Last season's signings were full of fail? Nah, it is the way we handled them.

AC, 30 million wasn't it? Lacked confidence, but improved and was on his way to regain his form towards the end of the season. Played and scored for England too at the Euro's no?

This season, discarded and loaned out.

JH, widely reported to cost 20 million. Hailed as one of the best players in Sunderland and a promising talent all round. Played out of position all season. Most likely intimidated by huge signing fee.

This season, used or tried to be used as a makeweight to sign someone of lesser monetary value.

SD, 20 million iirc. Delivered what he was bought for. Sadly the 0 goals and 0 assists stat line makes him an easy target although everyone conveniently forgets that he created 55 chances.

This season, was put on the 'for sale' bin all season.

Oh ok, getting rid of CA i'm okay with.

I'd say it here out loud.

So far, to me Brendon Rodgers has proven himself to be no more than a class A Idiot. Is this management? You discard all your expensive pieces cheaply just because they do not fit you system? Stupid.

My bookeeper is not up to scratch. Do i keep him around until it is confirmed that I have secured a replacement or do I get rid of him now and leave the position vacant? Who then manages the books for me?

You were hired to make the most of our limited resources. Period.

There are always loopholes. If sponsorship is benchmarked against the top clubs in the world, then there will be big questions about rankings, popularity and branding. A team like Man City just won the Premier League so there's no saying they wont have a sudden surge in popularity worldwide. That sudden surge may bring sudden giant revenue or it may not. How to measure the surge?

Other than that, they can always source for alternative revenue channels via shirt sales for example. Sheikh can just buy 100 million of MC shirts and then keep it and slowly sell it out.

No matter what, they can always be loopholes as long as rich man and money are involved.

So who did he discard and leave the position vacant? Andy Carroll was only discarded because he was promised a replacement would be brought in and John Henry has since admitted someone up there screwed up. I've never heard anything about selling Downing. As for Jordan Henderson, Stoke made an enquiry about him and was dismissed. He was then according to rumours used as a makeweight for Dempsey so its not exactly discarding and leaving the position vacant is it? Our midfield is packed with Gerrard, Allen, Sahin, Shelvey, and Lucas!

A good read. Sheds some light in questions I've had on the matter. So it seams that exclusion from tournaments is the harshest punishment a club can face. What about the fine however? A dollar for every dollar above the benchmark sum. Where does all this money go?

What has Man City done commercially? Despite winning the Premiership, I see no efforts made in tapping into the Asian audience. No signing of Asian players for example. Are they even looking at addressing the issue of making themselves commercially that much more profitable? Given last seasons recorded loss, they have a lot to do before the 2013 season.

Interesting...


Man Utd wants to limit Man City spending power



Creative ways round fair play

In the context of his post, I'm assuming he meant Rodgers has relegated them to the bench when he said, "discarded".

Agreed. Assuming FFP does work and they can no longer spend crazy amounts of money, what's gonna happen to them? Let's be honest, City obviously doesn't have the commercial pull as compared to even Spurs I guess despite winning the league. Chelsea should fare better I guess considering it has been almost 10 years since Roman's takeover winning lots of trophies along the way not to mentioned they are already quite a big club even before the takeover BUT should still be less attractive compared to Arsenal, United and Liverpool. Will these clubs wilt and go back to how it was before all these big money foreign takeovers? In that case the PL might go back to how it was before with virtually only Arsenal and United racing for the title. United for their obvious commercial power and Arsenal because Wenger is just godly when it comes to building and winning with youngsters.

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Added on September 6, 2012, 10:09 amIf that's the case isn't it worse? Playing them just because they cost a lot in an attempt to justify their price tags regardless of performance. Hmm...wasn't that what KK did last season and got barracked by fans?

This post has been edited by Cloud0890: Sep 6 2012, 10:09 AM

The main grouse here is a good manager make good use of whats available unlike Rodgers, esp we're poor big club .
Truth to be told, I'm not convinced by rodgers either.

There'll always be loopholes to be exploited by lawmakers/accountants etc. Even if there arent any, do Platini have to balls to really exclude those clubs where blue chip players ply their trade?
won't he running scare those clubs form a breakaway league as threatened before? If there's 10 clubs with big names breaking away, I imagine that it'll be impossible for Platini to convinced other clubs with blue chip players staying put. Esp when the income generated are control by the clubs themselves unlike UCL. Players will be swayed by unlimited riches on offer.

So out of the expensive pieces you have listed, who was actually sold?

NONE.

BR has stated had he knew he wouldn't get the 1-2 signings he was expecting, he wouldn't have let AC out on loan. It wasn't his fault that somebody above him botched this up. Get your facts right before you criticise.

Assuming FFP really work, then God bless, it will be to our advantage. Liverpool's rich history and tradition will stand us in good position when it comes to commercial value. Of course, Man Utd will have the biggest advantage.

I can see teams rushing to sign Chinese players, Indian players and Arab players just for the commercial branding to ensure the big number of shirt sales.

Teams like Anzhi will suffer the most.

Hmm the first thing that would happen is that teams will have to trim their squad sizes or at least rid themselves of expensive stars, and to rely more on their academies. The "Galatico" way of building a squad will be all but a thing of the past. Clubs will have less star players and as such, may shun less lucrative competitions to focus on the big prize. It happened with the League Cup and it's happening with the Europa Cup, which isnt as financially rewarding as it was before when it was known as the UEFA Cup. The World Club Cup would suffer and next in line is the FA Cup.

