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Milner was easily my MoM too yesterday. LB/RB/LW/RW he was shunted around every time they made a sub and played everywhere !
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Milner may not be pretty (although he is far from dull), but one does not have to sign up to a Gradgrindian view of football to appreciate the hard-working. In fact, it is an asset that should be cherished.
Against Chelsea, Milner was unspectacularly effective. Only Toure touched the ball more often and, despite Milner operating in a wide role, no starting player won a higher percentage of their duels or completed a higher percentage of their passes.
Milner completed more crosses than anyone else, made more tackles, and he created double the chances of any other player on the pitch, assisting his side's goal, scored by Frank Lampard, for good measure.
James Milner v Cheslea: Passes (yellow), crosses (red) and duels won (blue)
______________
Milner may not be pretty (although he is far from dull), but one does not have to sign up to a Gradgrindian view of football to appreciate the hard-working. In fact, it is an asset that should be cherished.
Against Chelsea, Milner was unspectacularly effective. Only Toure touched the ball more often and, despite Milner operating in a wide role, no starting player won a higher percentage of their duels or completed a higher percentage of their passes.
Milner completed more crosses than anyone else, made more tackles, and he created double the chances of any other player on the pitch, assisting his side's goal, scored by Frank Lampard, for good measure.
James Milner v Cheslea: Passes (yellow), crosses (red) and duels won (blue)
Hahaha
That's brilliant. It's one of our players in his undies dancing to silly music with a man in a track suit and one of the skeletons off Clash of the Titans. What's not to like?
That's brilliant. It's one of our players in his undies dancing to silly music with a man in a track suit and one of the skeletons off Clash of the Titans. What's not to like?
R
RedZeppelin III
Guest
did southampton sell a load of 10-12m pound players for way , way over their true value and then replace them again with 10-12m players who haven't let their standard of last year drop ?
I don't know RedZeppelin III. What do you think?
CO*jason and the argonauts*UGH!!!
* hangs head in shame*
Milner was easily my MoM too yesterday. LB/RB/LW/RW he was shunted around every time they made a sub and played everywhere !
______________
Milner may not be pretty (although he is far from dull), but one does not have to sign up to a Gradgrindian view of football to appreciate the hard-working. In fact, it is an asset that should be cherished.
Against Chelsea, Milner was unspectacularly effective. Only Toure touched the ball more often and, despite Milner operating in a wide role, no starting player won a higher percentage of their duels or completed a higher percentage of their passes.
Milner completed more crosses than anyone else, made more tackles, and he created double the chances of any other player on the pitch, assisting his side's goal, scored by Frank Lampard, for good measure.
James Milner v Cheslea: Passes (yellow), crosses (red) and duels won (blue)
Milner was excellent. Full of running and always looking to create something where ever he plays. I will have him over any of our midfielders now, except Sterling.
Rodgers dealing with trolls:
[article]LIVERPOOL -- Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers insists he does not want to get into a war of words with his former vice-captain Daniel Agger.
Centre-back Agger ended an eight-and-a-half-year stay at Anfield when he returned to his first club Brondby, in Denmark, in August.
But the 29-year-old was critical of Rodgers in an interview with Danish television, claiming that he was "not appreciated" by the Liverpool manager.
Rodgers sounded surprised by Agger's comments when asked to respond to them, but made clear he did not want to get dragged into a row.
He said: "I've nothing really to say on it. Dan gave his reasons for leaving when he left. We wished him well when he went.
"I think out of respect to him, I don't really want to say any more on it. He's a Brondby player now, so he's moved on."
-- irrelevant stuff snipped --[/article]
Unbelievable. Well, actually no - it's the FA, so it's totally believable.
http://www.theguardian.com/football...nand-football-association-fifa-vice-president
[article]Rio Ferdinand in frame to be Britain’s representative at Fifa’s top table
• QPR’s defender must fit role around playing schedule
• Le Saux, Elliott and James are also being considered
Press Association
The Guardian, Monday 22 September 2014 23.10 BST
Rio Ferdinand has emerged as a surprise possible choice to be the Football Association’s candidate for Britain’s Fifa vice-presidential position.
The FA is drawing up a list of contenders after FA vice-chairman David Gill, the Manchester United director, ruled himself out. Ferdinand is one of several names under consideration, according to an FA source, despite the former England defender playing for Queens Park Rangers.
Other former players who are being considered by the FA are Graeme Le Saux, Paul Elliott and David James.
The governing body is keen to harness the pulling power of a high-profile former player, but if Ferdinand, the former England and Manchester United defender, is to show any interest in the role he would have to be sure he could fit the duties around his playing schedule.
Whoever is chosen, they will have to stand for election next March against opponents being put forward by Scotland and Wales – probably the Scotland Football Association president, Campbell Ogilivie, and the Welsh Football Association president, Trefor Lloyd Hughes. Uefa member countries will then vote for the person to succeed Northern Ireland’s Jim Boyce, who is stepping down in June.
Le Saux, the former Chelsea and England full-back, already has an FA role sitting on its inclusion advisory board, as does Elliott, another former Chelsea defender. Both also have existing links with Uefa.
James, a former Liverpool and England goalkeeper, is the player-manager of the Kerala Blasters side in the Indian Premier League and has been a regular pundit on television.
Boyce has stated he has no plans to run for the post again, while the Welsh FA believes it is its turn to fill the position, never having held the role since it was established nearly 70 years ago.
The Welsh had been under the impression that there was a gentleman’s agreement to let them have the post for the next four years, but FA insiders say any rotation deal was scrapped when Fifa reforms meant the vice-presidency had to be voted on by all Uefa member nations rather than just the four home associations.[/article]
http://www.theguardian.com/football...nand-football-association-fifa-vice-president
[article]Rio Ferdinand in frame to be Britain’s representative at Fifa’s top table
• QPR’s defender must fit role around playing schedule
• Le Saux, Elliott and James are also being considered
Press Association
The Guardian, Monday 22 September 2014 23.10 BST
Rio Ferdinand has emerged as a surprise possible choice to be the Football Association’s candidate for Britain’s Fifa vice-presidential position.
The FA is drawing up a list of contenders after FA vice-chairman David Gill, the Manchester United director, ruled himself out. Ferdinand is one of several names under consideration, according to an FA source, despite the former England defender playing for Queens Park Rangers.
Other former players who are being considered by the FA are Graeme Le Saux, Paul Elliott and David James.
The governing body is keen to harness the pulling power of a high-profile former player, but if Ferdinand, the former England and Manchester United defender, is to show any interest in the role he would have to be sure he could fit the duties around his playing schedule.
