I have been told some things I wouldnt dare put on the internet. Not just sheff wed but another couple of clubs and how things apparently are done off the pitch. I dont believe everything, but there are some fundamental problems with the foundations of football in this country imo.
It's awful mate. Clubs are so often tempted to make "one big push" to get up, and most fail. At end 23-24, we had wages around 80% of turnover. This was one of the best in the Championship, many being over 100%, most close to it. The same year we lost I think around £8m , again, far better than most. For most, the numbers will never work, and the distorting effect ot the PL and teams going up to it and back down makes it almost untenable. This year we achieved a miracle IMO . It's a long time ago, but the answer was there once. I think it was the late 90s maybe early 2000s. The PL had eventually proposed a more or less formal PL2, with the lower tier getting around 25% of the TV money . One of the driving forces was John Hall. Pretty awful bloke but he was right on this. He said at the time, that the offer would never come again and that they had made a terrible mistake. This after a rejection of the offer by David Sheepshanks, the media darling who ran Ipswich at the time and believed his own publicity. He climbed into bed with ON DIGITAL, who made absurd promises and went bust. The EFL has never recovered properly from that point. Sheepshanks of course ended up with a CBE.
I shouldnt say this now, but the premier league is the pits if you love the pyramid. Like you say there have been missed opportunities. Right now I see no real hope for a genuine football structure that rewards clubs for being sensible. First ever premier league included Oldham, Southampton, Norwich, Blackburn, QPR, Sheff Wed, Wimbledon, Coventry, Ipswich. Take a look at the chequered history of those since then. Dare I say all down to the desperation the premier league creates. Who loses? Supporters.
You're right mate, the whole thing has been wrecked by the various governing authorities. It's a typical case of something being ruined by making them better. We're seeing the results now with the likes of the Isak scandal. Let's ignore the fact that it's Newcastle, which makes it funny, and remember that thousands of decent supporters have just bought season tickets, bought expensive merchandising and had ISAK printed on their shirts. That's bad enough but there'll be hundreds of kids who've had his name on their gear and were expecting to see him play this season ... he's being paid enough to manage that. Instead he's decided to turn his back on his club, team mates and all the supporters. Liverpool are complicit in all this and are now openly encouraging the player to break his contract and crap on the club. Meanwhile the Premier League sit back and turn away and pretend nothing's happening. In the Championship owners openly taunt the club's supporters, fail to pay their players and make club staff redundant. It all stinks and we know it.
