The only Italian club I can theoretically see Ronaldo at is Inter. Silvio can take his dreams and stuff them up his ***. I'm tired of people talking about him that way. the guy's done showing off in football with mega money signings and such. can't, isn't allowed to, whatever. it's over.

I'm glad this problem is happening, and finally Madrid are facing the music.

Till now for Ronaldo's salary of 10 million, they were forking out 15.5 millon a year, now they'll have to pay close to 30 MM. Read the wage sheet and weep.

To be honest if I were Ronaldo & Messi I'd be extremely upset Wayne Rooney earns more than us.

Does Rooney really earn more than them??

How much does he earn?

He does? I did not know that. That means RvP earns more than them too cause I read he got the same contract as Rooney!?

No, they don't. Ronaldo is paid under the old Beckham law, so Madrid have to cash out "only" 15.5. million per year for him, not 30 million. The new law of 50% of taxes applies to footballers signed this year and onwards.

So what do you guys think is CR's price? He's amazing and he's the reason they can match Barcelona. But everyone has a price, what do you think that is in his case?

I'd say for 120m I'd let him go.

Exactly. So a new contract being signed will end up costing them more than the old one. And at the moment, they already have Kaka on their books.

You mean if they renew his contract? Oh yeah, surely.

If the figures today I saw are correct he earns £250k a week, Ronaldo earns like £220k & Messi earns £190k.

Ronaldo said on facebook that it's not about money. Hmm, the plot thickens

Yes. I believe Madrid and Barca worked their way around the same way Milan did. By giving him percentages of his image rights.

One theory I read is that there's a group of players within the club who have a little too much power (allegedly the Spaniards) which Mourinho doesn't like, so is basically using Ronaldo as a way to get what he wants as he knows Ronaldo's too valuable for the management to discard to keep things as they are.

It wouldn't surprise me, there seems to be an awful lot of politics in some clubs and there's such thing as player power.

What could Mourinho want that he'll get that way? If it's (more) respect (than the "Spaniards") he's not gonna have it until he beats Barcelona 5-0 in a CL final.

Eto’o (Anzhi) 20 mln
Ibrahimovic (PSG) 14,5
Rooney (United) 13,8
Yaya Touré (City) 13
Aguero (City) 12,5
Drogba (Shanghai) 12
Torres (Chelsea) 10.8
Conca (Guangzhou) 10,6
Messi (Barcelona) 10,5
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 10

The figures are in €.

Never would have thought it, Ronaldo is only tenth.

Who the hell is Conca?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dar%C3%ADo_Conca

Some people in China are crazy to pay such sums to someone like that.

Yeah, I was about to post the same: who and what is this big bad Conca?! Thankfully Bauer chipped in!

If we signed Cristiano Ronaldo in January I think I'd actually pass out.

That would be the biggest signing in our history.

Onto more realistic notions though and Falcao, the world's best striker, wants to join Real. It was thought Chelsea had agreed a deal to sign him in January, and word is he has affection for them, but nothing has been set in stone and as soon as rumours of Madrid's interest surfaced, he abandoned Chelsea quick and started w*nking at the idea of joining the Bernabau.

The clause in his contract is reportedly 55M Euros, which is not that massive a profit for AM given they shelled out only 20M less for him in the first place - but in massive debt they may have no option.

The worrying thing is that Juve have been linked with Higuain an awful lot the past 12 months. If Madrid were to sign Falcao, that opens the door for Higuain to go to Juventus and the last thing we want is for them to have a genuine World class finisher.

And where do these come from?

Can't remember. But the player tweeted denying them, sort of. Just said his dream was to win things with AM. Thought he already had twice.

So, Real lost again tonight. Barça already gone +8 points.

Ronaldo for £160m.

Obviously won't happen since UEFA will step in as no team can afford that due to FFP, right Jack?

They could. If a bank advanced them a 160 million loan for 10 years, meaning the club only pays around 20 million a year as interest rates.

Why're you deliberately being so thick about FFP? It's not the bolt on the door situation you think it is. A lot of thought went into it, and it is because the big teams won't be too threatened that they sanctioned it in the first place.

Me being thick about it? You do realise what you've just put is how the majority of trasnfers (especially big ones) are financed? That's where a large part of club debt comes from.

I do agree with your last part though - it's all about UEFA protecting their money clubs.

Not quite. You can call Madrid a big money club but it is very well managed and it's one of the reasons that they have so much money. Consider Newcastle a few years back. We were actually paying for transfers who had long since flopped, sold at a loss and we still didn't have the money needed to cover the original transfer fee. Then to boot, we got in players at pretty massive wages to make a run for whatever position it was. It's one thing when you take a loan to build up your team's strength, another altogether when you're taking loans just to have enough money to pay your wages.

That sort of thing is just crazy.

As for your oft-quoted argument about how and why FFP is any good. Consider my pet club Newcastle again. We were in deep debt, but considering where we ended up last season, well we didn't do it the way (and I got the feeling you were declaring it to be the only way) by buying tons of players and spending loads of cash. The honest truth is, there are excellent players out there at very good bargains, and if your club can't be arsed to get a proper scouting system in place to make the killer deals (think Udinese or Atletico) then you shouldn't complain that you're being muscled out of deals for what are obvious talents.

