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Transfers/Rumours

VIDEO: Fergie, Sign Him Up - Bastian Schweinsteiger

July 7, 2010

Scott is the editor of Made In Manchester. He writes for ESPN, Four Four Two and Red News. He started The Republik of Mancunia in March 2006. Follow @R_o_M on Twitter.

PICTURE: What The Hell, Fergie?

Fletch: We Need To Share The Goal Load

228 Comments

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arijc July 8, 2010

@Costas
I think they are going to spend till they go bust. Maybe we should put in a bid for Messi :)
But seriously, I don't know why they are in such bad shape. If their business model is so great, then they shouldn't require bank loans to pay the salaries. In our case, the reasons for our debt situation are well known.

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Costas July 8, 2010

@arijc

Lol, I agree. Now it's the time to go for Messi. I don't know how they operate as a business, but I can think of two reasons why they are in this shape as opposed to 2009. One is the Ibrahimovic transfer. The other is the fact that they weren't as succesful as they were 12 months ago. The prize money for winning the Ch.League is something like 80 million pounds isn't it? And they didn't even make the final, so they also lost whatever the loser gets.

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arijc July 8, 2010

@Costas
Shouldn't forget Pedro, Bojan Krkic, Iniesta, Xavi as bargain buys.
If they are depending on Champions league prize money to balance their books, they are clearly living beyond their means. In my opinion, Inter pulled off 2 coups in the transfer market last summer. Managed to get 60 mil + Eto for Zlatan and got Sneijder for some 13-14 mil.

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Costas July 8, 2010

@arijc

I do admire Barclona for their ability to elevate players like Xavi, Iniesta and Pedro. And the first two are one of the main reasons why Spain are in the final. At the same time, their net spend in the last 2 years has been -120 million pounds. The funny thing is that Real's is -165 million, but you don't hear anything about them having financial problems!

I agree about Inter's transfers. Plus, they had a manager who got the best of them. Real didn't miss Sneidjer(they would never know how to use him), but Barca did miss Eto imo.

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King Eric July 8, 2010

Sincerely hope the Balotelli rumours a bollocks, although Inter have confirmed an interest . I won't believe anything till United make a statement.

The fucking Spanish wankfest lingers on, Lineker and his boys club drooling over them. As good a player Xavi is and I get sick of hearing how many passes he makes. How many of them are actually more than 8 yards? Rarely seeing him making the kind of balls the ginger prince makes.

Morning by the way.

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Costas July 8, 2010

@King Eric

Morning mate. The Balotelli rumors seem weird to me too. The kid is very talented, but to put it briefly, he is a nut. I don't think that even Fergie can tame him!

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arijc July 8, 2010

@ King Eric
Hence Barca and Spain are renowned for their playing style i.e. for their short passing game.
Scholes has a greater range of passing.

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Wakey July 8, 2010

@Costas

Thats because its against Spanish and FIFA laws to report on Reals debt and financial problems.

Real are in major debt that's rising by the day, they just don't run it as a business and throw money they don't have and can't generate. The funny thing is with Real they buy a player for inflated amounts and then claim 6months down the line short sales have paid for that player which seems very unlikely (There is no way that they made the money back on Ronaldo from shirt sales, let alone Benzema, Kaka and Alonso, they are fudging their numbers to claim they did)

TBH the whole Spanish league is fincially screwed and when UEFA bitch about the financial state of Football and then start focusing on England its bullshit as its Spain that needs looked at

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Stephen July 8, 2010

No value in the market and Kjaer signs for Wolfsburg for 10m EUROS.

Isn't that what we paid for Smalling? So on one hand you have "potential" that was playing for Maidstone and could barely get a game for Fulham, and the other an established 22 year old international...

DOH!

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King Eric July 8, 2010

Stephen - Hello mate. Thats just it though. United wouldn't have got Kjaer for 10 million Euros. It would probably have been 15 million quid. Like Costa and Ljijac before him. Clubs take the right piss .