Whoever is chosen, they will have to stand for election next March against opponents being put forward by Scotland and Wales – probably the Scotland Football Association president, Campbell Ogilivie, and the Welsh Football Association president, Trefor Lloyd Hughes. Uefa member countries will then vote for the person to succeed Northern Ireland’s Jim Boyce, who is stepping down in June.
Le Saux, the former Chelsea and England full-back, already has an FA role sitting on its inclusion advisory board, as does Elliott, another former Chelsea defender. Both also have existing links with Uefa.
James, a former Liverpool and England goalkeeper, is the player-manager of the Kerala Blasters side in the Indian Premier League and has been a regular pundit on television.
Boyce has stated he has no plans to run for the post again, while the Welsh FA believes it is its turn to fill the position, never having held the role since it was established nearly 70 years ago.
The Welsh had been under the impression that there was a gentleman’s agreement to let them have the post for the next four years, but FA insiders say any rotation deal was scrapped when Fifa reforms meant the vice-presidency had to be voted on by all Uefa member nations rather than just the four home associations.[/article]
Here's an interesting read about one of the vampires at the top. It's a tad long therefore split in three posts.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/22/-sp-jorge-mendes-agent-third-party-ownership-players
Jorge Mendes, the Portuguese agent who has conducted many of the biggest transfers in European football, is serially involved in the third‑party ownership of players in apparent breach of Fifa regulations, a Guardian investigation can reveal.
Mendes, who brokered the year’s biggest deals, including Ángel di María’s £59.7m move to Manchester United and Diego Costa’s £32m purchase by Chelsea, was seeking to attract €85m (£67m) from undeclared investors via offshore companies to buy stakes in players at clubs in Spain and Portugal, according to a document seen by the Guardian. The prospectus and further inquiries have shown that:
• Mendes and the former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon advise five Jersey-based funds on more than £100m to be invested in buying “economic rights” in players.
• Mendes admits he has a conflict of interest, because he acts as the agent to players whose economic rights have been bought by the funds he advises; this appears to contravene Fifa regulations on agents.
• Sporting Lisbon say the funds that Mendes and Kenyon advise sought to buy stakes in players as a condition of players, advised by Mendes, renewing their contracts.
• Mendes claims to have conducted 68% of all player transactions at Portugal’s great clubs, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica and Porto, in the decade 2001-10.
Jorge Mendes. Photograph: Antonio M. Simoes/Atlantico/Press Association Images
The 20-year ascent of Mendes from Porto nightclub owner and friend of footballers to the beaming broker of the game’s most lucrative transfers has tracked the sport’s pay-TV-fuelled inflation itself, and Portugal’s status as a habitual exporter of players. Mendes built his name and the operation of his company, Gestifute, on attaining a remarkable dominance over the deals done by Portugal’s top three clubs, and he took several of these players on multimillion-pound moves to England and Spain. There he has extended his influence, particularly after his client José Mourinho made the journey himself from Porto after 2004, to sign as the manager at Chelsea, then Internazionale and Real Madrid, now Chelsea again.
Mendes’s work reached stunning fruition this summer, when he was seen conducting the biggest moves of talent and money not only from his home country’s financially hollowed out clubs but of the whole European football player transfer market. James Rodríguez, his reputation glowing from his World Cup excellence, was signed by Real Madrid for £71m from Monaco, to where Mendes brokered his move from Porto only last year for €45m (£38.5m). Porto declared in its annual report that it paid Gestifute €4.4m (£3.6m) for “intermediation service costs” on that deal; the amount paid by Real this year has not been disclosed.
Angel di María moved to Manchester United from Real Madrid for a shade under £60m. Photograph: John Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images
Di María, deemed surplus stock at Real Madrid, came to Old Trafford for almost £60m in Manchester United’s post-Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes splash-out; a grinning Mendes was seen with Louis van Gaal in the 4x4 at United’s Carrington training ground. Radamel Falcao, whose €40m (£32m) sale by Porto to Atlético Madrid in 2011 was brokered by Mendes – Gestifute shared €3.7m (£3m) “intermediation service costs” with another company, Orel – moved to Monaco last year for £50m, then Mendes brought him to United this summer on an extraordinarily costly loan. Eliaquim Mangala, for whom Manchester City paid £32m to Porto – 33% of Mangala’s “economic rights” had been owned by the Malta-based third-party ownership fund Doyen – was another Mendes move.
Costa brought his goalscoring eye from Atlético Madrid, where Mendes boasts of powerful influence, to Mourinho at Chelsea, who paid £32m. Reports have stated that 30% of Costa’s “economic rights” were owned by an offshore fund but sources close to the signing say in fact there was no third‑party ownership of Costa.
Unquestionably true, however, is that Mendes, as well as acting as an agent for these and many other players, and being paid by clubs as a transfer “intermediary”, is serially involved with Kenyon in advising on the third‑party ownership of economic rights in players.
The Guardian has seen a document, a prospectus from 2012 seeking to raise €85m (£67m) to buy stakes in footballers via Gibraltar, a tax haven, for a fund named Quality Sports V Investments LP, registered in Jersey, another tax haven. Mendes’s Gestifute agency and Kenyon’s company, Opto, are described as advisers to the fund, helping to identify players, make “partnerships” with “development clubs” in Spain and Portugal, and using their “relationships” with clubs in the “Big 10” – Europe’s and the world’s richest – who will then buy the players.
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The prospectus boasts of Mendes’s dominance in Portugal, and his and Kenyon’s connections in football, including Mourinho. The document describes the great clubs of Portugal – Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon – the smaller Portuguese club Braga and last season’s La Liga winners and Champions League finalists Atlético Madrid as “partner clubs”. It suggests the fund will do substantial business with them, buying stakes in players who will then be sold on, at a substantial profit to the investors.
The standard justification by funds and clubs for third-party ownership, which is condemned by Uefa and banned by the Premier League, is that such funds provide clubs with money they need to buy or keep players. That rationale – which Uefa and the Premier League rejects, arguing that third‑party ownership undermines clubs’ and the game’s financial health and integrity – is not mentioned anywhere in the 225‑page prospectus. It focuses firmly on the money investors can make from a “unique opportunity to invest in football”.
With graphs showing the exponential financial growth of the modern transfer market, the prospectus says it is aiming for a startling annual profit: 32%. The fund will “execute the Investment Strategy”, the document promises, through “the expertise of the Investment Advisors, [companies] represented by Peter Kenyon and Jorge Mendes”, who “have extensive experience working within the football industry”. Mendes and Kenyon have “extensive relationships with clubs in the Big 10 that have the financial capacity and incentive to invest in the most talented, high-value football players”.
