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Reply | Half a million a week for 9 years!
at 14:01 17 Jan 2025
You can sign a player for as long as you like, but you can only amortise (word?) the cost over the first five years max.
My guess is that M.City are protecting themselves against Haaland leaving for Real Madrid on a free, or small transfer fee.
And by offering such a huge weekly wedge, they've probably been able to up the release fee which the player will undoubtedly have in his contract.
Whatever you think about where they get their money from (Clue: Stink. Week old Fish.), it cannot be denied that City apply it very cleverly, unlike eg their Manc neighbours. |
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Reply | Working Mens Clubs/ Constitutional Clubs.
at 00:01 16 Jan 2025
Priceless - and thank you for that gem!
One further addition, Turner and the temperance movement started in Preston.
I've been to Preston and I find it very hard to believe that they would abjure the only thing which could make life even half-bearable in that (otherwise) God-forsaken place!
Strange folk. |
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Reply | Identity Crisis
at 18:46 15 Jan 2025
Euro Poop?
You might want to rethink that one...  |
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Reply | Tamworth
at 18:42 15 Jan 2025
Why would the FA willingly forego their cut of the gate receipts from a crowd of 50k+ at White Hart Lane? Makes no sense.
While after the England NT,and Wembley stadium, the FA Cup is likely the FA's 3rd biggest source of revenue, as well as its (still) most prestigious competition. |
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Reply | How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 17:05 15 Jan 2025
More specifically, the urine was mixed with alum, an aluminium ore, for tanning.
And I seem to recall reading that during the Middle Ages alum had to be imported from Europe, which was expensive.
Anyhow, during the 16th century, deposits of alum were discovered in North Yorkshire, near the coast, and a mining industry grew up. However they needed vast quantities of urine, so had to source it from outside the region.
With the biggest population in England, London was an obvious resource, the urine being sent up North by ship (no canals or proper roads back then).
This was doubly useful, since the barrels of urine served as ballast and income for the return journey of ships which had originally sailed to London with cargoes of processed alum, coal and timber etc.
And where did they get these barrels of urine? Out the back of every pub and tavern in the city, they'd have a big barrel for when punters needed to relieve themselves and I assume these would have been loaded on Thames barges and taken downriver to where the ships from Newcastle and the North East used to dock. The "Prospect of Whitby" in Wapping is named after one of these ships.
All of which represents the last time Northerners were legitimately able to take the piss out of Londoners, with the "trade" being very much the other way in the hundreds of years since! [Post edited 15 Jan 17:08]
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Reply | How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 16:59 14 Jan 2025
The phrase "Daylight Robbery" is thought to derive from the introduction of a Window Tax in 1696.
In order to reduce their tax liability, a lot of householders bricked up some of their windows, thereby having their "daylight stolen".
You can sometimes see the results of this even today:
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Reply | Welsh clubs having their cake and eating it
at 16:48 14 Jan 2025
Irrespective of the technicalities, and the reasoned arguments from WelshRanger, somehow this doesn't "smell right" to me.
Imo these four clubs should just have to choose to be fully Welsh (and leave the EFL), or continue with the hybrid whose benefits they've enjoyed for over 100 years now (i.e. no Welsh League Cup-to-Europe backdoor).
And speaking about being "fully Welsh" reminds me of 25-odd years ago(?) at Griffin Park, when Bees were up against a lot of clubs like Hereford, Shrewsbury and Bristol Rovers etc.
When they came to town, their fans were inevitably subjected to "You're Welsh and you know you are" - childishly amusing, if hardly original. This was then extended when Swindon, then Oxford arrived. It reached its peak for the visit of Reading, which must have baffled a few Biscuitmen! [Post edited 14 Jan 17:02]
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Reply | Identity Crisis
at 16:32 14 Jan 2025
Sorry for taking this further off topic, but re Tierney Clarke and his design for the Budapest Chain Bridge, his near identical prototype for this, built over a decade previously, can still be seen in Marlow:
But to get us (tenuously) back on topic, may I congratulate the OP for having migrated back North of the river, by whichever bridge, for that is surely where all sensible London folk live!
