Mad Money: Transfers and Sales

Slightly off topic but this is what will Kill the EPL stupid amounts being paid for players:

Real Madrid plan to make a stunning £90m bid for Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney - not to mention wages of £250,000 a week for five years - and also have England boss Fabio Capello in their sights.
Full story: The Sun

 

Well put, Martin. Never mind that's been said for decades, there IS a tipping point.
And if true, I have the feeling that the Glaziers might just cash out and run. Wont the Greens love that!
And I dont think that story can be discounted JUST because it's in the Sun.

 

My understanding is that REAL still operate in the black, somehow. In fact, La Liga has somehow built a business model that works at this extreme. Bundesliga does the opposite, with only BAYERN exempt from a very socialist-style structure.

Anyone else see the discussion of this of FFF the other night?

Martin, I am afraid you are correct about Premiership. It's starting to have alot of the indicators we've seen domestically in the States with the Internet and Real Estate markets before their bubbles burst. Hicks and Gillette are set to cash in before it pops.

 

Here's your one-stop google linkage to the Liverpool sale news

God bless MAF

 

I appreciate Our Crazy Owner more and more these days.

 

Like I've said all along Mo is a Businessman nothing crazy about that

 

Sounds like this is gonna be a BARGAIN???

Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have confirmed their intention to sell the debt-ridden Premier League club by appointing a new chairman.

British Airways boss Martin Broughton will oversee the sale of the Anfield club, which is £237m in debt.

 

It seems like most EPL clubs have scaled back on the budgets though. There was a report with the highest avg salary per player and chelsea were the only EPL side to make the top 12. Madrid and Barca were the only other football clubs. Surprisingly, the NBA dominated the list. I would think you'd see more NBA teams hit the skids sooner than you'd see teams in the EPL (Pompey notwithstanding), based on current trends.

 

Ag, I saw the same report from a few weeks ago and was shocked that the NBA littered the top twelve (and some were crap teams i.e Detroit Pistons). David Stern has already suggested the salary cap be decreased (don't feel sorry for billionaires who give $75 million contracts to players who are marginal).

Once the credit crisis hit and Hicks/Gillette's new stadium went on the shelf they were toast.

 

Wouldn't you love to be a West Ham player right now reading this?

West Ham co-owner David Sullivan is planning a radical shake-up at Upton Park after conceding the club will listen to offers for any player except Scott Parker. "Other than Parker, there is not a player we wouldn't sell if it was the right bid," confirmed Sullivan.
Full story: Daily Mirror

 

They shouldn't kid themselves; they'd sell Parker for the right bid too. (If, say, Real Madrid offered them silly money like that rumor involving Rooney.)

 

Yep everyone has a price!

 

I actually think that Zola will leave weather pushed or not and the players will follow him out the door, they love him at West Ham and I think it's going to be a rough time over the next few months for everyone there. Gold is not the kind of Chairman I would like at my club thankfully that wont happen either not sure if you know how he makes he's money but lets just say it's for "Adults only"

 

Am I physic or what? Love the "MIGHT LEAVE" how about OR we will fire him?

West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola's spell at Upton Park is almost certainly over after co-owner David Sullivan said the Italian "might resign at the end of the season".
Full story: Daily Telegraph

 

Who thinks Wayne Bridge might go back to Chelsea????


Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini is ready to offload Emmanuel Adebayor, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Wayne Bridge and Stephen Ireland and will make a £50m bid for Liverpool striker Fernando Torres.
Full story: The Sun

 

I've been doing some thinking about all this lately and I think within ten years we'll see two things in England:

1) A closed European Super League (plenty has been written about that) without any salary restrictions.

2) The death of the Premiership and return to a proper Football League with a salary cap.

For all the talk about small clubs going bankrupt trying to stay up (hello Pompey and Hull!), it's really because United, Chelsea, City, et al are spending so much.

Soon we'll see that the money available for staying up will be, ultimately, less than the costs of trying to stay up. This year one club went bankrupt during the season. In a few months Hull will probably join that list. Next year, it can easily be two during the season. Additionally, numerous clubs in the lower divisions went into administration this season alone. This is just madness.

As a result there will be a schism wherein smaller clubs will demand a salary cap but won't get it; resulting in the Big clubs (and Sky) essentially repeating 1992.

 

Bridge back to the Scum? not a snowball's chance in hell.

 

Why? Was the Bridge totally incinerated?
heh...