The Woolster

He may well have done, but I don't think me wanting Caulker, thinking he will be a very good player and could be value even if he was an expensive £15m is really comparable to Commoli spending £35m, making him the 7th most expensive in the world ever or whatever it was, and for a player who we needed to change our style of play to accomodate.

I do think he'd cost a bit (£15m?) but I think he'd be worth it, he could play for us for the next 10 years. I don't think he'd leave either, not just yet anyway. But he's probably 4th choice there (once Kaboul is back), so you never know. And because Spurs would be getting a lot of money for a player that isn't 1st choice, I think they'd sell.

I don't watch Eurpean football, I don't play football manager, and am not the type to start saying I want the next big name having never seen them or knowing nothing about them. I've made an exception for Alderweireld because he plays for Ajax, and it is the type of CB that plays for Ajax that we should be looking for. I think we need 3 first team level players, an attacker to replace Downing and 2 CBs so that we have 2 from 3 to chose from in case of injury. The others are squad players, so don't think we need to spend much money. They don't need to be top players, they just need to be able to come in and do a just. Caulker I think is the best young CB in the country and will be an England regular for years to come. Sakho I haven't seen much of either to be honest, but he's been touted for a couple of seasons now so I know he has some of the qualities we need. Remy I have actually wanted for the past couple of seasons now, can play anywhere across the front 3, is quick, skillful, good in the air, and has a reasonable buy out clause by all accounts. I don't see anything unambitious about wanting those 3. Schneiderlin has been outstanding in the 2nd half of the season and would be an excellent back up for Lucas and not cost too much. Weimann has looked very good in a poor Villa team, is versatile and can score goals and is coming into the last year of his contract so should be cheap. I'll give you Beausejour. I think Robinson is our future LB, but he needs to go on loan for a couple of seasons so think we need some cover with experience and Beausejour plays as a wing back and would suit our system.

Its a realistic wishlist. I'd say the only contentious one is Beausejour, I doubt mmany would agree, but like I said, he'd only be a back up. The rest are good players.

Woolster's Wishlist Caulker Sakho (then perhaps the Alderweireld) Remy Schneiderlin Weimann Beausejour (only as a back up with Robinson hopefully going on loan)

We have 2 very promising young LBs in Robinson and Smith, I don't think we should be spending big bucks to get a young left back in.

I think the main issue for a player that came out would perhaps not be what the fans sing, but more what the other players say or how they will react.

Surprised no one has put up the FA publication yet http://www.thefa.com/News/governance...AB4D7313F.ashx Having read through it, they have arbitarily come up with 10 games. They did not take Suarez' history into acount. They found that Suarez intended to cause injury. They did not like that Suarez contended that it was worth more than 3 games. They noted that the Thatcher case is dissimilar, so did not take it into account. Players are role models and have a duty to set highest example. They have a duty to make sure it does not happen again. They said Ashley Barnes got 6 games for tripping the ref over last year, that this is significantly more serious and punishment should be significantly higher. Thats about it.

If they give him a year ban, then he will have it wherever he goes (same as Barton) so no one will buy him.

And some more sense.

Some sense, although I would say that even the bosses of firms that do compete will speak to each other if their is a mutual benefit.

I think some people have this view, and I don't have a problem with that. But I think others have an agenda, are ready to jump on anything, will always assume the worst, will take things out of context, get unnecessarily hysterical, and then repeat it over and over again. Ayre's experience or his ability to do the job, and FSG speaking to Gill and Gazidis are not related. Its the way they do things, if he was the best CEO in the world I think they would still be doing it.

You left out that he was a CEO of a media company. David Gill was an accountant, he held various finance director roles at non-sports based firms before getting a similar role at Manchester Utd. 4 years later he was CEO of aa club generating greater revenues than us, and at that time probably had no more experience than Ayre of working with the FA or on league committees. Who had the greater experience, both in football terms and in the running of companies, at the time of becoming CEO?

Whilst I think we should have someone else alongside Ayre, I don't really think he is that inexperienced relatively speaking. Either way, its a seperate issue, so no.