The plan is for the fund to advance the money to an Irish-registered company, Quality Football Ireland IV Limited, which will buy the stakes in players. The document says of Mendes and Kenyon that they have “developed many relationships throughout the football community. By leveraging these relationships, Peter Kenyon and Jorge Mendes have demonstrated a proven track record in brokering football Transfers [sic].”
There is no explanation of what is meant by Kenyon and Mendes “leveraging relationships” within football clubs to make transfers happen.
Sir Alex Ferguson greets Cristiano Ronaldo after the Portuguese youngster’s move to Manchester United in 2003. Photograph: John Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images
The document makes clear that Mendes remains a players’ agent – stating that he represents “several of the world’s top coaches and footballers”, including Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo. Several transfers are cited in evidence for the track record of Mendes and Kenyon, including Ronaldo’s €15m (£12m) move to Manchester United in 2003 from Sporting Lisbon, when Kenyon was United’s chief executive and Mendes was Ronaldo’s agent; and Tiago Mendes’s 2004 move from Benfica to join Mourinho at Chelsea, where Kenyon had moved to become chief executive after Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003.
The document lists four other funds investing in third-party ownership of players which it says Kenyon and Mendes have advised. These are all Jersey-listed partnerships, as outlined by the Guardian earlier this year when we revealed that Chelsea strongly appear to be involved in the third of these funds, Quality Sports III Investments (since renamed Burnaby). Altogether, the four funds have raised £46.8m, have fully spent that money buying player stakes, and “are on track to achieve the target returns”.
A report on third-party ownership prepared for Fifa earlier this month by the research organisations Centre de Droit et d’Economie du Sport (CDES) and Centre International d’Etude Du Sport (CIES), which the Guardian has seen, emphasises there is a conflict of interest: where an agent whose prime duty should be to act in the best interests of his client, the player, in fact owns a stake in him and so has a financial interest in having him sold.
Third-party ownership, the report concludes, cements a system in which players must be sold before their contracts are served, so that their clubs, and the funds that have advanced the clubs money, can cash in. Some of football’s most powerful agents have become involved in third-party ownership, the researchers found, as a means of extending their influence, and gaining access to more players.
The Quality Sports V Investment prospectus deals with Mendes and the question of conflicts of interest. It says: “The Fund is subject to a number of actual and potential conflicts of interest.” These include “inherent conflicts” in the way Gestifute will “provide services” to the fund and to the company investing the money, Quality Football Ireland IV Ltd based in Dublin, and the “services” and “sub‑advisory services” Kenyon’s company Opto will provide to the fund, QFI IV, and Gestifute. Gestifute and Opto “may carry on activities for other investment funds or entities”, with different “investment programmes”, the document says, and “provide advisory services” to other funds established since 2010 which have “equivalent investment objectives” to the fund.
“There could be actual or potential conflicts of interest between those funds and [this Quality Sports V Investments] fund,” the prospectus says. Under the general heading “Conflicts of Interest”, the document declares that Mendes will act as the agent for players in whom stakes are bought by the fund.
“Jorge Mendes (either directly or through his corporate vehicles) acts or may act as agent for, or otherwise represents or may represent, certain of the Investee Players or potential Investee Players, and may be remunerated independently in that capacity.”
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/22/-sp-jorge-mendes-agent-third-party-ownership-players
Jorge Mendes, the Portuguese agent who has conducted many of the biggest transfers in European football, is serially involved in the third‑party ownership of players in apparent breach of Fifa regulations, a Guardian investigation can reveal.
Mendes, who brokered the year’s biggest deals, including Ángel di María’s £59.7m move to Manchester United and Diego Costa’s £32m purchase by Chelsea, was seeking to attract €85m (£67m) from undeclared investors via offshore companies to buy stakes in players at clubs in Spain and Portugal, according to a document seen by the Guardian. The prospectus and further inquiries have shown that:
• Mendes and the former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon advise five Jersey-based funds on more than £100m to be invested in buying “economic rights” in players.
• Mendes admits he has a conflict of interest, because he acts as the agent to players whose economic rights have been bought by the funds he advises; this appears to contravene Fifa regulations on agents.
• Sporting Lisbon say the funds that Mendes and Kenyon advise sought to buy stakes in players as a condition of players, advised by Mendes, renewing their contracts.
• Mendes claims to have conducted 68% of all player transactions at Portugal’s great clubs, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica and Porto, in the decade 2001-10.
The 20-year ascent of Mendes from Porto nightclub owner and friend of footballers to the beaming broker of the game’s most lucrative transfers has tracked the sport’s pay-TV-fuelled inflation itself, and Portugal’s status as a habitual exporter of players. Mendes built his name and the operation of his company, Gestifute, on attaining a remarkable dominance over the deals done by Portugal’s top three clubs, and he took several of these players on multimillion-pound moves to England and Spain. There he has extended his influence, particularly after his client José Mourinho made the journey himself from Porto after 2004, to sign as the manager at Chelsea, then Internazionale and Real Madrid, now Chelsea again.
Mendes’s work reached stunning fruition this summer, when he was seen conducting the biggest moves of talent and money not only from his home country’s financially hollowed out clubs but of the whole European football player transfer market. James Rodríguez, his reputation glowing from his World Cup excellence, was signed by Real Madrid for £71m from Monaco, to where Mendes brokered his move from Porto only last year for €45m (£38.5m). Porto declared in its annual report that it paid Gestifute €4.4m (£3.6m) for “intermediation service costs” on that deal; the amount paid by Real this year has not been disclosed.
Di María, deemed surplus stock at Real Madrid, came to Old Trafford for almost £60m in Manchester United’s post-Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes splash-out; a grinning Mendes was seen with Louis van Gaal in the 4x4 at United’s Carrington training ground. Radamel Falcao, whose €40m (£32m) sale by Porto to Atlético Madrid in 2011 was brokered by Mendes – Gestifute shared €3.7m (£3m) “intermediation service costs” with another company, Orel – moved to Monaco last year for £50m, then Mendes brought him to United this summer on an extraordinarily costly loan. Eliaquim Mangala, for whom Manchester City paid £32m to Porto – 33% of Mangala’s “economic rights” had been owned by the Malta-based third-party ownership fund Doyen – was another Mendes move.
Costa brought his goalscoring eye from Atlético Madrid, where Mendes boasts of powerful influence, to Mourinho at Chelsea, who paid £32m. Reports have stated that 30% of Costa’s “economic rights” were owned by an offshore fund but sources close to the signing say in fact there was no third‑party ownership of Costa.
Unquestionably true, however, is that Mendes, as well as acting as an agent for these and many other players, and being paid by clubs as a transfer “intermediary”, is serially involved with Kenyon in advising on the third‑party ownership of economic rights in players.
