gordoncharles

The voting is done by national team captains, national team coaches and 1 journalist from each of those countries. I loathe award ceremonies of any kind but it's difficult to suggest that the end result can't in any way form a decent overall opinion, and that includes the always controversial "team of the year". I know a lot of people don't think Ramos is any good, for example. but I just think those people are plain wrong. So do the 50,000 professional footballers who always also vote him into the Fifpro team. My point is that it doesn't matter what your own opinions are, someone will always have a different one. FCS I've seen the pre-match threads on here and Villa fans can't even agree on what their own best team is, let alone with the manager - and that's without every player in the world to choose from.

Well, they were given a bleeding second chance in the ******* league - don't get me started.

Guardiola's style of play was very easy on the eye for the first couple of years, I'd go as far as to say it's the best club football that's been produced. That changed when everyone started playing the same way against Barcelona (and Spain) - that's to say 2 banks of four brought in narrowly covering one edge of the penalty area to another and only about 5m apart. That's a conundrum it took Barcelona in general a long time to solve because it became like threading the ball through the eye of a needle, and because of their quality and speed they usually managed it, but it became so dull that I stopped watching their games. If anyone seriously thought Bayern's 5-1 destruction of Arsenal was dull, they should stop and think whether they actually like football at all. It couldn't be less like Van Gaal.

I quite like Benitez and always feel he is treated very badly by the English press, but I'm not surprised. They are terrible right now, utterly inconsistent even during matches. Last night they looked world-beaters for 20 minutes but in the end were lucky to even get a point. After 10 matches they were top of the league having conceded just four goals. In the last 8 their league record is Won 4 Drawn 1 Lost 3 (13 points) and they've conceded 14 in those 8 games, including the rout by Barcelona. Their victories in that time have been wholly unconvincing except for the freak result against Rayo when the ref intervened to allow them to play against 9 men for 70 minutes. Since 2010 they're only on their fourth manager which is actually no different from practically any other club these days.

I think you're remembering it wrong. That was the game that Arsenal made history by being the first team in CL history to record 0 shots at goal during an entire game.

As enticing as your offer is and as much as I might like to hear your monologue, to get to you would be a bit of a stretch from my starting position. As for newspapers, what about the Guardian and Independent. You seem to have forgotten that The Times, The Sun and Financial Times all backed Labour from before Blair's election till after Brown became PM. It's a laugh to see the upset of others over the supposed smearing of poor Jeremy equated with the fate of Michael Foot and Tony Benn. I have no way of knowing the backgrounds of any posters but this is just a re-run of what happened in the late 70s. Again the Labour Party was riven with ideological divisions which resulted in a full-scale split. Just to re-iterate - that had nothing to do with the influence of the damned press. At the following election, on a far/hard/extreme/cuddly/caring (*please delete as appropriate) platform, Labour suffered its worst election defeat in 70 years. Now... what was the Churchill quote about those who fail to learn from history?

If you mean by members of his own party, then yes, he is - though smeared? Please. How do propose to differentiate between various shades of political opinion, should we stop using any labels? -Will that apply to those Corbyn supporters who seem to have no problem calling opponents in their own party "red tories". None of the Labour supporting newspapers supported his candidacy either, the only newspaper that welcomed his appointment was the non-Labour Morning Star.. Anyway thanks for your analysis. I thought that I was capable of making my own mind up just like yourself, but now that I know I have been subverted over these many years by a malign press I can now be re-educated.

Not this "it's all the media's fault" whine again? Everyone is influenced by "the media" except of course the poster and his enlightened fellow travellers. When the Guardian is making jokes like "They think it's all over - it is Mao" you know you're on the wrong side of public opinion. Someone should point you in the direction of a Bell Curve.

A sensible response like that is wasted on the people who need to wake up to it. Throughout my lifetime there has been a grand delusion amongst the hard-left that the only reason they don't sweep to power is because of a Tory-press conspiracy against them. No matter that there are mainstream Labour-supporting titles out there, and that the news agenda in the UK is dominated by the BBC, it gives the population no credit for being able to form their own opinions. Those people should take a look at the clip I posted yesterday, dating back over 30 years. That was immediately prior to Michael Foot's crushing election defeat. The British public had no taste for hard left policies back then, and I seriously doubt they are any more inclined to them now, save for the rump of true believers who think that if we could only hear the message then we'd be sure to convert. Well, most of us are only too aware of the message and by-and-large we don't much care for it. Nor do most Labour MPs by the look of it (and they don't need the press to tell them what to think), so it's eerily reminscent of the early 80s.

A prescient piece from that famous year of 1982: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyyrfh-399Q&feature=youtu.be

It doesn't matter which club it is, prepare initially to be welcomed with great fervour. When the honeymoon period is over expect to be slaughtered on social media for your lack of ambition and unwillingness to "invest" in the club, and be harrangued on the public highway. My advice - avoid. At best you might get a year of fun, followed by the stress of how you'll ever dispose of the millstone.

