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

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

Torpedo Barrow

Rumours abound that one or both of chelsea/city will flee and hang the others

Fair genius move if so

Babyface turn by the oil bastards, like it

https://comicvine1.cbsistatic.com/uploads/original/7/72648/1369650-baby_face.jpg

"BiB"

"Gold"

Hate to say it of such a fondly remembered character, but that is some Ben Garrison shit right there

Patrick Bamford is good now

Amazon out

Amazon Prime Video statement on the proposed Super League: pic.twitter.com/FCHc94yDns

— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) April 20, 2021

Thats levy fucked

Have a bevy for old Levy cos old Levy will cry

Jose has his slice of the pie
Dele alli foad

Worded openly enough to avoid committing to not showing it.

If this thing ever gets off the ground you can be sure most of the people criticizing it now will eventually be falling over backwards to get involved in it.

The criticisms of it, bar the constant membership, dont stack up if you were cheering anything that has happened in football the past few decades is the thing

And spurs getting in obv

So, according to the Deloitte Football Money League, Wolves are richer than Milan. As are Sheffield United, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Leicester City and Everton.

Its a careful blend of historical success, wealth, heritage and spurs

tbf Wolves are richer than Milan precisely because of what 'has happened in football in the past few decades'.

Yep.

Separately, No 10 confirmed that ministers would consider cutting off support for breakaway clubs in areas such as work visas for overseas players and the policing of matches as a way to exert pressure.

The government seems to be realising that there isn't much they can do to stop this so they're looking at the remaining levers they could potentially pull. I don't think the visa one is remotely viable but policing would potentially be at their discretion.

Telling communities 'lol, we're not going to provide any police on match days because your local club has joined the super league' would be...interesting.

I mean it would make it easier for the clubs to just say ‘sorry legacy fans but it’s not actually safe for you if we play at home so our matches will now sadly have to be in Dubai’ which would be one less job for them to have to think about

At least we've finally found out why they call them super spurs

I mean, fuck the superleague and all, but I'm getting really creeped out by the government's attitude here towards something they don't approve of in the cultural realm - it's not illegal but we'll make it so somehow, dammit. It aint going to be an approach limited to football breakaways either