1. Transfer Deadline Day
Although not as explosive as I thought it was
going to be, transfer deadline was a great and exciting day if you are a
football fan.
The biggest deals saw Ozil join Arsenal in a £40
million + deal from Real Madrid, which I think is an amazing signing for the
Gunners. Not only do they get a world class player, who I would say is in the
top 5 (no pun intended) of midfielders in the world right now, but his style of
football will not only instantly blend in with the way Arsenal play but will
enhance it. Although there was a lot of talk of 10s of potential signings for
Arsenal over the last couple of weeks and they only signed one, I do honestly
believe in this case quality has beaten quantity.
The biggest transfer going out of the Premier League
was a massive shock #sarcasm, with Gareth Bale going to Real Madrid in a £80
million + deal. Bale is going to be a sensation with the quality of players
around him, and I will go out on a limb now and say Real Madrid will win not
only La Liga but also the Champions League. In some Bale related news, I want
to give huge props to Daniel Levy in this deal. Not only did he manage to get a
massive profit on a player who cost close to nothing in this day an age, not
only has he managed to bring in several players to replace Bale who all have
great quality, but another deal was made some years ago which we were all largely
unaware of until now.
When Southampton sold Bale to Spurs, they had a
25% sell on clause added to the contract, so in theory would have been entitled
to £20 million as part of this deal. 3 or 4 years ago, Southampton were a team
in League One who were going broke with a very thin squad. Daniel Levy offered
to send a few players to Southampton on loan, in exchange for the 25% sell on
clause to be nullified. At the time Southampton would have been crazy to turn
it down, which they didn’t, but all these years on, I believe they are only
entitled to £2 million for bringing him through their youth system. You’ve got
to hand it to Levy.
Finally, the other big transfer was Fellani going
to Manchester United from Everton, in a deal that went right down to the wire.
Fellani waved a lot of money in order to push through the deal, and United have
got a decent player who will enhance their midfield. My only question I have
with Fellani, which I’ve had ever since he came into the Premiership, is his
temperament. When things are not going his way, he tends to get stroppy and not
try, which will not go down well with the United fans. I saw him play for Everton
against Cardiff last week, 2 days before his move, and he couldn’t look less
bothered. Shouting at his team mates, walking around the pitch like he couldn’t
care, if I was an Everton fan I would be quite glad to see the back of him if
that’s his attitude.
2. International Break/Wales Rant
The Premiership took a week off for the World Cup
qualifiers this year, with England beating Moldova 4-0, Scotland losing 2-0 at
home to Belgium despite a brave display, and Northern Ireland losing 4-2 at
home to Portugal, again after a very brave display at home.
*Warning Rant*
What I want to talk about, is the Wales
result. I’m a proud Welshmen, I’ve always gone to the Wales home games and been
to some Wales games away, but I’m embarrassed and dismayed by what’s happening
to my country, and there’s only one man I blame Chris Coleman.
The man is an incompetent fool, and this is
nothing about the fact he’s a self confessed Swansea fan. The man couldn’t
manage 15 year olds in an under 10’s competition and win. You are the manager
of a national team, you can’t be doing things like losing your passport and not
being able to travel with your team.
The man has arguably the most in form player in
the Premiership in Aaron Ramsey, you have the worlds most expensive player on
the bench, you have 5 of the 11 of your team in Premiership team, 1 of the
players part of the Scottish champions team, and the other 5 players have
recent Premiership experience, and you can’t beat Macedonia?! All teams lose
surprise matches, I understand that, but it wasn’t like we were pushing and
pushing with our superior quality and got caught out, they were better then us
and should have beaten us by more. It’s pathetic!
The late Gary Speed left the country with an
amazing SQUAD of players and youngsters coming through, and it’s taken less
then 2 years for Clown Coleman to undo all that hard work. The only bigger
clowns than Coleman are the people at the FAW who, rumour has it, have offered
him a contract through to Euro 2016?! What the hell are they thinking?! We beat
Scotland despite Colemans tactics with world class performances by Bale. Oh I
dunno. We are playing Serbia at home on Tuesday, and I have no interest in
going which is a first for me, I’m just so embarrassed, and to me that says it
all.
3. Gary Madine Is Crazy (Allegedly)
In Championship news, Sheffield Wednesday player Gary
Madine, has been appearing in court this week for the alleged assault of not
only a Sheffield United fan, but a Sheffield Wednesday fan…. a fan of his own
club.
Now he may be guilty of assault, he may not be,
but one of the defence’s is that he is aggressive when he is drunk, but my
question would be why was he drunk? When I was a kid I dreamt of being a
professional football player, I would never ever destroy my body if I achieved
that dream by going out drinking.
The defence says that the Sheffield Wednesday fan
threw a drink over Mr Madine, and that’s for the courts to decide, but from my
own brush with Kenny Miller in a bar many years ago, I know how arrogant and
pig headed footballers can be. Not saying that is the case here, but I have my
own opinion and lets see how the court case goes.
4. Rangers Turmoil Continues
The news dominating Scottish football this week,
apart from Celtics magnificent win to get them into the Champions League, is
the turmoil at their old firm neighbours getting worse and worse.
I lived in Glasgow for 6 years, and even worked
for Rangers for the first couple of months when I moved up, so I have a great
affection for the Old Firm and Scottish football, so it pains me to see Rangers
in the situation they are in.
I’m sure everyone knows the story of what
happened after Craig White took over, the liquidation of the club and their
rise from the ashes, but the boardroom has been a battle ground for the last 2
years. Walter Smith was supposed to be the man to bring all the factions
together but he has resigned and chaos reigns.
This week, a group of 3 former directors who
wanted back onto the board, was going to agree to join with the current board,
but have now stated the shareholders should vote off the current board and
bring them in.
It just gets more and more messy, and I’m so glad
the Ally McCoist is still in charge as at least everything on the field remains
constant, but off the pitch, the club is in a complete mess. I hope they get
out of this, as Scottish football needs the Old Firm together batteling for the
league. I think these 3 years without Rangers will make the SPL stronger, in
terms of other teams raising their game as they know they have the chance to
finish second and push Celtic, so when Rangers get back there, it will be a
stronger league, but they have to get back otherwise within 5 years when new TV
deals are being discussed, there will be no increase in revenue, and the game
in Scotland will suffer big time.
5. Copenhagen Name Check
Some strange news being reported by the Metro
this week, is that FC Copenhagen have decided to combat the potential of
trouble in the Champions League games, they will not sell tickets to people
with “Non-Danish sounding names”.
Now, I’ve been to Denmark, I know a few Danish
people, I even know a Philip from Denmark, so how the hell can FC Copenhagen
tell if they are genuine fans or not just by their name?!
The club have back tracked somewhat and said they
will listen to the cases of people we decline as to vet if they are real fans
or not. So let me get this right, if I wanted to go and see a game at FC
Copenhagen I would have to travel over there and plead my case just to get a ticket?!
It’s definitely a different way to combat
hooliganism, I just hope it’s not something that continues.
Just for fun
In a new section of top 5 every week, I will
finish with a trivia question. As the title suggests, it’s just for fun, so
there are no prizes on offer, only pride and seeing your name in print in this
column next week. To enter, follow @ItsBizLIVE on twitter, and send a tweet
stating your answer and your name. So here we go….
Name the player, that if he scores this season,
will become the only player to score for 7 different clubs in the Premier
League, and can you also name those clubs?
See you next week with the answer…
By @haydngleed
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