Stevo985 Posted January 10, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted January 10, 2014 Yaya wins third APOTY in a row. Well deserved. The man's a freak in the nicest possible way. the other 2 in the top 3 were MIkel and Drogba. Not much competition for Yaya is there really? (obviously Drogba has been incredible in the past) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Yes, it does seem like a low ebb for stand out players from Africa. It wasn't that long ago that you had top top players in their prime like Eto'o, Drogba, Essian in the running as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 African football is improving, and I think the 'average' players are better than they were 8-10 years ago, but at the higher end with Eto'o, Essien, Song, Gyan, Adabeyor and Keita not the players they were, the quality is extremely average. Yaya is about the only real stand out player now, the only player who you would genuinely regard as World class. So it's not a surprise he won it, it was very much a one horse race.. but that shouldn't take anything away from Yaya, he's been amazing this year, and if he wasn't African (say he was European for example) he would still be in the hat for Player of the Year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BleedClaretAndBlue Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 You forgot the Drog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Perhaps African football is improving overall but it's certainly the case that the elite African national sides are no where near as good as they were in the 90s and early 2000s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Yes, it does seem like a low ebb for stand out players from Africa. It wasn't that long ago that you had top top players in their prime like Eto'o, Drogba, Essian in the running as well. ...and Salifou. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avfc96 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 100 goals in 34 games. Incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 100 goals in 34 games. Incredible. still lost to Villa, only important stat 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Seeing how they are now makes it even more mental that these are one of only two home victories for us this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 (edited) Man City have acquired Melbourne Heart in the A-League. Will be interesting to see what develops from this here. Edited January 23, 2014 by Ghost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSV Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 (edited) Interesting indeed. There is a salary cap so they cant go spend a truckload. Although next seasons marquee will be interesting! They want to build an academy. Which will be good for Australian Football in general. Great to see. Whispers coming out that another big club has purchased Western Sydney Wanderers which will be announced soon as well. Need an A League thread! Man City have New York City as well.. so i guess they will rename to Melbourne City. Interesting strategy they have to dominate football. Edited January 23, 2014 by KSV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vandaq Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 so now they have new york city fc and that. Global takeover? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDuck Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Man City have acquired Melbourne Heart in the A-League. Will be interesting to see what develops from this here. Interesting. Given the team colours, do you think they meant to buy Victory and got Heart by mistake? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSV Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Man City have acquired Melbourne Heart in the A-League. Will be interesting to see what develops from this here. Interesting. Given the team colours, do you think they meant to buy Victory and got Heart by mistake? Rumour has it that once the A League season finishes they will rename the club to Melbourne City and have a sky blue jersey....... (may clash with Sydney FC though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 How can a club buy another club? It's all going to be franchised soon isn't it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Guessing they'll be loading up the academies so can then cherry pick the better players Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 This sounds like a nice idea but how many players established themselves recently from Chelsea and Citeh academies? Years ago Chelsea said they planned to be self-sufficient by producing their own players. It's all hot air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 (edited) Is this some kind of clever way around the FFP rules? Moving players and money around to stay inside of the rules? eg. New York City buy Messi for £150m then loan him to Manchester City. Following season Melbourne buy Ronaldo for £150m, then loan him to Man City... Edited January 23, 2014 by Tamuff_Villa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSV Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Can work the other way too... A League has a salary cap.. but loans dont fit in the salary cap.. they are separate (i think theres a restriction of games though 4-6 or something). So Man City can buy a top player (whos not good enough for City but good enough for the A League) and send him out on loan to Melbourne City. Will open a can of worms thats for sure. Basically what Red Bull are doing now... franchising teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPower_14 Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 The A league can have one player exempt from the salary cap though. And if Messi or Ronaldo wanted to come to Australia they'd forget the rules in the blink of an eye obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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