Farcical football

pavb2

As a Villa fan the whole Delph saga is farcical and comical but all football is entertainment.

This reminded me of David Unsworth who joined Villa and never played

"David Unsworth's £3m move to Aston Villa lasted just 48 hours and was blamed upon the defender "not knowing the location of Villa Park according to manager John Gregory"

Clive Allens move to arsenal evoked conspiracy theories and Didi Hamanns short lived bolton move involved some dubious sleight of hand but nevertheless a windfall for Bolton.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2340177/Clive-Allen-joined-Arsenal-33-years-ago-today-left-months.html#ixzz3gEjtxQ45

Sirsok

The Jon Obi Mikeal situation where Chelsea paid quite a large enough chunk of change to united for his services after united just brought him in from The Norweigan league. Never made sense to me about the time

Odemwingie driving to QPR to try and force a transfer. What was he thinking

Harry Palmr

Can anyone (or thing) explain Asamoah Gyan?

Agent Coulson

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Can anyone (or thing) explain Asamoah Gyan?

Harry Palmr

Striker Clive Allen has to be one of the best strange transfer deals.

Signed by Terry Neil at Arsenal from QPR (in division 2) for over a million quid, played the pre-season was sold on to Crystal Palace in a swap deal for defender Kenny Samson!

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Can anyone (or thing) explain Asamoah Gyan?

I can't understand why he gets so much stick.

He's not good enough to play for a champions league team, he's more at an upper mid table team level. If his choices are hoping for a cup run and qualifying for the europa league, or playing in china/dubai, scoring goals for fun and taking the mega pay cheques, it's a no-brainer.

newballsplease

United signing Bebe for 7million apparantly Fergie never seen him play.

MightyMandarin

Calhanoglu's move from Hamburg to Leverkusen has to be one of the messiest transfers I've ever seen.

Signed a contract extension in order to make the CEO (who he knew from his time at Karlsruher) but was 'promised' that he wouldn't stand in his way should he want to leave. When Leverkusen came calling Calhanoglu wanted out, and when Hamburg stopped him he got a sick note from a psychologist sayin that he couldn't play for the next 4 weeks. Eventually he got his move as most players seem to, but he came out of this looking like a complete gobsh*te. Needless to say Hamburgs CEO was fired after this whole mess aswell.

TheCitizen

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Striker Clive Allen has to be one of the best strange transfer deals.

Signed by George Graham (now now!) at Arsenal from QPR (in division 2) for over a million quid, played the pre-season was sold on to Crystal Palace in a swap deal for defender Kenny Samson!

George Graham didn't buy Clive Allen, he didn't take over at arsenal until 1986.

Harry Palmr

TheCitizen wrote: »

George Graham didn't buy Clive Allen, he didn't take over at arsenal until 1986.

Indeed, I dunno why I associated Graham with such carry on! post edited.

TheCitizen

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2340177/Clive-Allen-joined-Arsenal-33-years-ago-today-left-months.html

The theory is Terry Venables was behind it. QPR wouldn't sell Allen to Palace, so Arsenal bought him and then swapped him for Palace left back Kenny Sansom. Lovely jubbly.

Harry Palmr

El Tel, all we now need is 'arry to make an appearance.

JohnDee

No mention of Ali Dia yet. The "footballer" that Graeme Souness signed at Southampton on strength of phone call from alleged "cousin" of George Weah. Came on as sub and then taken off again less than 15 minutes later.

JPA

JohnDee wrote: »

No mention of Ali Dia yet. The "footballer" that Graeme Souness signed at Southampton on strength of phone call from alleged "cousin" of George Weah. Came on as sub and then taken off again less than 15 minutes later.

That was crazy, had he not trained with the team so they'd realise he hadn't an ounce of talent?

tim_holsters

Don't really see how this is farcical, Delph wasn't signing for City and now he is. That is all.

I understand you're a Villa fan OP but you'll just have to get used to it.

