Fortunately, the golf was on the other side so I didn’t have to sit through the half time dirge. However, within an hour of tweeting the hashtag #bringbackbolton on Twitter there was well over 100 similar mentions, suggesting that I am not alone in this displeasure. Bolton was to Spanish football what James Richardson was to Football Italia; funny, insightful, learned and entertaining. Both are the kind of blokes you could imagine having a pint with. Minto can drink on his own.
Further narrow mindedness from our dear press was evidenced this morning when I read a report remarking upon Cesc Fabregas’s €200m buy out clause, highlighting its comparative vastness when matched with the midfielder’s transfer fee. Does this journalist know nothing of football?
Firstly, who in their right minds would pay £35m for a player then give him an identical buyout clause? With the possible exception of Liverpool with Carroll no club would, as someone else could essentially force them to sell their newest acquisition straight away. Secondly, players in Spain always have a buyout. The reason for these astronomical clauses is to ward off any potential buyers.
Ever since Real Madrid forced Barcelona’s hand and paid Luis Figo’s £35m buyout fee, they’ve set them considerably higher. For example Messi’s is €250m, Ronaldo’s a staggering €1bn. Further evidence of uneducated and narrow minded journalism.
I appreciate that not everyone has the urge to watch football irrespective of where it comes from like I do, but I would expect so much more from Sky would have pushed the European game onto our nation’s audience. In the past ten or fifteen years football has become more and more of a world game. If a player joins an English club from France, Spain, Portugal or wherever, we have usually seen him play or at least heard of his name. I think that Sky need to address this and have more respect for their audience and the players they are discussing.
Its either that, or more worryingly, they are not employing people with the required level of knowledge to do their jobs (definitely not looking at you, Gary Neville). So what do you guy’s think of our media’s belief that the world revolves around the Premier League? Should they have a little more respect for our knowledge, and player’s achievements elsewhere? Or is it right that they treat the masses with an arm around the shoulder when it comes things away from our shores?
If you have any comments on this, or anything football related, tweet me @Hardinho10.
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Great read, Hardinho! Please leave Liverpool and Andy Carroll alone…he’s yet to reach the lofty heights of price tag, yet who are we to argue with King Kenny and his god-like insight? Let’s judge the lad after 2 years..after all, Man U have paid huge figures out and failed more than once (Veron/Berba/Hargreaves/Anderson…) so comparativs could probably have been pointed down the M62?