Manly in the EPL

[Downie]

Man, got Tottenham in the Carling Cup at 2am followed by Manly in the WCC at 4:30. Should be a fun night.

 

[lsz]

Time to call the EPL over?

Manu 7 points clear with a game in hand......it has changed a lot in the past 2 months!

 

[Zep]

Incredible post chrissy form...

If ManUtd win mid week i will say is over. 10 points then, more than 3 games. 7-8 points ahead and liverpool have a chance with 30 points left on offer. The game that will decide it is the Liverpool @ Old Trafford game. It will be litually the game of the season, determining if it will go down to the wire or not.


I am not going to watch the Carling cup -
I have to work. But geez, there could be worse oppositions that the spurs.

 

[Zep]

Good morning for me. First Man Utd then Manly

 

[lsz]

I was just happy the hammers got another 3 points - the further we can stay away from the bottom 3 the better

As for Manu are they going to leave any trophies for the rest of us?

 

[Zep]

Hopefully not -
they might get the fiver. Well the quadruple as most don't count the world club cup or whatever you call it.

 

[lsz]

It is a great effort but......

Is it good for world football to have such a dominant team?

 

[Zep]

this might sound bias. But yes it is. If you look at to how they refer to the great Man Utd team of ?64? and then the Liverpool team on the late 70's/80s. It will give something for other teams to strive for. I look at it this way, except for Ronaldo the Man Utd midfield is relatively standard, no real standouts. Anderson is obviously on his way up, and Carrick does an Awesome job without being noticed. The back 4 are exceptional, but that comes down to hard work more than anything. They have improved a great deal in the last 3 years. Bringing in Vidic was a master stroke, he compliments ferdinand.

I believe these guys to be a champion team rather than a team of champions. Much like Manly

 

[lsz]

My only fear is due to the amount of money now in the game i.e. when you are up at the top (Champs league each year etc) it makes it harder and harder for the little guys to get up

I have to say this is why I have a soft spot for the villa at the moment...all that said Manu are awesome at the moment, grinding out wins like the Arse during the George Graham days.......

 

[Zep]

yeah i did some maths on it a year or two back,

With 4 teams in the Champions League Quarter Finals and 3 in the Semi-Finals and 2 in the Final it is hard to say the the EPL does not provide the highest quality of football teams. But is the competition really that fair?It has been criticised about the lack of Division 1 team who are promoted being able to stay in the top flight. The is clearly re-inforced when the Derby is officially the worst team ever in EPL, so I got my investigation boots on and found out whats the big difference between the big 4 (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United) and the rest of the competition.

MONEY! It is reported that the television rights in coming season shall equal 1.8 Billion pounds. So how is the money divided? Unlike nearly all competitions in the world, the English Premier League is owned by the 20 current footballing teams in the competition. 1st place recieves 20 times the amount of funds at the last place from the profit made. For arguments sake lets say $2 billion a year(i have not done enough research to say the exact figues and 2 bill is probably fair higher than expected). Last place recieves 9.5 million pounds and 1st recieves 190 million pounds. That is an incredible amount of difference. But it doesn't end there, a club like Manchester United has a stadium (Old Trafford) that seat 77,000 people and is oftened at capacity an average of 0.60 times a weak, this compared to most team that have a capacity of around 25-50k. At 20-30 pounds a ticket for 60% of the stadium for 30-40 games a year, it is also a huge difference in earnings over the year. Sponsorship and playing in Europe is also a large earner. Liverpool for winning the 2005 UEFA Champions League earnt a reported 300 million pounds!. The money keeps on adding up. the winnings remain rich while the poor fall further behind.

Add t-shirt sales, sponsorship. And yes, the higher you finish in the Premier league means a lot. Of course i really didn't take into account administration costs on the part of the Premier League. But the principal is still there.

 

[lsz]

Do not forget the additional income the clubs get if a game is televised (yes there is even more)

An tickets is nothing when you think that the waiting list for season tickets is massive at most clubs...throw in the boxes, old Trafford tours and it is a motza!

