Good Morning Everyone Pontus Jansson has withdrawn from the Swedish squad to face Turkey and Russia after picking up a foot injury in the second half of the Baggies game. He joins Berardi and Ayling on the treatment table (both not expected back until the New Year). To make matters worse Tom Pearce has posted an instagram picture of him in a protective boot/ I'm no doctor, but I will place my reputation on the line and say its a foot injury!!! They join long term absentees Izzy Brown and Patrick Bamford. How on earth can Bielsa say “We are the team with the least injuries in the Championship?” Fifteen Championship clubs are threatening a breakaway from the Football League over their objections to a planned new TV deal with Sky. The League called a special meeting for the 24 second tier clubs, after which the 15 biggest clubs decided to threaten a breakaway if they did not get a better deal. The League have now given the Championship clubs until 4pm next Monday to reconsider their position. Currently, Championship clubs receive £2.3 million each from Sky per season and a share of facility fees totalling £10.8 million depending on their number of TV appearances. Under the new five-year deal, expected to be worth £119 million a season across the Football League’s 72 clubs, the Championship clubs would receive £2.95 million each and a share of the appearance fees pot of £17.7 million. One Football League chairman was quoted as saying:- “I am not completely sure what the agenda of these 15 clubs is but their bullying tactics beggars belief,” one Football League chairman said. “They are certainly not interested in the wider good of the Football League clubs, only their own situations. “I am told that the Premier League are not interested in linking up with them and I’m not sure how any new stand-alone league would work. “What these clubs don’t seem to be taking into account is that 35 per cent of the Sky money is for the Carabao Cup and they won’t be eligible for that. “What should have happened is that the League should have told these clubs to get lost, as the League One and Two clubs could vote this deal through anyway, but I think they preferred to keep everybody happy, talk it over, and this is the result. “Hopefully, these clubs will see that their plan is not going to work and the deal will be concluded.” Is Bielsa's honeymoon period over? The Leeds Utd social media boo boys have started to lay into the Argentine following his tactical substitutions at the Hawthorns at the weekend. I must admit taking off Roofe, Douglas and Klich was a little strange, but surely - in Bielsa we trust? Or do we?
Morning all Firstly the injuries to Pontus and Pearce are nothing to worry about. We all saw Pontus go over on his ankle and after a bit of a cuddle he carried on. No serious damage a bit of swelling and tender. Otherwise the club would have refused to let him travel and they would have insisted he returned immediatley. The club say he will fly back on Friday so no worries. The Premier League are making millions out of Leeds Utd and we are the 5th most watched club on tv, so wouldnt it be fair to make sure the Championship clubs on telly get rewarded like the clubs in the Prem. The EFL have sold us short and agreed to use EFL clubs as a bargaining chip to get a few quid. Leeds got the agreed fee of circa £3m as part of the EFL deal and afurther £7m because we were on telly a lot. The Prem clubs get £100m So fans will prefer to watch top Championship games over lower Prem games any day of the week. Prem club like Bournemouth Watford Leicester Brighton Burnley Cardiff Huddersfield Or Leeds Norwich Midds Sheff Utd WBA Derby Forest Blackburn QPR Villa Wednesday Sorry folks but there are clubs in our league being undersold and small clubs in the prem being given an unfair advantage to keep bigger clubs down. Maybe we should have a 2-tier Prem league
Morning all. The Premiership like everything else in this Country is about greed and making money,cobblers to the rest. Sport has long since been forgotten.
Good morning Matt & all At this rate with injuries & players going down like nine pins we'll be playing our U23 team by Christmas Over-funding a squad can be suicidal but under-funding is equally bad, this vulnerability will inevitably be our downfall
Last week Bielsa said he was happy with the squad and would have 4 top players coming back in January ..... he finished by saying if the board thought new bllod should come in he was open to discuss. This is a loyal man and I have no doubt that we will see new faces coming in.
Morning all......for all Bielsas undoubted ability as a coach, I think he has underestimated the demands that this league poses, either that or has been sold short by Orta who does/should know what would be needed in terms of squad size etc.
Edmondson out for a while is the latest bad news. He was injured during his last U23 game against Hull and had scored 5 from his last 3 games making 8 for the season. The club are not saying what the injury is?
£250,000 is a lot of money but wouldn't reduce ticket prices by much, 19 games at just over 13 grand would knock about 30-40p off the price of a ticket. Scudamore has earned enough out of football without this, if they've got £250,000 to give away then each club draw out 50 season ticket holders and give them a nice £5,000 Christmas bonus, reward loyal fans not folk who are already millionaires.
End of the day and thanks to his negotiating the club that finishes bottom gets £100 million. I'd say that's a small bonus from an individual club, all CEOs get a payoff. And let's face it, we're all desperate to get there.
The tv deal agreed last season meant that all Prem clubs could give free entry to all season ticket holders and fill the ground completley with freebies for every game of the season and still make more than the season before. They didnt do that they just milked it as usual. The deal we have as a top attraction on tv, being a famous club around the world is shyte. I think we and others in the Championship are bigger attractions than half the present prem clubs who get vast fortunes compared to what we get. Hoping Radz has something up his sleeve with 11 Sports media?
Morning all, Funding a squad appropriately is a very fine line between under and over-funding, to paraphrase you. Being third in the league with the equal best goal difference is to me a sign that the club and management have it about right, if Messi is available though?. If you mean you want to have a cast of many to cover for the players we have as cover for the 1st team then that is another argument. If this desire for additional players, who would inevitably spend most of their time not playing, is so your blood pressure is not elevated then my suggestion would be if you can't stand the excitement of a promotion push, with its inevitable ups and downs, perhaps supporting Ipswich could be an option?