Advice could equally be, "How should We do this and that as a collective?" We don't know for a fact what he has asked, but which one is most likely? Perhaps they are asking for advice on what to do as a club, but again, this could be something along the lines of building/refurbishing a stadium, and again, I don't see an issue with asking 2 clubs who have already gone through the process about something like that, I would not expect them to give duff information, these guys will be on friendly terms as they have a working relationship with each other through the League and they have shared interests within the league, so will want to keep each other onside.

The story is taken form the link that kalasoma gave, which does have a start and an end. Have to admit I hadn't even looked at the Mirror story until just now, that is really bad sensationalist reporting, but that is what we should all expect whenever we read something like that, rather than jump to conclusions.

Whist I disagree with the sentiment, I can at least understand your view, unlike most of the other replies. If you do dislike FSG, this is not another reason to dislike them, put your pitch forks away!

Indeed. People seem to be jumping to conclusions and assuming they are asking them how to negotiate a contract or which player to sign, which is ridiculous. The Premier League is in essence a cartel, that broke away from the Football League, and negotiates and lobbies on behalf of its members, who are the 20 clubs in the league and their owners, so of course they are going to speak to each other, how would they reach agreements about things otherwise? And not all of those discussions will take place at Premier League meetings, as within the League some groups of clubs will have different aims. Do people not think that the bosses at conmpanies like Coke/Pepsi, Barclays/RBS, Shell/BP, McDonalds/Burger King etc etc don't talk to each other if it is their benefit to do so? This is from ealier this year Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs join forces to shackle spending by Man City and Chelsea | Mail Online How would Arsenal be able to send a letter the League on behalf of us, Utd and Spurs, which is basically ganging up on City and Chelsea and trying to stop any other sugar daddy clubs, unless the bosses/owners had, you know, been speaking to each other? When Ayre says that they have been talking to each other, do people think there might be a chance this is what he is refering to? Are they 'moronic' to be discussing these things which are to the benefit to the club?

Anyone thinking of going on Friday? I'm thinking about it, but to get tickets online or by phone (from Chelsea) you have until tomorrow noon, and on the day you have until 4pm from the ticket office. Seems a bit strange to close it before the end fo the working day.

Does he really think we are going to fall for that one!

Is there a referal code? I feel like I should refer Dave, as it is his thread on his site, but if Dave doesn't give me one by the time I do sign up (not sure when), then I'll use yours. Unless its already somewhere in the thread?

Anyone still doing this? I was just going to sign up, but its adding VAT when I say in am in Britain. Not a lot like, but I didn't see anyone else mention it, is this new or am I being dim?

In terms of the TV deal, everyone is getting an increase, but not of the same magnitude. 50% of the TV money (excl. cash that goes out of the league such as parachute payments) is shared equally. The other 50% is split between merit payments for where you finish in the league, and for amount of times shown live. So teams towards the top who get shown more will be moving further away from the 'smaller' teams, although the teams that finish above us could mover further ahead of us, my guess is that perhaps only Utd get shown more than us live. Also, a lot of the teams below us are struggling financially, so will be using the extra cash to balance the books Then there is the European FFP to consider. Even if they are not as stringent as UEFA say they will be, teams will at least want to be seen to be doing something about it if they are failing the rules, and this will have an effect on both City and Chelsea, although not Utd, City or Spurs. There is also the PL FFP that has recently been agreed which limits the amount that wages can be increased out the TV money to £4m each year. Anything above that has to come from increases to other revenues. I think Utd and Arsenal with their recently agreed sponsorships will gain from this, probably City as well, don't know about Chelsea, but I think our growth in these areas should be stronger than Spurs. And finally, whilst our peers in the PL are all gaining from this our peers in Europe are not, and it will help us when competing against them for the signing of players.

I'll use this as another chance to plug my own look at the accounts! Wooly Jumpers For Goalposts: Liverpool's Annual Accouts: Will the Reds stay in the red? Our projections are pretty similar, although I didn't bother looking into all the non-cash items, as they are more to do with accounting rules than real life.

Wouldn't be surprised if it is for the sole reason of making the annual accounts look better with regards to net debt. If anyone saw my review and forecast of the accounts, I discussed that the new year end came before the ticket renewal date, so the club had not reveived all the season ticket cash, meaning the bank facilites had not been paid down. This change means that won't happen anymore.