Whatever it is City will suffer should FFP take full effect. Like you've said, they don't have a fanbase that can rival Even Spurs yet and they haven't had a sustained period of success to date. Finding big sponsors will be a big plus but how many corporations or brands can afford that big a sponsorship amount? After recording a loss of almost £200 million, they would still be in the red even if they secured the big Standard Chartered and Warrior deals we did. This is I. Light of FFP's regulation of benchmarking sponsorship deals.

The one line I saw in the FFP article posted earlier which could be their saving grace, is that consideration will be given to teams who are "moving in the right direction". I'm assuming there is actually a definition for this and it isn't as loose as it sounds. So yeah, if City start looking into promoting themselves by say, setting up academies, fan clubs and merchandise stores around the world, maybe they'll get by.

1) None of the transactions came to fruitation. But did he not use them as bargaining chips? Kid ourselves not. He does not want them. Did their already fragile confidence much favours eh did he not?

2) You're making excuses for BR really. If I'm gonna be firing my bookeeper then I better be 100% sure I've got a ready replacement lined up and have already gotten the go ahead from my Managing Director.

Bottom line is, we're paupers. We need managers who will make the most of what we have, and not one who has to revamp the whole squad.
I believe we are going to 'tiki-taka' ourselves to mid table 'greatness'.

To be honest, BR WILL sell those if only there's takers. Main point is good mgr adapt & make do with what he has, not just clear stock & bring new players.

FFP is like the much touted Anti Money Laundering Acts being set up in the commercial realms... much ado over something that is terribly difficult or near impossible to enforce.

I'm won't put too much hope into it.

Aye. I'm no fan of Henderson but he is still young and he was played out of position.

I have mixed feelings about Stewart Downing mainly because I think he's one of our more exciting players when he's on the ball. FairPlay he didn't have any goals or assists last season but like madmoz pointed out, he created 55 chances, all of which we spurned. Downing is pretty good when he's on the ball and I do sometimes feel sorry for him because he has very little to aim at in the box which forces him to come inside and try to work his way past a wall of defenders. Like I said, mixed feelings here.

Carroll I've always defended and my opinion of him has not changed but que sera sera. Moving on.

Having said all that I can understand why they're left out now, with Lucas having returned before getting crocked again, Stevie G a permanent fixture, Jonjo Shelvey showing a lot of promise during pre season, Raheem Sterling putting in impressive performances and finally, the signing of Joe Allen.

The offer we got from West Ham is a good deal IMO. I'm not sure we'll be getting any better offer than this. Provided West Ham avoids relegation at the end of the season, it's a good 2m + 17m of money we can use for season 13/14. It's all about balancing the accounts and recouping losses in this case. If not of such heavy transfer fee and wages tag on AC, I'm sure BR would be happy to keep him as our "Plan B".

This post has been edited by Yluxion: Sep 6 2012, 10:36 AM

Media have made their own account of stories but I do believe Madmoz have a valid point, not that I agree to all his points.
I do suspect that BR was desperately getting rid of Andy Caroll to reduce the wages (Perhaps unwillingly). Whether or not we get a replacement is another question. They were looking at balancing the book as first priority. That is my thought.

Obviously, they overlooked the sight of unrest from fans if the last minute transfer fail to materialise.

Oh just to clarify, when i say discarded i don't mean benched. I mean unwanted, put on the trade block.

I speak from experience really. When i came into the company i am currently at a year ago, we promptly got rid of an underperforming staff member in one of the departments. We have yet to be able to find a proper replacement for her, and things are still kinda FUBAR there.

I contrast, for the second department i had to revamp, there were a number of underperforming peeps. Didn't take the 'you suck, get lost' approach this time round, and took the time to come up with a system that best suits their strengths and abilities. Trained them, coached them, cajoled them buggers. It wasn't easy, and things still aren't as smooth as I want it to ultimately be, but it's still better than the first department. Replacing the parts imho is a cop out.

This post has been edited by madmoz: Sep 6 2012, 10:43 AM

I agree with this. The parameters have been set. We aren't going to spend foolishly which by default suggests that we either have to sell to buy, or that we have to play with the hand we've been dealt. If we do sell our lads deemed to be a surplus by Rodgers, we will incur a substantial loss. Hence it looks like we have to make do with the players we have. It makes Rodgers' job that much harder but he should have known what he was getting himself into. Martinez certainly wasn't jumping with joy when we approached him and despite interviewing managers, I didn't see too many clamouring for the opportunity to sit on the Anfield not seat.

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Added on September 6, 2012, 10:43 amProbably the best deal we could hope for actually. Even at £18 mil, some may say he's still overpriced. The £35 mil price tag is indeed his biggest enemy or he would have been used the way Peter Crouch was, as a different option either as an additional striker when we're behind, or to serve as an outlet to relieve pressure when we're being pegged back.

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Added on September 6, 2012, 10:54 amIf she was under performing, why is it so hard to replace her? Not hard for example to find someone better than Henderson, even internally e.g, Shelvey.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Sep 6 2012, 10:54 AM

Isn't BR doing what you said on the last part?

The first department sounds like Liverpool of last season.

This post has been edited by Yluxion: Sep 6 2012, 11:02 AM