We Go Again! The 2014/15 Premier League Thread

[Crimey]

First topic message reminder :

Who would have thought that Liverpool's strength would be the defence after the start to the season!

[mystiroakey]

TP will probably try and raid a few Palace players.. Hopefully all will say shove it.

Do you mean Tony Pulis when you say TP? God I hope not, apart from Gayle there's not one Palace player I'd want. And that's regardless of the league table showing you above us comfortably.

Well tell him that . And hopefully he will listen- Which he won't- so it doesn't really matter. But the one player at palace that TP will not buy is Gayle. He wanted to sell him- He isnt a TP mould player. It sounds like you dont really understand the manager you have tbh.

[Guest]

Bolasie walks into our WBA side, I'd even have Jedinak over Mulumbu. Dann is a solid defender too, probably better than Macauley.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Yeah, Jedinak, Bolasie, Puncheon, Ward all would be cracking buys for Brom.

[NickisBHAFC]

Speroni is better than foster as well.

[Azzy]

Quite the opposite, I never said Pulis would want him, only that I would. I have never wanted, and will never want, Pulis as manager. I hope Peace sells the club and the new owners sack Pulis to bring in their own man. But from Palace, only Gayle would be on my list. Everyone else is much of a muchness, just as from a Palace perspective I'd probably only want Berahino

Jedinak might walk into the side over Mulumbu if Mulumbu was going to be here, he's 100% leaving this summer. Gardner fulfils that role anyway. And as for Bolasie, I've never been convinced by him, although if you're giving me a choice between him and Chris Brunt, I'd pay £50m for Bolasie in an instant.

[FootballLight]

Why remove my comment? There is literally no point in typing anything out anymore with you lot. Just because its a long comment? It was my opinion on the matter. There would be literally no point in anyone posting on here if there opinions were viewed differently to others. A lot of people on here talk about the spiteful JA lot, how hypocritical. I'm not talking specifically about the football board but you need to get a grip, it was an opinionated post. Sorry to cause any disruption.

If that's the post I'm thinking of, I'm struggling to recall any reason why it should have been deleted. A bit repetitive to be honest but some fair points raised about the difficulties faced in adjusting to playing in the PL. All my opinions just as your's were your's and have the same right to be here.

Repetitive to get the point across, yes I agree, but to voice my opinion no matter what the length and then delete it really defeats the objective of a forum really. It just makes it pointless even posting and now that I've voiced my concern over this, it may put other people off from posting a differing views to others. For any admins/Hero looking I'd suggest stamping down on this rule and making sure only offensive comments are deleted. I've had a few deleted, understandably because of a petty argument but this by far completely crosses the line. One of some problems with site.

[FootballLight]

Quite the opposite, I never said Pulis would want him, only that I would. I have never wanted, and will never want, Pulis as manager. I hope Peace sells the club and the new owners sack Pulis to bring in their own man. But from Palace, only Gayle would be on my list. Everyone else is much of a muchness, just as from a Palace perspective I'd probably only want Berahino

Jedinak might walk into the side over Mulumbu if Mulumbu was going to be here, he's 100% leaving this summer. Gardner fulfils that role anyway. And as for Bolasie, I've never been convinced by him, although if you're giving me a choice between him and Chris Brunt, I'd pay £50m for Bolasie in an instant.

I disagree here. Pulis has come in to ensure that you stay in the Premier League and that is the prime objective. I'm sure he'd get money in the summer if he keeps WBA up. Without any offence to the fans, Pulis doesn't play attractive football, but have any other WBA managers been able to play attractive football and keep them in the division? No, not by a long shot. So Pulis has already succeeded most of your previous managers failures by being able to stat in the division. Even them managers that have stayed in the division with WBA have also failed to play attractive football.

Bolasie has been class for Palace in his 2 seasons in the PL, a constant threat to every team, that is why Liverpool have been linked with him in the past. He'd be your best winger by some distance I think really.

[Guest]

Bolasie is good but not sure he could step up & deliver consistently for a big team challenging for Europe or above. Yeah, if he came to us he would be better than McManaman etc, just doubt he could step up, think he needs to be playing in an inferior, counter attacking side to make use of his pace.

[mystiroakey]

Quite the opposite, I never said Pulis would want him, only that I would. I have never wanted, and will never want, Pulis as manager. I hope Peace sells the club and the new owners sack Pulis to bring in their own man. But from Palace, only Gayle would be on my list. Everyone else is much of a muchness, just as from a Palace perspective I'd probably only want Berahino

Jedinak might walk into the side over Mulumbu if Mulumbu was going to be here, he's 100% leaving this summer. Gardner fulfils that role anyway. And as for Bolasie, I've never been convinced by him, although if you're giving me a choice between him and Chris Brunt, I'd pay £50m for Bolasie in an instant.

fair enough.

