leffe186

That was definitely the feeling we got all along with Kane, and during the Dragusin stuff a couple of journos suggested it was the case in Germany - for example when they wanted other Bundesliga players. I don’t know what wages they offer in general, but we heard that their late offer to Dragusin included higher wages than ours. Wouldn’t surprisenme at all if they could offer Trippier a lot for a couple of years.

I bet he doesn’t etc etc

Yeah, every fan base is going to have people who want to “do a City”, people who don’t want to but go along with it and people who hate it. These posts are from here precisely 11 years ago: There are Spurs fans who’d love to be/have been owned by a foreign country and spend infinite money. There are clearly Newcastle fans who think you’re not “big enough in terms of support, revenue etc, if run properly, to have a tilt eventually, and do it the right way.” I don’t agree, but nothing I say is going to change their minds so all I’m really doing is laying out how I feel.

Feels like they’ve all been really cynical fouls too

Absolutely. And if Man City didn’t have an emotional affect on you either then I envy you . If you were cool with that then of course you’d be cool with Saudi Arabia spending whatever they want right now. I just wasn’t. And I think if you build steadily over the next few years and redevelop your stadium (or build a new one) then you’d bridge the gap too eventually. I didn’t know about the Moores stuff as a kid, all I knew was that Liverpool won everything and loads of people I knew in North London supported them to feel better about themselves. Maybe it would have changed my attitude.

It wasn’t, Jack Walker was the most obvious recent example at the time, there have been loads since the 1800s. The Abramovich one felt different to me. If it felt the same to you then fair enough.

Yeah, you might blow every other club out of the water. Except maybe Man City who could now spend whatever they wanted. And maybe Chelsea - Boehly clearly is happy to spend whatever he wants. I don’t know about the other guys - the Chinese owners of Wolves, that Egyptian guy at Villa, that bloke (Iranian?) who bought Everton. Maybe he could buy Everton a new ground. I dunno. All I know is that I felt really, well, sad when Abramovich was throwing his money at Chelsea and it wasn’t because it wasn’t us. Same with what happened at Man City. If this is what you want then I get it, and maybe it would make the league better. I have no idea any more, really. It just makes me feel a bit sad again

I mean the coat tails were halfway up the stairs at the beginning. Was hard enough grabbing hold of them let alone hanging on. Most of the talk here has been about the top six cartel being out of reach, and as we are part of that I presumed you were wanting to catch us. I just think that we bridged the gap while spending less than our income, so why can’t you? I think we’re well placed to kick on now. I mean, it’s only 2018 when we didn’t buy anyone (presumably because of the stadium costs/uncertainty) and then COVID came along. I just think that you’ve already shown so much improvement in such a short time, and your past history suggests you can generate way more revenue on matchday and outside. I would presume you also have decent name recognition abroad thanks partly to the early successes in the Premier League. I do think that you will need to either move or rebuild St.James’s Park to make the step up at some point. The rules definitely need changing to account for inflation etc.

Yeah, I think one problem with the podcast is that there was just too much ground to cover. They say it at one point - basically they have to cut it short because they could talk about it for hours. Once again though, the drawbridge stuff is true and yes it would be lovely to achieve it without the asterisks. But you don’t have to imagine it out of thin air. We fucking did it. And it sucked at times, and it was up and down, and Levy got pelters from everyone. At the beginning the top 4 was essentially a closed shop (Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool) which meant they got pretty much all the CL money. Then just as we might have broken in Man City came along and fucked us all. Lest you forgot, we are the only Premier League team to ever go an entire summer window without buying a player, in 2018. But timeEd32 has laid it out. It will be shitty this year then it will get better. You’re the only show in town with the potential to build a spanking new stadium on more than one site. Whereas we had a closed shop of four who had guaranteed CL income (and no FFP to worry about for a few years at the beginning) there are more teams now jostling for position and preventing the same four from hogging all the CL money. We’re already looking at three of those four having to sell to buy this January if they can even do that. Before this year Arsenal had been out of the CL for six years. Man U have only managed every other year for the past 10. And it might suck at times, like now, and it will be up and down, and yeah it would help if you were in London. But I reckon it’s more doable now than it has been for a long time. Why do you think it’s impossible?

Sorry you can listen for free through the Apple Podcasts app.

Right now it’s because they say they’re not guilty, and many of the charges are complex. Everton and Forest admit they are, and they are straightforward breaches. Honestly, listen to that Athletic podcast, it lays it out pretty well: https://theathletic.com/podcast/144-athletic-football-podcast/ The 16th Jan one.

Maybe they are impacted by the other charges? Like, if there are issues in the reporting of revenue/income that meant that the “real” income took them over the limit?

Yeah, somebody suggested (the Athletic?) that Man U had actually sent a delegation over there back in December. Looks like the powder will be dry this Jan. They’re supposed to be looking for younger foreign players going forward.

Fucking hell lads, i presumed we’d be playing you in the next round. What happened?

Your question should rightly be “if we paid the same as you, would he turn us down?” To which my answer would be, yes, I think so.

It’s not like that hasn’t been Henderson’s entire career

We’ve been sniffing around, supposedly.

If that’s what he earns it’s a lot for a back-up midfielder for anyone, that’s partly why he’s available. I really like him but suspect he will go abroad. You didn’t sign Maddison for more reasons than that

In this market where nobody can spend anything? I think STMs value are close. I’d probably bump Gordon up to 60 and Joelinton down to 40 maybe. Might bring Isak down a bit - I just don’t see anyone paying that.

Obviously transfer window timing, but so much of this is because there‘s a bit of a break now. And I’m talking about me, whose team has done all right and bought somebody. If I supported you lot I’d have been in here posting more words than HTT.

Levy’s a dick, but he’s useful.

Glad I didn’t bother . I think the Athletic’s Spurs podcast is really good, the general football one is occasionally good, anything else worth checking out?

You mean 1882? We’ll struggle to sell tickets to that constituency Most of any club’s attendance history is not all that relevant. Demographics have changed, the economy has changed, fashions have changed, the teams have changed, the grounds themselves have changed etc. It’s certainly worth looking at the last, what, 30 years, say? Then you can make an educated guess. I would very much like to see @brummie’s working on the “thousands and thousands” of Korean fans going to our home games though. Genuinely . Maybe there are? I truly don’t know. It didn’t look like it when panning the crowd at the Sheffield United match but I stand to be corrected.

He is . Comes from the South-West. He was a commentator on Capital Gold for years and years. Bit of a cult figure. I still have a cassette somewhere of his commentary on the Spurs-Arsenal semi-final in 1991. It’s a work of art. His schtick on Capital Gold was always that he was a fan of all London clubs. He probably bent over backwards to not favour Bristol City and overdid it.

I Googled it. Wow . Now I’m really curious what triggered Murray. https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2024/jan/13/cult-of-ange-lives-on-in-north-london-but-is-he-really-all-that-different Edit: Oh right, he was the guy that asked the “trophies” question. That’s absolutely hilarious . Lower down in the Google is a Celtic View piece commenting on his childish column titled “Smart Arse Jambo Ewan Murray…”. What a twat