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Feelings about the upcoming season.

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The Euros showed how fun football can be when even the best teams have to actually work to win matches. Italy, Spain and England were the best organized and in the running for most talented but none had an easy run. And teams like Denmark and the Swiss could stay competitive by playing to the talent they had. Club football doesn't have this and frankly the pandemic is only serving to make it worse as only really City, Chelsea, United and PSG from all of Europe have spent significant money.

So I guess I'm a bit disheartened because I really do think the lack of financial controls is letting the competitiveness of the sport slip away now.
 
There is an inevitable further showdown between the elite clubs and the footballing authorities to come it seems.

The giant clubs will be better prepared next time round.

I'm strangely calm about that actually, as the hard facts are that we are irrelevant in the modern game, but the obvious concern is embarking on a stadium development just when things seem to be on the cusp of kicking off in a negative direction, pardon the pun.

I'm concerned about our future, but wonder if football has to go through this metamorphosis only to come out stronger on the other side. In many ways I think the whole ESL idea as originally mooted would have collapsed of its own accord sooner or later, now that they have the chance to tinker with it, they might actually lock-in a structure that would provide official and permanent confirmation of our making-up-the-numbers status, in whatever secondary tier they assign us to.
 

TheBigIguana said:
The Euros showed how fun football can be when even the best teams have to actually work to win matches. Italy, Spain and England were the best organized and in the running for most talented but none had an easy run. And teams like Denmark and the Swiss could stay competitive by playing to the talent they had. Club football doesn't have this and frankly the pandemic is only serving to make it worse as only really City, Chelsea, United and PSG from all of Europe have spent significant money.

So I guess I'm a bit disheartened because I really do think the lack of financial controls is letting the competitiveness of the sport slip away now.
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Financial control is whats destroyed football.

Everton cant spend £10 million on a player but Chelsea can spend £95+ million on Lukaku because they have loads of fans overseas buying their overpriced tat based on success bought off the back of wealthy owners without financial control.

The ladder has been pulled up and FFP is whats killing the competition.

Hopefully the new changes are fairer across the board in terms of the salary cap.
 
ForeverBlue92 said:
Financial control is whats destroyed football.

Everton cant spend £10 million on a player but Chelsea can spend £95+ million on Lukaku because they have loads of fans overseas buying their overpriced tat.
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FFP isn't financial control the way I'm defining it. It's really mobility control. It's not designed to stop the top clubs spending whatever they feel like. A real spending cap that was not based on revenue and therefore not inherently unfair is what I'm talking about.

FFP isn't stopping Everton from competing anyway. Even if we could spend what we wanted within the rules we can't buy two 100m players in a summer like City are about to do.
 
TheBigIguana said:
FFP isn't financial control the way I'm defining it. It's really mobility control. It's not designed to stop the top clubs spending whatever they feel like. A real spending cap that was not based on revenue and therefore not inherently unfair is what I'm talking about.

FFP isn't stopping Everton from competing anyway. Even if we could spend what we wanted within the rules we can't buy two 100m players in a summer like City are about to do.
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If you wanted proper fairness and equality in controls its a salary or transfer cap across the board - not Everton can spend £30 million this summer and x amount of wages but Man Utd can spend £150 million and XXXXX amount of wages.
 
ForeverBlue92 said:
If you wanted proper fairness and equality in controls its a salary or transfer cap across the board - not Everton can spend £30 million this summer and x amount of wages but Man Utd can spend £150 million and XXXXX amount of wages.
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Yes exactly. That's financial control. What they have right now is "we don't want anyone upsetting the hierarchy" control. I'd love football with a salary cap. City having an entire 18 of players who each would be the best player at at least 8 teams in the league is ridiculous.
 

TheBigIguana said:
Yes exactly. That's financial control. What they have right now is "we don't want anyone upsetting the hierarchy" control. I'd love football with a salary cap. City having an entire 18 of players who each would be the best player at at least 8 teams in the league is ridiculous.
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Its why for me the ESL has to happen - the elite clubs are too big and powerful to concede control and influence now.

Even if all the top players left and wages/TV revenue etc across the board massively reduced football would be better off in the long run not just in England but across Europes top leagues.
 
Drico said:
Maybe it's an age thing. I get far more pleasure out of watching The Big Match Revisited, old football DVDs from the 60s, 70,s and 80s, current international football, and, strangely enough, the latter stages of the Champions League in pre-pandemic times than I do any of the domestic leagues in Europe.

But it's not really age - it's the realisation that domestic club leagues in England and Europe are fantastically rigged. There was always wealth and inequality, but there was still competition. That's now gone in the Premier League outside of City, Chelsea, and United. Arsenal are a case in point: a mid-table club as if Graham and Wenger never happened. We've been mid-table for 30 years. Newcastle are strugglers, Leeds and Villa yo-yos, Spurs irrelevant.

The World Cup and Euros benefits from the fact that players cannot simply "transfer" between nations, unless they are Brazilians to Qatar... That keeps those competitions compelling, if not necessarily top quality. The latter stages of the Champions League is compelling because pretty much all of the last 8 are mega rich and so can compete on some level. But domestic football? Rigged. Look at Spain. Clubs cravenly submit to the big two in terms of TV deals and financial regulation. We won't mention France where PSG have simply hoovered up galacticos where their rivals are Lille. Even in Germany, where there is a huge competition from 2nd to 18th, Bayern are in a different financial league (albeit one they created organically through superb management with no need for oligarchs and sportswashing rogue states - while their peers Hamburger SV, Schalke 04, Werder Bremen, 1860, and Kaiserslautern managed themselves into the lower leagues).

As an Irishman, the hurling is where it's at for me. Real amateur sportsmen doing amazing things without the utterly rigged circus we are all obliged to pretend doesn't exist in football. Looking at Messi crying last week, I can only surmise that football has jumped the shark. The money paid to these players now is beyond obscene. Not that Messi, a megastar, is overpaid (even if he is) - more that mediocrities in our squad can clear 50k a week simply for turning up for training.

The competition is gone in most leagues and tournaments, so enjoy the football for the talent and restrict your enagagement to those that offer real jeopeardy - the international tournaments, the CL last 8, and our matches against Southampton, Norwich, and Newcastle.
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Good post.
 
ForeverBlue92 said:
Its why for me the ESL has to happen - the elite clubs are too big and powerful to concede control and influence now.

Even if all the top players left and wages/TV revenue etc across the board massively reduced football would be better off in the long run not just in England but across Europes top leagues.
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Well the other option is the PL realizing that they are the Super League but only if they want to be and making it possible for a little bit more competitive setup. Because as far as revenue goes it's the PL and everyone else. Which is why the ESL plans had six PL clubs and only three from Spain and Italy. They know where the eyes are.
 
Not optimistic, not pessimistic and fir the first time ever, not interested. Just numb. Meh.

Might change my mind if we're top at Christmas though.
 
Can't stand modern football. Hated it for many seasons. If Spurs come 6th or better it will be a decent return. But with the winners/top 2-3 already a foregone conclusion I have zero excitement for next season.
I will still go for the day out with family and mates but don't really care about the matches.
Stay up and have a decent cup run. That's about the extent of it.
 

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