocks about my articles being written by lots of different people? Conspiracy theorists the lot of you. I've not been so insulted since some Scouser called me a journalist. As for you #88... if you think I'm trying to come across as a hardf nit you should spend Friday night on Stockton High Street.
Re #87 - don't think my comments re Barca are contradictory - I was saying that football fans want their club to be like Barca but fans don't seenm to stand up and be counted re sponsorship and ownership cos as long as the club are producing they don't give a toss where the money comes from. Nevertheless Barca play lovely stuff. Sometimes there's a bit more to reading summat than just looking at the big words and formulating an opinion on what the rest of it says.
Oh and by the way, you are right about one thing. I'm jealous all right. Of United too. But you haven't answered the fact - it's not an accusation it just happens to be the truth - that Chelsea's success has been almost entirely due to the wealth of one man, the legitimate and highly respectable oil and gas billionaire Mr Abramovich...
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If Gareth is planning on 2011-2012 for Man City Champs League glory he'll be in the third year of his contract and he'll also have half an eye on Olympic Gold to go with his World Cup winner's medal. Quite a spell ahead for the lad.
The hypothetical question posed earlier in the day (thank-you #76) about which players one might get for a billion quid has provoked some thought (at last). I'd probably try and coax Tommy Smith, Chopper Harris and Norman Hunter out of retirement or at least seek permission to clone them. It'd have to be an accelerated cloning though as ideally I'd want this trio up against Drogba and the Designated Diver (still gives me a chuckle).
Roman would still have the advantage though as he's got billions to spare but these three in my team would certainly help level the playing field (and those upon it).
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awful blog from a bitter middelsborough fan, whose best hope next year is to get up through the playoffs, who have been chelseas best players this season and of the past 4 or 5, Frank Lampard , John Terry and this season Ashley Cole , who cost 5 million plus gallas, maybe throw makelele in there, its not all about money , uniteds starting 11 costs more than chelseas and rafa benitez wastes much more money than any chelsea manager of the past 6 years. Its not about money , its about class and chelsea have that in an abundance, proved by the comeback on saturday
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#76, I do like your team but I'd leave Reina, Lahm, Insua, Carragher and Gerrard out. Not that they are not good players, they are, it's just that I think that there's better people on their position.
To a goalkeeper, Casillas, world best.
Left-back? That's a hard one but certainly not Insua. Evra is good and that's the man I'd have.
To right back you may look no further than the Brazilians, Maicon and Daniel Alves. I personally prefer Maicon but that's a VERY close call.
The centre-back pair could be someone with the work-rate of Carles Puyol and the aerial monstruosity Vidic. I couldn't have John Terry because Puyol is already a leader.
The holding defensive midfielder would be Mascherano, nobody tackles better than him.
Then I'd have Iniesta infront of him, because that man is simply god-like. There's where I imagine you'd play Gerrard in your team but let's face it: Iniesta is better. So is Xavi, which would get a place alongside him.
In front of them would be Kaka, which I agree to the term "limitless in terms of ability"
Then Messi on the right, where normally Cristiano Ronaldo plays. I just prefer him. And by this season, he clearly showed that he is the world best.
Ribery on the left, good player, not outstanding but there's no better Left-winger.
In front I'd have the might of Zlatan Ibrahimovich or Fernando Torres.
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ok Robbo, and this isn't in support of Chelsea, it's a history lesson again. Can you tell us why Sunderland were called 'The bank of England club'? Has anything really changed apart from the period of austerity after the war when clubs didn't have money and lots of teams had a chance of winning because there was a maximum wage? Even when Forest were the best they could attract Fashanu, Francis and Woodcock it wasn't all about Cloughie.
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Robbo, The point I was trying to make was that Middlesboro can hardly be called destitute when it comes to EPL spending power. It was obvious that you are still hurting and that you conveniently forget all the money that they have spent over the years, and still end up getting relegated. It was only a year or so back that you were playing in the UEFA cup final. Sure, money helps a lot, but having a good manager, and good team spirit, takes a good team to the next level.
The year Chelsea won the EPL for the first time, Jose took what was essentially Claudio Ranieris team and won the league with only one defeat. I may be wrong, but that year we bought Cech, Fierra and Cavellio, with the later out for most of the year. Southgate on the other hand to a perennial mid table team and got them relegated.
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Chelsea bringing English talent through, who? you bought a couple from leeds who have never been seen, you do not even give them a run in the league cup.
Other than the ' myth with no pace' Terry who have you brought through in the last ten years who is a regular ?
as the song goes Chelsea FC you have no history, and have bought success, i wanted you to win the Champs League so the owner would call it a day and we can go back to seeing you with 13,000 in the ground and struggling to stay in the division.
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55. At 4:20pm on 04 Jun 2009, DenistheGenius wrote:
so let's get this straight: the Prime Minister of Italy's expertise has expanded from 14 year-old girls and large-scale conflict of interest and corruption, to tactical football nous?! oh, Italy - what would we be without you?
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This is why Italy has had 50-odd governments since WWII - their Prime Ministers are so busy with 14 to 18 year girls, fighting off accusations of government corruption and running football clubs that they suffer from burn-out within 12 months.
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The parent company of Liverpool FC lost £43m last year and has net debt of £300m.
I'm not a financial expert so simple question - should I (and every L'pool fan!!) be worried??
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Why is everyone slating Barry? Firstly as far as I'm aware Liverpool didn't show any interest in Barry this summer. Don't forget they wanted Barry when they were looking to sell Alonso, who had the season of his life and they will not want to lose now. Secondly money may be a part of it but imagine how exciting it would be to join City now. Think of the world class players he could end up playing with, tell me your boyhood excitement of playing for a dream team wouldn't come out.
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#88 SimpleFarce09:
so you're suggesting theatre folk are all limp-wristed dandies who couldn't possibly stand up for themselves?!
that's it! i'm calling the PC Brain Police and reporting your neanderthal rant...oh, wait... you ARE the PC Brain Police...how awkward.
#100 - yes, indeed... Italian politics make the rest of us look like we've got it all together!
Berlusc-phony went on to personally take credit for the last day victory that clinched them a CL spot... a true Rennaissance man!
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Otherwise I swear they couldn't get a Ford Ka, let alone afford Kaka.
I don't often comment on this stuff, as a Gooner I'd probably not be welcomed. But that line is pure class. Pronounced 'clarss' of course. Brilliant. and I do enjoy your stuff in general. you were on form when you wrote that.
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Robbo, it isn't necessarily 'your facts' that are the problem, it's the way you use them. Your last article was little more than a hateful, reactionary article aimed at Chelsea and their fans, which itself amounts to little more than following the fashionable thing to do right now; hate Chelsea, be cool. You're doing the same with La Liga as well, love Barca, they don't rely on money, all their players are wonderful squeaky clean home-grown, loyal boys... right... Hate Real because they spend money... Shock shock shock, ask anybody who follows a lower league struggling team, or even just a non-league, League Two, or League One team, none of the top 30 or so teams in England have acheived what they have without sickening amounts of money. Yes, that includes Middlesbrough.
Robbo, seriously, learn something before your next article. And try and be insightful, that would be nice, journalism doesn't necessarily equate to doing little more than appealing to the most fashionable opinion.
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amazingYNWA2005 - I read that and yeah, you may want to be a little concerned about that one. Alarm bells might not be ringing yet but set your phasers to stun.
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24. At 3:17pm on 04 Jun 2009, ingeniousTrueBlue wrote:
Actually I've just checked Chelsea's debt is 701m and ManU's is 699m. So thanks for adding 10m for no reason. Chelsea have also lost a lot of money sacking managers (Scolari and co. cost 12m alone).
In addition to all this Chelsea and ManU have a lot of english players in their squad with others coming through the youth system. In the modern game to be sucessful you have to spend obscene amounts of money or you end up like Arsenal.
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End up like Arsenal? Hah seriously funniest comment of the day. Arsenal are in a MUCH better position than Ch£l$ki who only stay in the top 4 because of RA. Really tell me, what are Chelsea going to do once he leaves? You have an ageing squad and the only youth player anyones heard of from your team is Di santo, who doesnt even play, just sits on the bench.
Whereas Arsenal might be doing bad now, but once we pay off the debt for the stadium we will be in much better position, because we have good youth AND arent reliant on a chairman funding our club.
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#99. Chelsea have been a top 6 side in the premiership for many years, and have stayed at least in the top half since not long after the premiership came into being. I don't think they have even come close to relegation since it all began. Crowds have been almost capacity for much of that time, allowing for the redevelopment of the stadium, and Chelsea have the 5th highest average attendance of all time.
