Conference trucks::football;1

Re .0
    >Can anyone really justify forking out �4M on one person - especially one
    >who hasn't really established himself at International level?
    

Does it really matter if someone is established at international level.!!!
I personally think that he is NOT worth 4 million. With that sort of money you
should be able to get 2 very very good players or 4 average 1/2 division players
that could end up being brilliant....

I get the feeling that Blackburn are very concerned at holding their own in the 
Premier league and perhaps have aspirations to win it. But if they haven't got
some kind of youth policy whereby players can come from below into the 1st team
then I dont think that they will be able to survive on just the MDs money for
two long..
We shall see.

Tony

    Tony
    
    Yes I do think it matters if someone is established at International
    level.
    
    If you were to put it into a business perspective, would any MD of an
    up-and-coming company spend an absolute fortune on someone who has yet
    to prove himself at the highest levels in the hope that he will one day
    get there?
    
    It will certainly be interesting to see how Shearer reacts to the sort
    of pressure he is now going to be put under to perform.
    
    Dave
    

    I think Shearers agent must be laughing all the way to the bank,
    personally I don't think Shearer's footballing ambitions will be served
    by joining Blackburn. I would agree that Saints have very little
    ambition and potential but if you compare Blackburn with the likes of
    Liverpool and Man Utd then I think Shearer would have been better off
    waiting until one of the big clubs could have afforded him. As far as
    Blackburn is concerned what happens to them when their chairman gets
    bored with football ?.
    
    			Stuart.
    
    P.S By the way I am the other Southampton Supporter.

	re .3

>    by joining Blackburn. I would agree that Saints have very little
>    ambition and potential but if you compare Blackburn with the likes of

	Maybe Saints' supporter(s) should launch a "Bring back McMenemy"
	campaign.

	Tony

        Did anyone see the italian transfer market this summer �� it was
    ridiculous... AcMilan won the league and spent 32 million over, I
    think they just buy the players so other teams can't have them.
    
    Milan were brilliant last season they went the whole season unbeaten
    and now IMO buying all these players will upset their rythm... 
    They will be chopping and changing the team every game, you need a
    settled team to win any championship.
    
    The most expensive player in the world now is a guy called Lentini (sp)
    at 13 million (dollars I presume). I've seen him playing twice now
    once on italian soccer Monday night playing for Ac Milan, the other was
    playing for Italy against Holland. Both games he looked very average 
    how they can justify paying 13 mil is beyond me.
    
    I think the most foolish buy I've ever seen has got to be David Platt.
    Juventes paid 6.5 mill for him and then leave him on the bench.]
    Denis Bergkamp only went for something like 3 mil and he's streets 
    ahead of Platt.
    
    Inflation these days is crazy... I reckon I'm worth about 500,000
    and I only play once a month.

Colm.

    Has anyone got any idea of the balance sheet teams like Ac Milan have ?
    How on earth do they manage to make money, or do they ???
    
    dave?

    
    Re -1, Apparently they sold something like 60,000 season tickets.  They
    also have TV rights, sponsorship and Berlusconi would have no problem
    dipping into his pocket if needs be.
    
    Gary.

   Colm Lentini cost AC  over 13million pounds sterling....... There are 
rumours that he cost even more like closer to 20 million.... Which makes me
worth at least 1 million. I play once a week!!!!

                                                      -dave-

    I heard AC Milan sold something like 72,000 season tickets. Still, they
    do have a lot of top notch talent. I  think it's bad for th game to
    have so many players who should be playing SOMEWHRE, but some will sit
    the bench. I can't imagine any player at that level to be content with
    this kind of role. They can only play 3 foreigners, but in addition to
    the 3 Dutchmen, they also have Jean-Pierre Papin and the Czech whose name
    I can't spell... There are also several Italian internationals, so
    there's a ton of talent.
    
    I know Berscolini's idea of the Euro Super League and increased numbers
    of games make him feel as if he needs a deep bench and quality players.
    Milan plays 34 Leage matches, say 10 Euro matches, plus Italian Cup and
    any friendlies, so that's at least 60 games. Not to mention most of the
    players will be playing 10 (or more) internationals for their countries.
    I can see the reasoning, but I think the strategy will backfire. Chemistry 
    is everything, and I can't see all those players being content with not
    being in the first team every week.
    
    Tom

    4 Million don't seem too bad now does it.
    
    Andy

    It may not seem to lots in hindsight but am I the only noter who finds
    �15 million pounds a little bit obscene?
    
    
    			Stretch.

    .12
    
    Just cos ManU didn't get him. If Paul Furlong was worth 1.5 mil then
    Shearer must be worth 25 mil....
    
    to be serious for a moment, yes, 15 mil is an obscene amount to pay for
    a footballer....
    
    Ray....

    Ray,
    
    Just for the financial aspect I am glad Utd did not get him, I still
    think Utd helped to inflate the market price on players (unnecessarily)
    with the Cole purchase.
    
    
    
        		Stretch.

    >I still think Utd helped to inflate the market price on players
    >(unnecessarily) with the Cole purchase.
    
    Hmm, didn't Norwich demand a minimum of �5m for Sutton in the summer
    *before* the Cole deal ?
    

    >> think Utd helped to inflate
                 ^^^^^^
    
    All teams purchasing *help* inflate it, Utd stuck another couple of
    million on the previous highest, Newcastle have just gone OTT (IMHO).
    
    
    			Stretch.
                         

I heard that Blackburn turned down a bid of �14M from ManU - or Shearer 
refused to go! Either way, would you really have said 'obscene' if he'd gone 
to OT(T)?

g

    Grahame,
    
    I don't actually believe the cash matters.  Newcastle have got him and 
    that's what counts.  I'm sure that you'll recoup some or all of the cash 
    in increased merchandise sales, sponsorship deals and possibly even the
    odd trophy !  It does however put a little extra pressure on KK to
    deliver the goods - I believe he's spent approximately �50m over the
    past couple of seasons.  Even SJH will expect some return on that.
    
    Better get back to rehearsing those songs for the Charidy Shield ..
    
    "There's only one greedy b*st*rd"....

I think the points that every one is missing are that the 
Inflationary prices of the past 3/4 years were caused
by the dearth of top class english players , the weakness of English 
clubs in Europe post Hysel and the 3 player rule.
With the advent of the Bosman case there are no excuses what so
ever for such a jump in fee( other than the huge ammounts of money
that chairmen are going to squeeze from punters when pay-per view
eventually comes along ) Believe me it will be you and me and not 
John Hall who will end up paying for Shearer.
Klinsman probably did more to encourage the current panic buying
of foreigners. Buy a star , sell more shirts and season tickets , 
make more profit.

Where will it end. Well expect to see very few STAR English players
in teams for the next 3/4 years. For 15 Million one could have bought half a 
Brazilian National team , a Portugese National team or eleven Scottish
National teams.
With 15 million as the marker anything under 7 is now bargain basement. 
It's amazing how ones perception changes in the light of one deal( 4 million
was obscene 3 years ago ).

Peter

    Grahame,
    
    Yes I would have found it equally obscene if Man U had got his
    signature for that kind of money as my comment about the Cole fee
    should have implied. 
    
    
                   Stretch.

Dave,

I'd've said "especially" (not "even") SJH! Assuming nothing much changes in the 
football financing world in the next couple of seasons, then the only place I 
can see where you can get easy money quickly is in the Champions League. So if 
we're not in it next season, there might well be questions asked.

Charity Shield should be some game - I don't care if we lose it as we owe you 
a stuffing (or three) in the League!

g

    >>With 15 million as the marker anything under 7 is now bargain
    basement.
    
    Like Poborsky or Cruyff?? 

I didn't mean "Bargain Basement" in terms of quality
but in terms of the perception of the public as to
their STAR potential. In terms of quality both are International
players and their prices combined are less that half Shearers. Now
if they score less than half the number of goals Shearer does they'll 
have been the ultimate bargain.

    I meant that they are absolute steals by todays standards and was not
    questioning the quality at all.
    
    			Stretch.

RE 251.23
"the perception of the public as to their STAR potential"

Very true if you are at Coventry and spent �3M - you hope the public percieve
the buy is a star and rush out to get season tickets and fill the ground - aka
Middlesburgh when they came up to the premiership.

But surely when you are Newcastle the small matter of fitting in with the
current squad and taking it one more step towards a championship is more
important - especially when you can sell all your season tickets a couple of
times over already.

Only time will tell how Shearer gells in the squad, but I saw on tv last season
he can only be better value than Ferdinand.

I do agree the �15m figure is crazy inflation - especially when it would buy not
only the players and ground of my team, but half of Greenock as well !


Danny.

    
    Although �15m is a hell of a lot of money I'm sure Man U. who had
    already bid �12m would have quite happily paid �15m for his services.
    However Shearer wanted to go to Newcastle. Done deal. 
    
    Buying good players for a lot less money can make sense. But it depends
    what you want to win. If you want to be number one in Europe, you
    have to buy the best in Europe even to have a chance of becoming number
    one. 
    
    Richard.
    

    Richard,
    
    Are you assuming therefore that Shearer is the best striker in Europe ?
    I still think he has a lot to prove on the European scene.  Sure, he
    scores goals for fun in the Premier League, but what's his strike rate
    against European opposition where the standard of defenders is
    considerably higher.  Of his 4/5 goals in Euro-96, one was a pen and
    another was against Scotland.  
    
    Time will tell, but I still think the money would have been better spent
    on a player like Maldini.  Unless of course, they're going to buy him
    as well !

    To my mind a good striker is a good striker, and Shearer is for me the
    best European striker (on a par with Jeurgen Klingfilm). He doesn't
    really have any weaknesses and to make him successful in Europe just
    requires playing the right way. He's got what it takes - the team just
    needs to adapt. Well, we certainly couldn't perform any worse than
    Blackburn did in Europe.(We scored 11 goals in 4 games last time).
    
    The lad's worth the money - he's the best, he's 26, and he's a GEORDIE.
    He knows as well as anyone what it means to wear that famous black and
    white no 9 shirt. Welcome home, Alan.
    
    Michael. 
                                                                      

    
    Dave,
    
    I don't know if Shearer is "the best" in Europe but I certainly think
    he is one of the best. No-one was more sceptical than I was before
    Euro-96 but he proved himself. I think he would have been in most
    peoples 'team of the tournament'. 
    
    At least as important though is we know he is the best in the Premiership.
    How many of the other best out and out strikers in Europe would survive
    the Premiership and score 30+ goals a season? That's Klinsmann and
    err... No-one could accuse Bergkamp of adapting well at Arsenal. 
    Asprilla may have bags of skill but will he survive a full season at
    Newcastle? Let's wait and see how Shearer gets on compared with the 
    other expensive arrivals from Europe.
    
    Richard.
    

    Off IRN.............
    
         Alan Shearer's record-breaking transfer fee may have a knock-on 
         effect throughout British football. 
          
         Unlike some of the other big-money moves of the summer, the fifteen 
         million pounds received by Blackburn Rovers has stayed in the 
         English game - for now.  
          
         But the PFA's Gordon Taylor wants to see the money used to develop 
         home-grown talent rather than go on a big foreign signing. 
    
         Taylor warns that the cost of going to football is increasing.  
         He says there may be a limit to what the fans will spend. 
    
         Shearer's arrival at St James's Park has raised questions about the 
         future of fellow-England striker Les Ferdinand. 
          
         But Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan's reassured Ferdinand his future 
         with the club is safe, and the player himself is giving Shearer
         the thumbs up: 
    
         Newcastle's French winger David Ginola believes it can only be good 
         news to see Shearer in the famous black and white shirt: