• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Official Football Thread 2006/2007 (Soccer)

Status
Not open for further replies.
I was actually worried that djemba x2 and kleberson were part of the dodgy transfers. They were both so shit, so i thought fergie might have been paid to buy them or soemthing along those lines.

Can anyone say that they are surprised that chelsea are one of the teams involved?

Its quite funny that souness could be in trouble because of the dodgy signing of boumsong. What a mistake.
 
The Arseblogger changing his tune slightly on the Henry situation...
The Times picks up on L’Equipe’s story about Arsenal Wenger holding talks in Paris with Ferran Soriano about the whole situtation and it’s believed that he will want Samuel Eto’o as part of any deal. I am told that this is more than paper talk and if Arsene can get the deal he wants and the deal which he believes will benefit Arsenal Football Club then he will let Thierry go.

The motivation behind it remains unknown although it’s probably a combination of things including Henry’s desire to play somewhere else, Arsene’s belief that now might well be the right time to let him go especially if he can get a quality player like Eto’o as part of the deal and maybe the idea that a change is good for Thierry and good for Arsenal. That said, Arsenal hold all the cards here. Eto’o has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to leave Barcelona and Henry has three years left on the deal he signed last summer so if it’s not right for the club then he won’t be sold, simple as that.

It’s a huge shift in position from a year ago when Thierry said he would never play in Spain and this would be his last contract. While it is a big deal I have to say the idea of him leaving doesn’t upset me nearly as much as it would have done last summer and I do hope that if it is going to happen it happens quickly, tidily and without any (more) bullshit which leaves a stain on Thierry’s time at Arsenal. With Barcelona concentrating on the final day of La Liga I don’t expect any big news between now and then but who knows?

If I had to put money on it right now I’d say he won’t be an Arsenal player next season.
Click to expand...
Does anyone else here question Eto'o's attitude to begin with, and think that making him move against his will would further sour him towards playing well at Arsenal? Just me?
 
Are there any reports on possible punishments. After what happened with tevez, these clubs should face similar or worse punishments for beaching transfer regulations.
 
It depends what they did really. Docked point, heavy fines, just punishments against specific individuals...who knows?

I know the FA and FIFA would just love to smack Chelsea down with something though, this is their chance.
 
psycho_snake said:
Are there any reports on possible punishments. After what happened with tevez, these clubs should face similar or worse punishments for beaching transfer regulations.
Click to expand...

Well, it depends on what's happened. Tevez's deal actually benefited West ham on the pitch, but if a manager has just gained a wad of cash for himself from a transfer then you could punish him individually.

We'll see.
 
Mama Smurf said:
It depends what they did really. Docked point, heavy fines, just punishments against specific individuals...who knows?

I know the FA and FIFA would just love to smack Chelsea down with something though, this is their chance.
Click to expand...
true. But in Chelseas case we need a pre-emptive deduction, for good measure and to be on the safe side.

Cornballer said:
Does anyone else here question Eto'o's attitude to begin with, and think that making him move against his will would further sour him towards playing well at Arsenal? Just me?
Click to expand...

good point.

On the other hand he said that Arsenal is the only club that is interesting for him apart from Barcelona and that he would like to play under Wenger.

He is a bit of a dodgy character though, we'd definitely get more drama than now.
 
hadareud said:
good point.

On the other hand he said that Arsenal is the only club that is interesting for him apart from Barcelona and that he would like to play under Wenger.

He is a bit of a dodgy character though, we'd definitely get more drama than now.
Click to expand...
We'll just set him up with Gallas as a role model, and everything will work out all right.
 
Mama Smurf said:
Well, it depends on what's happened. Tevez's deal actually benefited West ham on the pitch, but if a manager has just gained a wad of cash for himself from a transfer then you could punish him individually.

We'll see.
Click to expand...
But you could punish the manager and the club at the same time. Lets say if Mourinho made some money from essiens transfer. He should get punished along with the club because he made money and essien was a benefit to chelsea on the pitch.
 
I hope Arsenal don't get Eto'o. Because the Arsenal fans are on here will be going mad. It's already bad enough, especially when Liverpool get the likes of Forlan.
 
hadareud said:
good point.

On the other hand he said that Arsenal is the only club that is interesting for him apart from Barcelona and that he would like to play under Wenger.

He is a bit of a dodgy character though, we'd definitely get more drama than now.
Click to expand...
I think part of him wants to play for arsenal because of wenger, but another part of him wants to play for arsenal because he has a hard on for henry. If henry went to barcelon and he went to arsenal, i think part of his motivation will go.
 
