On February 17 2015 12:41 zulu_nation8 wrote: Arrigo Sacchi: "Italy has too many black players" LOL
Lol, mby he meant foreign?
Its ok guys, he clarified his remarks....
Former coaching great Arrigo Sacchi tried to clarify his remarks Monday after stating he thought there were too many black players in Italy's national team pipeline.
"I'm certainly not racist and my history as a coach proves that, starting from [Frank] Rijkaard" Sacchi had said at an awards ceremony, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"But looking at the Viareggio tournament I feel like saying that there are too many black players, even in the youth teams.
"Italy has no dignity, no pride. It's not possible that our teams should have 15 foreign players in the squad."
The Viareggio tournament is a prestigious international youth competition held annually in Viareggio, Tuscany.
Sacchi, who came to fame as the coach of the legendary AC Milan side that won consecutive European Cups in 1989 and 1990, later attempted to clarify his remarks, according to the outlet, saying his words had been misrepresented.
"I've been misinterpreted, you think I'm really racist? All I said was I saw a game featuring a team who fielded four coloured players," he told the site.
"My history speaks for itself, I've always coached teams with great players from every colour and I've brought in a lot, whether to Milan or [Real] Madrid.
"I only wanted to underline that we are losing our national pride and identity."
On February 17 2015 23:21 haitike wrote: Do you think the Bosman ruling was good or bad for football?
It was (is) good for the rich teams. it destroyed any chance for smaller teams to accomplish anything noteworthy. the last time a "small" team won the CL was porto? just after the bosman ruling.
On February 17 2015 23:21 haitike wrote: Do you think the Bosman ruling was good or bad for football?
It was (is) good for the rich teams. it destroyed any chance for smaller teams to accomplish anything noteworthy. the last time a "small" team won the CL was porto? just after the bosman ruling.
That's bollocks. What was the last small team before Porto who won a CL? I don't even remember it and I am 24. Also Atlético Madrid and Borussia Dortmund both reached the final and would have won it with a little more luck.
Smaller teams still have the same chances to pull off Porto like they did before the ruling.
Depends what you classify a smaller team as. I dont see Porto Dortmund or Atletico as a small team. They are huge teams domestically, just european level they don't get recognized as much due to sometimes they get their squads ripped apart to much.
Porto when they won it had a fantastic side. Carvalho Deco Costina Manice Ferreria Benni McCarthy etc. They all went on to huge things or were big players internationally at the time. Hell Monaco the team that beat Chelsea that year and also were good had the likes of Evra Adebayour Morientes Giuly Givet in their line ups. Huge big names that broke through in that competition on the European stage to then go onto bigger things.
Enough money in each European league to get in the good youngsters, make them good and do well in the champions league with it.
It was obviously terrible for football's diversity. The ro8 in CL every year is just the same teams competing. Yeah we get great matches but historically great teams (Ajax, AC Milan) no longer have any chance because of the Bosman ruling.
I honestly can't see the cause-consequence relation between the Bosman ruling and Milan/Ajax having no chance in CL. I could see it for small teams, but these two are not.
Milan have been awful because some of their biggest signings made no sense and were hella overpriced.
AC Milan won the CL in 2007 and reached the finals in 2005. Ajax, on the other hand, has no chance given their budget vs the top teams. Porto was a fluke and the players mentioned went on to great things as a consequence of winning the CL. Some of them were relatively unknown just 1 year before. That outlying event really just came down to Mourinho.
Prior to Bosman you had Marseille, PSV, Porto, Red Star Belgrade, Steua Bucharest, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, winning the Champion's Cup. Besides the Bosman ruling, I'd also credit the increasing and disproportionate revenue from TV rights, as well as the change in format which led to less randomness.of the CL
i wouldnt just look at the winner. the semifinals of the cl are much more telling and statistically reliable. the 4 semifinal spots have, for the last 7 years/ since the 07/08 season, almost always been filled up with one big-but-not-that-big club like dortmund, atletico, schalke, arsenal and so on, plus 3 blockbuster teams. during the last 7 years, 21 out of 28 semifinal spots have gone to just 5 blockbuster-teams: manuted, chelsea, bayern, real, barca. when one looks at the financial edge that those clubs have even over very strong opposition like arsenal, atletico or dortmund, chances seem slim for any other club to close the gap in the long run. sure, when a team buys several to-become-worldclass players for cheap like dortmund or atletico have done recently, they might put up a good fight against the "big 5" for one or two years, but in the long run, they stand no chance. imho we might be at 36 out of 48 semifinal spots by the 19/20 season...
