Even though I hadn't planned on starting this thread until the season started, Jose Mourinho may have already won the stupidest quote of the year award with this gem: Mourinho was asked why the 23-year-old Wright-Phillips was worth 21 million pounds ($37 million) and responded "because the English market is crazy." Well gee, Jose, I wonder how it got that way? Could it be because you've got the ear of Roman Abramovich and have made money no object in who you want for Chelsea? It's the old distraction play. He doesn't want people to look at Chelsea as the guilty party. He's trying to say others are guilty of causing the whole transfer market in England to escalate to crazy levels.
QPR Manager is the KING... On new signing Stefan Moore's pace "He’ll chase paper bags in the wind in the park for you all day long" (thanks to Jess Unwin) On moving into the new training ground "I feel like Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I've won a golden ticket. I guess that makes Bill and Gianni the Willy Wonka of the set-up" On leaving Twyford Avenue "We no longer have to share with big rugby players, I was so excited driving in this morning I almost cried." More here: http://www.qprnet.com/misc/ollyisms0506.shtml
You missed the point. He's commenting that the market for English players is insane. And he has a point, English players are overpriced. Wenger has said the same thing. Also, Chelsea don't raise the market itself - they raise the value of abotu 10 "elite" players in the market which has absolutely no effect on 99.9% of clubs in the world. One market actor's actions will not affect the market.
See, here's the thing though. The fact that Wright-Phillips went for as much as he did is entirely because Chelsea were willing to pay the price. Manchester City thought they had set a price higher than Chelsea was willing to pay for him (a "crazy" price to every other team) but they were wrong. On the point of Chelsea shelling out the kind of cash they do for players, it does effect the market as a whole. Like it or not "maximum" transfer fees trickle down to the league as a whole as teams start asking for more to have more in the coffers to pay for more. I know Chelsea didn't raise the market completely by itself (all the big money clubs in Europe, not just England helped) but the fact that Mourinho plays himself as the victim is what made the comment silly.
But if anyone want to sign a 23 year old english player with talent the club will say look how much chelsea paid we what somit like that. In raises the market hes right, every time a player breaks the transer barrier another class player comes along and there team expects more for him. Inflation in football is crazy. But if you cap transfers you need to cap wages, bonus's etc etc the rich clubs will always find a way to offer more. Rich get richer poorer get poorer, until it colapses like in Italy.
Sir Alex Ferguson - Tour Guide If Malcolm Glazer does decide to sack Sir Alex at any given point this season, at least it seems like he's got a second career lined up. When asked about Manchester United's trip to China, Ferguson get really excited about the sightseeing possibilities: "As for the visit, I think I must go to the Forbidden City, because it is very worthwhile from an historical angle. The Great Wall and Tiananmen Square are also worth visiting. I think Beijing has a lot of places worth visiting but time is the key." Thank you Beijing Chamber of Commerce.
Except this isn't true. Since no one else had a bid that was rejected, you've no idea what a price for another English club would have been. But Rooney went for 30M. Hell, check how much Birmingham paid for Emile Heskey. Except this isn't true. When Charlton got too much for Parker, no one turned around at them and said - well, you're wealthy now. Adding 10M to a club's operating budget makes a very small dent, and doesn't change their market position. Sigh. He didn't paint himself as the victim. He stated a truism. One that Arsene Wenger stated years ago, before Chelsea bought big. And, in fact, what market have Chelsea raised? The market overall is actually falling, not going higher. On top of that, the purchases of Cole and Bridge were hardly unreasonable. And those are the only other players we've bought who're English. Oh, and Glen Johnson, I suppose. He was too pricey. But if you think that was a bad sign, I suggest you take a look at how much Liverpool just paid for an English striker who's scoring rate in the EPL is 18 goals in 64 games.
This simply isn't true. Chelsea pay more, thus are always asked to pay more. Look at how much Vieira went for - had it been Chelsea, the fee would have been dramatically higher. The notion that Chelsea sets a top price that everyone races to has been proven wrong. Repeatedly. We shall see.