Lakitu said:
I hope Arsenal don't get Eto'o. Because the Arsenal fans are on here will be going mad. It's already bad enough, especially when Liverpool get the likes of Forlan.
Click to expand...
along with benayoun and bent. So much for liverpool buying several star players.
 
Lakitu said:
I hope Arsenal don't get Eto'o. Because the Arsenal fans are on here will be going mad. It's already bad enough, especially when Liverpool get the likes of Forlan.
Click to expand...
and all of this without being taken over. Don't worry, it's probably not gonna happen anyway.

btw, there was a rumour a few weeks ago that Liverpool are interested in buying Wigan's Paul Scharner. At the time I didn't pay much attention because of the other players that were rumoured, but it seems plausible now.
Forlan - Scharner - Benayoun. Pearce in for Benitez. ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT SEASON?
 
hadareud said:
and all of this without being taken over. Don't worry, it's probably not gonna happen anyway.

btw, there was a rumour a few weeks ago that Liverpool are interested in buying Wigan's Paul Scharner. At the time I didn't pay much attention because of the other players that were rumoured, but it seems plausible now.
Forlan - Scharner - Benayoun. Pearce in for Benitez. ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT SEASON?
Click to expand...

:(
 
hadareud said:
:lol

sorry.

Everything will be fine, I'm sure.
Click to expand...

Scharner will score a hat-trick
of own goals
in a massive humiliation against Arsenal
in a 0-4 loss
.

I love
to hate
Gillet and Hick. <3
 
ZOMG - Henry hanging out with Spurs!





151fs561696.jpg
 
Just seen the news about the transfer bungs, oh hot damn I hope Chelsea finally get into some long overdue deep shit for this.

But SSN said that these are transfers they haven't cleared yet so it might just be the Chelsea agent being a stubborn bastard or the agent has got something to hide, just relieved it isn't Liverpool.

btw, there was a rumour a few weeks ago that Liverpool are interested in buying Wigan's Paul Scharner. At the time I didn't pay much attention because of the other players that were rumoured, but it seems plausible now.
Forlan - Scharner - Benayoun. Pearce in for Benitez. ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT SEASON?
Click to expand...

Cry.gif
 
Lakitu said:
Don't worry. I have it on good authority that we'll get Torres.
Click to expand...

Arsenal Torres only if henry Leaves and then another season of transition.

Anyhoo he would definately be my choice if The king were to leave.
Hopefully we sign a left winger as well.
 
Lowest estimate is £30mill, most expect anything up to £50mill in the warchest.
Click to expand...

Well if we try and get it somewhere round the £40m mark as an average then...

I kind of see the following gaps at Villa (if I've removed players, I don't think they're good enough and should be sold):

GK

_______
Taylor
Boyle

RB

_______
Hughes

LB

_______
Bouma

CB

Mellberg
_______
Cahill
Ridgewell

L/RW

Barry
Young
Agbonlahor
Berger

DCM

_______
Davis

ACM

_______
Petrov
Maloney

FW

_______
Carew
_______
Moore

So that's a goalkeeper, right back, left back, centre back, a defensive midfielder, an attacking midfielder and two strikers. 8 players in all.

Goalkeeper - Sorensen's fine, but not the best, and with Jaaskelainen refusing to sign at Bolton and only having a year of his contract left, he could be available for about £2m or they could lose him for nothing.

Right back - Tricky position, because some really good player available...only they're really expensive too. Luke Young seems the best compromise, good but not too expensive...£4m? Wes Brown might be another possibility if he wanted to move.

Left back - It'll take a bit of money to do it, but you could try testing Wigan's resolve and bid for Leighton Baines. Lee-Young Pyo might be willing to move from Spurs too now that they've got Bale. Baines might go up to £8m before they let him go, Lee would probably only be about £4m.

Centre back - I've heard Curtis Davies linked to Villa, and he'd be good but he will cost a fair bit, maybe as much as £10m. A slightly cheaper option would be Sol Campbell, for nothing.

Defensive midfielder - Two names have been strongly linked, Reo-Coker and de Jong. I read that de Jong would be sold by Hamburg to get him off their wage bill, but more recently I've read they've decided they don't need to sell players after all. So perhaps Reo-Coker is the only candidate...but the question is, will he be £8m or £10m?

Attacking midfielder - O'Neill wants Sneijder, but Ajax don't want to sell and apparently he wouldn't join Villa anyway. Lots of teams are after Koumas from West Brom, who got 9 goals from central midfield last year and won Championship player of the year. So far all bids have been turned down, but I reckon £5m might tempt them.

