RandoEFC

Hopefully a Forest loss tomorrow keeps us 4 points clear of both before the rumoured drop of the second PSR judgement on Monday. 7 points over Luton would have been a nice buffer. Fucking Bournemouth.

Gruesome win but we got it. That should be Burnley buried now but Luton coming back to beat Bournemouth is pretty devastating.

1-0 at half time. Calvert-Lewin with a hilarious goal, just like the one Nunez scores in midweek, after a turgid 45 minutes of football from both teams.

Really we should beat Burnley this weekend and put some space between us and the relegation zone. That would effectively kill them off I think as well. We should then be able to get a good haul from Sheff Utd, Brentford and Forest all at home. As long as we avoid defeat at Luton then I think we'll be good even if a couple more points get deducted. I don't trust us to do any of that though and am emotionally ready to go into Sheff Utd at home needing a win to guarantee safety before we go to Arsenal on the final day. The prize? Looking forward to another relegation battle and likely points deduction next season, but after we've sold Onana and Branthwaite and can only afford 35 year old free transfers to replace them.

A salary cap or general budget cap would be great in theory. The problem is that if the Premier League agree on that then you might have a more competitive league but you won't have nearly as many of the world's biggest players come. Some of us would be much happier with the state of the English game but the league and the clubs are never going to go for that unfortunately. It would be great if all of the leagues across the world would agree to follow the same budget caps. The likes of Celtic and Rangers, the Turkish clubs, Portuguese clubs, Greek, Dutch, etc. could actually be properly relevant again in European competition - imagine! Even if you could get the UEFA members on board with that though there's always a Chinese Super League or Saudi League waiting in the wings threatening to offer these players unregulated amounts of money. The horse has bolted. The very best scenario that's vaguely realistic is that PSR is implemented in a way using some sort of live accounting where clubs are banned from signing or registering players or offering any of their players or staff bigger contracts once their losses cross a certain threshold. The only way we get football back is if the Super League actually happens, the teams involved take all the rampant capitalism with them and the English pyramid is ripped up and reformed with a lot less money swimming around in it.

The modern fan has such a short attention span and a disproportionate interest in online "banter" and bragging rights. They don't watch football for the sport of it, they watch it so that they can be a part of the storylines and the manufactured drama on social media. Leicester will never generate the same sort of buzz as the breakaway teams (to varying extents). Leicester winning the league was a nice novelty for most but yeah, the modern football fan doesn't want too many Leicester City's. Football is a drama more than a sport now and people want familiar characters that they recognise, not a different cast every season. The whole sport vs brand is the root cause of most of what us "legacy fans" would call the issues with football now.

Didn't watch the last part of the game but just watched the goals back. What the fuck . The lack of professionalism in both of those squads is astounding.

It wasn't more marketable though apparently. You'd think it would have been. This article explains it to some extent, there's probably better ones out there but I'm too lazy to look harder than I have. https://www.forbes.com/sites/grantfeller/2016/05/04/what-leicester-citys-unlikely-triumph-can-teach-all-sports-brands-need-competition/ The key passages: In terms of business Leicester’s victory has, so it’s argued, breathed life back into the predictable and boring business of Premiership football. It is 21 years since any team other than Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City or Manchester United won the top-flight title. The narrative to each season was being written before a ball had been even kicked. When Davids have no chance against Goliaths, it gets boring. Well, now David has won and already doubts are being raised as to whether it is a positive thing. One senior economist I spoke to believes the outsider’s triumph is good for the game but bad for business and could well lead to a decline in football revenue, especially on television. “The reality,” he told me, “is that Sky viewing figures are slumping – everyone likes Leicester but no one watches them in live Premier League games. And BT (which shows live games between Europe’s top clubs) is very worried about the Champions League next year because although Leicester has qualified as a top seed it doesn’t have as broad an international following as well-known British clubs such as Manchester United.” ... Some commentators consider Leicester’s triumph to be the kind of shot in the arm motor racing’s revenues need – plucky David conquering all-powerful Goliath. The next six months will show whether that’s true or whether, as astute economists predict, brands desperate to bask in the glory of an unlikely victory suddenly realise that the paying public wants what it always had. A Goliath-controlled status quo.

