OhForAGreavsie

I watched the first leg of the 2017 FA Youth Cup final on TV. Guardiola was watching from a box. Numerous times he turned away in disgust, hands gesticulating all over the place, at what Sancho had just done. He was behind thick glass so there was no audio, but somebody up there with him was getting an earful. I'm convinced that Sancho's City career ended that day. I was at Stamford Bridge for the second leg. We blew City away 5-1; a scoreline which flattered them. Sancho was a complete non-entity that night, and Phil Foden had little impact. City's star player was Brahim Diaz who I frequently described back then as the best young footballer in Europe. (That I knew of.) BTW, James, Chalobah, Guehi, Mount, & Hudson-Odoi started for us. Marcin Bulka and Connor Gallagher were unused subs.

Suits me.

It is not new. There was a lot of speculation that Chelsea might have to decline a place in Europe in order to avoid financial scrutiny from the European governing body. Clearly the club has not done that and so the only conclusion must be that they believe they will pass FSR checks. The new owners have a lot to prove in terms of squad building, but they are savvy people fiscally. I'd bet a lot of money that they fully understand the differences between Premier League compliance and uefa compliance. I would therefore be stunned beyond amazement if they are inviting a problem with uefa rules.

Still not 3 million 'a month'. 🙂 Anyway, I obviously wasn't making a serious point. It is interesting though that the Saudi League operates a different pay structure from that which is common in Europe. The leagues which pay big salaries usually pay their players twice a year; typically January and July. I don't see why the Saudis are doing it differently. They must have a reason I suppose, but these players are not living payday to payday so it's not being done for their benefit. Is this perhaps the traditional pay structure in Islamic countries? If that is the case it sounds like something I should have known long before now. Better late than never is the best I could say for myself.

Back to school in September? 🙂

He's sounding like a Jehovah's Witness; "We are in the last days of the last days." There's nothing quite as profitable as stirring up fear of doom and damnation among the faithful, or, in Fabrizio's case, hope and desperation. 🙂

We've done it before and it's just a negotiating position in any case. Raheem's advisors would need arresting if they didn't demand a pay off, and CFC directors would want shooting if they simply paid in full. Instead, the club's starting negotiating point will be that we want the remaining amortisation of Raheem's transfer fee from City as our price for selling him, and that his salary going forward is between him and his new club. A meeting point somewhere between those two unrealistic positions will have to be found.

Only if it is a publicly quoted company. If it's privately owned then, as long as you comply with the laws and regulations governing consumer rights and employee protections, you can pretty much do what you like.

Far, far, far. far too small a sample.

Are you getting this from the coverage or are you sifting the information out yourself?

Thought it was going to be for Palmer.

Both. MC & EF

Once, earlier this year, and then only between the station and the stadium. That part was nice enough.

You can take the footballer out of Man City... 🙂

Yep.

I never saw Harvey as a potential Chelsea first teamer. He came on the scene just as I was scaling back the amount of development level football I was watching. Every time I did watch him however I was surprised that this was a player spoken of as having a big future here. I hope wherever he lands next will be somewhere he can play and give himself a chance to settle at the highest level he can.

A disappointing, if inevitable, outcome. I always make a comparison between Tino and RLC. For me Tino has better attributes but he still manages to be less productive than Ruben. Every once in a while he would burst into life and blow people away with what you can do on football pitch. In most of his matches however, he spent most of his time simply not affecting the game at all. I hope he can have an impact for Empoli and perhaps, in time, earn a move to a bigger Italian Club.

Yes, quite.

Do you perhaps mean Jackson?

I was also against the Keppa deal but my objection had nothing to do with his goalkeeping. I knew nothing about his qualities so had no opinion on him, but I was furious with what I saw as a ridiculous transfer fee. I felt so strongly about this that I even said, and meant, that I would prefer to go with teenager Marcin Bulka, rather than pay that kind of money.

Chris Sutton was that moment for me. I was at a mate's house with a can of party seven in my hand when I heard the deal had gone through. The can nearly went through his window. If it had been my own window I fear the worst about whether I would have let go of that can.

I'm sorry to confess, once again, that I was against signing Drogba.

This looks to be adjusted for general inflation. The numbers might look even more interesting if there was a way to calculate for football inflation.

Looked a good buy from the off to me.