big-will
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Posts posted by big-will
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And I thought he was so popular!
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Interesting
A manager at a League Two club delivers an unequivocal message to a journeyman forward, a proven goalscorer seeking the solace of a short-term contract: “Accept £200 a week, or go back to being a tyre fitter in Macclesfield.”
The agent of a teenaged triallist released from the factory farm of a Premier League Academy attempts, cogently but unsuccessfully, to argue that a hat-trick in a pre-season friendly is worth £250 a week.
He is on eight per cent of very little, but is fearful his peers will steal his client should other clubs signal an interest. Agents are hijacking deals, squabbling for loose change. Players are hardly paragons of virtue: one was discovered stringing along six agents supposedly working on his behalf.
Wayne’s world might leave him “angry and confused” but the real world is bleaker than Rooney, or his retinue, can imagine. Professional football in a recession is a forbidding place, where the concept of financial fair play has an entirely different connotation to that envisaged by administrators seeking sanity in the market place.
The plutocrats may play their games – major transfers are the equivalent of blind man’s bluff and tend to feature those for whom the truth is an abstract concept – but though they shape public perception, they are not representative of the industry.
Stars like Rooney, mini corporations with coherent commercial strategies which require constant recycling of the principal product, cannot lose. Their contracts are comfort blankets, which can be discarded well before they lose their warmth.
The average Premier League player is merely inconvenienced if he is shown the door through indolence or inability. At worst, he will slip into the Championship and learn to live with the loss of face and status.
Slither down the pyramid, and rejection carries serious consequences. Mortgages become unsustainable, and the knowledge that footballers are ill-prepared for alternative employment becomes oppressive. These players are habitually referred to as “bodies”.
They are treated with a thoughtless lack of respect and kept around clubs to supplement small first-team squads in the build-up to the new season. They are the ones playing as if their life depends on it, which, in a way, it does.
Several managers of my acquaintance confide they will release their triallists this week. Players who have not secured a club within a fortnight face an endless winter. As of yesterday morning, there were 458 players coming to terms with the fact the dream may have died.
All are out of contract and feature in the Professional Footballers’ Association’s online gallery. This is a showcase for the selective morality of the system. It highlights young men for whom the game is the source of a fragile sense of self-esteem.
The first player on the PFA’s carousel of hope and desperation is Sam Sheridan, a 23-year-old central midfield player who made 28 appearances for Stockport in the Conference last season. The last name on the list is that of Joe Turley, a 19-year-old midfielder released by Cheltenham.
Another simple set of statistics explains rampant self-interest and short-termism. The average lifespan of a manager is less than 18 months – 52 League managers were sacked or resigned last season. Swindon’s Kevin MacDonald has failed to survive even pre-season.
Time is precious. Resources are scarce. The human cost is terrifying. Clarke Carlisle did his profession a great service with his documentary on the dangers of depression last week, prompting many players to share their secrets. Athletes live for the moment. In the next couple of days, that journeyman forward is expected to accept £200 a week as the price of his obsession.
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For a start Vacation should be Holiday
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Chelsea offer Mata plus 10 million for Rooney?!
Wasn't Mata excellent last season?
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I actually just did laugh out loud.
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“He doesn’t believe he should play second fiddle to anyone after all he has done.” The ace feels he is at his peak.
Last season was his peak?!
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And likely to be knighted??
Great achievement, well done.
But what a load of old smelly bollocks is all this Cameron and knighthood talk.
Anyway, shouldn't a good Scot tell them where to stick that?
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Sure you'll love it.
Let us know how it goes.
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Nishikawa Chomin
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Never mind Man of Steel... what about the new Quo movie!!
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The US State Department has now offered him a "one-entry travel document" to return home
That should do it, definitely!
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I think more people's heads should get chopped off, really.
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Rooney’s representatives are expected to re-iterate the player’s desire to leave and his dissatisfaction with what happened last season when he was played out of position following the arrival of Robin van Persie, dropped for key games such as the Champions League tie at home to Real Madrid and had his fitness questioned by Sir Alex Ferguson.
Pretty good answers to all of those points isn't there!
Wasn't one reason Rooney previously asked for a transfer because he didn't think United could bring in good players.
But when they come and play better than him.....!
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Omedeto!
Sounds like a sumo wrestler!!
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Do such people exist?!
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Tevex to Juventus I see.
Is that nearer home, Carlos?
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Hakuba 47: 17
Hakuba Cortina: 12 (-)
Hakuba Goryu: 20 (+)
I find it hard to seperate 47/Goryu.
muika, Yuzawa one!
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Hakuba 47 - 13
Hakuba Cortina - 14 (-)
Hakuba Goryu - 13
Happo-one - 6 (+)
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I bet Sony in a way regret pushing the point so much.
Then again, people were pissed anyway so it probably would have happened without that.
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Hakuba 47 - 12
Hakuba Cortina - 13 (-)
Hakuba Goryu - 12 (+)
Happo-one - 9
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What's your take on the current Newcastle fuss, Mr Wiggles?
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When are they out, this week isn't it?
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What do you do re: birds eating them, other than politely asking....?
The FOOTBALL Thread (2013-2014)
in General off-topic discussions
Posted
I'm pretty sure United used to keep pretty quiet about transfer bids and the like until they actually happened.
Like you say, odd that they come out and say things like that. Same with Jose saying how much he wants Rooney.
Doesn't seem like a smart strategy!