Samuel Eto'o

[Petyr]

It seems that Farfan snubbed Spurs, too.

http://sport.setanta.com/en/Sport/News/Football/2008/06/10/Prem-Farfan-claims-Spurs-snub/

 

[General Levy]

Farfan would definitely not strenghten our 1st team. Anyone half decent can be a goal god in Eredivisie,

 

[Bonjour]

It seems that Farfan snubbed Spurs, too.

http://sport.setanta.com/en/Sport/News/Football/2008/06/10/Prem-Farfan-claims-Spurs-snub/

If he says so...

 

[tRiKS]

So Villa lose their most influential player/captain and it will not weaken them? Berbatov goes to Liverpool and it will not weaken us?

The less teams in the ECL the better. And now that the G14 is being disbanded, I can see Platini tightening the screw.

My little bro is a Viall season ticket holder

he's thier cpt but Carew, young, reo coker, laursen and Melberg wwere all more important and turned up in the bigger games more often than Barry.

A Gareth Barry/Xabi alonso swap would make Liverpool better at beating Championship teams in FA banana skin games but adds nothing in the CL and big PL games.

Liverpool are fading interms of revenue and the pond they are now fishing from is evidence of that.

 

[Petyr]

My guess is that Farfan wasn't sure he can start many games at Spurs.

But it's clear that Spurs want to sign a quality striker and not just a 4th striker. Pandev and Farfan wouldn't be a 4th striker here.

If it's true that Spurs tried to sign Eto'o, this is revealing to some extent about Berbatov's situation, too. If Levy and Ramos were optimistic about him staying, they wouldn't try to sign Eto'o, given that the latter would cost £25m transfer fee and many millions in wages. Beisdes, other positions like GK, CB, DM should be addressed as well.

 

[mil1lion]

So Villa lose their most influential player/captain and it will not weaken them? Berbatov goes to Liverpool and it will not weaken us?

The less teams in the ECL the better. And now that the G14 is being disbanded, I can see Platini tightening the screw.

OK, Villa would be weakened but they were hardly knocking on the door of a top 4 finish anyway. Besides, Villa will get plenty of money with which to improve their squad, so it could work out well for them to cash in. As for Berbatov, i was specifically talking about Barry going to Liverpool and how that would affect them. I just see it as a straight replacement for Alonso.

 

[General Levy]

OK, Villa would be weakened but they were hardly knocking on the door of a top 4 finish anyway. Besides, Villa will get plenty of money with which to improve their squad, so it could work out well for them to cash in. As for Berbatov, i was specifically talking about Barry going to Liverpool and how that would affect them. I just see it as a straight replacement for Alonso.

Villa finished 6th and we finished 11th last season. Barry leaving Villa is terrible news for the teams chasing the Top 4 clubs in England. Make 3 places for the ECL and you will see a far more competitive league.

 

[batigol]

Villa finished 6th and we finished 11th last season. Barry leaving Villa is terrible news for the teams chasing the Top 4 clubs in England. Make 3 places for the ECL and you will see a far more competitive league.

You have a valid point but I do not think reducing the number of places for EPL in ECL will happen. If you think about it another way, clubs will think that it is even harder to get into ECL with 3 places as compared to 4. Seeing Man U and Chelski's dominance of 1 and 2 positions, that drops Arse and Pool into the big fight for 3rd position so the competition will still be as fierce and the clubs that get into ECL regularly will pull even further away from the crowd because the financial benefit of ECL goes to only 3 instead of 4.

Also, you will still see the ECL regulars cherry-picking the best and it is just that players like Barry may not be good enough to fall into the best category so though Villa may not lose Barry, the top 2 teams will still get the best and it just means a more competitive league for the 3rd ECL position and Uefa cup spots as Villa with Barry or us with Carrick are still several players short of Chelsea and Man U's squad. Therefore, if your meaning of a more competitive league refers to great variety of title challengers or result in greater variety of teams achieving ECL status as compared to current 4, my opinion is no.....this will not happen even with reduction to 3 ECL places.

If the extra money from the 4th ECL place is distributed to all other clubs outside top 3 in your scenario, then perhaps it may mean a more competitive league. Otherwise, the top 3 will still remain streets ahead in terms of financial ability and therefore dominate EPL with a squad of world class players from the world over financed by their extra $$.

 

[mil1lion]

Villa finished 6th and we finished 11th last season. Barry leaving Villa is terrible news for the teams chasing the Top 4 clubs in England. Make 3 places for the ECL and you will see a far more competitive league.

