Roman is burning

Time for another coup, Roman. Might be a good way to get back up to #1

(Via The Guardian)

Four Four Two has had another crack at their lists of the wealthiest owners and players in football, and Roman is slipping a bit. Poor lad. Might this mean the end of the retarded over-spending for the EPL's Big 4?

List of owners and players after the jump. Commence anger/surprise/ridicule in the comments!

Richest Owners
Arsenal has 2 in the Top 10, making Wenger's non-spending surely more frustrating)
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1. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Manchester City, £15bn in "riches")
2. Lakshmi Mittal (QPR, £12.5bn)
3. Roman Abramovich (Chelsea, £7bn)
4. Joe Lewis (Tottenham Hotspur, £2.5bn)
5. Bernie and Slavica Ecclestone (QPR, £2.4bn)
6. Stan Kroenke (Arsenal, £2.24bn)
7. Alisher Usmanov (Arsenal, £1.5bn)
8. Lord Granchester and the Moores family (Everton, £1.2bn)
9. Dermot Desmond (Celtic, £1.2bn)
10. Lord Ashcroft (Watford, £1.1bn)
11. Malcolm Glazer and family (Manchester United, £1.1bn)
12. Simon Keswick (Cheltenham Town, £0.97bn)
13. Trevor Hemmings (PNE, £0.9bn)
14. Mike Ashley (Newcastle United, £0.8bn)
15. Randy Lerner (Aston Villa, £0.75bn)
16. Tom Hicks (Liverpool, £0.7bn)
17. The Walker family (Blackburn Rovers, £0.66bn)
18. Mohammed Al Fayed (Fulham, £0.65bn)
19. Sir David Murray (Rangers, £0.6bn)
20. Steve Morgan (Wolverhampton Wanderers, £0.4bn)
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Well done, lad. Plenty of money in the kitty for when you stab Milan in the back as well

Richest Players
(Is anyone surprised at #1? I was certainly surprised at #5)
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1. David Beckham (LA Galaxy, £125m)
2. Michael Owen (Newcastle United, £40m)
3. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, £35m)
4. Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United, £28m)
5. Robbie Fowler (unattached, £28m)
6. Sol Campbell (Portsmouth, £28m)
7. Ryan Giggs (Manchester United, £23m)
8. Michael Ballack (Chelsea, £20m)
9. Frank Lampard (Chelsea, £20m)
10. Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, £19m)
11. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, £18m)
12. John Terry (Chelsea, £17m)
13. Didier Drogba (Chelsea, £15m)
14. Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea, £14m)
15. Damien Duff (Newcastle United, £14m)
16. Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United, £13m)
17. Ashley and Cheryl Cole (Chelsea, £13m)
18. Fernando Torres (Liverpool, £13m)
19. Emile Heskey (Wigan Athletic, £12m)
20. Gary Neville (Manchester United, £11.75m)

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More Salary Bullshit

[Ed. Note: Sorry... this post has nothing to do with Arsenal/Liverpool from yesterday. We could easily open up a thread after this just for random griping. You know you want to.]

FutebolFinance.com has been busy of late, releasing all sorts of salary Top 10s from around the world, and this one for highest-paid players worldwide is just fucking hilarious.

Enjoy this top 10, as it teaches you one very important lesson: when you're at the top of your game, sign a massive fucking contract before the downward spiral begins.

Looking at the list: Kaka has had a rough year, Ronaldinho's injured again, Terry's been hurt, Thierry's been hurt, Lampard's been ghostly on the pitch, Ballack's not getting enough starts, Shevchenko.... well let's just move on, and Gerrard's suffered a dip in form and influence this past season.

It's really no coincidence that there are 4 Chelsea players on this list, because let's face it, they're the fucking kings of overpaying for players. They do it every year [I can still hear the laughter as they paid 16 million pounds for Juan Sebastian Veron AFTER he'd already flopped massively in the EPL for Manchester United], and this list has to make tough reading. Look at those awkward contracts you'll be paying for quite some time.

The sting is of course lessened by being just 2 points back from Man U in the two-horse title hunt, but still: if you fall short, look at all that guaranteed money flying out the door. It's a fucking miracle, almost 30 million pounds going into the pockets of 4 players [3 of whom aren't worth a fraction of it], but hey, that's the game nowadays, isn't it?

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