On February 18 2015 14:20 warding wrote: AC Milan won the CL in 2007 and reached the finals in 2005. Ajax, on the other hand, has no chance given their budget vs the top teams. Porto was a fluke and the players mentioned went on to great things as a consequence of winning the CL. Some of them were relatively unknown just 1 year before. That outlying event really just came down to Mourinho.
Prior to Bosman you had Marseille, PSV, Porto, Red Star Belgrade, Steua Bucharest, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, winning the Champion's Cup. Besides the Bosman ruling, I'd also credit the increasing and disproportionate revenue from TV rights, as well as the change in format which led to less randomness.of the CL
For me it really is revenue being the biggest factor by a margin.
Personally I think Bosman has for the most part been a positive change.
According to some insider from some forum Dortmund is going to announce the transfer or Sami Khedira today or tomorrow. In addition I heard that his girlfriend mentioned on German TV that she's going to move to NRW (the federal state about every german football club but Bayern is located in) soon. Stay tuned. LIE!
I'm not a fan of Khedira but I guess with Kehl retiring an experienced and accomplished cdm would be a worthwile acquisition. And compared to the transfers of Immobile, Mkhi etc it might show Hummels, Gündogan etc that Dortmund is willing to spend money on developed world class players to fight for the titles. We'll see.
On February 18 2015 20:28 smr wrote: According to some insider from some forum Dortmund is going to announce the transfer or Sami Khedira today or tomorrow. In addition I heard that his girlfriend mentioned on German TV that she's going to move to NRW (the federal state about every german football club but Bayern is located in) soon. Stay tuned. LIE!
I'm not a fan of Khedira but I guess with Kehl retiring an experienced and accomplished cdm would be a worthwile acquisition. And compared to the transfers of Immobile, Mkhi etc it might show Hummels, Gündogan etc that Dortmund is willing to spend money on developed world class players to fight for the titles. We'll see.
I'll believe it when I see anything at all related to it not on this board.
That said, if it did happen, I would be pleasantly surprised. I don't think Khedira would make THAT much of an improvement for BVB, but he is still a really good player. It'd be a really solid group of Khedira/Gündogan/Sahin/Bender that we could rotate in the midfield. He's confident, experienced, and pretty physical, and physicality isn't BVB's strong suit outside of the CB position. Furthermore, and more importantly, I think that it continues to signal to the rest of the league and Europe that BVB are serious business and that it's a desirable place to play.
Also, I really do love seeing German players stay in/come back to Germany. I think it really helps the German national team in the long run.
On February 18 2015 01:53 Salteador Neo wrote: I honestly can't see the cause-consequence relation between the Bosman ruling and Milan/Ajax having no chance in CL. I could see it for small teams, but these two are not.
Milan have been awful because some of their biggest signings made no sense and were hella overpriced.
First of all the bosman ruling is two things. One it allowed foreign players to move around freely without restriction and secondly players could leave the club at the end of their contract, signing a pre-contract with another club 6 months before the end.
Secondly Ajax are considered a big team because of their youth academy, however because of the Bosman ruling it has become a constant struggle for Ajax to retain their youth players who not only can leave for free when their contract is up but there is no limit to how many can join a starting eleven abroad. Edgar Davids for example was one of the first players high profile players to leave for free, the type of player ajax would never let go without a significant monetary incentive. Nowadays Ajax sells the likes of Eriksen for just 15mil euro, when inferior players between the rich clubs go for double that (if not more). What if Ajax had retained Eriksen, Suarez, Blind, Vertonghen over the years instead of having them all leave for less than what Madrid payed for James Rodiquez?
The English soccer club Chelsea said Wednesday that the team will take “the strongest possible action” against any supporters who took part in pushing a black man off a Paris train and then yelling a racist chant.
“Such behaviour is abhorrent and has no place in football or society,” the statement reads. “We will support any criminal action against those involved in such behaviour, and should evidence point to the involvement of Chelsea season ticket holders or members the club will take the strongest possible action against them including banning orders.”
