leffe186

Would genuinely soften the blow a bit for me

Just getting my shots in early before next season.

I’d like to think of myself as an ally and a strong supporter of women’s football, but I can’t help but be a teensy bit irritated that BBC has the Championship scores after the Women’s World Cup qualifiers on their scoreboard

Think I’ve been less excited by ones without England in. Definitely the one I’ve been most irritated by so far, even with Qatar in the running.

Eh, maybe? Matt Law loves shitting on Spurs at every opportunity for some reason. From the article: “Tottenham declined to comment on the report or on possibly breaking the rules, describing both as “rumours and speculation”. So they did comment on the report - they described it as “rumours and speculation”. I’m taking what Matt Law says with a pinch of salt.

Enough of the games will still be good to make it fun to watch. There are always a handful of surprise great games in the mix. I suspect the key at this end will be trying to avoid any of the off-the-pitch stuff. What times are the kick-offs?

He was managing Marseille at the time. Tudor became manager I think a day or two after he left Marseille. I don’t know if we approached him around then but Frank should have been sacked weeks before. The general feeling was that we were hoping to limp through to the summer but if what we’ve heard since about the behind-the-scenes situation is true that was negligent. Either way, when Tudor came in we still had about a dozen players missing each week. Kudus and Odobert had just got injured ruling them out for the season. Maybe RDZ would have been able to turn it around, maybe not. I’m not convinced. This has felt like a cursed season from the beginning and the players are completely bereft of confidence.

Sales in 2009 were surprisingly similar. Two decent sales (Martins, Bassong), Three cheapies (Duff, Beye and Edgar) and a couple of peculiar freebies (Geremi, Owen, Viduka retiring). I thought Villa’s 2016 relegation might be a guide but their biggest sale was Gueye for less than €10M. I mean, we’re not going to make a fortune on guys like Kudus or Romero but people will pay more than that. The whole thing is fascinating, for me at least.

Yeah I’ll take a look at 2009. Might be a bit too far away for comparison given the financial changes in the game since and the strength of competitors. I feel like you’re having a different conversation than me though. I don’t want to sell Odobert, Tel or Sarr. Or Solanke for that matter. When you say “the likes of Dragusin or Richarlison” the only other player I put in that bracket was Bentancur. Those three are players we’d probably like to get shot of. Someone will take them relatively cheap or on loan, and we can sell Bentancur and Richarlison for peanuts and not take much of a loss because they’ve been with us a while. There isn’t really such a thing for us as a good market in this situation. We’re over a barrel to an extent whether or not there are relegation clauses. Clubs can pick and choose, but they will know there’s value to be had. I think those nine players in group 3 would generate a lot of money, although they won’t go for the price we paid. They don’t have to. Looking on the positive side, it’s an opportunity for RDZ to remake the squad in his own image. I’m expecting major squad surgery. I’m just not sure we’ll have to sell Gray or Bergvall to achieve that.

Yeah, I had a quick look: Sissoko, Wijnaldum and Townsend went for good money Janmaat, Cabella and Cisse went for cheap Tioté, Coloccini and Steven Taylor went for nothing the key loan players were probably Thauvin and Siem De Jong. Maybe Riviere at a push - don't know how much he was on. Maybe. The guys you sold are above, you did keep Mitrovic. Anyone else good? Posted on Reddit that I think this relegation is particularly fascinating and unique because it's a genuinely unprecedented level of talent on the books. And probably an unprecedented level of injury risk. You had three players leave for good money - we could in theory have more than 20. That won't happen. We also have seven players out for the season, of whom it's possible two or three (or more) will still be rehabbing next season. Then you factor in that we don't actually know the relegation clauses in contracts - if they exist. Bissouma himself will not be hard to shift at all - he is out of contract. I think these are the groups: 1. Loanees - Palhinha and Kolo Muani are gone. 2. Players with one foot out of the door - Vicario, Bissouma, Davies (a chance we re-sign him if he recovers and there's room) 3. Players we'd like to keep but who are probably too valuable and will likely want out - Romero, VDV, Kulu, Porro, Udogie, Solanke, Kudus, Gallagher, Simons 4. Young players in that category who we might fight harder to keep - Sarr, Bergvall, Gray, Odobert, Tel 5. Players I suspect we'd be happy to let go - Bentancur, Richarlison, Dragusin, possibly Spence depending upon RDZ 6. Players who I think might stay (just a feeling) - Danso, Souza, Maddison Injuries are a factor in both players' mindsets and other clubs' considerations. You've got players like Kulu and Maddison who have missed the season and may want stability and rehabbing, plus Odobert who we probably won't see at least until Xmas. Then you consider we have a new manager RDZ who's in a position of power and has the perfect opportunity to remake a squad as he deems fit. There's also a ton of young loan players he can integrate, some of whom have Championship experience. Remember also that Bissouma and Davies are out of contract, Richarlison's ends in 2027 but every other player is contracted to Jun 2028 at least. Right now, those younger players have long contracts with far cheaper wages and selling people like Bentancur and Romero is far more valuable vs PSR than selling Gray and Kudus simply because of amortisation. We just don't know - there are so many variables and this is such a unique situation. You say that the "Late 20’s, big wages, low fees" players are the hard ones to shift, but we're such a young squad. If by late 20s you mean 27+ then out of that 3-6 list it's Romero (27), Danso (27), Bentancur (28), Maddison (29), Solanke (28), Richarlison (28). Just six players. Danso and Maddison, I'd rather keep anyway (Danso's on relatively low wages as it is), I don't think we'll have any problems selling Romero and Solanke, and that just leaves Richarlison and Bentancur. Both have been with us for four years so even if they get loaned or a free transfer it's not much of an impact on PSR.