Yeah and don't forget the caving in to the five subs rule, getting rid of various extra time, replays, two legged cup ties that all play into the hands of the clubs with the biggest squads and the biggest fixture lists and limit further the chances for clubs down the pyramid to earn the gate money lottery. I'm still yet to hear a word from any of the Super League Six managers about having six group games in each of the European tournaments, and extending said tournaments by allowing teams that finish 3rd to drop down to the one below for the knockout rounds. All unnecessary bollocks to generate extra lucrative fixtures but when it comes to travelling down to Bristol Rovers for an FA Cup 4th round replay because your second string of £150k a week players couldn't put their £15k a week squad to bed at the first attempt, it's "inhumane what we're asking of these players with this fixture list". You could go on all day really.

I've heard a few people mention this around the various episodes of the PSR discourse this season, the sort of "in the know" types who know people in football and can attest to the powers that be not liking the Leicester storyline. I didn't realise one of them had actually said something to that effect publicly. Incredible really.

Not sure what's more embarrassing, the first 25 minutes of Man Utd's performance that had me thinking Chelsea were going to win 4, 5 or 6 nil, or Chelsea somehow fluffing a 2-0 lead in the blink of an eye to a team who had put them under no pressure up to that point. Two quite embarrassing and ridiculous teams. Good entertainment at least.

His trump card was to hit Everton with 10 points because his idea of showing the league can govern itself is just handing out harsh punishments to look big and strong. There's clearly much more to it running the league than that and even that one gambit failed because the response was universally negative. He's not a man to provide strong leadership of any sort. The fact that at least two of the "big" clubs lobbied for his appointment tells you all you need to know.

£10 returns £665

Frankly what the Premier League have done, hand in hand with Sky, to English football with their capitalism on steroids makes it absolutely hilarious for them to be going around using the phrase "too much money" in any context whatsoever. This is a nation where the disparity between the top two leagues is so monstrous that anyone who gets relegated receives hundreds of millions in "parachute payments" just to stop them from going completely bust, a league where the only sustained "upward mobility" that any club has really achieved in the last 35 years has had to come from billionaire investment from overseas. The Premier League created the wild west and now wants the residents to live off rations. I have no sympathy whatsoever. I hope the entire organisation collapses because it's almost comical how not fit for purpose it is. There's been a lot in the news lately about clubs being criticised for voting against a deal with the EFL which would allow more money to trickle down the pyramid. Those clubs should be criticised but why the fuck are they allowed to vote on this stuff in the first place? This independent regulator can't come soon enough but it really does need to take radical action from day one.

It certainly should which is why I say *if* but I don't have high hopes for City getting held accountable against the rules and sanctions that were in place when they were charged. I don't think the points penalties really have a place in most circumstances. If they introduce this rule where it's basically spend as much as you want but you have to pay a 'luxury tax' if it's more than X amount then that's basically the end of this attempt at profit and sustainability because the likes of Man City and Newcastle whose owners have bottomless pockets will just spend whatever they want. It would be nice at least if they could use any money that teams have to pay as a luxury tax to share between teams lower down the pyramid but I suspect it's more likely to find its way into the pockets of Premier League executives. You can call me cynical if you want .

As I said in the Everton thread. If they change the rules and City end up managing to pay a luxury tax after Forest and Everton (twice in one season) have been given actual punishments then nobody can argue that the league isn't corrupt anymore.

Maybe the "they're not corrupt, they're just incompetent" shouts will finally stop when City are able to pay a "luxury tax" to get away with their 115 charges after delaying and obfuscating while Everton and Forest faced actual punishment. I'm not holding my breath though!

