Something To Tell The Grand Kids...

So, as I write this up the Olympic Games have finished and we are rapidly approaching the final ceremony.

If we turn the clocks back a few weeks, from what I saw and heard, there was minimal excitement for the games itself, a bit of moaning about London dwellers having their city taken over, whilst prices for tickets seem to be escalating rapidly out of control. We were unsure if we were properly prepared, and if it would even be a success, not only on a sporting front, but a commercial side too with the eyes of the world firmly staring upon us, some already predicting failure (Cheers Mitt Romney)

The day of the opening ceremony, I remember at work we were discussing about it at work. It was something we'd watch, but nothing to be excited about - with us happy to lounge on our sofa's at home and quickly flick onto it between episodes of Come Dine With Me or suchlike. Danny Boyle was put in charge of blowing our minds, and frankly I thought it might have all just come off a bit pretentious.

How wrong was I. Brighton Beach had put up a giant 100ft screen to remain up during the Olympic Games, starting with the opening ceremony and by all accounts it was absolutely packed, with a fantastic atmosphere. Not just that but the ceremony itself was fantastic. I certainly had my doubts at the start, tweeting some kind of bored confusion, however giving it a bit more time it really started to take wonderful shape. It was fantastic, so fantastic I ended up watching it again - it was the talk everywhere, Twitter, work, Facebook, the pub, the world. London had really announced to the world that it meant business and we had no intention of letting the occasion overshadow the fact it was being held in London and we wanted to really make it one to remember.

What followed were just over 2 weeks of brilliance. Honestly I was not prepared how much I'd get sucked in. I found myself watching something every single day, flicking between what I thought was some great coverage by the BBC. That is without SKY (so just the 3 channels for me), watching an absolute multitude of sports I'd never even considered watching before, ranging from Shooting and Hockey, to Taekwondo and Sailing. It was unreal. My TV was on from as soon as I got in from work and didn't stop watching until long into the night, even at work we had TV's on from time to time, yet I never ever got bored or felt like it was too much! Whilst I was obviously supporting Great Britain and following our athletes with a keen interest, some sports just have world class athletes you just want to watch, simply because their might not be another like them for a long time. Michael Phelps in the swimming, Usain Bolt in the 100m/200m, they simply command your attention, you are drawn to them. And boy did they not disappoint, Bolt especially seeming to lull alot of people into thinking he wasn't at his best and Blake would usurp him. Though he really showed everyone what the Olympic Games meant to him blasting to gold on both his runs. Great Britain itself though really did us proud .We had expectations with people like Sir Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington, Tom Daley and Bradley Wiggins, but so many more stars have now stepped up to the plate and become national heroes. Mo Farrah has been fantastic, winning two golds. Jade Jones, Louis Smith, Nicola Adams and Anthony Joshua. But what I think is being so fantastic about these worthy winners is in this modern era where we are always trying to encourage the youth of today to take up sports more, these people are so strongly supported. All through the Olympics the support of our athletes was fantastic, the atmosphere was incredible, and that's just my opinion from watching it on TV. These people's lives will change forever after these games, but also hopefully they encourage more of the countries youth to want to follow in their footsteps. Considering the media are so eager to criticize rappers for setting bad examples and creating negativity with beefs and whatnot, all during the games they were constantly giving support to our athletes all through the games, and attending events, which has maybe broken a barrier between. Their support has really helped to give the Olympics and the athletes a larger fanbase and a really positive message, as well as maybe showing those who feel it's not really 'cool' or whatever to watch the games, or support them, that it's actually a good thing to get involved.

All in all this is probably going to be the biggest event that we will have on home soil in our lifetime. Fine for a few weeks the Underground may have gotten crowded, the parks may have been packed, and congestion may have been awful, but you were part of the Olympic Games, and the biggest sporting event on the planet. And it has been fantastic, with minor issues, and we've shown the world that given the chance we can put on a sporting spectacle. We should be proud of what's happened here, and it is 100% something that one day you can look back on and tell your kids or grand kids all about.

Why Oh Why Joe Allen....

I know it's been said many a time before, but it still seems to be happening. It's quite a strange thing and lessons rarely seem to be learned from it. But seriously, why do some managers have such limited vision when it comes to signing players?

The basic fundamentals are, if you are a Premier League club, when attempting to sign a player who is a regular for another Premier League club, you will get ripped off. If they are British, you will be even more ripped off. So why on earth do people keep doing it?!

My immediate feeling is because these managers have such limited vision, they don't know any better. They don't watch other leagues, they don't pay attention to much, they are old fashioned and want to keep things... British. But is that really for the best?

A prime example in recent years is from Kenny Dalglish, and to an extent, Liverpool. I know the owners/club wanted a more British base of players, but I imagine that suited Kenny perfectly. It was simple as the scouting was done pretty much for them. They went for players that knew the league, but in reality what happended was they overpaid on average players who knew the league. Don't just assume that every foreigner cannot adapt, it's a strange mentality to take.

