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Other football - 2020/21


WhiskeyJar
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Mick Bates, former Leeds player dies age 73.

 

Mick Bates, who has died aged 73, was a footballer who won the League, FA Cup and two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups with Leeds United; with the likes of Billy Bremner and Johnny Giles ruling in midfield he was never more than a squad player, but he would have been first-choice at most other clubs, and was a back-up whose dependability made him a vital cog in Don Revie’s machine.

His most fondly remembered contribution came in the first leg of the 1971 Fairs Cup final (forerunner of the Uefa Cup and the Europa League) against Juventus in Turin. Revie’s side had just been pipped to the League title by Arsenal, and Juve’s side included Helmut Haller, who had scored the opening goal in the 1966 World Cup final, as well as the future England manager Fabio Capello.

On a sodden pitch following a fierce thunderstorm, the two teams played for 50 minutes before the match was abandoned; two days later hostilities were resumed, with Bates again on the bench. Roberto Bettega put the Italians 1-0 up, Paul Madeley equalising just after half-time.

Capello scored after 55 minutes, then Bates was brought on to replace Mick Jones in the 72nd minute. Five minutes later, with his second touch of the game, he seized on a misplaced clearance from a cross by Johnny Giles and hammered the ball into the net.

“It was only my second goal for the club,” he recalled. “When I got the ball I just hit it and hoped for the best. It was a tremendous feeling when I saw it go in.” The following week in the return leg at Elland Road, Bates again came off the bench as Leeds secured a 1-1 draw that gave them overall victory on the away goals rule.

Michael Bates was born in the mining village of Armthorpe on the edge of Doncaster (also the birthplace of Kevin Keegan) on September 19 1947. He went to a local grammar school, then signed for Leeds as an apprentice and turned professional in 1964, just as the Revie revolution was getting into its stride. He made his senior debut in September 1965 in a 4-2 League Cup victory against Hartlepool.

Four years later Leeds won their first League title, though Bates, with only four appearances that season, did not qualify for a medal. They won again in 1974, and this time, with 10 games under his belt, he got his gong.

There was more silverware in 1972, albeit as an unused substitute, when Leeds beat Arsenal 1-0 in the FA Cup final. The following season he was in the starting line-up when Leeds played AC Milan in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup final in Thessaloniki. The Italians won 1-0, aided by a string of bizarre decisions; the referee was later suspended over bribery allegations.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2021/07/18/mick-bates-leeds-united-player-scored-crucial-goal-against-juventus/

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Guardian article on Barcelona's problems....

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jul/20/barcelona-in-desperate-push-to-offload-players-to-keep-lionel-messi

Lionel Messi is unemployed. Don’t worry: he will still be at Barcelona next season, or he should be, and he will certainly be OK. The question now may be: will they? And if he plays at the Camp Nou, if they are able to cut costs and raise the funds that they desperately need to balance the books and allow him to re-sign and begin an 18th season at the club where now more than ever he is their everything, if they can somehow, somewhere find over €100m and fast, who will play alongside him?

A year after he tried to walk away, Barcelona insist that they are no longer concerned about Messi leaving. Last week, with pressure building and sponsors expressing uncertainty, they let it be known that they had reached an agreement on a deal that would keep him there until he is 39, new president Joan Laporta’s key electoral promise finally fulfilled. Except that it is not quite, not yet. The agreement has not been made official and nothing has been signed, for one simple reason: it can’t be.

Until it is, Messi officially remains a free agent, out of contract for 20 days now and formally unattached to Barcelona for the first time since he joined at 13. July 1 came and went; this is not a renewal any more, it is a signing, and if the season started tomorrow Barcelona would not be able to register him, constrained by the league’s salary cap. The same applies to their other new arrivals: Sergio Agüero, Eric García and Memphis Depay, all of whom joined on free transfers just as Gini Wijnaldum was expected to do before he chose Paris Saint-Germain instead. Plus Emerson Royal, brought back from Betis, and the two or three others to whom they still aspire.

