leffe186

Am on the train and only following this with BBC text. When they say “Once again [Jackie Burns] slows down the play here and frustrates England” do they mean “once again she time-wastes and just stands there with the ball while the ref lets her do what she wants?” Genuine question, because that’s a bit of a pet hate of mine.

Yeah, this is just what things are going to look like for the top teams. This year in particular with the wanky World Cup, but there’s a decent chance the 5-sub rule will be a really significant change. It’s just not physically possible for a hardcore of 15 or so players to maintain a challenge on multiple fronts. There’s only so many Albuterol prescriptions to go round.

Man City selling all these players to Arsenal and Chelsea does rather suggest that they don’t see them as a threat, which is sweet.

Not really got a comment, just found this interesting.

So this is what it looks like to an outsider. De Jong agreed to defer essentially €28M to his next contract to help Barca out during the pandemic. Barca agreed a sale of c. £55M rising to £72M with Man U, as a way of raising cash right now plus reducing the wage bill. De Jong says “hang on, you still owe me €28M, please pay me that”. Barca hadn’t told Man U??? Here’s my question. Are you the baddies?

Yeah that’s what I presumed. Wouldn’t they just expect you to cut his price accordingly then? Seems completely insane that this wasn’t resolved earlier. Like, if you owe him 20M over the four years of his contract in deferred wages then just cut the transfer price by 20M. Any idea roughly how much he deferred? You know, to help you out after all

If it’s not really a pay cut, why aren’t you just paying De Jong what you owe him? Is it that that money will count against the pay cap over the next four years however you try to work it so you’re just hoping he writes it off? If that’s the case, then how is that not a pay cut? https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/62131753.amp

Going to be fascinating to see how you square that circle. I think Spurs did it about the best way possible, building a completely new stadium on the same site. Arsenal didn’t move far but had a ready-made plot of land with good transport links available. West Ham and Man City got lucky in being helped out handily by the taxpayer, although they both had to move. I think Man City’s success softened the blow enormously while West Ham still seem a bit pissed off they’re not at Upton Park.

Ah right then I misunderstood you. I thought you were saying KI was wrong to say that prices would go up, rather than him being wrong to say that fans were unwittingly asking for it.

Fair enough . I just thought Joey probably had his reasons, just like Kante did.

Yeah, you’re right in that being bankrolled by Saudi Arabia gives you more flexibility - that’s why I qualified it. You know that FFP doesn’t exist any more though, don’t you? We’re still waiting to see how the new regulations - which IIRC include infrastructure - will impact stadium developments. Not just that, but I presume the same restrictions on increasing SJP will still apply. Then you look at the other team bankrolled by a country…who lest we forget were essentially gifted a stadium in very similar circumstances to West Ham. This is from 2019: https://www.givemesport.com/1479353-manchester-city-have-increased-season-ticket-prices-in-10-out-of-the-last-11-years/amp Why exactly do you think prices won’t go up significantly?

It kinda is tbh. Although the one big advantage you have is that with the Saudis underwriting things you might be able to keep prices down a bit. Spurs essentially need to charge high prices to pay for the stadium. West Ham need to charge high prices because they need to pay for the stadi oh hang on. If you’re moving up “to the next level” you can expect prices to go up too.

I don’t think he’s obsessed

Yeah, I’m probably more annoyed about the stadium stuff…and the fact that they apparently have a 1966 area

Worth Giggsing this up tbh.

Think general opinion is: 1. Not good enough for where Spurs are/want to be. 2. Good but not quite right for Conte/the Premier League. 3. Ditto. 4. A waste of talent and talent aside, essentially the anti-Conte-player.

Arsenal actually are the new Spurs

Dunno man, I mean, he’s 24, playing for the Netherlands (and scoring) and with bags of potential. I’d have been annoyed if we’d sold him for much less. Would have been happy to keep him tbh.

We’re going to be in England this month. Are tickets generally available?

I mean, isn’t there some projected income between 2050 and 2060 that you can sell?

Supposedly not us. I’d quite like this site to stay operational though so speculation would be bad

No.

You’re going to have to offer them a lot more than that.