Yes it really was a lose-lose for me. The two worst clubs in the league (in terms of artificially created). The only ray of sunshine is that the best manager in the world (TM) has been beaten again - you might think the best manager in the world (TM) might have been able to think up something different with his $billion players rather than lose to the same guy for the third time. The next hope is pure fantasy land. It's that Uncle Roman realises he can't compete with the unlimited funds of Citeh (no, even he can't compete with an unpleasant state) and calls it quits because he realises it's going to be quite difficult to win it again. He therefore pulls his money out and Chelski implode. And everyone wonders how Chelski passed the 'fit and proper owner test' (which doesn't seem to exist anyway).
On your last point, while I am not much of a fan of capitalism (although I've yet to be convinced of a better system) and think it needs a lot of regulation, I think regulation of currency markets would be way down my list. Particularly when a Government is trying to manipulate its own currency, the presence of large buyers and sellers offers protection for the small player.
I can't see how the integrity of the game in England is helped by allowing a Russian gangster or an undemocratic foreign state to bankroll our football clubs. I don't have much of an issue with most other owners although I've not looked in detail at all of them. West Ham and Leicester are a bit dubious but probably just the right side of the line
I don't see much integrity anywhere in the top clubs tbf. Someone posting they'll stop supporting a club if a rich owner comes in with wads of cash, but seems not to have their moral compass turned to do the same when just 2 months ago their club was willing to sell out its own fanbase to make a quick buck. I just don't buy it. Just smacks of nothing but jealousy because Chelsea have won a trophy. Not aimed at you just a general comment. For every sugar daddy club that's willing to buy a player for a record fee, there's a club willing to sell for that record fee. I used to laugh at Wenger moaning about how other clubs were buying players for obscene amounts of money, whilst he was selling the likes of Anelka and Overmars for record fees. It's an economy and every club is complicit in the pros and cons of it. The only thing anyone should be looking at is what their club is doing with the revenue from those sales. Wenger used his piss-poor excuse of blaming the market for his club being tight-arses when it came to buying. That's nobody's fault but their own.
If you feel like that then you should already end your support as Joe Lewis is far from the saint you make him out to be.
I think many fans from the six did say exactly that the ESL would be a line too far.and that helped to stop it in it's tracks. Professional football has long just played lip service to integrity, I agree, but bear in mind that many of us start supporting a club from a young age when we were not aware of the shadier side of the business that is football. By the time you begin to understand what it is you are supporting you are firmly hooked onto 'your' team. Most of us are simply watching football and picking a team because there is limited enjoyment if you don't care who wins. Since the advent of the PL the whole thing has taken on much bigger moves into money making, which after all is what the PL is all about. Chelsea and City represent the worst of it but the other billionaire owners are all dubious in one way or another. Talking of jealously about Chelsea's win is to miss the point. I don't care what teams like Chelsea or City win because I consider they have just bought it. I think there is a difference in the way teams like Liverpool, United and Spurs although wealthy can at least claim that the wealth they are spending comes from their supporters rather than money being imported from very dubious sources. There is a line there that some supporters including me, have drawn in a murky pool to try and claim some sense of integrity from a money led sport. It is a cop out, but it comes from being sucked into your team in the first place. Just like it is marrying a beautiful woman only to realise later that she is a cynical money grabbing bastard. No I don't speak from experience on that BTW
I think you're misinterpreting what people are generally saying on the subject. I'd be out if someone like Abramovich took over at Spurs, but I'd also have been out if the ESL went through. My objection obviously isn't to having a rich owner, as that's both the case at the moment and something of a given. If you own a Premier League club, then you're rich. My objection is to who he is and what he's done. Dictators and their mates spending their blood money on the club would put me right off.
I agree completely. I wouldn't want a season ticket for a closed ESL. However, and I expect I'm in a minority here, I would prefer there to be an ESL, with proper promotion and relegation, to the current arrangements. If I was running the club I think I might have made the mistake of backing the ESL proposal as a threat to get my preferred outcome.
No-one has claimed Joe Lewis is a saint. No plausible owner of Spurs will be. But there ought to be a line that stops gangsters and governments being owners.
Nothing to do with the broad banner of capitalism. Everything to do with the fact that : 1. a UK citizen, speculated against the currency of the UK, and in doing so wrecked the lifes of many UK citizens (jobs, mortgages etc) and businesses 2. said citizen no doubt used a fair amount of the money gained to buy the football club I love. That is the absolute position to me. Similarly that the above may be much further into the good part of the football club owner spectrum than for others, is another story.
There is no black and white, only shades of grey. It's a matter of where you draw the line. I draw the line at the Citeh / Chelski model and owners. The alternate to this is to have no moral compass whatsoever. To say they are all as bad as each other is just an excuse to avoid having to make a stand.
The fact I've seen some Spurs fans wishing for Mohammed bin-Salman to take over is worrying, not least because if Gary Neville ever disappears the likelihood is our club owner and a few of his mates with bonesaws would have had something to do with it
It was the UK Government who caused the damage by trying to manipulate the currency. I would say it was fine for a UK citizen to sell GBP if they think it is too high because that's equally damaging in the long run as it being too low. The reason I brought capitalism into it was that price being set by the market is a crucial feature. If it is in any way wrong to sell something you think is overpriced or buy something that you think is cheap then the whole model fails.
Is there anyone who doesn't sit on a pundit's sofa who actually feels sympathy for Kevin de Bruyne having his face caved in?
Maybe I'm in the right place.I'm actually enjoying MLS and the occasional Mexican league game. Mind you I've never seen or heard so many drum beaters at the games. Imagine sitting near them!!!
Why wouldn’t you? Seems like a decent bloke by all accounts and a phenomenal player. Shame for him to miss the Euros when it’s likely to truly be the last hurrah for many of Belgium’s golden generation.