It's not like good players don't exist. Can the top 20 European clubs truly purchase any and all outstanding talent that is ever produced in the world. Ridiculous!

With FFP in place, the club will work it's way up the ladder the good old fashioned way. Their scouting, their coaching, their youth system, their wins etc. will get them more money and talent. Their resulting success will besides getting increased revenues and sponsorship also attract more talent. They might soon progress to challenging and dethroning a top club and becoming a genuine challenger. At which point, they become an attractive investment option, and someone comes in and plonks down enough money. Perhaps to get their own bigger stadium?

The good news is that with FFP, the big clubs can't just swoop down and buy everything that looks talented on the market. How much of big money purchasing did Madrid or Barca do this season. Or Man Utd or even City? Compared to earlier? Nothing. One, is of course there simply is no further room in their squads for talent. But the finances is another equally important factor. PSG are an anomaly. I think they have a workaround that will suit them just fine. But it's just that no one knows what it is at the moment.

You only have to look at Newcastle. We have held on to our main stars from last season, and even made a few solid additions. I'm not saying this means we will not go down the rankings again, but hey that would be our fault.

FFP is not the be-all and end-all solution. That could only be a wage cap. But to set a wage-cap gives a kind of parity that would hit marketing globally. I do not think it makes sense for football, they way it does for NBA or NFL which has a much more restrictive audience but still a huge draw from TV revenues.

As in..NBA markets the sport, FIFA still markets the teams.

But they can not sustain it.

Name the top Newcastle/Udinese/Atletico players of the last 5 years. Where are they now? A few years and they're gone. FFP actually forces these clubs to sell the good players they get in a way of balancing the books, since clubs outside the CL will mostly struggle to even break even.

Atletico 4-0 up with 7 minutes to go.

2 mins left and it's 4-3.

And 4-3 it remains. What a (weird) game!

I actually think FFP means they can sustain it. Udinese sell players, because that's their business model. It's only recently that they have started getting regular CL appearances and probably increased revenues. I think they're on the way up.

Newcastle are in a deep mess, but I think the new team is much better managed financially and if we can keep this stability going for a few more years, I don't think we will have to sell for anything but a ridiculous offer. But with FFP, the days of ridiculous offers being a dime a dozen are a thing of the past.

Atletico are badly managed. I mentioned Atletico in my earlier post, I meant Athletic Bilbao. We already know the mess Atletico, Valencia and Malaga are in. In a way it is bad management, and at the same time, also the unfair power wielded by the two big clubs in that league.

How can the Spanish federation possibly justify Barca and Madrid taking home 50% of the TV revenues!!!

How?

The only way is CL football every year. As soon as a team misses it once they lose all that CL money and or the top players at your club. There's also the added point that with FFP UEFA would start getting involved in transfers more, teams won't be able to refuse their best players after a good season when they have UEFA saying they will get banned from Europe if they don't break even.


La Liga are happy for them 2 clubs being amongst the best so they try and keep them there.

It would be more fair if they were like England and basically spread it out evenly, but not going to happen.

Mourinho wants to return to the EPL when he leaves Madrid.

ManU perhaps?

That's what I think too.

Would be the obvious one once Fergie retires. United fans have never really disliked him that much, aside of the initial Porto incident. Think he would be welcomed there.

I really don't understand Barcelona. They sign Mascherano, use him as CB; sign Song, use him as CB. Not to mention Busquets. Why not just sign real CBs for f@ck's sake?

Messi and Villa barking at each other

Am I the only one watching the Barca game? the quality of their football has dropped drastically. it has to be seen to be believed!

Granada's GK is amazing! at least saved 2 or 3 goals.



Typical.

Granada miss a one-on-one, **** up two great counter attacks where they were like 3 to 2. then Xavi scores. fantastic goal though.

They would sign someone Silva or Luiz I think, they want to have players good on the ball. The Barca idea seems to be that you can play with 11 CMs.

And Puyol is about the worst footballer ont he planet.

FT 2-0

If only Granada had resisted pressure for 5 more minutes.

Barca are probably going to win the league, but I can't see them going far in the CL.


Wrong.

It's 10 CMs

Just turned on to see Mendieta ripping into Messi. Apparently Villa tried to pass to him, it was intercepted, so Messi throw a strop.

Mendieta? What? Can't really follow you.

Mendieta is in the studio on Sky coverage for us.

Oh, thanks on that.

Barca - Real soon. Too bad we only will be able to see the first half before the derby.

Madrid one up. With Ronaldo scoring.

And then Barca equalise with Messi. Off a Pepe error!

Both teams with horrible defence. In what world Adriano is a CB?

They're stuck there in CB. No pique, puyol etc. And I think they lost Alves with an injury early in the half.

Not watching the game, have real sport to watch, but Puyol is finished. Messi's probably a better CB at this point.