Loderingo

Weird time to go.  If it wasn't for Derby's and Reading's deductions they would already be sunk without trace

Good win - but why do we always give away a late goal?

Goalllll

Hanging on for dear life

Will be disappointed if we play an understrength team.  Marooned in mid-table so might as well prioritise the cup.

Important win and a bit of breathing space 

Come on City

Just now, RedorDead BCFC said:

Another leading position to drawing yet again. 
i hate the football gods, they keep laughing at us. 

Better than losing at least

What is the source that he has been sacked. Nothing on their site.

Fundamentally it feels to me like where we were in 13/14.  We had had a series of short-term managers and had bought a lot of panic buys.  When we ultimately got relegated, the better players left leaving us with a load of deadwood.  13/14 was then just about stabilising the club after Cotterill came in and waiting for contracts to expire so we could start again (particularly Liam Fontaine).

This time we have also had the issue of COVID, putting more pressure on in terms of FFP and also making to hard to move players on.  According to Transfermarkt, the following players are OOC in the summer:

Simpson, Martin, King, COD, Bakinson, Wiles-Richards

I would expect Bakinson, Simpson and COD to go. King and Martin might get 1 years extensions.  The challenge will be offloading Wells and Palmer who aren't OOC until Jun 23

Point gained with 2 winnable trips on the road next

The big winners from this must be the promoted trio.  I feel that without deductions 2 of the 3 would have gone back down again

Feel sorry for Wycombe. Derby will be back eventually but Wycombe may not

Also the Swiss Government have banned all events with more than 1,000 people so all football games are off.  They may have to finish the season with all games being played behind closed doors.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/02/28/no-guarantee-liverpool-would-crowned-premier-league-champions/

There is no guarantee Liverpool would be crowned Premier League champions if the season was curtailed by the coronavirus, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

There is also no guarantee the bottom three clubs would not be relegated, with no specific regulation in place governing such a scenario.

The rapid spread of the virus has raised the prospect of the Government ordering the cancellation of all sporting events in the UK for more than two months, something that could mean some fixtures never being played.

Were the Premier League season not completed, it is likely crisis talks would take place to determine whether previous results would be allowed to stand or whether the entire campaign was rendered null and void.

Any final ruling could depend on how many fixtures had been played, similar to the results of abandoned matches in some sporting competitions being allowed to stand if a certain percentage of them have been completed.

Depriving Liverpool of their first Premier League title given they are 22 points clear at the top and need only four more wins to be crowned champions would be hugely controversial.

But it would be equally controversial to relegate the bottom three if they are not already doomed when a halt is called to the season given the hundreds of millions of pounds at stake.

The same would apply to European qualification places and also promotion spots in the Championship, which also has play-offs for the final Premier League place.

3 hours ago, phantom said:

No

Exactly this 

Usual overreaction 

We're we not supposed to all be killed by SARS and bird flu? 

I think people are very complacent because SARS and bird flu didn’t affect us.

The difference between this and SARS is it is much more infectious and has a long incubation period. This means clusters can suddenly break out almost from nowhere like has happened in Korea and Italy. 10 towns in Italy have been put on lock down today.

The good news is it is not very deadly and many people only get mild symptoms but it could still kill 10s of thousands in the UK and put huge pressure on the NHS

The Italians cancelled all games in Lombardy and Veneto regions today including Inter vs Sampdoria to try and contain an outbreak of Coronavirus.

Unfortunately, it looks like the efforts to contain this virus globally have failed and it is only a matter of time until we get a major outbreak here. I suspect we could also see games being cancelled to try and contain any outbreak here. 

This could be a big issue for the football authorities (as well as the NHS of course and the Government). If the season isn’t cancelled, I could see games being held behind closed doors.

Why would a South American gold miner want to buy Bury?

Unfortunately, it is too late now and the only way back is via a phoenix club.

8 minutes ago, Yellow&Blue&Red said:

I've just had a look at the EFL's Mem and Arts registered at Companies House.

