The College Dropout

He’s an elite level professional athlete tbf. We still see Premier League footballers as fairly talented boys. If he was a lawyer, he’d be one of the best what 500 in the world? In his specialism he’s top 10 in the country where the level is v. high. If he was in any other professional field - this is how mid level professionals would talk as de rigueur

It’s a loser mentality that reinforces the status quo. Also encourages anti-intellectualism. In our society but 100% in football. Rafa said it about English football. Whilst at Liverpool He suggested a 10k run the day before a game and the lads immediately went off to run. He said in Spain the players wouldve pushed back because running 10k the day before a game is insane. He also just doesn’t beat his man very often for a winger of his calibre. Trick or no trick.

Such a British thing to say.

This is just wrong. Or at least we are talking about separate things.

Man City don’t have a PSR issue. They do all types of accountancy tricks - mostly via the multi club model. £60m more than Liverpool. Which is our gap to Brighton.

If PIF wanted they could do a Real Madrid and make the new stadium include a shopping centre, a hotel, whatever man. All revenue. The power of Owners means we don't have the same limitations as most other aspiring clubs. The only limitation is their ambition and the scope of investment they are willing to provide. Like I've said elsewhere, money for transfers is easy (for them).

Our ability to improve infrastructure and academy can't be compared to Leicester or Everton though. All of those things sit outside of FFP. If we can produce an academy close-ish to Chelsea and City in the next decade - that will go a long way to catching the elite. We can throw unlimited money at 15-year-old prospects. New Stadiums sometimes slow down on-pitch investment. We shouldn't have that problem.

Hard wage caps would be too messy legally. Football is much bigger business than rugby. Them going on strike or whatever isn’t palatable and the PFA taking legal action will be much better funded then rugby. The new UEFA rules based on ‘squad spend’ against revenue is a soft salary cap. As-is FFP/PSR.

Don't have much of an opinion on Paul Mitchell. Suits talk like a suit. That's fine. Good track record. I was a bit bewildered by why he seemed to change tact in the summer. Truthfully, his reasonings make sense. He was new in position, mid-transfer window, plans already in motion - carry out those plans as best you can. Implement your own by January. He's suggested his plans will align with what got him the job from his experience. It's a logical way to build. A suped-up Brighton model (our wage bill is at least £60m bigger, almost 50% increase) is the best way for us to progress if we aren't going to try and be super clever with FFP. Too early to be worried about him. The personal stuff about his turn of phrase is harsh imo.

For ACLs I always factor 1 whole year as a normal recovery. I've pretty much discounted him being at 100% until next season. This season I hope he comes back and proves his fitness and gets towards 100% of his previous ability or more, But I won't overly judge his performance or his physical recovery until 25/26.

Just plucked random figure. It’s more advantageous FFP wise to move cash around. At least on the books for FFP accountancy.

That would be fine. But they would prefer to do a cash deals I guess. So call it £80m in and £80m out. Maybe more out actually which would scupper the deal. Madueke book value is still like £15m, so letting him go for free is a big accounting loss. There’s rules about how many clubs you can be registered too in one season. Wages might be the bigger issue in terms of cost. Lad would want at least £10m per year. Maybe £12.5m. More than those lads combined.

Isn’t Man City like that? my bigger concern that Yasir treats us like a suit. City are super corporate. But it’s also a bit of a passion project or at least a marquee project. We need Yasir to consider us a marquee or passion project. The suits matter a lot less when that’s the case. If he doesn’t then the suits are everything.

Is there any evidence of this? Even circumstantial? Feels like people are creating a narrative to suit their view. Rather than looking at what we do know and thinking about what makes sense logically behind those facts.

Well it’s an obvious hack. It’s within the rules. And they haven’t done it.

You didn’t answer my question about multi club. That’s an open hack.

You think Abu Dhabi and Roman had friends in British football? I keep repeating it - you can bend the rules. You don’t have to break them. We are reluctant to bend them. Boehly to date, has only bent them. We haven’t used the open door we have to loan Saudi players. We could sell Almiron to Saudi for the same amount as we’ve been offered - and then loan him back for 2 seasons. The 112 charges are bad PR for Abu Dhabi. But the winning speaks so much louder. And that’s breaking rules. We don’t have to go that far. —————- People say ‘the Cartel 6’ but that’s not entirely true. Before Roman sold Chelsea There’s Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool and Spurs. These are the ‘elite’ clubs with Owners in football for economic gain. These were the biggest proponents of ESR in England. They are keen to minimise costs and maximise revenues. Abramovic and Abu Dhabi don’t have those interests as priority. I’ll repeat- Ciry setup their multi club infrastructure at the same time FFP was introduced. FFP Announced in 2009, implemented 2013. AD bought City in 2009, multi club in 2013. It’s a direct circumvention of FFP. They aren’t in the same box as the old money PL clubs. Boehly went multi club within 2 years! What’s stopping PIF going multi club? Even Liverpool think they need to go multi club just to compete. Their wage bill is close to City because most non-first team City staff are not employed by the club. They are employed by city group. Keeping the costs down by probably 8 figures.

Howe is a full time press conference liar. He purposely doesn’t say meaningful things often and then will sometimes lie or at best say things that turn out to be untrue.

spurs until recently have had by far the smallest revenue of all the top 6 clubs and also nowhere near the spend limits. They have by far the lowest wage bill of the top 6. Winning trophies isn’t their aim and they haven’t invested to that level. For them to get into the CL 4 years in a row, finish 2nd, 3rdand get to the CL final is a tremendous achievement. It’s the equivalent of us finishing 3rd and going deep in the CL. They’ve been run tremendously considering there is no desire to invest enough to consistently challenge for trophies. Their aim is CL more years than not. And a profitable and growing revenue club. If we get to Spurs position - we cement ourselves at a level higher because our owners aren’t in it for profit.

Agreed. I agree that we’ve paid premiums on a lot of our transfers. Some have worked out tremendously like Isak, some are questionable like Tonali or Hall but at the time all where premium fees at best and overpayment at worst as was reported at the time. But you can’t use that argument then bid £70m for Guehi. That would’ve been the worst one to date.

A lot of our signings we arguably overpaid *at the time* Most of the English lads have the English PL tax. “Experts” said we overpaid for Isak. That’s a bargain in hindsight. The experts also said the same about Tonali.

Nah I still think we have to sell. Brighton have far lower revenues and are typically nowhere close to their FFP limit. A souped up Brighton that invest everything they can is a good model imo.

This is what I’ve been saying in the PIF thread. If we want to sign proven PL quality and almost guarantee European football for the next 3 years. We need to bend the rules.

I think they have already passed a rule that means this would be banned from this season onwards - selling assets to sister companies. But it wasn’t banned at the time and the deal is FMV so tough titties. Again if there’s the will and enough resources to circumvent FFP, it’s possible. Chelsea prove it time and again.

Ambitious clubs like Villa and us need expensive ticket prices because of FFP. Most of us are happy to leave SJP because of FFP. That’s crazy.