Italian is the richest manager in British football
In his most recent book, Richard Branson reveals that rich lists are seldom accurate, based as they are on estimations and public domain information. Nevertheless, the good folks at Four Four Two have this week released the British Football Rich List, and there are few surprises at the top. David Beckham tops the players’ list with a supposed £125m fortune, and the wealthiest person in British football is still the QPR owner who isn’t about to be kicked out of the game, Lakshmi Mittal. The Indian steel magnate is said to be sitting on £18.4bn, nearly £1.5bn more than second-placed Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
In the richest manager top ten, noted money fan Harry Redknapp places at number seven with £10m, while second place is held by under-fire Ipswich coach Roy Keane, who apparently amassed the majority of his £27m fortune in his playing days.
The richest gaffer in Britain is also the one who has to take charge of the least amount of games - England manager Fabio Capello is worth £30m due to his utter refusal to pay tax hugely successful career.
[See the richest player list here, the manager list here and the full top 100 list here]
Keen to create a divide between Cristiano Ronaldo and his current employer, Spanish paper Marca are stirring things up extracting some insinuations from an interview with teammate Ryan Giggs.
The Welshman was asked to pick his Manchester Utd dream team, and he proceeded to wax lyrical about the likes of Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Wayne Rooney. As you can see from his selection below, however, there is a distinct absence of any lothario Portuguese wingers:
The Giggs Manchester Utd dream team
Schmeichel or Van der Sar (he doesn’t distinguish between them as both are super brill) Gary Neville
Jaap Stam
Rio Ferdinand
Dennis Irwin
David Beckham
Paul Scholes
Roy Keane
Ryan Giggs
Eric Cantona
Wayne Rooney
The Spoiler is concerned that the old guard has shown an apparent lack of appreciation for Ronaldo, but perhaps a little more concerned that Giggsy chose to pick himself in his own dream team…
Stars rudely interrupt broadcast to make views known
Ricky Sbragia has overcome an unpronounceable surname to become the favourite for the permanent Sunderland manager job. This rousing support from his players will surely do no harm to his future career prospects.
The richest club in the world are closer to breaking the bottom three than the Big Four
At the start of the season everyone was discussing the impact Sir Alex Ferguson’s protégés were going to make in the Premier League but less than halfway into the season, almost all of them have struggled.
Steve Bruce is the exception and his Wigan team are ninth but Roy Keane left Sunderland, who won 4-0 today, in the relegation zone while Paul Ince has gone eleven games without a win and is five points from safety with a Blackburn team that finished seventh last season.
But the one who has almost slipped under the radar is Mark Hughes. Obviously Manchester City’s chances of relegation are minimal considering they will spend big next month. However, Hughes inherited a team that finished tenth last season and spent close to £80 million over the summer so to be just two points above the drop, a gap Newcastle could eradicate with victory tomorrow, is clearly unacceptable.
Hughes won just two of his first fourteen games in charge of Blackburn before establishing himself as one of the country’s most promising young managers so should Manchester City give him time or is he simply the wrong man to take the Citizens to the next level? Let us know with a vote and comment below: