Good afternoon.
Nothing earth shattering I have to say. a.bola.com the Portuguese site ran a speculative piece yesterday suggesting that come January Andrè Villas-Boas will try to resurrect the deal to bring João Moutinho to The Lane. An interesting turn of phrase from the author, describing the situation on transfer deadline day night as…
“a negotiation that left the British on the brink of a nervous breakdown, after being forced to cancel a pre-enrollment Moutinho sent to the Premier League, just hours before the close of the transfer market in Western Europe.”
Also it supports the notion that there was a deal desperately trying to be hammered out and not a sinister work of fiction as purported by Robby Boy whatsisname from TopSpurs.com and others unable to cope with reality which is in the main, normally quite a humdrum business.
Today the player has issued the following in relation to the move…
“The market has already closed. Not worth talking more about it, I’m just focused on FC Porto and not on speculation. This club gives me all the stability to show my football”
This is what you’d expect from a professional footballer and I guess leaves the door open for ‘another go’ in January. The issue here is third party ownership. As I said on the last HHH, if you were buying a house – and we all know what a completely thankless grind that can be- and then just as you agree a deal a third party pops it’s head around the door in Harry Enfield ‘only me!’ style, telling you they own 15%, odds on it’s Game Over. Do Not Insert New Coin To Continue. Go Home.
It seems you choose your target and then your stick, who really cares? He’s not our player,so therefore not in our plans in the foreseeable future. If Father Christmas brings something in the New Year? great!
Peter crouch anyone?;)
well.my dogs are in desperate need of something tall,inanimate and static-he’ll do nicely ta JimLad
Off topic I know, but anyone else shocked by the Hillsborough findings today ?
Expected a few cover ups to emerge but this looks like absolute dynamite.
Perhaps I am a bit naive.
Totally shocking,very surprised at the amount of covering up.Even that bastard Kelvin Mackenzie has apologised,all fans were regarded as scum then.
It was very nearly our lot getting killed in the same end in 1981 against Wolves and they still let it happen again,shameful.
Must admit I was not there in 1981 but I have read a few of our supporters saying the same thing.
Was any one here at the Derby-Spurs match about August or September 1970. I thought we were going to die at The Baseball ground. The police kept pushing the Spurs fans into such a small pen that my feet were lifted off the ground. I kept thinking that if I fall over I will die. The only thing the police didn’t have was cattle goads and electric prods. The only thing I’m amazed at was that the Hillsborough disaster didn’t come for another 20 years. My heart goes out to all the Liverpool fans and their families who suffered the loss of their loved ones and a vicious smear campaign organised by Tory grandee “Sir” Irvine Patnick, South Yorkshire police and the piece of dogdirt Kelvin Mackenzie and his lie machine “The SUN”.
Too young to be at that one,but was at Tommy Docs first game at Derby(who’s up Mary Brown}not a nice place,a bomb site with a ready supply of bricks for the Derby boys to throw at us as we were herded from the ground,Jesus it was mad when I think back.
If it was the game when we lost 5-0, then yes I was. I ended up at Clay Cross police station, after being accused of ripping out a toilet on the football special, when in fact ‘The bigger Boy’s’ had ripped out said toilet and dumped on the vacant seat next to me-whne someone pulled the emergency cord-I was only about 13 and built like a butterfly and hung like a gnat-still got a hiding from my old man though!
No, it was the 1-1 draw. Peters scored for us and there was an almighty fracas when Derby got a penalty 5 minutes from the end.
was on that train ,the Flitwick special.
Chelsea away-being hemmed in the gates at Parsons green tube-Southampton away-hemmed in a treated like animals-too many close shaves to mention-there for the grace of God and al that, but the worst in my experiece was 1975 West Ham at Upton Park 42k, and you couldn’t breath, no lighting on the stairways, how no-one tripped and caused a problem was beyond-absolutely terrified and pleased to get out into the fresh air
Westham’s always like that…
True story about Third Party Ownership, for those who may be interested. Might shed some light on what actually can happen on Deadline Day…
I live in Uruguay.
On transfer deadline day, Soton announce the purchase of a Uruguayan player (Gaston Ramirez), some time during the afternoon.
I get a call out of the blue around 3pm (7pm in the UK and well after the Soton announcement…) from a relative who happens to be on the board of the Uruguayan club that own 15% of Ramirez’s rights.
He says: “should we allow Soton to buy Ramirez? They need our signature before the deal goes through, but they don’t want to pay for him, up front…”
“…they are putting us under huge pressure, saying that if we don’t sign the XX million pound transfer in the next couple of hours, it won’t go through and it will all be our fault, etc, etc…”
Anyway, I obviously can’t go into the precise financial details (not being a big fan of legal correspondence…), but a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing ensued, to put it mildly. And this was HOURS after Soton announced the signing on their website. Which clearly hadn’t yet taken place.
Obviously, my tale doesn’t prove anything, but it tickled me… (especially as I rather figured my involvement in “Deadline Day” would be limited to reading the BBC website, hahaha…)