(Tin hat on, in anticipation of incoming) |
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Reply | Tamworth
at 15:52 13 Jan 2025
Of course it's at the FA's discretion, but this season they're up against a new, insurmountable problem, not of their own making, namely UEFA expanding their own match calendar.
Take Spurs as an example. They have already played 6 midweek EL group games so far this season but still have two further EL Group games on Thurs. 23rd Jan and Thurs, 30th Jan. Depending on how they do in those games (as yet unknown, obviously), they might have two further "Knock-out Group Play-Offs" on Thurs. 13th and Thurs. 20th Feb.
They are then open to qualifying for two "Round of 16" games in March, two Quarter Final games in April and two Semi-Final games on 01 May and 08 May i.e. up to 16 potential midweek games in Europe alone.
Add to this the fact they've also had four midweek Carabao Cup ties so far, with another to come on Wed.6th Feb. Should they get to the Final, that will be on Sun.16th March, meaning they'd have to reschedule their PL game on Sat.15th to a midweek date. (Same applies to L'pool, should they go through in Spurs place).
Remember, too, that the PL allows two weekend for the FA Cup 3rd and 4th rounds, meaning that they (PL) need to reschedule their games to midweek instead. And those PL clubs which progress beyond that are scheduled to play 5th Rd/Qtrs/Semi's at weekends in March and April i.e. their PL games scheduled for those dates would then need to be rescheduled for another midweek slot.
And that's just Spurs - there are 6 other English clubs in Europe this season, all facing the same, hideously bloated schedule, with an additional 5th CL place for an English club almost certain to be added next season (i.e. 8 English clubs in total).
Which means there simply aren't any guaranteed midweek slots left to accommodate FA Cup replays - and that's before you factor in possible weather postponements at this time of year!
Besides which, you ignore my point that the FA actually has a vested interest in staging as many FA Cup games as possible, since they take a cut out of the gate receipts from each match.
Meaning they wouldn't have taken this decision if it were at all avoidable.
I suggest a strongly-worded letter to UEFA! [Post edited 13 Jan 16:13]
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Reply | Tamworth
at 14:12 13 Jan 2025
Sorry, but this will NOT have been the FA's doing, not least because they too receive a cut of the gate, so more games means more revenue for them.
As I mentioned in the other Tamworth thread, this is down to UEFA expanding their already bloated competions to see (midweek) Group games being played into the New Year, meaning the FA can no longer guarantee to find free midweek dates on which to stage replays:
(See Post #4 on this thread) https://loftforwords.fansnetwork.co.uk/forum/316764/tamworth-v-spurs/#4 [Post edited 13 Jan 14:13]
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Reply | Tamworth
at 18:07 12 Jan 2025
It would be a nice touch if Daniel Levy returned Spurs' share of the gate receipts to Tamworth: 3,700 at £35(?) x 40%(?) = c.£50k
Then again, there is more chance of Tamworth winning the FA Cup than that tightwad doing the decent thing. |
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Reply | Tamworth v Spurs
at 17:50 12 Jan 2025
Re the OP, a pre-season friendly in Bangkok doesn't really interfere with the in-season calendar (though it does show how clubs bleating about player fatigue/too many games are hypocrites).
And as for your "FA utter disgrace" comment, this one cannot be pinned on them, if only because they get a cut of gate receipts, meaning the more games, the greater their revenue.
No, this one is fairly and squarely on UEFA, who have extended the CL/EL/ECL so much more this season (extra teams/ties, basically), that the Group stages now extend into the New Year. (Previously all games after New Year were knockout games.)
Anyhow, with so many English PL teams playing in Europe after Xmas, there simply aren't enough midweeks to guarantee fitting in FA Cup replays as well as the extra European midweek ties.
Agree that UEFA are an utter disgrace over this, though. |
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Reply | Leicester City v Q.P.R Match Type Thread.
at 18:15 11 Jan 2025
Benham's stats guys have crunched all the figures back to the year Dot, and concluded that Cup runs are a distraction from league form. (This is probably more so when you have a small squad?).
