Quote 1:
Agent of Player 1: “Player 1 is 100% leaving the club.”
A few hours later, Player 1 says: “I am leaving the club.”
Player 2: “I am not happy at the club.”
Agent of Player 2: “Player 2 is definitely not happy at the club.”
A day later, Quote 2:
Player 1: “I am staying at the club…for now.”
Journalist 1: “Can you clarify for now?”
Player 1: “I will decide next week.”
Agent of Player 1: “The future of Player 1 will be decided next week.”
Player 2: “I am very happy at the club. I have no problems.”
Agent of Player 2: “My client has no current problems with the current management of the current club. For now atleast.”
Journalist 2: “Can you clarify for now?”
Agent of Player 2: “We live in a very dynamic world. Every day climate change is causing havoc. Food and gas prices are going up. So how can my client be expected to have the same opinion every day? Every day he has to take the global changes into consideration and make up his mind. This is very tough on him but he is very forward thinking in this manner.”
And in other news:
Tabloid 1: Repeat Quote 1 of Player 1 & 2 on Monday, Wed and Thursday. On Tuesday and Friday, print stories about how the new club wants Player 1 & 2. On Sat and Sun, exclusively interview friends and agents of Player 1 & 2.
Tabloid 2: Repeat Quote 2 of Player 1 & 2 on Tuesday and Friday. On Monday, Wed and Thursday print stories about how new club has made an offer for Player 1 & 2, only to be rejected. On Sat and Sun, interview former coaches and colleagues of Player 1 & 2 on what the players should do with their future.
Newspaper 1: Write one article every week evaluating all the quotes of the players. Also, write an article about the volatile nature of the game with players being free to go anywhere.
Tabloid and Newspapers:
Repeat the quotes and articles every week until player signs new contract with current club or player leaves.
If a new contract is signed with current club, wait a few months into the season to start the quotes up again.
If player leaves for a new club, then wait a few months before following up with the player’s happiness or failure at new club.
41 Responses to “Transfer saga and football chat”
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July 9th, 2008 at 12:53 am
From players’ presepctive - player is easy to push for a move these days:
Step 1 - Get a friend, or agent to leak the story he wants to leave, or want a pay rise, or rubbishing his teammates/coach.
Step 2 - Turn up the next day and tell the world, no, I didn’t say that.
Step 3 - yet other clubs are already alerted by his intention, so just sit back, go for a holiday, honeymoon or whatever and wait for things to develop. The media is going to finish the rest of the job for them anyway.
Sigh.. they really thought we fans are idiots…
July 9th, 2008 at 1:56 am
Ah yes. The background motive before Quote 1 and the follow up Quote 2 is made. The Anelka saga was foreshadowing…
And then there is Madrid who have been perfecting their strategy for a few years now. I remember reading an article once in World Soccer regarding how Madrid went about unsettling some player from Betis by leaking in the press that they were interested in him (this was around the time that Raul was making a name in Madrid). Then they sat back and when that player was eyeing Madrid, then Madrid moved in and were happy to take an unsettled player off his club. They have been doing this for years.
July 9th, 2008 at 3:06 am
yeah sachin. and u noticed Barcelona’s strategy in recent years on both the Henry and Adebayor saga?
they always insisted the players must express their DESIRE to play for them before they themselves making a bid.
the whole motive is crystal clear - they wanna get them for CHEAP. as when the players are unsettled and publicly EXPERESS THEIR DESIRE to play for them, the selling club would struggle to keep hold of the player and may have no choice but selling the players cheaper than they intended.
that really made me sick. as i joked last summer, we should have had a paper of our own. the FIFA ruling that - no club is allowed to talk to players before contacting their clubs basically is non-existence.
ppl kept defending the players saying everybody wants more $$, and they had every right to do so is missing the point entirely….. i mean, HOW the players know the pay package Barcelona is willing to offer them when the selling club hasn’t even agreed a deal with the buying club? isn’t that against the rule?
Man Utd have filed a complain to FIFA. yet as expected, FIFA had have none of it. They are too concerned with the 6+5 ruling I supposed. yet one of the objects of the 6+5 is to prevent the big clubs collecting all the best players…. haha, how irony!
July 9th, 2008 at 11:29 am
It is quite bad that Barca are taking the ugly steps out of Madrid’s book but if there is nothing to stop clubs from doing this, then why will they stop when they can get all the players they want?