They spent £35million on Andy Carroll as we all know, we also know that he wasn't worth that and it's not his fault they paid that. They also paid £20million for Stewart Downing, and £10million for Charlie Adam. All of these players were in the top 3 players at their previous clubs regardless of their clearly limited ability. This made them look far better than they were, they were bought rather expensively and have really not delivered as hoped/expected.

I look at Brendan Rodgers now, and it seems he has a similar philosophy which he had at Swansea, and is looking to continue at Liverpool with Joe Allen. The fee's being suggested are far overpriced for a single semi decent season in the Premiership (exactly like Charlie Adam). If it goes through, then Liverpool have overpaid once more for a solid but unspectacular midfielder. Swansea don't want to sell one of their better players but for that kind of money they might have to. 

However why don't English managers look outside the box/league a bit more and see what great value there is out there? It baffles me! Why, because they fear the player won't adapt? Because they were never a boyhood supporter (Robbie Keane syndrome) and might leave (ala Fabregas)? Or simply because they don't know these players really exist or if they are much good? Look at Laudrup, he's been in Spain managing, and is someone who is articulate, smart and well researched, his first signing for the club has been Michu - someone who scored around 15 goals in La Liga for a bargain £2million. Fine he might well flop, he might be awful - but I'm fairly certain he'll be solid, and raise a few eyebrows then in a couple of years be sold on to a bigger club for a healthy profit. 

Paul Lambert studied his coaching course in Germany (he has strong links to Dortmund), and is interested in foreign football - he's already invested in 3 players from the Dutch league with the best bargain being Vlaar for £3million, who was in the Dutch national squad and I thought looked a very good player. I think Villa have a good manager and a healthy looking squad for next season already. 

Chelsea on the other spectrum have really splashed out on big signings such as Hazard and Oscar, but even those fee's were both less than Carroll, and Oscar was £5million more than Downing, trust me you'll think he's a bargain this time next year. Marin looks a good prospect and for £6million that really seems a snip, once more showing the value outside of the Premiership - specially if you compare that to Snodgrass for Norwich who was half the price but really is probably about a quarter of the player, not too bad for Leeds but I'm fairly sure will be relatively forgettable at the club who can't go spending large sums on players all that often. 

Even United have found some good value outside of the Premiership with the signing of Kagawa for £12million - the same fee for Allen who has had a single semi-decent season in the Premiership vs someone who won the Bundasliga player of the year and who I'm fairly sure be a very good signing.

West Ham on the other hand have a complete bizarre transfer strategy, doing the traditional British signings for large sums of money on big wages who they know will do a solid job - then trying to buy outside the Premiership and generally getting their hands burned with these oddballs (Maiga, £5million, I predict will be a big flop)

It looks like I've been having a go at the managers, I haven't, it's not all their fault by any means. They don't run all aspects of the club, they rely on vast scouting networks and endless dossiers and reports on players - but they do give these scouts directions, what they are looking for, they must provide small guidance for what they want and these scouts then deliver the goods. We all look at Graham Carr of Newcastle being a prime example - with some fantastic work with Cabaye - £4million for a French international who had a brilliant season with Tiote and has surely at least trippled his value, expect a big move in the next 2 years. Tiote himself was a bargain worth about £15million now. 

I could go on and on about the good signings and bad, but the examples I have seem stupidly biased and non sequential (I was thinking of wingers, Bentley for £15million came to mind vs £11million for Podolski) or how we (Arsenal) due to having a very knowledgeable manager often find value outside of the Prem and rarely ever buy players from inside of it, certainly not for any kind of large fee. Daniel Levy generally does the same for Spurs, with the rare flop often being countered with the brilliant and great valued Modric, bargain of Bale (outside of the Prem), and value for money on Van Der Vaart. He's a money making genius (profit on Mido?!?!) and knows that real value lays away from signing big players from within the Prem.

Another factor that I must certainly give to @scottwhitto for making a great point that had totally slipped my mind but certainly adds to the ridiculous fee's for British players who are clearly not as technically gifted to players outside of the Prem but lack the experience (it's really not weighted 50:50 with ability/experience, ability is about 80:20 vs experience as adaptability will play a major part) but it's the new rules regarding squad sizes and the amount of homegrown players needed. This has led to Prem clubs looking in the lower leagues for the best talent so they can count towards this, and the fee's are relatively reasonable (Nick Powell for United is one that springs to mind). So clubs can charge more for these players knowing that the Prem clubs "need" these players to reach their criteria, but surely this just gives a bigger incentive to develop in youth academies and scouting the real youngsters who are yet to go pro.

I think my point is more this, surely it's a more valuable asset to a club hiring a manager that is open minded and understands more about European league's or just league's overseas and world football - than one who knows nothing but the Premiership and is proud of that fact. These managers bring added value in being able to send scouts based on their own knowledge and uncover these absolute gems that are all over the world. Maybe it's not just the managers who need to open their minds to global football, but the chairmen as well and stop living these expensive and often underachieving fantasies.