As to history, take the time to actually read about the club. Rick Glanville wrote a rather interesting biography of the club in 2005, to mark the centennial of the club. At various points in its history, the club has been a high profile attraction for the London rich. You can even read about the ongoing rivalry with Manchester United going way back. All very interesting stuff. The old saw, "no history, no class", just grows old, and has a) always been lame and b) always been wrong. Ask Sir Richard Attenborough if he feels classless because he has supported Chelsea for decades. Or anyone on this list: http://www.chelseafc.com/page/CelebrityFans/0,,10268,00.html
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#78
"you write like you've got tourettes"
Favourite quote of the lot to be honest.
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Also, there was some discussion about Newcastle earlier, so I thought I might aswell throw my opinion in.
Newcastle have been on a downward spiral for years, ever since the end of Bobby's reign (and replacing him with Graeme bloody Souness!), signing players that lack the commitment/quality to be playing Premier League football. I for one think going down will be better for us than staying up would have been. Despite the financial effects it will have on us, it gives us an opportunity to get rid of the money-grabbing players who we would have hung on to had we stayed in the Premier League. The fresh start in the Championship means we have the chance to sign young players hungry to play in the Premier League, and more experienced players, who're familiar with the league and know what it takes to battle for promotion.
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Ah, another old saw "what are you going to do once he leaves?" RA has already said he will leave the club to his son, but were he to actually leave, I'm sure some other way-too-freaking-rich tycoon will step in and buy it. There is a 500 million pound contingency fund in case something untoward actually does happen, also.
RA is most likely to turn all of the internal, interest-free debt into shares, take the tax hit, and sell to some Arab with more money than sense. But RA loves Chelsea, and has neither shown nor declared any tendancy to want to walk away. Unlike the Glazers or Hicks and Gillette, he is emotionally invested in the club too.
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98. At 8:22pm on 04 Jun 2009, wmcdonald4 wrote:
Robbo, The point I was trying to make was that Middlesboro can hardly be called destitute when it comes to EPL spending power. It was obvious that you are still hurting and that you conveniently forget all the money that they have spent over the years, and still end up getting relegated. It was only a year or so back that you were playing in the UEFA cup final. Sure, money helps a lot, but having a good manager, and good team spirit, takes a good team to the next level.
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OH don't get me started on the way we've wasted cash. Point is, a Man U or a Chelsea can get away with buying numpties and still have plenty left over for the quality players... it's not so important for a very rich club to get their purchases right.
Re good manager, good team spirit, next level... anyone see Everton getting to 4th next season? Or Hodgson continuing to thrive v Man City and Spurs?
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'Tuncay, Sanli'. Since when did he become 2 players? Or is that a failed attempt at some kind of joke... Maybe referring to his work rate. :D
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The comments slating Barry me sick. Hypocrites is what you lot are, who calling greedy. Would have and should have done the same, anyone who had the chance.
The lad made a sound decision considering his options and his future. Lets face it, he isn't going to improve a lot in the coming years. So what, he hasn't got the courage to say he is in it for the dosh? Did anyone of you ever tell a girl you are breaking up with her to be with someone who has a lot nicer toys? No one puts it exactly like that.
He gave 15 years to the club and he deserves respect for his services.
And finally he will get some much wanted cash too, deserved or not who are we to decide. We wont be signing the cheques.
Now, the issue of money bringing success!
Newcastle's presence amongst the high spenders is proof, money spent does not guarantee success. Money spent well, does.
Chelsea and City may have owners bestowing obscene amount of money as interest free loans but they dont worry me a bit. These guys are loaded and wanna have some fun, why not? Though, what I regret is that City probably have the best youth setup in land bringing out local players who will now be simple cast aside like the unwelcome orphans in favour of the brides that cost loads of dowry money.
What is shameful is how some clubs have mountains of debt generating and demanding buckets of loan payments, just to keep afloat. They need to find some solutions and soon.
Besides, if you are a happy fan of a club that spends well over their means, dont expect any sympathy from me when its your time to go bust. Dont like your business model, change it. Cant change it? Tough luck.
Running a club is a business like any other out there. And because of money, regardless of where it comes from, the standards are higher than ever before and so is the entertainment. We live in a capitalistic, free market economy and Amen to that.
Having said that, the EPL is perhaps the most considerate of all the EU leagues whereby it gives alms to the less fortunate in form of shared TV Revenues. Thats right, Ramu, in a village in India pays to watch Ronaldo kick the ball around in a red shirt and not Aliadiare in a striped one. Thats a fact. The least you less fortunate souls suffering from the victim syndrome can do is be thankful.
Platini and other leftist fanatics can kiss my behind.
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95. At 8:06pm on 04 Jun 2009, CarefreeBlue1905 wrote:
awful blog from a bitter middelsborough fan, whose best hope next year is to get up through the playoffs, who have been chelseas best players this season and of the past 4 or 5, Frank Lampard , John Terry and this season Ashley Cole , who cost 5 million plus gallas, maybe throw makelele in there, its not all about money , uniteds starting 11 costs more than chelseas and rafa benitez wastes much more money than any chelsea manager of the past 6 years. Its not about money , its about class and chelsea have that in an abundance, proved by the comeback on saturday
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Take your point re Chelsea's best players - although Ashley Cole = #5m + Gallas is still a hell of a lot of cash so that's a bit cheeky. My question is this: which came first, the money or the class?
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#87
I like the way you state all these FACTs about United's debt and the Glazers inability to pay it. It is, however, utter nonsense. When they bought the club the debt was £825m, basically the full price of the club. It is now £690m. For a company that can not afford to pay its debts it has made some pretty decent inroads in three years.
You never hear about them not being able to pay because it is simply not true. The debts are serviced not by the Glazer family personally ( like Chelsea's debt and Roman ) but by the club itself. The money the club makes pays off its annual repayments, what is left is used to pay profit to its investors ( the Glazers ) and some is reinvested. The club is actually very well run as a business.
Besides all of that, United built their pre eminence during the period when the club was both privately owned ( by a relative pauper in Martin Edwards ) and as a PLC, when it was never in debt at all. They won many Premier League titles and the Champions League at that time, so any suggestion that their success is built on debt is not based in fact.
Perhaps your ideas about not being able to pay the debts come from the stories about Liverpool, who must refinance before 24 July or the holding company will become non viable as a business ( the same thing that happened to Southampton - they were relegated and deducted 10 points for next season).....bets on them winning the league next season anyone???
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The Class. Remember Gianluca Vialli and the way they played under him?
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All this talk of Real Madrid having big money being due to "worldwide sales" and "mass support" isnt the reason they can spend big at all.
It's because they are one of the few clubs in the world who is actively supported by their government. They bail out Real whenever their debts get so large it could fundamentally threaten the club. I believe if you look into the history of their finances you'll see it's happened on at least 2 occassions.
The spanish government see them as part of the economy - and frankly, how they've managed to get away with those bail outs all these years and not be brought to account under some FIFA regulation is just as perplexing.
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Bring back the days of Vialli as player manager
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Dear Rob,
On behalf of Chelsea I would like to say to you and all other football fans, sorry.
Sorry, we have not won enough cups to have a history.
Sorry, for our owner putting money into the club to get into the top two.
Sorry, that all of our players are evil.
Sorry, That our owner has destroyed the world of football.
Sorry, that no team we have had in the last 104 years had any class.
Sorry, that the debt we have is not too a bank, so we could be going out of business.
Sorry, that we had the highest wage and the 3rd biggest spend before Roman, but could not brake into the top two.
Sorry, that our league finish over the last 15 years may look as if we where going to be a top four team anyway(from 1996 11th,6th,4th,3rd,5th,6th, 6th,4th,2nd,1st,1st,2nd).
Sorry, that before Roman we where in the CL, hiding the fact we are a poor team with no spirit, class or goodness.
OK. Now can I enjoy my team winning a F.A cup now with out you trying to make sure I don`t?
I have never put down any team to make myself feel better about my own, even when in Div 2. Why would I want to? I get enough joy from just following my own. And when another team wins like Portsmouth last year. I feel the joy they have because I have felt it, but all you do is try to remove it.
We where deeper in money troubles chasing Man utd and Arsenal 6 years ago then we are now, we spent a larger share of less money than we do now, but that was OK with the Anti-Chelsea people then because we never quite got there.
And to say we have no class, Gods man how dare you! I have watched team after team try to do the best in the blue shirt. The only part of no class I have seen in the last to weeks has been your blogs. with there snide little digs at the club that my family has followed for as long as anyone can remember.
So the only real sorry I will give, will be to those notes above who get fed little in the way of facts and no real understanding of the History of Chelsea, but feel so parted from their own club that the only joy they can get is a knife into mine.
