Juande Ramos interview on Spanish Radio

[Juande_Ramos]

There are some horrible rumours about Board indifference over Petrov and mickey mouse offers to him before he went to City .

What this interview makes clear is that Levy HAS been interfering in transfers in the Jol years adding creedence to the claim that Jol's been shafted by not getting players he wanted . A cynic might say that Levy will ONLY buy the young players because their value will appreciate and make the club more valuable.

I don't think its a good idea to give a chairman this kind of power..

..so I agree with Joey

Maybe the Levy involvement is just to do with saying whether there is money to buy the player or not. I can' imagine English chairmen telling the manager which players to sign, like many chairmen in Spain do :grin:

 

[joey55]

Joey. These days, they don't only weigh up the price of a player, availability, current ability, potential ability and potential sell on value they have to weigh up the potential marketing value a player could bring to the club: i.e Shirt Sales, Off the Pitch Reputation etc etc (think what David Beckham would bring to a club) That's just not Commoli's area of expertese.

Do you not understand how much money 1 million pounds is? Imagine it in your bank acount. It's not small change and sometimes, as fans, we think it is. More supporters should appreciate our board are VERY considerate when spending our Club's money.

I think my understanding of the value of money is perhaps why I am secptical of our future under Enic. I think you are very much missing my point. Have a look at the how much Enic have invested in the club and how much that investement might be worth now (it could well be worth comparing that with the value of other clubs such as Arsenal). Then have a look at what their initial targets for the club were. Then have a look at how and why our transfer policy has evolved. Then have a look at what changes might have occurred over the last 5 years that may have made them reassess the possibility of achieving inital targets Enic had for the club. Then look at what strategical changes this reassessment might mean you want to make (perhaps do a few calculations based on risk to reward ratios for CL qualification ie check out Arsenals CL revenue). If this involves possible earlier than expected sale of the club, what demographic would be your likely target as potential customers and what you'd do to make yourself an attractive propositon for this demographic (might be worth taking a peak at how American sports franchises operate.) If you do all of these things (which not a single one of the hundreds journalists in either the sports or financial press have bothered to do), then I'm sure you'd be equally cautious of our future under Enic.


As for your first paragraph i seriously doubt the board consider shirt sales when signing players. Good players sell shirts. There will be very exceptional circumstances with players like Beckham, but i don't think we need to be overly concerned by that.

 

[PT]

It's clear that Ramos's philosophy of a fast paced attacking system is somewhat at odds with what he has seen both on video and first hand with THFC.

Fitness and stamina is a prerequisite for this kind of football, a modern style that sits well with the most successful, but an historic brand notably embraced by our very own Tottenham back in the fifties with the "push and run" style.

Looking at our present squad it's clear that Alverez has his work cut out to instil movement, aggression and stamina to at least give Ramos some building blocks to work with.

We do have class players and it may just be off-field direction through training regime that is missing. If that is the case then our previous two fifth places may not be as mischievously opportunistic as we are tempted to think.

Ramos has a gleam in his eye - he sees potential and that is good enough for me. We do have untapped raw talent in our young squad - let's not forget that. It may be a season or two until this crop of players are mature enough to contest Champions League positions and I'm prepared to be patient to watch the construction of a new dawn at WHL.

COYS

 

[Legend10]

Quite. If he can get Levy to bend his 'Are you mad? £10m for a 28-year-old midfielder? Don't you realise we'll never get that money back?' philosophy it will be another huge plus.

I thought it was revealing that Jol said 'We thought about Chivu and Distin'. Was that him and Comolli? If so, did Levy tell them to forget it?

Why do you think that levy would tell Jol and Comolli to forget about signing Distin on a Bosman?

What would Levy have to lose by doing this other than a probably fairly insignificant signing on fee and circa 20k a week? He would also land a player with a sell on value and could even have made money on the deal, so what would be his motive?

 

[southlondonyiddo]

Alexander. Club Secretary.

:rofl::rofl:

The f***** club secretary with a 25% say in who we buy

You have to laugh otherwise you'd slit your wrists.

