Ooops dyslexia rules KO.

No league is ever going to be fair. The US sports try to do that by allowing the bottom teams first pick of the youth players. That does seem to be more successful but then that just simply cant be done in football and has always struck me as too artificial.

quote:

Originally posted by AndyCardiff:
It's still fair though. They all play to the same rules, it's just that some have greater resources than others. An unfair scenario would be to stop one team playing with any supporters in their ground, or not let the coaching staff in to the stadium when the match is in progress. That's unfairness.

And the CL analogy. Sorry if I'm missing something, but you just don't make any sense here. How's this being unfair to the rest of the Premiership, or, indeed, the 4 teams that qualify for the CL?

If the Premiership is fair then it would follow that Sheff Utd, or Sunderland last year, has/had as much chance as Chelsea to win that league.
Sheff Utd's aim this year will simply be to survive and, if they have an excellent season, they may finish in the top ten.

Chelsea will be looking at just one option-winning it.
Different expectations and ambitions yet the very same league.

It is only fair in the sense they all play in the same division and start with 0 points.
And three teams will be relegated.

The Champions league, on the other hand, has been designed that all teams who compete in it, proper, are more of the same ability and there is no relegation where a side cannot play in it the next year.
A weaker and unfancied Champions League side, like Porto a few years ago, can actually win it as oppossed to, say, West Ham who will not win the Premiership yet they can be viewed as weaker and unfancied to those sides who actually are able to win the Premiership.

I simply pointed out to you originally that the Premiership league is not designed to be fair as there are too many sides from one country playing in that one league of too greater gulf in ability between all sides in it.

A heavyweight does not fight a welterweight to become heavyweight champion.

That wouldn't be fair.

quote:

Originally posted by zeds:
One thing I've never understood about football fans in general is the expectency of loyalty from their players. In no other profession is one expected to demonstrate such loyalty through good and bad and put their personal career aims aside.
If I was a footballer I would be all for advancing myself to ensure that I play in the best competitions at the highest level with people at the peak of their profession.
If I did this would I deserve to be hounded by fans?

It's a bizarre concept - isn't it?

Playing football is a job, only brainless supporters think a player should have an unguilted loyalty to his employer.

If you or I were offered a job with better pay and conditions than the job we currently had, we'd take it. Of course we would. So why shouldn't Sol Campbell go to Arsenal, or Carrick to ManU without being boo'ed or worse than the fans of their old employer?

No, granted, that wouldn't be fair. But, they are all on a level playing field (so to speak) at the beginning of a season, so, as you point out, this is fair. It is still fair that, as the season progresses, they are still all playing to the same rules, so their is no un fair advantage. OK, Chelsea will be able to go and spend, say, £30m in the next transfer window, and this is an advantage, but not an unfair one. They are all playing by the same rule book, the unfairness would come if they decided Watford, for example, had to play with 10 men for the last 10 minutes of every game. Because a team has greater resources, doesn't mean that it's an unfair league. Look at Wigan last season. Everyone wrote them off last season, and look what they did, so that's pretty fair, is it not?

First game of last season Chelsea should of lost to Wigan, but Wigan just couldnt put the ball in the net, and i can think of another 4 games that they won but should of lost, in the end they were lucky to win the Premiership.
This year they will be very dangerous, especially if they can get A.Cole.

Sheffield Utd have just as much chance of winning the Premiership.........if they could find some idiot to throw crocked money at them, but unless the FA step in to stop all of this money going around our game will be ruined. I remember when Chelsea used to hand out buckets to their fans, to get money to stop them going under. One day the Roman from Russia will get bored, and if he were to walk Chelsea would go down the drain

I've been to Chelsea when there was 7,000 in the ground. When they had players like Bumstead, Rougvie and Dixon playing for them. When no fan in their right mind would relish going to or coming out of their ground. When it was so bad with National Front support, even their own players had to endure monkey hoots. When their terraces were shut down because their own fans were intent on destroying their own ground. When players were attacked on the pitch in the middle of a massive riot. All this wasn't so long ago, but I wonder if any of the current "fans" will know about this

quote:

Originally posted by AndyCardiff:
I've been to Chelsea when there was 7,000 in the ground. When they had players like Bumstead, Rougvie and Dixon playing for them. When no fan in their right mind would relish going to or coming out of their ground. When it was so bad with National Front support, even their own players had to endure monkey hoots. When their terraces were shut down because their own fans were intent on destroying their own ground. When players were attacked on the pitch in the middle of a massive riot. All this wasn't so long ago, but I wonder if any of the current "fans" will know about this

Chelsea fans used to be the worse in the country, remember when they used to carry stanley knifes? A friend of mine left their ground early and a Chelsea fan(thats a laugh)grabbed him, and slashed his face with one, opening his face up both inside and out, from his ear to his mouth. Now they have all this money pumped into it, and full of a load of suits and they try to forgrt their ugly past, but sh1t sticks

Like you said previously, Wot's, if Abramovich were to walk tomorrow, they'd be in dire straits (not the band, BTW).

I know it's easy to say in hindsight that our club wouldn't like a rich benefactor like him, but the fact is we would. I was in Surrey the other day (only a couple of miles from their Cobham training ground, actually) at a BBQ and there were a load of Chelsea fans there and they were saying that it was great that all this money has been pumped into the club and all these great players are going there. They've been used to watching dire football for years with only the odd cup win to shout about.

It seems most of their fans are aware it could go belly-up at any time, but at the moment, it doesn't look like it and they're enjoying it while it lasts.

Give us a person like Abramovich at Cardiff any day and I think most fans of most clubs would like this to happen to them

Also let's not forget his money has gone into and boosted other premiership clubs.
Like paying 7.5mil to West Ham for Glen Johnsen.

quote:

Originally posted by AndyCardiff:
I think supporters expect players to move on at some point. It's the ratio of putting into the club and taking out of it that gets on some fans nerves and makes them resentful of certain players. Anyone who supports the 2 English clubs Juan Sebastian Veron played for will know all about that

I could not agree with you more.

quote:

Originally posted by zeds:
Also let's not forget his money has gone into and boosted other premiership clubs.
Like paying 7.5mil to West Ham for Glen Johnsen.

Very true

Loyalty = Ryan Giggs, and how he's been rewarded!

I was thinking about United's players regarding this the other night. For Giggs, also read, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville too. I know Giggs has been the subject of more reported bids, but the other 2 should be mentioned also

ALthough with the United players you have to bear in mind that they could hardly have moved to more successfull clubs when they were at their peak.