Before I sign off, I grew up in London when the Brixton riots happened. we had a guy come to our school to talk about race and hate. He said "that he started to hate black people because as a child he had heard that a black man had raped a woman in the local area." this than became his idea of black people. But he became a man and looked deeper and realised that white people also raped and murdered. So He came to realise that the problem was not with black people. but with the information He chose to believe and how he dealt with it.
Your blogs and the notes that followed reminded me of that talk so well I could almost hear the shame and humility in the Mans voice when he spoke to a class of 9 year olds.
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Cheers lawkhan01.
After that note Robbo might actually clue into what real class is, masteful response.
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Let's be honest Robbo
You'd come straight back up with Van Nistelrooy up front :P
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Ah, don't you just love Real Madrid?
Whilst English football remains in the sniper sights of the only French soldier never to turn heel and run away, he conveniently ignores the efforts of the men at the helm of a club who are single handedly more responsible for the astronomic transfer market than all others put together.
Lets buy Kaka. Lets buy the spotty one who the red faced one got upset about last time around. Lets go for that Serbian bloke too. How much? Who cares, the state will bale us out if it all goes belly up. Give them whatever they want.
Barca won the big one so Real decide it is time to hype up their dwindling appeal and deflect attention a little.
They're a total disgrace - but nothing like as much a disgrace as FIFA and UEFA for letting them get away with it season after season and then pointing the finger at our shores instead. I hate Michel Platweenie with more passion than my wife is ever likely to see in this house. I hate Mr Disney Chumley Warner from Jamaica too. I never liked that Hyde fella who took a dive playing for Sheffield Wednesday either mind, but thats another thing altogether.
Thing is, no one cares because Real are sentimental clap-trap of the highest order in the echelons of footballing egos.
So I'm off to bed.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
If Plantini really cared about wages going out of control he would set a max salary cap for clubs to participate in EUFA. Clubs who spend over 100m on salaries can't play. He doesn't because that would apply to non English sides as well. His issue isnt that clubs spend so much, but that english clubs can.
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112. At 10:15pm on 04 Jun 2009, Robbo Robson wrote:
OH don't get me started on the way we've wasted cash. Point is, a Man U or a Chelsea can get away with buying numpties and still have plenty left over for the quality players... it's not so important for a very rich club to get their purchases right.
Re good manager, good team spirit, next level... anyone see Everton getting to 4th next season? Or Hodgson continuing to thrive v Man City and Spurs?
Actually the point was that Chelsea's firt EPL win was pretty much the team that Ken Bates had assembled, and he didn't have anything like Roman's wealth. We were on the fringe of things for quite a long tiime before than, long before we bacame the most hated club in the world.
To honest I don't think Villa and Everton where that far away this year, and look what they have, good managers and good team spirit. Spurs on the other had have spent a ton of money in the last few years, I wouldn't mind betting that they have spent more then Chelsea in the last two years.
By the way I live in Florida now, i'm not a sad b***** sitting up all night watching the blog.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Wow some angry people on here!
For what it is worth, I can't help thinking that Chelsea fans on this blog have got completely the wrong end of the stick. I know they were an improving team before Abramovitch came along, and that they had been competing to break into the top two in the Premier League under Hoddle, Gullit and Ranieri, but let's face it, it came at a potentially Leeds United-style cost. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Ken Bates sell his shareholding to Abramovitch for a quid? That was because of all the debts that Chelsea had racked up trying to make it to the top. I think it's fair to say that if Abramovitch hadn't come along then Chelsea might have been in deep do-do by now, if of course you do not regard having over £700 million of debt not being in the mire. http://www.loserscomesecond.com/2009/06/premier-league-financial-woes.html
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Surely the fact that Newcastle are fifth, both in terms of debt and player wages, yet got relegated, proves that whilst money obviously helps clubs like Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool, you still need much more to be successful than pure wonga.
It has been proven in the past with teams like Inter Milan and Real Madrid that spending fortunes does not guarrantee success.........Man City be careful.
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Mr Twilight...........
I am a Chelsea fan, and you are dead right, we got a massive lucky break with Abramovich, as we were definatley heading the same way as Leeds.
Perhaps the saving grace for Chelsea was that being a London club, based in one of the most fashionable and affluent areas of the city, it was therefore always likely to attract a "white knight".
I think the issue that bugs Chelsea fans like myself is the continued criticism for supporting a club that was so fortunate. Yet, if you look at the successful clubs, they have mostly all at some time in their history been rescued or re-juvenated by a "white knight". e.g Barcelona and Liverpool to name but two.
It seems that because Chelsea is one of the most recent clubs to have experienced what is a historicaly repetivive cycle, that it has to take continous flak, and that has become very tiresome.
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norapeti
I couldn't agree more. That's how football works and how it will always work. Liverpool started winning things back in the sixties only afetr the Moores family (i.e. Littlewoods pools) pumped money into the club, and it has carried on from there. Real Madrid had royal patronage (they even brag about it in the club museum, and I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't ever seen it with my own eyes), Juventus had the clout of Fiat behind them etc etc. I could go on, but you get the picture.
The thing is with Chelsea is that it comes down to envy, which is a bit daft really. I'll be honest, I don't really like the team because I don't like how they go about playing, but that's different to not liking them because they have more money than anybody else.
Weshould all enjoy it lasts, this Premier League thing, because it will all go pear shaped before long. Sorry to end on a pessimistic note, but that's what I think. We're all doomed Captain Mainwaring!
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"18. At 3:07pm on 04 Jun 2009, BaronCFC wrote:
Blog post is wrong, chelsea's debt is less than 400 million.
Chelsea did spend a lot under Ranieri/Mourinho to catch up to United/Arsenal.
But United spend big and buy their recent success.
Ferdinand, 30 million
Rooney, 30 million
Berbatov, 30 million
Hargreaves, 17 million
Carrick, 19 million
Ronaldo, 13 million
There is more, but it's not just one club, in order to move from 4th you need to spend big and United spend huge in order to stay on or near the top."
What in the bloody hell does this have to do with Kaka? United were acknowledged in the blog for having the second highest debt (which was incurred by the purchase of the club, not by wages and transfers which are covered by the club's delightful revenues) so why go into one about their spending?
Nice of you to acknowledge these great signings for United though, thanks for that. Your post just reeks of a Chelsea fan embarrassed about your clubs spending, debt and irresponsibility.
Anyway, onto Kaka, I think he will go to Madird, I think it will be at the insistance of Milan. I genuinely think he would be happy to stay there for the rest of his career but Milan know the cash they could get for him would help them rebuild their entire squad. Madrid look to be getting back to their bad old ways of buying everyone in sight just so no-one else can - not the case with Kaka but the signings of Huuntelaar and the other Dutch guys screams of this.
As for City they will I'm sure improve under Hughes and with the new players they bring in but I think they will fall short of expectations as that is the City way!!
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What are you on about robbo man u are a billion debt so a lot more then chelsea
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Of course Madrid are the most popular team in the world and they'll always have the money.
http://www.nowgoal.com/22.shtml
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This is a good blog because it provokes people to argue such crazy positions - trying to argue against Robbo - and come out with completely fatuous stuff:
1. DWilson's jusification of Man City getting Brewsters from an Arab sheik is justified because they have a history and the fans have suffered in the past. Good loyal fans, terrible management so its fine that they get shedloads of money that is completely unrelated to anything that has ever taken place on a football pitch!! No its not fine - City have an excellent youth programme - and they are now selling much of that product. Then the delusion that Barry is not coming for the money....or that Tevez's agent isnt using City's money to get a better deal out of United. For the likes of Barry - who is getting £100,000 a week not £75,000 - and is so clearly coming simply for money....do not delude yourself. What satisfaction will you get if you do ever win anything when its all been gift wrapped for you....do you watch some of Chelsea's BIG games.....they're not even filling their own ground....those real fans that were passionate about Chelsea are long gone...replaced by mercenaries. DWilson - you're right about one thing, City do have past...in many respects a glorious one.....this money will bring you an inglorious future....in every regard.....ACMilan played you for fools over Kaka...and it is not going to be the last time
2 Chelsea fans claiming that they have not bought their recent success - please please stop.......cannot you see the absurdity of your arguments. Club capt Terry on the appointment of Ancelotti - the recently got rid off AC Milan manager - urges him to buy three world class players...No regard for cost or any loyalty to the players presently playing in those positions.....it stinks.....
3 At last someone has explained in easy to understand terms what is happening to debt in the Premiership. I urge people to read it and take it on board. And yes it does like the US twins that are playing with Liverpool aren't going to be balke to service their debts....intersting...Now then there will be a change in the big 4
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"In addition to all this Chelsea and ManU have a lot of english players in their squad"
OK, Man U have a few 'British' players in their squad, but lets be honest, Giggs, Scholes, Neville don't play that often. However, Chelsea??