Pole Position - Which driver will post the fastest lap in Q3? VER Podium - Which drivers will finish the Grand Prix in the top three positions AFTER MAX VERSTAPPEN IS REMOVED FROM THE RESULTS? 1. PER 2. LEC 3. NOR Random Driver - Predict the finishing position of this week's random driver, Pierre Gasly. 14TH Bonus Question - We've done this one before - which driver's finishing position will outperform their current Drivers' Championship position by the most places? E.G. if Carlos Sainz finishes 2nd, he will have outperformed his current position in the Drivers' Championship (4th) by 2 places. If nobody picks the "biggest overperformer", then I'm going to give the full 5 points rather than 2 consolation points to whoever makes the best pick. HAM

Nobody has predicted yet so don't forget! @Stan @MUFC @Tommy @nudge @Whiskey @The Palace Fan @Coma @DeadLinesman @OrangeKhrush Practice starts tomorrow.

Wouldn't put it past City at all to win all of their remaining fixtures.

PSR would probably be fine if they had some sort of "live" accounting available of the sort you described. I still think when you get to situations like Reading, or Everton/Leicester to a lesser extent, where a football club is being run into the ground by incompetence and the ownership is contributing to the problem, then the owner should be punished, not the football club. If the club is then unable to register new players until they've reduced the wage bill by X amount or something then fine. These clubs are unlucky to have lunatics in the boardroom and they aren't seeing any benefit to their over-spending. The footballing authorities have a duty of care over them in my opinion, all these points penalties do is pour fuel on the fire. Hopefully only for a matter of months longer. Obviously you wouldn't put much faith in any UK government or any of the current footballing authorities to be making those calls but maybe the Independent Regulator will be better if they get the right people running it. I just think fans should be treated as valued stakeholders again. I'm not saying they should be allowed to run the club or owners should be booted out every time a team has a bad transfer window but it's the wild west already. Anyone with the money to buy a football club can do so and ruin them with basically no repercussions. If these people are actually held accountable to treat our football clubs with respect and make sure they're run in a competent way or risk losing the right to be involved. They did it with Chelsea when Abramovich was no longer able to run the club so it's clearly possible.

I don't like weighing in on this really because the state of Israel is obviously quite important for Jewish people. I don't really see why it's so hard for the US and UK leaders to come out and say they support the state of Israel and its right to defend itself but they do not support the homicide carried out by Netanyahu and his government. The discourse on this in the UK is beyond fucked up though. Seemingly millions of closet Islamophobes who couldn't point to Israel or Gaza on a map are too ready to call anyone who criticises Israel's actions antisemitic. I assume it's the same in the US. And at the root of it all, it isn't a moral obligation to the Jewish Israeli population that even motivates our leaders to pussy-foot around the truth, it's a matter of money, trade and/or their own interests in the Middle East.

I honestly think instead of punishing clubs who are being fucked over by their own owners with points penalties that just risk plunging them into even bigger trouble, the FA/government should have the power to strip these twats of their ownership, sell the club on their behalf to the highest bidder that can pass the fit and proper owners test, hand the old owners the money and bar them from owning any English football club for 30 years. Genuinely don't see how this proposal is at all unfair or controversial. It provides a safety net for millions of fans across the country. It worries me how bitter and selfish some football fans are when they say that clubs should be "punished" for not being run right. It's only the fans that end up really being punished when they're the ones with no control over the mess in the first place.

That second half was actually decent. Not great but decent. The body language wasn't resigned as it was in the first half. Got the rub of the green for once with the timing of Newcastle's disallowed goal knocking the wind out of them and getting a penalty. Jordan Pickford man of the match because they probably should have been out of sight by the time we woke up. Use that as a platform to beat Burnley on Saturday and we should be back on track to survive. Hopefully Wolves nick a winner and then no silly bullshit from Arsenal against Luton tomorrow.

If Burnley hold on tonight and beat us at the weekend they'll be one point behind us and we probably have a deduction coming.