Football thread 2022/23

[Gabe]

2 hours ago, Stopharage said:

Not only did Leicester go out and get three additions, our chairman has just wiped out £194m of debt that the club owed King Power. 

 

Utterly blessed to have Top and his family in charge. 

Isn't that just a paper write-off though? The family own King Power, right? So this is just not paying themselves back, or have I got that wrong? 

[Mike1812]

Can't imagine Ziyech would have played much for PSG either tbf. 

[Stopharage]

2 hours ago, Gabe said:

Isn't that just a paper write-off though? The family own King Power, right? So this is just not paying themselves back, or have I got that wrong? 

He’s effectively wiped out much of the liability the club has so should make it easier (and cheaper) if we want a loan in future and makes it more attractive when it comes to selling the club. That isn’t on the cards though as he’s just done similar with our sister club in Belgium, OH Leuven. And has subsequently talked about his long-term plan to make his clubs sustainable whilst also helping improving the cities they’re in. 
 

The debt covered much of our COVID losses and the £100m+ training facility. 

[Yobo Ahoy]

As fucked up as this window has been, it's worth it for getting Tebas all hot under the collar.

 

Quote

“The British market is a doped market,” said La Liga’s Javier Tebas. “You can see it clearly in this winter market, where Chelsea have made almost half of the signings in the Premier League. It is quite dangerous that the markets are doped, inflated, as has been happening in recent years in Europe, because that can jeopardise the sustainability of European football. I am happy because our clubs are economically sustainable, and that means that we have a future for many years to come.”

 

He would make some good points if it wasn't for his massive Barcelona-sized blind spot and their selling off advance TV rights and cancelling players contracts left, right and centre. 'Sustainable' doesn't really spring to mind. 

 

[ryodi]

La Liga had Ronaldo v Messi for a decade and possibly the greatest team of all time in Pep’s Barcelona and completely failed to capitalise on it. Instead they shipped their Super Cup overseas and changed it to a four team tournament to guarantee a Classico, weighted TV deals to heavily favour the big two and have now sold future TV rights to the worst possible people if you want to expand the sport CVC. The EPL for all its faults isn’t LIV Golf and has taken years to get this point where it’s making ridiculous amounts of money on tv deals, if La Liga had any kind of foresight they’d be making progress as well.

[Plissken]

Tebas doesn't have a Barca blind-spot, in that he's been trying to get them to act sensibly for a few seasons now and they have reacted by finding loopholes.  He's also not wrong when he is having a go at the excesses of the Premier League.  (The Fernandez transfer has made the move he made from River Plate to Benfica the richest transfer in Argentinian football history and the add-ons have single handledly made River the richest club in the country.)

 

However, he is getting way above his station and seeing himself as some kind of arbiter of FFP in football. I suspect the Bundesliga and Serie A are happy for him to fire their bullets for them, especially with Juve and Inter currently in deep trouble for accounting trickery.

 

 

[Plissken]

On a related note, I suppose I'll put it here rather than the Championship thread, but the reason for Sheffield United being under a transfer embargo is that they have been missing payments to Liverpool for Rhian Brewster.

 

As a Sheff Wed fan put it.

 

Quote

Sheffield United have been under a transfer embargo since the middle of January for not keeping up repayments to another club on a previous signing. It's emerged this morning that this relates to not paying Liverpool for Rhian Brewster. That really is the transfer that keeps on giving and must be one of the most disastrous deals of the modern era. They went outside their budget to sign him for £25m in the summer of 2020, then they didn't use him right so he didn't score a goal, United got relegated from the Premier League and Chris Wilder got the sack as a consequence. Last season he managed a whole three goals (plus another in the League Cup), got injured and didn't play after the end of January and ended the campaign getting charged with assault (which the CPS dropped before it reached court) in the mayhem at the City Ground after the play offs. This season he has managed a single goal in a game they lost anyway at Stoke and hasn't appeared since the end of October because he's injured again. Now this. Well done everybody.

 

[bradigor]

34 minutes ago, Plissken said:

On a related note, I suppose I'll put it here rather than the Championship thread, but the reason for Sheffield United being under a transfer embargo is that they have been missing payments to Liverpool for Rhian Brewster

 

 

 

Well that explains not being able to afford a midfielder

 

We should have offered to write off the debt in exchange for Sander Berge.

[Art Vandelay]

Berge is absolutely not what Liverpool's system needed. He's like watching someone parallel park a heavy goods vehicle. 

[PaB]

Greenwood has had all charges dropped 

[Art Vandelay]

Her old man will be pleased he gets to keep his box seat. 

[Timmo]

Fucking gross. Big moment for Man U now to make the right choice. 

[Eighthours]

Now we’ll see what sort of club Manchester United are.

 

On Greenwood in general, though, I would love to see some detailed reasoning for why his case was dropped. The audio/video evidence that’s readily available was so disturbing and damning that dropping all the charges seems to beggar belief. How can this decision do anything other than convince victims not to come forward? We need more information. Which key witnesses pulled out and why? Exactly what was the new evidence that was presented?

