NoBlog Numer 14 - Jim Lovetoy is Enjoying Party Season...
17th December 2009
Media personality Jim Lovetoy writes exclusively for The Football Ramble. “This is no blog, it’s a column. It’s credible. Proper journalism that has an influence...”
It’s party season everywhere and last night saw the annual Media Personality Christmas Party at Revolution, the trendy West End vodka bar. All the stars were there: Spoony, Bianca Gascoigne, some mental Geordie XFM presenter and of course the biggest star of all; me. It was a great night, free booze all round, hot women giving out shots (and a lot more than that, Danielle Lloyd was there! I’m only joking babe) and a chance to reflect on another great year of being Jim Lovetoy.
However, Revolution and my mind aren’t the only places where it’s party season. The Premiership season is in full swing too and the league is wide open. We’re almost half way through and everything is yet to be decided! The important teams are all beating each other and even the practice teams like Burnley and Wolves are getting results against proper sides. I can almost hear you cry: “But Jim, we’re talking about the best league in the world here, why does it being brilliant strike you as unusual?” Well, it doesn’t, but more often than not the big two, Arsenal and Liverpool swap positions and the rest just have a kick about. Not so this season, and I can tell you exactly why: Sugar daddies.
When Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea everyone said it was going to ruin the league and taint the club’s history. They argued that the legacies of legendary former players like Ruud Gullit, Eddie Newton and Matthew Harding would be forgotten and that Chelsea would turn into nothing more than a cynical footballing brand trying to buy success. Now everyone has caught up with their innovation and the league is better than ever. Manchester City have no history to speak of then some rich Ayatollahs come in and suddenly they’re huge! The new owners may not know English football or have a grasp of the nuances of the language but they’re trying. Apparently they’ve dug up City’s history books and tried to aggrandise some former players nobody outside of Manchester has ever heard of. I overheard someone saying they’re going to call part of the stand at Eastlands The Colin Bell End! That’s a joke in case it’s gone over your head. Colin Bell is a former City player and I know this because Noel Gallagher told me who he is when I hung out with him that time.
It’s not just City though. When reading of Paul ‘The Hitman’ Hart’s appointment at QPR I discovered that they too have rich owners. Before long they’ll be in the Premiership and that’ll be another big club with a proud history and that’s great. Same with Notts County. If a club like Blackburn want to get a rich owner and become a proper team who can compete for the league who’s to stop them? The league improves and everybody wins, apart from the rubbish clubs who can’t wake up to the modern game but we don’t need rubbish clubs in our league anyway.
It’s not just in England that this works. AC Milan Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is a billionaire and Real Madrid are owned by the people of Spain! Barcelona are always banging on about being the club of the people but Madrid are the ones buying their players with Spanish taxes. I don’t see how a club could give more to the people than that!
Clearly the more rich teams there are the better and England is leading the way. Which brings me to Europe. Of course certain European giants should always have a place in The Champions League but The Big Four in England is now at least a Big Five, so surely that merits an extra Champions League place? If the sugar daddies continue to come in at the present rate then the best league in the world could soon have about ten teams in The Champions League, and that can only be good for football. Chelsea, Chelsea!
Jim Lovetoy
Is the hierarchy in the Premier League under more threat than ever before? Who do you see breaking in to the top four? How has Spoony got his own show?
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scotj94
:::2009-12-22 13:30:30
Also if Rangers and Celtic join the premier league then we will need 12 places in the champions league. However it will take more than a mega rich investor to fix Liverpool because look where Rafa´s super spending has got them.
F-Josemi-Malaga (2mil)
F-Antonio Nunez-Real Madrid Swap
S-Xabi Alonso Real Sociedad (10mil)
S-Luis Garcia Barcelona (6mil)
F-Mauricio Pellegrino Valencia Free
F-Fernando Morientes Real Madrid (6.3mil)
S-Scott Carson Leeds United (1mil)
N-Josh Mimms Rotherham United (0.05mil)
S-Antonio Barragan Sevilla (0.24mil)
N-Boudewijn Zenden Free Transfer
S-Jose Reina Villareal (6mil)
S-Mohamed Sissoko Valencia (5.6mil)
S-Peter Crouch Southampton (7mil)
N-Godwin Antwi Real Zaragoza Unknown
N-Miki Roque Lleida Unknown
S-Jack Hobbs Lincoln City (0.15mil)
N-Besian Idrizaj LASK Linz (0.19mil)
F-Ramon Calliste Free Transfer Free
S-Mark Gonzalez Albacete (1.5mil)
S-Paul Anderson Hull City Player Exchange
S-Jan Kromkamp Villareal Player Exchange
S-Daniel Agger Brøndby (5.8mil)
S-David Martin MK Dons (0.25mil)
S-Robbie Fowler Man City Free
S-Craig Bellamy Blackburn (6mil)
F-Gabriel Paletta Club Atlético Banfield (2mil)
S-Fábio Aurélio Valencia Free
N-Jermaine Pennant Birmingham (6.7mil)
N-Dirk Kuyt Feyenoord (9mil)
N-Nabil El Zhar St Etienne (0.2mil)
N-Astrit Ajdarevic Falkenberg (0.75mil)
N-Daniele Padelli Sampdoria On Loan
N-Jordy Brouwer Ajax Undisclosed
N-Francisco Durán Malaga (0.06mil)
N-Ronald Huth Tacuary FC Undisclosed
S-Álvaro Arbeloa Deportivo (2.5mil)
S-Javier Mascherano West Ham On Loan
S-Lucas Leiva Gremio (5mil)
N-Mikel San José Domínguez Athletic Bilbao (0.27mil)
N-Sebastian Leto Club Atlético Lanús (1.8mil)
S-Fernando Torres Atletico Madrid (20.2mil)
N-Andriy Voronin Leverkusen £0
S-Yossi Benayoun West Ham (5mil)
S-Ryan Babel Ajax (11.5mil)
S-Charles Itandje Lens (1.5mil)
S-Emiliano Insúa Boca Juniors (1.3mil)
S-Martin Skrtel Zenit St Petersburg (6.5mil)
S-Javier Mascherano MSI (17mil)
And still no league title but man utd can do it with much less spending.
EdS
:::2009-12-30 12:43:43
What´s your point? Listing the outlays of Benitez in the transfer market is all well and good, but, like other Liverpool haters, you don´t bother looking at the players/prices recouped.
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