Do we still believe the guff about "so-and-so Big Club

sending scouts to watch two-dozen times capped, four hundred million pound defender (fifty yellow cards and two pre-assists last season. Nineteen games) available at a bargain price"?

Surely this sort of thing has been a scam for decades and especially nowadays with all the media available. It's basically just a nice weekend Euro city-break in Benidorm or Bochum or Brescia for a club stalwart; "Happy Birthday, George, and take the wife (or not); see the sights, do some shopping, take in a show on Saturday night, go to the game on the Sunday and here's a list of the duty-free fags and booze the lads have asked for."

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

sending scouts to watch two-dozen times capped, four hundred million pound defender (fifty yellow cards and two pre-assists last season. Nineteen games) available at a bargain price"?

Surely this sort of thing has been a scam for decades and especially nowadays with all the media available. It's basically just a nice weekend Euro city-break in Benidorm or Bochum or Brescia for a club stalwart; "Happy Birthday, George, and take the wife (or not); see the sights, do some shopping, take in a show on Saturday night, go to the game on the Sunday and here's a list of the duty-free fags and booze the lads have asked for."

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Don't you just type the name in the database and look at the metrics?

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Originally Posted by Peter

Don't you just type the name in the database and look at the metrics?

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Absolutely right, imo. They cannot have it both ways.

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

Absolutely right, imo. They cannot have it both ways.

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If you spend all that time putting information into the machine, eventually you are going to start taking information out of it :-)

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Originally Posted by Peter

If you spend all that time putting information into the machine, eventually you are going to start taking information out of it :-)

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Well, quite. And the same goes for top managers going to big games "to WATCH Player A." Load o' bannicks.

They're just spending an evening at the match and catching up with some mates; having a kebab and a few strong lagers, just like folk do in any industry. They have the money to be almost anywhere, of course, but having made their names in football, The Football is the only environment in which they enjoy real status. Up West at the opera or the theatre, a Pep , for example, or a Wenger, would be just another mug punter or know-nothing **** with cash. Everyone would snigger at them behind their hands. What's he doing here, they'd whisper. A footballer, my dear! Probably thinks Puccini is a promising young Serie B full-back and "The Tales of Hoffman" is the memoirs of a junior member of West Germany's 1974 World Cup-winning squad lol.


However, at Swindon Town Seconds v Supermarine Reserves, or even at El Clasico, He is royalty. He is of The Elite, The Elect, The Worthy. The red carpet will be rolled out for them.

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

Well, quite. And the same goes for top managers going to big games "to WATCH Player A." Load o' bannicks.

They're just spending an evening at the match and catching up with some mates; having a kebab and a few strong lagers, just like folk do in any industry. They have the money to be almost anywhere, of course, but having made their names in football, The Football is the only environment in which they enjoy real status. Up West at the opera or the theatre, a Pep , for example, or a Wenger, would be just another mug punter or know-nothing **** with cash. Everyone would snigger at them behind their hands. What's he doing here, they'd whisper. A footballer, my dear! Probably thinks Puccini is a promising young Serie B full-back and "The Tales of Hoffman" is the memoirs of a junior member of West Germany's 1974 World Cup-winning squad lol.


However, at Swindon Town Seconds v Supermarine Reserves, or even at El Clasico, He is royalty. He is of The Elite, The Elect, The Worthy. The red carpet will be rolled out for them.

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Broadly I would agree but I think Wenger is an awful example. He is probably the only manager in living memory who would qualify as a bit of a 'culture vulture'. The man was routinely ridiculed in football for being too clever :-)

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Originally Posted by Peter

Broadly I would agree but I think Wenger is an awful example. He is probably the only manager in living memory who would qualify as a bit of a 'culture vulture'. The man was routinely ridiculed in football for being too clever :-)

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:-( Snobbery and prejudice is everywhere, isn't it.