Premier League 2010/11 general thread

[prinnysquad]

I feared as much. The few times I can remember seeing him on MOTD, he seemed busy enough, although I can't remember who the opposition were, so he may be a crapteambully. I just can't see how he'll be a regular midfield starter when you consider the established players available:

Cattermole, Sessegnon, Gardner, Elmohamady, Larsson, Malbranque, Meyler, Vaughan (incoming), and even young Colback is highly rated by Maggie and was an impressive starter in the last few games of last season.

[Neil]

He has potential but would agree at the moment isn't really any better than your current midfield, like I say a good run and an arm round him from Maggie may bring him on.

[prinnysquad]

Don't think Bruce could fit his arms around anyone with the kite he's got.

[Neil]

I like Brucie, remember watching him play for Norwich.

Yes I am old

[Adrock]

Vaughan could be an excellent signing, the best out of all of those you've mentioned so far. He was close to Adam in the quality of his play last season. Will be interesting to see how Sunderland line up next year.

I haven't seen much mention of a striker for Sunderland. A decent one anyhow, they're gonna need a very good striker to build on the rest of the signings.

As for Gibson, I didn't see much of anything last season that suggested he'd be worth 5mil. Wes Brown is 31 and they've handed him a 4 year deal, with his injury record I'm shocked. Brown must be counting all that money with glee.

[prinnysquad]

Vague rumours persist about a decent striker signing. The Defoe rumour is ridiculous, but I could see Bruce angling for another year of Welbeck. I think Bruce has realised that he won't get a replacement for Bent, so he's drafted in goals from midfield, which has been a real issue here for a couple of years. Ever since Don Hutchinson left, in fact.

No idea what Brown is on here, but there's an internal wage cap in place afaik. Muntari had to take a massive reduction to come here on loan last year, because Quinn and Short won't hand out silly money. The percentage of wages to turnover is ridiculously high as it is, thanks to the blockbuster deals Keane and Drumaville handed out to people like Gordon, Ferdinand, McCartney, etc. I can't see Brown being on more than he was at Utd, which suggests he's agreed to move for footballing reasons.

[merf]

Seen sunderland appointed a 31y old CEO ?

The 3 stages of ageing as a footy fan, players younger than you, managers younger than you (new Chelsea bloke ruined that for a lot more people) and CEO chairpersons younger than you.

Subset of this is players who you recall having their sons in the team, then their sons retiring. I hit that benchmark with Lampard Jnr so only a short while to go.

[nakamura]

Essien misses start of the season.

[abigsmurf]

Another long term injury...

[merf]

You couldnt make it up, Etihad is arabic for United apparently.

[toythatkills]

They've been sponsored by Etihad for ages, I don't know why this would just be coming up now

[Matt]

Thing is, I'm sure ages back I read the Fair Play Rules actually have in place rules against this kind of bogus sponsorship deal. If a sugar daddy "sponsors" his club over the odds, they'll be punished accordingly. They put the sponsorship out to tender to get a fair market price, and that's the accepted income, not the hugely inflated price paid.

Of course, whether or not any club will get punished is another matter. Though it's a EPL club, so there's a reasonable chance of prejudice, lol.

[abigsmurf]

It's next to impossible to reliably enforce that though.

A good example: executive boxes at a football ground. Who's to say you couldn't charge someone ?1million+ for them a season.

It would hard to be able to prove that something isn't just expensive rather than actually cooking the books.

[Matt]

I'm going to remain positive that FairPlay will actually succeed, and they'll overcome this kind of bull****. I've about zero confidence in the football authorities, but I'm still optimistic....

[NW2013]

They've been sponsored by Etihad for ages, I don't know why this would just be coming up now

They're sponsoring the stadium now too, they're not calling it Eastlands anymore.