The Villa mockery might be somewhat premature. They are 3m odd down in PL money, but they had a good run in the CL (QFs) so a lot of money there.
Their business model is reliant on CL football to fill in the PSR black hole that is their finances Now they're hoping the other PSR Crooks buy a couple of their academy players for £30m a pop - but since they all have the CL football they don't, they could feasibly just let them hang
Is it safe now to suggest that Swansea, Norwich and especially Cardiff let the bird-themed teams down this season...?
Blimey Spurs.Battle of Britain on Thursday,backs against the wall.Then...Dunkirk on Sunday.Tired legs (or heads)?..Come on.Brighton aren't that good......!?
Everyone's slagging off Villa for bottling their final game against Man Utd. You don't understand the master plan. Mr Good Ebening will now manage a team in the Europa League with the letters Villa in the name. He won it three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal. Now, I'm not a betting man, but...
Sevilla finished 5th, 5th and 7th. Villareal finished 7th. Villa would rip your arm off for that and the Europa League right now. We did and we finished 10 places lower!
That's the thing: Sevilla and Villarreal could sack off league games yet still expect to win 25% of them without really having to try given the standard of the bottom quarter of La Liga most years Weirdly, we probably would have been better off pushing to win more league games but with a heavily-rotated side, considering the patched-up team we did have was starting to get some form together right before the first-choice players started to get reintroduced, and that likely would have nudged us up to 13th-14th at the more conservative estimate
I know you were semi-joking, but in all seriousness, I was actually thinking this. Whilst I'm sure Villa will be gutted to miss out on the CL for financial/PSR reasons, they have an excellent shot of winning the EL due to the strength of their team and the manager they have. They will be one of the huge favourites to win it, undoubtedly. I suppose it partially depends on who they sell and how they replace some of their big players. It does appear like Emi Martinez, Watkins & Ramsey, amongst a couple of others, could be up for sale for the right price.
In the current format, I suspect that PL clubs are going to be near continuous winners (possibly with several all PL finals) . That will be another bulge that UEFA cannot flatten (and the goal of returning to the old tournaments gets closer) .
It’s basically the super league in all but name. Spurs won promotion and now get to play in the big league with the financial rewards.
I think it will more likely go in the other direction...top 8 in the CL group stage stay in it and the semi finalists in the EL also qualify. Until it gradually becomes a European Super League with three divisions and normal promotion and relegation with the 20 teams that don't make the ECL last 16 dropping out and being replaced by 20 new ones with a bias towards the bigger leagues.
Let them have it then. I would field the second team in the group stages, take the money, and if KO qualification happens consider fielding stronger teams.
I think the time is right for them to replace Martinez. He hasn't been doing the business consistently for them this season, despite his hubris. Whether it's his age or he'd rather be somewhere else, only time will tell. Their wage bill and PSR issues will probably force them into a few other sales, too. I suspect there'll be another merry-go-round of academy players between the dodgy clubs, though. Another batch of sensible loans could help them navigate the Europa season.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4p4C-Khx83k That goal seems to have broken Rio Ferdinand, who is quitting TNT after the Champions League final. There's some suggestion that his wife wants him to move to Dubai. I do too, if that helps.
