With us losing to Liverpool, I was happy to see Spurs lose, too.
Here I was certain that they would have won. The joys of football...
Here I was certain that they would have won. The joys of football...
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The 2019-2020 Football Thread
- Thread starter Lord Blackadder
- Start date
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The Football League is essentially a self-regulated owners club. Expecting them to install safeguards that prevent bad owners from destroying clubs is like expecting turkeys to vote for Thanksgiving.
Owners want to be able to take risks in order to make profits and build little business empires. They want to be allowed to get loans from even the most risky, obscure predatory sources. They want to have the freedom to hock club assets in order to get capital. They don't want to be restricted to sustainable growth plans, and all of them are perfectly happy to walk away when the gambles fail and the clubs crash and burn to ashes.
This will not change. For smaller clubs, the best way around this is for fan groups to purchase substantial shares in their clubs or, if possible, buy their grounds so that owners can't asset-strip. But that is not always feasible. The current model relies on wealthy white knights to swoop in and run the club profitably, but there is virtually no effective safeguard against bad management. We simply have to trust that these tycoons and wealthy entrepreneurs act as good custodians of locally revered cultural institutions.
Imagine if, say, the British Museum was run by the Oystons.
United should really have 9 points right now. Instead they only have 4 because they couldn't hold their nerve at a couple of critical moments. They're a young team and there will be setbacks, but a lot of these mistakes that cost them points were by players like Pogba and De Gea who are experienced enough to know better.
The required squad remake will take another few windows, especially at the glacial pace that Ed Woodward moves at. More dead weight needs to be culled, but at least OGS isn't even naming Smalling and Jones in the squads at all right now. I admire and agree with the movement towards youth, but the squad is stuck in that awkward in between state where the veteran players aren't good enough (Jesse Lingard) while the youthful alternatives are still too young to throw in there full-time (Angel Gomes).
It's an absolute disgrace with all the money flowing through football at the moment that Bury and Bolton are on the brink of liquidation. But this is 2019, where the top 1% hoard all the spoils and the rest have to scrape by.
The required squad remake will take another few windows, especially at the glacial pace that Ed Woodward moves at. More dead weight needs to be culled, but at least OGS isn't even naming Smalling and Jones in the squads at all right now. I admire and agree with the movement towards youth, but the squad is stuck in that awkward in between state where the veteran players aren't good enough (Jesse Lingard) while the youthful alternatives are still too young to throw in there full-time (Angel Gomes).
It's an absolute disgrace with all the money flowing through football at the moment that Bury and Bolton are on the brink of liquidation. But this is 2019, where the top 1% hoard all the spoils and the rest have to scrape by.
Agreed.
But I do dislike seeing venerable clubs with a rich history and rooted local traditions destroyed by avarice, greed, irresponsibility, and short term predatory practices.
The problem with Woodward is pace, but also success rate. How many expensive flops or near-flops has he bought now? Too many, I would argue. And there is nobody else around to to improve that situation. Where is the director of football? OGS appears out of his depth, and even if he turns out to be a "good" manager, the club need an "excellent" manager AND a similarly effective DoF to achieve what the fans still clearly expect. It is increasingly looking like Pogba will never reach the level expected of him at Man Utd, and while some recent buys look solid the squad, as a whole, remains very bad value and not a reliable top four finisher. Further, De Gea, while still excellent, has slipped a little from his peak. This will cost them points this season.
Players like Sanchez, Pogba and Bale underscore the fact that one of the big risks with buying superstars is an inability to offload them when something goes wrong - at least, without taking a huge finacial loss.
There should be more sharing of the massive TV revenues, but that trickle-down effect still wouldn't prevent owners from running clubs into the ground. The money at the top is insane, but worse than that are the risks owners of small to middling clubs (or even big clubs just below the top level) are willing to take to try and break the glass ceiling.
Part of the problem now is also the lure of the Premier League turning the Championship into a gambling den. With an incredible nine-figure payout on offer, owners of Championship clubs seem willing to do anything to get a chance at promotion.
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West Ham reserves currently 2-0 up away to Newport in the league cup. Not exactly something to shout about as we should win against part time footballers, but there is always the possibility for an upset. Probably why Sky chose to show this game!
So, Alexis Sanchez (who was a good player when he appeared in Arsenal's strip, but nobody could attempt to describe his period with Manchester United as remotely successful given that he scored a mere three goals in all of 32 appearances - according to The Guardian, whereas the BBC report that he scored five times in 45 appearances - the best that can be said is that neither stat fills one with optimism), currently earning an astounding £390,000 a week, is to be loaned to Inter Milan for a - the - season, with Inter prepared to pay £175,000 of his weekly salary.
The mind boggles.
The mind boggles.
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Absolute heartbreak as Bury are expelled from the Football league after a last-minute purchase deal falls flat.
All I can say to Bury owner Steve Dale is: damn you, you are a crook, and a bungling one at that. He's gambled with a community institution and and the various footballing governing bodies should be ashamed with themselves for allowing a charlatan like Dale to run this club into the ground.
He's a far better player than he's showing right now, it's best for everyone that he moves on. The money is what it is for the late 2010s, though Woodward appears to have gotten his pants pulled down when he agreed to those wages.
All I can say to Bury owner Steve Dale is: damn you, you are a crook, and a bungling one at that. He's gambled with a community institution and and the various footballing governing bodies should be ashamed with themselves for allowing a charlatan like Dale to run this club into the ground.
He's a far better player than he's showing right now, it's best for everyone that he moves on. The money is what it is for the late 2010s, though Woodward appears to have gotten his pants pulled down when he agreed to those wages.
Agree about Bury, this is absolutely heart-breaking.
And - in fairness, when Sanchez played for Arsenal, while he was an infuriating human being at times, nobody could doubt his ability, passion, and commitment to the team.
But - I cannot escape the thought that ten weeks of Sanchez's wages would have (or could have) paid off that mortgage on Bury's ground.
And perhaps saved the club to fight another day. (Although I am more than well aware that the problems of financial mismanagement, recklessness, indescribable irresponsibility and greed go far deeper than that).
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That's a very good point and shows what is wrong in the game today. The balance between the top and the rest. It's night and day.
Such a shame for Bury fans. I can't imagine how it feels.
The fault lies not with Sanchez - not that I'm suggesting you implied that. Bad owners like Dale are responsible. But even more deserving of blame are the supine, craven, incompetent suits who run the FA and the various leagues. Right now, virtually any shyster, cheat, huckster, or blackguard can buy a club using dubious loans or shadowy backers. The leagues are completely happy to let this happen and equally happy to wash their hands of the matter when things go south by deducting points or expelling failing clubs.
It's a virtually unregulated expression of laissez-faire, free-market capitalism and 'losers' are unceremoniously discarded. Except these aren't simply failed business ventures that only ever existed for profit; they are arguably irreplaceable cultural institutions that have developed over lifetimes.
When clubs like Bury and Bolton face oblivion and I see a broken system that must be changed. Raise these issues with the FA and the Premier League or Football League and what do you hear? A whole lot of deflection, hot air, platitudes, empty promises and double-talk.
Agree completely with your arguments and analysis; of course this is an example of destructive, laissez-faire and predatory capitalism - in the absence of either regulation, an ethical or moral compass, a sense of responsibility (to a region, or club) or any sort of a preference for sound financial practice - much of this is basically asset-stripping - allowed to behave in such a manner with neither oversight nor accountability, nor responsibility.
I have thought that the current ownership model - with some really reprehensible individuals and bodies owning clubs - leaves an awful lot to be desired, and would dearly love the FA (and international bodies) to insist on some sort of regulation rather than slyly promoting practices which encourage further greed, instead of insisting on some sort of model whereby the spoils are more fairly divided throughout the league.
Irreplaceable cultural institutions? Of course. And an absolute tragedy that this has been allowed to happen.
Re Sanchez, I cannot be alone in thinking the wages of some of the top players utterly and ludicrously bloated; he is an example, merely because his loan to Inter is currently under negotiation - and thus being discussed publicly.
And no, of course I am not blaming him - he is merely an example because discussion of the conditions (and costs) of his employment is currently in the public eye, or a symptom of the values of the game as it is now.
However, I was struck by the bizarre - and unfortunate and tragic - juxtaposition of what are stated to be his wages (and, when put alongside his less than striking tenure at dysfunctional United, this meant that the payment of such monies looked utterly ridiculous) and the relatively small sum of money required to redeem the mortgage on Bury's stadium. A few weeks of Sanchez's wages.
(Yes, I know it goes deeper than that - players weren't paid, - players who fought with pride for promotion, and the club was gutted by the grotesquely irresponsible and greedy - and heedless - recklessness of the owners.)
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Bolton has been saved. At least there's some good news.
Excellent news, and would still love to read of some sort of resurrection emerging from Bury.
I thought Liverpool drew a relatively easy group in the Champions League...and then I saw the "Group of LOL" that Man City drew - probably the easiest in the competition. No offense to their opponents, but they won't even break a sweat.
Spurs get the short end of the stick and end up in a group with Bayern Munich...though, Bayern are beatable this season.
Group A: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray
Group B: Bayern Munich, Tottenham, Olympiakos, Red Star Belgrade
Group C: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta
Group D: Juventus, Atlético Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow
Group E: Liverpool, Napoli, RB Salzburg, Genk
Group F: Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Slavia Prague
Group G: Zenit St Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig
Group H: Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille
Spurs get the short end of the stick and end up in a group with Bayern Munich...though, Bayern are beatable this season.
Group A: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray
Group B: Bayern Munich, Tottenham, Olympiakos, Red Star Belgrade
Group C: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta
Group D: Juventus, Atlético Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow
Group E: Liverpool, Napoli, RB Salzburg, Genk
Group F: Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Slavia Prague
Group G: Zenit St Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig
Group H: Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille
Halftime and another goal for Haller. Looking like a good buy for us for a change!
Hopefully we can score another couple and Pukki can get a consolation goal for my fantasy team.
Hopefully we can score another couple and Pukki can get a consolation goal for my fantasy team.
Arsenal's stupid defence prove porous, slow and sluggish, and somehow asleep, yet again.
Spurs 1, Arsenal nil after ten minutes.
Spurs 1, Arsenal nil after ten minutes.
Grrrr. I sold Erickson this week! Just hope Abamuang doesn’t score as he is in several of my colleagues teams.
Well, I had hoped that Eriksen might not put in an appearance today. Unfortunately, he has.
And the Arsenal defence collectively appears to have had a lobotomy.
Prize stupidly blended with pure idiocy along with zen like zombie inertia.
Two-nil down, now.