The Guardian has seen a document, a prospectus from 2012 seeking to raise €85m (£67m) to buy stakes in footballers via Gibraltar, a tax haven, for a fund named Quality Sports V Investments LP, registered in Jersey, another tax haven. Mendes’s Gestifute agency and Kenyon’s company, Opto, are described as advisers to the fund, helping to identify players, make “partnerships” with “development clubs” in Spain and Portugal, and using their “relationships” with clubs in the “Big 10” – Europe’s and the world’s richest – who will then buy the players.
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The prospectus boasts of Mendes’s dominance in Portugal, and his and Kenyon’s connections in football, including Mourinho. The document describes the great clubs of Portugal – Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon – the smaller Portuguese club Braga and last season’s La Liga winners and Champions League finalists Atlético Madrid as “partner clubs”. It suggests the fund will do substantial business with them, buying stakes in players who will then be sold on, at a substantial profit to the investors.
The standard justification by funds and clubs for third-party ownership, which is condemned by Uefa and banned by the Premier League, is that such funds provide clubs with money they need to buy or keep players. That rationale – which Uefa and the Premier League rejects, arguing that third‑party ownership undermines clubs’ and the game’s financial health and integrity – is not mentioned anywhere in the 225‑page prospectus. It focuses firmly on the money investors can make from a “unique opportunity to invest in football”.
With graphs showing the exponential financial growth of the modern transfer market, the prospectus says it is aiming for a startling annual profit: 32%. The fund will “execute the Investment Strategy”, the document promises, through “the expertise of the Investment Advisors, [companies] represented by Peter Kenyon and Jorge Mendes”, who “have extensive experience working within the football industry”. Mendes and Kenyon have “extensive relationships with clubs in the Big 10 that have the financial capacity and incentive to invest in the most talented, high-value football players”.
The plan is for the fund to advance the money to an Irish-registered company, Quality Football Ireland IV Limited, which will buy the stakes in players. The document says of Mendes and Kenyon that they have “developed many relationships throughout the football community. By leveraging these relationships, Peter Kenyon and Jorge Mendes have demonstrated a proven track record in brokering football Transfers [sic].”
There is no explanation of what is meant by Kenyon and Mendes “leveraging relationships” within football clubs to make transfers happen.
The document makes clear that Mendes remains a players’ agent – stating that he represents “several of the world’s top coaches and footballers”, including Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo. Several transfers are cited in evidence for the track record of Mendes and Kenyon, including Ronaldo’s €15m (£12m) move to Manchester United in 2003 from Sporting Lisbon, when Kenyon was United’s chief executive and Mendes was Ronaldo’s agent; and Tiago Mendes’s 2004 move from Benfica to join Mourinho at Chelsea, where Kenyon had moved to become chief executive after Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003.
The document lists four other funds investing in third-party ownership of players which it says Kenyon and Mendes have advised. These are all Jersey-listed partnerships, as outlined by the Guardian earlier this year when we revealed that Chelsea strongly appear to be involved in the third of these funds, Quality Sports III Investments (since renamed Burnaby). Altogether, the four funds have raised £46.8m, have fully spent that money buying player stakes, and “are on track to achieve the target returns”.
A report on third-party ownership prepared for Fifa earlier this month by the research organisations Centre de Droit et d’Economie du Sport (CDES) and Centre International d’Etude Du Sport (CIES), which the Guardian has seen, emphasises there is a conflict of interest: where an agent whose prime duty should be to act in the best interests of his client, the player, in fact owns a stake in him and so has a financial interest in having him sold.
Third-party ownership, the report concludes, cements a system in which players must be sold before their contracts are served, so that their clubs, and the funds that have advanced the clubs money, can cash in. Some of football’s most powerful agents have become involved in third-party ownership, the researchers found, as a means of extending their influence, and gaining access to more players.
The Quality Sports V Investment prospectus deals with Mendes and the question of conflicts of interest. It says: “The Fund is subject to a number of actual and potential conflicts of interest.” These include “inherent conflicts” in the way Gestifute will “provide services” to the fund and to the company investing the money, Quality Football Ireland IV Ltd based in Dublin, and the “services” and “sub‑advisory services” Kenyon’s company Opto will provide to the fund, QFI IV, and Gestifute. Gestifute and Opto “may carry on activities for other investment funds or entities”, with different “investment programmes”, the document says, and “provide advisory services” to other funds established since 2010 which have “equivalent investment objectives” to the fund.
“There could be actual or potential conflicts of interest between those funds and [this Quality Sports V Investments] fund,” the prospectus says. Under the general heading “Conflicts of Interest”, the document declares that Mendes will act as the agent for players in whom stakes are bought by the fund.
“Jorge Mendes (either directly or through his corporate vehicles) acts or may act as agent for, or otherwise represents or may represent, certain of the Investee Players or potential Investee Players, and may be remunerated independently in that capacity.”
Part 2:
Jorge Mendes, front, watches a Real Madrid game with Cristiano Ronaldo in 2013. Photograph: Helios de la Rubia/Real Madrid via Getty Images
This appears to make the world’s most celebrated football intermediary “super‑agent” in breach of Fifa’s agents regulations, which remain in force.Regulation 19.8 states: “Players’ agents shall avoid all conflicts of interest in the course of their activity.”
Regulation 29.1 imposes an obligation on clubs not to pay any part of a transfer fee to a player’s agent, and specifically prohibits the agent “owning any interest in any transfer compensation or future transfer value of a player”.
Mel Stein, chairman of the Association of Football Agents in England, argues that agents can represent a player and be a broker in his transfer, if efforts are made to avoid a conflict. However, he says: “What is not acceptable is seeking to earn money from both ends of a transfer without ensuring that there is no conflict. I believe that third-party ownership makes that impossible to achieve.”
Mendes and Gestifute declined requests for an interview and did not respond to specific questions about his involvement in the third-party ownership funds and the apparent conflict of interest with his duties as an agent. Fifa would not provide an answer to whether an agent such as Mendes, who is also involved in third‑party ownership, is by definition acting in breach of their regulations.
A spokeswoman for Fifa said in response to that question: “We cannot provide comments based on a hypothetical situation. The disciplinary committee decides on a matter after analysis of all the specific circumstances pertaining to a case.”
World football’s governing body is believed never to have brought any proceedings against any club or person in relation to third-party ownership funds, which clubs are prohibited from allowing to “influence” them, and there is not understood to be any investigation into the activities of Mendes.
The prospectus seen by the Guardian illustrates, with coloured pie charts, Mendes’s startling dominance of Portuguese football. Famously, he is always said to have brokered his first significant deal in 1997, the move from Portugal’s Primeira Liga club Vitória Guimarães to Spain’s Deportivo La Coruña for the goalkeeper Nuno Espirito Santo.
