Bayern complain about Leipzig, yet continue their monopoly over the rest of the league hoovering up all the coaching and player talent they want. Yet came out as though they were against the super League. A lot of clubs have it cushty as it is. I know Leicester have had some investment, but good on them for winning the league and qualifying for the champions league twice now. More consistent than Arsenal. As for us, it's the dropping out and not qualifying which make it so much better and exciting when you do then get back into the champions league.
Exactly mate, the self appointed elite want to keep the spoils for themselves and cry hard when someone appears that could upset their applecart. Arsenal need to win the EL in order to qualify for Europe, if they fail iirc, it’ll be the first time in 25 years that they’ve missed out on European togger. Yet the rest of us are supposed to weep tears that the likes of City and Chelsea have overtaken them? Oh woe is me, this is a side who spaffed over £70m on Pepe, £45m on Partey and started this season by securing their star striker on a new £250k a week contract. But dem pesky oil clubz though......as Lesta and West Ham now look down on them......but the game’s gone or something lol.
its all looking out for no 1. That's why their scheme was doomed from the outset. they all all sharks who ended up eating each other to get out of the way the fan buzz saw. Bayern just gobbled up leipzig who now need to build again. Dortmund are likely to get stripped again. Liverpool "struggled" to get 50million to build up kirkby on existing land. Leicester are spending 100million on thier new training facility and increase thier already newish gorund to 40k. the real reason a lot of prem clubs are hopping up and down is not really about getting into the super league par se. They never get into the CL FFS. (it is a factor but bear this this) The real reason is the ESL threatened the premier leagues position and financial model so threaten their status quo. Leciester have financial backing by owners to pay long term for their investments but they are only possible due to masses of revenue in the prem that are more fairly distributed than in other leagues. there's no egalitarian motives behind any clubs imo. they ALL look after no 1. we saw that wit hthe pandemic ffs.
and yet your own club would climb over west ham and Leicester's dead carcasses to get to the same position nobody cried cried for newcastle when we overtook them in the early 2000s and nobody cried for us in 2010 when city took over that CL spot. we are all out for no 1. some of us have more resources to fight back than others and some jumped at the offer of ESL as they knew the y probably couldn't make it. nobodies cries for newcastle fans enduring year after year of ashley either yet the minute some foreign investment poked its head up all the sharks started buzzing round trying to stop it.
I don't think anyone is unaware of this - it's just that it's been that way for so long we're used to it. It's taken as read that everyone just hates them anyway. They were even due to get extra payments in the ESL.
We all know that the big and powerful giant clubs gobble up the smaller less powerful in all the leagues. It is all about the selfishness and self preservation of the giants. Goes without saying that they ALL big and small look after no 1. With ESL the already big consolidate their positions and prevent medium clubs from joining them or overtaking them. Saudi Arabia buying up Newcastle would have presented a formidable challenge to the premiership status quo. The Henrys, Kroenkes or Glazers v Saudis wouldn’t be a fair fight would it? Anyway they are in football to make money not to give it away. Hence their urgency to set up the ESL. City fans could never have dreamt that the poor team that was struggling in the 3rd tier only about 20 years ago is on verge of dominating Europe as well as England. Why can’t Newcastle fans or other fans have similar dreams if another state or Bezos (if he was interested in getting rid of a few surplus billions !) came along?
Yeah it really is just pulling up the ladder before more pile in and push them down. They are like monks fleeing viking up a round tower and pushing their mates down to the pagan hoards to save their own skins and then offering prayers for the poor soul. Newcastle were prevented from joining the party via faux morality and you can bet leicester will be targeted for manager and players. (the only difference between here and germany and spain is tv money means Leicester can force a very hard bargain) the logical end point is unlimited stupid funding for clubs with no care for any local fan.
The reason the entire football world jumped up and down about the ESL is that it lacked any form of sporting merit. It was a closed shop cartel that killed the pyramid. It removed the dream of the CL prize from clubs not only currently in the PL but also many in Championship and even below that. See City and Lesta for details. That’s the point and always will be, the potential collateral damage to PL revenues would have only been a major factor if they’d have kicked the greedy 6 out on their arses.
