What if...

Here we are talking about buying this playr and that player in the summer, but what if Bale and Wilshere went to Utd in the summer?

Serious question. Utd have the money to buy whoever they want. Their sponsorship deals and matchday revenue will see to that.

What if they get Bale and Wilshere to add to Zaha (who won't play much with Young and Valencia ahead of him)? Will anyone else stand a chance?

This would be the nightmare scenario painted by Martin Samuel about a cabal of overly powerful teams thanks to FFP (Bayern, Utd, Real and Barca). They can buy all the best talent in their countries as they have the most available cash (under FFP).

Imagine a team with a front 6 including RVP, Rooney, Bale and Wilshere. That would, I feel, get them back to that awesome midfield and attack they had about 15 years ago (Scholes, Giggs, Keane, Beckham, Cole, Yorke etc.)

AS I said before, There's no way Levy will sell Bale now that they are 3rd and likely to qualify for CL, especially to UTD another Prem team, it would take 50-60mill to prize him away, and there's no way that will happen. Same for Wilshire, Arsenal are trying to build a team around him, so why would they sell? especially after what's happened with RVP, Nasri, Fabregas etc... it's a fools logic to sell to a competitor, especially if it makes an already strong team, stronger, then if you need to buy to replace, everyone else knows you have ££££, and we get the Andy Carrol scenario, vastly inflated prices for an average player.....

It may not make sense, but Spuds have sold Berbatov, Carrick and Modric in the last few years. If they hadn't maybe they'd have qualified for the champs league for the last few years. But then they wouldn't have been able to buy other players that have come to the fore.

The problem is that you'll get player power saying that qualifying for the champs league isn't enough, they want a chance to win it.

If Arsenal are in the champs league, can you really see Wilshere staying beyond a season if they fail to qualify next year as well?

If Spuds do qualify this year (and Arsenal don't), then you can expect Spuds to splash out and get stronger. Even if Arsenal push the boat out and buy a few players, they may not get back into the champs league if Spuds remain strong and Chelsea pull their fingers out.

If The FFP starts to hit, Arsenals 60k stadium will go somewhere to giving them bigger relative clout, that's why we need to upgrade our stadium
Spurs seem to be more stable, and happy than the Arse boys, pining for the fading glory of whenever it was they were in the CL final and other cup finals and actually picking up trophies. Bale seems happy now with AVB, and Levy will be a limpit when it comes to Bale, I don't think they'd sell unless they buy a replacement, then only selling for ridiculous amounts, they're only 6 points behind us now, shows how poor we've been recently, still think we'll be buying overseas, Prem based players are well overpriced, and if it's value we want, we need to look elsewhere, plus we have enough English players to meet our quota!

If Arsenal are out of the champs league for a few years, the hit of the lost revenue will just cancel out the extra money they get from the matchday income.

Champs league money is essential for clubs to be able to compete. Without that they are relying on sponsorship.

There is also talk of Ronaldo coming back to Utd as well!

If Utd sign Ronaldo, Wilshire and Bale, they are gonna take some beating next year.....but let's be honest, that ain't gonna happen. The only one i could see going (and that's still only a slight possibility) is Ronaldo, as he's expressed an interest to go back one day.....but could they really afford him?

I really think the chasing pack (and that's us included) need to strenghten during the summer to try and catch the Rags, so i can't see Arsenal and Spurs selling their prized assetts. Wengers been told he's got a shed load of money to spend (if he wants) and i'm sure AVB won't be told he's got nowt either....all makes for an interesting close season me thinks.


Just to make things a little tougher for Mancini, looks like he might struggle to capture his No1 target.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2285287/Manchester-City-target-Edinson-Cavani-talks-Real-Madrid.html

The thing is if the players ask to leave (a la Modric) then maybe the hands of the clubs will be forced. Maybe not this summer but next summer for sure.

Someone has to miss out on champs league footy and they may need to shift a player or two (either through financial or player pressure).

Look at the talk around Fellaini at Everton. Talk of him leaving if they don't get top 4. What if Chelsea fall short? Could they really afford to strengthen again?

