Sugar on Berbatov

[MilkyBarYid]

I loved what he had to say but heavily disagreed with his last paragrpah. He talks about the 15 remainder teams in the league to field English talent but this is never going to happen. What will probably occur is the 15 will be reduced further as more foriegn investors buy Premiership football clubs as the next prada handbag and snap up the iconic players from far and wide.

In reality the England team will be fielded from the pick of Championship not the Premiership.

 

[ziggy]

Didums Dimi

:rofl::rofl::rofl: :clap:

 

[chinaman]

Perhaps one day, all the other clubs will get fed up with the Manures and Chelscum that they would break away and form their own league?

 

[wizzywig27]

Love that article, he hit the nail right on the head, also had me in stitches, he really tells it like it is, love it!

 

[laneoflegends]

Nice comments.

I particularly liked, 'All I can say is this bloke must eat a lot of cheese at night as he doesn’t stop dreaming'

He does have a point with a lot of it, but sadly I doubt we will ever see a day where the other 15 clubs decide they should play english players and youngsters for the sake of developing young English players rather than winning as many matches as possible.

I agree totally. As the vast majority of PL clubs have foreign owners and are also managed by foreign coaches the state of the English national team is the last thing on their minds!

 

[Chimbo!]

By doing what Alan Sugar suggests in the last paragraph we would form a brilliant form of protest. It would polarise the league and render it worthless, causing money to pour out of it and billionaires to lose interest. Nobody wants to watch a league with 15 and then 5. It may be like that now but it does not feel that way. By simply going against those 5 you'll destroy what the premier league is atm and change the focusof english football. For example clubs will value how many england squad members they have as oppose to where they are in the league. Its a different mentality but one that would solve the problem.

It is of course farfetched and never going to happen because just people want to support winning teams, not ones they can identify with. Alas the sport is no loner about the game but winning and whilst it is important, it is not the be all and end all. Football is an entertainment first and a competition second. If we were not entertained by it no one would care who won and therefore it would not be a worthwhile business. people are losing sight of that.

 

[hybridsoldier]

Ive always always supported Sugar on here, ok he wasnt a pure footbaling man, but he fought tooth and nail to save this club from the brink of destruction, he worked his arse off trying to make us more than the running PL joke.

I sincerely believe the PL needs a salary cap...no UEFA and FIFA need to introduce a salary cap across the board. This will control wages in the game, mean that teams like united and chelsea and now city cant get away with ludicrous wages. and maybe create a more even playing field....as you see in american sports.

cos lets face it all that drives the players is money, even guys like gerrard would be swayed by say 250k a week? the only way to control is a wage cap.

 

[walworthyid]

We are midtable! Sugar realised it and now Levy has as well. We should be grateful that we are at least still in the prem.........for now!

 

[van_Pommel]

The reason the proposed idea wouldnt work is that if we were only fielding British players, and not recruiting the best talent in the world, the league would lose it's international appeal, and subsequently a great deal of money. There's far too many big important people getting rich who wouldnt let this happen. Unfortunately football is now about money first and formost. The only people who hang onto the old romance that football once delivered, is us.

 

[DavidsSpecs]

We are midtable! Sugar realised it and now Levy has as well. We should be grateful that we are at least still in the prem.........for now!

and the award for most redundant comment goes to...

 

[walworthyid]

and the award for most redundant comment goes to...

Jog on!

You tell me what we are then? What is our average league position over the past 25 years?

If we are not midtable I am not sure what is?

So I struggle to see how that is a redundant comment? Negative perhaps, that I will give you, but given that we have been midtable despite massive investment and now we sell our best players to the teams in the top 4 and are being overtaken by Man City, Portsmouth, Everton and Villa, I really don't see where else we are going to be.

 

[KingNick]

Love that article, he hit the nail right on the head, also had me in stitches, he really tells it like it is, love it!

He'd be a great chairman....

 

[DavidsSpecs]

Jog on!

You tell me what we are then? What is our average league position over the past 25 years?

If we are not midtable I am not sure what is?

