Just throwing it out there...

[eastie]

Richer/bigger clubs have been taking players form smaller/poorer clubs since football was invented. We're just pissed off because it's happening to us again. We don't seem quite as pissed off when it's us doing the nicking.

Spot on pws.

[Tuscans]

So presumably no Lowton or Westwood then. Or Young. Or Milner. Or Platt.

What's the problem with the current system? If a club wants to sell or buy a player and terms are agreed by all three parties then it happens. If they don't, then it doesn't.

Well I was sticking to just the Premier League, the lower leagues don't come into question unless its a club buying from that league who plays in that league.

Why would you restrict it to just Premier League clubs? Assuming your idea is for the overall good of the game rather than just being a bit grumpy that Benteke is going to leave, surely you're be just as concerned by Villa buying from the Championship and disadvantaging those clubs as you are by Chelsea buying our players?

Also, given how important it is that all agreed contracts are abided by, I presume you are quite keen for us to stick to the ones that we agreed with Given and Ireland and you don't want the club to do whatever we can to persuade them to leave?

Sorry I said that wrong, my example was just the Premier League...it would have to come into effect to all leagues of course.

[supertom]

What football needs to do is start enforcing some of the apparent laws they try to implement. Financial fair play being one, and the home grown quota too (the rule needs to be stricter on this). Certainly in the latter, there seems to be no movement because clubs like Man City keep spunking more money than they could possibly make back.

Also enforcing clubs to develop younger domestic talent is also key for the national game. If we ever want to compete again, we cannot sit idly by and carry on as the level of quality of English players continues to dwindle significantly. It's soon going to get to the point where our national side will be struggling along with Scotland, Wales, Ireland etc to qualify for tournaments. I was thinking about the strikers we had 15 odd years ago. Shearer, Owen, Fowler, Heskey, Sheringham, Ferdinand, Wright, Dublin, Le Tissier, Cole, Phillips, Collymore and probably more. Even with such a grouping to pick from we achieved nothing. Now I could barely name you half a dozen strikers who might be good enough to play at National level in this country. Likewise in every other position. That's only 15 odd years ago too. The decline from that point, to this has been shocking.

We could also do with being more open to players born in other countries who earn citizenship. Other national sides have done it. Lets get some Brazilian skill with shiny British passport in the England side.

But this is another matter entirely.

[Tuscans]

Oh well, like I said it was just a quick idea guys. I do think there's a point in there somewhere though.

[Dave]

At some point football will eat itself with the greed and excess of a few clubs, with fans of the others tired and bored of it all. Something to make it a more level playing field would be really useful. Players hopping it after 1 good season is massively disappointing for fans, and a nightmare for managers and clubs I would imagine.

As far as the people who make the rules are concerned, football (and in particular, Premier League football) is the most popular that is has ever been.

And as UK Redsox points out above, every single suggestion that has ever been made to make football more like American sports (i.e more fair) is universally ridiculed. 

And you've not responded to the point that I'm making. It's hard to take people seriously when talking about 'changing the game for the better' if they only complain about a problem when it disadvantages them. Norwich fans didn't have a problem when Lambert left Colchester for them and there was a good deal of mocking on here about their hypocrisy when he did the same to Norwich when he joined us. I bet those same people laughing at the Norwich fans will be complaining when Lambert eventually does it to us.

Personally I didn't have any issues about the fairness of it when we decided that we would take Benteke from Genk (note: after just the one season with them). It's the way that a food-chain works.

[Toronto Villa]

any new rule governing contracts needs to be worldwide. It canot be for one governing body only. I like what the NHL does whereby the original club owns your contractual rights for up to 7 years, and even then, at the end they have a right to exceed any offer going into the final year of the contract. Again, unique because all of the teams are in the same boat, but as it is today football is set up for players to demand moves and big fish to eat smaller fish. There will never be a wage cap, and FFP won't work because bigger, more marketable teams will always get the bigger commercial deals.

[eastie]

Dog eat dog I'm  afraid - we have done it to smaller clubs without feeling any sympathy - its the way of the game and as i said happens to bigger clubs than us - look how many stars arsenal have lost in recent years.

[Toronto Villa]

Dog eat dog I'm  afraid - we have done it to smaller clubs without feeling any sympathy - its the way of the game and as i said happens to bigger clubs than us - look how many stars arsenal have lost in recent years.

I thought you were going for pint with your mate and would be back in 20 pages?

