leffe186

Yeah, bairns are home but have been told “do not disturb”. Back in the UK and there’s a good chippy up the road so I’ve managed to institute Friday Fry Day. Thank Christ my American wife loves fish and chips, my youngest loves haddock and chips and my eldest loves a sausage in batter. If they had moved to the UK and couldn’t appreciate a chippy it would have been gutting.

Friday night games suck for away fans (unless you make it a weekend trip) but man, it’s nice to sit down and watch. My wife’s out of town tonight and I don’t care about the result so I’m looking forward to this.

Edit: someone got there first

Sometimes you get a run of bad lick.

That would be the Spurs who lost three players to injury last week - GLC, Davies and Veliz . To add to all the other ones. You’re right, but it’s no guarantee you won’t get injuries. Sometimes the lick just deserts you.

That first Madstock was blinding for me. I mean, I was out of my gourd, but got Madness, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, and Flowered Up (at the time I thought Weekender was a work of genius). And Morrissey too. It always makes me laugh that Madness are a legit one-hit wonder in the US.

I’ve got a lot of time for Suggs tbh. Got married in the US 15 years ago and had the DJ put One Step Beyond on - English mates went mental on the dance floor and the Americans were just baffled.

He’s an embarrassment.

Yes, yes it is

Yeah loan deals for attackers without a compulsory buy option never happen.

This is the key issue. If you have to generate revenue to spend then there are limited sources. Matchday and other stadium-generated revenue is an essential part. Arsenal made the move early on but had the perfect opportunity in available land and sympathetic local authorities. Man City somewhat lucked into a new stadium. West Ham massively lucked into a new stadium. Levy worked on it for over a decade before finally making it happen. Liverpool have repeatedly expanded Anfield to a capacity of 61K. Villa are working on expanding Villa Park to 50K by 2028 and other redevelopment. The biggest issues now seem to be you guys and Chelsea. Both locations impose restrictions on what can be achieved with the current ground.

Right now definitely not after Winks and Kane leaving in the Summer…unless somebody’s desperate for a CM who runs around a lot (Skipp). If you’re looking forward then maybe Devine, Donley, Dorrington, Keeley and Mikey Moore. I’ll wait and see how things settle down after Ange has been in place for a season. Hoping that we’ll have cleared some of the deadwood by then and have a crop of kids coming through who’ve had successful loans. Anyway this is not the place

Ssssh, I’m pontificating here

It’s relatively close though: https://football-observatory.com/WeeklyPost446 https://www.bettingodds.com/news/report-football-academies-manchester-united-have-provided-the-most-players-to-the-present-day-english-football-pyramid

Honestly thought I didn’t care too much about this game, then here comes all the usual Liverpool nonsense.

Didn’t Konate literally just grab him there?

Klopp FFS Did he react like that when Bradley passes it straight out immediately afterwards?

Absolutely. But then there’s this double Football Pet Hate from the BBC text: “We've seen this before. One goal down, time wasting opposition, player diving and adding 12 rolls as he goes. But we are built different, going to enjoy beating this lot. James, Bedford” Pet Hate #1: No James, you’re not built different, you’re cheating cunts like the rest of us. You just perhaps do it less because you’ve got more money… Pet Hate #2: …and what’s with the “we”? Maybe you moved to Bedford to escape Toxteth. Or maybe, just maybe, you are built different…as a glory-hunting cunt from the Home Counties.

Twitter bullshit I presume?

…but it helped. And it was part and parcel of steadily growing the club to the point where this morning a foreign player has openly chosen us over Bayern Munich. It was in the FFP planning strategy insofar as every player except Berbatov was bought young and relatively cheap and then developed. Berba was brought in relatively cheap and probably always saw us as a stepping stone. Hopefully now we’re closer to the other side of the pond.

Not at the same level, but not too far off. Generated quote a lot of money last year Man City and Chelsea are kind of in their own league there. Would be interested to see the figures over the last five years. It feels like a lot of the success is dependent upon how many players you can poach from lower league academies or abroad.

I know that his name rhymes with Wanky, if that helps?

Yeah I just posted something in the Transfers thread about this. I think you’re going about it the right way. You need to clear the deadwood, keep making solid buys (I actually thought Livramento was a terrific deal at the time and still do) and just keep building. I think the money will come. You’ve been run by a selfish idiot for years and are turning things round. Matchday income will improve to an extent, commercial deals will improve etc. One reason FFP covers five years is to smooth things out and ensure that one great year or one bad year shouldn’t blow things up. It’s hard to compete with Arsenal, Chelsea etc for transfer targets but they’ve just had their massive splurge and will now have to cut their costs accordingly. For the last 20 years I’ve been annoyed that Man U, Man City and Chelsea (in particular) can fuck up but then throw money at a problem and it goes away. I’m not sure that’s going to be so easy going forward. Too many clubs are run too well right now and the depth of the PL TV money is improving parity somewhat. Not as much as I’d like, but better than it used to be.

It took us years and years. In 2004 we cleaned house, got in loads of cheap young players and started to build. Didn’t get top 4 for five years. After that it was another five years until Poch, then we were established in the top four. Big sales of our best players - 2006 - Carrick 2008 - Berbatov and Keane 2012 - Modric 2013 - Bale 2017 - Walker 2023 - Kane Initially good management/ownership, then FFP forced it. It’s a slog, two steps forward one step back etc etc. We had to sell our best players consistently - up till last year FFS. So bloody frustrating, but we made it - to here at least. I understand the frustrations with FFP but I’m also happy that it’s reduced people throwing money at things, and for example we might be seeing Chelsea and hopefully Arsenal (please God) starting to struggle with it. Right now there genuinely are eight teams with a chance of winning the league this year or next year. You’ve got a really good set-up now (or are building one) on and off the pitch and it’s going to be financially stable and keep you at the top table probably for years. So…can you not enjoy the ride? I mean, what’s the rush?

I do wonder if they can continue to do so if they’re out of the CL for a while. They’re still generating a ton from their youth set-up though.