So I struggle to see how that is a redundant comment? Negative perhaps, that I will give you, but given that we have been midtable despite massive investment and now we sell our best players to the teams in the top 4 and are being overtaken by Man City, Portsmouth, Everton and Villa, I really don't see where else we are going to be.

Trouble with a comment like that is it practically makes the club void of ambition. So if Levy decides the club is no more than midtable, always has and always will be, so what’s the point. Even with our team of 5 years ago we weren’t facing relegation. I put the majority of our transfer activity in recent years down to over-inflated prices and unfortunate amount of flops. What we didn’t do, which is what clubs like Villa, Everton and Pompey have, is to strengthen gradually, in tiers of quality throughout the field. Instead we’ve tended to blow our entire budget on one or two players who, are good but surrounded by mediocrity. Now we have a pretty shrewd chairman, a decent budget and are becoming (I believe) increasingly more sensible in the market. Nearly every club these days are victim to paying out for over valued players. Last year aside, we’re on the back of 2 straight 5th league places and to my eyes are as readily equipped, if not more so, than those around us to take it. That’s not midtable. A couple more players and we could go even higher. That’s still not midtable. Granted there is yet another tier above us who have a greater pull in the market but in truth this is a problem not only for us but arsenal, Barcelona even man united.

 

[walworthyid]

Trouble with a comment like that is it practically makes the club void of ambition. So if Levy decides the club is no more than midtable, always has and always will be, so what’s the point. Even with our team of 5 years ago we weren’t facing relegation. I put the majority of our transfer activity in recent years down to over-inflated prices and unfortunate amount of flops. What we didn’t do, which is what clubs like Villa, Everton and Pompey have, is to strengthen gradually, in tiers of quality throughout the field. Instead we’ve tended to blow our entire budget on one or two players who, are good but surrounded by mediocrity. Now we have a pretty shrewd chairman, a decent budget and are becoming (I believe) increasingly more sensible in the market. Nearly every club these days are victim to paying out for over valued players. Last year aside, we’re on the back of 2 straight 5th league places and to my eyes are as readily equipped, if not more so, than those around us to take it. That’s not midtable. A couple more players and we could go even higher. That’s still not midtable. Granted there is yet another tier above us who have a greater pull in the market but in truth this is a problem not only for us but arsenal, Barcelona even man united.

I don't disagree with any of that and I have spent the past 27 years dreaming that next year would be the one, it was the hope that kept me going. Now, I know that next year won't be the year because although as you rightly say we are moving forward in many areas both footballing and financial, so are everybody else.

We have left ourselves unable to properly compete this year by failing to purchase the players we needed. Yes we got a great keeper, a very good couple of wingers, a lovely little player in Modric and a top quality utility player in Corluka, we have not only failed to replace our 90 goals in the last 2 seasons strikers but we still don't have a proper defensive mid.

This means that Jenas still has to play and we have Darren "I can score goals but I will stand in the centre circle instead of showing for the ball" Bent and some 12 year old Man U kid who we are not able to buy if he does well.

I am sorry, I am not feeling very objective at the moment, you feel positive and good luck to you, me, I don't.

 

[thfcsteff]

He'd be a great chairman....

don't get carried away son..he'd be a wanker again...but I did enjoy the comments he made...

 

[DavidsSpecs]

I don't disagree with any of that and I have spent the past 27 years dreaming that next year would be the one, it was the hope that kept me going. Now, I know that next year won't be the year because although as you rightly say we are moving forward in many areas both footballing and financial, so are everybody else.

We have left ourselves unable to properly compete this year by failing to purchase the players we needed. Yes we got a great keeper, a very good couple of wingers, a lovely little player in Modric and a top quality utility player in Corluka, we have not only failed to replace our 90 goals in the last 2 seasons strikers but we still don't have a proper defensive mid.

This means that Jenas still has to play and we have Darren "I can score goals but I will stand in the centre circle instead of showing for the ball" Bent and some 12 year old Man U kid who we are not able to buy if he does well.

I am sorry, I am not feeling very objective at the moment, you feel positive and good luck to you, me, I don't.