Mendes, seen smiling by players’ sides ever since, has always been said to have accumulated a huge share of deals, and this document sets it out explicitly, that from 2001-2010, Mendes had “unparalleled success in the Portuguese transfer market”.
José Mourinho is unveiled as Chelsea manager in 2004, with chief executive Peter Kenyon alongside him. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Guardian
Mendes, it says, conducted transfers worth 78% of Sporting Lisbon’s total earnings of €88m (£70m) in that decade. At Benfica, the figure is cited as 51% of €107m (£85m) in transfer deals. Porto exported most of Mourinho’s 2004 Champions League-winning squad – including Paulo Ferreira (£13.2m) and Ricardo Carvalho (£19.85m) – to Chelsea, whom Mourinho had joined as manager with Kenyon as chief executive. Further deals included Pedro Mendes (£2m), who went to Tottenham Hotspur; Deco, sold to Barcelona in a €21m (£17m) swap deal with the midfielder Ricardo Quaresma; then Maniche to Dinamo Moscow and the 31-year-old Nuno Valente, who joined Everton for £1.5m. Mendes is stated to have conducted 70% by value of Porto’s transfers between 2001-10 – €238.4m (£189m) worth of deals, out of €340m (£270m).
In total, Mendes is said to have conducted 68% by financial value of all the deals done in the whole decade by Portugal’s top three clubs: €362.2m (£287m) of players sold, out of €535m (£425m) “transactions” concluded in total by the clubs.
There are some in Portuguese football who see this dominance by one agent as unhealthy, reflecting concern expressed in the CIES/CDES report to Fifa of the transfer market’s “oligopolisation” by a few powerful intermediaries. Mendes represented or brokered the transfers of most of Portugal’s national team, and acted for Carlos Queiroz, who was the side’s coach from 2008 to 2010.
The Guardian asked Portugal’s football association, the FPF, whether Mendes’s dominance as illustrated by the document and his representation of so many players and coaches gave any cause for concern. A spokesman replied: “The Portuguese FA is not aware of the documents you mention and has no comments to make on this matter.”
Sporting Lisbon have recently had plenty of comments to make. The club’s new president, Bruno de Carvalho, has denounced as a “menace” and “monster” the funds to whom majority stakes in almost the club’s entire squad were sold before he was elected in March 2013 and he vowed to end the practice. Sporting’s latest annual report listed eight players, as of 30 June this year, majority or 50% owned by three of the companies in the structure advised by Kenyon and Mendes: Quality Football Ireland; Quality Football Ireland III (in which Chelsea appear to be involved), and Quality Football Fund Ireland.
Sporting have told the Guardian that some of these stakes in players were bought by the funds advised by Mendes and Kenyon when the players’ contracts with Sporting were renewed, with Mendes negotiating as their agent. The stakes appeared to De Carvalho’s regime to have been sold as a condition of the players renewing their contracts, which the club argues was a “distortion” and a conflict of interest.
A Sporting spokesman, discussing Mendes’s status as an agent and his involvement with third-party ownership funds, said: “This is a situation that Sporting does not agree with. Mainly in situations where the conditions for the renewal of the players’ contracts depended upon the grant from Sporting of those economic rights.”
Mendes and Kenyon did not respond to the Guardian’s question about whether economic rights in players were sold to the funds they advise as a condition of a player, represented by Mendes, renewing his contract. However, Sporting said they have been told by the Quality Ireland companies that Mendes does not play a role in their management.
Having risen, and moved, with football’s escalation to a business of multibillion-pound money flows and shifting centres of spending, Mendes now bestrides the game, from delivering Di María to a flapping Manchester United, to advising funds buying stakes in Portuguese players he also represents.
Mendes’s first major international deal came in 2002 when he brokered the midfielder Hugo Viana’s transfer from Sporting to Newcastle United, who paid £8.5m for a 19-year-old who would start just 16 Premier League matches for them. Mendes’s break into English football was achieved in partnership with the Manchester‑based agency Formation, who then claimed Mendes broke their agreement when sealing his truly breakthrough deal the following year: Ronaldo’s move from Sporting toUnited.
Kenyon then moved to Chelsea, where he and Mendes negotiated Mourinho’s hiring as the new manager, the signings of Carvalho and Ferreira to join him from Porto, and Tiago Mendes, from Benfica. Formation sued in 2005, claiming their agreement required Gestifute to split the agents’ fees from Chelsea, of €2.9m (£2.3m). In 2011 Formation announced they had settled the case, with the payment by Gestifute, net of legal costs, of €205,000 (£163,000).
In 2007, Mendes negotiated the £27m purchase by United of Anderson, from Porto, and, for £25.5m from Sporting Lisbon, Nani, whose previous agent, Ana Almeida, complained she had been sidelined. The same summer, Mendes broke through to Real Madrid, when the Spanish giants signed the central defender Pepe for €30m (£24m) from Porto.
Mendes’s influence at Real greatly extended when he negotiated Ronaldo’s £80m move from United in 2009, then Mourinho’s arrival as the coach in 2010. Di María, signed from Benfica for £21m, and Carvalho, from Chelsea for £6.7m, were signed immediately, Fábio Coentrão, for £25m from Benfica, the following year, all deals brokered by Mendes.
Bebé with Manchester United in 2010. Photograph: Lee Smith/Action Images
In 2010 came his most enduringly curious deal:United’s signing of Bebé, from Vitória Guimarães, for £7.4m. The player, who had a troubled childhood and grew up in care, never played in any club’s academy, unlike Nani, Anderson, Ronaldo and the rest, played in the Homeless World Cup, then scored goals in one season in the Portuguese third division, before playing pre-season friendlies with Guimarães.
The club told their members that Mendes bought 30% of Bebé’s economic rights just before the move – rather undermining the argument that the sale of economic rights enables clubs to hold on to players – and, with a 10% agent’s fee, was paid €3.6m (£2.9m) of the £7.4m from United. Gonçalo Reis, Bebé’s agent, complained to the PFP and Fifa that Mendes had poached the player; later Portuguese police announced an investigation into the transfer, but no results of it are known and Mendes has faced no disciplinary charges.
Emilio Macedo, the Vitória president, said approvingly of Mendes: “This country owes him a lot because he handles large transfers and brings money into the country. This is like an export.”
Bebé, said by United to have been recommended by their scouts in Portugal but never seen by Ferguson, started not a single Premier League match, then was loaned to Besiktas, where several Mendes-represented players have gone, then the Portuguese clubs Rio Ave and Paços Ferreira, before Benfica bought him this summer, spending £2.4m.
