TheBrownBottle

Fair enough - it does have a long history at this club tbf. The 1-9 home defeat to the Mackems in 1908 was off the back of a switch to a reserve XI for a league game …

It wasn’t far from what it is atm the at its peak in the mid-00s - it was in the mid-£30ms at one point. And that’s not allowing for inflation

Again, it’s not hindsight if this is what you suggested at the time. Reserves and kids is who you’d replace them with, rather than first teamers who could hardly jog. You cynically take a likely hammering and move on. edit: we’ve lost six of the last seven league games. Not sure that ‘throwing the game’ would’ve resulted in fewer points.

You’re right, it’s definitely not a black and white thing we’re dealing with - for me, it was the Everton and Spurs games where I thought defeat looked inevitable and playing kids & stiffs might’ve been a help, allowing the players some respite. But it’s impossible to know if that would have worked or what the consequences would have been. I do though think it likely that a more experienced and cynical manager may have taken that sort of approach.

Some of us were saying this at the time tbf

Yep, true. Though I don’t think they’ll have trouble selling tickets.

It won’t impact their attendances. Spurs historically have the fourth highest average in English football. For comparison, Newcastle have the fifth and Villa the ninth highest.

Tbf, I didn’t mean our board - just a general point that a Mourinho or Benitez would have used it to take aim at whoever they thought either wasn’t backing them or was blocking them. I don’t think Howe would’ve been justified at having a pop at NUFC’s board

Agreed. And the culprit, whoever it is, is in this forum. Naming no names - I don’t know any - but posters are dirty

Howe is a football purist, and clearly a decent man, and I like that about him. But I know what a savvy operator like a Benitez or Mourinho etc would have done. He’d have played kids in a game or two, and used it to make a point / take a shot at a chairman, owner, the FA, the PL - whoever. It’s a more cynical approach, but it is what should have been done. I wouldn’t swap Howe for Benitez or Mourinho mind (I’ve seen the daft rumours circulating). But Howe could take an idea or two from them.

It does - it’s for 21/22. Next season it is 22/23, 23/24, 24/25 which counts for FFP

No, that’s unlikely. From the PL’s first TV deal in 1992, it was the biggest TV deal in world football (despite English football being the worst it’s ever been, relative to the rest of Europe). It was larger than Italian football’s deal at that time. Quality has never been a reason for English football bringing in big sums

We’ve got the accounts - they did go to the club in the main tbf. The commercials shrank but there is a paper trail for costs. Not sure where the land valuation comes from either tbh

Oof, that looks a wee bit high to me - he definitely coined it, but I don’t think he made those sort of numbers - due to his own incompetence mind

Plenty enough did. I can understand it to an extent - there is the social element to going to the match. Me, I bailed early on the Ashley years (though I have to be honest, when I stopped in 2008 I never thought it would be thirteen more years! He put the club ‘up for sale’ after the Bolton home game that year, my last match. If I’d known it would be that long, I can’t honestly answer if I’d have jacked at that point).

We’d have got more if someone was willing to pay it

It’s incredible, isn’t it? There are still clowns who think he ‘steadied the ship’. He had to cut costs because our income dropped. The club was incompetently run by the fat fucker

I’m glad he doesn’t look as terrible as he did at the start, but he’s still not in Pope’s class as a keeper. We’re conceding at two and a quarter times the rate with Dubravka in nets - and while context as ever is applicable, the difference is still clear.

We don’t know what the punishment would be, ultimately, because the harshness will likely be determined by how far over a club goes

It’s his scalpel hand too - big blow for the lad

It might have without the PL breakaway. But the PL broke away so that the benefits would not be shared with the lower leagues, which now reap the ‘rewards’ of football inflation with very little increase in revenue. PL greed has done enough damage to English football’s pyramid for me. A form of FFP is a good and sensible thing, the current set up needs adjustment. NB tbf I don’t give two shites about the PL being the ‘world’s best league’ or owt, so this should qualify what I’ve said. If others do, that’s up to them. It has no relevance to NUFC nor to the health of English football generally.

Yep, it’s a point that is easy to forget. I don’t like that clubs are now businesses - for most of football history profits weren’t allowed to be paid to shareholders etc, weren’t allowed to be on the stock market ( @leffe186 - all Irving Scholar’s fault - Spurs brought all this trouble down on football ). But if they are to be treated and are businesses to be run for profit, that does make restriction of trade more of a sticky situation.

You’re 100% right - as long as revenue continues to grow, then the threat of having to sell players etc reduces. The problem would be if the current season continues on its path then it impacts this year and next season too. Hopefully we can turn it round and grab a Euro spot - any competition is worth tens of millions next season.

I agree, though we were the first team to finish 4th and qualify (2002) - we were also the first to finish 2nd and qualify

Bionic leg. Obvious, really. And he’d suit being a cyborg