Suppose the gullible keep people in a job.
So one of the PIF Saudi clubs want Mahrez.
Bet you heâs sold for ÂŁ80m to them - nice sport-washed, clean, FFP compliant, income.
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Agree with almost all, except the suggestion clubs can be rehabilitated. The only reason no-one cares about Chelsea is because, even though Boehly broke records with the amount he spent, they were all the wrong signing and they suck. Would anyone be giving them a free pass if they had miraculously won the league this season? Club hate had a strong correlation with envy.
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I can remember when we were winning the title every other year there were a lot of comments that we were simply buying up the best players. Certainly, we attracted a few but we were amongst the last of the bigger English clubs to spend more than a million on a signing (Beardsley in 1987) around 8 years after that first happened. We were also one of the cheaper sides to watch at the time.
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It is bizarre to think that in living memory we have seen newly promoted teams contend for the title. Remarkable outliers to be sure, but a real indication that the field of potential winners when the first ball was kicked in August was a very large share of the division. It has been years since there were really more than three, with at best two pretenders whose fans could remain deluded until perhaps November.
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I remember Forest being promoted, winning the league and then two European cups in successive seasons.
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Exactly what I was thinking of - there must have been other newly promoted teams that were at least in the mix in other years, but Forest was an incredible story
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The good times when Forest and Liverpool were the standard bearers of England in Europe.
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He makes a good point though, when you have to win every weekend to stay at pace then the game loses a lot of its fun factor.
One thing when we did start to build a large lead was the concern of winning every week (especially after the Man Utd game). I felt we can play badly one week and it will be ok (like we did against Watford).
Clough did similar with Derby at the beginning of the 70s. I think it took him 2 years to win it then.
But if you set the bar a bit lower to teams who were in European chases, you had Ipswich under Burley who finished 5th their first year only a couple of points of second place. Collymoreâs forrest under Frank Clark finished 3rd.
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In this era, virtually every newly promoted team is in a desperate struggle to survive. They know they have no hope whatsoever of winning or even Top 4. I guess Villa will be the most recently promoted side to reach Europe, and that is the Conference League after four years.
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Leicester 2 seasons to win it.
You wouldnât expect a recently promoted team to win any league.
Suppose the most likely would be Conference to League 2. The gap there seems narrow. League 2 to League 1 is large in comparsion.
Fulham did well to be so high I guess but it took 3 teams to have a poor season for Villa, Brighton and Fulham to have a chance of Europe and that required the cup winners to get CL football.
Interesting you note Ipswich and Forest as they were before Roman.
Yeah, forgot all about the fact that had come up recently, a throwback story.
I would not expect any stories quite like the Clough era, but being contenders within a year or so now seems out of reach.
I think there is a distinct possibility that the PL is evolving to be something more like La Liga, where even Atletico seems like an intrusion into the title race. PL might end up having more clubs in that top set, which right now is poorly defined because despite wealth ManU has managed to be crap in recent years, while Toon might now be able to force their way in. It is not at all clear that any of LFC, Arsenal, or Chelsea will really be in that set, and it seems quite clear that Spurs wonât
Beats the Bundesliga, I guess
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i remember when united won trebleâŚit felt hugeâŚthis, doesnt.
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Will the red side of Manchester ever do the ethical thing and join the resistance to this evil force?
Who am I kidding? Theyâll make matters worse when they sell to the KSA
First time in decades i havenât watched a CL final. I didnt even know the score till i just got on here now. Its strange to just not feel anything either way but it wonât be long before the PL will lose its interest too. I used to watch about 5 games every week, now if it isnât us i just canât be bothered and i doubt iâm the only one like this.
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Check in with Goldbridge on this. His model is based chiefly on appealing to the Utd masses and he is ALL IN on Qatar.
There is no chance of an ethical stance from them.
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