The good news is that there is still a month to go, a little room for manoeuvre; the bad news is that there is so much still to do, Messi’s signing the vital, first step of many. And they won’t be easy either. With Laporta mending the relationship that had been irredeemably broken under former president Josep Maria Bartomeu, Messi has agreed to a 50% pay cut, dropping from around €45m basic, after tax, to closer to €20m – although spreading the deal over five years goes some way overcoming that. Now they need other players to follow him. They still need more to do what they couldn’t let him do: leave.

Negotiations with Messi took longer than anticipated because a financial formula had to be found that could work – advice was sought from the league and the tax authorities – and although a deal is now in place, significant problems need to be overcome to put it all into practice. In short, they must move men out before they move men in.

Barcelona’s total debt is around €1,173m. In the winter, they took a €525m loan from Goldman Sachs to help them restructure their finances, while players agreed to salary deferrals back in November. Laporta admits that Barcelona’s salaries currently account for 110% of their income. “We do not comply with financial fair play regulations,” he said. Right now, put in blunt terms, Barcelona cannot pay their players.

They are not allowed to, either. In 2019-20 Barcelona’s salary limit was €671m. Last season, it was €347m. Next season’s figure has not been revealed yet, but is expected to be around €200m. Salary caps in Spain, shorthand for limits applied to all pre-tax spending on the squad, are not subject to punishments handed out retrospectively; instead, they are applied in advance. “We will not turn a blind eye,” warned the president of the league, Javier Tebas. The league does not want to lose Messi either, but their strict financial controls are non-negotiable.

That means that new players – like Messi – cannot be registered until a club is within the limits. Existing players can find themselves left out of the squad. Barcelona have a long way to go to meet those criteria. Tebas says that he has spoken to Laporta about the restrictions and the regulations, explaining that it’s not even a case of needing to balance costs with expenses, a euro in for every euro out. Of every four euros they save or raise, only on can be invested. “If the [new] outgoings are €50m, they will have to cut €200m,” Tebas said.

The coronavirus crisis has cost Barcelona an estimated €350m but their problems are not rooted purely in the pandemic. Chronic overspending, with salaries accounting for over 70% of their budget even in times of apparent health and with huge transfer fees spent on players whose success has proven limited and who have found themselves virtually written off despite their level, left them vulnerable. Tebas publicly insisted that what they had done was “not normal”; they had been left without any kind of “cushion”. When the crisis came it hit hard.

There are long term issues and serious ones, but it is the short-term problems that must be overcome first even at the risk of deepening the debt later. “Bread today, hunger tomorrow,” the phrase has it yet Barcelona have to eat now or there is no tomorrow; there is no squad, Messi included. And so the scramble begins.

Barcelona must make savings everywhere they can. Gerard Piqué, Marc André ter Stegen, Frenkie de Jong and Clément Lenglet have already agreed to reduce their salaries. Negotiations are pending with Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets. Carles Aleñá has gone to Getafe for €5m, Junior Firpo to Leeds for €15m, Jean-Clair Todibo to Nice for €8.5m. Francisco Trincão has joined Wolves on loan, with a €25m option to buy. Matheus Fernandes and Juan Miranda have been released, the former taking legal action, the latter at a cost. The impressive teenager Ilaix Moriba has been warned that he will be left out of the squad unless he renews.

Every little helps but it is not enough. Why release Martin Braithwaite, say, when what you save on salary makes so such a small dent in your debt?

They want Samuel Umtiti to go. And Miralem Pjanic, who in accountancy terms cost €70m but was effectively swapped for Arthur Melo, his more about finance than football signing – another short-term solution that left a longer-term problem, amortisation still pending. And Philippe Coutinho, who they had tried to get rid of before but for whom they could not find a buyer and who, closing in on triggering another payment to Liverpool, hasn’t played since December. And Ousmane Dembélé, but he is injured again.

Those three alone cost over €350m. Barcelona would be delighted to get a tenth of that back now but selling is not so simple in this market, still less when you are this exposed.

If there is one thing worse than being in financial crisis it is everyone knowing you’re in financial crisis. It is being unable to find buyers who will take on players with huge salaries, just clubs who know how desperate you are, ready to use that to their advantage. It would be a success right now just to remove those salaries from Barcelona’s books, let alone the payments still due on them. There is not a single player – correction: there is a single player – for whom they would not listen to offers.

