Metal Reviews

i don't see where you're going with this. a club has to be profitable on the long run, same as any business, and (usually) financial success goes hand in hand with success on the pitch. money is generated through player sales, merchandise sales, ticket sales and tv rights, and it's spent on the pitch, with good players who make people want to buy shirts and watch/attend matches.

I'd rather have a good player on the pitch than money from a sale in the bank.

of course. the assumption is that you sell them off only to replace them with someone of equivalent quality the next year.

it doesn't carry the same weight as a guy who wears your shirt for most of his career, really bonding with the fans and club, but hey. as i said, we have no choice.

and returning to the prices of Portuguese exports.... when you look at the obscene amounts EPL clubs pay each other for mediocre players, i'm sorry but ours seem like bargains in comparison.

But Porto seem to exist for no other reason than to buy upcoming players and then sell them, instead of actually trying to, you know, win stuff. Take my team. Sure, Aberdeen could probably sell Fraser Fyvie to a high level English team for a lot of money. Alex McLeish could do wonders with that boy, say. But I'd much rather we stick with him and keep our wonderkid to the extent we can. Football should be a competitive sport, and not a business. I accept the reality of the situation, but I can't have sympathy for teams that sell their soul to enable it.

Added a second manager to my FM game so I can manage Scotland at the same time as Aberdeen. No conflict of interest and all that, in fact, I end up struggling against the Czech Republic because of the star Czech striker I've built up with Aberdeen. However, my Scotland manager persona just got offered a job at Man Utd. I'm tempted to take it, blow the whole transfer budget on someone from Aberdeen, and then resign to go back to Scotland.

Or, to play it in a more realistic, less cheap, and on-topic way, you could buy the best striker FC Porto's got for 80 million pounds or something. Then resign.

Or you could be a man and win the World Cup with Scotland. I won it with Nigeria in FM10, against France in final. The 2018 or 2022 WC, I don't remember. There were regens all over the place. Maybe 2026...

Oh, I don't have to leave my international post to manage a club. I've already won the Euros with Scotland, beating England in the final (DELICIOUS ENGLISH LION TEARS). Also, I already scouted Porto for some youngsters for Aberdeen and they're bollocks. They still have Hulk, their best player, but he's getting on with the years and if I stick Kalas or Bartley on him whnever I play Porto he's useless anyway.

Fuck it, I'm making Man Utd my sugar daddy, bitches.

dude, since 1994/1995, Porto have claimed all but 5 Portuguese league titles. they also won 2 uefa cups, 1 champions league and a bunch of other titles. like, i think Pinto da Costa is the club chairman with the most titles, anywhere. of course, a few are down to corruption, but Porto has built up many formidable teams over the years.

as i said, making money and winning things goes hand in hand.

This is enlightening on the subject. Very interesting article, give it a read.

http://celticunderground.net/index.php? ... &Itemid=83

Yeah, tough to argue with Porto's success. To say that they exist solely to make money though, is not too far off the mark. They are a business, and businesses exist to make money. Thinking to the contrary is naivety at its best. Yes, they make more money by winning, but to say that winning is the goal for a professional sports team is not quite accurate. Winning does produce higher profits, but arguably, being a team that is good enough to attract unkonwn talent, develop it, and then sell it to bigger clubs will earn just as much money. So, if that is Porto's only goal, then it appears to be paying dividends because not only are they attracting quality players, who they later sell for huge profits, but they also extract titles out of those players while they're at Porto.

Seems like a good business model to me. Cheers to my Portuguese cousins.

You know how to make more money? Long term investment in long term success. Breed your players, breed wins, breed fame. Become a brand name. Establish feeder clubs all around the world for merchandise promotion. Man Utd and Barca are huge clubs because they've been at the top of the game for so long, and have accumulated a status of international fame for their footballing successes. That's why they have so many fucking annoying plastics, but you'll never have a bunch of white suburb kids in the US going around with Porto shirts- "yeah we support the best business team in the world!" If Porto became a regular contender for Champions League top spot, for example, or developed a steady, consistent level of high performance against the other top European teams, they would end up with much more money than just the short term instant gratification of buying and selling players.

well, an economic argument against that is that Portuguese clubs can't hold on to their players anyway, which is quite true. Nani, Figo, Simão, Quaresma and Rui Costa never played more than 2-3 season in Portugal before a giant came knocking.

unless they are true prodigies, the kids would have to reach like age 23 to become really productive for the team. they'll be sold off before then if they're really good.

i would love to see more academy products in our squads, especially Portuguese kids, but another factor is the influence of the douchebag agents. i can't prove it, but i sincerely believe they play a big role in who gets signed, who plays and who gets loaned out. academy players don't generate commissions for the douchebag agents. agents would pay off managers or directors to make sure their players got signed. that's my theory.

finally, we need the revenue. we need it now. you can't get if from merchandise and tickets in our country, which is both small AND poor (contrast with the small but wealthy netherlands, or poor but large Spain). this model is here to stay, especially if it keeps delivering good results on the pitch.

and guy, realistically, can anyone outside of the big 3 leagues (excluding Germany here because let's face it, Bayern are still head and shoulders above the competition when it comes to Europe) contend for the Champions League? when Porto won it, they got Man United in the round of 16, followed by Lyon, Deportivo and Monaco. what are the odds that such a succession would happen again? you're more likely to end up with Real, Bayern and Man United before you could play the final against Barça!

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is rumored to sign in Paris St-Germain.

Tent officially pitched.

Do you know why Bayern are head and shoulders above everyone else? Because the squad they have no is the result of 10 years of careful investment, training and planning. Long term, bitches, long term!!

he was quoted in an interview a couple of weeks ago laughing off the possibility of playing in a club like PSG (i imagine by that he means arab-run club in a crappy league).

PSG already signed Lavezzi btw. hope they fail to win Ligue 1 again. fuck their dirty money.

The fuck. Lavezzi?

Dirty money? Selling liquefied natural gas is illegal now?

well, considering moves like that Etihad sponsorship deal on a club owned by the guy also owns Etihad, you get the impression that there is something amiss.

either way, these douchebag billionaires can go and fuck themselves. build a museum or affordable residence halls for college students (they can feel free to name it after themselves) or something.

Fridge: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... or-around-€30-million?cc=5739

I actually agree with you, but I'm so happy to have beautiful toys here in Paris...

I kinda wish some rich sleazy oil baron would buy Aberdeen...