 

Being told this isn’t just a matter of public interest but of public importance.

[Stoppy2000]

Imagine if he did get to play for united and then cheering when he scored. It's enough to make you sick. 

[Timmo]

Part of me wants United to stand by him for the massive backlash. It really will split the cunts from the… not-cunts. 

[Ork1927]

I assume Man U will struggle to get rid of him without paying up his contract of all charges are dropped despite what footage was released.

 

If they do get shot then he’ll be playing at championship level at the very least next season for someone. 

[Chooch]

He’s a really good footballer which means someone will play him. Unfortunately.

[Eighthours]

The suspicion is unfortunately that his girlfriend is back with him and withdrew all cooperation from the case. Not really sure what the CPS could do about that.

[Plissken]

24 minutes ago, Chooch said:

He’s a really good footballer which means someone will play him. Unfortunately.

 

Which reminds me, I'm going to the Turf next week to watch the game against Preston and Ched Evans plays for them.

[feltmonkey]

2 hours ago, Ork1927 said:

 

If they do get shot then he’ll be playing at championship level at the very least next season for someone. 

 

They'll get shot, surely. The difference this will make is that now they will probably have to work out some kind of payoff. Tricky if Greenwood insists on the full value of his contract, because the club has no money, apparently. I have no idea if they have been paying him since the whole thing came out last year. If they haven't, he could probably claim the backpay for that whole period. I wouldn't be surprised to then see Greenwood pop up in the Middle East, playing against or alongside Ronaldo and earning a good living out of the spotlight, having got away with everything.

 

For those wondering how the case got dropped, the victim stopped cooperating with the investigation and is apparently back with Greenwood. If the victim isn't going to testify against the defendant, and may testify in his defence, there's not much chance of a conviction. The possibility that they might be back together makes me feel ill. It's a horribly common thing in abusive relationships for the victim to take the abuser back, and the abuser rarely changes. I feel bad for speculating about football matters in the light of this realisation, to be honest.

[Loik V credern]

Why can't he just be sent on loan to a club outside of the uk? A club out there will be willing to pay his wages, or part of them (he's on 75,000 a week) for a young talent like him. His contract runs to until 2026, run it down then sell or loan him out for a bit and then sell. I don't know why it has to be bring him back into the side or pay his contract off. From until end of season, train with the u21s. I don't think he should be allowed anywhere near the first team squad. 

 

Whether it's China, Saudi Arabia or Brazil (if any club can afford even some of his wages I don't know) and not a European club, surely that's what should or will happen. 

[bradigor]

The CPS statement essentially said... We know he is guilty, but there is nothing we can do to convict. 

 

It's sickening.

[feltmonkey]

Chelsea's results continue to be very funny indeed.

[Mike1812]

Should have spent more money. 

[BitterToad]

Well it was hardly the game of the season but 4 points off of the scum in three weeks will do nicely. Fulham are still 6th and still quietly going under the radar as a really impressive premier league side. Kenny Tete had maybe his best game for us tonight and he cost less than Enzo Fernandez’s big toe. 
 

Lovely stuff, really. Helped that I’ll be spending tomorrow night at a party with a Chelsea fan who asked me what league Fulham were in two days before we did them at the Cottage. I might go in full kit…

[Art Vandelay]

It did seem mad they spent all that money and started with basically the same team of duffers they had already, which involved not having a striker they trust, their one decent player who’s about 50, and a lad they tried to dump but they couldn’t work out the fax machine so he had to hang around. Just incredible disruptive thinking, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. All the investors who’d popped over to see what drain Todd had pissed their money down certainly looked impressed to watch Cucarella continually stroke the ball out of play and the midfield being managed by a wet mop. There’s about two managers capable of sorting that circus out and Potter isn’t one of them.

[wev]

Is Jose one of those managers? Coz that would be hilarious 

[davidcotton]

55 minutes ago, wev said:

Is Jose one of those managers? Coz that would be hilarious 

Tuchel (even funnier) or Poch I’m guessing.  

[glb]

Watching The Big Match Revisited and it’s mad how stadiums have changed over the years. 1980’s White Hart Lane is on and it’s just a mish-mash of concrete and tin, looking like it was built with the mindset of ‘suppose that’ll do. Pint?’. Wonder how many who were young lads at that 80s game will be at dazzling new stadium tomorrow wondering where the time went?

 

Remember standing on the Kop for the first time in the early 90s (£4.50!) and it was a sea, ebbing and flowing depending on where the ball was. Don’t exactly miss barely being able to see anything, besides being able to turn up on the day and get in, but I still find it remarkable seeing the change in stands.

 

This doesn’t really have a point, just always had a fascination with stadia. Grounds like Roots Hall, with what feels like its entrance through a terraced house, are near enough museum pieces, curious flashbacks to distant era.

[Art Vandelay]

40 minutes ago, davidcotton said:

Tuchel (even funnier) or Poch I’m guessing.  

Tuchel probably, but it needs a good time guy like Ancelotti really.