I went out to get something off a friend, I saw two people in City shirts with Robinho on them. Funny isn't it, City fans in Birmingham, wonder why I've never seen them before.

Their owner, Dr. Whateverhisnameis has not ruled out a £100m+ bid for Cristiano Ronaldo in January. THis is silly, you can't offer that sort of money. Please step in UEFA!

The English league is like Football Manager now, every world class player is gonna be here and no where else until they start investing in other countries!

It makes you wonder why they aren't investing in other countries?

Eventually the top 10 teams in England will be the top 10 teams in the World at the rate this is going. It's becoming mad! City are far worse than Chelsea though, their first bloody transfer broke all the records than any Chelsea transfer has ever done. The names I've heard in January: Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mario Gomes, David Villa, Sergio Ramos. It's like just picking your World XI.

I think this could be the becoming of salary caps and maybe even spending limits.

It is getting stupid.

What's even stupider is the blatant illegality of their approach: "We want Ronaldo, Torres, Fabregas, etc." Does he not know you can't just go and say things like this? Points deduction please, FA!

I find the lack of respect of their chairman towards our sport and our country quite disgraceful. At least alot of the other owners aren't so disrespectful.

I wouldn't mind salary caps, or the 6+5 rule thing. In fact, if that came in today, we'd probably win the league. 7 English players in the starting lineup and our highest earner is on 40k a week! And it doesn't matter how much money City have, they'll never be able to buy those 3 points we took off them 2 weeks ago.

Top 4 in 2 years: Chelsea, City, United, Arsenal.
Top 4 in 4 years: City, Chelsea, United, QPR.
Top 4 in 6 years: City, Chelsea, Liverpool (With DIC), QPR.

And unless more guys with stupid amounts of money start takeovers or rules change, it'll stay that way.

In other news, Keegan was fired.. but has been re-instated or something..

Basically they would transform City into a brand, ala Berlusconi Milan


I read about it in the local papers this morning, apparently AD United's strategic investment division have singled out investing in the EPL as a top priority when compared to other alternatives (like something more rewarding). In other words, City will be transformed into a product, kinda like Chelsea in the amount of stars it bolsters into the team. And if on their first transfer they bring in Robinho from 'Real Madrid' and for a record EPL fee. All I know is, these guys are in it for business purposes only and with the fact that Barclays Bank makes it possible that EPL teams will always get their share of extra help (in terms of debt), the EPL teams will always remain an attractive place for a foreign investor with the capabilities, to come in and make a cash machine out of the product.

Aaarggh...

I don't know about the others, but I don't like hearing what's happening in the EPL.
I can't stand does artificial teams. It's one thing when a local millionaire suddenly decides to waste his money on Blackpool and bring them back to the ol' days of glory.

But this? An Asian criminal taking charge in a local town rival? A Russian guy who's been pardoned in Russia and granted a leave after snitching and co-operating with a modern dictator? I don't know, mostly I don't like Berlusconi's politics and he's been called many names in the past,..but this is a whole new level here.

It was sure nice to see a team like Chelsea rise from the unexpected like in a Championship Manager 00/01 game from out of nowhere. But this? This is too much. It's gonna explode and backfire at one point. It must go that way...

I'm very interested to see how fickle all the foreigners are. I bet we'll be seeing lots of City shirts outside of England now. Glory hunters is one thing, but foreign glory hunters.

Speaking to The Guardian today, Al-Fahim revealed that he is serious about helping City to become the biggest football club in the world and plans to prove it with a bid for Ronaldo in January.

"Ronaldo has said he wants to play for the biggest club in the world, so we will see in January if he is serious," he stated.

i love this guy, he seems pretty damn serious, i love the ambition

dont worry manure already have tones of those, not to mention real maturd

queens park? you really think they can make the top 4 that soon. the moneys there but they have to be promoted first....

there will be a spending cap i can see it coming. There is no way this can keep going on. 100 million pounds for a players most clubs dont even have that much money in their total value.

Such a smooth smiley, I can eat it. Yum, yum.

For what I know it's not so easy to take over at a club in other countries. In Germany for example foreign investors aren't allowed to buy the majority of a club. A good thing if you ask me....but the consequence is that GErman clubs can't compete with the ones in England in the long run.


True. You can say about Berlu what you want but he's a real football fan and a fan of Milan. This new generation of Investors....they don't know anything about football, have no respect for the fans and the culture of football. They destroy the things that made football the No.1 in the world.

Hah. Kevin Keegan isn't the first EPL manager to go after all. It's Alan Curbishley.



link to bbc article.

They'll be up soon enough. When West Ham last got relegated they sold alot of their top players: Lampard, Cole, Johnson, Di Canio, Sinclair, James, Defoe, etc. so they had alot of money to spend, they basically just bought the best 16 players in the league ahnd won promotion, QPR are trying to do something similar.


I think that's a good idea really, but as you say, it's now a disadvantage.

