brummie

Ah yes, you're right, as you were.

Football in these terms, it really is fucking nauseating. You know that final scene in The Thick of It, where the 'thought yurt' consultant, Stewart whatever, gives his exit speech, and says he's tried to improve things, but "ultimately, this party is build on a solid base of cunt". It's like that. A solid base of cunt.

*slowly raises eyebrow*

If it is a release clause, you've got no choice but to honour it.

I don't disagree with any of that. By noble, what I mean is in the most general terms - the concept of having a control of how money of spent in football is a good one. Just like the idea of the 'football pyramid' in financial terms is a good one, it is just crushingly disappointing in the way it is actually manifested.

The amazing thing about Suggs is you look at him, and then you look at pictures of him in 1979, and he has barely aged at all. Remarkable.

As someone else said, the effective result of all this is that clubs are incentivised to sell home grown players because of their added FFP value. So, for us for example, Cameron Archer, who has been with us since age 7, is incredibly promising as a player, is now playing for Sheffield United because we needed the extra bonus of a near 20m sale of a home grown player. I read today, Monchi, or director of football, saying that he was happy with our business in the summer window, and that the sales of Archer, Ramsey and Philogene were really necessary to create the FFP wriggle room to be able to get in some of the players we signed. Now, I understand it, that is basically playing the system as it is, and understanding the extra value that these players bring, but if you stop and think about it, is it really good that clubs have to do that? Even Chelsea might sell a player in this window or the next who has started every match but one for them because he's home grown and has the extra FFP value. Aaron Ramsey, with us since a kid, both of his brothers still at the club, mooking around at Burnley because of this. The natural extension of that is that we also know that, should things get really tight, we could sell Jacob Ramsey. Probably for a lot of money (he's better than Grealish was at that age). But how is that positive for football, forcing clubs to look at their "own" that way, because it is the only way they can compete with clubs at the other end of the ladder as it was pulled up? The idea, the aim of FFP is noble, and yes, something has to stop endless spending and purchasing of silverware, but the Man City situation has totally fucking ruined the game for the rest of us.

This whole having to sell story shows how utterly stupid the implementation of FFP is It is a convenient pulling up of the ladder exercise.

I didn't even there was another Eric Dier, what are the chances of that!

Whilst we will struggle to maintain the form for the second half of the season, the odds on us not finishing top 5 are pretty large, and if we fail to do so, it won't be anything to do with the Conference League restarting. We've used the squad really well so far - we have won every game we've played immediately after a CL fixture so far this season - and it doesn't even restart until March.

Stadium sponsorship for established grounds brings in chicken feed. In fact, can anyone even think of one? Established grounds have established names. I don't recall anyone calling SJP the sportsdirectarena or whatever abomination it was, and that is reflected in £££. It only works for new stadiums.

Just think the absolute fucking GOLDness of 65m for a homegrown like Mount.

At the time, when Atkinson went out to do his punditry, the fans were complaining that he would be in the US for the entire tournament, when he should be here, working transfers for the new season. He replied "I'm going to be amongst the best players in the world, where better to be to sign good players?" And then came back with a pundit.

That must make Emi Martinez worth about £3bn.

I still find this figure incredible every time i see it. Benfica sign him in June 22 for approx £10m. Chelsea then buy him in the Jan 23 window, a full, err, six months later, for £115m. Honestly, what could possibly happen to a player in six months to make his price got up 10x? Just fucking laughable.

Chelsea are such a mess.

Sawiris and Edens, our owners, sold a minority stake of the holding company to the investment arm of Comcast (who own, amongst other things, Sky, and are specialists in stadium development) before Xmas. In the same week they bought in, Villa said their plans to rebuilt the north stand and increase capacity were on hold. They were going to do demolition at the end of the season. The fact that happens in the very same week makes me think, they're looking at a total rebuild or - and I fucking hope this doesn't happen - a move to a new ground. There is a lot of stuff happening at the moment, the shirt manufacturer if anything is one of the least controversial things.

They said it was something to do with the application of the sponsor logo or some such nonsense. Castore are a weird company. Grown from nothing to having some big clients in no time at all.

One thing I do know, Castore are fucking shit. That sweaty garbage they did for us is an absolute pile of embarassing shit, and they couldn't even fix the problem.

Of course we will (I have no idea what that means, but yeah, deffo).

Not as far back as I can remember, no. A few people (podcaster, Athletic villa correspondent) have seen the new kit, but are sworn to secrecy, but say it’s “a belter” which fans will love and also that - and this is where I suspend belief - they’ll be cheaper than the Castore dross one of our owners is the largest shareholder in Adidas which probably helps.

You are missing one point, Froggy When it's Duran doing it, it's fine, because that's different. He plays for us.

For those of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s, he was an absolute giant of the game, a rolls royce of a player and a colossus off the pitch.

It is 'clever' play when a Man United or Liverpool player does it.

Ha ha, yeah, of course you do. *shakes head*