Do you think you could consistently fill your proposed new 61k stadium? In my opinion, you will find it very hard to do in your current state. Unless your current manager starts getting you into the top 4 and get Champions league, which I can't see happening any time soon. The more likely is your CEO ends up sacking him, which will put you back again.
I'm not sure. There are many on our season ticket waiting list, so I am confident that the crowd will grow. From my point of view it'll be good to be able to go to more games, so an average of 55000 would suit me, more revenue, but able to attend when I want. Obviously ticket prices will be important.
It will be interesting when the Spurs manager is presented with a much reduced transfer kitty, like Wenger was given for many years. At the moment, Spurs is able to spend well to achieve a high standing in the league. You got a shed load of cash from the Bale sale and was able to invest all of it back into players, how will that happen when you have a massive debt to pay in any future player sales? But I guess one thing your CEO is good at is finances, even though he knows feck all about football.
By doubling our season tickets we'll have a great chance to fill the stadium. By raising the capacity to over 60k it obviously creates a bigger challenge to consistently sell out but better to leave ourselves some room to grow into than to get a new stadium and then find out we need an expansion. It's taken us long enough to get this stadium sorted out let alone trying to expand. The important thing with this is raising the feel good factor. That's not dependent on CL football, I mean it was about 10 years ago we were all excited about UEFA Cup matches, selling them out no problem. Given that yesterday's announcement appears to have drowned out all the complainers about how long it's taken we've got a good chance of raising interest at least in the short term. Some good cup runs and perhaps the odd CL qualification would be enough to maintain that, I'm sure. We've been running on a reduced transfer fund for years now and got by just fine. The reason the stadium build took a toll on your spending was because you massively under sold the orginal naming rights contract and your board insisted on keeping a ridiculous £100mill cash balance for some unknown reason. Making assumptions about our future ability to spend is, at the moment, pointless as we don't have the final figures for how much the stadium will cost, we don't have the naming rights deal and other sponsorship figures and we don't know what the owner's intentions are. The last one's important as a bottom line as throughout their ownership they've forgone profits and made investments when necessary. The fact that we have a seperate company set up to handle the finances of the stadium build is a strong suggestion that they will not burden the club with the costs, otherwise what's the point?
OMG - how can a national broadsheet paper print just balls as this article amazes me - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...make-them-bigger-and-better-than-Arsenal.html Almost everything in it is wrong and might have well have been written by the Spurs fan club! Another reason not to read the Torygraph.. (I wonder if any of Levi's companies happen to be advertising in the paper this quarter...
It isn't because he is French it is the fact he is the manger of your closest rival geographically speaking (as you aren't close winning Trophies speaking) and the most successful London team ever ! Just saying ......
That's why we don't like him, but it seems you dont like the French. Also seems you had an issue with Petit, Vieira, Henry and Pires
Fabian Delph is undergoing a medical for Man City ahead of a proposed £8m move. The fee seems a little low, but I'm assuming there was a buy-out clause in the contract extension that he signed in January. Especially when they were one of the favourites for the drop at that point. There's been a lot of backlash from the Villa fans after he signed the four and a half year contract and he claimed that he was the epitome of 'loyalty'. Although I understand the frustration, I think football fans are guilty of being naive when it comes to footballers and their words. Of course they're going to say what they can to sell shirts and keep the fans happy. It's a little silly to hang on to their every word when they most likely had a PR team to script what they say. From Delph's point of view, I can understand why he wants to go. He's been at the club for 6 years, not seen any progression, consistently in a relegation battle and surrounded by dross. Delph is by no means a world beater, but when you look at City's midfield, Fernandinho and Fernando haven't exactly been pulling up any trees, so he probably reckons that he's got a good chance of getting into the side since no-one's made that CM position their own. Added to the fact he has a better chance of winning silverware, competing in the Champions League, playing amongst the world's best players and earning more money, it's a no brainer really.
I was thinking the opposite, that although Villa have been in the ****ter for the past few seasons, at least Delph is a central player and captain where a lot of the play runs through him, allowing him to dictate the tempo of the team. With Man C they are just buying him to help their home grown quota, and he'll be at best a perpherial figure or even another sinclair, sturrige (at chelsea and man c), moses (chelsea) ect where he'll just rot on the bench with hardly any game time. Probably can kiss goodbye to his england career as well unless he displaces fernando or ferdandinho (and whoever else Man C buys).
@Smirnoffpriest I totally understand that point of view, but I just seem to see it differently. I agree with what you said about City wanting an English player for the quota though. That much is obvious! I think we need to look at it from a player's point of view. Compare his current situation to the situation he could potentially be in. At the moment, he's been at a club for six years who haven't kicked on, have an owner who always seems to sell their best assets and struggles to bring in shrewd replacements, reluctant with funding, a side always flirting with relegation each season, haven't played good football and are currently being managed by a novice. It is a repetitive cycle that Villa don't seem to be getting out of and the longer they remain in this cycle of predictability and disappointment, it's only a matter of time before they take the drop down to the league below. Compared to the situation at City. As I said before, an opportunity to play amongst the best players and develop his game, play with the best sides in the Champions League, challenge for big trophies regularly and ultimately earn a much higher salary than he could ever dream of compared to Villa. Will he be held in as high regard as he was at Villa? No. Will he get as much playing time? Unlikely. But to be honest, I don't think players really care about their reputations nowadays. I understand the comparison with Sinclair but when you look at the quality that Sinclair was competing with to get into the side compared to Delph's, I think Delph has a better chance of being a first team regular. Why? Because Fernandinho was good in his first season, but was average last season. Yaya Toure is losing his sharpness and is getting on a bit (33 this season I believe). Meanwhile Fernando has been average in every aspect of his game from what I've seen of him. The point I'm making is that no-one has truly captured that central midfield spot bar Yaya Toure but even he's losing his legs a little. He has just as good a chance as the other two players (Fernnado and Fernandinho), in my opinion. Even if he only makes like 20 appearances for them next season, he'll still be in a side who will have won/competed for something meaningful rather than battle it out with the likes of Leicester, Norwich, Sunderland etc. Not many players get to experience winning silverware at the highest level. The move to City would essentially give him everything he's dreamed of as a player apart from guaranteed game time. But in a talented side, you would expect there to be competiton all round.
I think Delph has been loyal to villa tbh. His contract was due to expire I think he renewed it so there wouldn't be constant speculation about his future during a relegating battle but added a buy out clause in his contract so he could still leave and let villa get a fee
Fernando and Fernandinho aren't that good, so I think he's more than entitled to think that he has a chance of getting into their first team.