JohnDee

^ saw part of documentary with Matt Le Tissier and seemingly he joined club mid week and got in one perhaps two training sessions/5 a side. Le Tiss and rest of team noted his abject lack of basic skill but Souness wasn't around till matchday or suchlike. Suffice to say Matt got a shock when saw Ali D named in squad.

listermint

tim_holsters wrote: »

Don't really see how this is farcical, Delph wasn't signing for City and now he is. That is all.

I understand you're a Villa fan OP but you'll just have to get used to it.

His public announcement last week saying he wasnt.... But sure ya knew that already

Captain Havoc

Harry Palmr wrote: »

El Tel, all we now need is 'arry to make an appearance.

Harry Redknapp never looked at Marco Boogers play, got himself sent off in his second game for a violent tackle against united. He cost West Ham £1 million and he was released the following summer. Most West Ham fans remember him as the worst signing ever.

Another one is Robbie Savage transferring from Birmingham to Blackburn because Blackburn is closer to Wrexham, despite the fact the two of them are more or less 70 miles from it.

tim_holsters

Anybody can change their mind, it's no big deal.

Oat23

MightyMandarin wrote: »

Calhanoglu's move from Hamburg to Leverkusen has to be one of the messiest transfers I've ever seen.

Signed a contract extension in order to make the CEO (who he knew from his time at Karlsruher) but was 'promised' that he wouldn't stand in his way should he want to leave. When Leverkusen came calling Calhanoglu wanted out, and when Hamburg stopped him he got a sick note from a psychologist sayin that he couldn't play for the next 4 weeks. Eventually he got his move as most players seem to, but he came out of this looking like a complete gobsh*te. Needless to say Hamburgs CEO was fired after this whole mess aswell.

Kreuzer was sacked for a lot but the Calhanoglu affair wasn't one of them. The accusation that the conversation you mentioned about Kreuzer telling Hakan he could leave in the summer is disputed by many at the club and the story doesn't make sense. Why would he sign someone to a new contract in February who was wanted by top clubs in the January window then tell him he can leave in the summer. He had 2 years left on his deal before he signed the new one. Kreuzer was an idiot, but that story about saying he could leave has to be made up.

The full story goes like this:
Summer 2012: Signs for HSV and goes back on loan to Karlsruher for a year.

Summer 2013: Returns to HSV
Plays well in the first half of the 13/14 season. Linked with moves to PL and other BL clubs in January 2014. Team says he isn't for sale.

Early February: Signs new contract until 2018. Triples his salary. Gets sizeable signing bonus for himself and his agent and also gets a clause entitling him to a % of a future transfer fee.
He says:

I always said I feel happy in Hamburg and I want to continue playing for the club in the Bundesliga. In the coming years, I want to become an integral part of the team.

May: Team is currently preparing for the relegation playoff vs Greuther Fürth. He is now our most important player. The day before the first leg of the relegation playoff, his agent goes to the media and tells them that Hakan wants to leave this summer. The day before the most important game in the clubs history he does this. It's May, not July or August. Completely unnecessary.

We survived the playoff and remained in the BL. Hakan tells the club he wants to leave and they tell him and the media he is not for sale.
He changes his phone number so nobody at the club can contact him and talks sh*t to the media about everyone at the club (coaches, teammates, chairman). The chairman we had then was an idiot so I'll let him off for that one.
The day before pre-season training begins he got a sick note from a doctor (presumably a morally corrupt one) saying he was suffering from depression and did not have to work for 4 weeks.

We sold him two weeks later, and his 'depression' went away overnight. He was back in training the day he signed with Leverkusen.

---

To tell you more about the type of guy he and his agent is:
When he was 17, he was an amateur at Karlsruher SC, they went to Trabzonspor in Turkey and signed a pro deal with them. They got a signing fee of €100k. They took the money and then went back to Karlsruher SC and signed a professional deal there. Trabzonspor are/were trying to get his agent banned for that.