[Tuscans]

As far as the people who make the rules are concerned, football (and in particular, Premier League football) is the most popular that is has ever been.

And as UK Redsox points out above, every single suggestion that has ever been made to make football more like American sports (i.e more fair) is universally ridiculed. 

And you've not responded to the point that I'm making. It's hard to take people seriously when talking about 'changing the game for the better' if they only complain about a problem when it disadvantages them. Norwich fans didn't have a problem when Lambert left Colchester for them and there was a good deal of mocking on here about their hypocrisy when he did the same to Norwich when he joined us. I bet those same people laughing at the Norwich fans will be complaining when Lambert eventually does it to us.

Personally I didn't have any issues about the fairness of it when we decided that we would take Benteke from Genk (note: after just the one season with them). It's the way that a food-chain works.

I get exactly what you are saying, I didn't give 2 hoots about how Norwich or Genk fans felt, because I don't have any type of affection for those clubs. But that's not saying Villa did it to those two so it's ok....I feel it isn't.

[JJ-AV]

I'm not sure the situation is all that different to what happened to Genk last Summer. It's the way the transfer system in this sport works.

I agree it's a bit shit how you can't build without disruption but we need to utilise the market to the best of our ability to give us the best possible chance of succeeding. So sell him. Quickly. And ideally we'll use the money to sign another 2-3 Benteke types and rinse and repeat.

That's always been our issue under Randy, we've not invested the money we've received well enough. Look at some of the players Spurs have lost over the last 5-6 years; Carrick, Keane, Berbatov, Modric and they've used the money to improve the squad.

What did we do with the Young, Milner or Downing money and what do we have to show for it? Milner and Young money combined financed Ireland and Bent. Downing to Given, Hutton and N'Zogbia. Only Bent and Given are anything like close to being decent signings from that lot and we'll make a massive loss on both just to get them off the wage bill.

[paul_e]

All this can and should be handled by the club at the contract stage.

Benteke for example could have had something written into his contract that said he would only be sold this summer for a bid in excess of £40m, with no limit the following season.  So stay 2 years and you can go where you like but after 1 year the only way your leaving is if someone throws stupid money our way and if you try to submit a transfer request or go on strike we have a contract that you're in breech of.

[Doorbell]

What football needs to do is start enforcing some of the apparent laws they try to implement. Financial fair play being one, and the home grown quota too (the rule needs to be stricter on this). Certainly in the latter, there seems to be no movement because clubs like Man City keep spunking more money than they could possibly make back.

Also enforcing clubs to develop younger domestic talent is also key for the national game. If we ever want to compete again, we cannot sit idly by and carry on as the level of quality of English players continues to dwindle significantly. It's soon going to get to the point where our national side will be struggling along with Scotland, Wales, Ireland etc to qualify for tournaments. I was thinking about the strikers we had 15 odd years ago. Shearer, Owen, Fowler, Heskey, Sheringham, Ferdinand, Wright, Dublin, Le Tissier, Cole, Phillips, Collymore and probably more. Even with such a grouping to pick from we achieved nothing. Now I could barely name you half a dozen strikers who might be good enough to play at National level in this country. Likewise in every other position. That's only 15 odd years ago too. The decline from that point, to this has been shocking.

We could also do with being more open to players born in other countries who earn citizenship. Other national sides have done it. Lets get some Brazilian skill with shiny British passport in the England side.

But this is another matter entirely.

That line for me is gold.  It doesn't matter what industry/sector, we have at our disposal a pretty robust set of legislation already, most problems derive from not enforcing the legislation.

[RussellC]

Dog eat dog I'm  afraid - we have done it to smaller clubs without feeling any sympathy - its the way of the game and as i said happens to bigger clubs than us - look how many stars arsenal have lost in recent years.

Done what? Are you aware of a bid being made that I'm not?

As far as I'm aware he's only handed in a transfer request. I don't have a problem with other clubs bidding for him at all. I do have a problem with him telling us he doesn't want to play for us any more though.

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

This is why American football is fairer and more competitive than European football.

[paul_e]

This is why American football is fairer and more competitive than European football.

The american football model only works because there's only 1 league structure.  English football could introduce salary caps but how would those caps translate to spain/france/germany/etc.

Rugby union has salary caps which all the northern hemisphere unions agree to except for France, meaning France have a monopoly on players and those sides generally have bigger and stronger squads as a result.  In football it would be worse.