Hooray. Rafa Benitez is back in the game. Here I thought he would let the entire summer slide away before he let his first silly comment slip. Good to know that since his ears are burning that Liverpool is in for huge successes this year. And good to know that one of the big four managers is ready to go. I hope Mourinho is done kissing Alex Ferguson's behind saying that he'll never match Sir Alex's hardware total but at least Rafa is ready to rumble. Benitez to break up the lovefest butted in with the following jab at Mourinho. "I can say to him in the next 10 years we will compare trophies at Chelsea and Liverpool. And he'll lose." EDIT: Oops. Yeah, looks like I reversed the quotes. It was Mourinho insulting Benitez. When he comes back, we'll pretend like this thread is again accurate.
And here I was giving Rafa the credit for actually having a spine this year. Looks like I'm giving credit where it isn't due.
Shouldn't we just change the thread title to include Mourinho's name? After all, it's mostly going to be about him anyway.
Proving This Isn't A Mourinho Thread I wish I could find the link, but yesterday in a BBC Radio Five Live interview, Tottenham manager Martin Jol went all Tom Cruise on an interviewer. When asked about all the hype surrounding the Spurs this year (and the fact that Spurs might be competing with the top teams), Jol went off. This is a paraphrase since I can't find the link, but he basically stated: "Don't be stupid. When we have 10 or 11 players who the big clubs like Manchester United or Chelsea might want then you can talk about the Premiership title. Right now, we have two or three." He'll be making the rounds on the motivational speaker circuit soon. Remember to try the veal.
Not much silly said during Week One of the season so I'm just pulling the silliest one that I saw: "I've not been ranting and raving because the performance was good. The first thing a centre-half learns is you don't play square across the box - You do that in Sunday league teams." - Everton's David Moyes on Joseph Yobo's brilliant "clearance" leading to Wayne Rooney's goal to make the match 0-2. Way to call a player who's probably already feeling like crap in public. --- Oh, and there is this Mourinho quote on the "importance" of preparation. When asked why he was taking in movies with his children the day before the match he responded: "I'm with my kids. The other day I went with them to see The Fantastic Four. For my kids it was the third time in a week, for me it was the second time so I am with them. When the film was on I didn't think about Chelsea at all." --- Anyone see anything that's actually interesting in the papers?
A Mourinho Quote To Get This Thread Back Alive Well then, time to try and revive this thread again. And what better way than with a Jose Mourinho quote. This one is the Mido sending off. Jose, amateur psychologist that he is had the following to say about the nature of red cards: "As for Mido, maybe it was a red card but I think Mido is the right man to say if it was intentional, if he meant to hurt the player or not. It's something very private, very personal." Except that it involves everyone from supporters on up. While I understands what he means by the quote, the way he said it seems a little odd.
The quote isn't funny because its wrong. Mourinho is exactly right about English players costing more (although I wouldn't say they're overpriced, since there isn't the same risk of them not being able to adjust to the English game). It's funny because it doesn't matter one iota to Abramovich, and hearing Mourinho complain about the price of any player is like watching Bush on his ranch being a "normal guy". You can't help but laugh. When Wenger says it though, it obviously makes more sense because Arsenal aren't exactly rolling in cash.
Here's a little gem from Arsene Wenger after Arsenal's little scare in the Champions League today. Apparently what separated his side's performance from Manchester United was spirit. Spirit. It's not just for high school cheerleaders anymore. Oh, and can't let Jose Mourinho's Champions League quote go by without mentioning it (seriously people, if any Chelsea fan wants to find a bunch of Chris Coleman quotes, I'll gladly take the input to this thread). This one actually made me spit milk: What does that even mean? He doesn't look to people with bad eyes? I'm pretty sure he means that he doesn't go looking for trouble but the metaphor seems a little odd. It almost sounds that he won't look at people who have bad eyes.