TheBrownBottle

It is very difficult to choose between shit and shite tbf

I'd rather Man Utd won than Spurs tbh

UEFA did in 1971-72; every UEFA Cup final until 2013-14 had been played before the end of the domestic season (before 1998 and the change to a one-leg final, the first leg of the final would be before the end of the English league season). The norm is for it to come before the end of the league season.

No-one tell them that their net spend in the last five seasons in the PL was about the same as ours post-takeover ..,

It does feel like full-blown Partridge to correct PAT testing tbf

That’s where we completely differ

No chance they vote for it - the PL was established to reduce the top division to 18 clubs 33 years ago; they didn’t do it then due to money, and it’s even less likely it happens now. There are 17 clubs who have to seriously cock up to go down; why would they vote to guarantee at least one of them going down?

Man Utd were still England’s biggest club when they went 27 years without a league title. They’re one of those clubs where they’re effectively failure-proof. With or without FFP, Man Utd are not going to fall away in wealth terms. And their wealth more or less guarantees they’ll be back - remember, they have to make the wrong calls constantly every season for many, many years to get to where you’re talking; at some point they’ll get lucky even if not by design due to the wealth and lure of the club

The point of course to illustrate just how vast the gulf is between the two clubs, not to be taken literally. I think there will be those who’ll see Man Utd’s plight and think we’ve overtaken them - we haven’t, and they’ll be back at some point. They’re too big not to.

The question would be 'where are the buyers?'. We're already at the point of nation states buying clubs. Who is going to pay 4bn for Chelsea? The club that Abramovich sold was English football's most successful club of the century to date, but they aren't Man Utd. 4bn is the purchase cost + what Boehly and co. has poured in to date. I'm just not seeing that happen - football clubs have tiny revenue streams (and profit potential) against their 'value'. Football clubs are not good investments at all.

Spurs' income was over 200m more than ours when we had CL football and they didn't. The gulf is absolutely massive - and yes, they're losing money, in Spurs' case in part due to stadium costs. Man Utd are going absolutely nowhere when it comes to income - I think some are genuinely deluded if they think that Man Utd are going to suffer significant financial harm in the long run. They're a monster of a club, they have huge global reach - they'll be England's biggest club in 50 years time, never mind right now. Man Utd and Spurs are absolutely not dependent on European football - they aren't Leeds c.2002

About £60m per year goes to pay for the Glazer’s leveraged buyout Spurs lost about £30m and Man Utd about £110m post-tax. Spurs’ loss is pretty normal for a PL club.

By way of example, here’s the income figures for last season: Man Utd: £662m Spurs: £528m NUFC: £320m Our income last season was closer to your local pub team than to Man Utd’s. Man Utd’s wage bill was higher than our turnover - they’ll be back, because ultimately money talks

Unlikely, given that they would still have an income which outstripped 95% of the top division Looking at Man Utd and Spurs’ current position and thinking that this is anything other than a blip is wishful thinking. They’ll both be back amongst it, maybe even as early as next season (Man Utd are the bigger basket case of the two, so do need more work). FFP builds in the advantages to these clubs, so they could have multiple years like this one and still outspend the likes of us or Villa

Liverpool finished 8th once, but they continued to sit in the top four places and won plenty of cups during that period I’m not convinced they do need to spend huge sums to get back up the table - look at who they need to leapfrog. Man Utd and Spurs are still massive draws to players - if Forest get a CL place, I still would be surprised if they attracted a player ahead of those clubs.

And this is the answer to anyone asking ‘why do the other clubs support FFP?’ I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the PL is full of historically small clubs - to an unusual degree. This season we’ve won more trophies than Brentford, Fulham, Palace, Bournemouth and Brighton have between them in their combined histories - and I’ve basically just listed the PL’s midtable.

Man Utd and Spurs incomes dwarf the other 14 clubs even without CL football - they’re in no danger re FFP; both have around £200m+ of headroom vs the 7th richest club (us) even without CL football. They can survive extended periods like this one.

They were - and they weren’t subtle. Never bought the ‘brilliant mind games’ shite - he was outright accusing other teams of corrupt practice. He never did that again - probably because the cunt should’ve been brought on disrepute charges by the FA

It doesn’t - but back-of-a-fag packet calcs can be done; the picture is clearer once we know which competitions we’re in. The issue is that our income for this season won’t have grown much in relation to last season, and the wages and amortisation won’t have changed by much at all this year

Need more of this. Even better if some could scream obscenities so loud and passionately that their face becomes a veiny omelette of deep reds and blues

Apparently it isn't a requirement, but it would be remarkable if they don't - Juve has failed to qualify for Europe only five times since 1963 (91/92, 06/07, 07/08, 11/12 and 23/24) and two of those seasons was because of the Calciopoli scandal and subsequent punishment

Football, anger and casual racism - yep, it is an Italian forum

While I think it is unlikely, I’ve always found it a bit odd that most football fans don’t think that two left footed centre halves can play together, yet the vast majority of central defences since the change from W-M have had two right footed centre backs

18/1 still seems crackers to me - I haven't placed a bet in 25 years but that is seriously tempting