Who Killed Football?

[Rsonist]

All this City shite is just getting me depressed even more than i am at this minute, as much as i'd hate to see us relegated, the lower leagues are far more in touch with the spirit of English football than the joke that our Premier League has become.But who, and when did football die in regards to being a fan of this sport.Some of the candidates that killed it, imo, of the top of my head... -Jack WalkerMatthew HardingRupert MurdochRoman AbramovichMarc BosmanDaniel LevyPlease feel free to add.

[Michel Kane]

I can't wait when the time comes for Arsenal Football Club becomes the most financially stable club in the country...

[MrJibbles]

Premier League is living on debt.This story has left me shaking my head, more than the Robinho-Man City and Tevez-West Ham.As the saying goes money talks. Roman coming in kind of inflated transfer fees, now Chelsea seem to have seen some sense.

[Guest Medic]

Truth Tanner. I'm seriously fearing for the future of the Premier League, the essence of football has been lost. These high money bids are unsporting, but the teams accepting is disgraceful. Fully knowing the consequences it will have on the game yet deciding to go through with it (yet unseen in Kaka case, but I wouldnt be surprised).

[Rsonist]

The irony of Bosman is he clearly thought he was doing something good for the game at that time, when in actuality all he has done is rip it apart.

[Heero Yuy]

The football world is bigger than the premier league...The premier league is becomming abit of a circus ... The spanish and Italian league are fine (bar the lil juve scandal couple years back)It was definately Abramovich who started the Billionaire Boys Club, premier league wise. I mean chelsea were a medicore side before he revolustionised them. Starting give people the idea of what you can achcieve injectin massive money into a club

[HangTheDJ]

I must be the only one whos genuinely excited at the prospect of a new team becomming a global force over night.Real terrace culture still exists, and it always will do.Man City fans know theyre not a big club, well they are, but not when compared with the top 5/6 clubs in the country. As do Chelsea fans (the ones pre 2003 any way).You can't take the tradition out of the game, they can have some success, maybe on the level Chelsea have had over the past 6 years or so, but football has always been about cycles.post-world war 2 there have always been teams with massive amounts of money, and yeah the amount they seem willing to spend is obscene but i dont see how it changes anything, it's just a number.you can have all the money in the world but if you dont have stability, good management and backroom staff you wont get anywhere with it.the day the 39th game comes in, or the time when every match is televised, or the saturday 3pm kick off becomes a rarity, thats when football changes for the worse IMO.

[Mr Q]

Greed is killing football.

[Lord Flashheart]

Nobody.

[yadunknojz09]

Barton killed football.Meh, jokes :]

[The Somalian]

no ones killed football money men have always been involved its just that real money man are involved and people r pissed

[HangTheDJ]

c/s what you said in the kaka topic, doctor:

this is big preimer league 09/10 will be mad

the "big" 4villa, everton, spurs, citehperhaps even fulham and wigan if they can keep their better players and keep progressingthen teams like newcastle and west ham who are capable of attracting top players, they just need stablity imoi honestly think that the premiership is gonna become more like spain, with 7/8/9 really good teamsits shown in a way this season, with no whipping boys and no run away sides at the top of the league, its close this yeari think its just gonna alot closer in the near future

[Nidge Weasle]

the fa are cunts. i hate whats happened to football, so depressing.

[Guest LucaPiano]

Manchester City was bringing up some nice youth players, Evans,Richards,Sturridge,Ireland and now they just abandoning that.HEY GUESS WHATTREVOR BROOKING WILL PROBALLY STILL SAY ITS ARSENES FAULT.HEEEY ALMUJD AHKMEND MOWAMEND BIN MAKTOUM BRING WHO U WANT IN, HEEEY AMBRAMOVICH TAKE AS MANY FORGIENERS INTO YOUR TEAM AS U LIKE, HEY YOU ZOLA LITTLE MAN SITTING IN CORNER ITS FINE U CAN HAVE A SQUAD FULL OF FORIGENS, ALRIGHT LEVY PAL, YEAH FEEL FREE TO BRING IN AS MANY OVERSEAS PLAYERS YOU WANT, WAS GOOD SIR ALEX YOU RULE THE ROOST THE MORE FORGIENERS I SEE YOU BUY THE BETTERWAIT WAIT, STOP RIGHT THERE ARSENE, I AM PRETTY SURE UR NOT ALLOUD ANY FORIGENERS, I WILL BE PROCECUING YOU UNLESS WE SEE AT LEAST 9 ENGLISH PLAYERS IN UR SQUADaa aa aa aa dont but in im talkingnow u listen to me, uve ruined the game pal, money hasnt, you have

[Guest tinna]

Lens.

