chinapig

Yes, and no diving, faking injuries, abusing the officials and all the other cynical crap you get in the Premier League.

I've enjoyed this more than any PL game I've seen this season. Lovely to see two well run clubs playing excellent football with top quality goals.

He is a lifelong fan I believe. Judging by the abuse Potter got and is getting I'm not sure what he says represents all Brighton fans though. After all, if the issue is Boehly and they have no problem with Potter why even boo him at all? Not one of Kieran's most objective comments then. Perhaps he should do a sentiment analysis of social media posts from Brighton fans to get a more accurate view??

I should have been clear that it's 2020-21 but given how weak the punishment was (€10m up front for a state owned club is laughable) I don't expect that any further sanctions will be draconian.

A predictably feeble response from UEFA as at 3 September : UEFA announced its Financial Fair Play (FFP) overview for the 2021-22 campaign and eight clubs were found to have breached the regulations. PSG were found to be the biggest offenders when it came to FFP breaches. They have been hit with a staggering €65m bill, which is almost double that of the next greatest offender. They are forced to pay €10m of that up front while the other €55m is conditional, depending on whether they are able to comply with the target they have been set by UEFA. https://www.goal.com/en-au/lists/65m-psg-35m-mourinho-roma-uefa-ffp-fines-listed/blt73e44b5e4205117c#csad4c174bcf600c10

Yes, cashflow. Deal done with HMRC for now. Though if they have to move I doubt that will be the end of their problems. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/oct/30/coventry-reach-hmrc-agreement-to-cover-stadium-cflow-shortfall

Yes but that doesn't seem to have registered with their fans. As I say they called it poaching. I call it a lucrative transfer that is benefiting Brighton more than Chelsea. Chelsea fans are not impressed!

I've had some fun debating this with Brighton fans, who keep changing their tune. The main arguments: 1. He sold his soul. But I ask, did he sell his soul when he left Swansea? 2. That doesn't count because he made his reputation at Brighton. No I say he did that with the amazing job he did at Ostersunds. Why didn't Brighton snap him up from there? 3. But he left Swansea in the close season so that doesn't count. He left Brighton after 6 games of this season, which is different. No it isn't, managers don't control when job offers come up. And if you want a transfer window for managers you won't be able to sack a manager however bad the results are until the window opens. 4. Actually it's not really about Potter, Chelsea have taken his support staff, which isn't fair. In most cases support staff follow managers around. Why should this be different for Potter? 5. Yes but they have poached our players too. One actually, to the tune of £65m. Doesn't seem to have weakened them at all. If that's poaching Brighton are welcome to poach one of our young players for that much. 6. We are a well run club and Chelsea aren't. Bit of a false equivalence but Brighton are indeed well run so why not trust them to manage the transition? They've already recruited a very good manager after all because their planning is so good. As I say, great fun debating with fans who instead of celebrating a great win were still consumed with anger. It's only a game people!?

One or two of their best players will have to be sold in January perhaps, possibly for lower fees than they would have got in the summer.

"We can't fill our current stadium but we would definitely fill one 3 times the size." Impeccable reasoning as usual.

I agree, my point was a concern about how he might handle a player like McBurnie in the absence of someone like Klose or Kalas.

Wasps were leaseholders with the stadium run by a separate company, which may also go into administration. I doubt Coventry have the money to buy it and the NEC group are said to be interested. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/oct/28/coventry-city-wasps-cbs-arena

Derby inspired by playing their biggest game since the days of Brian Clough obviously.

Worked well against a footballing side like Swansea but perhaps it wouldn't against a big side. Zak was great today but tends not to engage enough when marking bigger, more aggressive players imo.

You make a fair point Dave but I maintain that the key problem was culture, something Dean didn't have the experience or authority to handle. Nor was he in a position to challenge Ashton's interference. Nigel identified the culture issue immediately and has addressed it, ruthlessly where necessary. And let's say it was probably just as well Ashton was already half way out of the door when Nigel arrived!

As you say, we don't know what our practice is but I do think we have seen a change of policy, as Tinnion was implying. Under the previous regime it did seem to be more a case of loaning players out to raise revenue. I remember Brian saying Pring was ready for the first team squad at which point he was promptly loaned to Pompey. Not his decision I suspect. It was also reported on the one hand that SL insisted that Semenyo be brought back from loan rather than signing yet another player and on the other hand that LJ wanted to bring Walsh back from loan but Ashton vetoed it. So a different policy and one on which the key people were far from united. Whether or not we charge fees for loans it's clear from what Brian said that player development is the priority and that the best youngsters will stay here with the odd exception who would benefit from the physical demands of men's football. As to PL clubs, the policy of some of the big ones had been to harvest young players for the express purpose of perpetual loans to raise money though there have been rule changes to restrict that somewhat. It's pretty clear that is not our approach.

So why should the rest of the EFL clubs pay their taxes in full if a crooked club like Derby can get away with this? Indeed, why should I pay my taxes if it's optional for them?

Yes, I should say reduce losses rather than costs perhaps.

It puzzles me that some people can't see this. If you reduce your costs by £10m you are indeed going to have to make do so on field progress is going to be slow. Vyner is a good example, if Nigel had the money to sign the additional centre half he wants Vyner would likely no longer be here. Simply staying up last season was an achievement in the circumstances. As I've said before it's reasonable to expect that it will take as long to clear up the mess as it took Ashton and Johnson to create it. Arguably longer since it was a lot easier to create the problem than it is to fix it.

Yes, good news and something of an achievement, especially in reducing the playing budget (Richard gave credit to Nigel for that). Notable that he said that the EFL have allowed adjustments for the collapse in the transfer market. Still big losses, though £10m less than last year, so nobody should expect us to be in a position to start spending money on players. Edit: Richard now says we are confident we won't get a points deduction, which is slightly different. Mind you he's such an impressive man I'm confident in his confidence!

Certainly those who claim there has been no improvement under Pearson seem to have forgotten how bad it was then. The days when we would cheer ironically if we had a shot at all. Dean is indeed a good human but should never have been handed the poisoned chalice as he just didn't have the experience and authority to handle it. That was not his fault. Of course Ashton wouldn't have wanted an experienced manager who might push back, a rookie who could be exploited and blamed was more his thing.

Derby argued that they would have been fine without Covid, trying to avoid admitting that the underlying problem was their reckless financial strategy, and were rightly given short shrift. Most clubs will not breach FFP despite Covid so the claim doesn't stand up. Our strategy was also reckless (Nigel called it bonkers), gambling that we would sign or develop a steady stream of players to sell on for big money and that the market would continue to inflate. If I was the EFL I'd be telling Steve that a man with his expertise ought to have known that markets can go down as well as up so he should not have doubled the wage bill but built in some resilience.

The question is whether this month's government* is committed to the fan led review. I know nothing about the new Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan but at best I suspect it will be a very low priority, especially when the Premier League starts lobbying her. *another one may be along shortly.?

Thanks for this. Depressingly, Parry was quoted last week as saying that there are no current negotiations over parachute payments. In the absence of an independent regulator I doubt anything will change.

I expressed surprise at some of the signings they made in League 1 so soon after Admin, Whatmough for instance, who could not have been cheap wages wise. Can't say I'm shocked at this news then.