The 2015-16 World Fitba Thread!

GAME ON





























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I don't enjoy watching a legendary club like Liverpool, one of Europe's most iconic sides, being humiliated by Etihad FC.

 

Nor do other true football fans like Feebles, Hut, etc etc etc.

But that is the market we live in. Honour in the petro dollar.

People will go on about how liverpool spent BAZILLIONS but they didn't. They bought in a bear market, sold in a bull market, and tried to re-invest the proceeds.

Its the old model.

City is the new model.

 

Liverpool down to ten men after Glen Johnson mercifully went off injured.

 

Toure could have walked there.

 

To a certain extent, all big money is dirty money... But there are degrees... Oil money, especially in the Middle East is as dirty as money gets

 

Cocaine money???

 

City is fantastic. I thought Chelsea would have the leg up in the EPL this year but maybe not with the huge array of attacking options City has all over he pitch.

And throw in arguably the best central midfield in the EPL while you are at it.

 

Los Zetas to purchase Sheffield Wednesday

 

They would pass the "fit and proper" owners test, no doubt.

 

Absolutely and Michel Platini would have fuck all to say

 

"But Liverpool, despite spending £117m, aren't going to challenge for the title"

Robbie Savage, who somehow gets a job at the BBC despite being a useless cunt.

 

New owner.

 

Liverpool are plebeians with their domestic players and what not.

Everyone knows you buy a consortium of foreign mercenaries to win titles. Hence, Chelsea and Man City two man race. :)

 

The problem is the feudal nature of the football associations and the various leagues.


There is huge money involved.

Its like Miami in the "Cocaine Cowboys" docu-drama.

So much coke money, car salesmen, real estate guys, construction...banking...all profited.

Just like London....London is where people went when they got run out of New York by the regulators.

If you have billions, and you want to tie it up in a tax-free venture, and see a return on your investment, do it in England with a football club.

The more you invest, the more your return is. City have real-estate, Champions league, merchandising and other "diverse interests".

 

What is factually incorrect about this?

 

City have done fuck all in the Champions League in their last three attempts

 

This is also part of the problem.

Out of all of the starters and substitutes today only the goalkeeper is an English national. And this is supposed to be an "English Team".

 

They've had some tough groups though to be fair. I'm sure they'll improve in Europe in the coming years.

 

That's because Real and Barca generally have stronger teams every single year.

Luckily that won't stop them from dominating the English league. :dunno:

 

Its the old lie...they havent spent £117m...they have spent around £40m. Try to look past the fucking glitter...they sold their best player, and had to spread the income to spread the risk. If they kept Suarez, sold nobody, and spread out £117m, then Savage and his enablers might have a point. The proceeds had to be spent, so ironically, the moment of the greatest financial gain becomes the moment of the biggest risk.

Football fans forget so easily. Everton sold Rooney in 2004 for £30m. Only one club really benefitted out of it, and that was Manchester United. Everton could only spend the money and try to plug holes in their squad set up and try to keep going.

Same with Rodwell....Rodwell turned out to be so-so but Moyes did not splash the money in one go, he couldn't.

 

You could always do what a lot of the Asian leagues do and have a limit on foreign players.

I know some have it where you can only dress 5 or so foreign born players per squad.

But the English League isn't likely to do this and further diminish the worldwide prestige of their league.

 

City faced ONE of those teams ONCE.

Real and Barcelona have stronger teams because they spend first and sell second.

Liverpool have been, since 2007 at the very least, selling first and buying second.

Same with Everton...one exception possibly is Lukaku but Everton had done no REAL spending for years, and their spending was frugality punctuated by bursts of £10 and £15m activity.

The key advantages to buying first and selling second...well there are many of them....first off, you get your men in sooner, so they are bedding in longer, like James at Real. Buy him first, sell Di Maria later.

Take the same example....United have to sign. Its late in the window. Real need to sell but not like United need to buy. Real get top top price for their man. United get him late, bed him in late, and pay way way more.

 

CASH. Is the bottom line. CASH. Its all about the money. The English League is really the Premier League, with the FA looking on, wringing its hands futilely and the lower-leagues all trying to catch some gravy off the masters plate.

 

I believe there is some kind of rule even in England but it has more to do with how many local players you own. Doesn't really matter if they play.

There should be a limit on how many foreign players imo. I don't know what the numbers should or shouldn't be but it's absurd when basically the entire squad including the bench are imports.

 

The flaw with Savages logic is further highlighted when you consider the following:

Of the players that were vital in City winning the title last year, how many have they sold??

Answer: none.

Have they augmented their squad in the meantime??

Yes.

 

It doesn't matter. There's only one winner.

They haven't had the strongest team in Europe and likely still don't, but when it comes to the English league you get results like 3-1 over Liverpool.

They are a stellar team no doubt. Organized too.

 

Well despite having a football crazed nation and probably the most detailed and thorough professional infrastructure in the world. The English just don't seem to be very good at football.

You look at the Bundesliga and the top teams are all filled with German players, at least half, generally and most have German captains and their best players are Germans. No surprises, Germany wins the WC.

Spanish league is the same, most of the players being Spanish. And Spain dominated Europe for a good half dozen years, no surprises there,

The English couldn't even get past a tiny little island nation in the WC and went home in shame. With this, and other similar national failures recently it's not really surprising that the best English sides throw a keeper and a couple of center backs on the squad and fill the rest up with foreigners.

 

Liverpool have plenty to look forward to, Markovic looked lively, Lambert is a good bench option, Can will look better, the trouble is that City were so settled and every team bar Chelsea are trying to bed in their key players quickly...

 

Yeah, that's the essence of what I was saying. A man in a trench can fend off 10 guys running across a field to get at him. Nothing like being well embedded.