Newcastle were refused their much overblown consortium due to the fact that the majority stakeholder had been actively participating in the piracy of the PL product due to a geopolitical dispute, the rest is just fluff. The idea that it was blocked due to the rest of the PL not fancying a whopping £50m a year investment lol, is for the ****ing birds. The PL couldn’t allow the fox into the henhouse and to potentially damage relationships with its key partners. The Saudis could have made the entire issue moot, by setting up a new sports company that didn’t have MBS or any of the state Govt forming part of it, but with their usual brand of twattish arrogance they expected to be able to wave their wad, make a phone call and it’d be sorted. **** ‘em.
do you not think thats just a bit of an excuse? Piracy. It was politically incorrect due to yemen etc but thats is again a bit of an excuse. They dragged thier heels to send the message no thanks. You are right that maybe they could have done a dummy company but surely we would all see it as such so if it passed as a result then what would the point be? in the end it was also quite convenient for the rest that there wasn't another oil state involved. I am sure that had a significant part to play in thinking.
No I don’t. The significance to the rest of the league of the Saudis involvement was massively overblown imo, and was nothing more than the conspiracy theories of the desperate Jawdees running amok. It was always about piracy and the PL standing by their partner beIN. The PL had tried numerous times to sue, but had been blocked from doing so by Saudi authorities, as the case had to be raised in Saudi.
cool. I do think part of PSG's decision making was to stick one to city owners as well over the ESL. They had to be up to their neck in the design of the thing. Same for bayern. they are looking sheepishly and hoping nobody questions exactly how far in they were before they simply decided not to sign the papers. In the end what happened was the bidders walking away after heels were dragged. We've seen a lot "worse" being allowed to own clubs form a business point of view so who knows. I do think it suited a lot of people it didn't happen.
The Saudis were dragged into that consortium, it took Staveley 2 years to convince them, and even then they were only 80% stakeholders. Generally speaking, if Saudis want something they just go and buy it, no messing. The consortium spoke about investing £250m over 5 years. It’s peanuts in reality, when you factor in fees, wages and capital investment. The idea it was ever going to be akin to what Mansour did at City was for the birds, not least because of the actual rules, which now makes what City did initially to gain the traction they did, impossible to replicate. As for Bayern, they would never have got fan approval and couldn’t act without it, so whilst I’m sure they were consulted over the ESL they had no option but to decline. PSG? Who knows, they likely saw it had more holes than a Swiss cheese and thought they’d see how it panned out.
Interesting. I dont think its be impossible to replicate but I see your point on the Saudis. There is one more slot in the top 4 left for a mega rich country to own a club. Chelsea city and utd should make up the rest. As for the rest, I cannot believe the two clubs were not in the negotiations and didnt know every detail. The fact they didnt sign is true for Bayern. I think they were probably ball ticklers who listened then said cant sign to that. PSG yeah who knows but doing one over qatar sounds like a nice bonus to me.
Chelsea ahead but you can sense their nervousness. This match could turn in an instant. If Real scores they are in the driving seat. Tuchel has been there with PSG when he had a 2-0 first leg away lead and his side scored the first goal to make it 3-0. Yet he lost the tie 3-3
Chelsea stopped playing at 1-0 in the first leg with real wobbling. They are really negative. Its tuchel all over. One thing I'll say for ogs is they pocketed roma when the chance was there. Tuchel is never lasting long at chelsea he is so so negative. He makes mourinho looking half interesting.
An all English final. Real was worse than any of poorest premiership sides . Absolutely flat attack. Chelsea had around 6 clear cut chances. shows the power of the English sides. The Europa will also be all English.
Madrid are poor, so probably the best they aren't in the final. If we were half our normal selves we would have got past them
How did we get beaten by this awful rabble? Their attack was non existent whilst that midfield is so slow and showed its age. Modric, Kroos and Casemiro were bypassed as if they were not there. City would have loved playing them but at least we potentially have got a proper match.