I am biased but I don't think you'll find many better owners in the World of football than our very own Randy Lerner. I can't say he's 'killed' anything about the club yet. In fact, our club motto is now "Proud History - Bright Future", he seems to do anythign he can to highlight our past acheivments, top guy. We even have a member of our board of directors on one of the forums to answer questions from the fans.

I think alot of these new owners are harshly criticsed. United, Liverpool, West Ham and Man City, I'll agree these guys are ruining our sport, mainly due to the disrespect they've shown for the sport and the country, that's without mentioning pretty much everything they do is illegal. But Guys like Lerner, Gaydamak, etc. all seem like decent guys. Other than the Shevchenko thing, I think Roman has been a good owner of Chelsea, you hardly ever hear him talking to the press and getting TOO involved.


And good on him. He's took alot of **** from the West Ham fans in recent weeks, unfairly too considering it's thei =r best start to a season for 9 years! Hope he gets another good job.

It's not really ambition though IMO, it's just about pumping more money into a club than anyone else. Ambition would be trying to make a club the top of it's league/Europe and be able to sustain itself without help.

true

i just like how their basically shitting on utd

News are allover with the Robinho-transfer issue. Pele, the brazilian football president,...

I think it's positive such a matter gets negative notes. It won't be easy to repeat the same,..

GLORY GLORY MAN CITY!

(Btw: They should do a Chelsea and change their horrible logo.)

This is the old City logo

But Chelsea never changed their logo. The one they have now is actually the old one.


Anyway, I'm sick of such an approach to football in general. This will soon cause many troubles.

Yeah, it's a remake. Just like Juve did.

.. I also think it's a bit harsh.

According to ITV Kevin Keegan has resigned. I personally feel sorry for him as it seems the board were against him.

newcastle

Wow he did not last long at all. It was their transfer policy that just sucked.

Agreed.

Though there are very few teams in history that've became great without money. United in the 90s just outspent everybody, Romans Chelsea did the same. Outside of England you have Silvio and his money that made Milan king. Madrid and Barca are hardly short on funds either.

The only one that springs to mind is Liverpool of the late 70s/early 80s. But even then I'm not sure how much they were spending in comparison to others.

Ahem. Those clubs (besides Chelski) earned this money. They didn't receive it from a bored multi billionaire.

Apparently West Ham could appoint an Italian manager, Donadoni, Zola and merdici are in pole for the post along with Houiller (not going to happen) and Bilic.

He lasted 8 months. I don't think it helped when Keegan said "James Milner is going nowhere" only for the board to sell him the following day! That made Keegan look silly. Anyway the favourite for the post looks like Gus Poyet, although the Newcastle fans are said to be livid and are planning a boycott for the next home game. This is the trouble when the board interfere...

From what I can find out, it's not a boycott. They're gonna have a sit-in. And shout for Ashley to leave.

They're expecting Marcelino or Poyet to come in. I would prefer Laudrup. Though what's the difference. I thought at least this management would be different, but Mike Ashley is just another w@nker.

He's trying to do an Abramovich. Fired the popular KK to get in Dennis Wise who was previously Director of Football. They're going to boo the pants off Wise.

Oh there's this new song,

Spiderman, spiderman, does whatever a spider can,
Plays on the left for the Magpies,
Even though he was bought by Dennis Wise
Look out, here comes the spiderman.

So far Guttierez is the only good thing this season.

Milan had Silvio's money, United had those two irish blokes in take over and spent alot. I thought Real Madrid got 'special funding' from somewhere high up in the country? Barca are owned by the fans aren't they? So I suppose their money is 'earned' in a sense.


I don't think Donadoni will go to West Ham. Zola is an interesting one though, he'll probably be with Di Matteo as a pair or something. I think Wise will probably be next manager, the only thing that will stop him being next is that the fans are 100% against it.


I don't think the board wanted Keegan anyway. The fans up there were demanding he be given a second chance, and I think the board had an attitude of "Well, let's hire him now and get it out of the way". Obviously the way they sacked him was terrible, but his wins:losses ratio was pretty terrible anyway.


He does look a good buy indeed.

TBH I don't think the fans were/are that bothered about his wins/losses ratio because he had a passion for the club which they appreciated. The board should have backed KK and got the fans on their side, instead they have alienated the 52,000 who go every week. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the next home game.

I think that's a big problem, the fans attitude. Newcastle fans would rather have somebody crap as manager, who they see as a legend, rather than a good manager. Though I am with them in this instance, Ashleys been a complete joke. Not really what you would expect from a billionnaire Newcastle "fan".

I hope they boycott it, but I think they have around 30,000 season ticket holders, so they wouldn't be losing that much money anyways.

Hmm, Ashley might go but I don't see anything happening majorly. Apart from the odd demonstration outside. Inside the stadium it will no doubt be the same and the reason will be "We need to get behind the players, it's not there fault". All this talk happens prior about what's going to happen and inevitably nothing does in the stadium.

Well they maybe really imaginative and boo him when they see him on the big screen or chant "sack the board".

It was like the United season ticket holders that all said they wouldn't turn up if the Glazier's took over, forcing Old Trafford to be half empty, yeah that happened didn't it?