If four counts as a lot, then most clubs in the prem have a lot of english players!
Also, why do people slag City off because they can afford to buy players now? The facts are sinple, you can't be a successful team these days without spending lots of money.
I personally preferred it when City weren't expected to win anything, at least every win was a bonus and exciting. Now we are expected to win every game and every title/cup going.
There is far too much money in football, but those who complain and slag off rival teams are clearly just jealous and bitter!
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lawkhan01
The only response for you say is to take a bow!! Pleased to see that class isn't a dead concept in the world yet...
But don't get too carried away. Robbo's major intention is to get a cheap laugh at everybody's expense, sometimes even himself!!!
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lawkhan01
Great response. If it feels like I'm having a go then you over-react - all I'm saying is the arrival of Chelsea as one of the top two or three in Europe has coincided with the arrival of Abramovich. I mean that's just true isn't it? If I'm at all grudging about Chelsea's success it's cos not enough Blues fans put their hands up and say 'yep, having Roman menas we can go out and buy the best.' And inevitably, you end up with the likes of Essien, Cech, Drogba and co and you do very well.
I take the general point though - that I give Chelsea fans more stick for their wealth than everyone else. So I'll try and rein it in - besdies which Man City are just about to make Roman's roubles look like a Zimbabwean dollar. (I have a feeling Citeh fans will be pretty quick to acknowledge their good fortune,not that they'll have any choice!)
AS for the story about the bloke who talked to you about race at school -not quite sure waht that's got to do with me not enjoying the Big 4 supremacy at the mo - or more to the point the way Real have this relentless cash carnival every time a new chairman comes in. I feel no shame whatsoever for repeating that a football club's success or otherwise is about how well they spend their money - and if it's close to a bottomless pit, you've got a major advantage. I don't expect Chelsea fans to agree, in fact I expect them to do what you've been doing, and jump up and down singing 'we won the cup'.
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leepy5................when you make your points at least do some research first. You say....."do you watch some of Chelsea's BIG games.....they're not even filling their own ground....those real fans that were passionate about Chelsea are long gone...replaced by mercenaries."
Yet Chelsea's average PL attendance this season was 41,484 and their ground capacity is 42,055. That means on average the ground is 98.7% full. The only side that I am aware beats that percentage is Arsenal.
As for Chelsea buying success!
Wake up, football has changed, thanks to SKY 99% of clubs buy success. Barcelona may be the exception in today's market, but in the past they too have bought their success and will again in the future.
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I'm sorry to be blunt but Robbo, can you SHUT UP about Chelsea. It's like weekly you have something to say about Chelsea and it's just getting old. Yeah, we have money and Middleborough don't, thats just fortunate we were bought by a billionaire, the fans didnt choose it. Why would we complain?
Oh, and I don't see many clubs spending 12 million on a striker. Or at least I thought he was a striker until I realised he hit the back of the net as frequently as you have a postive word to say about Chelsea. He's making Shevchenko look like the best piece of buisness in the history if transfers.
Look, your blogs are normally entertaining but stop spouting these biased views just because your a BBC blog pundit. Any fan can have unbalanced, blunt views torwards any team, your just lucky enough to have an audience at the moment and quite frankly, your not really justifying having an audience of this size.
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Oh and this quote is genuius:
'I expect {Chelsea fans} to do what you've been doing, and jump up and down singing 'we won the cup'.
I'm sure the fanbase will apologise, normally when clubs win silverware they like to keep it on the QT and make sure no one knows about it. You know, to keep it a secret. In fact, I only realised Barca won the champions league because someone whispered it to me outside a pub at midnight.
Your points are just empty and greatly bitter.
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Fair enough, mate. The main focus of this column was meant to be Real Madrid! I won't mention Chelsea again.
And to be fair to myself, I've railed long and hard (positively longer and harder) about our purchase of the goal-shy Alves, but then I do have this unhealthy bit of objectivity when it comes to me own club.
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Hadn't read comment #141 before my last post. The bit you quoted was not meant to possess any irony whatsoever! I DO expect you to jump up and down singing we won the cup!
Things have reached a pretty pass (something Everton never quite managed on Saturday) when you read a dig into a really perfectly straight comment.
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I don't think any fan should have a problem with have a dig or making fun etc. I think thats the great thintg about football and rivalries, every team has a reputation and a history. This is all fine, its when this becomes pointless hatred or negativity when it goes too far.
I previously wrote on your last blog that I find these blogs entertaining and I do, but I think there just just be a refrain but manipulating any public opinion against one or two particualr clubs.
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Robbo
So you never did bother addressing the flaws that I pointed out in post #51 then.
Poor form.
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Real Madrid to get Kaka, Ronaldo, villa, Silva, Maicon, and maybe Ribery. Watch this space
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Is it possible Barrys decision came down to more than just money?
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Indeed. It came down to petulance because they wouldnt let him go to Liverpool last year, so he swapped an ambitious move for anyone that would spite Villa.
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Hi Rob,
Nice reply. The point about my school days was that to only point out the money without any other factors, allows people to remove our history and other success( not just trophy's ( staying afloat during the 1980s)).
I think that the rap band The Disposable Heroes of Hypocrisy made this point very well when they sang "But dehumanizing the victim makes things simpler
It's like breathing with a respirator
It eases the conscience of even the most conscious
and calculating violator
Words can reduce a person to an object,
something more easy to hate
An inanimate entity, completely disposable,
no problem to obliterate"
A little heavy handed but I like it.
Anyway peace, and as part of Chelsea I am off to spend the 250mil Roman gave me on FM2009
Have a good one
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bore me rigid with transfer tales, but please, everyone, can we lose the handwringing pomposity that surrounds any talk of a team trying to - GASP - buy a player. City are the current boo-boys de jour and my god, according to every pundit and fan on a message board they're a disgrace for trying to buy success and any player who would sign for them is the embodiment of all that is wrong with modern society. Ahhhh shaddap the lot of you.
Please remind me someone, what was the golden age of football that city and previously chelsea destroyed? United and arsenal having a duopoly on who won the premiership every year? english teams achieving absolutely nothing in the champions league for season after season? liverpool winning 84 league championships (without a single english player mind)by scoring early and passing back to the keeper for 85 minutes? ICF/Service Crew/657/headhunters etc. making travelling to matchdays such a special experience? england not qualifying for 2 successive world cups? carlton palmer in an england shirt?
so what? city spend 10 times more than a player's worth, everyone has a good chuckle and talk sagely of arsenal, barcelona, academies and united's youth team. In the meantime city fans have seasons which, whilst not without disappointment are a lot more fun than they used to be. football as a whole becomes a bit more interesting and if at then end of the day a billionaire throws his money away and rubbish teams playing rubbish football get relegated then sorry and all that, but you know, so what?
I'm not a city fan, by the way. Just can't stand pompous talk of the 'soul of the game' as if there's anyone in world football (with the exception of AFC wimbledon) that occupies anything approaching a moral high ground. football has always been about money, greed, overambition and a sense that only the success achieved by your team is truly merited and everyone else is cheating in some way. It's sort of what makes it brilliant.
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Before I am accused of being a Chelsea or Man U fan, my team will be playing Boro next season...
But, in defence of the spending of Man U and Chelsea (and others) just having money does not do it on its own. In the case of Man U they were the wealthiest club in England right through the seventies and eighties and apart from an odd cup in the days when the cup was won by all sorts, they won little or nothing. As Robbo says, the fifth spending club was Newcastle and look how much that bought them.
Man U gradually built a team under a great manager and got to the top.
Chelsea were getting close before the Roman arrival. Ranieri, and before him Gullet and Vialli, had them winning cups and challenging at the top of the league. They already had Terry and Lampard. RAs money gave them the final push yes, but without everything already in place they would have struggled to have that impact.
The problem now is that once that set up is in place then the vast income from the champions league makes it far easier to stay there, so that the top 4 remains unchanged year on year. If Villa, Everton, Spurs, or anyone else, could break into it for a season and thus deprive one of the others of that money and comfort for a year it might make the whole thing more competitive again, which is what everyone outside the top 4 wants.
I do not like the way that some clubs are able to spend more money than the rest, but it is not enough on its own. Chelsea under Scolari would have lost to Everton once Everton scored. Same team stayed calm and outplayed Everton to come back and win the match. That wasn't money, that was good management. We wait to see if Man City can add the other ingredients to the money to become another Chelsea, or if they will be the next Newcastle...
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"I'm not a city fan, by the way. Just can't stand pompous talk of the 'soul of the game' as if there's anyone in world football (with the exception of AFC wimbledon) that occupies anything approaching a moral high ground. football has always been about money, greed, overambition and a sense that only the success achieved by your team is truly merited and everyone else is cheating in some way. It's sort of what makes it brilliant."
holdencawffle best post on here!