Real Madrid’s James Rodríguez arrived from Monaco for £71m.Photograph: Lavandeira Jr/EPA
Last year, Mendes was called to help with the new Monaco project financed by the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, and he organised the arrivals of Rodríguez, Falcao, Carvalho, and the midfield force João Moutinho, from Porto. This summer, Rybolovlev decided to restrain his spending and Mendes brokered the sale of Rodríguez to Real Madrid and the loan of Falcao to United on deadline day.
Mendes is said now to be involved with the Singapore businessman Peter Lim, who is buying an indebted Valencia. The club’s coach, appointed after two seasons at Rio Ave, is Nuno Espirito Santo, Mendes’s first ever client, back when, a nightclub owner, he ventured into deal-making in the beautiful game.
Football has changed vastly since, becoming an industry in which super‑rich Premier League clubs and Spain’s top two are bulk buyers of talent. Mendes, agent, transfer intermediary, adviser to anonymous investors buying stakes in players, “partner” to smaller clubs, “leverager” of relationships in rich ones, has ridden that change. He has made a huge, unthinkable amount of money, and made himself indispensable, too, as an orchestrator, an oiler of the wheels.
This appears to make the world’s most celebrated football intermediary “super‑agent” in breach of Fifa’s agents regulations, which remain in force.Regulation 19.8 states: “Players’ agents shall avoid all conflicts of interest in the course of their activity.”
Regulation 29.1 imposes an obligation on clubs not to pay any part of a transfer fee to a player’s agent, and specifically prohibits the agent “owning any interest in any transfer compensation or future transfer value of a player”.
Mel Stein, chairman of the Association of Football Agents in England, argues that agents can represent a player and be a broker in his transfer, if efforts are made to avoid a conflict. However, he says: “What is not acceptable is seeking to earn money from both ends of a transfer without ensuring that there is no conflict. I believe that third-party ownership makes that impossible to achieve.”
Mendes and Gestifute declined requests for an interview and did not respond to specific questions about his involvement in the third-party ownership funds and the apparent conflict of interest with his duties as an agent. Fifa would not provide an answer to whether an agent such as Mendes, who is also involved in third‑party ownership, is by definition acting in breach of their regulations.
A spokeswoman for Fifa said in response to that question: “We cannot provide comments based on a hypothetical situation. The disciplinary committee decides on a matter after analysis of all the specific circumstances pertaining to a case.”
World football’s governing body is believed never to have brought any proceedings against any club or person in relation to third-party ownership funds, which clubs are prohibited from allowing to “influence” them, and there is not understood to be any investigation into the activities of Mendes.
The prospectus seen by the Guardian illustrates, with coloured pie charts, Mendes’s startling dominance of Portuguese football. Famously, he is always said to have brokered his first significant deal in 1997, the move from Portugal’s Primeira Liga club Vitória Guimarães to Spain’s Deportivo La Coruña for the goalkeeper Nuno Espirito Santo.
Mendes, seen smiling by players’ sides ever since, has always been said to have accumulated a huge share of deals, and this document sets it out explicitly, that from 2001-2010, Mendes had “unparalleled success in the Portuguese transfer market”.
Mendes, it says, conducted transfers worth 78% of Sporting Lisbon’s total earnings of €88m (£70m) in that decade. At Benfica, the figure is cited as 51% of €107m (£85m) in transfer deals. Porto exported most of Mourinho’s 2004 Champions League-winning squad – including Paulo Ferreira (£13.2m) and Ricardo Carvalho (£19.85m) – to Chelsea, whom Mourinho had joined as manager with Kenyon as chief executive. Further deals included Pedro Mendes (£2m), who went to Tottenham Hotspur; Deco, sold to Barcelona in a €21m (£17m) swap deal with the midfielder Ricardo Quaresma; then Maniche to Dinamo Moscow and the 31-year-old Nuno Valente, who joined Everton for £1.5m. Mendes is stated to have conducted 70% by value of Porto’s transfers between 2001-10 – €238.4m (£189m) worth of deals, out of €340m (£270m).
In total, Mendes is said to have conducted 68% by financial value of all the deals done in the whole decade by Portugal’s top three clubs: €362.2m (£287m) of players sold, out of €535m (£425m) “transactions” concluded in total by the clubs.
There are some in Portuguese football who see this dominance by one agent as unhealthy, reflecting concern expressed in the CIES/CDES report to Fifa of the transfer market’s “oligopolisation” by a few powerful intermediaries. Mendes represented or brokered the transfers of most of Portugal’s national team, and acted for Carlos Queiroz, who was the side’s coach from 2008 to 2010.
The Guardian asked Portugal’s football association, the FPF, whether Mendes’s dominance as illustrated by the document and his representation of so many players and coaches gave any cause for concern. A spokesman replied: “The Portuguese FA is not aware of the documents you mention and has no comments to make on this matter.”
Sporting Lisbon have recently had plenty of comments to make. The club’s new president, Bruno de Carvalho, has denounced as a “menace” and “monster” the funds to whom majority stakes in almost the club’s entire squad were sold before he was elected in March 2013 and he vowed to end the practice. Sporting’s latest annual report listed eight players, as of 30 June this year, majority or 50% owned by three of the companies in the structure advised by Kenyon and Mendes: Quality Football Ireland; Quality Football Ireland III (in which Chelsea appear to be involved), and Quality Football Fund Ireland.
Sporting have told the Guardian that some of these stakes in players were bought by the funds advised by Mendes and Kenyon when the players’ contracts with Sporting were renewed, with Mendes negotiating as their agent. The stakes appeared to De Carvalho’s regime to have been sold as a condition of the players renewing their contracts, which the club argues was a “distortion” and a conflict of interest.
A Sporting spokesman, discussing Mendes’s status as an agent and his involvement with third-party ownership funds, said: “This is a situation that Sporting does not agree with. Mainly in situations where the conditions for the renewal of the players’ contracts depended upon the grant from Sporting of those economic rights.”
Mendes and Kenyon did not respond to the Guardian’s question about whether economic rights in players were sold to the funds they advise as a condition of a player, represented by Mendes, renewing his contract. However, Sporting said they have been told by the Quality Ireland companies that Mendes does not play a role in their management.
Having risen, and moved, with football’s escalation to a business of multibillion-pound money flows and shifting centres of spending, Mendes now bestrides the game, from delivering Di María to a flapping Manchester United, to advising funds buying stakes in Portuguese players he also represents.
Mendes’s first major international deal came in 2002 when he brokered the midfielder Hugo Viana’s transfer from Sporting to Newcastle United, who paid £8.5m for a 19-year-old who would start just 16 Premier League matches for them. Mendes’s break into English football was achieved in partnership with the Manchester‑based agency Formation, who then claimed Mendes broke their agreement when sealing his truly breakthrough deal the following year: Ronaldo’s move from Sporting toUnited.
