SDMB Footie Focus: October

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
141

Yup - although Dwain Chambers could well be sacrifice enough.

I think that the Rio issue isn’t a direct comparison, as the only banned drug that I am aware of that a short delay would allow to clear is coke. It is also the drug that has the easiest available masking agents for it (although presumably these are banned too?). That’s not to say that the press won’t want their pound of flesh (and most of them have fallen foul of the fergie/manyoo conspiracy theorists at some time - so cuold be looking for payback).

THis is why his behaviour seems so odd, as the worst he would face for a coke-positive test would be a week in the Priory, and a “mea culpa” to the press a la merson. Now he’s facing a lengthy ban.

No one’s said he’s bright though…

142

Bosnich given ban
*"The Football Association has given goalkeeper Mark Bosnich a nine-month ban for failing a drug test.

The Australian was found guilty after testing positive for cocaine in 2002. "*

143

I posted the above in case you got booze and coke momentarily mixed up. It can happen to the best of us, and probably has . .

Forgot to post this incredibly bad taste link. Just seemed wholly appropriate in a footie culture thread:
http://www.mingers.com/ - fwiw, there are some corkers, sorry, particularly offensive examples, on the couples pages.

144

I can always remember the difference between pop and chop.

I have always thought that there was more to the Bosnich thing than meets the eye. Here we had a £40,000 pwk player that couldn’t get into the team and was unsaleable because of his wages at a club that were going bust (oh the irony).

He was (is) a well known gak-hound, what with being attached to the human hoover Anderton (sophie not darren), and he happened to get tested on a rare visit to the training ground. A lucky break for pappa Smurf innit?

I think the severity of his ban was associated with him appealing the test and not doing the whole crying on camera thing. If he had given the “my drug hell” performance he would have been encouraged into the Priory and probably not banned.

Given that he has recently been taking dosh from the NOTW to throw matches with Fashanu - fuck 'im. (and I can remeber the nazi salute at the lane too)

145

Another interesting weekend (and a disaster for my fixed odds coupon). Man Utd get walloped by Fulham (who’d have thought it?) but the filth fail to capitalise, only getting a draw with Charlton.

Chelsea continue to win, and surely it is now time for someone to have that chat with Seaman - it’s getting pitiful.

Wolves produce the comeback of the season, and score four goals - without Iversen helping out - they’re learning.

THe Spurs/Boro game was dire - the only comfort I can take out of it is that not long ago we’d have lost, so a point, whilst not good enough is a step in the right direction.

I have a ticket for Bribery next week (a library card?), and have absolutely no hope of getting a result, but it is always a fun day out.

And I thought England were supposed to be good at this rugby mullarkey.

146

<Spurs stuff>

I thought it was moderately interesting from a tactical pov. Carr vs. Zenden was fun, as was Taricco vs. Mendieta – the latter causing Spurs all kind of problems when he moved inside at the beginning of the second-half and Tano went with him. Spurs were all over the shop in that second opening period largely as a result. I thought Tano met the challenge really very well.

Anyway, those two wide battles meant there was lots of space elsewhere in the first half which our midfield donkeys (Poyet and Sharon) couldn’t exploit.

Also in that second opening period, Dalmat briefly moved inside – presumably to use that very space - and that didn’t work either. They also closed down completely the space Konchesky was exploiting. Actually, Mclaren completely out-thought Pleat at halftime and Spurs were struggling from then on. I’d say Mclaren also had the better of the exchange of subs as well.

Not a great one from Pleat but it was a lot better than Glenn’s inflexible approach.

I liked the ‘boro defence, especially the keeper and central defence.

Offing Poyet for Ledley King on 70 mins, literally, showed the shape of things (midfield defence) to come. I’m assuming King is in competition with OJ Mabizela for that screening/defensive role.
Sooner we permanently lose Renknapp, Sharon, Poyet and Doherty the better – I see Toda is already leaving. At least that’s a start.
</Spurs stuff>

Swapped Cuchachini for Tim Howard in the fantasy league last week – not my best timing . . .