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Real Madrid, Real fraud more like it. The Spanish economy is in the toilet, 18 million unemployed there. Shed-load of property fraud, banks won't lend to anyone and this Perez guy comes along saying that they're going to spend £150mil on 2 players. Hello! Isn't this how these banks got us into this mess in the 1st place. Whoever lends that lot money you should immediately pull your money out of that bank because if they're lending like that they're not instigating any lending requirements. Man City, it'll all end in tears. Debt soaring wage wise, no income to cover it, don't even own their own ground. What the hell do these clubs do when Their owners leave. At Least at the likes of Manu and Liverpool there's a decent revenue stream, the others go into administration overnight.
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R.E jadam0384. Have you seen the headlines today about liverpools 'revenue' system? you say about madrid borrowing from banks but who do you think the glazers and hicks/gillet borrow from? its certainly not from their own pocket. madrid have assurances, they will never goe bust and will always remain where as the owners of utd and pool could walk away thus leaving the clubs in financial ruin.
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And also, everyone talks about how much madrid spend but they forget how much madrid MAKE. they make way more than they spend. FACT.
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Kaka is no mercenary, I'm sure more football fans will agree with me on this. If he really is leaving because AC Milan are 'packing his bags for him', as Robbo suggests, it's their loss. Who would they replace him with? I know they're planning to rebuild, and a lot of their squad are going to retire/move into lower leagues soon due to age...but that's all the more reason for keeping your only young superstar as a link to the past while you rebuild.
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Yawn :-O Come on Robbo, change the record.
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#95. At 8:06pm on 04 Jun 2009, CarefreeBlue1905 wrote:
"its about class and chelsea have that in an abundance"
Yep I have to agree there, we all saw the amount of "class" demonstrated by Chelsea at the end of their CL Semi Final a few weeks back !! It's good to see that delusion is not only prevalent in the Tyneside area I suppose.
On the issue of Gareth Barry, I do not think anyone would blame him for moving for the big wage rise he has just received. The problem comes when he tries to pretend it is for any other reason than cash. He must believe that most fans have a similar intellect level to the average PL footballer ;-)
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
SimpleTruth09
You say it's the Liverpool and Man Utd "authored format that is partly to blame for Newcastle's demise in the premier league. That's the funniest thing i've read in a while.
So Newcastle being relegated has nothing to do with the crap chairman,appointment of Dennis Wise,the conveyor belt of "messiahs", or the list of average players on a mortgage a week?
Of course it's all Liverpool and Man Utd's fault ha!!!!!!!
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hello robbo
could you explain to me why you wrote in a previous blog that you believed ryan giggs ever to have been elligible for the english?
this is utter garbage of course, but i would be very grateful if you could explain yourself
thank you in advance mate.
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Crikey that blog was about 3 months ago. There are conflicting opinions on this one from various messageboards. Me, I just wanted him to play for England cos he played for the schoolboys, but apparently that's no qualification whatsoever, which makes me wonder why he was allowed to don the England shirt in the first place.
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"There are conflicting opinions on this one from various messageboards. Me, I just wanted him to play for England cos he played for the schoolboys, but apparently that's no qualification whatsoever, which makes me wonder why he was allowed to don the England shirt in the first place."
I just wanted Giggs to play for England because he is bloody brilliant.
England should be like Sir Alex was with Berbatov . as soon as a good non English Brit plays in English he should be forced to sit in a car With Sir ALex until he agrees to wear the 3 lions.
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162 - but alex fergusson would rather die than encourage a player to play for england.
robbo - thanks for the reply mate. he played for the schoolboys because he was at school in england by that point in his life. doesnt make him english in any way shape or form. for the record, the only other team he could have played for would have been Sierra Leone - the only non-Welsh link in his entire family!
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# 159 Red_man23 Wrote: "SimpleTruth09
You say it's the Liverpool and Man Utd "authored format that is partly to blame for Newcastle's demise in the premier league. That's the funniest thing i've read in a while.
So Newcastle being relegated has nothing to do with the crap chairman,appointment of Dennis Wise,the conveyor belt of "messiahs", or the list of average players on a mortgage a week?
Of course it's all Liverpool and Man Utd's fault ha!!!!!!!"
It must been a real corker since it took you 124 post to responded to it. Robbo should look out I will have his job soon
Now lets examine the post that Red_man23 is refering to -
# 35 SimpleTruth09 "Let us not forget it was Liverpool and Man UTD who authored the format. Later Arsenal jumped their wagon but the paper work was written and agreed before they came along. So all the Geordies can put some blame of their position on Liverpool and Man UTD. Of course 98% of it is the clubs own fault for trying to chase that dream in the way they did."
Red_man reading is fundamental to any text based communication. The world party means - not entirely. If you subtract 98% from 100% you are left with 2% and that is a small number.
The format which Robo's article is about is directly related to the intentions of Man UTD and Liverpool. That was the point, I would have thought that was fairly obvious since it was clearly written but again, reading is fundamental
#160 Bellars9 "hello robbo
could you explain to me why you wrote in a previous blog that you believed ryan giggs ever to have been elligible for the english?
this is utter garbage of course, but i would be very grateful if you could explain yourself"
Obviously I am not Robbo but the answer is fairly clear. Scotland, England, Wales are not countries. They are nation states of the Country of the United Kingdom. So even though the world cup and UEFA competitions are all contest between FA's not countries, FIFA's rules are clear regarding them and relate to nationality. All people born with in Nation State of the United Kingdom are elligible to play under any nation state within the United Kingdom. Ei, born in London you can play for Scotland no matter where you parents, whatever were born. That is FIFA/UEFA rules.
However, local FA's have agreed to certain rules which restrict players. FIFA allows them that freedom, for now, based on "Historical Precedent". That is where the drama for a GB team comes from.
Under FA rules I am not sure if he could have played for England but it would not take much so Robbo could be right
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164 - 'it would not take much' ???
what it would take it the four 'home' FAs deciding on reversing the agreement - something that would NEVER happen.
also, it would take Giggs WANTING to play for the english. and that my friend, would never happen in a million years.
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I find it interesting the comments in relation to spending power and the huge debt of the spenders.
United, Chelsea and to a lesser extent Liverpool all owe money but the debt isnt "bad". All the clubs are servicing their debt , just. So waht they spend the excess on is entirely up to them. My mortgage company doesnt complain if a i buy a new car even though i still owe them x number of pounds!
The top 4 also get hugely overcharged for any player they go in for, you can include City in that now. Doesnt mean the players are worth it though does it?
Same gos for Madrid. We all know that they receive huge helping hands from the Govt so it really is no secret as to where their never ending stash comes from.
They, like the top 4 here, also get hugely overcharged for players becuase the selling clubs know that 9/10 Madrid will pay.
Perhaps the way forward is for the big clubs to take a stand and instead of spending huge chunks on other teams players develop what they've already got.
The better players will always want to play for the clubs in with a shout of glory so they will just run down their contracts or sign shorter ones.
John Terry signed a 7 year contract but if Roman pulled the plug tomorrow and nobody else stepped in do you really think he'd honour it?
The best players want medals in the majority of cases, there are the odd exceptions (Shearer).
Will things change though? I doubt it
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FIFA's rules are clear regarding them and relate to nationality. All people born with in Nation State of the United Kingdom are elligible to play under any nation state within the United Kingdom. Ei, born in London you can play for Scotland no matter where you parents, whatever were born. That is FIFA/UEFA rules.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You got a copy of those rules? If you have no link to another country you cant play for them, simple as that.
Why in the early 90's did UEFA insist that the WElsh,Scottish and Norn Oirish were foreigners then? When did they change the rules?
Does the same apply in Africa?
As for Giggs? It aint rocket science! He played for Englnad SCHOOLBOYS because ...surprise surprise he went to school in England!
If Ronaldos parents had sent him for schooling in England he could have played for the schoolboys. Wouldnt have changed the fact he was Portuguese!
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JudieRudie: As I understand it, the football associations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales basically have a gentleman's agreement. Yet another reason FIFA want us to pack it in and become a GB/UK team.
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"You got a copy of those rules? If you have no link to another country you cant play for them, simple as that."
Yes as a matter of fact I do. And you can get your own copy as well by writing to:
Federation Internationale de Football Association
FIFA-Strasse 20, P.O. Box 8044
Zurich, Switzerland
Or visiting the website http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/lawsofthegame.html
I don't recall any suggesting you could play for a country where you have no connections.