"Football is about creating chances, not to make 20 goals a game. It is not possible." Klopp made that point last week. If you can't find players who will create chances, nobody will score. So yes, it's vitally important. The terminology is irrelevant.

I don't really like making the comparison, what was back then was different, but............ For a start Charlton and Greaves, and even players in the 80s played, for example, against Yugoslavia. Now you get capped (and the opportunity to score) against Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Macedonia. It would be impossible to make a case that the old Yugoslavia wasn't a stronger side than all those newly constituent parts. With Russia it's even worse - now there's a reduced Russia along with a host of utterly useless intemational sides in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia. Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. Even the Czechs and Romanians have been weakened by independent states at the same time as FIFA/UEFA allow the likes of San Marino, Faroes, Andorra and Gibraltar onto the scene. There were 32 European teams who took part in qualifying for the 1974 World Cup, there's now 54 involved in these Euros. Practically all England's competitive matches are now against sub-League 1 standard opposition, and sure enough as soon as they meet a major national side they fail - it's now 13 years and counting since England beat a serious opponent in a competitive game. As for last night, those match-ups remain a joke. That's not just my opinion, the bookies concur. San Marino were 150/1 to beat England last night. Even Bradford City were only 25/1 to win at Chelsea in last season's mega-cup-shock. If San Marino were in National League North (or whatever it's called today) they'd finish bottom of it. When I was a kid, and even later in my case, international football was the pinnacle of footballing achievement. Now I can barely raise an eyebrow in interest. This weekend Sky Sports told me that behind the red button I could watch Montenegro v Liechtenstein. Why? I wouldn't even have watched that if it was being played behind my neighbour's fence.

VIllarreal, Celta Vigo, Real Sociedad and Real Betis all interested in taking him according to reports here in Spain.

Who, outside the PL itself, do you think would be be prepared to pay more than 6m euros for a 29 year old DM? Why not give him a chance with a full pre season, you need to have faith in players instead of shunning them off, we all stuck by petrov when he first started and everyone said he wasn't good enough for the PL I don't know if that's directed at me, but in fact I'm a supporter of his previous club not his current one! It's just that I was responding to the original point that it's virtually impossible to sell Sanchez for a profit. FWIW, I don't think it has much to do with pre-season training, even though he wasn't close to being fit when he signed, I don't think Villa often used him in the right position. The guy should be stuck in front of the centre halves in a purely central DM role where he will be highly effective. If that's not the role wanted from a central midfielder he is going to be of a lot less use. No it wasn't directed at you so please don't take offence, I appreciate your comments and I agree that he should be sat in front of the back 4, that's where I would play him. I'm a firm believer you play a player to his strengths and I reckon he will be a top PL if he is played in that position. A guy who can effectively mark Messi out of a game can't be all that bad - he did that when Elche nilled Barcelona in 2014 and he did it for Colombia too. That, as you already know, is his strength. As a b2b or creative midfielder there would be better options.

Who, outside the PL itself, do you think would be be prepared to pay more than 6m euros for a 29 year old DM? Why not give him a chance with a full pre season, you need to have faith in players instead of shunning them off, we all stuck by petrov when he first started and everyone said he wasn't good enough for the PL I don't know if that's directed at me, but in fact I'm a supporter of his previous club not his current one! It's just that I was responding to the original point that it's virtually impossible to sell Sanchez for a profit. FWIW, I don't think it has much to do with pre-season training, even though he wasn't close to being fit when he signed, I don't think Villa often used him in the right position. The guy should be stuck in front of the centre halves in a purely central DM role where he will be highly effective. If that's not the role wanted from a central midfielder he is going to be of a lot less use.

Who, outside the PL itself, do you think would be be prepared to pay more than 6m euros for a 29 year old DM?

Those are the debts to the tax office, which are now forbidden under Spanish FFP. Atletico and others have arrangements to pay that off over time - that is what Elche's new board agreed as well, the only difference being the ENTIRE tax debt would be paid in less than 2 months. However Elche missed payments to the tax office in the past year which is why this complaint has been enacted, the other clubs are still paying theirs off according to the agreed schedules. Nevertheless, the circumstances - namely a new board and President in place which is actively paying off the debt, signed agreement with the tax office, and overall debt which is a lot less than many other clubs - make this grossly unfair. As I mentioned the fraud on the Neymar case is more than Elche's entire gross debt, however in that instance Barcelona are not being held liable for the actions of their current president, let alone any of their previous ones.

