Champions League Contention

[PaulWinch again]

The format is very weird, but I hope we’re in it.

[Hookeysmith]

8pts separate us and top of the league but not a mention on sky.

If nothing else we play all 3 of them, so we can have a huge say in who wins it,  as well as they all play each other.

Wankers

[Brazilian Villain]

8pts separate us and top of the league but not a mention on sky.

If nothing else we play all 3 of them, so we can have a huge say in who wins it,  as well as they all play each other.

Caught a little bit of the Mark Saggers show lon Talk TV, and he and his guest, Ian Brightwell, did include us as being in the title race.

[Somniloquism]

8pts separate us and top of the league but not a mention on sky.

If nothing else we play all 3 of them, so we can have a huge say in who wins it,  as well as they all play each other.

Wankers

They don't. Arsenal have already played Liverpool twice. although they both have to play City still.

[PaulWinch again]

Spurs last two fixtures are Burnley and Sheff Utd, so we’ll need to make sure we don’t need to better their results at that stage.

[Hookeysmith]

But both will of been relegated well before then so can play more relaxed.

[PaulWinch again]

Relaxed or not they’re terrible.

[edgysatsuma89]

He's a great player, and I hope Kamara will be a mainstay of our midfield for may years to come but whisper it, we've been playing better with McGinn in that role recently.

Yes, McGinn is doing a great job tbf.  Kamara can be excellent, but can also be a bit inconsistent.

I mentioned this the other day, I went from worrying about McGinn playing the deeper role to thinking we're actually playing better with Kamara out. If Kamara wasn't injured I would rather be selling him than Luiz (if it was a straight shoot-out). I know, age, experience, will get better, etc.

[Bad English]

These days the Premier League money dwarves anything that the Champions League brings in.

You must have been sleepy or dopey when you conjugated 'it dwarfs'. :-)

[johnc]

These days the Premier League money dwarves anything that the Champions League brings in.

You must have been sleepy or dopey when you conjugated 'it dwarfs'. :-)

He will be a bit Grumpy and not Happy when he sees your correction

[Bad English]

Grammar Nazis are not bashful.

[paul_e]

Only 17m for making the CL? I thought it'd be way more than that.

I think part of the myth around the Champions League money is that the last time we needed to care about it, it was in the context of "how do we make the step up to Liverpool / Arsenal when they're making an extra £30m per season from the Champions League? That means they get to go and spend £15m on Andrei Arshavin while we can only spend £3m on Emile Heskey"

These days the Premier League money dwarves anything that the Champions League brings in. So while having the extra cash is good (particularly in a marketing / FFP sense), the money itself is pretty incidental compares to what you make from the Premier League these days.

I'm not sure that's true if you dig a little deeper. The average from that graph is about £45-50m in direct earnings so on that you'd be correct but what about the market rate for sponsorships, etc. I reckon you'd still be looking at £70-80m a season as a minimum once you become established, and well over £100m if you can really make the most of it. That's not to say the money in the premier league isn't insane but this is extra on top that would account for something like a third of our current turnover, that would be huge for us.

[tomd2103]

Although it sounds like we are struggling even with that PL money. That chart shows Citeh have almost 100 mill euros extra coming in for playing the same amount of games we have played in Europe. Finishing fourth in the prem will get us an estimated £63million which is only 10 mill more then finishing 7th. But we could earn £30 mill for just saying hello to the Champions league instead of £17 mil for winning the conference.

So given the news that came out yesterday, getting into the Champions League next season is very important for the immediate future of the club by the looks of it. 

[Dogtanian]

Although it sounds like we are struggling even with that PL money. That chart shows Citeh have almost 100 mill euros extra coming in for playing the same amount of games we have played in Europe. Finishing fourth in the prem will get us an estimated £63million which is only 10 mill more then finishing 7th. But we could earn £30 mill for just saying hello to the Champions league instead of £17 mil for winning the conference.

So given the news that came out yesterday, getting into the Champions League next season is very important for the immediate future of the club by the looks of it.

It won't impact this season though, which is likely to be a crunch one, aside from giving us extra prize money for finishing higher in the Prem and any sponsorship addons that creates. Winning the conference league is another way we can help this season.

[Dave]

These days the Premier League money dwarves anything that the Champions League brings in.

You must have been sleepy or dopey when you conjugated 'it dwarfs'. :-)

Thanks for the diagnosis Doc.