Football 19/20

[kaosmark2]

18 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Playing devil's advocate, but wouldn't piracy be a valid reason?

Is it applied universally? Sheffield United are owned by Saudi monarchs. 

[jyoung]

Wednesday deducted 12 points for the start of next season. How come Wigan are getting theirs deducted now? I don't know the ins and outs but looks like EFL is all over the shop!

[Hugh Jass]

1 hour ago, jyoung said:

Wednesday deducted 12 points for the start of next season. How come Wigan are getting theirs deducted now? I don't know the ins and outs but looks like EFL is all over the shop!

I suspect the lawyers in Wigan will be busy when they come out of lockdown...

[jyoung]

37 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

I suspect the lawyers in Wigan will be busy when they come out of lockdown...

Too right.

[charlierc]

I started a FM20 save as Wednesday and having largely not been aware of their real life trajectory, thought I'd do curious research... man alive they are a mess. As if winning only 4 games after Christmas wasn't bad enough (if bizarrely one of those was away over Leeds), there is a lot there that is crazy. However, on top of that, it just makes even more nonsensical stuff from the EFL, which just seems to get more incoherent by the week.

As for the Newcastle takeover, I'm just disappointed. Its clear Ashley doesn't want the club anymore, but this is the first time anyone's really shown him proof they can buy the club and invest in it, and it just felt right to move on. Its lame to blame covid but apparently the Saudi fund in question has walked back other investments for the same reason, so I'll yield to that one. But the PL process has been vague, confusing and driven by a wide variety of leaks from dubious sources, and it just feels like a disappointment.

I was uncomfortable with the idea of the club just being used for Saudi sports-washing, having found the way some Man City fans have readily leapt to the defence of UAE when they were accused of dubious foreign policy ludicrous and was sure some social media using Newcastle fans would, as indeed they have by sending Amnesty International hate Tweets. But I was aware it was a Faustian pact - nobody exactly has £350M down the back of the sofa.

Equally, perhaps the most dissatisfying thing is that BeIn Sports' very own Richard Keys gets another reason to gloat, given he also kept slagging us off for our love of Rafa.

[mcshed]

Absolutely no wrong doing at City.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/30/der-spiegel-claims-new-manchester-city-emails-cast-doubt-on-cas-verdict

[eFestivals]

14 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Is it applied universally? Sheffield United are owned by Saudi monarchs. 

owned by a Saudi prince, but who isn't involved in the regime. You can't really hold him responsible for what other family members do. He might be fully supportive of the regime (I've no idea), but that's a different thing to being a part of it.

Of course, I'd still prefer there weren't owners with close connections to dreadful regimes, but a line has to be drawn somewhere, and 'Am I my brother's keeper?' is what's normally used to draw it.

Edited August 1, 2020 by eFestivals

[jyoung]

Cup final day! Here's hoping it plays out similarly to last years Europa final rather than the 16/17 cup final.

[thetime]

6 hours ago, jyoung said:

Cup final day! Here's hoping it plays out similarly to last years Europa final rather than the 16/17 cup final.

3-2 chelsea.

Arsenal to go 2 up and then to do an arsenal.

[WS_Jack_III]

The Reubens who were part of the bid have donated 30k to Newcastle food bank in recent weeks. Would be nice to have them involved in the running of NUFC.

[charlierc]

23 minutes ago, WS_Jack_III said:

The Reubens who were part of the bid have donated 30k to Newcastle food bank in recent weeks. Would be nice to have them involved in the running of NUFC.

I honestly thought their net worth meant they could run the thing all by themselves without necessarily the need for Saudi support, though possibly not by enough to get to the levels that kind of funding would get to. Unless I misread something I saw when profiling them.

Edited August 1, 2020 by charlierc

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, WS_Jack_III said:

The Reubens who were part of the bid have donated 30k to Newcastle food bank in recent weeks. Would be nice to have them involved in the running of NUFC.

They should put a bid for the club without the Saudis on board, I suspect it would go through.

[Hugh Jass]

Emeli Sande playing time an empty stadium reminds me of her last performance at Glastonbury.

[Hugh Jass]

Aubameyang really is too good for Arsenal isn’t he?