Maybe when a young boy around the world kicks a soccer ball, he should immediately become the property of either Madrid, Barca or Milan, as they are the ‘big’ clubs that players aspire to go to eventually. Then the 3 clubs can monitor the boy’s progress and if they believe he is not worthy to play for them, they can release him to other clubs to play
July 9th, 2008 at 1:30 am
@Andez..I guess things are only going to get worse from now on…until the whole transfer system collapses….and when football starts to lose its sheen..the clubs and players (hopefully) start to realise that something is totally wrong with the system.
And probably that’s one more positive aspect of Arsenal’s policy of concentrating on youth….atleast the youngsters for the first few years of their career will be playing to establish themselves and money matters may be secondary. Of course it’s no guarantee that things will stay the same….sooner or later they are going to get caught up in the rat race for money..but atleast from an Arsenal point of view…we do have players in the team who are not distracted for some years atleast
On a unrelated note….something positive regarding the stupid 6+5 rule from FIFA
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=554270&sec=europe&cc=4716
Cheers
July 9th, 2008 at 2:06 am
Yeah sometimes I think about that positive aspect of the young players as well — atleast for a few years they will try to prove themselves. I keep hoping that somehow Arsenal can get the most out of some talented 17-18 year olds and win some titles. There are so many players who didn’t have a single international cap until they came to Arsenal and under Wenger these unknows became established internationals.
I do think this entire salary structure might also have to correct itself soon. Clubs cannot keep paying huge salaries even if the club is privately funded by some rich person. I am not sure how much truth was in the report that Man City wanted to pay 200,000 pounds a week for Ronaldinho but that is a crazy number. When Roy Keane was about to be paid 50,000 pounds a week, a lot was printed in the media about it. But now, the salaries are going up without the media even mentioning the crazy demands. And the number of games that the big teams will play each year will also increase as clubs will try to use other avenues to maximize their revenues…
July 9th, 2008 at 2:01 am
Sepp Blatter, as usual, came up with this idea which had entirely missing the POINTS - Blatter has argued that his idea would strengthen national teams and prevent wealthy clubs from hoarding the best international players.
First, just because you put a quota on foreign players does not necessary strengthen the national teams. England, for example, since 1966, they had not won anything, with or without foreign players playing in the English game. While despite the massive numbers of South Americans playing in La Liga, or other foreigh players in Series A, it didn’t stop Spain and Italy being European and World champions. soft the logic out Mr. Blatter.
Second, the biggest problem of the game today is not the wealthy clubs hoarding the best international players. A wealthy club will always be able to buy the best players. 6+5 will only mean the wealthy clubs getting even stronger in the domestic league, and a not so wealthy club will suffer as they no longer can pull off some bargian foreign players from over the world.
It can only means, the GAP between the top sides of a domestic league and the rest be getting even BIGGER. the domestic league will become even less competitive.
l don’t even put AW’s transfer approach as an example, let’s take Harry Redknapp, he’s good on dealing the transfer market, and pull off some bargain buys. that made him one of the best English managers at the game. and led a small club Portsmouth to a top table side. Could that be possible with 6+5? While the best English talents would sure hell be going to the big clubs.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Actually Andez, I think Blatter’s plan might be the ONLY way to change the current post-Bosman transfer market.
I dont want it because it will reduce the quality of Wengerball - but if you want a curb in player power - I see no other way to achieve it.
First of all, the England example is a bit unfair - the English no disrespect are just not good in football. Besides 70% of Serie A is made up of Italians. And the Spanish leagues do have a high percentage of Spaniards. Blatter is just pitching it to get the support of the “home” countries.
Blatter’s real motive is to reduce the strength of the big English clubs who attract foreigners with higher salaries. It will also reduce the player’s power as they would have fewer big clubs to flirt with.
The foreigners cap will not break the big 4s hold on the EPL or the hold of the big clubs in other countries - what it will do is that the talents will be SPREAD accross the leagues in a more even manner. ie. Holland, Portugal, Germany, France, even Belgium and Scotland will become stronger leagues than they are now. It will almost be a reversion to the pre-Bosman times when big clubs from smaller countries were stronger.
All in all, the EPL would suffer, its media market will go down. International football will look a bit better compared to it. And that is the real reason Blatter wants it.
