timeEd32

The connections David Dein, Irving Scholar, and Martin Edwards had to the NFL have been pretty well documented and it did not go unnoticed in the early 1980s when the NFL signed a multi-billion $ TV deal and the leaders of English football were squabbling over a multi-million £ deal. The idea of Monday Night Football was obviously a straight rip-off and part of Sky's first Premier League deal, but so was the one club, one vote model. Hillsborough was certainly a forcing function on the redevelopment of stadiums, but it really started before then: Dein referencing seeing the Miami Dolphins in the 1970s: "That was an eye-opener. I understood that was how a sport should be run. The way they marketed it - it was more than 90 minutes of football, it was an event. This was a family sport, good outlets, you could get a decent meal. Even the toilets were good." Also Dein: "I felt football was really a sleeping giant and had a long way to go. After seeing how the Americans operated their sport, particularly American football and baseball and basketball, I felt we were light years behind." Scholar referring to the NFL in the mid-'80s: "In terms of the commercial attraction, it was amazing. You could see the future."

Not really on the field (except for maybe VAR, though that's inspired by many sports). But everything else from stadium development (luxury suites, wide concourses, food, screens) to mascots (the stupid, fuzzy kind; not kids) and, most importantly, TV rights deals and extracting maximum value from broadcasters.

Are the cups for the women all separated by division?

They've been trying (and have been) replicating parts of the NFL for three decades.

You're just moving the goalposts now. You said: "It's the system did you not see early in the season we had all our big guns playing and we were still getting cut to ribbons." There's no basis for that comment or this "last year we kind of got away with it to a point" considering we had the second best defensive record in the league behind only the best team in the world.

"Cut to ribbons" before the injuries? Sometimes I feel like I'm living through a different season. Concede 1 against Villa - You could argue they should have scored two that day and xGA supports that. Concede 1 at City - xGA of 1.01 Concede 3 at Brighton - our worst day without injuries for sure. They exceeded their xG of 1.3 though. We also battered them three months earlier with the same system. Aside from the second half of the Man City cup game, this was the last time we saw a midfield of Joelinton - Bruno - Tonali (presumably our intended first choice midfield). Concede 2 against Liverpool - A disastrous ending that still defies all reason and logic as Nunez misses more chances than he makes. We were fine for 80 minutes and the main issue is we didn't get a second. Clean sheet against Brentford - xGA under 1 Clean sheet against Milan - they should have scored 1 or 2 in fairness Clean sheet against Sheffield United - xGA under 1 Clean sheet against Man City - xGA under 1 Clean sheet against Burnley - xGA under 1 Concede 1 against PSG - xGA under 1 Concede 2 against West Ham - Their goal in the 8th minute accounts for 80% of their xG in the game. We gave it away late. Clean sheet against Palace - xGA of 1.21 Concede 1 v. Dortmund - Could have, maybe should have been 2 Concede 2 at Wolves - Weird game, xGA under 1 and open play xGA of 0.35 (1.25 for us) Clean sheet against Man United in the cup - xGA under 1 Clean sheet against Arsenal - xGA under 1 After this, barring the one week post-international break where we beat Chelsea and Man United and drew away to PSG, is when the injuries and fixture demands really started to hamper us. If you want to say we rode our luck, particularly away from home, in the Champions League games I think that's fair. But before the Everton game we were second in the league in GA and xGA. Since the Everton game we are last in GA and xGA. This is also, not coincidentally, the exact with and without Nick Pope splits. Nothing wrong with voicing frustrations at conceding four at home to Luton or maybe not trying more drastic changes with a backup GK and less than ideal midfield three, but it's pretty disingenuous to say the system wasn't working in the first four months of the season.

Goddamn that’s cheap. I think you’d find a lot of teams are 4-5x that for between the 20s. Not to mention the PSLs.

It’s why a lot of stadiums are indoors (retractable roof or not). Greatly increases the number of events you can hold throughout the year from concerts to monster trucks and college sports championships.

The stadium thing just makes no sense on so many levels. It doesn't work for Manchester United and it doesn't work for the likes of Luton, who need to update their stadium upon promotion. I really struggle to see how 14 clubs are going to rubber stamp that.

Gordon getting a call up and playing at SJP would be great.

Not allowing clubs to invest in their stadiums and academy as long as its owner funded or responsible debt would be scandalous. But equally important is if they change punishments and make it transparent. If exceeding some limit is just fined up to a certain point then you know the cost of doing business.

I just laughed out loud at least three times reading that but it’s probably because I’m from NJ. Fun fact: the hospital I was born in is just down swamp from where that picture was taken.

No chance he knew where that was going. But every ball he kicked was sprinkled with gold dust for four months.

I said this 10 months ago: They still have some potential outs, but this is feeling increasingly likely to me. By all accounts they are going to have to make some sales in June to balance the books. I really hope no one bails them out with huge offers for Gallagher and/or James. But it seems like it would take some real wizardry (or reckless incompetence) to spend much in the summer, so how does this squad get back to the Champions League?

I think he has sat out their FA Cup games so far.

I think we’ll be better here. Three games in a week is still an issue for our midfield. They also play again on Wednesday. They’ve rotated some for the FA Cup, but can’t hurt. 3-1 win

This thread has officially gone off the deep end.

MetLife might be the most soulless stadium in the entire world.

What is Schar doing there?

Did he really get booed off? That’s pretty bad.

For sure and I'm really happy for Barkley. Always liked him.

We obviously had problems in the midfield and at the back, but the most disappointing thing about that game for me is that we lost momentum after the 4th. We responded really well when we went down two and we were flying after the third and then after Bruno's cross we just kind of died out. Third game in a week and fatigue may have played a role, but it was all set up for us to win 5-4 and be an automatic mention in the lists of craziest PL games.

Depends on the FA Cup too, right?

Forgot he was good at Liverpool since we shipped four anyway. Two other examples in 13 games not great. He's definitely not our main problem at the back though.

Feel like he should have come out on the first goal. In general he's fine, but I'm not sure he's made a single save out of the ordinary this season.