Football

I don't think anyone (other than clueless old duffers with more money than sense) think that he's a £35m striker.

But he is also clearly not WANK.

The way West Ham play means that to some extent we have goal threats from Nolan and wide, and the lone striker can be doing a great job by holding the ball up and bringing others into play (and causing havoc in the opposition defence) even when he is not scoring. From memory it took him 10 or 15 games to get his first west ham goal, and ironically that was the first time he had looked quite disappointing.

Thanks for some honesty and common sense. If you've not seen someone play why would you come on here and start bleating all kinds of shite?

The deal ain't done due to Carroll still believing he has some kind of future at Anfield. Personally I think letting him go for that kind of money is daft. At least do some kind of swap Carrol for Diame + £5M and I'd be very happy. Unfortunately our dear leader doesn't get the concept of earning the right to play.

Never seen the like. I didn't even know americans were allowed in PL grounds.

I guess this must be Middle Earth?

since when were there 120 league clubs?

I misinterpreted the stat, my bad.

Pulis is the third highest spender last season, I think.

Nuts when you think of it but its the sad reality. As well as WBA are run they still spend more than two thirds of their turnover on player salaries.

wages are what break teams.

you have to constantly find or bring through young talent, knowing that you won't be able to get the best years of their career, because you can't afford them.

Stoke who knows what the fuck was happening with them, lots of players on too much money, though maybe we (spurs) won't be able to offload those high wage earners to them anymore..

1. donkey of the year - carroll.
   
   

he is shit.

end of.

I misinterpreted the stat, my bad.

No need to backtrack. Pretend you were saying that it would take about another 40 teams to come up from the conference and change manager before arse would win a trophy again. Roughly 80 years.

File with:

Neil Mellor
Brett Angel
Jason Lee
Adi Akinbye
Connor Sammon

You forgot Sean Dundee

#weartheshirt

I rate Carroll but he is limited. Another of the 'strikers that dont score' brigade. Useless being a striker then. Holding the ball up is the least you can do if you can't score in an era of football where tackling has been all but banned.

@corny - when will teams realise that youth set ups are a waste of time and money? Albion have a first class set up yet end up shipping 19 yr olds to walsall for peanuts. Kids should be learning football at lower levels and cleaning boots.

Clint, I know we should treasure you as your time here is brief, what with you off to yentz and all, but what happens to your front line if Lukaku gets the recall to Chelsea and as often written about Odemwimgie gets the boot as well, that leaves you with Long and Fortune, not sure they've got the goals in them to keep you a float.

And the youth set ups aren't a waste of time and money, they should be the breeding ground for squad players, if they aren't good enough for you, you should be selling them onto others in your league or loaning them and then selling them to the lower leagues. Youth set ups when done right provide a way of playing, produce players that can do a job, and save you money in the long haul. Look at Villa despite their perilous situation towards the end of the season, pretty much the core of that team was hauled from the youth set up, same for southampton..

nice trolling corny

i think carrolls current run of form is something like 5 in 7 or so
he's a goal scoring machine now he's fit .... we should have hung on for £17mn as in the original contract .... you cheapskates west ham

I feel sorry for caroll, he's going to spend the next 5 years of his career clattering into goalies, straining his neck, crashing headers over the bar, steaming in, etc etc.

I'm sure he looks at Ibra and thinks, "if only Sam would keep the ball on the deck".

I feel sorry for caroll, he's going to spend the next 5 years of his career clattering into goalies, straining his neck, crashing headers over the bar, steaming in, playing for england scoring a decent amount of goals etc etc.

I'm sure he looks at Ibra and thinks, "if only Sam would keep the ball on the deck".

ftfy

Already knocked one out this morning corndog. On a bus to head teachers conference at upton Park. No wankbank material in prospect there so thought id jump on here.
Think of the money pumped into youth academies and the avg returns. Doesn't make economic sense. For ever utd crop of becks scholes etc there are 10 failings. As for villas youth......all we know for sure is that they struggle to compete at premier level.
Dont worry about albion .....we'll find a decent striker.

Mark Hughes favourite to take over at Stoke.
That's them relegated then

Clint, its not about the southamptons selling Bale's for ten million, its about selling players for 250k or 80k or a million, which pays for the academy itself and puts money into the coffers of the team once they've broken even.

If you produce players yourself, you only have to dip into the transfer market if and when necessary, and can ship out high earners if your budget doesn't support them for the cheaper younger, youth team product coming through.

West brom will be looking long term into this, because as good as you have been in finding value in the transfer market and having a coach who has put out a strong attacking team, lose a couple of players over the summer, have a couple of loan signings take a bit too long to settle and the money spent on transfers to be wasted and you are into wigan territory...

Every team should have a viable youth policy, it seems madness not to..

If everyone's model is turn out players for others to buy at 250k, I think supply will outstrip demand and the world will fail.

Okay maybe I was being optimistic with the transfer prices, but as a PL youth product you would think there would be a surcharge, but 80k, 100k, you sell on ten of those players a season, plus every so often one for more and the academy set up is breaking even, yes? Or am I living in cloud cuckoo land here.

Where's jaw to back me up!

Or am I living in cloud cuckoo land here.

I don't have any stats to hand, but Arsenal's youth academy makes money for the club, i.e. it is profitable.

Realistically, if an academy can produce one first team player every two seasons it is successful and if you can sell three or four players each summer then it should make enough money to cover the cost of the coaching staff.

You lot will love this.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/woodwork-denies-liverpool-champions-league-place-210016128.html

If they make the goals bigger then next year.............

chelsea >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

liverpool 2nd highest scorers in the league

damn you woodwork

If you are aiming to be top four you need to be producing the worlds best young players. Arsenal are clearly struggling in their reliance on youth policy over spending on wages. Likewise albion need to be churning out prem quality and they arent. No point in running a youth policy for marginal profit at best

You lot will love this.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/woodwork-denies-liverpool-champions-league-place-210016128.html

If they make the goals bigger then next year.............

chelsea >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

liverpool 2nd highest scorers in the league

damn you woodwork

You both sound like Pisti moaning about injuries. Just listen to yourselves! Listen!!! FFS. You've gone from banging on about history to banging on about alternative history in parallel universes.

I am disappoint.