[Michel Kane]

^^^^^Lol

[dimensionnw]

what I dont get is how people go on like these clubs )man city, chelsea etc) are buying success like every club in England aint the samegenerally speaking the clubs that are successfull are the ones with financial power, the higher u go up the league the richer the clubs getMan Utd have bought the league for years yet people dont slate them, whats the difference?

[HangTheDJ]

United earnt their money through winning things, outside of Chelsea and Citeh no other team spends money they don't earn, well they do, but it all comes crashing down like what happened to Leeds and on a less extreme scale Newcastle. It's just that these clubs have these billionaires who could/can afford to lose 100's of millions on players with no possibility of getting their money back.The other succesful clubs only spend what they earn through player sales, tv money and gates etc.It is definately tainted and I would absolutely hate to have my club turn into a Chelsea or what Citeh are becomming.c/s Martin Samuel:

Let's not deride Manchester City for this dizzying bidHere is what we need to remember about football: it is meant to be fun. It is meant to entertain. It is meant to brighten your day. Watching it should be a positive experience.When you see a 10-year-old standing next to his dad screaming abuse at some anonymous team bus, with its blacked out windows and barely-glimpsed silhouettes inside, football has failed. When you see a 10-year-old trying to do a Cristiano Ronaldo step-over, football has won. So, Kaka to Manchester City. What's not to like?But, ye gods, there are some miserable people out there. The death of football, one bloke called it. An impossibly rich man attempts to spend £100million of his personal fortune to bring a truly great footballer into our game in a way that opens up the domestic competition, and this is a bad thing?This is not Kaka to Manchester United or Kaka to Liverpool, in a way that would have everybody moping around thinking the title was sewn up for the next five years. This is Kaka, possibly, to Manchester City, a move that may one day inspire a further challenge to the domination by the elite four of English football. At the very least it is another great player turning out in a league already blessed by a few.Yet still a puritanical determination to resist pleasure continues. We have become spoiled by our easy access to greatness, by the fact we can turn on the television and view the finest players from around Europe every week. We have forgotten what a thrill, what a privilege it is to then see those same players in the flesh.If Kaka comes to Manchester, English football will need only Lionel Messi for the full set. This is a unique moment in the history of our game and how stereotypical of us to find a reason to carp. Kaka, Ronaldo and Fernando Torres may be coming to town. Oh, woe!Previous generations understood. Before television sated our interest, if Tom Finney was playing down the road, black and white men in hats paid to see him. Now we are too blasé, too knowing, too fond of pursing our lips in disapproval and debating the morality rather than revelling in the magic of the show.We raise ungrounded fears and make specious criticisms. Yes, £100m could build a hospital, but it is not the job of the royal family of Abu Dhabi to build hospitals in Great Britain. If your hospital is rubbish, has run out of beds or is riddled with bugs, your issue is not with Manchester City but central government, via your local health authority. And, believe me, central government wastes money on projects with the potential to bring considerably less pleasure to the wider public than taking Brazil's best player on a nationwide tour, funded by outside money.The other accusation is that paying £100m for Kaka cripples football's business, that it artificially inflates prices and impacts on the smaller clubs.Not true. The rest of the market, the mid-range, the bottom end has nothing to do with this specific transfer. It is a one-off. It is unique. No club will be asked, or will pay, at the going rate for Kaka because no club is in the same position as Manchester City.For instance, earlier in the transfer window, City asked Valencia about David Villa, the Spain striker and wide midfielder, and were quoted a price of £90m. This was way above his perceived value, which, in recent seasons, has fluctuated between £20m and £30m, because City's cash capacity is regarded as exceptional.The deal then died as City's owners felt they were being treated like fools. They had the money - as the cash upfront offer for Kaka confirms - but believed Valencia were taking advantage. No other club has been required to negotiate at that level for Villa, so the inference is clear.If Arsenal came in for him tomorrow the price would not suddenly rise to over £100m to achieve parity with Kaka, because Valencia would know he could not be sold to any other club at that price.There would be a much reduced compromise figure, ensuring a deal progressed. The terms of Kaka's potential transfer are unique because no great player in his right mind would seek to join Manchester City, and no major club would sell a talent like Kaka, unless extraordinary circumstances dictated. So City have made the circumstances extraordinary.Is there a down side? Yes, but not one that impacts on the neutral. There is a distinct feeling that Manchester City are attempting to put on the roof before putting up the walls and that is no way to run a successful football club.Attempting to marry Kaka and Robinho to a defence that cannot cope with Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup is clearly a plan fraught with danger. Central defenders and a holding midfield player are still needed, so City followers have every reason to lurch from delightful anticipation to disquiet.So a sleepless night for them, and for Mark Hughes, the manager. For the rest of us, what do we care? Knock yourself out, Sheik. Let's see what happens. At least this is going to be worth watching, not another tedious investigation into how many mediocre, hard-working players it takes to stifle Arsenal to secure an away point.To hear some critics, that is all football should aspire to these days. Good housekeeping. Safety. As if a healthy bank statement could be paraded around town on an open top bus.'Football,' said Danny Blanchflower, 'is about glory. It is about doing things with style and a flourish, not waiting for the other lot to die of boredom.'Except these days we have been trained to think like accountants, to value 15th place above a trip to Wembley, as if anybody remembers those seasons when each match blends into one long tiresome scrap for safe ground.By contrast, bidding £100m for Kaka - even if, as is likely, he stays at AC Milan - reminds us that this game is meant to be amusing, exuberant and dizzying. It is meant to distract from drudgery rather than add to it, to pursue excellence and adventure rather than settle for what is anodyne and conservative.And while it will be a pity if, after Martin O'Neill has so painstakingly grown an organic Aston Villa side, he risks being overwhelmed by what might be termed a GM club, this battle represents the other fascination of sport.There is no guarantee that Manchester City's way will work and, right now, given a choice between what he has at Villa and Kaka, Robinho and what Mark Hughes has at City, O'Neill would probably take his balanced, settled squad every time.What might happen next is half the fun. And the rest? Well, have you ever seen this guy play?