I clearly explained why Giggs might have been able to play for the English FA. But, I will say it again England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not countries they are nation states. The country the residents of those nation states live in is called United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, most often referred to as Great Britian or the United Kingdom
Which as I already said under FIFA rules means Giggs could have indeed played for the English FA, and that is the very reason "schoolboys" are allowed to play under whichever FA they want.
UEFA have never insisted Welsch, Scots or North Irish were foreigners of anywhere except places outside the United Kingdom. Lets see your link proving otherwise.
Actually, no you are wrong Ronadlo could not have played for England Schoolboys if he went to school in England. But, that is another story...
Why in the early 90's did UEFA insist that the WElsh,Scottish and Norn Oirish were foreigners then? When did they change the rules?
Does the same apply in Africa?
As for Giggs? It aint rocket science! He played for Englnad SCHOOLBOYS because ...surprise surprise he went to school in England!
If Ronaldos parents had sent him for schooling in England he could have played for the schoolboys. Wouldnt have changed the fact he was Portuguese!
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"Yet another reason FIFA want us to pack it in and become a GB/UK team".
I'll have no problem with that, as long as they also make Africa and South America play as unified teams.
Also, if the UK associations only have a gentleman's agreement, they should flippin' well sort it out and make it an official, legally binding agreement.
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If R. Madrid do end up breaking the bank (or several banks) to land Kaka or Ronaldo I wonder if Messrs. Platini and Blatter will weigh in with the same criticism they had for Man City in January. I wouldn't hold my breath.
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I don't see why you people criticise Kaka,look at the january transfer window. He obviously isn't all about the money because he turned down £500,000 a week!!
He's truly a person who is passionate about football and not just in it for the money, he's a great example to true footballers throughout the world so all of the critics are just pathetic and totally wrong.
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Norapeti you just dont get it...do you...Chelsea fans generally just dont get it....there is some awareness I think amongst decent City fans......Yes football is increasingly international and about money....of course you are right about that.......but most of the English clubs that are regarded around the world as BIG clubs... have a history of football achievement and have made their money largely from football related activities.....like winning cups etc.....The Russian who is bank-rolling you...in a way that is palably unfair.....your club is losing loads of money each year....he is just gifting you it....success....well 2 Premierships and a FA cup victory.....He could have given his money to any club.....its just as random as that.....NO history, tradition....indeed the opposite as Chelsea's traditional fans have largely been forced out of being able to afford to go. You also say that 98% bla bla means that loads watch Chelsea.....98% of a small ground......nearly half that of United's....If you built a bigger ground you wouldnt fill it.....What about FA Cup games etc? How many then? I really really hope Abrabomich...whatever his name is...just loses interest.....OR a few more millionaires come along and pump even more money into Reading.....Plymouth...Stockport County whatever.....Then maybe you might begin to feel like the rest of us feel about Chelsea and now Man City......Better the authorities should not allow Peremiership clubs to be run like this at all....
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"I'll have no problem with that, as long as they also make Africa and South America play as unified teams.
Also, if the UK associations only have a gentleman's agreement, they should flippin' well sort it out and make it an official, legally binding agreement"
South America and Africa are Continents not countries. And seriously would you want to play either a South America Team or even an Unified African one? I can see it now, GB 1 - 137 South America. At some point the super star South Americans would fight over the ball and accidently score an own goal..
The UK only have a "gentlemen's agreement" because they don't have the legal means to have anything else. Sure, they have signed contracts that they more or less believe are legally binding and in some ways they are but fact is FIFA compitetions take place between FA's and Britian are only allowed to have four because of history. Make no mistake about it England's FA is the real British FA - hence the name only they are legally allowed to use "The FA"
The Rule in case you can be bothered to look it up:
Article 18 Nationality:
1. Any player who is a naturalized citizen of a country in virtue of that countrys laws shall be eligible to play for a national or representative team of that country.
2. If a player has been included in a national or representative team of a country for which he is eligible to play pursuant to paragraph 1, he shall not be permitted to take part in an international match for another country. Accordingly, any player who is qualified to play for more than one national association (i.e. who has dual nationality) will be deemed to have committed himself to one association only when he plays his first international match in an official competition (at any level) for that association.
3. The only players exempt from this provision are those whose nationality has been changed not voluntarily but as the result of an international decree either granting independence to a region or ceding part of one country to another.
Note: The use of the word "Country" through out that document. No where does it mention Nation States. There for all US states play under the one US FA's team and all four Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland fall under the GB FA. Only thing is Britian have an exception to have four FA's which means besides internal agreements the people of the UK could play in any of the Nation states they choose.
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As you can see legally Giggs should have been bound to play for England. Period
No exception should been made, but you will find the British players often get away with things no other country does, despite the moaning of anti-England you see*
*Plantini in my opinion hates England and will do anything to hold them back - I honestly believe that. The rules however are non-baised
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will robbo still be writing his "blog" on all footballing matters next season or just the championship where, surely, the vast majority of his attention will be directed?
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So Leepy5 #173 basically what you are saying is the second, people start supporting/following/watching specific football teams (in this example Chelsea FC) they lose the ability to understand even basic logic?
That does explain some things if true...
And you go on to say you hate Chelsea Football Club so much that you hope it fails and the millions of fans supporting it suffer? One has to wonder what a club with no affliation to you, nor awarness of you could have possibly done to stir such hatred.
I am guessing the hatred was already there looking for an excuse to get out
Don't go accusing me of being a fan but Just so you are aware
Chelsea FC Honours, before Roman bought them:
Domestic Honours
First Division/Premier League
Champions 1954-55
FA Cup
Winners 1970, 1997, 2000
League Cup
Winners 1965, 1998
Full Members Cup
Winners 1986, 1990
European
UEFA Cup Winner's Cup
Winners 1971, 1998
UEFA Super Cup
Winners 1998
Does not compare to a few teams like Liverpool, Everton or Man UTD but I assure about 6,970 professional Football Clubs in England would give almost anything to have that trophy cabinet.
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Holy Cow! Are there really almost 7,000 professional football clubs in England? Can anybody name them?
Often amusing, sometimes thoughtful but always provocative, good job Robbo, keep up the good work.
For me, if Roman or the oil rich want to pump gazillions of quid into the economy that's great news, just try and persuade them to buy British so that the dosh stays local once it gets to shore. I'm sure I got as much joy out of my subbuteo success back in the early 70's as he gets out of Chelsea, it's all relative. Does he hope to turn a profit? I doubt it. Do the Glazers? 100% yes. Gillete and Hicks? They did but now must have their doubts.
The best business model is 'arry's. He's found a way to sell to the big four and buy back at almost half price. Look out for a 15 million quid offer for Berbatov soon!
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"Holy Cow! Are there really almost 7,000 professional football clubs in England? Can anybody name them?"
Yes and over 140 leagues and 480 divisions. The entire breakdown can be found no the FA's website or more easily on Wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_football_league_system
In my opinion that is the reason why England have not won the World Cup (since 66) and why they have such a hard time developing English talent.
'arry don't get me started on him, but you are right about one thing, he has the plan, no matter what means he uses to make it work..
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"Yes football is increasingly international and about money....of course you are right about that.......but most of the English clubs that are regarded around the world as BIG clubs... have a history of football achievement and have made their money largely from football related activities.....like winning cups etc.....The Russian who is bank-rolling you...in a way that is palably unfair.....your club is losing loads of money each year....he is just gifting you it....success....well 2 Premierships and a FA cup victory.....He could have given his money to any club.....its just as random as that.....NO history, tradition."
Hilarous,
And liverpool and Man U had a history before they started winning trophies? Of course not.
Liverpool and Man U were consistantly winning trophies before they were out spending their competition? Of course not.
Chelsea has no history? Well we do, but you might not of noticed it as we were in the shadow of Man U and Liverpool out spending us, now that we can out spend them, well its apparently a real crime. I guess the EPL is supposed to only allow Pool n Man U success, anyone else who steals trophies from them should be ashamed and labeled "classless"
Chelsea could win the treble for the next 5 years and in 20 years certain unintelligent/extrememly jeaouls rivals will still be crying "Chelsea has no history".
You guys go on and on about "we get our money honestly from winning cups and fan revenue". So do we, as it turns out we have a fan billionaire who bought the club. Guess its quality of fans over quantity, and Chelsea has you all ebat out their ;)
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Where as your post is pretty much correct this statement is actually wrong
"Liverpool and Man U were consistantly winning trophies before they were out spending their competition? Of course not."
Liverpool did in fact start out, by out spending the competition before they had even played one game. The very first team ever put on a field by Liverpool Football club, in 1891, had not one single Englishmen in it and every single player was bought from other teams that mostly did not want to sell.
Something on heard of in that day. In fact, The FA, had rules against money transfer of English players which is why their owner Houlding bought all non-English players.
