Alone in the Park - it's the Prem 2020-21 thread

I don't want to point to city but yes, city

City and the showily fuck-you implementation of VAR

at least half these ownership groups have been terrible at the business of running their football clubs over the last few years so i wouldn't expect their attempts to run a league to do much better

if this new el doesn't have var i might be tempted

nah

Abramovich i mean sure but a challenge by any means to united that wasnt the unattainably organic arsenal option was almost welcome back then i think

I think lfc the most laudably run of the six, given all angles i can quickly think of

Lining up second captains immediate reaction show

Ken hates mourinho should be good

i'm an lfc fan but the whole 'this means more' bullshit annoys me to an insane degree.

well done jurgen

what exactly is the incentive for lfc players to shake a leg tonight? To get in the top 4? why?

so stoked for the idea that the Superleague might run aground on EU law

Alternatively, the effort to stop it might.

In its statement on the European Super League, @Uefa has announced that the breakaway clubs and their players will be banned from all official competitions. Legally, UEFA cannot enforce this – and the clubs know it. The reason? EU law.
A short thread./ https://t.co/Hyx2mRVUlO

— Jan Zglinski (@JanZglinski) April 19, 2021

lol beautiful

Superleague Means Superleague

Seems pretty clear that none of these proposals are runners:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/19/the-european-super-league-what-can-boris-johnson-do-about-it

finding this bit hard to parse tho:

Restrictions on third-party organisers can only be imposed e.g. if there are risks of manipulation or to ensure that competitions meet common standards. Clearly not an issue with the Super League.

because it feels like, from what we know so far, those things could arguably be an issue?

I think the gist is that regulators can act proportionately to stop things in cases where there is a risk of match-fixing, etc, that bring the sport into disrepute but not when there are legitimate tournaments in commercial opposition to their own.

oh right, i heard an opinion that there are other aspects of EU law that might ask questions of a competition formed as a closed shop with some token chaff thrown in

Leeds are warming up to face Liverpool with t-shirts that say: 'Champions League: EARN IT. Football is for the fans.' pic.twitter.com/XgU912QPpH

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) April 19, 2021

Leeds owners wish they could be in the Super League.

oh great point

I’m just pointing out that there is some hypocrisy going on.

oh right, i heard an opinion that there are other aspects of EU law that might ask questions of a competition formed as a closed shop with some token chaff thrown in

― Call of Scampi: Slack Nephrops (Noodle Vague), Monday, 19 April 2021 18:49 (forty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Rich to start now and not with the uk parliament or etc etc

how does this affect sheffield united?

I'm still waiting for Billy Sharp's take on ESL before I really know what to think!

In other football news, a teacher has paid Drunken Duncan to have a word with one of his students.

Little brother got a message from Big Dunc giving him a little kick up the arse for slacking in school 🤣 our footy club is boss UTFT 💙 pic.twitter.com/8YzsXaviCy

— Jack simmons (@JackSimmo1998) April 19, 2021

I’m just pointing out that there is some hypocrisy going on.

From everyone, including fans.

Every leak from spurs re mourinho makes me regret more and more hes gone because everything he was being a cunt about was nonetheless absolutely necessary

Rose back in, winks and alli back in, every cunt waving a leg in pretence of effort the past six months and the last year under poch are washed clean in the blood of an orrible dinosaur easy to hate

If he hadn’t alienated everyone at United apart from McTominay, it would be easy to blame the players and if they hadn’t done more or less the same thing to Poch, it would be easy to blame Mourinho, so just launch the whole thing into orbit and start again.

You didn't mention levy tbh

Klopp's post match interview was more about hitting back at G Neville and the Leeds players t shirts rather than answering about the proposed Super League

he's a classic melt!

He’s said he is still opposed to it and that he wants to play in the Champions League next season, idk what else he can really do, tbh.

maybe win a game ?

Take the Bayern job.

It seems that he was not made aware of the SL plan, wouldn’t that be a breach of contract?

Doubt it

His statement was vanilla but showed intent at least, not much more he can say

Its been derided as ducking the question and heralded as striking against the plan but this is yknow the discourse

wishy washy prevarication vs saying go fuck yourself - I know which one I prefer

Gary Neville the property developer and self-styled union rep for millionaire players has been much bolder on this - but he's still a complete cunt.

He has the advantage of not being employed by one of the founders of the Super League tbf.

Hes ridiculously brave on it except that when carragher ssid he wouldnt analyse it for sky if they bid for it neville shat it and was all well lets not get hasty now frum frum frummf

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/20/brutal-european-super-league-breakaway-snaps-limited-bonds-of-solidarity

Real Madrid, originators of the project this time with JP Morgan, and Barcelona, have grown so big and so desperate for the money to maintain their status that they gave it a push.

How heartening then to see Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, great clubs controlled democratically by supporters according to the German model, just say no to this.

Now to take a big sip of coffee and google who owns Real Madrid and Barcelona.

pondering how much the rise of teams like leicester and lately west ham have to do with this in that their success means more financial threat for the big six. becasue thats what i see this as being about. owners of the six clubs want the security of knowing that if they burn cash signing whatever player for mega millions or build a fancy new stadium, they can do so knowing that they're guaranteed european football next season and thereafter - its about minimising risk.

also if this goes ahead, it'll be interesting to see what happens to the transfer market

That's exactly what it's about.

The transfer market is an interesting thing and i've always thought that could potentially be another flashpoint. It's not 100% clear to me that the current system would stand up to legal scrutiny if there was a concerted push to abolish it from the big clubs. Every time the idea of removing transfer fees has come up, post-Bosman, there has been a negotiated compromise to maintain it.

Barcelona - Over €600m in debt
Inter Milan - Over €600m in debt
Real Madrid - Over €900m in debt
AC Milan - Over €250m in debt
Man Utd - Over £400m in debt

this bunch of debauched gambling addicts need an intervention!

Chelsea’s must be getting on for £1.6bn by now.

but would Abromovich call that debt in when he get's bored? Our previous "saviour" chairman jumped ship after one season in the prem and took every fucking penny back he'd put in during the last decade.

I doubt it as there's nobody to actually pay it. The ideas being floated about banning foreign ownership or forcing clubs to sell a 51% stake to fans, etc, would presumably run aground on the debt issue, though. Force Abramovich to sell to a UK owner and they'd end up owing him a completely unsustainable amount of money in perpetuity. Force the Glazers to sell Manchester United and you'd end up paying both for the club and for the debt they used to buy the club, etc.

Uneasy about debt as a straight figure being a hard measure

We all know that FFP hasnt exactly prevented eg oligarch or oil owners ensuring their clubs meet the required ratio and for all ive no time for levy our debt is a lot more like normal sustainable debt on long term infrastructure owned by the club vs the sugar rush of inflated squad assets hoarded like we see chelsea, city do

"Force Abramovich to sell to a UK owner and they'd end up owing him a completely unsustainable amount of money in perpetuity. Force the Glazers to sell Manchester United and you'd end up paying both for the club and for the debt they used to buy the club, etc."

These problems would go away in a communist state.

Chelsea seem a natural fit for secret police team, yes

Nationalisation and randomly assigning clubs to state assets, so you end up with Lokomotiv Liverpool run by British Rail and CSKA Arsenal, controlled by the MoD, would be the most logical solution tbh.

and Tottenham returned to the Percy family