Mr Popodopolous

Lucky charm clearly! Let's hope he doesn't go home and away, over land and sea or Man City may sextuple the lot, 100 percenters!

Last game he attended was a win too I believe!

The ones I don't get are PSG. Check their accounts last few years yet a fine and Business Plan only. A second offence too. I have sympathy with this point but Newcastle to date seem to be complying with FFP- some of the ownership of top clubs across top divisions leaves a fair bit to be desired.

5 titles in 6. Top class but we are approaching dangerous levels of one side dominance. Definitely not Farmers League. Time will tell, when Pep leaves they'll drop back a bit but I wonder how many in a row they will win.

Sort of agree but how they got there hmm I question the legitimacy of some of the commercial transactions and revenue first 5-7 years. Without certain potentially suspect commercially transactions could they have had the platform to push on.

Inter have some quite accomplished individuals in some positions (I like Onana, Bastoni, Brozovic, Barella and Martinez) but yes they lost to the best in the world so I tend to agree.

Italy were a generally dominant side in the tournament and the run up to it but you believe that. Subsequently England have been better without doubt.

I don't especially like Man City but credit where it's due. Inter had some excellent chances ironically after going behind. Wasn't the grand mismatch the great and the good were proclaiming which was good. Was hoping Inter as money winning no matter how well coached, no matter how well run is just a bit.. meh.

Fair. Just think you painted Italian football a bit with too broad a brush. Think Inter while clearly not Man City have not been terrible technically. Can't really call this one.

Inzaghi and his Lazio were excellent. Few years ago bow, Napoli much of the season have been superb to watch, way to display your knowledge of Italian football. Atalanta under Gasperini for a few years were excellent and that included taking it to opposition in Europe. Italy in Euro 2021 and the year or 2 before were very attack minded under Mancini. Fiorentjna in some ways but only some dominated vs West Ham. Not saying Italy is some fun free flowing League but more variety than you give credit for.

I he is the view certainly before tonight that Napoli v Man City would have been a better matchup- a much more fun one certainly. However Cup ties etc- Inter tactically strong, Man City not quite at it- intriguing matchup so far.

Of course it does. Was out earlier, saw a kid in a Man City shirt. Overheard a snippet of convo- sure wasn't a Manchester or similar accent. If anything globalisation or at least the commercialisation and reach of the modern game will make it worse. Certainly than say Liverpool 1970s, 1980s.

I passed Ashton Gate earlier, walked through the right of way bit towards Iceland- seemed to be some staff around. Wonder if something is lined up today. Albeit I can't see something lined up on a Saturday.

Then the savings, the structural savings which are all important. Yeah we don't need to sell Scott but need to avoid excessive or extravagantly spending. Bentley- £2m, 4 year deal wasn't it? I'll guess £10-20k per week. Saving £0.5m and £0.52-1.04m. Kalas- Reported fee £8m, 4 years, wages I am guessing £20-25k per week. Saving £2m and £1.04-1.3m. DaSilva- Fee £2m, 4 years? Wages I am guessing £10-15k per week? £0.5m and £0.52-£0.78m. Massengo- Fee £2m, 4 years? Wages £10-15k per week? £0.5m and £0.52-0.78m. Klose- £5-10k per week? Left in January, maybe a partial saving then but £0.26-0.52m this time. No amortisation Martin- Yes he left in January and it was accelerated but when he signed might he have been on £10-15k per week? Maybe a partial saving in January but £0.52-0.78m. Moore- Negligible amortisation but would we have partially have covered wages at Shrewsbury. If so that also off the books any partial coverage. Baker- Retired but the correct thing done. Covered wages- £5-10k per week maybe? Off the books too. £3.5m in amortisation plus any savings from Wells renegotiation and £3.64m to £5.72m per year. Plus of course, savings from Bentley, Massengo deparures and any savings if Klose and Martin waived part of wages to pursue other ventures early.

The market moves quickly. I'm sure it'll come back round again but so far some of the speculated options..look more doubtful as it stands right now. Leicester and Leeds to a lesser extent were credited with an interest. We know why thst is now a non starter- relegation Wolves have seemed very interested but will FFP thwart plans? Will they be spending £25-30m on a player as things stand. Brighton seem a good fit but their transfer policy is a bit of an unknown tbh. Sale of McAlister and maybe Caicedo, Milner and Dahoud in on a free is different. £30m on Joao Pedro will they go big across multiple or not? Nobody knows..also keen on Colwill from Chelsea reportedly- centre back, on loan there last year. West Ham had been touted by many but so far in CM they are linked with the following, not saying they would look to sign them all by any stretch: Alvarez (Ajax), McTominay (Man United), Palhinha (Fulham), Phillips (Man City) and Ward-Prowse (Southampton). Tottenham should be a decent bet but new manager- that again adds a time lag and uncertainty. Market moves quickly, lot of this could be outdated again within a week.

