TheBrownBottle

Full backs still play full back today - we don’t play CMs and wingers there

Yep. The PL can have its own rules re owner investment, but UEFA can still punish clubs within the federation for stepping over UEFA regs

The problem is that folks think that the argument for a new stadium is getting a few more thousand in. This isn’t it at all. The problem with SJP isn’t just capacity - it’s the fact that it’s a stadium not designed to maximise commercial revenue in the way that modern football stadiums are. If SJP could be expanded to 60k, and all that mattered was regular match day tickets, it wouldn’t be worth a move. But to think that is to miss the point.

Yep. Vs the Smoggies, when he also didn’t track a runner for their equaliser. So easy to forget just how unpopular much of that team was - albeit talented

Likewise mate. To my (correctly felt) shame. Only started appreciating it in the ‘00s, watching the Women’s WC, with Gavin Peacock as a pundit.

He was a superbly gifted player - but anyone my age (41) who drank most nights on the Quayside in the late ‘90s - mid-‘00s have a good idea as to how professional he was, and why he might not have made the most of his undeniable talent

I remember Marco van Basten going on about having no offsides a few years back - but he would say that, he was a centre forward (alongside the Brazilian Ronaldo the best centre forward I’ve seen in my lifetime - the man had everything - but it was a forward’s take nonetheless)

Yeah, I think that's fair. I'm probably going around in circles anyway - I'd just like some clarity. By end of August, I agree I think we'll be far more clear

100% - KSA has practically zero debt, so there are all kinds of avenues available. But the PIF is also not the same as the Abu Dhabi / Qatari investments a la Man City / PSG. I think what many are hoping for is for FFP to be wiped away, and we go on a Man City-style splurge. I don't think either of these things is likely to occur under any circumstances; football will have some form of financial governance, and the appetite to 'do a Man City' (in terms of CAPEX) is also unlikely in any case.

It could also be that the club hasn’t challenged the rules because they have no interest in challenging them. Because they don’t have the money to just hoy at a football club (no sniggering back there) The PIF is down to $15bn in cash reserves. Which to you and me is a pretty penny, but it’s also not really enough to be chucking a significant chunk of that at a foreign football club https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-14/saudi-arabia-s-pif-to-ramp-up-bond-sales-ipos-to-pay-for-mbs-s-projects?embedded-checkout=true

Yes, which the PL has just adopted for next season It is more stringent than the existing rules, given that it is based around %s of turnover rather than acceptable losses edit: there are over 1,000 professional clubs who are UEFA members. Not one to date has had their noses put out of joint enough to come out and talk about taking UEFA to court. I’m still not seeing where this groundswell of opinion is coming from in terms of clubs

I can forgive stupid, pissed-up teenage boys doing this stuff (I understand why others might not) He’s an old man. Horrible bastard

Barring something crackers like ten straight losses, he has to be given this season, the summer window and a significant proportion of next season for me too. It is far, far too early to be talking about him getting sacked (the only ‘rogue’ element was not knowing what the owners might do). He’s shown that he’s a top rate coach, and a really good manager. He’s having to be reactive now due to a number of things going against him / us - most of which are outside of his control, but I also think some were in his control and he’s made some mistakes. I want to see what he’s learned next season - there’s credit in the bank yet; but not as much as there was a few months ago.

She says lots of things, which she often has to recant later. Her interview with talkSHITE after the league cup final (‘we will win the premier league, we will win the champions league’ etc) was a case in point. Al-Rumayyan was still talking about being ‘no. 1’ on that Amazon doc. I’m daft enough to believe words have a meaning. Yep, almost immediately afterwards. That talkSHITE interview was in Feb 2022. It is, though she’s given others since.

I honestly haven’t seen a poll on it The last one of any note was when we got over 100k signatures to move the club in 1997 I’ve honestly no idea of where the support would be on it today (I don’t claim to speak for a majority re moving, but I genuinely haven’t seen a poll showing either / or. I’m not referring to a Twitter account etc)

Yeah, I don’t like it at all. I haven’t hid that at any point. Being owned by one of the vilest regimes on the planet isn’t a good news story.

It’s hardly pathetic to hold someone to account for statements they’ve made.

The PIF is headed by a man who paid $500m for a painting which may not have actually have been painted by Leonardo, which he keeps on a yacht and therefore susceptible to damage from sea air. I’m willing to suggest that idiocy is a pretty standard trait in terms of the Saudi govt.

Not seeing it at present, unless something truly significant occurs. You absolutely can spend that much in football without a plan, easily - look at Boehly’s Chelsea or Man Utd over the last decade.

COVID was prior to the takeover

Yeah, perfectly reasonable points. They’re all welcome improvements, and under other ownership my praise might have been more fulsome. But we have the owners we have - and they’re the ones who made the bold statements; they set the expectations.

‘Do we want to win the Premier League within five to ten years? Yes’. Takeover day. Now, of course there is an extended timescale to that - but I would’ve expected to see the bare minimum (new training ground + sponsorship, academy etc) done to date. Not a peep, which means that any benefits gets pushed further back. I would’ve expected maximising all commercial income strands possible. So far we’ve done the basics. I would’ve expected plans for either a new stadium or significant improvement to the existing - diddly squat (yes, before anyone says, I know that the club is undertaking a feasibility study. These don’t tend to take two and a half years). Superb management by Howe and some astute signings in year 1 made it look like this was all part of the plan.

Sadly, that won’t plug the income gap - it would be a temporary situation. We’re light years away from the income levels of the Sky six

Spurs’ revenue went up by over 20% last season, and they don’t have the low hanging fruit NUFC do. Even if our revenues continued to grow at the same pace as last season it would take nearly a decade just to catch Spurs. And we won’t see 40% growth year on year. The 2023/24 accounts will likely show an increase of around 20%. We’re halfway to Staveley’s five year mark, and it is a real struggle to see what they’re doing creatively to plug the gap.

Germany is the model for broken modern football. Bayern’s complete dominance is absolutely ludicrous, and FFP has enshrined their position.