147

spurs stuff…

All in all thought it told us what we already know. We can’t play Anderton and Poyet in the same game - Dalmat needs to go on a diet, as he ran out of puff in the 2nd half.

What to make of all this financial stuff? Is it a storm in a teacup? If we don’t provide our figures by thursday we wil be suspended from the stock exchange.

Spurs stuff finishes…

Wimbledon (the MK one) have about two weeks to live. Good.

148

We’ve given them, according to the radio. £7.1 mill loss for the last year. Not including the summer purchases . . . which included the bargain that is Helder Postiga :eek:

149

full story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/3218073.stm

these are sustainable losses.

Postigia is already making “my spurs hell” noises.

150

£7M? Pah, try £50M losses at Leeds!

Went to Cardiff v. West Ham on Saturday. Tight match - Cardiff have improved marvellously while the Hammers look like any other Div 1 cloggers. I suspect it might be a while before this Big Club gets back into the Premiership (cf Sheff Wednesday, Notts Forest etc.).

151

Rangers are winning the Debt Race 2003, aren’t they? Or at least they chould be, if it weren’t for some dodgy revaluation (to the tune of £35 million) of Mount Doom. Interesting.

152

It really does look grim at Leeds (grimmer than usual up north).

If (when) they sell Smith and Robinson they don’t get the dosh - as they’ve leased them out to get short term rogon. The only good it will do them is getting their wages off the books. Robinson would look good with a cockerel on his chest.

Relegation is still a distinct possibility too.

There was a bloke on R5 this moring saying that they are doomed, doomed I tell ye. Every revenue stream that they borrowed on the back of has reduced substantially from the point of borrowing.

How exactly do a club get into a state where they are hiring GOLDFISH fer fuck sake?

And the inevitable spurs bit… Last night I went to a Q n A with Pat Jennings who is still a goal keeping coach at WHL and he was very rude about Pleat, saying that he undermined Hoddle from the beginning, and would be impossible for anyone to work with.

153

Whlihst we all knew Leeds were in the crap , I Don’t think most people realoised exactly how deeply they are encrapped.

THis article explains all:

http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/leeds/story.jsp?story=458277

The fact that they are still paying for Robbie Keane is simply staggering.

I don’t like leeds at all, but I wouldn’t wish this on the Arse. (who’s finances are also a source of woe).

Tonight at the Lane we will be mugging off:- West Ham. Should be a good cup tie. I am noisily confident.

154

Is it ? They’ve manged to reduce costs by £20 mill this year, largely be reducing the wage bill. They did that by offing the likes of Keane, Fowler, Woodgate, etc and, by default, outing their contracts. That Leeds had to add a relativly small sweetner for Spurs (for Keane) and Man City (Fowler) seems like good business to me; at least most of the wages are off the payroll – hence that £20 mill reduction in costs (rather pay Keane a couple of hundred grand than 52 weeks at whatever, £40, 000 a week, I’d guess)

What *was *madness, imho, was the wages structure under the previous Chairman; it looks to me like they’ve almost turned the corner now as long as they can keep revenues at the current levels. Which, in turn, means staying in the prem and a bit of a Cup run.
As for the Spurs accounts; becasue they include a £5.1 mill write-off for Rebrov and £2.1 for Thatcher, they look okay, given the reduced revenues – surprising what even a run (albeit to the Final) in the League Cup can do for the accounts (as per the previous year).

Spurs can’t now spend until they perform better in the Prem (a bigger share of the all-important teevee revenue) and have a Cup run, or two. Europe would help a lot, also – and we’ve spent all but £20 mill on four strikers to do just that.

This year’s £7 takes the total to £10, then add in the three new strikers to get to over £20 million. We need those investments in strikers to start paying off.
Tonight:

I hope Pleat has worked out a way to get support forward, cos without Kanoute and with those tired legs in midfield, al that wide delivery and pumped balls forward is just wasted; RobbieKeane might be a lot of things but a target man he isn’t, not can he do it all (to feet) surrounded by defenders and no relief from midfielders running at intelligent angles.

