Man City hit with Academy transfer ban

That RS media eh, covering stuff up now, well.. if it's not on Newsnight it must be the PR men in overdrive, cos I didn't see it!!

The transfer windows are a joke as everyone is tapping each other up quite blatantly and openly. Managers admit to talking to players under contract. Players admit to tapping up fellow pros. Agents are whoring their clients around hours after signing a contract etc .

If FIFA/UEFA don't want to crack down on this, let teams buy and sell openly. Fuck FFP, let it be an open market where players can be sold as many times as they, the clubs and agents deem fit.

It's a sick joke as it is so let's just cut the crap and have an open market where you can buy and sell on a daily basis 24/7, 365 days a year.

So, if a player wants to move, he can, but clubs can't hoard and small clubs aren't limited by the transfer fees.

If a player makes a move and later regrets, he can easily leave. And clubs can easily replace.

The top teams would get rid of those not doing it and then simply sign any that are challenging them in the league.

Bayern Munich have been doing it for years, as soon as a team challenges them, they sign their best player and weaken the challenge.

This is football, like it, or not.

But it sounds like the RS kid is the biggest loser. Struggling to get a club now and had a trial with us, but his development was derailed and his missed a bit.

As for the 11-year-old, how can they really tell and surely the kids development and happiness is more important than the pressure he'll now be under.

The only way to deal with this sort of behaviour is to deduct points from the Premier League team. That's why the Middle Eastern owners came in in the first place, to win (buy) the Premier League and then the Champions League, so kick them there, where it does hurt. Look at their Ladies team, which didn't even exist a decade ago. They have simply gone out and vacuumed up all of the best talent.

Points deduction is the ONLY sanction that will work against abuse of financial power and player cheating for that matter in the modern game. There is just too much money about for financial sanctions to have any effect.

Whilst at work, I had a few requests from clubs and parents to allow boys to spend two days a week out of school during Year 11, training with the club. In my judgement, having seen the boys play, none were exceptional and a career was unlikely. Parents didn't want to hear it often and they were sometimes more star-struck than the lads.