In my view it has both good and bad points. I want to see the return of the “old” power houses from the small countries like Ajax, Benfica, Marseilles, Dortmund, PSV, Anderlecht, and the East European ones …BUT I also dont want to see beautiful football suffer because the talent wealth is too spread out.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Fred, I like your mention of the return of the “old” power houses. It seems like a long time ago when the European Cup only had one team from each nation, so teams such as Benfica, PSV, etc have a fair shot at winning the tournament. It was great. Ofcourse, the champs league has been good but in the last few years it has become clear that very few teams are capable of winning the thing.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
very well analyzed fred…
but somehow i think that this move is very england specific.. i.e only english players do not get much of a chance to play in there country at top clubs.. ( except MAN U ) it does not happen much elsewhere … apart from say one or two stray examples… and so such a move would cause a significant change to anything as there wouldn’t be much restrictions on squads…
its just that it would harm the great experiment or revolution that we are trying to achieve at arsenal…
July 9th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
soccerfreak, I think it is only England specific - in the fact that Blatter wants to weaken the EPL - financially. Apart from that the main reason he pitched it the way he did was to feed off the foolish British media’s anger at their Euro 08 qualifier failures.
The British media is quite powerful - at least in soccer anyway - and British “home” countries have a significant vote in FIFA. The Blatter plan worked as FIFA voted overwhelmingly in its favor.
BUT for me…I was always opposed to such a limitation. NOW am beginning to change my mind, why? Because there is NO great experiment or revolution anymore - the players can leave at any time whatsoever. Mediocrity (in an historical sense) like Hleb, Flamini and Adebayor are upping sticks.
No continuity - no revolution. We might as well just give that up.
If Bendtner is given a chance and explodes, he will probably do like Ade. Same for a lot of the younsters currently PRETENDING loyalty. So whats the point.
Thinking about it - the Blatter plan might just curb player power and bring a stability in transfers.
Ajax in 95 were allowed just 3 foreigners - Kanu, George Finidi and Jari Litamanen. They still played breathtaking football. At least we will have up to 5. And yeah the average english player is not as good as the average Dutch….but am sure an English player that grew through the system would be quite good.
The rule will also mean, we will be less likely to waste our time with players like Senderos, Eboue, Almunia, Cygan. It would also mean life would be harder for the likes of Flamini and Adebayor to break through. And even if they do break through the bast-rds would stay very loyal because they will have no choice….LOL.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
And when you look at the fact that: Fabregas, Clichy, Bendtner, Traore, Djorou, Ramsey, Vito Mannone, Merida, all qualify as “homegrown” - it doesnt look that bad anymore!!
The only players that will be in serious danger will be: Diaby, Denilson, Eboue and Almunia.
Plus the rule - even if it passes thru - wont be put into effect for another 3 or 4 years - enough time to further streamline the team.
Actually, its a fallacy that Arsenal will suffer the most from this rule. We will actually suffer the LEAST.
Chelsea and especially Liverpool will suffer BIG time.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
when i say the least, i meant the least out of the big four.
July 9th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
actually even Madrid, Barca and Milan will suffer quite a bit with this rule. So Arsenal would be in good shape compared to them, and like you said, against Chelsea and Liverpool as well.
July 9th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Finally, some good news!
GILBERTO SILVA will rock Arsenal by signing for Greek giants Panathinaikos.
The Brazilian World Cup winner, 31, is close to sealing a deal with the Super League side for a fee of around £2million.
Arsenal’s acting managing director Ken Friar has agreed conditions with Nikos Pateras, the chairman of the Athens-based club.
Friar said: “As far as I know, the player and his agent will travel to Athens to meet with the Panathinaikos representatives.
“If Gilberto reaches agreement with them then we will reach agreement with Panathinaikos.”
July 9th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Totally off-topic: but any odds of whether South Africa will/not host the ‘10 World Cup??
July 9th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Mike, the above picture is just awesome
Perfectly describes the situation.
I think both players could have a chance in Hollywood in the future if another role for Two-face is needed or a sequel for Jerry Maguire goes to production. The phrase “show me the money” was funny back in 1996 but now it appears to be the norm in football. Or atleast when it comes to certain players. I shouldn’t paint all players with the same brush as there are quite a few happy to be where they are…”for now atleast”
July 9th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Fred, u made some excellent points there.
though i think Sepp Blatter’s main motive behind is to revive international football’s creditabiltiy.
the European clubs football in recent years have outshone international football. the globe interest is growing, the Champions League is a big success, and EPL being more and more popular…. yet none of those had anything to do with FIFA.
as the main man of FIFA, Sepp Blatter is becoming more like a cartoon figure who talks a lot while not really earning much the credit of today’s football fever. His very own Club World Championship rarely raised anyone’s eyebrows, let alone drawing anyone to actually watching it. I never watched a single game of Club World Championship, and had no idea who was the past winners.
so the “Sepp-he-has-50-ideas-a-day-yet-51-of-them-are-bad-Blatter” probably very eager to do something to satisify his big ego.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
“The foreigners cap will not break the big 4s hold on the EPL or the hold of the big clubs in other countries - what it will do is that the talents will be SPREAD accross the leagues in a more even manner. ie. Holland, Portugal, Germany, France, even Belgium and Scotland will become stronger leagues than they are now. It will almost be a reversion to the pre-Bosman times when big clubs from smaller countries were stronger.”
