[Archived] Other Pl Happenings 2009/10

[Steve Moss]

I agree Kamy, there is a "football recession" coming and those clubs operating right at the edge and not maintaing wage controls are going to suffer enormously.

Neither Hull nor Pompey have shifted the players out they needed to and so have the double whammy of wage bills far in excess of anything their income can support and not enough transfer money in to keep them out of trouble.

Speaking to a senior football administrator (not at Rovers), he blamed the slowness of the transfer market this January on the following:

- clubs with money to spend had been burnt by the predatory antics of Chelsea and City in the past so they waited for those two clubs to do their business and apart from the Johnson move (which burnt a number of clubs who had wanted him), nothing happened.

- Chelsea and City had very noisily been doing a lot of scouting so a large number of players and their agents had Chelsea/City wage levels in their eyes when any PL club were in talks.

- everybody knew Pompey and Hull have serious troubles (and West Ham did have) so they were waiting for the bargain basement floodgates to open up. In reality, those clubs have chosen to flirt with insolvency rather than give players away but the agents of players at those clubs saw a chance to move transfer fees not being paid into their players' pockets and so screwed the deals. He is of the opinion that one or two players whose wages are not being paid deserve to lose the lot.

- with many clubs being financed by debt, there was a total refusal on the part of lenders to up their exposure to football clubs and in fact the pressure now is to get football debt dramatically reduced. All financiers have read about the Fair Trading pressure on Sky to open up their packages and they know that is going to feed through to lower Sky money for the PL in the future.

- but the crunch is that players and particularly agents' expectations are suddenly totally misaligned with what is possible. Players are screwing up by listening to wide boys who promise they know how to negotiate the "right package" with the result that deals cannot be done quickly any more. With everybody waiting until the last moment to see how the window was going, the complications of multiple agents just strangled the whole thing and in many ways prevented the message about the new reality of life in the PL reaching their clients; the players.

- the final reason he gave is a funny- Harry Redknapp was too busy preparing for his Court case!

As usual Philip, you've hit the nail on the head.

I'm wondering how many windows will it take for the players and their agents to adjust to the new reality?

John Williams and Sam are looking fairly shrewd, IMO.

[brian_gallagher85]

Transfer Window 2010 (in my opinion):

Biggest Losers:

Hull - Bought a disruptive player in Zaki. Have taken a risk by not accepting 5 million for Hunt. If they go down they will be lucky to get three million.

Good summary but I think that selling Hunt would have been suicide tbh. He's the only player they have can/could keep them up.

[Tom]

Hull beating Chelsea is bad news for us

[Guest Kamy100]

Good point for Hull as they get an unlikely draw against Chelsea.

[modes98]

A draw that has made me miss out on £30 in an multi from the weekend . Still it moves Dingles to 19th and at least they didn't win.

[they_think_its_all_rover]

Chelsea only scored because of poor reffing. George Boateng said in an interview after the game; the reason he and Myhill argued with the ref after Drogba scored is because the ref told them the freekick was indirect. Boateng set the wall up ready to charge... Drogba strikes it direct, it goes in, the ref allows it. Big 4 decisions for you.

Drogba himself should have been off - swung an arm at McShane who had to go off for stitches. Ref didn't see it, but gave a yellow cause of the blood.

John Terry looked like he had swallowed the world after chants of "Terry, Terry where's you wife?" and "Your getting divorced in the morning, divorced in the morning!" Don't worry Cashley wasn't left out of the fun; "Ashley, watch your wife! Ashley, Ashley watch you wife!"

[they_think_its_all_rover]

.

Biggest Losers:

Hull - Bought a disruptive player in Zaki.

From the BBC;

2042: Just looking at replays of that Hull goal. First man Phil Brown celebrated with? Amr Zaki. They're bezzie mates. Wonder how long that'll last?

[brian_gallagher85]

Not wishing to defend Drogba for a second but McShane should have seen red in the first half after he lashed out at Drogba on the touchline.

[modes98]

Chelsea only scored because of poor reffing. George Boateng said in an interview after the game; the reason he and Myhill argued with the ref after Drogba scored is because the ref told them the freekick was indirect. Boateng set the wall up ready to charge... Drogba strikes it direct, it goes in, the ref allows it.

Wasn't it a slide tackle when Anelka was running towards goal. How can that be an indirect free kick?

Perhaps they misheard the ref as it seemed a pretty blatant direct free kick to me.

The refs arm signal upon the taking of the free kick should also dictate whether the free kick is direct or not.

[PAFELL]

Hull beating Chelsea is bad news for us

A draw sent burnley 2nd from bottom - good news for us.

[Bobby G]

We have been so lucky during the past 6-8 weeks that the team in the bottom have barely mustered a couple of wins between each other. At the same time, anyone who wins 2 games on the trot could pull away (something which we have done recently).

[Majiball]

I'm sure someone will have already mentioned it, but.

Benjani WTF, again moves after the deadline???

Do the rules say everyone is governed by these rules with the exception of Benjani the banjo??

Just like every other rule in football, they count for nothing these days.