In a video of the incident, which occurred Tuesday, a group of white English men are seen pushing a black man out of a subway car as surrounding commuters watch. “Can I get on or what?” the black man then says in French, only to then get pushed off again, according to the Associated Press.
French police have opened an investigation into the incident, and Scotland Yard has said it will try to help identify the men seen on the video. The London police force will scour through a database of past Chelsea “troublemakers” to see if any of them match those in the video, according to the The Guardian.
If found guilty of crimes of racial violence, the people filmed in the video could face up to three years in prison, a fine equivalent to $69,400 and a potential ban on travel to soccer games in the future.
On February 18 2015 01:53 Salteador Neo wrote: I honestly can't see the cause-consequence relation between the Bosman ruling and Milan/Ajax having no chance in CL. I could see it for small teams, but these two are not.
Milan have been awful because some of their biggest signings made no sense and were hella overpriced.
First of all the bosman ruling is two things. One it allowed foreign players to move around freely without restriction and secondly players could leave the club at the end of their contract, signing a pre-contract with another club 6 months before the end.
Secondly Ajax are considered a big team because of their youth academy, however because of the Bosman ruling it has become a constant struggle for Ajax to retain their youth players who not only can leave for free when their contract is up but there is no limit to how many can join a starting eleven abroad. Edgar Davids for example was one of the first players high profile players to leave for free, the type of player ajax would never let go without a significant monetary incentive. Nowadays Ajax sells the likes of Eriksen for just 15mil euro, when inferior players between the rich clubs go for double that (if not more). What if Ajax had retained Eriksen, Suarez, Blind, Vertonghen over the years instead of having them all leave for less than what Madrid payed for James Rodiquez?
Thats still more a fact that Ajax cant compete financially than the Bosman ruling. Sure it does lower market and the fact the rich poor gap has somewhat increased.
But at the end of the day, a contract is a contract and if its running out or its over then that should be that. A player may spoiler](which doesnt matter for squat)[/spoiler] if not contractually obligated should be allowed to leave if the contract is up or is going to be up soon.
Bosman or no Bosman the rich poor gap would still have turned out the way it did and you would have lost all those players.
James's value has nothing to do with the Bosman ruling. He was just a hot commodity. He couldve left for similar amounts of money if clubs wanted to wait and time their pursuit of him like they did with the rest of the players you mentioned.
Additionally the players you mentioned were cheaper because thats how top performers in the dutch league tend to be rated these days. Its really a league quality perception, and a market issue. I dont think you can blame the Bosman ruling for it. Maybe some parts of it could use a tweaking but for the most part its worked out pretty well.
Why would you want to hold onto players if their contracts have expired and they want to leave ? Thats good for like no one.
On another topic there was talk of Chelsea building a dynasty and all that good stuff, and I felt that thought is quite premeditated, because the strategy being followed isnt something familiar when it comes to successful teams over long periods in the past.
One of my concerns was
On February 12 2015 21:18 Rebs wrote:
That having been said I also think his current squad lacks depth in key areas. Defensive cover is a bit short for me. And most importantly if Matic is out or he has a bad game all of a sudden Chelsea start looking like Arsenal.
And then after yesterdays game it felt a bit more like Uncle Mou's method of cutting off loose ends that he doesnt needs is more power than panache when it comes to team building (energy drink),
It seems Marcotti feels the same way and I feel it a bit hard to disagree. Especially when they talk about quadruples and trebles..
70k fine and 3 years in jail? Anti-racism/fair play laws are beyond retarded for many reasons. If those fans were part of a smaller Euro team, that team would get punished by Fifa and have to pay a fine and play in an empty stadium. Not Chelsea though. They have money.
On February 19 2015 14:23 nitram wrote: 70k fine and 3 years in jail? Anti-racism/fair play laws are beyond retarded for many reasons. If those fans were part of a smaller Euro team, that team would get punished by Fifa and have to pay a fine and play in an empty stadium. Not Chelsea though. They have money.
It depends where the incidents happen and the scale.
Chelsea shouldnt be punished for this, anyone can go around doing stupid shit. If its at the stadium thats a completely different story, but in public its not the clubs responsibility.
EPT
