Today was not a good day to be an Atletico Madrid fan. First we heard Sergio Aguero announce
that he wants to leave Atletico.
Then late tonight we hear that goalkeeper David De Gea is set to join Manchester United, where
he will rplace the retiring Edwin van der Sar.
"We've been working on it for quite a while, we identified him a while back as one we should go
for," Ferguson told SkySports after the 2-1 friendly defeat to Juventus on Tuesday.
I heard the news on Friday & could not believe it, REAL MADRID wanted to recoup RUUD VAN NISTELROOY
as their Number Nine for the rest of the season & thus be the substitute for Higuain. I frankly did
not have words or even motives to figure out this "surreal" manoeuvre from Real Madrid. Today with
some days of wondering I do have some personal comments that can only explain this comedy as very
This is a big game for the A-League.
Up until November 2010 the Roar's brand was still in trouble. Perhaps a result other than the
incredible and unpredictable winning streak you we have seen would have seen the A-League in full
retreat across Queensland. Gold Coast's future is unclear, but we could have seen all Queensland
teams under FFA management.
A few weeks ago, I questioned the merit of the New York Red Bulls and other MLS teams using
Groupon, the popular group discounting site, to move tickets.
Who wants a ticket discount? Actually doesn't work that way...
Working in Silicon Valley (and mind you Groupon is based in Chicago), we're deluged with tech
companies and "tech-hopeful companies" (companies who have one feature, but lack a true business
model) all the time and there is often a pre-disposition by existing brands to glom on to the
latest tech company or partner su jour just for the brand equity value so they can say they're hip
or on the vanguard of technology.
Mike Ashley's '5 year plan' is to create a self sufficient business model, this is the aim for his
Newcastle United project. Now, this should be the aim for any business, and especially where
football clubs are concerned with the financial rules set to take effect, and the current state of
the economic climate.
Time for a couple of quick hits from around the world of American soccer business. As has been
the case over the last couple of weeks, we'll start with the Womens' World Cup with some more
information on television ratings from the Brazil match. According to multiple reports, the
telecast was seen by almost 3.
By Ulysse Pasquier, writing from Montreal
Football clubs do enjoy their deadline drama it seems. These last couple of days have been so
hectic it has become difficult to keep track of my Twitter feed every single deal, and the transfer
window is not even closed yet!
Gazidis: Arsenal can cope without Champions League cash and will not buy our way out of
trouble
"We have a very sophisticated business model," says Gunners chief exec
View the full story here: The Mirror
A news article on 2011-10-06 14:56:46 from: The Mirror
This news item has been reproduced from today's media.
Arsenal can still compete financially with the top clubs evem if we missed out on a Champions
League spot, says chief executive Ivan Gazidis. The club earned £26m from Europe last season but
Gazidis believes they could still keep pace with the top English clubs without it.
"We would rather qualify for it but we have a really sustainable model that can cope.
Ok, so I guess we'd better try and look at some of the football stuff that has happened over the
last couple of days even though no actual football stuff has happened.
Some stuff involving people involved with football stuff has happened though. Let's start with
Ivan Gazidis and the quotes about us not finishing in the top four and being able to survive
without Champions League football.
Robin van Persie will be offered a new four-year deal by Arsene Wenger to help persuade him to
stay at Arsenal.
The Daily Mail is reporting that RVP's long-term future is in doubt after he admitted he does
not want to discuss a new contract until the end of the season. But the paper says Arsenal are
willing to break their pay structure to ensure they do not lose another star name.
If first impressions matter most, it is hard for New England Revolution fans to take much solace
in the recent organizational reorganizational announcements.
The Revolution is viewed as being stuck in MLS 1.0, while the league has largely moved on to MLS
2.0 (or more.) Apparently, Revolution ownership seems to agree, with Robert Kraft suggesting:
"Major League Soccer has evolved significantly in the last few years and while we felt we had a
structure in place that had worked well earlier and led us to success, the last two years did not
live up to our expectations"
However, addressing such fundamental league changes by redrawing lines on an organization chart
seems more like this feels more like a reboot than a system upgrade.
