chinapig

Jonathan Liew has written a good piece on this using us as an example of the considerable downside. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/dec/05/womens-football-must-be-wary-of-following-mens-game-into-financial-cesspit The WSL is surely going to end up like the PL, which I doubt will be good news for us.

If he truly knows what we are about as a club he wouldn't touch us with a bargepole.

Looks like getting the excuses in early: 'nothing to with me guv, the last guy left behind a poor mindset and culture'. Sorry Liam but you signed up to the proposition that we were going to play aggressive front foot football and had a top end squad. There was no mention of the need for a culture change. If you have now decided that you were sold a false prospectus take it up with the hierarchy and don't blame it on the players. Motivating players is hard, demotivating them is easy.

It seems to me that sometimes modern coaches do something they think is funky because they believe it shows how sophisticated they are. Quite what Manning thought playing Sykes ludicrously out of position would achieve defeats me. Sometimes you have to play people out of position as a necessity but that wasn't the case today. I hope it's a one off.

Well, JL says the players were de-conditioned but LM was impressed with how fit they are. Personally I'm not inclined to argue with Jon's expertise in all things football so Liam obviously doesn't know what he is talking about.

Reportedly he will be given control of the football operation in return for a 25% stake. Whether that gives him any incentive to buy out the Glazers is open to question. Though, typically of the Glazers, a deal that was supposed to be imminent weeks ago is now dragging on. It seems pretty clear that the Glazers don't want to sell 100% of their shares unless they get a ridiculous offer - up to £10b has been mooted.

But Steve apparently thinks that we can raise £25m a year from selling a never ending supply of academy gems so we can compete in the Championship.

Always apply the Paxman 'why is this lying barsteward lying to me?' approach. It was always obvious that the nest egg was being kept for the next man. The last thing they wanted was to let Nigel spend a bit of money because the risk was that he might succeed. They couldn't have that could they?

Is that the great Tom Finney to John's left?

The PL have responded to Andy Burnham's claim of an abuse of process. They're right of course to point out that they were entitled to propose a sanction and their rationale for it but that the commission were entitled to reject it. This does not amount to changing the rules on the fly since the PL does not have fixed tariffs because the clubs, including Everton, didn't want them. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/29/premier-league-denies-burnhams-claim-of-abuse-of-process-in-everton-case

But we are at the limit of our wage budget, or so Nigel was told it seems, so surely we can't sign any players? If they're going to lie they could at least be consistent.

Perhaps we will suddenly be told that we are not at the limit of our wage budget after all. Though maybe not, it's not as if the club would lie to us. Would they?

Unfortunately Nectar points don't count as revenue for FFP purposes. In any event if we signed a player with Nectar points how on earth would we amortize the cost?

So by your logic if we lose the next two games he would be a failure? If we had lost his first two games I wouldn't be writing him off as it's far too soon to judge him a success or a failure.

So the club talks about sustainability then sends Scott to shop at Sainsbury's? Why aren't we using Aldi or Lidl so we can build up a shopping nest egg? Someone should be sacked for this disgrace. Though not the person actually responsible obviously.

You've misunderstood. Playing the Gas is every other team's cup final. They're universally loved by fans of other clubs after all.

Every job has its jargon and football is no different. We need to look beyond it to see if we like the underlying message or not.

Easy, it runs in the family. Just ask Steve. As to his qualifications in fitness and conditioning I assume he found an image of a degree certificate on the same webpage as the splattered robin.

It seems to me they sacked Nigel then flailed around trying to find excuses for doing it. They landed on the de-conditioned nonsense which has been further undermined by Manning saying how fit the players are. Though perhaps he didn't have the benefit of Jon's expertise before he said that.

Agreed, we can't just assume that the Regulator will decide something that favours the EFL. So the EFL may well concede more to the PL to get an agreement.

Yep, Kieran Maguire announced a few weeks ago that an agreement had been reached. It's clear now that that was with the PL Executive only and that the clubs have rejected their recommendations. A case of watch this space I guess.

Looks like things are not going well. Self interest and greed are setting Premier League clubs against each other, the EFL and the government. The Independent Regulator needs strong powers to put a stop to this. This part stands out in particular: The meeting also ended without a resolution on what has been called the New Deal for football. For two years, the Premier League has been under pressure from government to give more money to the EFL to help with the financial stress many lower-league clubs are under. That money has yet to materialise, with the Premier League preferring a broader deal that restructures a number of elements of the English game, from controls on spending to the structure of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy. Expectations had been raised (including from within the Premier League) that the offer would be finalised this week. Instead, there was three hours of debate on the topic in which every club aired their opinions and some said the proposals were unworkable for them. The same proposals that have been mooted, in some form, for more than a year. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/23/premier-league-appears-fractured-as-external-pressures-continue-to-mount

Indeed, that was my point. Nigel himself stressed that he was a manager who employed coaches to coach though he would occasionally step in to coach himself. In any walk of life it doesn't make sense to employ people then end up doing their job yourself. So Nigel doing what a manager should is not a stick to beat him with.

Brian Clough was similar and would occasionally take a holiday during the season when he was at Forest. What a loser.

So he doesn't agree with Jon that the players have been de-conditioned then. Early days and no doubt he will learn not to disagree with the hierarchy. That never ends well.