 

[DFF]

:rofl::rofl:

The f***** club secretary with a 25% say in who we buy

You have to laugh otherwise you'd slit your wrists.

Do us all a favour and stop laughing then.

 

[southlondonyiddo]

Do us all a favour and stop laughing then.

Mug

 

[joey55]

Why do you think that levy would tell Jol and Comolli to forget about signing Distin on a Bosman?

What would Levy have to lose by doing this other than a probably fairly insignificant signing on fee and circa 20k a week? He would also land a player with a sell on value and could even have made money on the deal, so what would be his motive?

I'm pretty sure Distin is on £40,000 per week and just a 3 year deal. If you were Levy would you do that deal? I don't remember any other over 30s being given more than a 2 year deal and I think he'd be even less inclined to do so now. Essentially it just loses the club £6 million over 3 years. In a year or two's time who the hell is going to want to pay a transfer fee for a 31 or 32 year old who will require a £40,000 per week salary? I'm sure he'd be even less inclined to do such a deal when there is the possibility to sign someone like Kaboul and pay him a more realistic £20,000 per week.

 

[SpurSince57]

Why do you think that levy would tell Jol and Comolli to forget about signing Distin on a Bosman?

What would Levy have to lose by doing this other than a probably fairly insignificant signing on fee and circa 20k a week? He would also land a player with a sell on value and could even have made money on the deal, so what would be his motive?

From my pretty good source up at City, Distin refused to sign a new contract there because they wouldn't up his wages substantially. It would have been more like £50k a week rather than the £25k he was supposed to be getting at City (and the Barcodes dithered about his wage demands a few years ago, which was how Keegan got him to sign for City in the first place).

Reports from Bulgaria suggest Levy offered Petrov a derisory £11k a week.

 

[southlondonyiddo]

I'm pretty sure Distin is on £40,000 per week and just a 3 year deal. If you were Levy would you do that deal? I don't remember any other over 30s being given more than a 2 year deal and I think he'd be even less inclined to do so now. Essentially it just loses the club £6 million over 3 years. In a year or two's time who the hell is going to want to pay a transfer fee for a 31 or 32 year old who will require a £40,000 per week salary? I'm sure he'd be even less inclined to do such a deal when there is the possibility to sign someone like Kaboul and pay him a more realistic £20,000 per week.

For me it comes back to the Sugar days when the scum paid 13m for Bergkamp and Sugar stated he would never pay that for a player because you'd never get that money back. Bergkamp started the revolution and them down the road to hundreds of millions!
Who knows whether Distan would have been a great buy for Martin Jol, who knows it could have addede valuable experience to the back line early in the season and ended with the side in the Champions League, thus being a great signing.
Obviuosly we'll never know cos our club secretery and chairman didn't fancy it!!

 

[southlondonyiddo]

From my pretty good source up at City, Distin refused to sign a new contract there because they wouldn't up his wages substantially. It would have been more like £50k a week rather than the £25k he was supposed to be getting at City (and the Barcodes dithered about his wage demands a few years ago, which was how Keegan got him to sign for City in the first place).

Reports from Bulgaria suggest Levy offered Petrov a derisory £11k a week.

We spent 40 odd million in the summer and should have both Petrov & Bale at our club now, rempaging down the left hand side. How good would that have been, mixing those two up, resting the young Bale etc

 

[tippspur59]

Dont know how hudd is going to fit into this attacking with pace plan. and i had a feeling that the Alves and Kanote story was a load of crap.

 

[Legend10]

If Distin wanted 40-50k a week I completely support Levy in not doing the deal.

I read that Distin was on 20k at City and was looking for anywhere between 20-30k after his Bosman, that I would have paid, but 40-50 no way not for me.

Wasn't it somebody on here who claimed he offered Petrov 11k? I'm sorry I don't believe that, that's just plain daft

 

[SpurSince57]

If Distin wanted 40-50k a week I completely support Levy in not doing the deal.

I read that Distin was on 20k at City and was looking for anywhere between 20-30k after his Bosman, that I would have paid, but 40-50 no way not for me.

Wasn't it somebody on here who claimed he offered Petrov 11k? I'm sorry I don't believe that, that's just plain daft

Yes, it is, isn't it?

