FFP

[ozzjim]

I think the unfairness for me comes in the lack of any ability to bridge the gap.

I think there should be a mechanism which either flat allows all clubs to spend the same on fees and wages each season in the prem, OR, a mechanism where owners can spend to invest and improve to bring a club to that level. Chelsea and Man City were the beneficiary of pumping funds in when there were no rules. It's unfair to not have a method to join them.

[Percy McCarthy]

There’s not a lack of ‘any’ ability. If we’d had Emery and the Joe money straight after Deano we’d be even more competitive than we are now. If we can shed the Coutinho, Bailey, Buendia and Dendonker wages and spend £400,000 a week more wisely we’d be even more competitive than we are now.

The method is clever recruitment/sales, an outstanding coach and increasing revenue.

[Mister E]

I think the unfairness for me comes in the lack of any ability to bridge the gap.

I think there should be a mechanism which either flat allows all clubs to spend the same on fees and wages each season in the prem, OR, a mechanism where owners can spend to invest and improve to bring a club to that level. Chelsea and Man City were the beneficiary of pumping funds in when there were no rules. It's unfair to not have a method to join them.

The main answer is simple ... but difficult and time-dependent: build the top line, which is the task Heck started and helped by the team doing well in Europe.
Sad to say, it's going to take time.

[Stu]

Chelsea and Man City were the beneficiary of pumping funds in when there were no rules. It's unfair to not have a method to join them.

This is the crux of the matter for me and it isn't limited to those two clubs either. It is literally the case that clubs who gambled on success and achieved it are now at liberty to spend whatever they want whereas those who didn't/couldn't gamble for whatever reason, are now locked out of the opportunity to do the same when circumstances have changed. Still being rewarded for a bet they made decades ago is antithetical to competition in the context of competitive sport when others do not have the same opportunity.

[Stu]

There’s not a lack of ‘any’ ability. If we’d had Emery and the Joe money straight after Deano we’d be even more competitive than we are now. If we can shed the Coutinho, Bailey, Buendia and Dendonker wages and spend £400,000 a week more wisely we’d be even more competitive than we are now.

The method is clever recruitment/sales, an outstanding coach and increasing revenue.

I suppose it goes without saying that my objection to all of this is that it shouldn't be this way at all.

[algy]

Well, we can give up or we can try. We can sustain a quarter of a billion pound-a-year wage bill that we can spend on 25 first team players, same as everyone else. We can spend unlimited money on our academy to develop first team players and/or revenue. We can recruit as well as Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth and be under less pressure than any of those clubs to sell. We can expand our stadium and we can improve our commercial department as many have been saying for years that we should. We’re richer than all but a handful of clubs in Europe and can afford to cherry pick the best players from the rest. There are loopholes we are still to exploit.

We’ve qualified for Europe three years running and got to the last eight of the Champions League, and finished seventh, fourth and sixth in the richest league in the world despite the unfairness and corruption. We are the biggest club in the second biggest city (for now lol) in the richest football economy on the planet, with no clubs of comparable wealth within an eighty mile radius. It can’t be that impossible.

Agree with everything, except the second biggest city thing. Birmingham is the largest city in the UK (by population).

Edit: source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_the_United_Kingdom - sort by population

[Sexual Ealing]

Come on now.

[cdbearsfan]

He's absolutely right. No idea why we talk ourselves down as the "second city". Greater London is bigger, sure, but the actual City of London has a population under nine thousand.

[Sexual Ealing]

But nobody is referring to the City of London when they think or talk about London.

[PaulWinch again]

Nope, and Birmingham is the second city. No shame in that, but it is.

[cdbearsfan]

But nobody is referring to the City of London when they think or talk about London.

Just because lots of people are wrong doesn't mean they're not wrong.

[cdbearsfan]

Nope, and Birmingham is the second city. No shame in that, but it is.

There isn't any shame in it. Well done, Leeds. We are first, though.

[Monty]

This is the most futile thing I've ever seen. It's like Passchendaele.

[Percy McCarthy]

This is the most futile thing I've ever seen. It's like Passchendaele.

Well, according to some, it’s not as futile as poor old Villa trying to finish higher in the league than Spurs and Man Utd.

Oh.

[ozzjim]

I don't think it's futile, but I do firmly believe that 2-3 clubs have a massive advantage having been able to pump huge money in at a time when rules were different. I think there should be a mechanism whereby owners can invest more as long as the contracts they invest in are covered if they walked away.

All clubs have a degree of players who are on big wages that they don't use. I do think that our recruitment needs to evolve in the next few windows to include more Duran types that can supplement the squad with high potential selling on fees to keep helping the situation. PSR wise those signings are what have kept Chelsea andan City above a line (along with loop holes etc)