I do agree with most of this and I guess the real thing is we won't know how well off we are or how in the crap we are for a few weeks. It could be that these 90 goals are replaced by our new creative players. It could also be that our elusive DM is Mr Corluka himself (if you've seen the vids on another thread). Time will tell. Basically, soon enough, you'll either cheer up or i'll get depressed!

 

[sloth]

We are midtable! Sugar realised it and now Levy has as well. We should be grateful that we are at least still in the prem.........for now!

What is wrong with you mate? Are you a terminal misery guts? Christ, even in your sig you slate us. If you supported another club you couldn't be as negative about us as you are.

Btw, which clubs in the Premier League are better than us in your opinion and what are the factors which seperate us from them?

 

[walworthyid]

What is wrong with you mate? Are you a terminal misery guts? Christ, even in your sig you slate us. If you supported another club you couldn't be as negative about us as you are.

Btw, which clubs in the Premier League are better than us in your opinion and what are the factors which seperate us from them?

I only changed the sig this afternoon from "I am spurs first, last and everywhere in between" because that is how I feel. No I am not a terminal misery guts by any means and have been accused many, many times on here in the past of being an unrealistic optimist. I feel a bit like Yiddster at the moment, the glass is half empty.

In answer to your last question;

Man u-Because they have better players, 2 of the better ones being given to them by us

Scum-Better manager and better players who are drilled in playing a very specific way

Chelsea-Better players

Pool-Better players in a settled system

Villa-Equally good players but play a better system that the players are suited to

We are on a similar level to Man City (for now), Everton and Pompey. Everton and Pompey also have a settled side that know how to play their system and have players that are suited to it.

For me, if we had replaced Jenas or bought a player that would mean that Jenas did not play and bought a player like Arshavin, I would have been happy. As it is we are being Pimped out by Man U in the back of their Chevy and are way short of a decent side. We have better players than we did, I like Modric, Bentley, Dos Santos etc but as a team we lack balance.

If, we had a great season and Pavylichenko, Modric and Dos Santos had the best possible seasons, a team would come in for them next summer and we would be back to square one.

Rather than the team it is the system that has upset me, the only difference between us and the rest of the teams in the pyramid of football is that we are closer to the glass ceiling and that I find harder to bare.

 

[sloth]

If, we had a great season and Pavylichenko, Modric and Dos Santos had the best possible seasons, a team would come in for them next summer and we would be back to square one.

Rather than the team it is the system that has upset me, the only difference between us and the rest of the teams in the pyramid of football is that we are closer to the glass ceiling and that I find harder to bare.

I think it's far too early to write this season off. I've watched a lot of Villa's games already this year, the UEFA qualifying ones and I can tell you they've looked far from an impressive outfit.

I get that you're disappointed and it's often the most unrealistically optimistic who end up equally unrealistically pessimistic but lets wait and see what happens.

On your "system" point I've a couple of observations to make, first of all neither Arsenal or Liverpool appear particularly flush with cash and both are in debt to their eye-balls. Liverpool and Utd have just passed on virtually their entire Champions League proceeds to us.

So here we are with no debt so everything we make goes to the club. With £40m earmarked to spend the window just gone and so presumably the same amount next window, plus the profits we made this window. That's nearly £100m next christmas and summer before we head towards being in debt. While our rivals have spunked everything on a couple of players that are arguably worth half what they paid for them. I can't see how they'll prise our stars of us next summer.

The second point i want to make is slightly counter-intuitive. Clubs like Villa and City with their increased relative strength are also positive for us. We're strong even without CL, we're strong as long as we're in the Premier League, but of the current Big Four there's at least two clubs (and possibly three) who need CL every season to make the payments on the debt they've accrued. If City or Villa get in there before us they still throw the door wide open, one or possibly two of the current CL regulars will be out of the place they need to be but they'll have the same debt, be paying the same wages and will find their top top players looking to jump ship. In this scenario the CL becomes an open shop once more and each season that goes by where the same four don't qualify weakens the hegemony further and allows well run clubs like our own to take advantage.

 

[Bristol Coys]

"Dimi, you're sly and dishonest, and I am sick of listening to your lies.
GET OUT
YOU'RE FIRED!" Mr A Sugar