MightyMandarin

tim_holsters wrote: »

Don't really see how this is farcical, Delph wasn't signing for City and now he is. That is all.

I understand you're a Villa fan OP but you'll just have to get used to it.

It's not the fact he changed his mind, or changed his mind twice, but to make a big statement about being captain, kissing the armband, calling it 'my club' etc. just makes me sick. I'm not a Villa fan, but what Delph did was much worse than what that pr*ck Sterling did.

Captain Havoc

MightyMandarin wrote: »

It's not the fact he changed his mind, or changed his mind twice, but to make a big statement about being captain, kissing the armband, calling it 'my club' etc. just makes me sick. I'm not a Villa fan, but what Delph did was much worse than what that pr*ck Sterling did.

He also said something about loyalty in football.

Moneymaker

Everything Joe Kinnear has ever done involving Newcastle.

MightyMandarin

Oat23 wrote: »

Kreuzer was sacked for a lot but the Calhanoglu affair wasn't one of them. The accusation that the conversation you mentioned about Kreuzer telling Hakan he could leave in the summer is disputed by many at the club and the story doesn't make sense. Why would he sign someone to a new contract in February who was wanted by top clubs in the January window then tell him he can leave in the summer. He had 2 years left on his deal before he signed the new one. Kreuzer was an idiot, but that story about saying he could leave has to be made up.

It's hard to believe, but there's been plenty of examples of players signing long-term contracts with zero intention of fulfilling them and signing them simply to get the club more money. Suarez did it with Liverpool, Modric signed a 10yr deal with Dinamo Zagreb afaik, Thiago Silva signed for PSG 2 weeks after signing a new deal with Milan. It wouldn't surprise me if Kreuzer did that, but it doesn't deter from the fact that Calhanoglu is a proper c*nt anyway.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

The famous Ali Dia situation at Southampton under Graham Souness springs to mind.

dreamers75

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jarni

n the summer of 1998, Jarni initially moved to English side Coventry City, signing for £2.6m from Real Betis. However, when Real Madrid decided they wanted the player, they successfully bought him from Coventry for £3.4m with Jarni having made no appearances whatsoever. Some believe this was a joint Coventry City and Real Madrid tactic, as Betis refused to sell him to the Madrid club.[1]

Oat23

dreamers75 wrote: »

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jarni

Didn't Spurs do something like this recently enough with a player? He joined a team in Belgium and then signed for Spurs after. It was to avoid paying compensation or something.

Can't remember his name so I can't look it up

TheEscapist

Oat23 wrote: »

Didn't Spurs do something like this recently enough with a player? He joined a team in Belgium and then signed for Spurs after. It was to avoid paying compensation or something.

Can't remember his name so I can't look it up

Ezekial Fryers from United I think, went to Liege first.

tim_holsters

MightyMandarin wrote: »

It's not the fact he changed his mind, or changed his mind twice, but to make a big statement about being captain, kissing the armband, calling it 'my club' etc. just makes me sick. I'm not a Villa fan, but what Delph did was much worse than what that pr*ck Sterling did.

There is no loyalty in modern football. Fans just have to accept this even if we don't like it. Delph is a good lad and made the right call imo. I don't see that what he's done is representative of a farce its merely a reflection of the state of the game as it is today. I wasn't aware that he was badge kissing, no one likes a badge kisser to be fair.

GLaDOS

Winston Bogarde's transfer, and ensuing career at Chelsea, was pretty farcical.