Kenyon then moved to Chelsea, where he and Mendes negotiated Mourinho’s hiring as the new manager, the signings of Carvalho and Ferreira to join him from Porto, and Tiago Mendes, from Benfica. Formation sued in 2005, claiming their agreement required Gestifute to split the agents’ fees from Chelsea, of €2.9m (£2.3m). In 2011 Formation announced they had settled the case, with the payment by Gestifute, net of legal costs, of €205,000 (£163,000).
In 2007, Mendes negotiated the £27m purchase by United of Anderson, from Porto, and, for £25.5m from Sporting Lisbon, Nani, whose previous agent, Ana Almeida, complained she had been sidelined. The same summer, Mendes broke through to Real Madrid, when the Spanish giants signed the central defender Pepe for €30m (£24m) from Porto.
Mendes’s influence at Real greatly extended when he negotiated Ronaldo’s £80m move from United in 2009, then Mourinho’s arrival as the coach in 2010. Di María, signed from Benfica for £21m, and Carvalho, from Chelsea for £6.7m, were signed immediately, Fábio Coentrão, for £25m from Benfica, the following year, all deals brokered by Mendes.
In 2010 came his most enduringly curious deal:United’s signing of Bebé, from Vitória Guimarães, for £7.4m. The player, who had a troubled childhood and grew up in care, never played in any club’s academy, unlike Nani, Anderson, Ronaldo and the rest, played in the Homeless World Cup, then scored goals in one season in the Portuguese third division, before playing pre-season friendlies with Guimarães.
The club told their members that Mendes bought 30% of Bebé’s economic rights just before the move – rather undermining the argument that the sale of economic rights enables clubs to hold on to players – and, with a 10% agent’s fee, was paid €3.6m (£2.9m) of the £7.4m from United. Gonçalo Reis, Bebé’s agent, complained to the PFP and Fifa that Mendes had poached the player; later Portuguese police announced an investigation into the transfer, but no results of it are known and Mendes has faced no disciplinary charges.
Emilio Macedo, the Vitória president, said approvingly of Mendes: “This country owes him a lot because he handles large transfers and brings money into the country. This is like an export.”
Bebé, said by United to have been recommended by their scouts in Portugal but never seen by Ferguson, started not a single Premier League match, then was loaned to Besiktas, where several Mendes-represented players have gone, then the Portuguese clubs Rio Ave and Paços Ferreira, before Benfica bought him this summer, spending £2.4m.
Last year, Mendes was called to help with the new Monaco project financed by the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, and he organised the arrivals of Rodríguez, Falcao, Carvalho, and the midfield force João Moutinho, from Porto. This summer, Rybolovlev decided to restrain his spending and Mendes brokered the sale of Rodríguez to Real Madrid and the loan of Falcao to United on deadline day.
Mendes is said now to be involved with the Singapore businessman Peter Lim, who is buying an indebted Valencia. The club’s coach, appointed after two seasons at Rio Ave, is Nuno Espirito Santo, Mendes’s first ever client, back when, a nightclub owner, he ventured into deal-making in the beautiful game.
Football has changed vastly since, becoming an industry in which super‑rich Premier League clubs and Spain’s top two are bulk buyers of talent. Mendes, agent, transfer intermediary, adviser to anonymous investors buying stakes in players, “partner” to smaller clubs, “leverager” of relationships in rich ones, has ridden that change. He has made a huge, unthinkable amount of money, and made himself indispensable, too, as an orchestrator, an oiler of the wheels.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29319599
Felix Magath: 'I did tell Hangeland to use cheese to treat injury'
Former Fulham boss Felix Magath has admitted he told Brede Hangeland to treat a knee injury with cheese.
But the German, who was sacked by the Championship club last week, says the story has been distorted by the media.
Defender Hangeland claimed Magath told him to treat an injured thigh with a block of cheese soaked in alcohol.
"I merely suggested it could be worth trying the old wives' tale of applying quark cheese to the injured area," said Magath, 61.
"These false-stories from the player Hangeland are rubbish. I would never tell a doctor what to do.
"But sadly this story has now been taken on and distorted by the media."
Fulham's Championship struggles
Aug 9: 1-2 v Ipswich (A)
Aug 30: 1-1 v Cardiff (H)
Aug 16: 0-1 v Millwall (H)
Sep 13: 0-3 v Reading (A)
Aug 20: 0-1 v Wolves (H)
Sep 17: 3-5 v Forest (A)
Aug 23: 1-5 v Derby (A)
Sep 20: 0-1 v Blackburn (H)
Hangeland, 33, now at Crystal Palace, left Craven Cottage in June after being released by the club, but Match of the Day pundit and former Fulham skipper Danny Murphy confirmed the defender's story was true.
Describing Magath's suggestion of using cheese to treat an injury as "ridiculous", Murphy claimed the incident was indicative of the way the coach lost the faith of his experienced players.
However, Magath hit out at former Whites captain Hangeland over the story.
"It seems to me, that often players who are not performing on the pitch and are not in the spotlight, will make such ridiculous accusations," Magath said on his official Facebook page.
"A world class player in the mould of Michael Ballack or Raul would never ever make such statements. Class speaks for itself."
Former West Germany midfielder Magath, who has also managed Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg and Schalke, also criticised English football for its perceived narrow-mindedness.
"I'm as convinced as ever that English football has something to learn from German qualities," he said. "Unfortunately they're reluctant to accept things."
Magath, appointed in February, was sacked on Thursday with Fulham bottom of the Championship, having taken just one point from their first seven games of the campaign.
Former Wales defender Kit Symons, 43, took over as caretaker boss but could not prevent Fulham slipping to a 1-0 home defeat against Blackburn on Saturday.
Felix Magath: 'I did tell Hangeland to use cheese to treat injury'
Former Fulham boss Felix Magath has admitted he told Brede Hangeland to treat a knee injury with cheese.
But the German, who was sacked by the Championship club last week, says the story has been distorted by the media.
Defender Hangeland claimed Magath told him to treat an injured thigh with a block of cheese soaked in alcohol.
"I merely suggested it could be worth trying the old wives' tale of applying quark cheese to the injured area," said Magath, 61.
"These false-stories from the player Hangeland are rubbish. I would never tell a doctor what to do.
"But sadly this story has now been taken on and distorted by the media."
Fulham's Championship struggles
Aug 9: 1-2 v Ipswich (A)
Aug 30: 1-1 v Cardiff (H)
Aug 16: 0-1 v Millwall (H)
Sep 13: 0-3 v Reading (A)
Aug 20: 0-1 v Wolves (H)
Sep 17: 3-5 v Forest (A)
Aug 23: 1-5 v Derby (A)
Sep 20: 0-1 v Blackburn (H)
Hangeland, 33, now at Crystal Palace, left Craven Cottage in June after being released by the club, but Match of the Day pundit and former Fulham skipper Danny Murphy confirmed the defender's story was true.