[mystiroakey]

Bolasie is good but not sure he could step up & deliver consistently for a big team challenging for Europe or above. Yeah, if he came to us he would be better than McManaman etc, just doubt he could step up, think he needs to be playing in an inferior, counter attacking side to make use of his pace.

both him and zaha were ineffectual against Man city- you are right - he is perfect for a counter attacking team and only an average one.

Almost every palace fan prefers and rates Zaha over him anyway. I think we may lose bolaise- however I am not sure how he would fit into a top side. We are 11th - we finished 11th last year?

where can he go that is so much better for him. maybe he will be offered a better salary- but i can not see him being an amazing player at tottenham or liverpool and starting every week- his final delivery still isn't up to that standard let alone the top 4.

[FootballLight]

A lot of players can't make the step up and people think he is better going to as bigger club. The maximum level I think he could reach is Southampton, at best. Nowhere else because its out of his depth really.

When they say "bigger club", do they mean higher league position or just in general a bigger club than Palace? Because their are 3/4 teams currently above Palace that Bolasie could be good at and there are only a handful of teams that are a bigger club than Palace that Bolasie could realistically sign for.

I only think he would move if Palace were to get relegated. Other than that, I doubt he will move.

[GSC]

Poor Arry. The cheek of QPR to explore other options than an aging manager who got the club relegated once and barely scraped promotion from the Championship despite massive resources to spend.

[NickisBHAFC]

A budget bigger than Dortmounds.

[FootballLight]

No, more like Harry had o money to spend this year therefore he must leave. He's done it at every club. Spent money at Portsmouth that wasn't there, hence why they went into administration, Spurs he had money but he didn't spend that well and any other manager would have won the league the league with the money he spent and Spurs was his best spell and did ok there and is spending money that isn't there at QPR as well hence why they have been in some financial trouble in the past 6 months. Now they have no money, he has left. Pathetic management.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Im not sure you can blame Harry for QPR overspending, they started that before he arrived.

Has he been in the press moaning about people going behind his back? Hope someone brings up how Harry got the West Ham job by shafting Billy Bonds

[GSC]

Basically he did an interview with the beeb where some people behind the scenes stopped backing him and QPR were linked with Sherwood every week. The press will eat it up as good ol arry being shafted by the corporate foreigner as always though.

[GSC]

That said, while Harry has a history of overspending (Bournemouth, Southampton iirc, Portsmouth, QPR), its not his job to balance the budget. The responsibility for that failure lies with Ownership and finance.

[Hammersmith harrier]

Overspending is nothing to do with the manager, it's the job of the board to ensure the books are balanced.

[FootballLight]

Im not sure you can blame Harry for QPR overspending, they started that before he arrived.

Has he been in the press moaning about people going behind his back? Hope someone brings up how Harry got the West Ham job by shafting Billy Bonds

He didn't start it but he certainly didn't stop it either did he? Nor at Portsmouth and Spurs.

[GSC]

Why should he? As said, its not in his job description, suits him to sign better players.

[FootballLight]

I understand its the boards responsibility to give him a budget which is true but then again, the club take out loans to give Harry to spend so that he can achieve his targets because he doesn't think he can do that with the budget he is given. Hence, the club goes into debt and Harry is spending money that isn't actually the clubs, it's the banks money. Why do you think Portsmouth went into administration? QPR
being in debt again. Its a good thing Spurs had the financial power to overcome the situation and regain control of their finances.

[FootballLight]

Of course it is in his job description to walk into a club with financial control. Obviously, it suits him to sign the better players but Portsmouth aren't going to borrow £100m from the bank as a loan, put it in the transfer budget to sign the best possible players and then go straight back into even more debt again. That just doesn't make sense.

QPR aren't in Portsmouth's financial state of course, but Chairman's will never put the club at risk. That's why I'm struggling to see where Harry will get another job.

[GSC]

Arry will always want more cash to spend. As will all managers.

Its the accountants job to tell him no.

[FootballLight]

Every manager will, but not every manager looks and says, "yes, its a good idea to take money out of the bank and spend money, so lets take out a £50m loan for me to buy the best players and it will be alright". They never take that risk. Unfortunately, Portsmouth did and look what happened to them. QPR wouldn't do the same and they won't take the same risk with the same consequences.

[Hammersmith harrier]

That simply isn't the decision of the manager, real life isn't like a game of football manager. The manager will recommend players to sign beyond that his involvement is minimal.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Every manager will, but not every manager looks and says, "yes, its a good idea to take money out of the bank and spend money, so lets take out a £50m loan for me to buy the best players and it will be alright"..

