Re: The Football Chat Thread : Wed Nov 03, 2010 10:51 pm  

Magic man wrote:

Gareth Bale thought he had a better chance of regular football at Spurs at the time, rather than go to Manchester United where he would have been playing second fiddle to Patrice Evra, despite Ryan Giggs' best effort to convince him otherwise.

Yeah, but don't you think he was convinced he'd play more at Spurs? What if Spurs came out and said 'we'll play you eventually, but you'll be a reserve first', whereas Fergie said 'you'll play straight away' but then made him a reserve. Would Bale have decided from that that he'd play more at Spurs? It's obvious to stop a player going to United you have to do a lot of convincing.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Nov 04, 2010 6:58 am  

Robbie Rotten wrote:

Yeah, but don't you think he was convinced he'd play more at Spurs? What if Spurs came out and said 'we'll play you eventually, but you'll be a reserve first', whereas Fergie said 'you'll play straight away' but then made him a reserve. Would Bale have decided from that that he'd play more at Spurs? It's obvious to stop a player going to United you have to do a lot of convincing.

No. A 17 year old thinking he has a chance to play in front of arguably the worlds best leftback, or signing for a big club who at the time were awful and having a chance to start. The man clearly know's what he is doing, but to attempt to glitz the man up solely because he has joined your club is a bit of a reach.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Nov 04, 2010 8:04 am  

Cibaman wrote:

Probably not. The issue for Liverpool fans isnt so much whether the owners load debt onto the club, but whether they can afford to keep their initial investment in the club without making a return on it. The club but could remain entirely debt free but the owners might still need to take out cash in the form of dividends.

They're going to take/force money out of the club somehow; whether it's in dividends, debt repayments of whatever. They're not doing it for the love of LFC. I'm sure they would like the club to appreciate it value so they can sell it on at a profit; but if any Liverpool fans are under any illusions about their ultimate intentions (making money) they're living in cloud cuckoo land.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:46 am  

Magic man wrote:

No. A 17 year old thinking he has a chance to play in front of arguably the worlds best leftback, or signing for a big club who at the time were awful and having a chance to start. The man clearly know's what he is doing, but to attempt to glitz the man up solely because he has joined your club is a bit of a reach.

I'm not trying to 'glitz' him up, I'm just trying to offer the 'other' side, the side that people seem to be ignorant of because it's something that hasn't been accepted in British football. Like we seen straight away, people pointed to players like Kaboul and Boateng as poor signings, but they've gone on to be decent/good players, so that 'something' that the scout seen was actually there, something some people struggle to accept.

People just assume DOF's are scouts, that all they do is look for players, show the manager then the club sign them, but there are people like Chief exec's and so on that have to be convinced by the DOF that each player is worth the investment. Also just assuming that a player decides on his own is wrong, as each club will have their 'pitch' with him. If Comolli and Levy managed to seriously convince Bale to join them over Man United, then they have to be praised for ousting the biggest club in the land to signing a top player.

Also, I've spoken during times in the past that I'd be really hopeful of us appointing a DOF. I mentioned it a few weeks/months back as I believe it is the best way for a club to progress without having the 'complete' world class manager.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:51 am  

Ian 77 Redux wrote:

They're going to take/force money out of the club somehow; whether it's in dividends, debt repayments of whatever. They're not doing it for the love of LFC. I'm sure they would like the club to appreciate it value so they can sell it on at a profit; but if any Liverpool fans are under any illusions about their ultimate intentions (making money) they're living in cloud cuckoo land.

I can't quite explain this with true clarity, but, from what I understand, NESV haven't made any profits from the Boston Red Sox. I obviously don't understand the whole ins and outs, but their general aim seems to be to make the club competitive, raise the value and stature of the club so that, in the long term future, its resale value will be immense.

I also think the proposed introduction of the Financial Fair Play was another reason for them coming in. I remember the owner of another NFL team (can't remember who, maybe the Patriots?) said he wanted to buy the club, but the lack of salary cap and transfer cap put him off, as he believed many clubs were spending beyond their means. I think/hope the FFP will balance the playing field out in terms of competitiveness in the sport, although I'm not 100% clear on how it will work, I hope it puts an end to the Chelsea's and Man Citeh's of the world.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:50 pm  

Ian 77 Redux wrote:

They're going to take/force money out of the club somehow; whether it's in dividends, debt repayments of whatever. They're not doing it for the love of LFC. I'm sure they would like the club to appreciate it value so they can sell it on at a profit; but if any Liverpool fans are under any illusions about their ultimate intentions (making money) they're living in cloud cuckoo land.

I think they've said that they're hoping to leave the money in and grow the club's revenues. That suggests that they're in it for a while with a view to making a capital gain.

I must admit that I'm slightly wary of US owners who assume that they can realise untapped commercial opportunities that previous owners have somehow ignored. Particularly in the case of clubs like United and Liverpool that have been reasonably successful in that respect. Perhaps they're assuming, like the Glazers, that clubs will eventually be able to negotiate their own television deals which would be good news for Liverpool.

My experience of working for US owners is that they tend to fall into two categories. Some are genuine multinationalists that are very good at adapting their business model to work overseas. Others have done well in one particular sector in the US and assume that they can easily do the same abroad by taking exactly the same approach. The latter are downright dangerous. It will be interesting to see which category NESV fall into.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:44 pm  

Another good result for City tonight...

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:50 pm  

Thank fook for Stevie G

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:00 pm  

LFCRhino wrote:

Thank fook for Stevie G

TBH that donkey Shelvey must be pi55ed that the Napoli defenders didn't set it up for him like they did for Gerrard.

Gerrard was excellent when he came on. Did something good with pretty much every touch. But he wasn't looking like doing anything major until the Napoli defence started setting him up.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:00 pm  

One man team?