Agreed Distant, The likes of the top Prem spenders should be ashamed of what they are doing to the future of Proper clubs. But they don't care less. Some thing will need to give soon or a lot of clubs will be folding
It's ridiculous Joe. All they do is bid up the cost of transfers & player wages which other clubs have to match - and that flows all the way down the leagues. For the fan, it means very little - he still sees the same club playing the same matches - but his ticket costs twice what it needs to and there's always the danger of his club going bust!
No, no not the only or even the main reason for our demise, I agree, but the inflated cost of competing in the league is a big risk for all clubs outside the top half a dozen. And I'm not so sure about the "money back into the economy" argument either. It's a well know fact that a big slug of player income is designated as image rights and a lot of that is paid into overseas companies to avoid UK tax. I also read in the paper today that one [unnamed] Premier League club provides its players with cars via an overseas company. Not only do they not attract UK company car tax, they don't bear the cost of speeding & parking fines either!
Just a point - an 'ordinary' club like Stoke are extremely well run in terms of Tx fees and wages AND since our return to the Prem, consistently makes a profit on home gates of 26,000 ish. All down to the Chairman and a certain Mr Pulis!! Bolton I believe are some £35 million in debt. The club that should have been made an example of was Portsmouth!!
If the preferred bidder has to pay £1m for the privilege of being the preferred bidder then surely that is a way out of the debt situation. Given the poor return the creditors will be getting and then taking the Administrator's fee out of it there is bound to be something left. Also we have sold a few which was taken into the footballing side and must have paid some of the bills. We are due a few quid more from the youngsters being sold off. As for the rest well we have to live within our means in this league so why do we need a pot of gold to start with anyway. Again, there is no reason why Ridsdale cannot invite others into the inner sanctum with cash also to join the Board. He will be or indeed is already the sole owner of the club so that side of it will be down to him. I think sometimes we worry about stuff that we should not necessarily be worried about. As Joe says, all I'm worried about is a deal not being done.
Seems all a bit dodgey to me....why all this secrecy? maybe in the end it will all be rosey, at least hope so after all this caper!
I didn't mean to be disrespectful to Stoke in any way Nicky, quite the opposite. I merely meant that the gross overspending at clubs like Chelsea and Man City puts pressure on Man U, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal which flows down to what I regard as "proper" clubs like Stoke, who in decades past might have a chance to do a Forest or Derby a win the thing. Nowadays that's virtually impossible. That flows down through the league structure with clubs attempting to buy success or safety at all levels and the price of being competitive rising every season. I didn't mean to bracket you with debt ridden clubs - it was merely a few names randomly out of the hat from outside the Charmed Circle!
if the irish consortium are only interesed in property.......could there be any chance that they relocate us futher into the city, so they can use the home park land to develop properties???