NO MANAGERS WOULD EVER DO THAT

[GSC]

Every manager will, but not every manager looks and says, "yes, its a good idea to take money out of the bank and spend money, so lets take out a £50m loan for me to buy the best players and it will be alright". They never take that risk. Unfortunately, Portsmouth did and look what happened to them. QPR wouldn't do the same and they won't take the same risk with the same consequences.

Is this real life.

Hey Harry, wanna sign Zlatan?

Nah Tony, I'm a bit worried about your credit rating.

[GSC]

I mean, I'm certainly no expert, but I wouldn't trust a sports coach with no accounting qualifications to run the financials of my multi million dollar organisation

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Harry has been very lucky to have got some weak (QPR, Pompey) and arrogant (Levy) chairmen who buy into his gift of the gab.

At Pompey he knew the situation but would have assured them he would get the players to bring them success and more money. He wasn't innocent there, he knew the game they were playing. The other two are just sure signs of how bad a manager he is

[FootballLight]

Every manager will, but not every manager looks and says, "yes, its a good idea to take money out of the bank and spend money, so lets take out a £50m loan for me to buy the best players and it will be alright"..

NO MANAGERS WOULD EVER DO THAT

That's what I said.

[FootballLight]

Every manager will, but not every manager looks and says, "yes, its a good idea to take money out of the bank and spend money, so lets take out a £50m loan for me to buy the best players and it will be alright". They never take that risk. Unfortunately, Portsmouth did and look what happened to them. QPR wouldn't do the same and they won't take the same risk with the same consequences.

Is this real life.

Hey Harry, wanna sign Zlatan?

Nah Tony, I'm a bit worried about your credit rating.

So in any business, Hey, I want to buy this product.

We don't have the funds.

Its alright, take out a loan.

Alright, we will put ourselves in debt and put the club at a financial risk just for you.

[GSC]

Yes, you just basically just said its the accountants/ownerships responsibility to say no, as everyones been telling you.

jfc...

[FootballLight]

If I'm honest, I stopped caring when you all started having a go at me. I'm just saying it how it is. Clubs won't do that because they end up in Portsmouth's situation.

[hampo17]

Haven't seen anybody have a go at you directly FL, you do seem a bit touchy if people disagree with you though. Regarding the deleted comment, I haven't seen it however if an admin feels it deserved to be deleted then accept their decision, if you disagree with it PM the admin of the relevant section, in this case Crimey.

[Hammersmith harrier]

Do you need to attention seek so much, you lose a debate and turn it round into a dig at everyone who proved you wrong, getting tiresome.

[Guest]

3pm needs to hurry up

[Crimey]

What you're saying doesn't make any sense, where's your evidence that Harry Redknapp told his clubs to take out loans to get him the players he wanted? It's baffling that you're so sure that's what Redknapp has done when it seems much more logical and there is more evidence that the clubs, particularly Portsmouth were badly run on a corporate level. Redknapp can ask for players, he can ask for money but if the club doesn't have it, the corporate level says no. Harry Redknapp did not tell his clubs to take out loans from the bank, I don't understand why you think he did.

[Guest]

Looks like Hummels & Gundogan will be joining United this summer

[FootballLight]

What you're saying doesn't make any sense, where's your evidence that Harry Redknapp told his clubs to take out loans to get him the players he wanted? It's baffling that you're so sure that's what Redknapp has done when it seems much more logical and there is more evidence that the clubs, particularly Portsmouth were badly run on a corporate level. Redknapp can ask for players, he can ask for money but if the club doesn't have it, the corporate level says no. Harry Redknapp did not tell his clubs to take out loans from the bank, I don't understand why you think he did.

I never said I was making a statement. I made an assumption because, coincidentally, looking at the financial trouble of his recent clubs, someone needs to point the finger and say SOME of it is to do with him.

Look at the players Portsmouth signed when Redknapp was in charge. Some big names, did ok there. But when he left, miraculously, Portsmouth's finances go well down hill, into administration and they are now in League Two. I don't think Portsmouth were run particularly badly at all because they were a solid Premier League side that got to the League Cup final so that obviously brought in some income. Then he left Portsmouth when (presumably) money was tight because h has spent some that wasn't there. Portsmouth owed money to numerous people, they couldn't pay it back as they didn't have the funds. One credible assumption, Portsmouth had taken out a loan for Harry to sign some players and to also help with the running of the club itself. At this time, they couldn't pay it back and therefore went into administration and have dropped down ever since then.

He then went to Spurs, had a bag load of money and again, did a decent job there and Spurs didn't come out with any financial trouble because they are well run and have plenty of money. He then left there, but did quite well there.

