he will sell his controlling share of the team. Despite Gearons desir

Through the 1980s, fueled primarily by booming property prices, a wealth creation culture permeated through English society and politics. Harry Enfield, that eras Ricky Gervais, was on high parody notice. Enfields response was creating the highly reprehensible character, Loadsamoney. Such was the rip roaring response a hit song of the same name was spawned. The cult classic going on to top the pop charts in 1988. Paradoxically, English soccer was on its knees and in the direst of financial shapes. Half empty stadiums, at best running the gauntlet of heightened hooliganism, had become the order of the day. No financial relief could be found on the continent as an indefinite Euro wide ban had been imposed by the governing body on English clubs. The transfer market was almost non-existent save for the highest calibre players. Such was the lack of funds for stadium renewal an Arsenal friend of mine cleverly quipped following Chris Waddless 1989 multi-million ?￡ move from Spurs to Marseilles, if Spurs would now have enough cash to purchase toilet paper for the mens washrooms at White Hart Lane. Dire indeed. Fast forward 25 years and a London tabloid reported Thursday Tottenham was on the block. Purchase price? Loadsamoney. A rather cool ?￡1billion [$1.75b] to be exact. The game changing Premier League, which began play in the 1992/93 season has been the greatest influencer of this extraordinary turn around in English club fortunes both on and off the pitch. With the brand new domestic and global broadcast deal which will net the BPL a record ?￡5.5billion over its three-year lifetime - it is no coincidence we just witnessed a record transfer window. As Canadians vacationed this summer, the BPL Twenty invested a staggering ?￡850m [$1.5b] combined in upgrading their playing squads. To put this into a clearer context, this total surpasses the combined spending of the next big four European Leagues - La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1. No surprising the market leaders were Manchester United, who broke the UK transfer record in bringing Di Maria in from the Barnebeau cold. Only time will tell if this a€?spending your way out of mid table trouble philosophy will return Englands biggest club to former glories. I have my immense doubts good ship MUFC will sail in more calmer and familiar football waters this season. This has nothing to do with their winless start to date a€“ a spineless scoreless draw against Burnley last time out over Labor Day weekend hardly the stuff of legend. A sprinkle of stardust lustre doesnt maketh a team spine; something the inmates of Old Trafford sorely lacked last season. Ironically the ?￡59.7 invested in last springs Champions League Final MVP who made his debut at Turf Moor is well in excess of the total Burnley have invested in players during its entire 132-year history of ?￡45m [$80m]. Coincidentally that figure represents the price Manchester United has struck with AS Monaco to make Falcaos move from the principality to the bosom of English soccer a permanent one. Not done with smashing to pieces the budget, LVG will throw more money at the market when it reopens on New Years Day. At least comfort can be found for the Glazers in the fact they wont have to concern themselves with whether or not the players in question are cup tied for the knock out stages of the Champions League. Liverpool, who had led the rivals in the spending stakes until Di Marias late August arrival, were this seasons Tottenham, who garnered anything but success with their re-investment of the world record fee they received for Gareth Bale. After wrangling ?￡75m [$130m] out of Barcelona for little Luis, they immediately spent those funds. Which if nothing else is clear indication the Nou Camp move was long planned. Not merely a reaction to Suarez leaving his trade mark personal imprint on Giorgio Chiellinis shoulder blade. Table toppers Chelsea, who entertain a perfect Swansea in south west London tomorrow morning, make out the BPL drunken sailor podium -Roman getting his wallet out early and often. My how I wished I was sharing a pint with Arsene when it was announced serial Emirates terminator and tormentor Didier Drogba had made a triumphant return to the Bridge. As for Arsenal themselves, such was the summertime irrational exuberance they managed to nudge tomorrow mornings breakfast opponents, and current BPL Champions Manchester City into fifth place. Well all aware courtesy of the splendid Soccernomics tome from the exceedingly lucid Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski there is no correlation, direct or otherwise between transfer prices and winning titles. Salaries budgets though be a significant indicator. No coincidence silverware success alluded Arsenal for close to a decade and more for their North London cousins. The book then must have formed part of Manchester Uniteds vice chair, Ed Woodwards summer reading list. How on earth else can we account for reports earlier this week the club is about to offer Christiano ?￡300,000 or close to $550,000 a week every week for three years. Oh my! Is jolly olde England about to lay witness to world footballs very first ?￡100 million man? Well past time then to make Alan Greenspan BPL Commissioner. Double Header BPL action live on the TSN Radio Network Saturday - Chelsea v Swansea 10:00am et / 6:00ampt and Liverpool v Aston Villa 12:30pm et / 9:30am pt Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca @TheSoccerNoel on Twitter Cheap MLB Jerseys Authentic . MacIntyre stopped 49 shots and the Marlies defeated the Texas Stars 5-1 in Game 1 of the American Hockey Leagues Western Conference final. "I felt in control, so that was nice," MacIntyre said. Cheap Rockies Jerseys China . 5 Trade Deadline is drawing closer and teams will be deciding on whether to buy or sell while figuring out which players can make the biggest difference and hold the greatest value. http://www.cheaprockiesjerseys.com/ . Harrison Barnes had 15 points and Reggie Bullock scored 11 for the Tar Heels (17-3, 4-1 ACC), who took the court for the first time without starter Dexter Strickland. The junior guard tore his right ACL last Thursday at Virginia Tech and will miss the rest of the season. Cheap Todd Helton Jersey .C. -- Tony Stewart will not race Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, the third Sprint Cup race hes skipped since his car struck and killed Kevin Ward Jr. Wholesale Rockies Jerseys . Cruz set the tone with a two-run homer in the first inning, and Baltimore scored eight times in the eighth to pull away for a 12-3 victory in Game 1. The major league leader with 40 homers during the regular season, Cruz added an RBI single to his early blast off Max Scherzer. ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Hawks are sticking with general manager Danny Ferry even though the teams new majority owner wants him fired for racially charged comments about Luol Deng. CEO Steve Koonin on Tuesday told the Hawks flagship radio station that he made the decision to discipline Ferry but allowed him to keep his job managing the team. He did not say what the punishment was, but noted that he relied on a law firms three-month investigation of Ferry and him describing Deng as someone who "has a little African in him." Ferry made the inflammatory comments about Deng in a conference call with the Hawks ownership group in June when the team pursued Deng as a free agent. Deng, who now plays for the Miami Heat, responded saying, "Im proud to say I actually have a lot of African in me, not just a little." A letter from co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. recommends that Ferry resign or be fired. Gearon said Ferry made that description of Deng to the teams ownership group. His June 12 letter to co-owner Bruce Levenson said Ferry went on to say, "Not in a bad way, but hes like a guy who would have a nice store out front and sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back." Added Gearon: "Ferry completed the racial slur by describing the player (and impliedly all persons of African descent) as a two-faced liar and cheat." Deng, 29, was born in what is now South Sudan. His father moved his family to Egypt and then England. The 10-year NBA veteran is now a British citizen, played for England in the 2012 Olympics and said hes proud to represent his heritage "on the highest stage." Deng, like Ferry, also played at Duke. "Every person should have the right to be treated with respect and evaluated as an individual, rather than be reduced to a stereotype," Deng said. "I am saddened and disappointed that this way of thinking still exists today. I am even more disturbed that it was shared so freely in a business setting." Koonin said Atlanta law firm Alston and Bird went through 24,000 documents, conducted 19 interviews and read "every email Danny Ferry has ever sent as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks." Koonin said no other negative information on Ferry was found in the probe. "I took their advice and far exceeded their advice," Koonin said of the undisclosed punishment he imposed on Ferry. Hawks spokesman Garin Narain said the investigation of Ferrys comments uncovered a racially inflammatory email written two years ago by Levenson. That discovery led to Levensons announcement Sunday that he will sell his controlling share of the team. Despite Gearons desire to remove Ferry, Koonin is standing by him. "I understand that emotion," Koonin said of Gearons recommendation. "I certainly understand that emotion. I know people who have said that to me. But if we sentence people based on what everybody wanted, we wouldnt have a justice system.dddddddddddd "I listened to what (the law firm) said because they had done the work ... so thats a decision Im willing to live with." Gearon warned Levenson he believed Ferrys comments "could be fatal to the franchise" if made public. Gearon said he and the other co-owners "were appalled that anyone would make such a racist slur under any circumstance, much less the GM of an NBA franchise on a major conference call." Gearon declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press on Tuesday. Ferry apologized Tuesday but said he was only repeating what he had heard about Deng. "In regards to the insensitive remarks that were used during our due diligence process, I was repeating comments that were gathered from numerous sources during background conversations and scouting about different players," Ferry said in a statement released by the team. "I repeated those comments during a telephone conversation reviewing the draft and free agency process. Those words do not reflect my views, or words that I would use to describe an individual and I certainly regret it. I apologize to those I offended and to Luol, who I reached out to Monday morning." Koonin has agreed to meet with Atlanta civil rights leaders on Wednesday. The Rev. Markel Hutchins said Monday he asked for the meeting to discuss what he believes is a racist attitude throughout the organization. In his letter to Levenson, Gearon compared Ferrys remarks to much-publicized racist comments which forced Donald Sterling to sell the Clippers. "We believe these comments by Ferry were far worse than Sterlings because they were not from a private personal conversation -- they were in a business environment on a business matter in front of a dozen or more people," Gearon wrote. "If Ferry would make such a slur in a semi-public forum, we can only imagine what he has said in smaller groups or to individuals." Ferry was named the Hawks general manager in 2012 following two years as vice-president of basketball operations for the San Antonio Spurs. He was general manager for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005-2010 and helped build the team that advanced to the 2007 NBA Finals. There was renewed optimism about the direction of the team after Ferry hired coach Mike Budenholzer from San Antonio in 2013. Now, the turmoil threatens to derail all their efforts. New ownership must be found and despite the support of Koonin, Ferrys ability to survive the crisis is unknown. In his letter of apology, Ferry pledged he would learn from the incident. "I am committed to learning from this and deeply regret this situation," Ferry said. "I fully understand we have work to do in order to help us create a better organization; one that our players and fans will be proud of, on and off the court, and that is where my focus is moving forward." 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