Strikers - Defoe, Bellamy, Nugent, Smith. That's how things look to me. I reckon Defoe is £12m, Bellamy £9m, Nugent £7m and Smith £8m. So anywhere between £15m and £20m.

At the most expensive those players would be £59m, though obviously selling players would recoup some of that and get it below the £50m mark. At the cheapest, £38m.

GK

Jaaskelainen - £2m
Taylor
Boyle

RB

Young - £4m
Hughes

LB

Baines - £8m
Bouma

CB

Mellberg
Campbell - free
Cahill
Ridgewell

L/RW

Barry
Young
Agbonlahor
Berger

DCM

Reo-Coker - £9m
Davis

ACM

Koumas - £5m
Petrov
Maloney

FW

Bellamy - £9m
Carew
Nugent - £7m
Moore

£44m

Sell Sorensen, Laursen and Djemba-Djemba to cover the £4m, and there's the £40m target.

That team should certainly challenge for the UEFA Cup, and create a good basis to build on over the next few years until you might just be able to have an outside shot at the CL.
 
psycho_snake said:
But you could punish the manager and the club at the same time. Lets say if Mourinho made some money from essiens transfer. He should get punished along with the club because he made money and essien was a benefit to chelsea on the pitch.
Click to expand...

Why would Mourinho get any money when buying a player? Surely that only happens when selling a player, I mean where does this money come from when it's Chelsea spending to get the guy? In that situation wouldn't it be the agent or the other manager being bunged some money to ensure the tranfer went through?

The only situation I can see a manager taking a bung when signing a player is if he doesn't really want that player, but the agent and player really want him to move to that club. Then you can slip the manager some cash as an incentive to take him on.

BTW, Cech and Drogba weren't Mourinho buys, he inherited them from Ranieri. So unless Mourinho and Ranieri are dodgy, I doubt it's actually the manager in those deals, and rather someone else at Chelsea.
 
I think the Henry to Barcelona situation is being dealt with like this at Arsenal:

We don't want to lose Henry, but if we can get a replacement at the same level, we'd prefer to sell an unhappy Henry rather than keep him. However, if we can't find a replacement then we'd prefer to keep an unhappy Henry than lose him for some money when we have no one to spend it on.

Or, give us Eto'o or fuck off.
 
it's looking more and more like the Vieira situation to me.

Wenger basically sold Vieira behind his back because he thought that the time was right/the player is bringing too much drama to the club.

I could imagine that the Henry saga is really pissing Wenger off and that he's asking himself if he really needs this shit.
 
he looks and talks like a nice guy, but don't you worry - if he needs to he is ruthless.

No matter the name or what the player has done for the club. He will bench players and he will sell them if he thinks it's the right decision.
 
Blackburn news

Mystery bidder is not Allen
20070615 15:38
Billionaire Paul Allen is not the man behind the American group reported to be lining up a takeover bid for Blackburn Rovers.
Reports had suggested that the Microsoft co-founder was preparing an offer for Rovers, but Michael Nank - a spokesman for Allen's Vulcan Inc investment group - categorically denied he was involved.

He said: "Mr Allen is not interested nor involved in any kind of takeover offer for Blackburn Rovers or any other English football club."
Rovers chairman John Williams yesterday confirmed the club were moving towards a takeover deal and revealed they have been involved in negotiations for a number of months.
In April it was rumoured that Allen was set to launch a takeover bid for Southampton, but nothing has been agreed to date.

http://www.clubcall.com/index.jsp?storyID=319782
Click to expand...
 
Soooooooooo, the World Cup is a short 3 years away, so it's time to take a peek at the seeding process. Here are the latest numbers:
(All information from this blog.)
Code: 
Top Seven Teams Seeded + South Africa as hosts
	Total 		WC 	FIFA
1 	Italy 		59.3 	27.3 	32
1 	Brazil 		59.3 	29.3 	30
1 	Germany 	59.3 	30.3 	29
4 	France 		54.3 	23.3 	31
5 	England 	51.3 	26.3 	25
5 	Spain 		51.3 	25.3 	26
7 	Portugal 	49.3 	22.3 	27
	