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Wakey July 8, 2010

@torontored

See I don't think we need a replacement for Edwin yet. I strongly believe one of the things that screws up so many young keepers long term development is being stuck on the bench and I think buying a new Keeper now would be a waste of time and would be counter productive.

A Keeper is something that should be worked on through this season so he is ready to sign next summer

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Wakey July 8, 2010

@Ai
They will never Bankrupt. Football is a special case in Spain and these 2 clubs especially. WHen they have trouble or just want to buy a player they can goto any Spanish bank and get an interest free loan. For example Santander financed the purchase of Ronaldo, Benzema, Kaka and Alonso last season with an Interest free loan. These loans are often never even tried to be paid off and the banks just write them off.

Additionally both local and national governments will give them hand outs where needed hidden inside property buys. Real for example in 2001 had the Madrid rezone the city so their training ground was in a position where the city had to buy the land. The city paid significantly over the value. They were then given help by the Madrid council to build their new one. So they got a state of the art training facility for a fraction of the sale price of the old and were helped to fund it.

No doubt Barca could have the same kind of deal sorted and Madrid could probally pull the same deal in a few years with the current training ground

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Wakey July 8, 2010

@Costas

There are a few factors
1) They don't sell Ad space on their shirts
2) They don't maximise ticket prices (Season tickets are cheaper than almost anywhere in the world. Admittedly this is subsidised by the Membership fees that they have to pay to have a 'ownership stake' and elect their president but even then its cheaper than English clubs)
3) They overpay on players
4) The president structure means that there is a regular clearout of staff and players as the new president brings in their own staff and have to spend big to bring in major squad additions that they promised to get elected

People do hold them up as being how a football club should be run but in this day and age their structure actually results in major conflicts of ideals

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Wakey July 8, 2010

@King Eric

Inter did just say we made an enquiry on Balotelli. TBH if we are putting a bid or an enquiry in on one player it makes sense to make enquiries about other potential players as you never know you may find yourself a bargin (Cantona for example was signed when Leeds rang to ask about buying Irwin, SAF said no to Irwin leaving but asked about Caantona and the deal happened)

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Stephen July 8, 2010

It was rumoured his release clause was 12-13 which makes it even weirder he's gone for 10!!

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Wakey July 8, 2010

@Stephen
Kjaer's deal is in excess of 10mill. I suspect that the final fee is a fair bit in excess of 10mill.

I'm also assuming United just weren't intrested and that either SAF has someone else lined up (Maybe Cahil due to the HG rule that isn't an issue now but its worth planning for the future as you don't know how many of the u21's that will have HG status will make it) or that SAF has spoken to Vidic and is happy that he is staying

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Corea July 8, 2010

Sneidjer is a good player. BUT. He has played for Real, he has played for Inter and he is a diver.
So no thanks. BUT. If he comes i will support the player, not the worst scenario.
Glad for Spain. Great football, great passing, great players.

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mara July 8, 2010

he is not a diver, Real didn t wont him...

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arijc July 8, 2010

There must be a select few players left who haven't dived at all.

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Slim July 8, 2010

Hey lads . i'm going to continue with the transfer theme going on, check th link below and marvel at the state of decay of the game we love so much. This is the very thing wrong with Football in Europe and this crazy transfer market. It seems things are really not as they seem

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=807063&sec=transfers&cc=5739

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Corea July 8, 2010

maybe. who knows. it's just a personal opinion and impression. you know some you like some you don't.

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Costas July 8, 2010

@Wakey

These Spanish clubs are almost national institutions. Uefa can't touch them, thus we have Platini conveniantly focusing on the debs of English clubs. I just don't get where all the money is coming from for the transfers alone. 120 or 165 net spending in 2 years is an awful lot.

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United July 8, 2010

"I wouldnt mind if spent any amount of money on this guy."

Umm, well I do, we dont have that money to spend.

Long term viability of the club > short term success

And there is no chance in hell that Bayern sell him for anything less than 30 or 40 million after the world cup