Call a spade a spade - John Terry

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I have seen Chelsea fans over the last few days make a big hue and cry over the fact that FA has overruled the decision of the courts and punished their beloved Captain Flawless aka John Terry.

Firstly lets try to see the reason behind the now famous sentence that contained the word "untenable" (which incidentally means incapable of being defended or justified). In court this is what happened "Mr. Terry DID NOT DENY USING THE WORD "BLACK" AND SWEARING AT Mr. Ferdinand" (Link here). It goes on to say that "His defence was that he had thought Mr. Ferdinand was accusing him of using the words, and was simply repeating them when he was caught on camera." Now I would want to agree with that but how many times do u repeat the same words that someone accuses you of saying? Here's a video of that and think about it - even if you did, would this be the way you would say it? (Link here)

Following that the FA had made it very clear by saying - "The FA notes the decision in the John Terry case and will now seek to conclude it's own inquiries". So John Terry very well knew it was not over.

Now a few days before the trial before the FA which earlier had not let Luis Suarez without a ban and fine, Terry maybe had a premonition of his doom tried to play like the spoilt kid(well he plays for Chelsea) and decided to retire from international football. His timing was perfect and his fans were so satisfied by the fact that they had their revenge in advance with the "Ahh you guys don't give Terry the special treatment he won't play for you" feeling. Well I'm sure they are hurt but if someone is racist then he/it has to be kicked out. If it has hurt his ego then too bad.

After he was banned for 4 games and fined about 3 times what his predecessor and partner in crime Suarez had to pay, the fans again went berserk like they had been abused and now were being punished. So much for their logic which I would not wish to go into. I'm also waiting for what CFC would officially say about this ban and moreover Terry has time to appeal as well. Will Chelsea stand by their player like Liverpool did and give out a subtle message saying that racism is okay and bring on another PR disaster or would they just maintain a calculated silence.

Is the punishment enough - given he plays for Chelsea the fine would not make too much of a difference but 4 games? I guess not. Here's what the others have to say.

1) Lenient John Terry ban may concern Black players - Paul Davis ( Link here)

2) Footages dont lie - Anton Ferdinand himself (Link Here)

and one from our very own Joey Barton

3) What an absolute farce (Link here)

It's for you to decide which side you are on - equality or racism.

Take your pick.

All I have to say is, John Terry - if you said it - you said it.

Are Manchester United a one man team?

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After the way RVP saved ManUtd from defeat against a struggling Southampton there have been talks by fans and others about whether they are turning into a one man team.

I would like to say "Manchester United are and were for the last 26 years a one man team" and you know who the one man is - Sir Alex Ferguson.

He has had multiple challengers, Arsene Wenger, Jose Morinho and Chelsea, ManCity, etc. but he has always reigned supreme. Nobody has been able to surpass his achievements and and given the lack of patience in football today it looks unlikely anyone would in the near future either. He has on most occasions been able to spot the best talent, in Ronaldo, Valencia, Rooney, Kagawa etc. and aided by a strong academy has been able to produce successful teams for years now.

Who would have expected Rooney to be out of form and then as he was trying to get back to his best would get injured and be out for 4 weeks. Following his injury he would still take a few games to get back to what he is capable of. I too was very skeptical of ManUtd getting van Persie of the motives behind the deal(Link here). Who other than Rooney would've been able to score a hat-trick after missing that penalty. You know who did and who was responsible to bring him in.

So to keep this short and sweet - I would say "FERGIE KNOWS".

FAs own financial fair play - how fair is it?

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Player salaries now add up to around 70% of club turnovers. With the success of ManCity and Chelsea this figure is sure set to rise and this alarming trend is not something that bodes well for the league. I have spoken in a previous blog about how this changes the landscape of the league(Link here).

Is the recent discussion on how salary caps and spending limits the beginning of the end of this cancerous practice?

The FA had met to discuss how a new regulation for financial controls wherein clubs would have to break-even every year or face sanctions. Not shockingly this move was sparked by Manchester United who seem have been awakened by some cold water thrown at them given the recent success of ManCity and Chelsea and with their own trophy cabinet not being disturbed last year. Support to this proposal comes from a very unlikely frontier in the form of Dave Whelan the chairman of Wigan who themselves had a £7.2 Million loss in the season ending May 2011.

With 2 strong advocates for these changes being Manchester United and Arsenal along with Wigan, West Ham and Stoke. The obvious naysayers include Chelsea and ManCity with support from Fulham, Everton, West Bromwich Albion, Newcastle and Tottenham. The argument that David Gill, CEO of ManUtd had for this was logical that the leagues that sandwich the premier league viz. the Championship and the Champions League are in the process of or have already implemented them. So according to Gill why not the Premier League.

This of course is not an easy task given that at least 14 teams have to agree to make any changes which is just above a 2/3rd majority and getting everyone to a common ground would seem a tough task given how success has been bought of-late.

If we a little look into this a little more in detail at this about how clubs fare if this rule were to be applied today then we have the table which is in this link. 
There is alarming 11 clubs which have have a wages to turnover ratio of 70% or more and with the top culprit being the obvious ManCity with 114% of their turnover going into wages. Surprisingly the other evil, Chelsea is 3rd at 86% with Aston Villa sandwiched between these 2 at 90%. These are 2011 figures and the number are sure going to be different for the 2011/12 season. Sitting safely at the top are Manchester United and Arsenal with 46% and 48% respectively. 

Coming back to regulations this would prevent clubs from biting off more than they can chew and also prevent owners from treating clubs as their plaything. Such regulations would also prevent another Portsmouth and Rangers debacle. And like David Gill has said with both the league above and below the EPL with such regulations it would not harm to gradually enforce them onto this league too. 

It is obvious that the big spenders would oppose such a proposal for their own success but if we are avoid a La-Liga like 2 horse race which is already seeming to form in the EPL too then these regulations seem necessary. I spoken about how this tiered structured seems to be coming into existence in the EPL too in previous 2 blogs 

1) Predictions for the EPL 2012/13( Link here).

2) What does the rise of Manchester City mean(Link here).