Elche will appeal though. As you can imagine I feel (as will another 25,000 Elche season ticket holders) cheated. I'm all in favour of attempts to get clubs to be self-sustaining and the Spanish League now has quite stringent control over club budgets. However, the league themselves have some culpability in that they allowed the situation to continue giving the new board which was brought in only five weeks ago little time to sort out the problem. The "very serious infraction" is actually 100% to do with non-payment of taxes. By now this has risen to 8m euros. Elche had to satisfy the league (via a supposedly independent judge) that they had dealt with this debt. Promissory notes were given, backed up with bank guarantees, to enure the entire debt is paid by 31 July. The Spanish treasury is happy with this arrangement - it appears the league is not as the judge's financial assistant does not consider that the promissory notes are "real" money. If they are not then every other club which currently has an arrangement with the tax office should also be demoted. Bearing in mind Elche's debt of 8m (soon to be zero), Atletico owe 100m, Deportivo 60m, Espanyol 40m, Rayo 34, Levante 20m, Getafe 14m, Celta de Vigo 8m.... etc. I would also ask why the massive tax fraud that took place as a result of the Neymar transfer is not equally a "serious infraction"? In this case, of course, action is being taken against the President, not the club, which somehow is separate. How surprising. The league are complicit as they suspended the entire Elche board - well-known as a gang of chancers- around Christmas but didn't follow through and allowed them to continue in control. Had they stuck by their initial action back then the current board would have resolved the tax issue prior to the deadline - the league's own inactivity is therefore more than partly responsible. Any league's responsibility is to ensure that as far as possible teams are rewarded for their success on the pitch. Elche have not cheated anyone in this regard, in fact they were subject to penalties before the season began and had the lowest budget in the league and the smallest squad (17 players). Eibar's conduct has been morally repugnant IMV. They were 2A champions last season but threatened with demotion unless they found 1.7m more in capital, due to a ludicrous old law that does not protect teams financially but remains a requirement for all clubs playing in the First and Second A Divisions. This would have been fundamentally unjust, however due to the goodwill of football fans worldwide (including some in Elche) people stumped up enough by last August to enable them to take their place in La Liga. They could not have raised the funds without help - which was given because fans recognise that rewards should arise from what happens ON THE FIELD. Now, having failed and been relegated, they have demanded the league expel Elche on this technicality. Their attitude is disgusting and I hope they continue to fail as badly as they did in the second half last season.

The clubs could not reach agreement. Athletic wanted to play at Real Betis (which is in Seville) which is a strange option IMV as it's the furthest away from either club's home you could go. Barcelona didn't want to play there, and for some reason Athletic wouldn't agree to play in Valencia. Why Atletico Madrid wasn't an option I can't say, especially for Athletic Bilbao with their historical link with that club in any case. Even allowing for usual Spanish mal-administration, I have no sympathy with Athletic because in the end, as I mentioned above already, they took a punt on getting a favourable decision to play on THEIR own ground, and lost.

...or like Bayern Munich playing the final of the Champions League at home.... Two years ago Real Madrid played at home in the final to Atletico, though on that occasion both teams agreed to play it there. This time, as has been mentioned, Real Madrid refused permission - Barcelona proposed to play in Valencia, Athletic wanted to play (bizarrely IMHO) at Real Betis. As neither could agree with the other, the Spanish FA voted on whether to hold the final in Barcelona or Bilbao and Barcelona won the vote. Bilbao took a gamble and lost - they may have been the ones playing at home which would pretty much have made the outcome 50:50. Or they could have agreed to play in Valencia and guaranteed a neutral venue.

http://www.sportyou.es/blog/wp-content/uploads/titulos-clubes-espanoles-europa1.jpg Interesting graphic showing Spanish dominance in Europe over the last 10 years.

Ramon Calderon (who always has an axe to grind against Perez) makes the point that of all the coaches Real Madrid have employed in their history for longer than 2 seasons, Mourinho is actually the LEAST successful of all time. Obviously this is partly because coaches don't generally last very long but it's also due to another reason and that is that the last few years have coincided with them competing against the greatest club side in history - Pellegrini's team reached 96 points and still couldn't win the league. Ancelloti is an interesting case because he had to come in and pick up the pieces from Mourinho's destructive time in charge, however it's well publicised that his league record, considering the clubs he has been fortunate enough to manage, is terrible. Madrid blew an open chance to win the Spanish League last season and based on the first half of this season they should have had this season's title wrapped up as well.

...many of the people currently on the board at these clubs are either involved in corruption or played a part in it. ....Elche Care to elaborate?

Eibar were told they had to convert from a members club to a limited company with a minimum 2m of capital. That rule has been in place for many years in Spain and was meant to ensure clubs don't get into financial difficulty. Like all government interventions it was an epic fail and purely arbitrary, however they knew they had to do it as several clubs have been demoted from 2A because of it. The rule is daft but I had absolutely no sympathy with Eibar, they and others should have sought to change that law before the event. With regards to the finances of teams which had been parlous, the form of FFP now in operation in Spain has been working pretty well. Only Elche are in serious danger of demotion for unpaid debts (you are not allowed now to owe money to the tax office) and even that looks like being avoided. The Spanish League actually control player registrations and tell the clubs prior to the season the total value of player contracts they may register. Once that limit is reached; no more registrations. To me the strike is about politics, the clubs welcomed the deal struck by the League and the Government, this is Spanish F.A. whining about not being consulted enough and being able to flex its muscle, while the Players Union support it as well for reasons it won't be too hard to guess at.