Gotta admit though, this is a very good point.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Fred/Sachin, you are confusing FIFA’s 6+5 rule with UEFA’s home grown rule.
The latter, Arsenal are very safe as it needs players to be grown with the club during their youth, but can be from any UEFA/Euro country.
The former is strictly a country vs foreign rule. No home grown there. You need 6 British players (even if they were all bought last season, it’s fine). And guess what, Blatter is fine with Britain being treated as one country, otherwise the likes of Rangers and Celtic would need 6 Scottish players starting in each game.
http://soccernet-akamai.espn.go.com/news/story?id=539864&cc=4716
July 10th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Yes nipuna. There’s a difference with 6+5 and the current home grown quota for CL.
The former strictly restricted to HOME NATIONAL only, in EPL, it means English ONLY.
The latter is allowed players who have trained with the club for a particular period, regardless of their nationality.
So under Battler’s 6+5, Cesc, Bendtner the likes can no longer be counted as “home grown”.
I don’t think the 4 British home nations would be allowed to count as one. as they each is a seperated individual member of FIFA. So even Ramsey would not be counted as home grown by then.
it would hit English football pretty hard. in particular Scotland, Wales, Ireland and N.Ireland. at the present u got players who born in England yet choose to play for Wales, N.Ireland, Ireland, Scotland because of that grand parents stuffs. yet by then they would have to think twice, yes, they would have more chances playing for a national team, yet they may not be able to play in the Premiership due to the fact it’s unlikely the clubs would want to waste that 5 foreign quotas on a Scottish, Welsh, or Irish.
that would significantly weaken their national teams.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Anyway, i find it funny with FIFA supporting the “Kick Racism out of Football” campaign, yet proposing this 6+5…. what exactly is the difference between “Racism” and “Nationalism”?
feel like the dark old days, with fans from UK asking “what do you Yanks know about football”? The world is getting smaller, whether u like it or not Mr. Blatter, faces it.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:34 am
@ nipuna: Actually the hard foreigner rule is impossible because it contradicts EU law which allows ALL Europeans access to every European work pool.
So that idea is a complete non-starter.
I heard Blatter say he was actually looking at the 6 as “homegrown” - similar definition as the one UEFA are phasing in for the CL.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:49 am
If Hleb signs with Barca, think AW will go after Florent Malouda? He was a target last year before Chelski nabbed him. sounds like scolari is planning to downsize. maybe we could get him cheaper this season.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
According to this, Hleb is now basically gone.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jul/10/arsenal.barcelona
Granted, it could be BS, but if it’s true, and Bert is going to Greece as well, then Arsene better start signing some bodies or it’s going to be a long season. The Sun had an article on Sagna and apparently he’s now starting to worry about the number of players leaving.
I know Arsenal is all about fiscal responsibility, but this is starting to get ridiculous. If they end up missing out on CL football because of all the turnover, then that is really going to hit them in the wallet.
July 10th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jul/11/arsenal.premierleague?gusrc=rss&feed=football
This whole drama with Hleb and Adebayor has troubled me. I find myself pretty betrayed and unwilling to accept the argument that a player should be able to move teams as he wishes, because the regular folks have the ability to switch a place of employment as our heart desires. We may very well have access to this luxury, but what of those who are contracted to their place of employement? Furthermore, I hold a firm believe that football, rather all sport in general, deserves loyalty from players; and this is why…
A player comes into a team and into a culture or is sometimes developed. Along with this culture is its most important element - the fan base. This fan base is responsible for driving the club and upholding the foundations of a club as the love for the club is passed on through a friend/parent over many generations. Without the fan base a clubis nothing. The fan base support to the club whether it is successful or not. They hold their breath every time an important play happens and they always believe that there is always room for a miracle. We do not abandon the team because of an unsuccessful season, we do not support our rival because they are richer…we support the team.
I expect the same from the players who are in the team, yet if they give reasons such as money or lack of success to manipulate a move to another club, I find it betraying. And today, I find myself bitterly disappointed and disillusioned with two of my favorite players.
DISCLAIMER: Perfect world scenario used to make a point.
PS: A good article that inspired the feelings above. I can only feel for Arsene…
Up the Arse! Kiss the Crest! Believe!