I have sympathy for them because they just want to support their team. I’ve never had the time or money to go to a World Cup abroad, but I’m not going to criticize somebody for wanting to support their team and getting massively exploited. We should definitely boycott the bloody thing though. It’s way past time.

We’ll be selling a few. Probs not the ones you want though . Got a ton of young players that could come in - Ashley Phillips is nominated for YoungPlayer of the Year in the Championship and has captained Stoke at times this season. Lankshear, Devine and Donley have all done well in the Championship. Vuskovic has been amazing for Hamburg and Mikey Moore has done well for Rangers but I’d expect them both to stay on loan another year. Couple of other kids coming through. The problem is all the players with long-term injuries. We’d want to offload a few and the contract situation with relegation is unclear. We probably won’t take Palhinha and Kolo Muani. I’d expect Romero, Bentancur, Bissouma, Richarlison, Davies and Vicario to go. De Zerbi will make a call on a number of players but the ones who we are prepared to shift to generate money will probably include Porro, Van De Ven, Dragusin. Possibly Sarr, Simons. No idea about Gallagher. You’ve got players De Zerbi would probably like to keep like Solanke, Kudus and Udogie but who may not want to stay in the Championship. Maddison and Kulusevski have been out so long it’s impossible to say - they may want to stay to rehab and other teams may not want to take the risk. Odobert is another in this category. It’s such a young squad you could see a lot of them staying. Decent chance next season starts: [keeper] Spence Danso Phillips Souza Gray Bergvall Kudus Maddison Tel Solanke Kinsky Sarr Lankshear Devine Donley Odobert (maybe back end of the year) We’d be generating an insane amount of money in sales.

Everything that could go wrong is going wrong. I think we go, but the one chance is De Zerbi getting us together at home and the crowd being able to put pressure on the refs. Then you’re just hoping West Ham get some bad luck.

Welcome to our world.

Oh you sweet summer child.

Maddison, Kulusevski, Odobert, Bentancur, Romero, Kudus and Davies are all out for the season.

Brobbey could have had four yellow cards today. That was one and would have been his second. Has seriously injured Romero and could have seriously injured Kinsky. We’re struggling anyway but the refereeing has now got to the point where it’s so clearly following a narrative. Today was a joke. Still no penalties.

Yeah my sister used to live just down the City Road from it. I used to play football for the Old Queen’s Head. Right now listening to a guy in an Arsenal shirt talking to a Man City fan explaining that he paid £110 for his ticket today. Hee hee.

You do, we’re in the Old Red Lion.

I’m in a pub in Islington helping my eldest study for her GCSEs. Enjoying the glum faces walking by.

There’s a couple of points there I guess. On a purely local level Southampton actually has a decent catchment area, and they typically get around 30K fans for home matches in our second division. In contrast only 7 Serie A sides have averaged over 28K this season with sides like Fiorentina, Atalanta and Parma falling way short which really surprised me. Do they have stadium issues? The Premier League has made a conscious choice to level the playing field a bit in this regard, certainly relative to, say, La Liga. We get frustrated with parity issues here but I’d much rather this than the Spanish system which is nominally similar to yours but results in Barca, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid getting vastly more money than others. The Premier League has always been popular but has really built on that and you could argue that allocating more money to lower clubs has kept it more exciting - which might bolster its popularity. It’s not a mystery why Spain and Italy have lagged behind here, but I do think it’s a mistake.

It‘s faintly ironic that the Premier Lesgue has broken the Europa and Conference by actually doing the right thing.

The distribution is broadly similar to Serie A, only with a vastly higher baseline. So when you got €87M (the second highest), Inter got €101M and the lowest amount was Frosinone at €31.3M. In contrast, last year Liverpool got about £175M while the smallest amount was Southampton with £109M. If you ignore the currency it’s a similar difference of about 70M, but with that huge baseline increase. Thus from another point of view, Inter got more than 3x as much as the smallest clubs, while Liverpool were a long way off getting even twice the amount Southampton did. The division in England is more equitable. I understand last year Italy used the following formula: If you’re rewarding a club like Inter with an extra €74M for “social rooting” and “sporting merit” compared to less than €5M for teams like Salernitana and Frosinone then that’s a significant difference.

Can confirm from North London.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67743738