[dimensionnw]

but they still bought the league thoughand lots of Unted money comes through selling all types of sh*t that aint even football relatedthey are a brand now like the Yankeeshow many man wear that NY hat and think its just a new york sign?American system for sports is better, all teams with equal money, so many teams now will never win the prem unless a billionaire comes in, if anything at least the billionaires change sh*t a bit, if it wernt for them top 4 would probs never change

[Doug]

only a d*ckhead would say football is dead tbhonly thing i dont like is the ridiculous wages tho

[Agony]

Remember the days when these buy-out clauses used to scare off clubsLionel Messi = €150m/£133mVilla = €150m/£133mIniesta = €150m/£133mSergio Ramos = €120m/£106mBojan = €80m/£71mNow City can get players like them without even having to deal with their clubs. Just have to match the buy-out clause and the bid will accepted then offer the player half a mill a week.And if you thought ticket prices was expensive now whats gonna happen when these billionaire owners and new the ones that will come into the game over the next couple of years get tired of spending £100m+ on players and want to start getting some of the money back that they invested.

[The Somalian]

i think i was vex when chelsea were brought coz i knew they could supass us which they did dospurs/villa/hammers fans will be upset because man city will supass them just get over it its good for the league

[HangTheDJ]

Villa fans aint upset because we're living proof that good management and stability >>>> having good individualsfrom 16th with a team full of relegation fodder that was bound to be relegated the follow season, to pushing for a champions league spot in 3 seasonsand our net sped is about half of what man city are spending on kaka alone

[Rsonist]

i think i was vex when chelsea were brought coz i knew they could supass us which they did dospurs/villa/hammers fans will be upset because man city will supass them just get over it its good for the league

This has nothing to do with any club in particular. Even City.Its about the spirit of the game, the morals of the sport. All have which evaporated in my view in the last decade, and things are just getting worse.This goes beyond being entertained for 90mins at home in your armchair, its about the sport on a whole.