You give two different figures, not entirely clear from the post. Is it that the total attendance across the 3 divisions was 19.8m and of thst the Championship was 10,391,945. It is welcome news of course, but also worth noting that as we know, tickets sold and season ticket holders are counted come what may (club and or relevant safety authorities will both actual attendees and sold seats) whereas in the past with so many more tickets sold on the day that was a truer reflection. Not a fully true reflection but truer all the same.

Don't forget Seedings. While I get the rationale, they can very much further enforce the status quo. Guess anything with a Group Stage will have Seedings of some sort however.

Yes Barcelona and their levers in particular. Real Madrid used some as well.

La Liga was for a time but PL has overtaken it IMO. The big two plus Atletico seem to be rebuilding. Good but not the atrallar forces of a number of years ago. Valencia used to be a good 3rd or 4th force but that has gone atm. Sevilla took a step backwards this year albeit still won a European trophy. How will Athletic Bilbao, Real Betos, Villarreal do in the medium term is an open question.

Middle East and USA, these Leagues. This deal has been in the works for a few years btw. Anyway yeah, these Leagues- may push on a bit but they don't have the competive edge of the PL and yes at rimes bur less so other top few Leagues in Europe plus of course the CL. You can be offered a good amount of cash plus the above or a load of cash but lacking the history, the cut and thrust of said Leagues- and when I say the history I don't just mean since the CL and PL came into being but yes even history aside you will not get that competitive thrust etc outside of the top few Leagues and CL, at times secondary European competitions. South America should be up there too but obviously isn't. Anyway yeah we've seen it before China. The original US League whixh had Pele- played for New York Cosmos. No way are Middle Eastern or US clubs getting into the UEFA CL, and not in a million years tbh should they.

In respect of Scott it has gone a bit quiet, hasn't it. The market moves on quickly so this could be dated by this time next week. Some of the links. Wolves have FFP so it's unclear. They also have reportedly had a strong interest. West Ham is an obvious choice but they reportedly are linked with Alvarez or failing that Palhinha for the position, Barnes will he another they will invest the proceeds in. It'll be interesting to see but will clubs be going for the £25-30m? If so which clubs.

That is true Dave, it's more the directly attributable vs indirect costs that I have an issue with as the latter seems speculative to me. I don't see how transfer market related impact can be directly attributed in most cases. Either way they got very lucky as without Covid they would have failed big time in one of the seasons. I'm quite comfortable to day that despite the losses, our losses across the two Covid years were between £15-20m, closer to the latter probably Couple of million last season too. Gate receipts, Commercial especially and so on.

Another question that I have about Stoke and the guidelines- is that the EFL ruling as well as set loss limits was losses directly attributable to Covid. Now I don't see how you can directly attribute impairment of players who were not good enough, conveniently unable to realise value supposedly owing to Covid, lost transfer profits which are hypothetical. Finger in the air, speculation time? https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/directly-attributable-cost#:~:text=Directly Attributable cost means a,to which it is related. The League's guidancs appears to be confidential but I rather hope clubs raise the huge gap with the EFL. Unsure whether KMPG woukd agree with the analysis of Stoke either although football is unique as an industry. https://kpmg.com/xx/en/home/insights/2020/06/covid-19-income-statement-ias1.html

We had to cut our cloth a lot, an awful lot. £37m in wages in 2021-22, they have signed Gayle on a free who won't have been cheap wage wise players such as Wilmot, Vrancic, Sawyers, Surridge the year before. Many many PL loanees and one or two from European top flights. Thereafter the sales of Collins, Souttar and Bursik set them right but I have serious questions about equality of treatment. Everton have been referred for something very similar to Stoke btw. Just a matter of size etc.

Chatter on their forum is of an 8 figure gross spend. Had a quick article read. In theory they could go quite big if all of their Covid losses are allowed. Their Covid arguments seem to total £59-60m across the 3 years which is laughable IMO given that £42-44m was argued for transfer market Covid impact. To push it to the max I expect that perhaps push their wage bill back up to mid £30m. Their wage bill was £37m in 2021-22. £29m was their underlying pre tax loss prior to sales in 2021-22. Their Covid attributed claims account for 50 pct of 3 year turnover which again us laughable.