Makes me feel sad as a hammer (although as a Milan fan it is hard to preach against big clubs) that we will never compete with Manu...even when we got bought out we could not compete

 

[Zep]

It is all about the structure of the club. If you look at Real Madrid 3-5 years ago when they had basically a World XI of awesome players yet they didn't win a thing. They restructured and now are back to performing well with a quality lineup. Aston Villa are punching above there weight as it were and everyone loves it! The fact that it is a Big F U to the so called "Big 4" is great. It is going to be an interesting summer for Man City, i think they will break a few transfer records a few times over.

As for the Hammers if you had beaten Liverpool in that FA Cup final you probably would have been able to Buy that 1 more top line player. But remember Man Utd is always there to lose to you on the final day to save you from relegation. We just want your best player again (referring to Tevez).

 

[ManlyBacker]

The news guy at Fox must be a City fan. He keeps putting up stories with ManU in the heading. Until you said something Zep I would never have known.

I watched the Gunners highlights last night. Another 6+ serious goal scoring chances squandered. To see the talent sitting injured on the bench was heartbreaking.

 

[Zep]

MB most united supporters outside of england don't know that it is never Man U. I have the privledge of being friends with a guy who holds season tickets at old trafford which he then sells to some other people (he lives in australia) the only condition being that when he is over there he gets as many tickets as he wants. So he is a big Man Utd fan and he was explaining in detail how Man City and Leeds supporters (as well as others) would chant (paraphrasing) Man Ure Man Ure pour on more Man Ure - referring to the burial of the plane crash victim back in '68. Therefore it is always pronounced United and never just 'u'.

 

[lsz]

I always thought it was short for Manure?

As for the hammers I am not sure the cup final was that big of a deal to us - it went pear shaped when the Iceland economy went down the drain (not to mention hiring Curbs to get us to middle management)

The big difference I see is that Man United can afford to spend 18millon on Ronaldo when we had virtually unknown, Anderson, the Serbian (not sure...) kids they just bought - we have to buy Luis Boa Morte...to partner with Carlton Cole

We will never have the depth of a Manu but might be able to complete on a one of basis

As for the City it is a funny one. Some players want to play in a good team, with European football etc other want the cash. City can only offer the cash which makes you wonder who they will get etc.

Do you think there is an argument that it takes a certain "type" of player to succeed in England? If so for City to get an immediate impact it would make sense for them to buy players who are already in the EPL - Look out Chelski

 

[ManlyBacker]

Speaking of big dollars the latest in the UK press is that Ronaldo is set to get 200,000 Pounds a week at Man Utd. I know some big names have been in the 120k bracket but that is a huge amount of pay. Around AUD $444,000 a week.

 

[Zep]

if he averages approx 35+ goals a year, plus the assists that he does. Yes he is worth from a Footballing POV. Financially, well depends on his t-shirt and footwear sponsorship from Nike.

The players that succeed in England and those that generally are willing to work hard. If you look at Robinho, he went to man city. Bit of an unknown (unknown as noone knew how he was going to go) in the game. He has been stated as saying (paraphrasin) "I work harder, there is not as much time on the ball." And this has usually been true for most South Americans. They prefer the continental leagues as they tend to be more of a climate and they can demonstrate there skills. In recent years we have seen more and more south americans in the competition. I refer to Anderson, he has been the find of the last few years in the EPL. He is still young and is a little terrier in midfield. He shows attributes that your normally find in a seasoned English player. He came to england relative early and has succeeded.

well chelsea is a prime example of above, how many players have they bought from the continent only to release the following season due to lack of performance.

Rafael and his brother are the replacement for the Neville brothers at Man Utd. Should be very interesting to see how they go. Rafael i believe is solid, not as good as either Evra or Neville in moving forward but that could be SAF enssuring he isn't caught of position.

 

[Zep]

And again Man Utd 7 points ahead a game in hand. 10-11 games left. Still to come Liverpool @ old trafford

 

[Zep]

Man Utd 2 - Inter 0

The Man Utd Train keeps on steaming.

goal from Vidic(3) and Ronaldo(49) ensure that Man Utd make it to the next round of the UEFA Champ League.

Arsenal currently in overtime against Roma. C'MON Roma!

 

[Zep]

8 teams left. 4 from england, yet again