SteV

Jesus if they can’t play the midweek before the semi finals it really will be the end of the season.

I would think w/c Apr 16th is favourite for us to play Spurs, unless they lose to Juve, so not quite the end of the season.

Nah, they won’t go bust. The reason Short has stopped all the spending is so they don’t go bust. If and when they go down it’ll just be a continuation of that. All remaining players of value sold off and replaced with free transfers and loans (of even lower quality than the current ones). It’s going to be a very long road back for them. Shame.

I'd also be intrigued to see the set of results that lead to this outcome. Not a very exciting answer I'm afraid. Predictor I did didn't include goals, just win/draw/lose, so I'm sure it just picked the order out of it's arse. Ah, a lot more sensible/feasible than you having us down for 7-0 wallopings at Liverpool and Spurs.

I'd also be intrigued to see the set of results that lead to this outcome.

No, the packages are what the providers purchase from the PL. So theoretically, you could have 7 (or however many packages they are) different providers with rights to show various different matches. Not that that's ever going to happen.

Spurs looking good to go through against Juve now. Apart from the fact that makes organising our game against them a right pain in the arse, it might well help us if they’ve got, say semi finals of the CL and FA cup, and our game just slips in somewhere in between, and for them could be a lower priority. Probably thinking too far ahead, but it would be nice if that was the case.

Don't compare them to us, compare them to other teams that have become established in the PL. The likes of West Brom, Swansea, Stoke, Palace. Have they got a fan base to compare with the likes of them? Of course they have. Attendances probably will fall off a cliff if and when they get relegated. Yet whatever they are they'll probably still be greater than the teams mentioned would attract if they were in a similar situation, i.e playing in a lower league with a consistently poor team and discontent with the ownership. Anyway, the fact that they do have a sizable fanbase, will make their inevitable defeats to likes of Fleetwood, Southend, Bury or whoever they end up playing, just that little bit more amusing.

Yep, if they beat Juve, the first two weeks of April are taken, then if they were to get through to the semis, the last week of April and the first week of May are taken. Before even looking at when any potential cup replays would be. Unless they get beat off Juve it looks like it's probably going to be arranged at fairly short notice.

Potential? Their potential is fake. Their paying core of fans isn't what they billed and is now being shown up once Premiership football and free tickets has ended. There's even those who've paid and aren't turning up. This isn't a club with potential. It's a club which tried to keep up with the jones', overspent in the wrong areas, pretended to be bigger than what they are and are now suffering the consequences. No one cares about the club outside of the North East. No one wants to play for them and the fans can't or won't put money in to it via tickets or merchandise. There isn't potential there to make money, there are much bigger clubs in the division in better financial positions who would cost less than their debt. Those are the real sleeping giants. That's a somewhat biased view IMO. They've just been a PL team for 10 years. Yes they hemorrhaged money virtually the whole time they were there, but that was down to inept senior management and absolutely pathetic player recruitment. Whilst I agree no-one really cares about them outside of the North East, the same could be said of Stoke, West Brom, Watford, Burnley, the list goes on. And the fact is they have a considerably larger fanbase than all of those mentioned. For all their faults, and fan-obsession with all things 'Mag', they absolutely have the potential to be an established PL team, although probably not to ever go further and consistently challenge towards the top 8. That said, the current state they find themselves in means they're a million miles away from that, and it's likely to be a long road back. Ah well, never mind.

Highly unlikely anyone will pay that much for a League One club, regardless of the potential. A Championship club? Possibly.

Still going to have to cough up around £130m to "pay off the debt" though. They'll do well to find someone prepared to pay that for them in their current state.

They just pay back part of it and re-finance (most likely at a worse rate) the rest. Whilst the future seems pretty bleak unless they get taken over, there should be very little chance of administration whilst Short continues to be the owner. They'll most likely continue to limp along, cost-cutting and scrimping by.

I very much doubt Ashley would have sanctioned the paying of a loan fee, just to allow Woodman to go out for three months.

No-one could realistically be expected to donate in such a scenario when they continue to be owned by someone who could easily cover any such debt out of his own pocket if he so wished. Obviously if he were to sell them and a new owner(s), with far less resources, found themselves unable to cover the debt, that may be different.

No.

Frustration. It always the same when the other team scores late. If we'd been the ones that had equalised in the last 5 mins there probably wouldn't have been any.

Erm, there was blatant boos. Aye, there was. I think what people were p*ssed off about is the fact that although there were boos, they were pretty muted really, and hardly worthy of mentioning. To be honest there's boo's 95% of the time we get beat, as with most teams (especially when you factor in the frustration of the other team getting a late goal). There was just no need for it to be part any match report/summary. Edit - actually we didn't even get beat here, but you know what I mean - a result that didn't meet hopes/expectations.

Are you sure? The fact you’ve bothered to post in this thread would suggest otherwise. We’re all disappointed/massively p*ssed offf with how things have turned out recently but the fact is you do still care even if you’d rather not.

Man City at home. Rather play them at home than on neutral territory in the semi or final.

Nee Hayden Mullins.

Ah yes, Bournemouth's Feb. Spurs is going to be a right mess given it's FA QF weekend. So no doubt the picks that weekend will be a lot of ifs, buts and maybes.

Guesses on the most ludicrous time to shift Bournemouth away to?

From Conte's quotes likening it to when Christensen went on loan, i think it's unlikely.

He's a list of strikers recently bought by PL teams in and around that price bracket: Iheanacho Ayew Walcott Arnautovic Janssen Tosun Gray Musa That's what ~20M gets you these days and some of them (Walcott) are probably not possible for us due to wages.