Bogarde signed for Chelsea in 2000–01, after following the advice of compatriot Mario Melchiot to join him at the Premier League side.[3] He was signed when Gianluca Vialli was manager, although Vialli had no idea the transfer was happening, the deal likely being conducted by director of football Colin Hutchinson[4]—at the same time, Emerson Thome, also a centre-back, was shipped off to Sunderland.[5] Only weeks after signing his contract, newly appointed manager Claudio Ranieri wanted Bogarde to leave.[6]

According to Bogarde, it would be next to impossible to find a team that would offer him a contract comparable to the one he had at Chelsea: he was astounded at the salary the club had agreed on, as his value depreciated severely due to lack of first-team action, and decided to stay and honour his contract to the letter and appear for training every day, despite being only rarely selected to play.[7] Of his contract he said, "Why should I throw fifteen million Euro away when it is already mine? At the moment I signed it was in fact my money, my contract." In the end, he only appeared eleven times during his four-year contract, reportedly earning £40,000 a week during this period.[8][9][10]

After playing as a substitute against Ipswich Town on Boxing Day in 2000,[11] Bogarde only made one more appearance for Chelsea's main squad before his contract expired in July 2004; it was also made from the bench, against Gillingham for that season's League Cup on 6 November 2002.[12]

During his period at Chelsea, the club attempted to sell Bogarde due to his large salary, and demoted him to the reserve and youth teams in an effort to force him to leave. In response to press criticism, he responded: "This world is about money, so when you are offered those millions you take them. Few people will ever earn so many. I am one of the few fortunates who do. I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership but I don't care."[13]

On 8 November 2005 Bogarde announced his retirement from professional football, having failed to reach an agreement with a club since leaving Chelsea.[14]

Corholio

Najwan Ghrayib at Aston Villa.

Signed by John Gregory for £1m from Hapoel Haifa after being told by his top scout at the time that he was the 'best left back he has ever seen'.

He was sold for £150,000 a year later back to Haifa, after just 5 league appearances.

PhlegmyMoses

I remember Bogarde being decent at Ajax and for Netherlands. Was he really that bad at Chelsea that he merited sale almost immediately and was never worth playing after that? Frank Sinclair was still getting gametime for them two years previous to Bogarde's signing ffs.

MightyMandarin

tim_holsters wrote: »

There is no loyalty in modern football. Fans just have to accept this even if we don't like it. Delph is a good lad and made the right call imo. I don't see that what he's done is representative of a farce its merely a reflection of the state of the game as it is today. I wasn't aware that he was badge kissing, no one likes a badge kisser to be fair.

It has nothing to with loyalty or football imo. If this were an employee of a co. who was sought out by another firm, and then made a big charade about how he loved his current co., loved his co-workers and wanted to stay, but then turned around a few days later, he'd be hated by everyone there for many years.

There is no loyalty in football, but imo this is far beyond what 99% of footballers are like these days. I speak as Liverpool fan when I say that Sterling and his agent are pr*cks, but at least we never saw Sterling make a big 'ooh ahh' about staying with us, his love for the fans and blab on about his 'loyalty' before he went to City.

Sterling will be vilified by Liverpool fans for many years to come, and rightly so, but what Delph did was absolutely disgusting, and while it's always important to remember that 'it's only a game', I hope karma hits him hard and he lives to regret this.

Billy86

newballsplease wrote: »

United signing Bebe for 7million apparantly Fergie never seen him play.

Only a few weeks after he had been been bought by Vitoria Guimaraes for free. And when he first signed with them, his buyout clause was €3mn - which they then raised to €9mn (somehow??) supposedly on the back of 2-3 good preseason games, right before selling to United.

Nobody was even trying to hide the fact that that was a very dodgy deal, it seems.

Kerrigooney

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Another one is Robbie Savage transferring from Birmingham to Blackburn because Blackburn is closer to Wrexham, despite the fact the two of them are more or less 70 miles from it.

Robbie Savage being incredibly dim? I never thought I'd see the day.

callaway92

Robinho was a weird one...as was Berbatov to Man U if I remember correctly.

The transfer window in general makes my blood boil.

mikeym

Tevez and Mascherano to West Ham.

dreamers75

mikeym wrote: »

Tevez and Mascherano to West Ham.

In fairness that killed 3rd party owners in the EPL so some good came of it.

keeponhurling

Ronnie O'Brien to Juventus, how the heck did that happen

Liverpool behaved pretty appallingly in the Kewell saga.

