Sky again !!

[Blue Til Death]

Fucking hell, Soccer Saturday - "When will I see you again" as the soundtrack to the rags going out of the CL! I'd have preferred "Down down" by Quo. ;-)

I would have preferred Way down by Elvis Presley

I think the most apt record to play would have been.... ITS OVER Roy Orbison

 

[lafitz2008]

Unbreak my heart by Paddy Crerrand

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

I Hate You So Much Right Now by Kelis sums up the rags for me.
Although some seem to see our Miseryside friends as just as bad, for reasons I fail to understand.

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

Martin Samuel said it right in a piece the other day when he said "But the foolish paranoia of football fans never ceases to amaze me"

Read more: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2601297/MARTIN-SAMUEL-THE-DEBATE-Im-not-anti-Everton-Im-just-against-loan-foolish-paranoia-football-fans-never-ceases-amaze-me.html#ixzz2z27gSmrq" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z2z27gSmrq</a>
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Its a good read if you can handle clicking on the daily mail
NF need not apply ;)

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

Martin Samuel said it right in a piece the other day when he said "But the foolish paranoia of football fans never ceases to amaze me"

Read more: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2601297/MARTIN-SAMUEL-THE-DEBATE-Im-not-anti-Everton-Im-just-against-loan-foolish-paranoia-football-fans-never-ceases-amaze-me.html#ixzz2z27gSmrq" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z2z27gSmrq</a>
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Its a good read if you can handle clicking on the daily mail
NF need not apply ;)

My finger did hover briefly mate, but then I thought better of it and downloaded some dwarf amputee scat porn instead.
Hopefully some kind soul will post the article so I don't have to click and feel all dirty.
Hint hint...

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

Martin Samuel said it right in a piece the other day when he said "But the foolish paranoia of football fans never ceases to amaze me"

Read more: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2601297/MARTIN-SAMUEL-THE-DEBATE-Im-not-anti-Everton-Im-just-against-loan-foolish-paranoia-football-fans-never-ceases-amaze-me.html#ixzz2z27gSmrq" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z2z27gSmrq</a>
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Its a good read if you can handle clicking on the daily mail
NF need not apply ;)

My finger did hover briefly mate, but then I thought better of it and downloaded some dwarf amputee scat porn instead.
Hopefully some kind soul will post the article so I don't have to click and feel all dirty.
Hint hint...

Give me a minute mate as you have to delete all the bollocks inbetween<br /><br />-- 16 Apr 2014, 09:04 --<br /><br />I'm not anti-Everton, I'm just against the loan system - but the foolish paranoia of football fans never ceases to amaze me

So, first, a little history. On April 30, 2003, I wrote a column in The Times that said Sam Allardyce should be the Manager of the Year for keeping Bolton Wanderers up, but actually I hoped they went down. The reason I gave was that Bolton’s team was built around foreign loan signings, while the other threatened team, West Ham United, had some of the best young English players in the country. Sam thinks I’ve had it in for him ever since. I don’t think he remembers the praise in the piece and he took it personally, rather than as a commentary on the loan system.

Since then, I’ve written repeatedly about temporary transfers, the stockpiling of players by major clubs, the whole dodgy area of gentlemen’s agreements and mates lending to mates, and the way football could be, if we would only wean ourselves off this devalued process. Not just in Premier League football, either. I wrote about Watford in the Championship last season, and Parma in Serie A this year. I wrote about Ryman League clubs Ware and Waltham Forest with more than 100 players passing through their books in one season, and Hameur Bouazza who in 2008-09 season played for Charlton Athletic against Birmingham City and Birmingham City against Charlton Athletic, while actually being owned by a third club, Fulham.

And on Wednesday I wrote about the positive impact loans have had on Everton’s season and how this would appear incompatible with financial fair play and the way it clamps down on overspending clubs for artificially inflating their league position. Had Everton bought all of their squad this season they may have fallen foul of FFP, but with loans they get around the system. That is not right, surely. It is just inflation by another means. Doing so, just as I did 11 years ago, I made sure to make clear that the club had done nothing wrong, and the system was at fault. I praised Everton’s manager, Roberto Martinez and his chairman Bill Kenwright. I said I wanted Everton to finish top four, and it would be a welcome change.


This is some Q and A thing he does on the article after

It turns out Big Sam is not the only sensitive soul in the Premier League. It turns out he is not the only one who consumes his news selectively, with a well-balanced chip on each shoulder. Debate about the incompatibility of FFP and the loan system? Zip. People thinking I had a pop at their club. Everybody. So, for the last time: I like Everton, I want Everton to do well. I don’t like the loan system. I think we would be better off without it. Oh, what the hell. Here’s the column if you can be bothered to read it. Judging by what follows, you won’t be alone if you can’t.

Why does everyone think this is a new issue? Everton took Glen Keeley from Blackburn Rovers on loan in 1982 – that was 32 years ago. Everton, like Arsenal, send players out on loan, too. Last month Apostolos Vellios went on loan to Blackpool. It's part of the game and is essential for the development of young players. Ross Barkley was sent out on loan a number of times. This is a ridiculous non-issue. No-one cared about it for decades and now because one club does it well, everyone wants to have a moan. Darren K, Liverpool.

To fill in the gaps, Everton have seven players out on loan, and Ross Barkley was loaned to Sheffield Wednesday in 2012 and Leeds United in 2013. Keeley played 32 minutes for Everton and was sent off in the Merseyside derby for fouling Kenny Dalglish. His loan came with the option of a permanent move that, unsurprisingly, did not come to fruition. None of this matters, of course. A long list of historic examples is not the same as a counter argument, Darren. More young players came through when the loan system was not used so voraciously by clubs because a manager had to make do with what he had rather than searching for quick solutions elsewhere. Are any of the loan players in the first-team at Everton young and British? No. So, potentially, they are blocking that path for young British players.

Big clubs are able to buy up too much of the young talent pool so the clubs simply can't develop them all into first team players. The loan system was the answer, but banning them from playing against their parent club was always wrong. Ultimately, it should not be possible to loan to a club unless they're in a lower league. Players were developed perfectly well in the days when Football League players from Divisions Two to Four were largely the young, up and coming group and the big clubs had a much smaller youth squad. It was better for the youngsters, with more regular first team competition, and better for the other leagues. Usednurse, Scottish Borders.

Modern football has whole teams with a core of loaned players, whereas four decades ago a loan was exactly that – a way of overcoming a short-term emergency, like having every full-back at the club injured, or a glorified trial with a view to a permanent move. Continental clubs had a very active long-term loan system and we copied it from them. Has it made our football better, or given more opportunities to young British players? Hardly.

You miss the most glaring fact of all. All clubs can use the loan system, while not all can go and spend £100m at the drop of a hat. Support Grass Roots, Liverpool.

I think you’re missing a glaring fact, actually. Without the loan system, clubs would not be able to stockpile players and transfer fees would come down, meaning Everton might be able to afford the likes of Romelu Lukaku, without it costing the earth. Now that’s a sound system. And so is this.

Let's imagine you're in a country where there is a huge gap in both income and wealth between a minority of rich and a majority of those who just about make ends meet. The poorer majority cannot survive without receiving more income and therefore need money to invest, but don't have the inherent wealth to do so. Your suggestion would be to ban banks lending money to the poor, thus cementing in place the existing distribution of income and wealth? The poor stay poor and the rich get richer? Astoundingly good logic. StevenNaismith, Liverpool.

You left out one factor, Steven. Players. Your analogy does not work because football in this case does not conform to the rules of a market economy, because there is a human commodity in the middle of the bands of rich and poor. Without loans, the rich would be unable to stockpile players, who would sign short-term contracts, request transfers, or stay with their smaller club of origin, therefore forcing the costs down for the poor.

I think there are also occasions where big clubs use strategic loans to strengthen lower-level teams and improve those chances against rival opposition. For example, Jose Mourinho might have calculated at the beginning of the season that if Lukaku could score against Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, it's almost like he is scoring for Chelsea. Billy Shears, Manchester.

Quite right, Billy. Technically, Chelsea could stockpile goalkeepers, loan 10 of them out and ensure they will play more than half of their league games against a reserve goalkeeper. Loan players should be free to play against their parent club, as they do in UEFA tournaments - unless, like Chelsea, the parent club has inserted a clause making such a collision prohibitive. Meaning, that if they draw Atletico Madrid in this month's semi-final, or play them in the final, Chelsea get to choose the opposition goalkeeper. Now, isn't that healthy?
I think this may be our own Billy ;)

All players should have an annual financial fair play value based on annualised expense such as wages, plus current transfer value based on the market. Gsyblue, Guernsey.

Good idea, but whose ledger will it occupy? Are Chelsea liable for Lukaku, to stop further stockpiling, or is the cost placed with Everton, to curb the motivation of building a team around loans?

So what kind of loans should Everton deal in - the Glazer kind which allowed them to buy Manchester United? Tom, London.

Neither is healthy, Tom; yet both are accepted strategies in football business. Blaming the Glazers for using the rules is no different to blaming Everton.

It appears that it is OK if your loan signings scrape survival in the Premier League but as soon as they start firing you towards the Champions League it is screwing the system? Poor article with undertones suggesting that Samuel is basically saying plucky little Everton should know their place and are knowingly cheating. MikeyEFC87, Liverpool.

Don’t put words in my mouth Mike. I couldn’t have made my positive feelings for Everton clearer; in fact I went out of my way to praise them. As stated in the preamble, I have always spoken out against the loan system, at both ends of the league, and in the middle. If your loan signings scrape survival, that means you have stayed up at the expense of another club, with players that are not yours. And that isn’t right, either. In a column published on May 13, 2009, I made that point about Norwich City’s survival in the Championship with 12 loan signings in 2007-08.

I notice how when Arsenal beat us in the FA Cup nothing was said, but as soon as we beat them convincingly in the league loans became a massive problem. The biggest issue with the transfer and loan market is that mega-rich clubs are overinflating prices. When managers complain maybe they should look at the reason why there are so many players loaned. Efcdan, Deeside.

Sort of my point, Dan. That is why I said Everton were not to blame. They are exploiting a flawed system and a problem exacerbated by the wealthiest clubs.

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

Can't argue with any of that - Samuel makes a lot of sense, for a Fail scribbler with a beard.
Cheers for that BoyBlue.
Now I don't need to scrub myself with Brillo pads and say Hail Marys.

 

[machine9]

Anyone see the ad at half time for next years chimps league,had clips of all the home teams even celtic
And munchkin and they arnt even in it ,no sign of us are we still in it or do they know somthing we dont .w**nkers.