Post by QPR Report on Jan 6, 2009 7:45:47 GMT
Richard Williams - Guardian - City's spree will be last before English game takes a pounding
Plight of even the richest owners proves the Premier League is about to lose much of its bargaining power
Take a good look at Manchester City's activities in the transfer market over the next three and a half weeks. The way things are going, it may be the last chance to witness the spectacle of an English club spending a foreign owner's money with unrestricted lavishness.
Everyone else is feeling the pinch. Even Roman Abramovich, until recently the Croesus of the Premier League, has been bailed out by Vladimir Putin, and now Chelsea's players are facing the unfamiliar ordeal of paying for their training-ground meals. The owners from across the Atlantic, even the more prudent, are operating in the shadow cast by Lehmann Brothers and Bernie Madoff. Only the sovereign wealth of the royal family of Abu Dhabi is exempt, for the moment at least, from the restrictions now governing the behaviour of those affected by the crisis gripping the world's financial systems.
A few other clubs, including Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and perhaps Arsenal, are targeting individual major purchases. But City alone can open a large-scale expedition into the January transfer market by spending £10m on Chelsea's 28-year-old reserve left back, as well as authorising the salary of £100,000 a week that is said to make him the world's best paid player in his position. One day we may look back at Wayne Bridge's move from West London to East Manchester as the end of an age of gold, if not of a golden age.
With the weakening of the pound against other major currencies will come a diminishing of the Premier League's status as the most attractive destination for players from other countries. Did we really believe that all those French footballers yearned to experience English culture, rather than being drawn by higher salaries and a top tax rate considerably lower than their own? As forfeiting 40% per cent of a weak pound becomes less attractive than forking out 50% per cent of a relatively strong euro (or dollar or Swiss franc), the balance of trade is certain to change.
Arsène Wenger, for example, may find that even his enlightened policy towards the education of young players is no longer enough to lure the most talented teenagers from around the world. Long excluded from such negotiations, Italy, Spain and even Germany will regain their place at the bargaining table.
And the widespread assumption that Wenger has only to click his fingers to persuade a player such as Yaya Touré to fill the gap in front of Arsenal's back four becomes nonsensical. In the changed circumstances there is no reason on earth to suspect that Kolo Touré's younger brother, who scored a marvellous goal for Barcelona in the 3–1 win over Mallorca on Saturday night, would want to leave the Camp Nou at a time when Pep Guardiola's team are leading La Liga by 11 points and look a good bet to end English dreams of Champions League hegemony.
What price the 39th game when Cristiano Ronaldo has relocated to Madrid, the next twinkletoed prodigy spends his entire career in Iberia, and the Premier League once again has only its traditional physical vigour to distinguish it from Europe's other top leagues? The size of the next television rights deal, currently being negotiated and scheduled to run from 2010 to 2013, should prove an interesting barometer at a time when commercial networks are sharing the burden of a downturn in consumer advertising, although the price may be kept high by a belief that football is one of the few ways of attracting a guaranteed audience.
At a time when high ticket prices are affecting the clubs in the top flight, the third round of the FA Cup provided a sign of hope at the weekend. Not all of the most promising ties lived up to their billing, but there were enough entertaining catchweight contests — notably Nottingham Forest outplaying the representatives of the world's richest club, Gillingham matching the in-form Aston Villa in almost every department, Forest Green stretching Derby County to the limit and Hartlepool dismissing the challenge of the hapless Stoke City — to suggest that the basic enthusiasm for the game remains as powerful as ever. As the glitter of a tiny elite tarnishes, the vigour of a humbler game may provide the answer.
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jan/06/rishard-williams-manchester-city
Richard Williams - Guardian - Irresponsible press gang faces a charge that sticks
I have no idea what transpired at the Lounge Bar on the night Steven Gerrard and a couple of others were arrested, and if I did I wouldn't dream of telling you. As any reporter knows, the matter became sub judice the moment they were charged. So poorly is this important law administered, however, that anybody and everybody is being given carte blanche to express an opinion on Gerrard's character in advance of his appearance in court.
"A nice person," Rafael Benítez calls him. "A model professional," says Sammy Lee. Friends are even quoted as claiming that he acted in self-defence. Everyone seems to agree that he'll never walk alone. Even if Liverpool's lawyers have failed to alert the club's management to the requirements of English law, the journalists who report these comments ought to know better.
I'm reminded of the retrial ordered in the case of Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer, accused of assault in 2001, after the Sunday Mirror carried an interview with a relative of the victim in advance of the jury's verdict. The paper was fined £75,000, nothing like the cost of restaging the proceedings. Just because sport is essentially frivolous doesn't mean that its newspaper coverage should be allowed to swerve around the rules that are supposed govern the rest of society.
www.guardian.co.uk/football
The Times/Matt Dickenson - Cautionary tales of when more equals less
If Wayne Bridge can be paid £92,000 a week by Manchester City, we can be sure that football remains in thrall to the idea that whatever the problem, it is best to throw money at it.
