FFP

[Drummond]

I've had a large weekend and it's possible that I'm still to properly land back on the planet, but I think everyone is lovely and there are way more important people to be upset about than Jonathan Wilson.

Oh of course, but I'm blotting out real news as it's just too shit to deal with so I only have inconsequential shit like this to get worked up about, and as I used to like Wilson I think it's worse.

He's like the Kings of Leon to me, suckered me in with fake authenticity and excellent early works only to reveal himself as a massive corporate whore.

Loved Youth and Young Manhood as an album, and it's just gone downhill ever since. The worst thing was going to see a gig and them only playing a couple of tracks from it and the rest....

I saw them at the old Hummingbird when they were touring 'Youth and Young Manhood' and they hadn't got enough songs to fill a set, played different versions of a couple songs to pad it out. The next one there was a riot (the second album was good as well) but after that they went the full U2.

Yeah I didn't see that tour, and I'm sure it was bloody brilliant.

Been to a stadium bowl thing and immediately regretted it, Sex is on Fire. Eurgh

Only thing worse was an Arctic Monkeys gig in Sheffield which was utter pretentious bollocks and I left way before the end to go back into town and have fun.

[Sexual Ealing]

You went for a drink in...town?

[paul_e]

Meh, he does have a point that the club was feeling way too sorry for itself, that we knew exactly what trouble we'd be running into and we still went ahead and let Gerrard spunk all that money on Coutinho.

Wilson does leave out the ways in which the game is rigged to help the top clubs maintain their revenue advantages, the most hilariously transparent of which was the organising of the 'Club World Cup'. And yes, he can be pompous, and he loves bringing up, like, Derrida or Dutch minimalist architecture or whatever.

Maybe a little but the argument loses a lot of it's appeal when clubs like Man Utd can sin 2-3 players like that every window with absolutely no consequence despite debts of £1bn and ongoing massive cost-cutting exercises at every level of the club except for the squad. Once you bring in that side of it the argument feels a lot more like a 'know your place' piece.

[Beard82]

I think thats what I mean about what-aboutary.   We have made very few mistakes - most relating to Gerrard.   In comparison Chelsea have more wide forwards than we have bar staff and thats fine.  Focusing on our few errors are the exceptions that prove the rule (not sure if Im using that saying correctly)

[Monty]

I wonder what their revenues look like. I wonder if they're higher than ours.

[Brazilian Villain]

I wonder what their revenues look like. I wonder if they're higher than ours.

As an accountant, I can confirm that they are.

[Dave]

I think thats what I mean about what-aboutary.  We have made very few mistakes - most relating to Gerrard.   In comparison Chelsea have more wide forwards than we have bar staff and thats fine.  Focusing on our few errors are the exceptions that prove the rule (not sure if Im using that saying correctly)

But the football landscape doesn't just reset itself at the point our new owners arrived.

We can bemoan the fact that other clubs had more of an opportunity to become financial behemoths while we were pissing about with Lambert, Sherwood and in the Championship - but that's our own fault for spending a decade being shit while they were hoovering up money in the Champions League.

That historical slate doesn't just get wiped clean because we got shiny new owners.

[Beard82]

I think thats what I mean about what-aboutary.  We have made very few mistakes - most relating to Gerrard.   In comparison Chelsea have more wide forwards than we have bar staff and thats fine.  Focusing on our few errors are the exceptions that prove the rule (not sure if Im using that saying correctly)

But the football landscape doesn't just reset itself at the point our new owners arrived.

We can bemoan the fact that other clubs had more of an opportunity to become financial behemoths while we were pissing about with Lambert, Sherwood and in the Championship - but that's our own fault for spending a decade being shit while they were hoovering up money in the Champions League.

That historical slate doesn't just get wiped clean because we got shiny new owners.

No obviously not - but its shouldnt be impossible to become a top team in the PL just because of that. 

We have managed to finish 7, 4 and 6, whilst at the same time having a net transfer spend over the last 5 years of 77m euros.   Only Wolves, Brighton and Everton have a lower net spend   So were basically achieving mircales.  We're not even close to the business models Man City and Chelsea adopted to get there.  This year the net spend of PL clubs was -1.5bn euros.  We had a positive net spend.

Im not bemoaning the fact that other clubs grew big turnovers.  I bemoaning the fact that a clubs current turnover has such an influence over a clubs ability to compete, which intern creates an artifical cartel. 

Im not saying the rules should go, just a number of the issues with them should be addressed for the best of the game in this country

[Stu]

I wonder what their revenues look like. I wonder if they're higher than ours.

I’m not sure they’ve got much business being in debt then.

[Ian.]

You lot are mad, Kings of Leon are ace, but not on par with the National who are just the best band on the planet.

[Villa in Denmark]

You lot are mad, Kings of Leon arewere ace, but not on par with the National who are just the best band on the planet.

Now they're mediocre at best.