Describing Magath's suggestion of using cheese to treat an injury as "ridiculous", Murphy claimed the incident was indicative of the way the coach lost the faith of his experienced players.
However, Magath hit out at former Whites captain Hangeland over the story.
"It seems to me, that often players who are not performing on the pitch and are not in the spotlight, will make such ridiculous accusations," Magath said on his official Facebook page.
"A world class player in the mould of Michael Ballack or Raul would never ever make such statements. Class speaks for itself."
Former West Germany midfielder Magath, who has also managed Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg and Schalke, also criticised English football for its perceived narrow-mindedness.
"I'm as convinced as ever that English football has something to learn from German qualities," he said. "Unfortunately they're reluctant to accept things."
Magath, appointed in February, was sacked on Thursday with Fulham bottom of the Championship, having taken just one point from their first seven games of the campaign.
Former Wales defender Kit Symons, 43, took over as caretaker boss but could not prevent Fulham slipping to a 1-0 home defeat against Blackburn on Saturday.
I read it earlier on the Guardian website. It is a good read.
Ravael Morrison has gone from West Ham to Cardiff on a 3-month loan deal.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/23/ravel-morrison-cardiff-loan-three-months
Somehow I had the impression that only emergency loans (1-month) were allowed after the transfer window. Can Premier League clubs also loan players at this point?
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/23/ravel-morrison-cardiff-loan-three-months
Somehow I had the impression that only emergency loans (1-month) were allowed after the transfer window. Can Premier League clubs also loan players at this point?
Binny has been lying low and I don't have his 'skilz' on an iPad so I had to just let it go, in fairness there are a few pictures and a couple of graphs to keep those us with short attention spans entertained.
QPR star Steven Caulker HANDCUFFED after being suspected of stealing Philadelphia cheese from Tesco
The Queens Park Rangers defender - who earns £42,000 a week - was arrested after staff at the Tesco Express store alerted cops. He was later released without charge
Action Images / Getty
Incident: Caulker was accused of shoplifting
Premier League football star Steven Caulker was handcuffed by police after being suspected of stealing a £1.85 tub of soft cheese from a Tesco store, it emerged last night.
Caulker, the £8 million-rated Queens Park Rangers defender, was held when officers who had been alerted by staff jumped from a patrol car.
It happened when Caulker, 22, who earns around £42,000 a week, went shopping at the Tesco store in Weybridge, Surrey. He was later released by police without charge.
A witness told The Lying Rag: “They were going on about cheese - Philadelphia.
"There were a group of lads watching from across the street who immediately recognised him and thought it was hilarious.”
Michael Regan
England star: Caulker (left) celebrates scoring for the Three Lions
He added: “Caulker had left the Tesco Express then turned around and gone back in. That was when the police arrived - jumping from their squad car and handcuffing him. He looked pretty alarmed.”
A spokeswoman for Surrey police said that no crime was committed and added: “There was some confusion between the staff about payment.”
A Tesco spokesman said: “Police were called after an allegation of shoplifting last Tuesday.
"The matter was resolved at the store and our store colleagues decided not to press charges.”
Neither Caulker nor his club commented last night.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/qpr-star-steven-caulker-handcuffed-4314506
The Queens Park Rangers defender - who earns £42,000 a week - was arrested after staff at the Tesco Express store alerted cops. He was later released without charge
Action Images / Getty
Incident: Caulker was accused of shoplifting
Premier League football star Steven Caulker was handcuffed by police after being suspected of stealing a £1.85 tub of soft cheese from a Tesco store, it emerged last night.
Caulker, the £8 million-rated Queens Park Rangers defender, was held when officers who had been alerted by staff jumped from a patrol car.
It happened when Caulker, 22, who earns around £42,000 a week, went shopping at the Tesco store in Weybridge, Surrey. He was later released by police without charge.
A witness told The Lying Rag: “They were going on about cheese - Philadelphia.
"There were a group of lads watching from across the street who immediately recognised him and thought it was hilarious.”
Michael Regan
England star: Caulker (left) celebrates scoring for the Three Lions
He added: “Caulker had left the Tesco Express then turned around and gone back in. That was when the police arrived - jumping from their squad car and handcuffing him. He looked pretty alarmed.”
A spokeswoman for Surrey police said that no crime was committed and added: “There was some confusion between the staff about payment.”
A Tesco spokesman said: “Police were called after an allegation of shoplifting last Tuesday.
"The matter was resolved at the store and our store colleagues decided not to press charges.”
Neither Caulker nor his club commented last night.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/qpr-star-steven-caulker-handcuffed-4314506
Miliband asks for ten years to fix Manchester United
In a bold statement of intent, the Labour Leader Ed Miliband has set out a ten-year plan to reverse the damage done by successive managers at Old Trafford. Whilst many of his critics suggested that a decent centre half and holding midfielder would be sufficient, a Labour spokesman insisted it would take a long-term economic plan to improve results, clone Ryan Giggs and change the word ‘United’ to ‘City’ on the stationery.
Many in Westminster think Miliband should be more focused on national issues but Labour supporters have said solving the crisis at Old Trafford was a more pressing concern. One Shadow Cabinet member commented: ‘With Chelsea resurgent and Arsenal looking more balanced, Ed can’t afford to be complacent. Yes, we have a battling midfield presence like Ed Balls, but we’ve also got Ed Balls as a potential Chancellor of the Exchequer. Frankly I’d rather leave him on the pitch, he’ll cause less damage there.’
Unveiling his vision of the future, Miliband’s spokesman made it very clear that it was ‘jam tomorrow, if by tomorrow you mean 3,650 days later’. However, many commentators are curious as to why Miliband needs such an inordinate amount of time to do his job properly.
A spokesman explained: ‘Ed’s not the fastest learner. He sees himself more as the Special Needs Prime Minister – deserving all the opportunities as any normal Prime Minister, but just with 25% extra time in exams.’ By contrast the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has claimed that should he become PM he will require only half the usual time to screw things up.
Louis Van Gaal has already given a cautious welcome to the offer of six national goals, but said it would make no difference if Miliband continued to ship more own goals. In other promises, meanwhile, Miliband has offered to sort out your plumbing, resolve the problems in the Middle East and combat the causes of ennui within a ten-year window.
However, fixing United will definitely be his primary electioneering issue. A spokesman said: ‘Ed knows what it can be like being Phil Neville, living in the shadow of a more talented brother. Equally he knows more than most how hard it is to follow a pugnacious Scot, who hangs on to power one season too long.’
- Status
