General Football Discussion

[Orange14]

Deloitte money league football rankings are out for 2015: http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/De ... e-2015.PDF Ajax, the biggest of the Dutch clubs, is not even in the top 30 this year. Madrid are #1 and there are 14 EPL teams in the top 30, primarily because of all the television money. I don't think this is good for football in general but I guess nothing can be done about it as the EPL brand is so heavily marketed.

[aveslacker]

I wonder if we didn't miss an opportunity about 20 years ago before the full effects of Bosman were known. Back then we were one of the biggest names in the world and could really have capitalized.

[ajaxusa]

Any more news on the supporters home fire? Any reason to think this wasn't arson?

[rjf1]

Supporters home fire?

[ajaxusa]

Referring to this: http://www.nltimes.nl/2015/01/23/ajax-clubhouse-burns/

[SPL]

Arson is now suggested. Nice to read that KJH has started a campaign for old Ajax players to donates their old Ajax shirts as loads of old shirts were burnt.I know Heitinga ,Urby and Hedweges Maduro all responded straight away to KJH.

Nice to know such guys still love Ajax and show care for our supporters.

[aveslacker]

Hasn't this happened before? Or was it another club's supporters home that got burned down.

[ajaxusa]

I know Joh O'Brien still has many of his old shirts. Do you think he supporters home would want one of those?

[aveslacker]

I certainly would!

[Cruijff]

Hasn't this happened before? Or was it another club's supporters home that got burned down.

Yes in 2005 the Ajax supportershome also burned down and in 2006 and 2008 there were attemps to do this again.

I know Joh O'Brien still has many of his old shirts. Do you think he supporters home would want one of those?

Yes, a lot of fans liked John O'Brien as a laid back dude, his shirt is absolutely welcome. Just like aveslacker I would also like to have one.

If he's able to ship two of his shirts to The Netherlands I will send him some cool items he will like for sure.

[SPL]

The new Tv deal for the EPL will see the average footballer earning £5m pa. ie 6.5 m euros by 2020.Small teams like Bournemouth or Brentford,currently doing well in the championship could pay players the above sum if promoted.

The only clubs in Europe who could live with that are R Madrid and Barca ,both about 400m euros in debt and Bayern. All the Spanish clubs are currently in debt and I believe all of Germany except Bayern. There is no big money in Italy,France has PSG but even they cannot compete with the super rich at present ,they need more than Zlatan to win the CL.

The EPL is a big monster that will destroy football imo.

[Orange14]

Barca and Madrid have decent cash flows at this point in time but if the other Spanish teams go on "strike" for shares of their TV money the game is over in Spain. Right now those two clubs negotiate preferential payout and they receive huge amounts relative to others. German league will begin getting more money next year as they have negotiated a new contract here in the US with Fox Sports (Sky in the UK). It's still small compared to the EPL's deal. Italian football is in a death spiral unless they build some new stadiums which is a very expensive proposition. Juventus are the only club that play to 100% stadium capacity every home match day.

I agree with SPL that Euro football is facing a big problem going forward.

[Manneken Pis]

I heard on a podcast this morning (Football Weekly from the Guardian ... very good btw) that the EPL earns more in one week's games what the Eredivisie earns in a year. Next year a team like Brentford will be have more income than Ajax if promoted.

[Orange14]

Our current team may be disappointing but we do hold down the top spot for most players trained in a youth academy that play top flight football in Europe: http://tinyurl.com/k66cxmk I knew the academy was good but I didn't know it was this good (of course a lot of these players are still in the Eredivisie playing for other teams).

EDIT: Here's the link to the big map of Europe with a listing of all the clubs. Partizan Belgrade is second to Ajax.
http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG ... 00_eng.pdf

[Tom_]

77 eh? I wonder how good a "dream team" of ex-Ajax youth products who are still playing would be? Hmm.

[Orange14]

77 eh? I wonder how good a "dream team" of ex-Ajax youth products who are still playing would be? Hmm.

Just thinking of recent Dutch NT players (since 2014): Sneijder, van der Vaart, van der Wiel, Vermeer, Blind, N. de Jong, S. de Jong, Narsingh (I think he started out in the academy and was let go), Stekelenburg. Of course there are also the foreign born players who came over at young ages and probably fall into this category as well: Eriksen, Vertonghen, Vermaelen, Alderwiereld, Ozbilitz, (probably some others I cannot recall off the top of my head).

[SPL]

good to see we are tops at producing young players

[Orange14]

Want to know why Euro football is doomed? Read The Swiss Ramble's comments on the new EPL television contract: http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2015/02 ... r-and.html The money quote comes about midway through the article. Richard Scudamore, CEO of the EPL, said somewhat jarringly, but completely accurately, “Burnley are now, economically, bigger than Ajax.”

[Tom_]

Just thinking of recent Dutch NT players (since 2014): Sneijder, van der Vaart, van der Wiel, Vermeer, Blind, N. de Jong, S. de Jong, Narsingh (I think he started out in the academy and was let go), Stekelenburg. Of course there are also the foreign born players who came over at young ages and probably fall into this category as well: Eriksen, Vertonghen, Vermaelen, Alderwiereld, Ozbilitz, (probably some others I cannot recall off the top of my head).

Reasonable defense and MF with the Belgians, Blind at LB and van Rhijn at RB, N. de Jong at DMF, Eriksen (he definitely counts as ours) & Sneijder etc., but I'm struggling to think of an attacking 3... Siem at #9 is OK with me, but on the wings?

[Orange14]

Just thinking of recent Dutch NT players (since 2014): Sneijder, van der Vaart, van der Wiel, Vermeer, Blind, N. de Jong, S. de Jong, Narsingh (I think he started out in the academy and was let go), Stekelenburg. Of course there are also the foreign born players who came over at young ages and probably fall into this category as well: Eriksen, Vertonghen, Vermaelen, Alderwiereld, Ozbilitz, (probably some others I cannot recall off the top of my head).

Reasonable defense and MF with the Belgians, Blind at LB and van Rhijn at RB, N. de Jong at DMF, Eriksen (he definitely counts as ours) & Sneijder etc., but I'm struggling to think of an attacking 3... Siem at #9 is OK with me, but on the wings?

Full list of the 77 players trained at Ajax and now at other top clubs: http://www.ajax1.nl/de-77-spelers-met-v ... en-rijtje/ It also includes those on the Ajax first team.

[Orange14]

I decided to watch the Dortmund/Schalke derby today and what a fun match. Dortmund were having the better of the play but having trouble getting the first goal. Then out almost nothing Aubameyang scores a nice one dashes to the side of the goal and picks up a small black back. I'm thinking WTF???? Then he pulls out a Batman cowl and Robin mask. He puts on the Batman cowl and gives the Robin mask to Reus. No good YouTube clip up yet but you can see some of it here: http://screamer.deadspin.com/happy-boru ... 1688644475 This may have been the best and most unusual goal celebration I've ever seen.

[Orange14]

ESPN FC has a very nice profile on el Ghazi: http://www.espnfc.us/blog/scouts-notebo ... on-ronaldo

[Orange14]

FC Twente have had three points taken away for financial irregularities. The moved up advance payments for the television rights to cover up for increased player salaries. This was not a wise thing to do and it looks like there will be a fire sale as they try to unload some of the more expensive players. This is what would have happened in Eindhoven had the city not intervened a couple of years ago when PSV failed to bring in CL money. This is a cautionary tale and shows that even clubs that were once high can fall quickly.

[Dave the mac]

Surprisingly I could not find a thread for Davy Klaassen, so am posting here.
Anyway he had surgery yesterday for something that had been bothering him but not that serious.
Get good Davy and come back better!

[SPL]

I too wasn't sure where to put that news.Hope Davy gets better soon.Abdominal injury and he hopes to be fit by the CL qualifiers at the end of July