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I know we finally have a few people around who watch soccer regularly, so yay - maybe I can post a soccer topic that gets replies!

What do you guys think about the world-record transfer fee that United just got for Cristiano Ronaldo? Is this the beginning of an arms race that will begin to bankrupt clubs, or is it just the nature of the beast that will continue on unabated? Or, a third option, is Real just simply crazy in their pursuit of Galacticos? Will it even help them get one over on Barca?

For me, I think this is a pretty big win-win. I like United not having Ronaldo; perhaps now the Reds can steal Tevez too and start chipping away at United's personnel advantage. From another angle, I should point out (as most people in chat already know) that Ronaldo hails from the same island off the coast of Portugal from where my family came to the States about a hundred years ago, so what little connection I still have to the Portuguese makes me a bit proud that a local boy is the one setting records. Even with all that, though, I think the transfer of Ronaldo (and to a lesser extent, Kaka) are pretty extreme and I kind of hope they blow up in Real's face so that it doesn't become a game of one-upmanship where only the richest clubs have a chance of ever getting a player above average.

Also, I want to share this quote from the LA Times: "The hair-gel industry in north-west England suffered a catastrophic blow on Thursday." Perhaps in ten years we'll think that was the biggest outcome of the transfer.


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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

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The commentary I like is as follows:

£80m is the price of most Premiership teams. I don't think big spending is the way to make a good team. It never will be. Aston Villa have been brilliant this season and will presumably continue to improve with good team planning and sound management. I really hope Real crash and burn.

There has been a breakdown in the relationship between Sir Alex and Ronaldo. I don't like Ronaldo either.

Ronaldo's leaving will give Rooney more space to improve. If we remember in an older Portugal vs. England, Ronaldo and Rooney had a bit of pushing and shoving which resulted in the latter being sent off. I wonder if there's always been a bit of subliminal negativity between those two.

Ronaldo is not worth £80m. Hah! He'll be so full of himself because he's the most expensive player on the planet.

Man U are the best team to play for. Once you leave Man U your career deteriorates. That's very true. I imagine Man U was the highlight of his career.

Real Madrid looks like my LMA Manager team. Ok that's just my commentary. I once sat down with my cousins and kitted out Celtic with Kaka, Ronaldo, Messi, Zidane, Ronaldinho and all the other greats.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

I think it's a bit much to blow that kind of cashload (fnar) on one player. Granted, he's a massively celebrated and skillful footballer, and it's only natural that Real would be willing to shell out a hefty fee to sign him, but 80 mil? Come on, no single player should be worth that kind of cash.

I hope this blows up in Real's face too. Frankly, I think it's better to work with players you have than to blow your budget trying to sign quality names. Besides, just because he's a brilliant individual player, doesn't mean he'll have a working dynamic with these team mates or with the tactics of this specific team. Or, better still, this could go the way of Beckham and he can find himself injured at sitting out a year's worth of matches. Money well spent, then!

Still, if it makes Man U a less formidable side, I can't really complain.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

Quote (Dragon_Fire @ 12th June 2009 08:30)

I think it's a bit much to blow that kind of cashload (fnar) on one player. Granted, he's a massively celebrated and skillful footballer, and it's only natural that Real would be willing to shell out a hefty fee to sign him, but 80 mil? Come on, no single player should be worth that kind of cash.

I hope this blows up in Real's face too.

Agreed. The amount of money they're spending on Ronaldo is simply ridiculous. I don't care how good a single player is, footie is a team sport. How about ensuring you've got a solid team all around instead of spending it all on a single player?
(Though, maybe he'll be popular enough to actually recoup the money and render my assessments moot.)

As a supporter of a team that is lucky not to be a million pounds in the red at the end of the average season, it's mind-boggling that eighty times that is spent on one man. Most other leagues could wipe out the debts of every team in it with change to build some new improvements to Stadia with £80 million. It's a ridiculous amount to pay for one remarkably overrated player. As someone with rather leftist (read: will never see a fraction of that amount of cash during his lifetime) views on the frivolous spending of huge wads of cash, it's insane. As someone who thought there was meant to be some kind of financial crisis that would force even the big clubs to draw their belts tight... I wonder what the hell Real's board is thinking.

Football is slowly going to bankrupt itself as long as the big spenders have more money than sense. The sad thing is this record will be surpassed with another useless diver within the next decade.


Just to illustrate how rediculous an amount of money this really is, I figured out a few things you could buy instead of 1 Ronaldo. So, a short list of more useful things that £80m (Approx $132m US) could buy:

• 133,333,333 packets of monster munch. From a Petrol Station.
• 80 million litres of Petril
• 16 million kilograms of cheese (2 for £5 Tesco Cheddar)
• 7162 years of work of the average person on minimum wage.
• 40 million donations to a "£2 per month" charity
• 422 houses in the UK (Based on an average price of £189,215
• 266,666 PS3s
• 386,473 XBox 360s
• 444,469 Wiis
• The production of an entire film like Donnie Darko 26 times.
• 48,632 Duck Houses
• About 15% of the Edinburgh Tram System
• 26 T-80 or M1A2 Abrams Battle Tanks
• 16 Challenger 2 Tanks
• 264 IED-resistant replacements for HMMWV's
• Almost an entire F-22 Raptor
• One and a half F-35's
• Any team in the SPL plus enough players to win the league.

This post has been edited by Del S on 13th June 2009 06:54

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