We need midfielders running at them, and at angles. Pleat must know this and it’s an ideal time to rest Poyet. I hope he take sa gamble and leaves Sharon on the bench, also.

155

Although I’ve never been a fan of Hoddle’s apparent management style, I really thought Spurs would do better this season. The purchases looked generally good (but now Postiga is turning into this season’s Maccarone) and I could have seen them becoming this season’s Newcastle.

So can Spurs still pull it together? Are more signings definitely needed, or just better performances from the current ones? Is a swap deal with Charlton on the cards for Konchesky and Perry?

156

That’s just what we need - another discussion of Spurs’ fortunes;).

157

Or minus £20 mill fortunes . . .

I’ve also had enough of these Spurs hijacks . . . it’s just not footie.

Owl, I think we need our own thread. Hope you agree. I’ll start one tomorrow if you don’t before . . .

158

Re Leeds: My reading of the article and the situation generally is that they became involved in an arrangement that went something like this:

They spot a player they want who is going to cost £10m. They then go to this financier and say “we want player x”, financier buys the player, and Leeds enter into a leaseback over the term of the contract, which means they can buy out of current revenue rather than money up front (and remember that Eng-Eng transfers had to be settled within a year until recently).

They pay the financier a fee for the services of the player, and the player’s wages. However once a player is sold, the first call on the revenue is to buy out the rest of the lease, or to continue to pay the fee until the lease expires.

This seems to be the case with Robbie Keane (and some others), they are still paying his lease fee, and do not have his services to call on. This is insanity. They are dead in the water as it means that any other player that is on this arrangement is not an asset of LUFCplc but in fact is a liability in terms of future debt.

Also all their other revenue streams are reducing, not yet catastrophically, but when margins are this tight it still matters. They will be receiving less place money, went out of the league cup last night, won’t get the bonus clauses on their contracts activated and in general become a less attractive proposition to box holders etc. I can really see them going out of business.

Re spurs accounts: The big loss is indeed the hits that we took over the gnome and Fatcher. However they also don’t include our summer spending spree, but they are far from alarming. More worryingly our plans to raise another £15m have had to be dropped.

Re Spurs tonight: I am hoping that Gus and Sharon get a rest. I would start with a midfield of Rickets Dalmat, Mabizela and Konchesky, and hope that Ziege is fit enough to come on at some time as he is a brilliant crosser of the ball (and good at dead ball situations). That will give us some creativity (Dalmat and Ricketts) as well as a bit of steel. I would give Postigia a run out with Robbie too.

Re Konchesky and Perry, as both clubs are allowing the players to become cup tied it looks like they won’t be going back.

159

Good idea, this cross-posted with mine.

We could call it yids anonymous.

160

Well, we could. But then again . . . anyway, tonight . . .
On the wings, I think we’re (correctly) going to work towards Konchesky behind Ziege (Konchesky at left back, his favourite position). On the right side, Carr working with Simon Davies (Davies first choice, but competiton from Dalmat and Ricketts) – quite what we can do about that developing that shape tonight, I don’t know. I assume Carr will have Dalmat in front of him . .

I think it also makes sense to give Ledley an extended trial as the defensive midfieler and tonight is an opportunity to further that idea (with OJ the natural replacement).

In terms of up front, yep Keane and one other (with the other being replaced later by . . . the other).

Here’s what I think we could - only could - look like and bearing in mind we’re working towards getting experience into some players, a result in the game and getting experienced players up-to-speed:

Hirschfeld

Carr – Richards – Gardner - Konchesky

Dalmat – Ricketts – King - Blondell (replaced by Ziege)

Keane – Postiga/Zamora (one replacing the other)

I’d think that would be a constructive use of the opportunities . . .
Get back to you tomorrow, Crusoe