All of which brings them to Antoine Griezmann, almost certainly incompatible now with Messi continuing. Not on the pitch, but off it: it is not that they want to get rid the Frenchman, exactly, more that they have to unless a miracle appears before them. He may provide the swiftest solution to a short-term problem. Perhaps the only plausible solution.

The issue with Griezmann is not just or even really the salary, which at around €20m is significant but not in the top four at the club, but the amortisation due on him, the accounting weight around their necks. That currently stands north of €70m, meaning solutions are sought, including a proposed swap deal with Saúl Ñíguez at Atlético Madrid. It is not easy, and it is certainly not ideal, but they have to try something, anything. Barcelona have become the club where everyone can be sold off except Messi who can’t yet be signed up.

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29 minutes ago, M_B said:

Guardian article on Barcelona's problems....

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jul/20/barcelona-in-desperate-push-to-offload-players-to-keep-lionel-messi

Lionel Messi is unemployed. Don’t worry: he will still be at Barcelona next season, or he should be, and he will certainly be OK. The question now may be: will they? And if he plays at the Camp Nou, if they are able to cut costs and raise the funds that they desperately need to balance the books and allow him to re-sign and begin an 18th season at the club where now more than ever he is their everything, if they can somehow, somewhere find over €100m and fast, who will play alongside him?

A year after he tried to walk away, Barcelona insist that they are no longer concerned about Messi leaving. Last week, with pressure building and sponsors expressing uncertainty, they let it be known that they had reached an agreement on a deal that would keep him there until he is 39, new president Joan Laporta’s key electoral promise finally fulfilled. Except that it is not quite, not yet. The agreement has not been made official and nothing has been signed, for one simple reason: it can’t be.

Until it is, Messi officially remains a free agent, out of contract for 20 days now and formally unattached to Barcelona for the first time since he joined at 13. July 1 came and went; this is not a renewal any more, it is a signing, and if the season started tomorrow Barcelona would not be able to register him, constrained by the league’s salary cap. The same applies to their other new arrivals: Sergio Agüero, Eric García and Memphis Depay, all of whom joined on free transfers just as Gini Wijnaldum was expected to do before he chose Paris Saint-Germain instead. Plus Emerson Royal, brought back from Betis, and the two or three others to whom they still aspire.

 

 

Fuck them.

 

Hope they suffer for years to come.

 

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1 hour ago, El Rojo said:

This new Celtic boss is going to be absolutely brilliant or absolutely terrible for them. He's such a leftfield appointment that I doubt he'll land in any middle ground. The signings he's made so far are interesting too. 

Yep. He comes across very well but fucking hell there is no predicting what this season will entail. He's just made Callum McGregor club captain which is positive but the singings so far are a bit 'hmmm'. He needs more as well. 

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1 hour ago, aws said:

I read somewhere that they are planning on not playing Coutinho to avoid paying us a €17m top-up. If that's true, it might make sense for both sides to agree a lower figure payable now. 

Yeah. Something like:

 

Pay us half the 17m and half his salary and we'll take him off your hands for the duration of his contract. 

 

Cunts. 

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30 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

Yep. He comes across very well but fucking hell there is no predicting what this season will entail. He's just made Callum McGregor club captain which is positive but the singings so far are a bit 'hmmm'. He needs more as well. 

He’ll have to find a Michael Edwards to make ends meet with that stingy board.

 

And I’m never going to even attempt to spell his name.  

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11 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

He’ll have to find a Michael Edwards to make ends meet with that stingy board.

 

And I’m never going to even attempt to spell his name.  

He needs Dustin Hoffman from Rain Man with that board 

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3 hours ago, CapeRed said:

Believe there was big shit in Brazil last night after Boca went out of the copa libertadores after a VAR intervention. Players arrested.

The VAR was shite, the penalties even worse.

 

in other news Sweden women’s team beat the USA 3-0 to end a 44 match unbeaten run. The Swedish press weren’t impressed.
 

 

AD11E7C8-9B97-49A5-89FB-5EBD00A04E9B.jpeg

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