He was one of favourites for the England job. I had a good chat on JA about this a couple of years ago. I actually thought Harry would get the job because he was a talented manager that did well at previous clubs. But, everyone came back and said Harry is only good with money. That then slapped me in the face and I noticed that Harry was very much in and around the part of Portsmouth's financial failure during his time and he also spent a fair bit of money at previous clubs.

Then he moved onto QPR. In the Championship and sent them up via the Play-Off route last season. Ironically, when they came up, they had some problems with the FFP because of their overspending. I wonder why that is? Then he left there as well.

So your telling me, that both Portsmouth and QPR were poorly run clubs and that Harry only had a little to blame in it? I think he needs to take more blame than what he has because QPR can't afford to be paying players £100k per week like the were doing with Samba, Remy, Taarabt etc that they previously had. They left, along with Harry and the club are now in a stronger financial position. Wake up and just look at what is right in front of you, Harry has to take a bit of the blame for this and the club also. A ratio split would be Harry 60%, the club 40%. I seem to think you lot are making the assumption that it is 70% club and only 30% Harry (maybe even less).

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Harry Redknapp - apparent loan shark and accountant. Give me strength

[Crimey]

I'm not disagreeing that the clubs Harry Redknapp has been at have all overspent. I'm not disagreeing that Harry Redknapp has pushed to sign players above the station of the club. 

However I am disagreeing that it is Harry Redknapp's fault. He is not in charge of the finances of the club, he's a football manager, he coaches the players, he identifies players he wants, he will push for them to be signed regardless of the money because that makes his job easier. Every manager in the world will do this. That is the manager's job, they put forward their case as to why the club should sign the player. It is then the director of football, or the chairman, or the accountants' job to come back and say "that's all well and good Harry, but we can't afford it." Portsmouth was absolutely atrociously run and it's well documented how badly run it was, it actually has very little to do with Harry Redknapp. If the corporate side of the clubs that Harry was a manager of are too weak to say no to him, that is them being poorly run.

No part of a manager's job is to balance the books, his job is to get the best results on the pitch, that also includes asking for more or better players. If the club can't afford it, they shouldn't spend the money. If Harry Redknapp is very persuasive that's not his fault, and he shouldn't be blamed for it. He's just doing that part of his job very well and the corporate side are doing their job awfully.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

I mean you've even answered your own point for us in that waffle - Spurs didn't get into financial trouble because they're well run, and Pompey/QPR did because they're not

It's not any managers responsibility to run the finance department

[Hammersmith harrier]

I doubt QPR with their two wealthy owners are too concerned with their financial position, Mittal is only worth $13.2bil so 100% of the blame lies with the clubs accountancy team and 0% of the blame lies at Redknapps door. I think you've been playing too much Football Manager where you've come up with this mental idea that the manager is the negotiator and requests loans.

[FootballLight]

Yeah I've said that I understand what your saying about that with Harry but I don't think its fair to say its none of his fault at all. All I'm saying, if he didn't overspend on players out of the calibre of the club, the clubs might not be in that position now. I know the clubs should be more responsible with their money as well and I understand that's what they gave to Harry. I understand the manager should look for the best players but they have to be realistic. Obviously, Sean Dyche would love Ronaldo at Burnley, but its too unrealistic and s were the players that both QPR and Portsmouth signed. I don't think it was that badly run until Harry left, then it became poor and it just got worse.

What I'm saying is, from the start, was it the clubs money? Or was it a loan from the bank? I doubt QPR even with someone like Tony Fernandes in charge would have the money to burn like they have done. His transfer acumen is quite poor really.

[Fernando]

Swansea City Line-up: Fabianski, Rangel, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor, Ki, Cork, Routledge, Shelvey, Sigurdsson, Gomis

Everton Line-up: Howard, Coleman, Stones, Jagielka, Baines, McCarthy, Barry, Lennon, Barkley, Osman, Kone

[Hammersmith harrier]

Do you not read what people write FL, this is the last i'll say on the matter.

Portsmouth with Gaydarmak (certain it was him) as owner buggered themselves up in January 2006, throwing money at players they could not afford and it was a financial position they were never able to recover from. That was not the fault of Redknapp but the owners who were willing to secure survival at any cost.

QPR are in anything but a bad financial position, looking beyond Fernandes they have one of the worlds richest men owning 33% of the club, Mittals involvement combined with TF means they do in fact have money to burn at zero risk to the clubs long term future.

[FootballLight]

[quote="Hammersmith harrier"]Do you not read what people write FL, this is the last i'll say on the matter...[quote]

Thank heavens.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Let's end this one now

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Another brilliant goal by Alex Pritchard for Brentford today. Hope he gets a chance in the prem next season

[GSC]

Tony Fernandes had money to waste running a F1 team, he can easily fund QPR

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