PSS: I think that we will be great next year!
July 10th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
And the FIFA president… well, he again…. had the nerve coming out to compare footballers today to “Modern Slavery”!!! LOL!!
and suggesting FIFA will try to do something about it. how about everyone can move freely to anywhere anytime without transfer fee from now on? Has anyone ever seen a slave earning over 100,000 GBP per week?
July 10th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Blatter is basically saying we should have footbll without contracts.
If the kid doesn’t want to honor his contract, then he should sit out for the remainder of it. That goes for any of these babies — Adebayor, Hleb, Ronaldo, name one.
The agents cry foul, well the agents are the ones who get their clients to sign on the dotted line. Slavery? Blatter isn’t worthy of the position he’s been given. The most moronic statement I’ve heard in sports since some NFL players defended Michael Vick’s right to fight dogs on his property.
Maybe if these dumb jocks would’ve finished school instead of dedicating all their time to playing a game, they’d have the relative intelligence required to understand simple concepts such as ‘contractual obligation’… God forbid one of them had joined the military.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Maybe Blatter should have invoked Shakespeare instead. All this transfer stuff sounds like a tragic love story. Real Madrid want Ronaldo, Ronaldo wants Madrid but the evil villain Man Utd are standing in the way, reminding everyone of a contract. Should a piece of paper get in the way of these lovers who want to be together?
Poor Madrid [insert big club of choice], poor Ronaldo [insert player of choice], lovers meant for each other obviously. The evil clubs are standing in their way of living happily ever-after.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I guess that is why they say “Love is blind”. Or is it Blatter that is blind because he can’t see Ronaldo has a contract.
July 11th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Yes, love is blind..blinded by money in this case
July 10th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Alright fellas… that time of year again almost.
I’ve renewed the Chelsea Haters league on the EPL Fantasy League site.
All are welcome, and all who played last year can probably be prompted through their ‘My Leagues’ info
Link to site to sign up…
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/
Create your team and hit join league:
League Name: Chelsea Haters
access code: 91639-27572
Tell your friends… hell, tell your enemies. I think it’s all head to head this year, which should be exciting.
July 11th, 2008 at 12:46 am
The most worrying thing is - Sepp Blatter is not your regular football fan. With fans, we can say anything we want without worrying of responsiblity. Yet Blatter is the FIFA president, the highest figure in world football. He cannot just let the crap coming out of his mouth anytime he wanted. He has a RESPONSIBLITY to other clubs and football.
With he coming out and say Man Utd should let Ronaldo go, and comparing footballers to slaves… what impact would make to the footballers? Wouldnt they all be start thinking “yeah, i have a right to look for a greener grass elsewhere anytime i want to? since even the FIFA president says so? and damn, i better ask for a pay rise, cos i m treated like a slave, it’s not fair!”
what about a decent person should always HONOR his WORDS. and in football world, the CONTRACTS they signed is a kind of a PROMISE. Does the FIFA president wants footballers to become a bunch of indignity soul who has no sense of honor?
No, Mr. Blatter, wake up and smell the coffee, footballers today are not like slaves, they are like WHORES. And your words are encouraging more and more players to act like a whore.
IMO, this is not only a yellow card offence. It’s a RED CARD. How on earth a person like this can be the president of FIFA is really beyond me. The same president who suggestd female footballers should wear shirts.
July 11th, 2008 at 12:48 am
should wear skirts.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:24 am
Here it is from the horses mouth.
http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=493818&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=Samir+Nasri+agrees+to+join+Arsenal+from+Marseille
Is he really 21? I think they got it backwards and he’s only 12.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Arsenal’s own baby face. I want to start calling him that.
Finally something positive after all this miggle-jumble-chaos.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:44 am
Will this clear the way for Hleb to leave?
July 11th, 2008 at 6:11 am
Although this was more or less expected….it’s finally great to see it officially confirmed :).
If Hleb and Adebayor are leaving…i hope they just get done with it as soon as possible….instead of messing up the atmosphere in the dressing rooms..and subjecting us to quotes on how they are unhappy etc. etc.
btw…when is the emirates cup starting? ..hope we have all our signings in place before that.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:24 am
As of now, it’s Lehmann and Flamini out with Vela, Ramsey and Nasri in. With huge question marks over Ade and Hleb and a smaller one over Gilberto, I expect to see more signings. Let’s hope it is soon enough.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
hey guys am new here. pls what we wanna about all these players leaving us? what Arsene is doing about buying new big ones
July 11th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
what we wanna do about them living the club and what Arsene is doing about new ones?