Lots of ifs and buts, but I am sure that two out of the three won't be at their respective clubs either this summer or next summer if they don;t get champs league footy (Fellaini, Wilshere, Bale).

Also, I do think Utd can afford Ronaldo. The extra money from their sponsorship must be worth £20M+ a season and the new tv deal should get them well over £50M straight away.

I'm sure if Bale and Ronaldo were available for £100M, they'd be in like a shot. And they should be shoe-ins for the next few titles as well.

Good points Dawg, alot does depend on what the players want and where the clubs finish nowadays.

Bale won't be going for less than £50m now and Ronaldo probably won't be sold for much less (if at all) than what Madrid paid for him.....so imo that equates closer to £150m, the Rags definately couldn't afford both.

I'd happily settle for Bale, if the Rags took Ronaldo....not too bothered about Wilshire if i'm being honest.

There may be little re-sale value to Ronaldo if the rags do get him. There was talk of 'only' £60M for Ronnie.

If Bale and Ronaldo were to cost nearer to £120M, Utd would just offload a few players (Young, Nani, Valencia) which would easily make up any shortfall. I'm sure they'd get the best part of £40M for that trio.

To be honest, I'm fully expecting the rags to strengthen again in summer. There's already rumours of them swooping in for Begovic or maybe Mignolet as Taggart hasn't got time for the barbary ape any more.

He'll probably want cover for camel lips and maybe a decent FB. Not to mention replacements for his pensioners in midfield. So Ronnie, Wilshere and Bale could be viable targets and, odds are, they'd probably go there without too much financial incentive because of the kudos of playing there.

I actually find this whole scenario massively frustrating. Granted, it's always been very irritating seeing them throwing vast sums of money around, swallowing up all the talent like a huge footballing leviathan, but in the past it wasn't something we worried about as we didn't have the financial clout to do anything about it or the level of talent to compete with them. But now it's different. We have the finances to compete with them, but suddenly we're faced with these rules that have hamstrung us. We're like the basking shark in a tank full of killer whales - we're big enough to be there, but we don't pose any threat at all.

Without the FFP I reckon we'd be out of sight now. We would be able to dine at the top table just from the money we could splash.

We can see the affect it is having on us already as we'd have bought big last summer without these darned rules in place.

I agree Leo, Utd will strengthen and we'll have to play catch up. It should have been the other way around though.

A rag posted on ja606 that Qatar Airlines were paying them £100m for shirt sponsorship. If thats true then its a bit unfair that our owners are not allowed to do the same via Etihad Airlines or other sponsorship simply because of a conflict of interest or whatever.

And I'll bet you their deal isn't being investigated for "fair value" either.

Not that it matters, you can guarantee teams like Wigan or Reading would never be able to attract that kind of income, which only serves to enhance the gulf between the top few clubs and everyone else. Maybe creating a super league would've been better for the sport as a whole.

Then why on earth does clubs like wigan & reading vote for financial restraint in the premier league thus restricting their limited clout even further.

I guess it's because they know the chances of getting a sugar daddy are minimal, so they're basically stopping other clubs from getting them.

Does that sound like they're being peevish? Possibly. I know they don't have a snowflake in hell's chance of getting anywhere near the European places, but at least with a smaller number of clubs in the top flight, they aren't going to end up being the tiddlers who get relegated rapidly.

Although, to be fair to Reading, they abstained from voting. Given they've only just been promoted, I think they did the right thing.

Turkeys voting for Christmas

Basically, yes. If the team is crap, they'll get relegated regardless of how many expensive teams are in the league. Unless they're called Wigan, in which case they'll play shit for 30 matches, then win 8 on the spin and escape by the skin of their teeth. Should be nicknamed the Houdinis...

This could be bad for the teams with smaller stadia and lower sponsorship and commercial income. What is saving them is the tv money.

Get enough clubs with bigger stadia (Notts Forest, Leeds, Sheff Weds and Utd., Wolves etc.) then they stand more chance of staying in the premier league if they are half decently managed.

Whatever happens, Wigan will eventually be gone and will slide down the pyrammid again.