And for Benham, the league is everything, since without PL football, Brentford are quite simply unsustainable at Championship level or below, even with the new stadium etc.
While mere survival is the glass-half-empty view. The glass-half-full view notes that each PL place is worth an extra £3m. By contrast, the prize money for winning the FA Cup is £2m. (Ok, Europe as well, but if you get as far as the Final but lose, it's £1m)
Meaning that should Bees go all out for the Cup, suffer extra injuries, suspensions or fatigue etc, such that eg you draw your next league game which you might have expected to win (or lose when expected to draw), those dropped points could easily cost a league place.
None of which makes it any less of a bitch after you've just lost 1-0 at home to Plymouth.  [Post edited 11 Jan 18:19]
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Reply | Sjoke city
at 13:18 8 Jan 2025
During the 10 years to 2018 when they were in the PL, they averaged c.27k (highest finish 12th.)
Since relegation, their crowds have gone down to the 20-22k mark.
That said, in the five Championship seasons before their PL spell (2003-2008), their crowds were only around the 15k mark, so it could be argued they're doing well to hold onto at least some of their PL support, esp considering the dross they've been serving up on the field.
http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attnclub/league/stkc.htm |
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Reply | Sjoke city
at 22:10 7 Jan 2025
Stoke froze their Season Ticket prices for 2024/25 - for the 17th successive season!
While they provide free coach travel for their fans at away games - for the 12th successive season.
I imagine that that insulates them from too much fan discontent? |
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Reply | State Pension
at 01:25 7 Jan 2025
We're only "behind" the Seychelles alphabetically.
In fact we're 20th equal with them (and Austria and France).
Which you may consider to be a poor showing given that we're behind eg Switzerland, Germany and Netherlands.
Alternatively, you may be encouraged by the fact we're still ahead of 157 other countries, including eg USA, South Korea, Portugal and Spain.
https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/Report_CPI2023-EMBARGOED-UNTIL-07-01-A
Meanwhile, back on topic (kinda), as I understand it, the UK State Pension is not generous when compared with other countries with similar economies and development. However, we are making better progress than many of those in persuading people to save into private pensions.
Also by extending the age at which people are eligible, we should have a better chance of avoiding unaffordability due to the demographic timebomb facing many other countries. (France, where it's 62-64 depending when born, is especially vulnerable, with Macron facing huge problems in trying to extend.) |
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Reply | Promotion to the Premier League is tough.But is survival effectively impossible?
at 23:31 2 Jan 2025
@Davman:
"And there is no way on earth Benham... ... wants to keep the EFL 'strong' - do not be so ridiculous. Why should [he] worry about anyone else?"
So long as Bees are in the Prem, it shouldn't really worry him whether the EFL is 'strong' or not.
But since he readily admits that the club could go down anytime, it is in his interest to have a (financially) strong EFL to drop into, hence his voting for more money for the EFL, as 'Switching Code' pointed out.
Moreover, despite not being super rich himself, at least by PL standards, he also disagrees with the Profit & Sustainability Rules in the PL, whereby clubs may only spend a proportion of what they earn i.e. wealthy owners (like QPR's?) cannot put their own money in, over and above footballing revenues. (This entrenches the position of the Big Six etc, who generate far more than the smaller clubs.)
And as for parachute payments, of course that gives relegated clubs a huge advantage, but even there it might be overstated. For as a (paywalled) article in 'The Athletic' pointed out, up to the end of season 2022/23:
"... of the 81 teams relegated from domestic football’s elite division since 1995-96, only 22 (around 27 per cent) bounced straight back. On average, less than one relegated team a season returns to the top flight one year later."
Of course some more will have bounced back up in their second or third season i.e. while still in recept of parachute payments. But even there the payments are reduced should a team have lasted only a single season in the PL.
All of which means that while the present financial set-up is just one more obstacle for clubs to overcome, albeit a very high one, ultimately good management counts for more than finances.
Which is why eg Brentford, Brighton, Fulham & Bournemouth are all ahead of moneybags Man U in the league table. |
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