Unbelievable

Germany being hammered by the mighty Swiss I see.. Bwahahaha

How does he know how to select the right system - is this the fabled move to 343 late in the season that worked out well in the end? If so, why didn't he move to it earlier in the season and instead had them in a position where they were almost a certainty for going down? Whatever it is that gets Wigan going when the pressure is off and it's backs to the wall I'm not sure how it's applicable in a context like Liverpool's where he'll be expected to have them challenging at the top end of the table. The fact is young and has the potential to get better is true for every young(ish) manager. He also has the potential to fail miserably and get worse. Personally, I would rather appoint someone with the required experience for a job as complicated and challenging as this if I was their owners. And I include somebody like AVB in that if they want to go young and promising, which would be understandable.

So you disagree then, because what ATB is suggesting in drama queen style rant is certainly not what's best for the club financially. By throwing the f***er out we'll essentially be paying up the last year of his contract in full and allowing him to walk away for free. Not sure how that would constitute not letting another club (Spanish or otherwise) take advantage of the situation either (not that it's at all relevant if you'd ask me). Edit: unless you are suggesting we let him go without paying up his contract, which you will find is an impossibility, or we would have done it a long time ago.

A lot of people on here seem to think this. May I ask why exactly? Apart from a promotion from league 1 with Swansea and keeping Wigan in the Premiership by the grid of their teeth what has Martinez ever done to suggest he's ready for a job like managing Liverpool? As somebody said earlier, if Wigan's good run would have come earlier in the season and their "normal" form towards the end with them finishing in the exact same position, would anybody even be contemplating this as a viable possibility let alone a good idea? If they appoint Martinez it will be an unmitigated disaster, not only because the Liverpool fans will be on his back at the first sign of trouble, but also because there's nothing in Martinez' record that suggest he is or will ever be ready for such a big job. Or am I missing something here?

Quite mystifying how other clubs' debt levels are suddenly so low according to that Channel 4 table. Weren't Man Utd and Liverpool's debt levels not in the hundreds of millions not so long ago, as their owners had basically taken out loans to fund the purchase of the clubs? Also I believe Chelsea still officially owe Roman's holding company the best part of a billion pounds? Not sure how all these cosntructions are really massively different to our interest free loan..?

The best thing is that we'll probably sell Simpson for £4 mill and buy Deubuchy for £6 mill, and Deubuchy is a French international Hopefully Simpson will train a little with Deubuchy before he's sold. Only that way he'll realize how turboshit he really is. Are we not getting a little ahead of our selves Punky..?

Tyson

Err..

Good call, although I doubt he's on high wages and there is still potential there if he can somehow get his head screwed on the right way.

Would mean we had no real wasters in the squad anymore..

Yep, would be hilarious if they give him a DoF role though. He will be impossible to work with for any manager worth his salt..

He can't really force him to stay can he? No he can't, but it's almost as if he's pimping him out.. He's resigned to the fact that there's very little he can do in this situation and its almost fully Martinez's decision. Not buying that. He's practically been advertising Martinez to Liverpool. Now I understand Whelan supposedly has a soft spot for the bin dippers, but considering his interest in Wigan he could play it a bit more subtle. Wonder what the Wigan fans (if indeed they do exist) make of it all..

He can't really force him to stay can he? No he can't, but it's almost as if he's pimping him out..

What exactly does Whelan has to gain by letting his promising young manager who's probably the only reason why they're still in the Premiership go?

Damn, wouldn't have minded him..

so have we insured him or not ? As Roger says I assume. Obviously I don't know for a fact, but I can't see an insurance company insuring a £7m signing (see Stoke transfer). And if they do, I assume the premiums would be huge. I reckon Ashley knows this and probably assumes that the list of clubs willing to take a chance on Demba isn't quite as long as the media and/or Demba's agents would like to make out. He is therefore unwilling to up Demba's already pretty decent salary after a good 1/2 to 2/3s of a season. Again, how relevant is this? I imagine the premium for insuring professional footballer's wages and "value" is prohibitive in any case. Why would millionaire/billionaire owners of football clubs insure their assets per se when they know they only people making money from this is the insurance companies. If you have 30 professional players on the payroll you will always have one or two serious injuries. I imagine football clubs can do their own risk management when it comes to this without having to rely on handing over huge insurance premiums. So you don't think that clubs take out insurance policies on their players ie their most valuable assets? I can't believe that a club would spend millions of pounds on a player and agree a contract to pay him millions of pounds and then not take out insurance. With Ba - I don't know if he is uninsurable or just that the premiums for a player with a degenerative knee problem are just very high. Again, the risk of taking Ba on a free and possibly not insuring him/or paying higher premiums are not nearly the same as a club buying Ba for 7m and paying wages in excess of 50k a week. I could be wrong on all this - but it seems to me to be common sense. I have always been thought that you take out insurance to cover for risks where the costs are so high you cannot reasonably expect to recover from it when it happens. Hence you take out health insurance in case you get seriously ill and need expensive treatment, but you don't necessarily take out insurance on your 200 GBP bike, because you could afford to buy a new one if needed. Now, I am just a small business man compared to the likes of Mike Ashley, but this is certainly how I approach insurance in my business too. I can't imagine a self made billionaire being so risk averse that he would take out insurance against something that for him (relatively speaking) is effectively a 200 pound bike. And that's before taking into account that he has 30 bikes and can only use 11 at any one time (or 16 if you include the subs).

Again I am not 100% certain - but I can't believe that a club would spend millions of pounds on an uninsured asset that could be worth nothing. After having paid £7m in transfer fees and then, for example, £15m in wages... you would want some sort of insurance. It's probably explained in the accounts. First I hear from this. I know national teams insure players (like the FA did with Owen), but that's because they don't actually own the assets and can be liable for claims from the clubs who do when they are injured when on national duty. Would be interesting to see if football clubs normally insure their players. For the average Premiership club (60 million in wages alone, probably close to 100 million player value in balance sheet assets) this would easily cost many millions in insurance premium per annum. I can't see wealthy business men like Mike Ashley handing over this cash to the insurance companies when they can easily carry this risk themselves.

so have we insured him or not ? As Roger says I assume. Obviously I don't know for a fact, but I can't see an insurance company insuring a £7m signing (see Stoke transfer). And if they do, I assume the premiums would be huge. I reckon Ashley knows this and probably assumes that the list of clubs willing to take a chance on Demba isn't quite as long as the media and/or Demba's agents would like to make out. He is therefore unwilling to up Demba's already pretty decent salary after a good 1/2 to 2/3s of a season. Again, how relevant is this? I imagine the premium for insuring professional footballer's wages and "value" is prohibitive in any case. Why would millionaire/billionaire owners of football clubs insure their assets per se when they know they only people making money from this is the insurance companies. If you have 30 professional players on the payroll you will always have one or two serious injuries. I imagine football clubs can do their own risk management when it comes to this without having to rely on handing over huge insurance premiums.

He's really s***, the only reason they kept on starting him was because the alternatives were worse. He's hardly "really shit" man..

Why would any prospective club have him insured by definition? Is it that common to take out insurance against injuries?

Don't forget Class Jan Huntelaar: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=702876

http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs2/1474222_o.gif How about this for delusion?

Guess who Seems one of them has found two brain cells to rub together..

Wahey! Well done Montpelier!

What a horrible mess man. Imagine being a PSG fan, or worse, a Montpelier fan..