I'd still expect the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal to sign top class players if they weren't in the Champions League. I just dont see the league being much different with only 3 teams in the CL. Aside from the fact that our country would have 1 less club in the biggest competition in the world, we ourselves would stand less chance of making it. So where does this suggestion go? We have a top 3? How are the other clubs going to benefit exactly? So Gareth Barry doesn't join Liverpool because they finished 4th? Maybe he still sees Liverpool as a step up as they are more likely to win trophies. They're still a very big club, so they could still afford him. Hell, Spurs have never been in the Champions League, but we can afford him. If Barry demands Champions League football, then he'll just end up at one of the top 3 instead. I can't see where this goes exactly.

The top players in Europe want to play in the Champions League. If theres fewer teams in the CL then those teams become even better than the rest. So we end up like La Liga, where all the best players go to either Real Madrid or Barcelona. The only other solution, if you want the league to be more competitive, would be to add 1 more team to the CL rather than take one away. The race for 5th between teams like Spurs, Villa and Everton would be much more competitive.

Or maybe a playoff for the Champions League qualifiers. The top 2 get CL qualification. Then the team in 3rd plays the team in 5th and the team in 4th play the team in 6th, for the remaining Champions League places. The winners then enter the Champions League qualifiers, and the runner ups enter the UEFA cup. At least that way, the battle for the top 2 spots is more competitive and the battle for 5th and 6th would be aswell.

 

[General Levy]

I'd still expect the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal to sign top class players if they weren't in the Champions League. I just dont see the league being much different with only 3 teams in the CL. Aside from the fact that our country would have 1 less club in the biggest competition in the world, we ourselves would stand less chance of making it. So where does this suggestion go? We have a top 3? How are the other clubs going to benefit exactly? So Gareth Barry doesn't join Liverpool because they finished 4th? Maybe he still sees Liverpool as a step up as they are more likely to win trophies. They're still a very big club, so they could still afford him. Hell, Spurs have never been in the Champions League, but we can afford him. If Barry demands Champions League football, then he'll just end up at one of the top 3 instead. I can't see where this goes exactly.

The top players in Europe want to play in the Champions League. If theres fewer teams in the CL then those teams become even better than the rest. So we end up like La Liga, where all the best players go to either Real Madrid or Barcelona. The only other solution, if you want the league to be more competitive, would be to add 1 more team to the CL rather than take one away. The race for 5th between teams like Spurs, Villa and Everton would be much more competitive.

Or maybe a playoff for the Champions League qualifiers. The top 2 get CL qualification. Then the team in 3rd plays the team in 5th and the team in 4th play the team in 6th, for the remaining Champions League places. The winners then enter the Champions League qualifiers, and the runner ups enter the UEFA cup. At least that way, the battle for the top 2 spots is more competitive and the battle for 5th and 6th would be aswell.

The above in bold is the part I really like the idea of. I wouldn't be surprised if the above idea is implemented within the next 2-4 seasons.

If there are less teams in the ECL. Then the players' like Barry would not get into the top 3 teams and instead, would theoretically, stay at the team he is at and try and build something there. Benyonuan is another example. He is just a sub at Liverpool. but he was West Ham's star player. He left west ham to play in the ECL but he hardly plays. Then on the flip side, a player like Neil gets slatted for not going to Liverpool, but instead going to a club where he is guaranteed 1st team football week in week out.

 

[michaelden]

There's 2 ways to look at Eto'o's snub. Firstly, he is right and as one of the best strikers/ CFs in the world he should play at a top club; which to be fair I would want to do the same if it was me. (But Inter FFS :bang: )

And the other way would be to say, shit! I can boost this here team into the CL (much like Martin Petrov's bravado) and we can do good things together.

Neither is wrong but the second one would've made me a happier man.

 

[hybridsoldier]

I hope Lpool get Barry

I dont think he's that good and if anything it will improve our chances of catching them. All about big fish small pond, when he goes to the big pond...we'll see

Eto'o has a huge ego...maybe he forgets his roots in Cameroon? I knew it was all rrbbish, excellent striker and would love to see him at Spurs but it seem Mourinho isright and the Italian league is going back to the top now.

 

[bubble07]

i think this should now be moved into general now

 

[SpurSince57]

Since it's now moved completely away from the topic of Eto'o, I'm only too happy to oblige.

 

[milkman]

just read some ITK on COYS that Eto'o move to Tottenham ISN'T dead... :shrug:

 

[spurslenny]

ffs, he ain't gonna come to spurs :bang: