Roiling football blather
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IdleRich
IdleRich
Have you seen this story about Ronaldinho going round? Probably old news to you but I only recently saw it.
I guess it's already being exaggerated, but when I first read it, it said he toured South Africa in 2,000... now people are wondering about the parentage of this South African women's international born 2001 called Miche Minnie's...
I guess it's already being exaggerated, but when I first read it, it said he toured South Africa in 2,000... now people are wondering about the parentage of this South African women's international born 2001 called Miche Minnie's...
versh
Well-known member
Nah, because they've been trying to buy stars still in their prime from top clubs and players who could still play in Europe and had offers from European clubs have gone over there. The targets and spending have been unprecedented.
versh
Well-known member
Probably, but the wealth and sudden push is a big difference on its own. A player like Ibra or Rooney going to MLS every so often and when they're more or less done in Europe is on a totally different scale to Saudi outspending La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 signing players like Neymar, Benzema and Mane in the space of a single transfer window. They even beat Barca to a signing when they nabbed Brozovic from Inter.
versh
Well-known member
Yeah, new to me. Probably bollocks, but she does look a bit like him.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Thing is though, a big part of the reason they've spent so much is cos you have to pay extra to entice players to go there. In the main it's still players past their peak going for one last payday. The ludicrous wages have pushed down the age a bit but it's still basically the same thing... the exception is Neymar (and I think he is 30) which is why he's such big news.
I dunno, I'm not sure we're that far apart in what we are saying but we read it slightly differently I suppose.
versh
Well-known member
My point is normally it's one or two players, but almost overnight they became a significant force in the transfer market.
www.espn.com
Saudi Arabia transfer tracker: Done deals, players linked and failed talks
Saudi Arabia has big plans to sign the top talent in soccer this summer. Here is a list of all the players linked with the Saudi Pro League.
ghost
Well-known member
This doesn't matter, we would just acquire every good player to come out of South America.
jenks
thread death
It wasn’t that long ago (in my mind that is) that English football rarely attracted the best players - Ipswich had a couple, Spurs had Ardiles in the 80s. Then we kind of picked Euro players on one last pay day - Klinnsman springs to mind. It’s only with the creation of the PL and the Sky money that we started getting the Henry/Bergkamp types whom came over in their prime - it was only then the power shifted from Italy which up to then had been the richest league (Gazza/Van Basten/Gullit/Rijkard). I’m guessing the Saudis and Americans are hoping to do the same but at an accelerated pace. (Caveat is that the Bosman ruling really changed things)
IdleRich
IdleRich
I'm assuming you're talking about international football by here, in which case you mean to get em young and make them change their nationality? It's a decent plan, or it would have been a few years ago but now I don't see how you'll be able to get em before the Saudis do.
Also, you have to consider that, although Argentina won the last World Cup, Europe has been pretty dominant this century.
So I'm afraid I don't see the US really becoming a serious force in football any time soon, either by developing your own players or by stealing (buying) the best from other countries, and like I said, I fear your basketball dominance is looking increasingly shaky. Sure the US will probably still be the best overall team but considering you have 100 times as many people it's a little embarrassing that Serbia or whatever can give you a game. Or really it should be a bit concerning that there's about 25 people in Europe who take basketball seriously and yet of those 25 half of them are in the top 20 best in the NBA.
However, you do have a secret weapon if you want to maintain some sporting dominance. Well, I call it a secret but most people even outside the US have at least heard of NFL, though ninety-nine percent of them would rather drink a pint of diarrhoea than sit through a game.
And that's why it can be viewed as a secret weapon. I'm not saying it's boring, but it certainly is until you've developed a certain level if understanding, and there is really no incentive to do that unless it's part of your culture. So NFL has no crossover appeal whatsoever, I simply cannot see any way for enough people from other countries to get involved and create the necessary critical mass for a strong league, good homegrown players and ultimately a national team to challenge the US.
Ultimately the sheer unattractiveness of American Football ensures that the US will utterly dominate it for generations if not forever. So my advice, withlg on the wall for basketball, is to pull up the drawbridge and concentrate entirely on NFL, throwing absolutely all resources at it, until you have this increasingly parochial amd hermetic sport which only you lot truly understand and at which you can annihilate your nearest rivals by a thousand points to zero without breaking a sweat.
I suppose you could do the same for baseball but the problem with that is that noone, and I mean literally noone in their right mind - including the players - likes baseball, so yeah you could probably concentrate on that - if you suddenly remembered you needed to test one more bomb on Japan and maybe augment the sanctions against Cuba - make that your national sport at which you were completely invincible, but it would be depressing... probably would increase the national suicide rate.
IdleRich
IdleRich
There was Ardilles, Pele, Stallone... no wait a sec... to be the Kinsman signing was a watershed. I guess with hindsight it just happened to be the first of a huge rush of signings, but at the time it sort of seemed to be the catalyst that made them happen.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Well, I still think you had better look to your laurels cos didn't US just get beaten by Germany at basketball?
ps the article I read about that had the word "winningest" again - is that really a word in usage in the US?
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
The 10 winningest head coaches in NFL history
Where does Andy Reid’s latest milestone place him?
thelistwire.usatoday.com
IdleRich
IdleRich
I found it very strange but I've seen it twice recently... I can only think it was the same writer and it's his kinda personal gimmicky word.