[jyoung]

Fair play to Arsenal. Deserved the win. Clinical in the right moments and Azpi / Pulisic injuries really set us back. The standard of refereeing is shocking though. Kovacic second yellow isn't even a foul. Arsenal 'keeper handling the ball outside of the box and nothing from VAR. Terrible officiating.

[WS_Jack_III]

5 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

They should put a bid for the club without the Saudis on board, I suspect it would go through.

aye it probably would because the club wouldn't have as much clout and the top 6 wouldn't be scared. Also it wouldn't upset Qatar. 

[Hugh Jass]

I see Howe has left Bournemouth.

Looks a shoo-in for whichever of Villa, West Ham, Palace or Newcastle sacks first.

[pink_triangle]

6 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

I see Howe has left Bournemouth.

Looks a shoo-in for whichever of Villa, West Ham, Palace or Newcastle sacks first.

I see Bournemouth as being in the worst position of the relegated 3, therefore a sensible move.

[kaosmark2]

2 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

I see Howe has left Bournemouth.

Looks a shoo-in for whichever of Villa, West Ham, Palace or Newcastle sacks first.

Bruce/Hodgson/Moyes would all be great to see out of the Prem.

[eastynh]

On 8/1/2020 at 7:13 AM, mcshed said:

Absolutely no wrong doing at City.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/30/der-spiegel-claims-new-manchester-city-emails-cast-doubt-on-cas-verdict

You tell me what City have done wrong.

[charlierc]

10 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I see Bournemouth as being in the worst position of the relegated 3, therefore a sensible move.

Interesting I thought Watford would be in a worse position because they'd have to rebuild their entire playing squad, find a new manager for the next 4 1/2 months and have to resolve some of the general malaise from an entirely preventable demotion.

Howe and Bournemouth did feel like they'd reached the end of the road together. Their defensive dysfunction has been a problem since promotion, and its just this year where the attack ran out of puff. Equally, buying Ibe and Solanke will just have to be written off as truly terrible ideas. Though if spending ludicrous sums on poor attackers is his thing, he'd be perfect for West Ham.

10 hours ago, WS_Jack_III said:

aye it probably would because the club wouldn't have as much clout and the top 6 wouldn't be scared. Also it wouldn't upset Qatar. 

Possibly, yes. There's reports a few of the top 6 did have big objections to it.

I guess we're just now playing in a different world. When Man City got purchased first by an ex-Thai Prime Minister with billions from his business interests and then by Abu Dhabi, I guess we were still yet to see the effects that come with nation states buying football clubs, especially given it was still a time we were adjusting to Chelsea and their roubles in the bank.

I presumed that any club getting a nation state investment now would've had more problems, as I presumed when the initial rumour was that the Saudis wanted to buy Manchester United or Liverpool. And this is obviously before all the problems Saudi Arabia has with it, many of which are well documented.

Edited August 2, 2020 by charlierc

[pink_triangle]

10 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Interesting I thought Watford would be in a worse position because they'd have to rebuild their entire playing squad, find a new manager for the next 4 1/2 months and have to resolve some of the general malaise from an entirely preventable demotion.

Howe and Bournemouth did feel like they'd reached the end of the road together. Their defensive dysfunction has been a problem since promotion, and its just this year where the attack ran out of puff. Equally, buying Ibe and Solanke will just have to be written off as truly terrible ideas. Though if spending ludicrous sums on poor attackers is his thing, he'd be perfect for West Ham.

I think Bournemouth have a very large wage bill compared to turnover, they are (relatively) poorly supported and likely to have their squad ripped apart. I think it's a good time to get out. Watford are just continuing to do what Watford do.

[zahidf]

West ham was originally going to go for Howe in Dec but went for moyles instead. Wonder if they'll go for Howe now there isn't a monetary compensation to Bournemouth due 

[Hugh Jass]

Every team outside of the elite (and for some reason Everton) has a limited shelf life in the Premier League. Pretty much all of them have been promoted or relegated within the last five years.

Teams fight to get up, fight to stay there for a couple of years then complacency and stagnation starts to set in. There are about 20 or so teams hovering between the PL and Champ who are broadly interchangeable in terms of size of resources. They all just take their turn.

[WS_Jack_III]