The Bard

Similar scenario to when Liam Rosenoir left for nothing as City forgot to offer him a contract. If Bristol lose someone like Frisch due to this it would be a calamity. He looks top class but we'll be stuck with 6 players the coach doesn't want. Massive **** up.

Story in today's Telegraph:- Bristol Bears are being forced to enter a fire sale owing to a salary-cap blunder. Second row Dave Attwood on Thursday signed for his former club Bath as Bristol struggle to balance the books. Several other top players, including centre Antoine Frisch and wing Luke Morahan, are being linked with departures to ensure the club stay under the Premiership salary cap for next season after a major administrative error. When the Premiership clubs voted two years ago to reduce the salary cap from £6.4 million to £5 million for the 2021-22 season, a lot of clubs, including Bristol, took advantage of a clause that allowed them to count 75 per cent of existing contracts against the revised cap. In Bristol’s case, the majority of players signed “two plus one” deals, which is a two-year contract with an option of a third on the same terms unless either party decides to pull out by a set deadline. It is understood Bristol intended to release six players, whose contracts were worth an estimated £400,000. However, they missed the deadline, meaning the third-year extensions had already kicked in. A club spokesman declined to comment on Thursday night. Even if those players are paid off, it is understood that would still count against the salary cap, so Bristol are now having to make savings wherever they can. Including their marquee players, Bristol had one of the biggest wage bills in the Premiership and an emergency board meeting was convened when the mistake came to light in March. They have also committed to signing England prop Ellis Genge and Sale fly-half AJ MacGinty for next season. Yet offloading players is no simple matter. Many other clubs are struggling to balance the books with the “existing contract” clause coming to an end. It is estimated that up to 30 players could be left without a club this summer.”

No you're a defeatist because you said we would lose anyway which is as close as you can get to the definition of a defeatist.

Went to Tottenham saturday for the rugby and they had the same policy. Plus scanners. Asked if I needed to take my shoes and belt off. Massively over the top They can stick their London where the sun don't shine

It's more to allow all the commercial stuff to be sorted out. corporate tickets and schedule for TV. Expect the 7pm group games (our time) to be England, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil etc. Likes of Japan and South Korea will play earlier. Kind of makes sense if you want to maximise TV audiences. No point we play at 10 am our time on a Tuesday in November whilst Japan play at 2am the next day is there?

Great post Neil. Highlighting the real reasons why people may not renew. Just to reiterate the midweek game thing is a complete misnomer. There won't be any difference at all to this season - same number of games on weekends. There are too many midweek games already IMO, but that's really a discussion about there being too many teams in a league that has 4 weekends a season and 8 midweeks when it can't play any games.

As per my post above, 4 weekends without games in Autumn compared to 3 this season which is why they've moved the start forward a week. There will be the same number of midweek games scheduled. May be a few postponements due to players still being involved but really not that much. Nowhere near as many as for Covid this season put it that way.

Not really. There are 3 missing Saturdays -19th November, 26th November, 3rd December. Add to that the September International window. A total of 4 weekends without games in the autumn when there is normally 3, which explains why they have moved the start of the season forward a week. In the equivalent period this season we had one midweek league game, which is also accounted for by having an extra midweek by moving the season forward a week. Arguably it's less disruptive as there is less coming and going. However, people will moan because it's a change and people don't like the idea of change. If any of our players get past the qualification phase it will cause issues though. Weekend of 10th December will probably see games kick off early or be played on Sunday to avoid clashing with quarter finals which kick off at 3pm and 6pm.

Not sure it's at all clear cut what his team will be for instance left back where Shaw hit a purple patch at the euros and has been frankly shit since. Guess that depends on Chilwell's recovery. He's getting to the point of having almost too much choice which is probably wise as going to have players miss out late due to injury. There's a 1 week gap from league's stopping to tournament.. There won't be much time to prepare as there normally is for a tournament.

VAR is shocking. Especially when compared to other sports use of TV. Why not broadcast the conversation between the Ref and VAR? That will put the ref in charge of the process. At the moment he is told when he should look. Why not let him decide. On the flip side it may have calmed the ref down last night. Has to be said he ruined a shit game.

When I told my girls team that she was only 3 months older than some of them they were gobsmacked. From what I've seen Murray has helped massively next to her.

I thought that but I wasn't there so in my mind doesn't count!

My champagne moment was Weimann's hat trick v Millwall.

He isn't underperforming.

Mcinnes and Millen both got sacked because we were in imminent danger of relegation. We're not now despite your efforts to convince people otherwise. You're the one with the NP revisionism, unless of course you were expecting a promotion challenge??

If we sold Kalas for £2 million and bought a replacement for £1 million on a 4 year deal paying £10k per week, we'd be over £2 million better off wouldn't we? So it could boil down to whether Pearson wants Kalas long term.

Question then is how much of these savings need to be used to reduce losses and how much can be used on Signings?, be they new players plus fees or new contracts for players already here. If none of Brownhill, Webster or Kelly move are we then in a position where we have to sell one of our main assets?

Thing is, if we can get through next season maybe with a better finish and with signs of progression we will be in a good position. Rid of the overpaid dross and hopefully with a young group of players ready to push on. He said 3 years for a reason. He knew the contract lengths and the impact this would have. The 2 years are an opportunity to blood players and work out who is in for the long run.

Bravo.

Great article. It seems obvious to me that the best resolution to this would be a Prem 2. Very much like in Germany. Then have league 1 as the stepping stone between elite football and semi pro. Merge league 2 and the national league into north and south leagues and you structure the game in a rational way reflecting it's strengths. It's ludicrous to have Scunthorpe playing Crawley on the same day that Grimsby play Dover for example.

Clearly they're not thinking of it.

Yep. I get the impression Pearson would prefer to get rid of Wells but knows he is of value as a player to us so will keep him if we can't get rid on the right terms. Palmer appears to have been booted off the bus ages ago and we're looking to get whatever we can to rid ourselves of him. As you indicate getting the best deal for us means minimising what the last year of their deals will cost.

I'd be amazed if we get a fee for either Wells or Palmer. Say, Birmingham offer us £500k for Wells. They aren't going to match his £27k a week wages. If they offer him £15k per week for 2 years, we will still have to cover £12k per week for a year equivalent £600k. Most likely we have some kind of arrangement whereby we forego a fee, Wells foregoes some wages and Birmingham pay more in wages for the first year.

'At the moment' clearly the operative phrase in that answer

Exactly. His role is very similar to Pat Lam's at Bristol. In charge of the whole thing. Not just the team. Fact Lam is called a Director of Rugby and Pearson Manager is a reflection of the different cultures of the sports. Manager in rugby literally makes sure the coach and hotel is booked for away games. Director in football is an indication you're not a football man.