oldtype

Would have been a crime against humanity if we left here with a point.

I think the players and the fans are on the same page in terms of just wanting this game to be over.

I wouldn’t bad mouth him if I were you. At the rate things are going, we’ll need him to suit up for us pretty soon.

I feel like we’ve already far exceeded our quota of good memories for this season and the remaining six months are just going to be pure, unending pain.

Our injury curse is contagious

You could mess with the guy and tell him that the takeover got blocked and Ashley was still in charge and he would totally fall for it.

We’ve got a winning mix of “completely exhausted” and “hasn’t played since ever.”

Losing one starter per game now

Can't comment as to the antitrust implications, but there are ways you can configure the cap amount so that the total amount of league spending remains unchanged. At the beginning of the year you project out the revenue for each club, add it all up, divide it by 20. That's the cap, and in theory at least, at the end of the year the league as a whole would be spending the same amount they would be spending under FFP. You would need slightly more aggressive revenue-sharing with smaller/newly promoted clubs so they can spend up to their cap number, but it may still be a net financial gain for the big clubs regardless because they would be "forced" to spend less on their own transfers and wages.

You know how you could accomplish the stated purpose of FFP (preventing clubs with crazy rich/irresponsible owners spending beyond their means) while also avoiding the side effect where it becomes an anti-competitive mechanism in favor of the big six? ...You turn FFP into a salary cap. FFP has put an infrastructure in place that makes it relatively simple to implement a salary cap if you wanted to. You know how everyone has a different FFP ceiling based on their revenue? Everyone has the same number now. Boom. Problem solved.

Given that we are the only football club owned by the PIF, that seems eminently fair. I also don't know the extent to which the other clubs in the Saudi Pro League are state-owned or affiliated, but if any are, we should be banned from transacting with them as well.

I think it makes sense to restrict one-way. There is a qualitative difference, in my view, between farming out players to feeder clubs in foreign leagues, and bringing in players from affiliated teams in the Saudi League. The former is not a competitive balance issue for the Premier League, the latter very much is.

I feel pretty good about our ability to challenge the "big six" on the pitch without having to rely on dodgy loans from other clubs controlled by the sovereign state that owns us.

Aside from the fact that it disadvantages us, is there any reason why this is a bad rule to have on substance?

I'm not sure I even want Europa at this point to be honest. I don't know if we can handle all those extra games.

Everyone just looks like they need a vacation

Makes you wonder how many of the players we treated like donkeys in the bad old days would have been perfectly serviceable under a competent manager.

The point is that it can never be "above board and proven to be so", because by definition there cannot be a bona fide, arms-length negotiation between our club and a Saudi club. It is always self-dealing no matter how much the two clubs engineer it to look like it's not.

I’m just saying that if the club engages in self-dealing with Saudi clubs on a regular basis it will actively impede my ability to enjoy supporting it. If you don’t care, that’s fine. I’d just rather not be supporting a club that does that, regardless of whether it’s against the rules or not.

Not being able to spend silly money for one window is hardly going to doom the club.

I don't know if the ASM price was fair or not, all I know is that there's exactly zero chance it was the product of bona fide negotiation.

There is no way whatsoever to make it an arms-length transaction if a Saudi club is involved. The man who owns us could make any of these clubs sell us any player at any price with a single phone call. It will just be a matter of agreeing a fee that is not the product of bona fide negotiation, but rather an attempt by both sides to figure out a number where we could plausibly argue that it's "market value." It is even more fraught with loans, where we could conceivably even get players for free. I don't really care if it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. We have enough advantages money-wise that we can make do without dipping into the Saudi League well. Plenty of other players out there.

I agree. Even if it's not technically against the rules for us to transact with Saudi clubs, we should avoid doing so if at all possible.

Only one thing can save us now: Shefki Kuqi on a free transfer.

Yeah, give them a raise and prohibit them from ref'ing in other leagues. Sorted.