leffe186

As a football fan, I'm well annoyed. Just as annoyed as I was when the same thing happened with Leicester. Football is completely f***ed, the game is completely rigged aside from the odd miracle. Yup. All of this. I'm annoyed that the bigger clubs are in a different league, but we're in a different league to many clubs, so I can't cry about it too much. I get more annoyed when "journalists" start stirring, or when fans talk about a "market rate" that is set by teams that have near-infinite money. Simple. How many years does it take us to win the Champions League? One? Two? How much does our income go up? I mean, I do agree to an extent. There is definitely an argument that now is the time to boost wages a bit. In a year or two we should have a brand spanking new stadium, and hopefully we can start generating some serious matchday income. If we keep the team together we should be in the perfect position to push on. I simply don't know how much money we need to put aside to pay for the stadium though. And lest we forget, there are fifteen or so teams across the continent with more or comparable money, and our revenue is still only sixth in our own league. Man City spent 200M this year to be not as good as us, and Man U spent 150M to be even worse. They will spend the same again.

I did right at the beginning . It's the thing that a lot of rival fans have thrown at us this past couple of years - "none of it means anything unless you win a trophy", "Poch is nothing until he's won a trophy". We get it. You just need a couple of breaks. If we'd not drawn Chelsea in the semi then I suspect we'd be in the final. Arsenal have done very well in the FA Cup recently, but they've had some very generous draws to help them on the way. All you can do is build the best team you can to maximize your chances. I would like us to pay more wages, of course I would. As I understand it, we use bonuses to bump wages up, which is probably the only way we can do it. We have loosened it a bit, and it pushed up everyone's wages, and yet we are still in a situation where Lingard and Lovren are earning 100Kpw. That's not loosening it a bit, that's pretty much doubling our wages. It doesn't help that the media are complicit. It's not the first time that these stories have come up when we have a Chelsea game on the horizon or they're feeling threatened.

I guess I'm on the wrong track. They deserve the money that Chelsea or Man U can pay, so we should pay everyone an extra 50K-100K per week.Start paying the youth team 20Kpw. Maybe it will all work out. Or if we can't, then just sell everybody who's any good to somebody who can afford to pay them "the market rate". I'm serious. Maybe there's something I'm missing and you're all seeing. I'm programmed to believe that you build a club sustainably, paying wages that reflect your revenue. We also have a new stadium to pay for, and I'm too tired and old to work out the intricacies of how that impacts our costs and bottom line. We pay the extra, what. 100M or so each year to bring us closer to "market rate". What happens next? Genuine question. What happens next? You win the league, win the champions league, your fanbase goes up, your income goes up. I don't disagree with a lot of what you're saying, but if one team is offering £60k a week and the other £120k a week, which would a player with a fairly short career join? Can people please stop telling me that! I've grasped that concept.

I guess I'm on the wrong track. They deserve the money that Chelsea or Man U can pay, so we should pay everyone an extra 50K-100K per week.Start paying the youth team 20Kpw. Maybe it will all work out. Or if we can't, then just sell everybody who's any good to somebody who can afford to pay them "the market rate". I'm serious. Maybe there's something I'm missing and you're all seeing. I'm programmed to believe that you build a club sustainably, paying wages that reflect your revenue. We also have a new stadium to pay for, and I'm too tired and old to work out the intricacies of how that impacts our costs and bottom line. We pay the extra, what. 100M or so each year to bring us closer to "market rate". What happens next? Genuine question.

The new stadium is the way. I'm not really sure what people expect us to do. All you have to do is look at the Deloitte table, or one of those Swiss Ramble pieces. The estimated wage bill for us this year is about 120M. Four clubs will be paying over 200M, while Liverpool are probably around 165M. Compare them to the revenues above. Why are you having trouble believing this ? Again, it's in black and white. Is there a way for Joe Lewis to just do what Abramovich and the Man City guys did and throw money at everything? Maybe you know one, because I just presumed that FFP meant it wasn't going to happen.

The numbers have been plain to see for years though. Our revenue is about 200M, Liverpool's is 300M, the other London clubs 350M, Man City's now 400M, and Man U somewhere over 500M. It's not a mystery. The other big clubs have just got more money available, for a variety of reasons. Hopefully the new stadium will increase matchday income, and we can sustain this period of success to build commercial income. Joe Lewis isn't about to come up with some magic Etihad-type sponsorship deal to bypass FFP etc.

Yes and no, Dier's adaptability is fantastic and he can play them all well. In a team he's probably replaceable but in a squad and over a season he's invaluable.........or at least more important than he may appear at first sight. Yeah, he's not the best in the world, but he's extremely useful to the team as a whole. Some Spurs fans do say we could afford to lose and improve upon these players, but it's a risk. We're good enough now that the players who would improve us are likely to be out of our financial reach. Who would you buy instead of Dier? He's been with us for some time, he's well-integrated to the team and culture, and he's part of a team that has won 16 out of 19.

Agree with this. Also they need to start winning trophies soon imo, if they want to keep some of their star players. Yes, but it's not fair, is it? That's precisely the fucking point. Man U are now paying Lingard 100K a week. Liverpool are now paying Lovren 100K a week. How the fuck do we compete with that? Supposedly the only Spurs players getting six figures are Lloris and Kane, with Aldeweireld trying to get a raise. Chelsea, Man U, Man C, Arsenal, and to an extent Liverpool, all pay their players more than we can afford. I cannot believe that there are still thoughtful, intelligent football fans that keep saying "Oh, well it's the going rate, they should be paying them that much". Well we fucking can't. What is it that you're not getting ? As for the trophies, well, yeah, I agree.

It's being discussed quite a bit this week on our boards. On the one hand you don't want to break up a good thing, but if one player had to get his head turned then Walker wouldn't be a bad choice. Strong and fast, but not as natural a footballer as Trippier, and we have a kid coming through who might make the grade. Walker's somebody we might be able to get a shit-ton of cash for from somebody like City.

Allow me, with the mighty O's as my second team, to tell you to fuck the fuck off and take your integrators with you.

I'm still not sure I believe this. but apparently our record over the last 19 league games (half a season) is: WWWWWWDDWLWWWWWWWWW 50 pts - W 16 D 2 L 1. Even the 'Invincibles' didn't manage that. And we're going to win f*** all .

Just annoyed that wasn't four or five.

Reading the BBC updates. Danny Mills doesn't like Spurs much .

Let's not lose sight of the true culprit. I don't know how it looked from the ref's angle - but Swansea are being done by a fucking appalling cheating decision by Rashford.

Those c***s love throwing s*** at players. Funnily enough, the worst coining I have ever been on the end of was with the home fans at Palace v Villa (years and years ago).

Took out Jakupovic FFS.

It's childish, but I laugh at "Ready To Groom" every time.

It's quite refreshing not really giving a fuck who wins this, if anyone.

Sementics.

Yes, right up until this weekend.

Congratulations!

Don't know why I bothered getting my hopes up tbh. This is all going Chelsea's way.

Wew. Without meaning to be too much of a cunt, feels a bit more snide in the week that Ugo Ehiogu dies.

Please God let it be West Ham. That could be the funniest relegation of all time.

They beat CSKA Moscow there this season and they won the Carling Cup there in 2008 Dammit joey, had a pithy reply all lined up .