8 	Argentina 	49.0 	21.0 	28
9 	Netherlands 	38.7 	14.7 	24
10 	Ukraine 	36.7 	16.7 	20
11 	Sweden 		35.3 	19.3 	16
12 	Mexico 		32.3 	19.3 	13
13 	Croatia 	31.0 	9.0 	22
14 	USA 		30.7 	13.7 	17
15 	Czech 		29.0 	6.0 	23
16 	Ghana 		28.3 	13.3 	15
17 	Cameroon 	22.0 	3.0 	19
18 	Romania 	21.0 	0.0 	21
19 	Japan 		20.3 	13.3 	7
20 	Cote d'Ivoire 	20.0 	6.0 	14
21 	Paraguay 	19.7 	11.7 	8
22 	Korea 		18.7 	15.7 	3
23 	Greece 		18.0 	0.0 	18
24 	Australia 	15.3 	11.3 	4
25 	Uruguay 	14.7 	2.7 	12
26 	Costa Rica 	14.3 	8.3 	6
27 	Nigeria 	12.7 	2.7 	10
28 	Colombia 	11.0 	0.0 	11
29 	Iran 		10.3 	5.3 	5
30 	Morocco 	9.0 	0.0 	9
31 	South Africa 	5.0 	3.0 	2
32 	Uzbekistan 	1.0 	0.0 	1

As you can see, there are basically 8 teams fighting for the 7 seeds. Little has changed since the new cycle began, but things will be getting very exciting shortly. In November, the World Cup qualifying draws will be made. That will have an impact on these rankings, especially when it comes to the Euro teams. In addition, this December is the first of the three months (12/08, 11/09) that make up the final ranking. With all the tournaments going on this summer, we'll see lots of changes in the FIFA rankings before then.

Mock Draw

Pot 1: Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, Spain
Pot 2: Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine
Pot 3: Australia, Costa Rica, Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Mexico, USA, Uzbekistan
Pot 4: Argentina, Cameroon, Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Paraguay, Uruguay

Group A: South Africa, Czech Republic, USA, Paraguay
Group B: Spain, Ukraine, Mexico, Nigeria
Group C: France, Iran, Cote d'Ivoire, Colombia
Group D: England, Croatia, Japan, Ghana
Group E: Brazil, Sweden, Uzbekistan, Morocco
Group F: Italy, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Argentina
Group G: Portugal, Romania, Korea Republic, Uruguay
Group H: Germany, Greece, Australia, Cameroon

Argentina not being seeded would certainly create the possibility of a monster group like shown here, much more than a top Euro team not being seeded. Of course I'm doubtful something like this would happen.
Click to expand...
 
You can read the findings of the Stevens' Report here:

http://www.premierleague.com/fapl.r...em&categoryCode=NewsLatestFAPremierLeagueNews

When read in full, it becomes a lot less worrying for the clubs, it's very much focused on the agents. Numerous times it will say that clubs and officials have co-operated fully and there's no reason or eveidence to believe they were in anyway complicit...but they can't say for sure because some agents won't co-operate or won't fully co-operate.

In fact, you'll often see the same agents across transfers involving different clubs. For example, Msuemba, Yakubu, Rochemback, Drogba and Cech are having their transfers looked at because Pinhas Zahavi, an agent involved, won't co-operate. So that's spread over 3 clubs, again suggesting it's not the clubs that might be dodgy, but the agents (or neither).

The problem is, if these agents come forward they need to present evidence of their bank accounts and things. The problem there is that they might not want their bank accounts being looked into for entirely different reasons. Perhaps still illegal, but not necessarily illegal things to do with these transfers. on the other hand, it might well be to do with these transfers. So we're not really able to say "he's refusing to come forward, clearly he's hiding a dodgy deal", he might be hiding somethign else entirely. He might even just be reufsing to show his bank accounts on principle, angered at the invasion of privacy. Or he could have payments to some disgusting fetish club regularly going out of his account and he really doesn't want any chance of his wife finding out...there are too many possibilities.

Anyway, the article makes it pretty clear that clubs can't be punished yet and may never be, as these deals aren't confirmed to be dodgy, just still to be checked.
 
Mama Smurf said:
Why would Mourinho get any money when buying a player? Surely that only happens when selling a player, I mean where does this money come from when it's Chelsea spending to get the guy? In that situation wouldn't it be the agent or the other manager being bunged some money to ensure the tranfer went through?

The only situation I can see a manager taking a bung when signing a player is if he doesn't really want that player, but the agent and player really want him to move to that club. Then you can slip the manager some cash as an incentive to take him on.

BTW, Cech and Drogba weren't Mourinho buys, he inherited them from Ranieri. So unless Mourinho and Ranieri are dodgy, I doubt it's actually the manager in those deals, and rather someone else at Chelsea.
Click to expand...
You basically described what I meant when I said mourinho makes money from a transfer.
 
Cornballer said:
I'm scared, too - the US is in Pot 3, as well. :D
Click to expand...
Thinking it through, I'd actually like it.