Bid 7 mill which was accepted by Leeds. Then reduced the bid to 5 mill and instead gave Kewell 2 mill while he played out the whole threat to let his contract run out. Leeds were in pretty dire straits, they ended up having to go for it, even though other clubs had bid more - presumably they didn't so blatantly agree to line his agents pockets.

That was in contrast to ManU, who just bought and paid for Ferdinand and Smith (albeit that they bought out the last stages of the Rio transfer structure).

keeponhurling

keeponhurling wrote: »

Ronnie O'Brien to Juventus, how the heck did that happen

Time Magazines man of the century

Zaph

Deleted User wrote: »

Liverpool behaved pretty appallingly in the Kewell saga.

Bid 7 mill which was accepted by Leeds. Then reduced the bid to 5 mill and instead gave Kewell 2 mill while he played out the whole threat to let his contract run out. Leeds were in pretty dire straits, they ended up having to go for it, even though other clubs had bid more - presumably they didn't so blatantly agree to line his agents pockets.

That was in contrast to ManU, who just bought and paid for Ferdinand and Smith (albeit that they bought out the last stages of the Rio transfer structure).

To be fair, Liverpool weren't the only ones to blame. Kewell, and in particular his agent, behaved appallingly throughout that whole affair. His subsequent transfer to Galatasaray was pretty classless as well.

Muahahaha

The Dion Dublin transfer I always found strange. August 1992 Cambridge to ManU for £1m. 6 games into his Utd career he breaks his leg and spends the majority of the season injured, he didnt even achieve the 10 games necessary to get a PL medal, but they gave him one anyway. The following season Fergie completely favoured Cantona and Dion Dublin made only 5 league appearances. Yet that summer Utd sold him for €2m, his price had doubled over the space of 2 years where he played something like 14 league games

Winston Payne

Billy86 wrote: »

Only a few weeks after he had been been bought by Vitoria Guimaraes for free. And when he first signed with them, his buyout clause was €3mn - which they then raised to €9mn (somehow??) supposedly on the back of 2-3 good preseason games, right before selling to United.

Nobody was even trying to hide the fact that that was a very dodgy deal, it seems.

Jorge Mendes. Gestifute. €3.6M. David Conn wrote three pieces on Bebe that explain everything.

Billy86

Winston Payne wrote: »

Jorge Mendes. Gestifute. €3.6M. David Conn wrote three pieces on Bebe that explain everything.

Oh yeah, I read into it at the time - there is nothing baffling about it really, other than how out in the open the whole thing was.

but1er

The best one of all time

http://thepremierleagueowl.com/remember-when-coventry-city-flipped-robert-jarni/


Coventry buyng Robert jarni easy money haha

miroslavklose

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Another one is Robbie Savage transferring from Birmingham to Blackburn because Blackburn is closer to Wrexham, despite the fact the two of them are more or less 70 miles from it.

I'd say Blakburn is a lot more accessible by road from Wrexham than Birmingham, same way it's easier to get from Waterford to Dublin than Cork, despite it being closer to Cork.

Zaph

Zaph wrote: »

To be fair, Liverpool weren't the only ones to blame. Kewell, and in particular his agent, behaved appallingly throughout that whole affair. His subsequent transfer to Galatasaray was pretty classless as well.

Oh true, Kewell and his agent behaved like a money grubbing footballer and agent.

What was surprising was the lengths Liverpool went to to join in and support their behaviour and join in the swindle.

ush

MightyMandarin wrote: »

It's not the fact he changed his mind, or changed his mind twice, but to make a big statement about being captain, kissing the armband, calling it 'my club' etc. just makes me sick. I'm not a Villa fan, but what Delph did was much worse than what that pr*ck Sterling did.

Yeah, but its Villa.

Captain Havoc

mikeym wrote: »

Tevez and Mascherano to West Ham.

I'm not complaining