So the little known truth is, it was Liverpool Football club who first sent out a team with no English players and they were also the first team to ever truly "buy success" as it is phrased these days
Note: I am not expressing an opinion about Liverpool FC, simply stating the facts. I don't care what teams do with their money or how they achieve their success so long as the stay within the rules.
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ST09
Your post 177 about the 6,970 professional Football Clubs in England" isn't quite correct. You slipped in the word "professional" and the vast majority of teams in England are not!
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Blimey Robbo! I think you'd better rename the authorship of this blog to "By Robbo Robson AND SimpleTruth09".
Everyone has a right to post but, good heavens, he does blather on! Has anyone counted how many posts he has made to this blog? (I've a feeling HE has - and will let me/us know very soon!).
Blogs to one side: does anyone agree - the start of the new season seems an awfully long way off?!? Roll on August.
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I reckon ST is really the barman at the BlueBell.
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TrotterUSA you are right, I in error put in professional
There is "only" about 3,250 professional teams :)
Amazing I have no idea how post I have made but its not a large amount, maybe 20 max.
Its the word count that is large. I find writing very easy, and I would hope some people might find the information interesting. One can hope :P
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For God's sake, Robbo, learn to use brackets properly (like this).
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At 6:35pm on 05 Jun 2009, TrotterUSA wrote:
The best business model is 'arry's. He's found a way to sell to the big four and buy back at almost half price. Look out for a 15 million quid offer for Berbatov soon!
Mate, I'm not so sure about that. 'Arry did the buying back. Not sure he did the selling though...
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why is it okay for the big clubs like chelsea and manchester united to spend big money but as soon as a 'smaller' club like manchester city follow trend everyone goes overboard and tries to say its ruining football? All i can say is I hope that man city sign big names and other clubs in and around them do the same. It will add much more quality to the premiership and make it a much more competitive league, rather than being repetitively dominated by the so-called 'top four'.
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leepy5.......
You need help.
Your clearly have this blind hatred for Chelsea and all you can do is rant on this blog, yet make no sound arguments nor provide any supporting evdence to back your arguments.
Your latest groundless claim is that if Chelsea expanded their ground capacity (they are going to by the way to 53,000). Your evidence to support this latest claim please?
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oh, SimpleFarce09 - when will you simply go away?
he writes: "Red_man reading is fundamental to any text based communication. The world party means - not entirely"
"the world party means - not entirely" - WTF does that mean?
i like the music of World Party as much as the next guy, but what are you on about?
isn't writing also fundamental to any text based communique?
go ahead, speak up (we know you will)!
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Look I have my own little stalker and the irony is he ask me to go away.
Don't you anything better to post about then well my post? Like maybe I don't know the subject of the blog or the thread?
So far all I have seen you contribute is insults, kind of shows your character (or lack of)
Answer to the question - no
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simple truth09 wrote
UEFA have never insisted Welsch, Scots or North Irish were foreigners of anywhere except places outside the United Kingdom. Lets see your link proving otherwise.
if thats the case why were hughes and giggs counted as foreigners when uefa competitions had a 5 foreigners maximum per team rule in the 90s
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IF it were true? I posted the actual rule directly from the FIFA rule book word for word, not changed. There is no "if" in that post
Allowing the into a competition as, "foreigners" would be simple - they would use the National FA exception that applies to only British born players. That hardly makes it a country.
He is a link that might help clear this up for since I'm not sure what part of the previous link/post was unclear
Regarding the country in which the British live:
Find England, Scotland or Wales on this list -
http://www.un.org/en/members/index.shtml
Or this one -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries
Saving that just look at your passport (assuming you are British and have a passport)
If its the links regarding Nationality, which is the sole jurisdiction of FIFA, not UEFA, then I can not provide any better links than I have. I post FIFA's website, physical address and the section dealing with the subject word for word.
What I have not done is post an opinion at all. I posted you the facts.
I suppose you could come up with examples to try and prove it wrong all you want. You could also come up with example all day to try and prove the sun is not hot.
I also suppose I could keep posting you the facts but it would just go round and round.
I do not remember Giggs ever being counted as a foreigner under any UEFA rules but of course its possible since he plays under the Welsh FA in Internationals and the English FA under Club.
I would also like to point something out to some of you. A person can be born in England, live their entire lives in England and still be Welsh and the same is true the other way around.
Being "English" or "Welsh" is simply about Heritage. Its a matter of what you identify with and claim.
Its one of the great failings of Britian that British children are not taught they are British. Instead they are taught they are English or Scots, ect. They are both and should be aware of that.
Personally I back the idea that all of Britian should be combined into one FA. But, that is a very very unpopular idea...
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187 Just1keano, sorry about that, I'd like to take back half of my 'arry comment. He only buys cheap.
Based on the limited evidence of your namesake, if 'arry'd been at Liverpool instead of Raffa, Gillet and Hicks would have an extra 100 million quid or so and they could be enjoying photo ops with scouse brickies instead of all this miserable talk of banking arrangements tut tut tut.
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Nice easy blog mate. Real Madrid are liverpool finished and will win nothing for the next 20-30 years....Steve bruce saw the word loyalty once, he bowed before it thinking it had something to do with Buckingham palace, but then he never could spell....He might well end up manager of grasshoppers too if they offer him enough. He was doing a Moyes type job at I thought and could have progressed. So Sunderland for the drop next season. Newcastle for the drop too again. AS for the Chelsea lads having the temerity to say it's not money got them where they are, ...it's true. It is extortion and mafia rackets.
Barcelonas team seems to be breaking up slightly as does Liverpools which means a clean sweep of the bord for United next year as I don't fancy Ancy a loty for the job. Wonder could liverpool go into administration and get docked 20 points.....if they did, they still wouldn't get relegated on this years performance.
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You people do realise that 1/4 of the earths population have no access to machines gas or electricity. and 1 million people a day have no access to drinking water, and the debt for one of these clubs could feed the population of the entire planet for quite a while...the entire planet...
You people who go to games spending a few hundred quid need to reflect a little...
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barry is probably just being greedy or he might think that man city may get 2 champions league before he retires! but he stands more of a chance of first team football there than at liverpool, dnt get me wrong hes good player but alonso and gerrard have had gud seasons and would be hard 2 displace, maybe barrys not up 2 a challenge?! also city aint guna break top 4 if they buy players like bellamy!!!
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No. 195 -"Barcelonas team seems to be breaking up slightly" can you expand on this as i've not heard anything about this.
Also i think you're being a bit presumptious in a clean sweep of the board.
*After all Liverpool may still improve even if financial difficulties stopped them buying new players.
*Barcelona were incredible last year and even if they are breaking up they will be a difficult force to stop.
*You've no reason to believe Ancelotti will not be a good and successful manager for Chelsea.
*Real Madrid, with their Galacticos policy, who knows.
*As an Arsenal fan, you will have doubts about my perspective in this but i believe that Arsenal are getting better and if Arsene can bring in some good experienced ball winners to allow the attack to show its ability we could be around there in the end.
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I remember in the build up to a home nations schoolboys tournament it was mentioned that Giggs played for England schoolboys because at that time the Welsh FA did not run a schoolboys team. I'm happy to be contradicted by Welsh supporters on this one.
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doh!
i've been a chelsea member for 7 years, although a liverpool fan (cant stand chelsea but great excuse for a couple of jars with my mates)
without doubt you can buy a great team for money. consider drogba, mike the bull essien and peter czech to name the best. its a privelege to watch those guys and they came for the cash no question. throw in cashley, marouda (come good lately), nick the winer anelka, mike too old ballack, crabstick deco, decent professional calvarho and all you have left really is JT and Lampard
the quality of chelseas football has improved out of sight in the last few years great to watch and of course its down to abramovich.
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In my opinion that is the reason why England have not won the World Cup (since 66) and why they have such a hard time developing English talent.
http://www.nowgoal.com/22.shtml
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#190 - Denis - Simple Truth was obviously trying to say "the word partly" not "the world party" - and simply put the "l" in the wrong place - I am sure you realised this but couldnt resist the opportunity for a wind up.
Of course as a pedant and all round know it all, ST wouldnt be able to admit the mistake.
Enjoy both of your contributions by the way....
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'Villa reportedly offered Barry 75,000 a week to stay, whilst most (reliable) newspapers report his contract at City stands at 80,000. Though 5,000 is alot of money to the man on the street, when sums this big are involved, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference.
Is it possible Barrys decision came down to more than just money?'
I seem to recall a certain c-Ashley Cole spitting his dummy over 5 grand less than he wanted at Arsenal. So my guess is - yes, it is about the money.
Either that or he is not that bright.
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#202 - you're onto somefink - i do enjoy making the pompous SimpleFarce09 eat his words... for example:
"Look I have my own little stalker and the irony is he ask me to go away.
Don't you anything better to post about then well my post?"
are you trying to imitate a caveman here? what a stellar command of the written word this guy has, for someone who so hypocritically critiques the grammatical precision of other peoples posts... i'm amazed that he spelled irony correctly, considering he has absolutely no writing skills, not to mention a complete lack of a sense of humour.
what a spank.
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Oh dear. I can see Real bombing AGAIN and Barca monopolising the league. Buying the world won't win you anything. Remember what happened last time Perez was in charge. All the players and not many trophies...
Ribery would be much better off going somewhere like Chelsea to be honest. A big, arrogant team like Real deserves Cristiano Ronaldo... (and they can get lost where Alonso is concerned!!!!!)
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Maybe go back on that one... they do want Kaka too!
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Ferdinand, 30 million
Rooney, 30 million
Berbatov, 30 million
Hargreaves, 17 million
Carrick, 19 million
Ronaldo, 13 million
Man U spend big time to stay at the top and the game has been this way for a long time. Teams like Man U and Liverpool got their break a long time a go, now people whine and moan when some new team gets a break. Get over it. Teams and money will come and go.
Besides having and spending money guarantees nothing. Robbo's point about Newcastle shows it. Liverpool could spend 100 million pounds this year and may still be chasing the shadows of Chelsea and Man U, in contrast if Chelsea could have held Guus Hiddink I would wager that all of Europe would be merely spectators.
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simpletruth09
here's the thing, and its something you seem to be willfully ignoring:
Ryan Giggs is Welsh. he was born in Wales, both of his parents are Welsh, his grandparents are Welsh (barring one, who is from Sierra Leone) - there is absolutely no reason why he would ever consider playing for the english IF there was a loophole, which due to the agreement between the 'home' FAs, there isn't.
you claim you 'cannot remember' Giggs being considered a foreigner in the early 90s Champions league games. well he WAS - along with Irwin, Kanchelskis, Schmichael and McClair. look it up, it should take you about 5 minutes.
as to your point about how you think people in the uk should be brought up to considrr themselves british. well, thats your opinion and i repsect your right to hold it. my opinion however is that britain needs to be taken apart, and will be over the next couple of decades, and that there is no such thing as a british identity.
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"here's the thing, and its something you seem to be willfully ignoring:
Ryan Giggs is Welsh. he was born in Wales, both of his parents are Welsh, his grandparents are Welsh (barring one, who is from Sierra Leone) - there is absolutely no reason why he would ever consider playing for the english IF there was a loophole, which due to the agreement between the 'home' FAs, there isn't."
You overlook my point. One, he already did play for England so the entire premise of what you are saying is incorrect. But, more importantly be FIFA rule he should have been bound to play for England from that moment on. Welsh heritage or not. The thing Robbo said, was he could have played for England and that was completely correct, he not only could have he should. But, in the end he played for who he wanted to and I think that is a good thing.
"you claim you 'cannot remember' Giggs being considered a foreigner in the early 90s Champions league games. well he WAS - along with Irwin, Kanchelskis, Schmichael and McClair. look it up, it should take you about 5 minutes."
Already did try to look up proof and found nothing but rumors. Post a link. Like I said its easy to play considering the historic FA ruling.
"as to your point about how you think people in the uk should be brought up to considrr themselves british. well, thats your opinion and i repsect your right to hold it. my opinion however is that britain needs to be taken apart, and will be over the next couple of decades, and that there is no such thing as a british identity."
True its just an opinion. I think you are very, very mistaken about the states being broken up but we will see. All signs point to them becoming more unified over time. Personally I think, in general it would be sad if the nation states were broken up, I also think it would be incredibly bad for the economy but there would of course be positives as well.
Ever ask yourself why there is no such thing as a British indentity? Americans went to the new lands with seperate indentities and within 100 years forged a new national indentity that made them the most powerful country on Earth. The Australian's were able to forge one as well. As were the South Americans. But not the British. Think about it
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I forgot to mention a player does not need any loophole to play for say England if he is Welsh.
All he needs is for the English and Welsh FA to ok it, and it has happened many many times already.
That was the entire point I was trying to make - all UK players are FIFA legal to play for any of the UK FA's. All the FA's have to do is let them and their gentlemen's agreement is only losely legal. Many times players have crossed over. But, as I pointed out, I don't remember any high profile players doing it
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SimpleTruth09. What is "indentity"?? You've used it three times in one post so I assume it's not a typo.........but it is a new word to me. What does it mean??
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Its my poor spelling of the word Identity - of course you knew that already...
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i love reading these blogs but i can't work out why people start commenting on peoples gramma this is gcse english it's just a blog.
i digress (probably spelt wrong never any good at spelling). For my sins (& theres pleanty) i'm a Man Utd fan and have been all my life and I remember when mu got into the champions league there was a resriction on foreign players and this did inclued welsh/scotish/northen irland. it was amended the flowing year where these players where counted as home nations players and not foriegn.
Could be wrong though
ps giggs said even if he could play for england he wouldn't he was welsh and that's final.
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213. I'm afraid that for some people, perhaps of a certain age, "gramma" (oh, dear!) is very important - as is spelling.
One doesn't expect great things from a Man U supporter, but your grammar and spelling are quite dreadful.
Thankfully, education in Liverpool is of a much higher standard - as is the football.
Interesting isn't it, that Liverpool has given the England team Gerrard and Rooney while Manchester has given the Neville brothers? Oh dear. It's like comparing The Beatles with Oasis.
Liverpool is superior in so many ways. Discuss.
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i think you missed my point these blogs are meant to be about football and not about a persons grammar. when did i meantion liverpool (who i thought where unlucky last season but you need to beat the smaller teams and not just the top 4), I actually was going on about the foreign rule in the 90s and as usual a bitter liverpool fan who must be worried that if finance keep going the way they seem to be going you may be ducked 10 points next season (which i hope your not as this will be another excuse for why you didn't win anything even if you are "the better team".
United may not have won the champions league but we did compete in all competions and won 3.
ps i was taught in wales and not in manchester
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Personally I think anyone who feels the need to insult others is really just exposing their own weakness and probably is the very people who should not insult anyone to begin with.
By the same token, pointing out another persons grammar or spelling mistakes in a blog forum, is born of the same insecurities
Note, none of these same people are pointing out mispelt words from Robbo's article. Nor are they pointing his grammar mistakes in the article. For that matter there is only a select few who get their mistakes pointed out to them - that is a reflection of how much more articulate their post are in comparison to the average post.
That is a result of certain people's inferiority complexes
The joke is of course on them, because these post are as bad as my spelling/grammar ever gets since, I type them straight through without double checking them and without much though ahead of time.
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i meant to put docked not ducked (typo)
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thank simple truth and if i've insulted anybody in any way didn't mean to but somtimes it gets my ire up when people point out my shortcomings.
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I don't know about them, but I thought your post was fine, and your point was clear.
Some people look for reasons to try and offend other people, they believe it is "humour"
Sort of an example - this is humour "Otherwise I swear they couldn't get a Ford Ka, let alone afford Kaka."
Insults do not fall into that category. Some people don't get that - what are you going to do? Free speech
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The recession is indeed a boon for Robbo.
Him and the BNP.
All those who had previously benefited heavily from globalisation and the free market economies have gone potty the moment it gets a bit rough.
Of course they only do complain when on the losing side. Wont analyse or accept their own shortcomings, jealous of those who have the means, falsely thinking so highly of themselves and the glorious past that a strong feeling of being wronged creeps. And once this, 'I am a loser, not of my own making but of the other (most conveniently the foreigner) more successful' creeps in, they cant see reason nor common sense. These people are fiercely 'touchy' to any call of self examination and suggestion they should get their acts together.
Professional athletes are by definition, professionals (THEY PLAY FOR MONEY for those with half a neuron alive).Dont like any sport when its flooded with money? May I suggest you drop by your local green to see some teenagers and some middle aged men more than double their healthy body weight make fools of themselves.
Though I tell you, not very interesting watching them every weekend and make for rubbish TV. I should know, I play with some.
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oh come on do people really believe that Real will sign most of the players they been linked with over the past month or so? Kaka seems a cert and as for Ronaldo...well never mind bruceys nose takin detours...lol.
i just hope united sign a decent left winger so we can move rooney back upfront.
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Real have the Gelled Tumbler...
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hi robbo... cant pretend im a sports fan..got slightly ulterior motive and not sure how else to contact u so apologies to sports fans reading this..
anyway, im looking to sell the personalised car registration plate 'rob 5on' for my boss so trying to contact high net people like ureself since its worth a good amount...if ure interested please get in touch with me by email asap as ive contacted a few people..
sorry again for blog intruding!!
briony
x
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