gjohnson

Not what i'm saying... Yes lots of clubs were affected by having no crowd, but we appear to be the only ones using it as an active excuse not to invest while others get on with it and try to improve.

Cos Covid took all our money and left the rest of the league un-touched.... We had to break all our rules and actually pay in instalments for someone....that 5m could still wipe us out!

It's not folly at all...it was an enforced example of how little a crowd matters from a business perspective. An empty ground now would make much more of a statement in terms of overall and media perception, but i think we can all agree that Ashley doesn't give a stuff about that, and only looks at the numbers on the end of a balance sheet.

Standard retail practice....if you've a product no-one wants, drop the price till you can get rid of it. If anything giving them away was detrimental as it showed that having a crowd (with Bruce in charge) doesn't make his profit any better That was before a season with no fans in the ground at all..... I think he's seen now that a crowd makes little to no difference in how much money comes in and just doesn't think they're worth the hassle now.

How so? All we've seen from a Covid empty stadium is just another excuse not to spend money...even though we seem to have been the only ones affected by it. As long as we're on TV occasionally with Sports Direct logos everywhere he's happy. Ticket money is almost irrelevant now, given that we can be outspent by teams with the lowest crowds. If anything no crowd suits him better, as there's then no direct pressure on his human shields (Bruce/Charnley) and no pressure from main stream media, only a few easily brushed aside articles from the likes of Hope. It could be argued that last season with no crowd was the best ever for Ashley personally...no chants, lots of free advert space, just enough results to not draw attention to the dire performances, feeble local media reporting, minimal to no national reporting. Essentially being able to do whatever he wanted and getting away with it with no questions whatsoever. I'd argue that he would love another ban of fans attending

And Big Jo does better?

Llambias at least had some resemblance of an actual business man head who could see an opportunity when it was being waved in his face, and would just do it. Rather him than Charnley who hasn't a clue, takes three weeks to ask permission from Barnes to speak to Ashley, then forgets to turn up to the meeting....on Teams

Hypothetically would anyone respect him more if he actually did just walk away? Unless I'm wrong the only manager to have ever walked from this job has been Keegan...and both fully justified. Know Gullit refused a payout but was still sacked rather than walking

There's literally no scenario where Bruce loses barring him resigning without taking a pay off.

Warnock surely?

Only if you've got a filthy mind :-)

Saudi helicopter landed at Wilton Site the other day.... probably more to do with Sabic though

When the local papers turn, it's only ever a matter of time. Whether there'll be enough time to save us from the Championship is another matter

As someone discussed a while back we're always the perfect opposition for a team that 'needs a result'....whether it be to end a losing streak or so they can get into European positions. Even when we were half decent you could almost guarantee that a team with 6 losses on the spin would get a result against us.

Does Cayman Islands Count? EDIT.....Awesome it does, and it seems that beyond having a relative, having two legs is the only requirement

Rondon is massively underrated by anyone who's not seen him play regularly. I'll freely admit i thought he was a bad/cheap signing at the time, but was hugely impressed by his work rate and skill. It's strange how such a good player can stay hidden from the elite for so long. Sadly he's probably a bit too old for a Champions League team to even look at him now even though he probably deserved that chance

So a protest no-one has heard about, with no-one involved in. Sounds about right. I personally am petrified

Exactly, but know Companies House activity means absolutely naff all

I don't. I know nothing, but the level of activity doesn't exactly suggest the pursuit of a multi-million pound deal, when a company of less than 10 can provide more information in a month than they have in a year

Because it wasn't? Companies House listings and person's of control mean absolutely bot all. I used to work for a company in Shields that listed everything religiously on there, but didn't stop them going bust and disappearing in a week

So not interesting or necessarily relevant given their other UK interests

How is this interesting, given that it's more than a year old?

I'm sure there is somewhere where Sky or some other site review obviously suspect decisions and re-calculate the tables. Needless to say the top 4 (not 6) have a tendency to lose a fair few points. Doesn't usually change the order of the table much though but on occasion could easily have made a difference between 1st and 2nd, or Cup Winners and Runners up. Regardless, there's no way that there isn't even a subliminal bias towards the teams that the PL want up at the top. Perhaps a lot more subtle that when Juventus/Milan/Inter were basically allowed to choose their referees and instruct them to help (didn't Moggi once lock a referee in his office until he agreed to favour Juventus?) , but there's certainly an undercurrent there.

Easy to say refs are unbiased when your own team has benefited more from dubious and 50/50 decisions for 30 odd years. We alone could probably have a top 20 of subject decisions against us when playing Man Utd....let alone the rest of the teams in the league. Rob Lee through on goal...hacked down. Clear red for Solskjaer, but nooooo

How so? Then why was Clattenburg never allowed to referee us?