52,000 season ticket holders.

watching sunday supplement earlier and they were saying that Ashley was as much a Newcastle fan as Abra was a Chelsea fan . Apparently ashley wanted Man City(I think) but couldn't get the whole club so went for Newcastle where he could. It also seems that he might be ready to sell as there is an Asian syndicate who might be interested.
Wonder if he'll still sit with the fans in his replica shirt...

Hmm. Can't see them having that many season ticket holders. I think their stadium is only around 52,000 isn't it? They have 5k for away fans, then there is some sort of rule that only allows I think it's either 75%/80% of the home seats to be sold as season tickets to allow people who can't afford season tickets to go to games.

Anyways, Ashley was born in London so I very highly doubt he's always been a Newcastle fan. I don't see him sitting with the fans anymore, he'd get owned.

Nope...Ashley is not a Toon fan. I think he's a fan of one of those London clubs.

I don't understand, why he cribs about having to pay way too much. He shouldn't have made the take over if he felt he couldn't deal with the debts. He did however invest a sizeable sum to clearn some huge chunk of the debt. Newcastle might not have stayed afloat otherwise.

He's a disaster of an owner. When he had that Chris Mort guy with him to begin with things were fine, but as soon as he left everything's fallen apart. Then again, they have a Director of Football, why on earth any club would want one of these is beyond me. It's just a way of causing in fighting at a club.

^^

It's a European thing(Spain and Italy). Nowadays more and more English clubs are becoming Europeanised. There is this intermediary between the board and the coach.

In other words, the team has 'coaches' and not 'managers'. Chelsea, Liverpool etc are all following suit. A football coach should worry about football, not about where he needs to raise his money, or how much he needs to pay for a player, as per the new philosphy.

Mike Ashley attempted to do the same. It just flopped since he forgot that Newcastle fans are amongst the most 'old-world English' fans ever.

Now that I've caught my breath somewhat, let him do his thing. But now, he has to make it succeed. Director of Football and coach or whatever.

It has caused alot of trouble over here so far. Arnesen and Grant were buying players Jose didn't want, so he ended up leaving, same kinda thing with Keegan. Unfortunately, DoFs tend to do what's best for them and not the team, since the Dof is the most suitable replacement if the manager is to leave, they often will have their own agenda.

I think managers should be able to get the players they want for a team. Maybe not do the negotiations over a price and a contract, but they should definitly be the ones who choose who stays, goes and comes in. Otherwise you have a Milner situation at Newcastle, where Wise and Ashley both wanted to sell him, but the manager didn't.

St James Park is a season ticket holder only ground as far as I'm aware. There used to be a three year waiting list for season tickets - that is why they usually fill the ground every week.

It is? I wasn't even aware that was legal nowadays! I haven't been to St/ James' yet, I may have to try and go up there this season.

I had a friend who went there. Says more than the stadium itself, it's the whole atmosphere. The whole freakin city is based around that one club. It's like a cult.

And they're not being arrogant when they refer to other clubs, they just don't frickin care. In fact I love the fans, in that they're not the Chelsea kind of people hunting glory and cup, in a wierd way, I like the fact that they don't decide trophies to be an indicator of a good club. Newcastle is a part of the English footballing landscape, a legendary club. I think more than Chelsea.

Newcastle is a club with history, much more than Chelsea's PRE-Russian. But they need a decent owner and staff. They're going nowhere with the ones in charge at the moment.

I can't agree with this Jack. More historic than Chelsea? Possibly, but Chelsea aren't even close to being in the top 10 anyway. Do you know why Newcastle fans don't use winning trophies as an indicator of how good a club is? Because they haven't won anything for over half a century! They're hardly going to say, winning tonnes of trophies makes you a great club, so we aren't great because we win F all.

Unfortunately for them, things are giong to stay this way. Keegan had a very poor record, a record that would get alot of managers sacked, but the fans wanted to keep him? Now I don't agree with the way he was sacked, but they were going nowhere with him, well, downwards maybe, but not upwards for sure. Their fans would rather have people who they see as 'legends' in charge and do shite rather than actually have ambition to go and win something.

Welcome to Liverpool, Keano.

Scousers, enough said.

And in a show of what classy clubs can do:

(from tuttomercatoweb)
UFFICIALE: Aston Villa, Bouma rinnova

Wilfred Bouma (30), difensore olandese dell'Aston Villa, proseguirà l'avventura in Premier League. L'ex giocatore del PSV Eindhoven ha infatti prolungato di due anni il contratto che lo lega ai Villains.


[Wilfred Bouma (30), Dutch defender of Aston Villa, will continue his adventure in the PRemier League. The former PSV Eindhoven player has renewed for two additional years the contract that ties him to the Villains.]

Nice to see a 30+ player getting a contract extension. But what's classy about Villa extending the contract NOW is that Freddie dislocated his ANKLE during a game in...July/early August. He's not going to be able to play for a good long while.

A cookie to Aston Villa.