It's also totally unbelievable that Comolli could have told Levy that he could flog Carrick for a whopping profit because he had someone much better lined up, and that Levy fell for this.

In fact, this whole season is out of the You Couldn't Make It Up Department.

For vacillation, duplicitousness, cowardice and incompetence, Levy's the tops. Yes, we have a manager who may well improve on Jol, but at what cost? And where was the Dear Leader at this afternoon's shambolic press conference?

 

[DefoeFan]

Personally I don't think Comolli should have any say in transfers, He doesn't coach them or pick them to play. So he's role in transfers is pointless.

I read somewhere, Which I really wish were true, That Levy said to him "If those players you brought in don't perform under the new manager, then not only will they be out the door, but so will you!.

Fair I say!.

 

[joey55]

We'll have a transfer fee/salary model in place, which will be the key determinant in our buying stragtey. I suspect what happend is we looked at the Petrov deal, in terms of his age, the length of contract he was after, the fee involved and came to a very low figure in terms of salary. So, rather than make an offer, more broached the subject with his agent to see if there was any possibility of a deal at such low numbers. Hence it could be reported that we only offered £11,000, when in reality we knew we'd not get him for that, but just let our positon be known. £5 million for a 28 year old, on a 3 yeard deal, isn't going to leave a great deal left over for a salary. If we weren't prepared to pay Distin £40,000 per week, then there isn't much difference between that and offering petrov £11,000, or rather not offering him that, but letting it be known that's the sort of figure we'd be talking about.

 

[Legend10]

What is Petrov on at City?

I have seen reports of 50k a week which is possible

3 year contract 7.5 million in wages + 5 million fee = 12.5 million @ 80k a week and no sell on value.

Got to say I'm well and truly with Levy on that 1 as well.

 

[joey55]

What is Petrov on at City?

I have seen reports of 50k a week which is possible

3 year contract 7.5 million in wages + 5 million fee = 12.5 million @ 80k a week and no sell on value.

Got to say I'm well and truly with Levy on that 1 as well.

I think it's 22k. That's what is was reported in Bulgaria anyway and makes sense. He came from Wolfsburg, where he'd have been on about 8k, then moved to Athletico, where he couldn't have been on more than 20k, but probably more like 15k. Given his age, knee injury and length of contract, it's hugely unlikey he'll be on anymore than what has been reported in Bulgaria. Also, if City couldn't keep Distin and apparently are about to make Richards their highest paid player on 50k, it again seems unlikley. In the press here he was reported to be on 55k, per week, but they use terms like "a deal worth 55k per week." What that actually means in that he cost £4.8 million which over 3 years is about 33k per week and on top of that are his 22k per week salary.

 

[Wellspurs]

For me it comes back to the Sugar days when the scum paid 13m for Bergkamp and Sugar stated he would never pay that for a player because you'd never get that money back. Bergkamp started the revolution and them down the road to hundreds of millions!
Who knows whether Distan would have been a great buy for Martin Jol, who knows it could have addede valuable experience to the back line early in the season and ended with the side in the Champions League, thus being a great signing.
Obviuosly we'll never know cos our club secretery and chairman didn't fancy it!!

Bergkamp cost £7m we paid £4m for Chris Armstrong in the same year!!!

 

[Legend10]

I think it's 22k. That's what is was reported in Bulgaria anyway and makes sense. He came from Wolfsburg, where he'd have been on about 8k, then moved to Athletico, where he couldn't have been on more than 20k, but probably more like 15k. Given his age, knee injury and length of contract, it's hugely unlikey he'll be on anymore than what has been reported in Bulgaria. Also, if City couldn't keep Distin and apparently are about to make Richards their highest paid player on 50k, it again seems unlikley. In the press here he was reported to be on 55k, per week, but they use terms like "a deal worth 55k per week." What that actually means in that he cost £4.8 million which over 3 years is about 33k per week and on top of that are his 22k per week salary.

This story from the Mail run at the time has him on 60k a week and says we wouldn't break our wage structure to sign him

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...all.html?in_article_id=477217&in_page_id=1779

The truth is we just don't know.