Each club in the football league holds a share in The Football League Ltd. for as long as they remain in the league. Six of nine board members are appointed are club represenatives: 3 from the Championship, 2 from L1 and 1 from L2.

In order to change any of the rules, a majority of clubs need to vote for it...

...which is why we are where we are and why things won't change without external - governmental - intervention.

I love the way the FSA in @phantom's post, above, are suggesting parallels between listed buildings and clubs. Owners of listed buildings can't just do what they want with them, and the same should apply to club owners.

 

 

You will never get government intervention.  FIFA hates it when governments try to interfere with football affairs.

If anyone is going to intervene it would have to be the FA...

Time's up.  Guess we wait for the EFL to pronounce judgement

Sad news about Bury.

9 minutes ago, Up The City! said:

The issue is, can greater Manchester sustain all the teams they have in the area? 

20 years on and there is now two huge Manchester clubs that will draw support from far and wide. Personally I don't think all these greater Manchester clubs will be able to continue in their current form.

Wigan, Reading, Cardiff and Swansea all rose up the football pyramid because of investment. Unfortunately the Burys and Rochdale's of this world are not that attractive of an investment as those clubs were, due to living in the shadow of the huge Manchester clubs. 

Leyton Orient are another one who have found life tough in the shadow of bigger teams.  Teams like Yeovil and FGR are small clubs but they don't particularly have any local competition.

Our own relative success vs Rovers has seen us grow our combine share of local fans.  If you think at one point it was nearer 50/50 and it is now 75% City, 25% Rovers

Bolton also now given a deadline of 5pm Tuesday as their takeover is taking too long.

Sorry left 2 clubs out:

L2 South (24 clubs) - Plymouth, Exeter, Torquay, Yeovil, Swindon, Newport, FGR, Cheltenham, Eastleigh, Aldershot, Maidenhead, Woking,  Crawley, Dover, Barnet, Boreham Wood, Bromley, Dagenham , Ebbsfleet, Sutton, Orient, Colchester, Stevenage, Cambridge

L2 North (24 clubs) - Carlisle, Barrow, Morecambe, Fylde, Chorley, Oldham, Salford, Stockport, Macclesfield, Crewe, Wrexham, Hartlepool, Bradford, Halifax, Harrogate, Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Mansfield, Chesterfield, Notts County, Port Vale, Walsall, Solihull, Northampton

1 hour ago, sticks 1969 said:

Do you think bringing back the north and south league might be the answer? Less travelling and more local games

It's an interesting idea. In Germany and France they have 3 national leagues before splitting into regional leagues.  In Italy and Spain they have 2 national leagues before splitting into regional leagues.  We have 5 national leagues before the split happens with conference north/south.  In fairness our travel times are probably smaller than in some of the other countries.

I think there was an idea mooted around for a while of merging league 2 and the conference and re-arranging into league 2 north and south.  One of the issues with regional leagues is that it becomes a lot harder to get promotion e.g. for Italian Serie C there are 3 regional leagues so the winner of each one goes up automatically and the 3 second place teams play off for one spot

If you merged the current L2 and Conference into 2 regional divisions you would get the following:

L2 South (23 clubs) - Plymouth, Exeter, Torquay, Yeovil, Swindon, Newport, FGR, Cheltenham, Eastleigh, Aldershot, Maidenhead, Woking, Dover, Barnet, Boreham Wood, Bromley, Dagenham , Ebbsfleet, Sutton, Orient, Colchester, Stevenage, Cambridge

L2 North (23 clubs) - Carlisle, Barrow, Morecambe, Fylde, Chorley, Oldham, Salford, Stockport, Macclesfield, Crewe, Wrexham, Hartlepool, Bradford, Halifax, Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Mansfield, Chesterfield, Notts County, Port Vale, Walsall, Solihull, Northampton

Lots of derbies in there.  Poor old Northampton would have to travel North rather than South