[tcj_jones]

Transfer Window 2010 (in my opinion):

Biggest Winners:

Bolton - Two outstanding attacking young players in on loan for nominal fees.

Fulham - 12 million for Smalling, outlay of less than a million for loan signings. Hopefully started the journey to becoming self sufficient.

Blackburn - A healthy profit of over 1.5 million with the sale of McCharty. Basturk and Lingazini will be interesting signings.

Aston Villa - No incomings but got over 3 million in transfer fees fr players out.

Biggest Losers:

Hull - Bought a disruptive player in Zaki. Have taken a risk by not accepting 5 million for Hunt. If they go down they will be lucky to get three million.

Sunderland - So many deals lined up by Bruce fell through.

Tottenham - Secured Gudjohnson and let go of Keane. Poor business in my opinion. Resigned Kaboul, not a great player by any means. Missed out on Begovic and James.

Man City - Failed in their last minute bid for McDonald Mariga due to work permit problems. Failed in their bids for Cordoba, Cassano and Gago. Signed Vieira despite him failing a medical. Barely got the Adam Johnson deal done.

Interesting that you see Rovers as one of the biggest winners in this window, ffan. Few neutrals would agree with you! Just got to hope Kalinic keeps up his good form and doesn't get injured. I think we did well getting in two midfielders but would have liked to have seen a loan striker come in.

Funnily enough, I think West Ham did the best this window, bringing in three strikers to support their ailing attack.

[thenodrog]

Interesting that you see Rovers as one of the biggest winners in this window, ffan. Few neutrals would agree with you! Just got to hope Kalinic keeps up his good form and doesn't get injured. I think we did well getting in two midfielders but would have liked to have seen a loan striker come in.

FFan is a neutral.

[gumboots]

FFan is a neutral.

Well not really since he's a fulham fan but from our point of view, yes he is

[they_think_its_all_rover]

Not wishing to defend Drogba for a second but McShane should have seen red in the first half after he lashed out at Drogba on the touchline.

If you look at it again, he doesn't lash out, he grabbed his collar and pushed him backwards, but at the speed you see it, it looks like he lashes out, as well as Drogba's reaction.

[they_think_its_all_rover]

Wasn't it a slide tackle when Anelka was running towards goal. How can that be an indirect free kick?

Perhaps they misheard the ref as it seemed a pretty blatant direct free kick to me.

The refs arm signal upon the taking of the free kick should also dictate whether the free kick is direct or not.

Well the ref had told them that it was indirect, which is why the majority of players were furious with the ref after it went in. On the replays you can even see Stephen Hunt go and claify that it's indirect with the ref just before it was taken.

[gumboots]

Well the ref had told them that it was indirect, which is why the majority of players were furious with the ref after it went in. On the replays you can even see Stephen Hunt go and claify that it's indirect with the ref just before it was taken.

Not PL but did you see the danny Butterfield hattrick last night, and the delight onhis face at having scored it. Genuinely could not stop smiling. Lovely to see that things like that do still matter to players

[tcj_jones]

FFan is a neutral.

Indeed, hence why I found it interesting.

[67splitscreen]

Not PL but did you see the danny Butterfield hattrick last night, and the delight onhis face at having scored it. Genuinely could not stop smiling. Lovely to see that things like that do still matter to players

9 goals in some 350 app, I think I'd be

[Look4Me]

9 goals in some 350 app, I think I'd be

Yeah, he's originally a right back...something we should consider? We have so many right backs at least one of them should be good enough as a striker

I think The Guardian's live reporter said something like "He's scored 1 goal in the past 6 years before scoring 3 in 6 minutes tonight"

[Tom]

Well the ref had told them that it was indirect, which is why the majority of players were furious with the ref after it went in. On the replays you can even see Stephen Hunt go and claify that it's indirect with the ref just before it was taken.

They can claim that all they want but it's just daft, there's no reason for it to be indirect and I'm pretty sure the ref wouldn't have said otherwise.

Either way Boetang almost moved out of the way of it so it's no excuse.

[mellison24]

They can claim that all they want but it's just daft, there's no reason for it to be indirect and I'm pretty sure the ref wouldn't have said otherwise.

Either way Boetang almost moved out of the way of it so it's no excuse.

I have never understood the principle of an indirect free-kick. Surely if a team sees an opportunity to score directly, they should be allowed to take that opportunity (as in this case)??? I for one NEVER know whether a free kick is given as direct or indirect. I just assume that players take the kicks how they feel presents them with the best opportunity to score?

Eg: Robbo's goal for Spurs (that bounced over Foster) can't have been a direct kick from 90 yards away, yet it went in, was given and no-one batted an eyelid. Is the 'indirect' thing a bit of a non-entity these days? The only thing I take the care to notice is whether the team is allowed to take the kick quickly or wait for the whistle.

[brian_gallagher85]

The only time there ever seems to be an indirect free given these days is for a back pass inside the box.

[Tom]

I understand it as if the referee raises one arm before the kick is taken its an in direct one.

Usually given for backpasses and technically I thought obstruction but I'm not sure on that one