But at a time when many of our assumptions — about our jobs, mortgages, bank deposits — are being tested, why should the national game not re-examine its relationship with cash? Does money really bring health and happiness? Perhaps these are signs that even football is starting to reconsider old beliefs . . .
There’s no point in keeping a player who wants to leave
Trotted out since time began as an excuse for players to move on to bigger things — and clubs to justify to angry supporters the sale of the star striker — offloading a disgruntled player has long been the norm. That is until Martin O’Neill and Randy Lerner, two men not afraid of challenging conventional wisdom, declined to sell Gareth Barry to Liverpool last summer for a penny less than their £18 million valuation. Barry stayed and, commendably (although let us not give him a halo) got on with the job for which he is handsomely rewarded by Aston Villa.
Now Steve Gibson, the Middlesbrough chairman, is vowing to be similarly resolute in his treatment of Stewart Downing, going even farther by insisting that the winger will not be allowed to join Tottenham Hotspur for any sum.
You might argue that Villa and Middlesbrough have been doing what is best for business, but in declining to take easy cash, they have overturned the perception that the big clubs with the big money always get their way. Isolated cases, perhaps, but welcome signs that profit can be found in long-term strategy.
A player will never move for less money
Why not? I have a friend who has switched newspapers for lower wages, seeking fresh pastures, a new lease of life and greater fulfilment. Why should the same not apply to, say, Peter Crouch if he should be presented with the chance to join Aston Villa?
His £70,000 wages are thought to be an insurmountable sticking point to a move from Portsmouth, but if he thinks the move could improve his standing, should he not seek to swap clubs and pick up £2.5 million rather than £3.5 million per year?
When Johnny Haynes, fondly celebrated with a statue outside Craven Cottage, was honoured by Fulham at a dinner a few years back, he was invited up on stage. Guests were asked to salute this great one-club man, loyal to Fulham to the end. “I’d have gone to Spurs for more money if only they’d let me,” Haynes said, rather deviating from the script.
But that was in the age of the maximum wage, when a player such as Haynes would have to catch a bus home from Wembley after playing for England. These days, most top-flight footballers need never work again if they have a half-decent accountant, so why the need to chase after ever-bigger salaries? “Footballer willingly takes pay cut” need not be a hold-the-back-page story.
Who would turn down a pay rise?
Or to put it another way, could Paul Ince have said “no” to Blackburn Rovers when they plucked him from the depths of League Two with Milton Keynes Dons? Would any of us refuse a lucrative promotion? Well, yes, if it jeopardises your long-term career.
It is up to all of us to plot our career paths, to decide when the time is right to stay put and when the moment comes for bold leaps. Making the right choices is a skill, as countless No 2s in football might admit after allowing their ambition to supersede their judgment and going it alone in the dugout only to find that they were not cut out for leadership. The ability to bide one’s time is underrated.
Scott Parker may want to consider as much as he weighs up whether to agitate to join Bridge at the City of Manchester Stadium. The lure of £90,000 a week may seem hard to resist, particularly given that West Ham United are a club mired in debt, but Parker already has his experiences from Chelsea as a cautionary story.
At Stamford Bridge, he ended up on the bench, or sat in the stands, when the club signed bigger names and better players. With City aspiring to the Champions League, and to star recruits such as Kaká and, in Parker’s position, a European Championship winner in Marcos Senna, can he not see history being repeated? If Parker moves to City, he will be able to afford a bigger house and a faster car, but will he be fulfilled when he finds himself left behind by the club’s ambitions? We should not hold our breath. Chasing the money is what happens in football. It takes a strong man to resist.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article5454753.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1
That would be funny!
Telegraph - Arsenal risk losing Theo Walcott for less than £400,000 unless they resolve the issues surrounding his contract.
The Express reports that Walcott has 18 months remaining on his current deal but, should he decide to run down his contract, Arsenal would be entitled to compensation because of his age.
That would only amount to £90,000 for every year the 19-year-old has spent at the club, due to Fifa regulations.
The Express adds that Real Madrid are aware Walcott could talk to European clubs next January, while Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool are also monitoring the situation.
Walcott could also decide to buy out the last year of his contact for £1m in May, but Arsenal are optimistic that incoming chief executive Ivan Gazidis will immediately get to work on a contract extension once he takes up his new position.
Arsenal will face last season's beaten finalists Cardiff in the fourth round of the FA Cup following their 3-1 defeat of Plymouth at the Emirates Stadium. And Robin van Persie, whose double against Argyle ensured Arsenal's progress, believes Arsene Wenger's side can break their trophy drought this season.
"When I arrived at Arsenal they were winning trophies for fun. They were champions when I arrived and in my first season I won the FA Cup," said Van Persie.
"I was expecting that to carry on but it hasn't really happened like that. But it's not a reason for me to give up, it's a bigger challenge to do it this time. We need to win a trophy as soon as possible. We've been very unlucky with injuries so we want to do something for the club and the fans."