The General Football Thread

What's a good stream to watch the Man city game on?

 

http://www.btsports.com

Really clear and in HD.

Not being facetious, I think it is free

EDIT: it isn't.

Hoever, if you have an EE phone you can get a 3 month trial free of BT Sports

 

for those of you without it, City 1-0 up 3-1 overall. 10 mins gone.

 

Modern day football (for a lot of teams), in a nutshell.

Such a goal would never have been scored in the not too distant past. Defenders thinking they have all the time in the world, inside their own penalty box. Defenders thinking they are attackers. Defenders thinking that they don't actually need to defend.

 

Pep's strategy of playing a CM at CB is working again...

 

Ugh! Benzema has just scored. For some unfathomable reason he makes Adam
Lallana, John Bailey, Adrian Heath and all at Portsmouth FC very loveable.

 

Tonight in the CL we are celebrating wins for the minnows at the expense of the illustrious sides that have dominated European football since the inception of European club football. Well done Manchester City and Lyon.

 

As well they should. No one forces clubs to sign contracts that they later struggle to afford. Salary caps are a means by which ownership can punish labour because ownership lacks self-control.

 

or salary caps could be seen as a means of trying to recover some integrity in the “sport” and a more level playing field

It doesn't have to mean the salary cap means a cap on what labour (a player) can earn. It could be there is a cap on the amount of salary a club is allowed to spend on total squad salary. They could pay one player 5k/week and another player 1k/week

 

I fail to see how that introduces integrity. It potentially changes which party makes money, certainly, but it doesn't really make sport any more pure. Look at rugby union: did having a salary cap (which at least one team repeatedly cheated on their way to victory) restore integrity there?

And yes, players can certainly make more or less individually. The goal though is to drive overall player earnings down and nothing more. In sports with successful salary caps significant concessions are typically made in order to allow a collective bargaining agreement to be reached; here, it was simply imposed on the players. In most industries, that would result in a labour action. Curious whether it does here.

 

Also, we got out of League One by massively outspending our competition. There would be no Rickie Lambert with this cap, no Jose Fonte, and most importantly: no Guly do Prado. Our current position owes in large part to our largesse in the lower leagues; while I'm sympathetic to the financial plight of smaller clubs in those divisions, it's a bit much to decry the anticompetitive aspects of a system that we utilized to its fullest.

 

Does that mean we get to go back?

It's not about it being anticompetitive for me but a means to improve the financial health of clubs In those leagues. We obviously spent a huge amount for that league but we also had an owner willing to cover it which the majority don't leading to clubs getting into trouble.

Be interested to know what Sunderland current wage bill is.

 

Sunderland's wage bill is extremely high. It was more than 15x the proposed cap last year. Part of the issue is that this won't prevent Sunderlands, however. Because it would be effectively impossible for teams dropping down from the Championship to meet the requirements, it appears that it only applies to new contracts signed while in the lower leagues. So in effect it would only increase the disparity between relegated clubs and long-standing L1 sides.

 

So would that mean that any relegated club who has a wage bill above the limit wouldn't be able to sign anybody?

 

ah well, everyone can imagine why things are done, but none of us actually know or know what the outcome will be.

At face view, I like the notion. That’s all.

 

So? It wasn’t right in my opinion. I enjoyed it, but doesn’t mean I have to thing it was fair or right. We were given a huge advantage over other teams.

Please show me where I agreed with what happened. Don’t assume that because I support a team that benefited from it, that I think it’s right.

not sure what your point of mentioning that is, other than to give more credence to my view that integrity in the sport has been lost. Thanks

 

I know he’s not been treated great, but anyone else think that Bale has hardly covered himself in glory with some of the antics?

 

Theres no proof anywhere that picture is real, but it fits the narrative so let's roll with it.

 

I think both parties have been pretty poor over Bale.

 

was a good game but boy did they get some help.