It's not like we have a chance at the cup, so if we qualify it would be a fantastic experience to face three teams of such quality.
 
Gudjohnsen has said that he has made no contact with united, so that dismisses the rumour that we would awap pique for him. I wouldnt mind selling players and getting gudjohnsen, but swapping him with pique is a bad idea.
 
hadareud said:
Blackburn news
Click to expand...

I never seriously believed that, he already came out and said he wasn't interested in buying a team after the Southampton rumour, but papers don't like to let things go.

I'm not even convinced we're speaking to a specific buyer (whether alone or a consortium) yet, but rather just talking to a few interested parties.

If we're going to be bought though, I hope it's soon. I'm worried we'll wait to buy anyone to see what transfer funds we'll have, only by that time we'll have missed out on players we could afford anyway (like Nugent) if the sale doesn't go through in time, or never goes through.

If it does and we're given...oh I don't know, £20m to spend, I'd use to try and get Bellamy, Geremi and a right back, perhaps Luke Young or Chris Baird or someone better who I don't realise is available.

Then our squad would be:

GK

Friedel
Brown
Fielding

RB

Young
Emerton

LB

Warnock
Berner

CB

Nelsen
Ooijer
Samba
Khizanishvili
Henchoz

LW

Pedersen
Peter

RW

Bentley
Geremi

DCM

Savage
Mokoena
Haestad

ACM

Reid
Dunn
Tugay

FW

McCarthy
Bellamy
Roberts
Derbyshire
Gallagher

Perhaps I'm wrong in thinking Haestad is a done deal, but I think we'll get him. We can sell Enckleman, Jeffers and Todd, probably for nothing more than £2m though.
 
BatiGOOOOOOL said:
Thinking it through, I'd actually like it.

It's not like we have a chance at the cup, so if we qualify it would be a fantastic experience to face three teams of such quality.
Click to expand...
It's going to be tough for any team out of CONCACAF to qualify for the 2nd round without a seed. Looks like Mexico may not get one this cycle for the first time in a while. (Though FIFA might tweak the ranking system again so it spits out the seeds that they like, which typically includes Mexico.) Without a seed, even if you hit the jackpot and pull a group with South Africa, Romania, and Morocco - it's not assured that you'd make the 2nd round.
 
That world cup thing is ridiculous, we haven't even started qualifying, the qualifying groups haven't even been drawn yet (that's 5 months away).

psycho_snake said:
You basically described what I meant when I said mourinho makes money from a transfer.
Click to expand...

Well...unless you're saying Mourinho didn't really want Essien, Cech or Drogba, which he clearly did, I didn't describe how Mourinho would make any money. And the latter two weren't his transfers anyway, so we know it's just Essien at the most and Chelsea were desperate for him and Lyon were playigg hardball, no way would that scenario result in Mourinho being given money to take him.
 
I know one thing about the WC 2010 draw though...every single team not a top seed will be desperate to be in South Africa's group.
 
Cornballer said:
Just something to spark conversation....sheesh...
Click to expand...

I'm not having a go at you, just at whoever wrote it in that blog. I mean, we could talk about the 2014 World Cup if he likes, it'll have as much relevance. The amount the rankings change can change in the next 3 years and the fact that qualification hasn't even started (or even been drawn) practically makes it a fantasy discussion.

He even says it himself:

In addition, this December is the first of the three months (12/08, 11/09) that make up the final ranking.
Click to expand...

yet for some reason still discusses the current rankings. Bizarre.
 
Mama Smurf said:
That world cup thing is ridiculous, we haven't even started qualifying, the qualifying groups haven't even been drawn yet (that's 5 months away).



Well...unless you're saying Mourinho didn't really want Essien, Cech or Drogba, which he clearly did, I didn't describe how Mourinho would make any money. And the latter two weren't his transfers anyway, so we know it's just Essien at the most and Chelsea were desperate for him and Lyon were playigg hardball, no way would that scenario result in Mourinho being given money to take him.
Click to expand...
I see what you mean, I didnt think that through properly.

I knew that cech was ranieri's signing, along with robben, but I'm pretty sure that drogba was a moruinho signing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Unhinged Bios Official Thread
10
146
SJRB replied
  • Poll
Football (Soccer) game is abandoned because a fan used sexist language towards the ref.
24
731
T8SC replied
THE BEAUTY OF FOOTBALL
2
54
943
Ellis replied
URC 2025-2026 Official Thread
Social 
7
754
StueyDuck replied
Moana | Official Trailer
2
67
944
jason10mm replied
Top Bottom