Rival watch

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PleaseNotPoll said:
I know. I was just pointing out the stark differences.
How did a club like Bolton get into nearly £200m debt? Ridiculous stuff.
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It really is crazy how in recent years, clubs who were our competitive rivals just a decade or less ago are now in serious trouble.

The future of Bolton is looking really bleak and if I remember rightly in the 04/05/06 seasons, we were looking to somewhat get on a par with them as they were the side fighting for UEFA Cup places, then we eventually did and overtook their place and within a couple of seasons Bolton were then relegated and are now in a really **** situation.

Then it was between Spurs, Everton and Villa fighting out for that "best of the rest" title of the teams outside of the top four and yet now look at Villa, they've given up trying to stay in the league and don't even have any good players who they could sell to make room on the wage bill when they do eventually go down (Lescott and Richards could perhaps make Prem squads in the bottom half). Even considering the rich heritage of the club, there's not going to many - if any - investors interested in such a **** storm of a club to give them hope of an immediate return to the Premier League, Lerner has well and truly ****ed them. For what it's worth, Everton have looked a shadow of the side they used to be in recent seasons, 11th last year and currently sitting 12th this campaign despite having a very decent squad on paper, Lukaku has really been papering over some horrendous cracks and there's a possibility they could lose him in the Summer.

Makes me feel incredibly lucky that we've sort of maintained our status as the best side out of the top 4 and all being well, we'll crack it this season for the third time in 6 years.
 
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Spurs or Sex? said:
Makes me feel incredibly lucky that we've sort of maintained our status as the best side out of the top 4 and all being well, we'll crack it this season for the third time in 6 years.
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To do that much when you consider we have also been thwarted as many times by bad luck (2006, 2012) and
slipping at the vital moment (2013) , makes me feel even better.

I consider Spurs to be the club most likely to pounce now if any two of the Sky 4 / Sugga Daddy FCs
flounder in any way during a given season.
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
Some of that is absolutely insane. Brentford's wage bill is more than double their revenue! <laugh>
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Not sure that is really a problem given that the numbers were for the 203/14 season. They got promoted and nearly made it into the PL last season. That is a good result for investing a few million. I bet the current numbers are in better balance.
 
AKCJ said:
You mean the one they currently fill every week?
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You don't actually believe that drivel do you?

Upton Park capacity: 35,016
Times there has been a crowd of 35,016 at Upton Park this season: 0

There's a reason why every single home match has a full-page ad in the Standard to advertise available tickets: it's because they haven't sold their allocation of home tickets.
 
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I dunno HBIC. This was the top 10 ticket sellers from last season. The fact that they put ads in tabloids is more down to not having enough season ticket holders, rather than overall people who want to come to a game. They've been better this season too so I'd expect that number has crept up (I'd imagine Swansea, Chelsea and United will drop).

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humanbeingincroydon said:
You don't actually believe that drivel do you?

Upton Park capacity: 35,016
Times there has been a crowd of 35,016 at Upton Park this season: 0

There's a reason why every single home match has a full-page ad in the Standard to advertise available tickets: it's because they haven't sold their allocation of home tickets.
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And don't they sell loads at a giveaway price to fill up?
 
humanbeingincroydon said:
You don't actually believe that drivel do you?

Upton Park capacity: 35,016
Times there has been a crowd of 35,016 at Upton Park this season: 0

There's a reason why every single home match has a full-page ad in the Standard to advertise available tickets: it's because they haven't sold their allocation of home tickets.
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I do believe those facts, yes.

They've announced that they're extending the capacity by another 6k due to season ticket demand.
 
Billy The Yid said:
I`ve been saying this is happening for weeks, the media, neutral fans and referees etc are being swept along with the Leicester fairy tale, and it is showing in the decisions being made on the pitch. All the key game changing decisions that could be considered 50/50 are coming down in Leicester`s favour, the referees are bottling decisions against them, just in the last few weeks their players had the benefit of doubt with 3 potential penalties against and possible red cards. I remember a similar scenario with Pool`s run to finish 2nd, dodgy penalties galore, all the 50/50`s going their way etc etc.
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all?

... your 'penalty' at Citeh
... Wimmer not getting a second yellow at West Ham
... Dier not getting a second yellow against the Goons (unlike Simpson - before that sending off the Goons had not had a shot on target) ...

... I wouldn't completely discount 'unconscious bias' now I'll admit... it is a bit of a fairy tale ... but we have also had some controversial ones go against us ... United's equaliser against us came about due to Schweinsteiger's weight advantage over Shinji Okazaki that enabled him to all but pick the little guy up and throw him to the floor before making the header that equalised ... now there was 6 of one etc in the build up to the corner but the fact is the ref could easily have blown ... and Huth had his shirt pulled completely off at Palace the other week and yet no penalty? ...

I don't beleive that things actually do even out over the season tbf ... some clubs will end up with more 'rub-of-the-green' ... all you can do is to try and do enough in games that a poor refereeing decision doesn't ultimately matter e.g Aguero's goal for Citeh was certainly offside ... but we'd put 3 past them by then :)
 
AKCJ said:
Hmm, bit of a different debate there.

How they've got their stadium is another argument but they're absolutely going to fill it.
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Oh yeah? I don't see the 2 being separate at all.

  • A new entry-level Band 5 adult Season Ticket will cost just £289 – the cheapest in the Premier League
  • All Season Tickets for Under-16s will be cut to just £99 – the equivalent of only £5 per game
  • A family of four can buy a Season Ticket for just £776 – the equivalent of £41 per match
What moron would pay to create an extra 6,000 seats for that return? No cost = all income is profit = charge bugger all for tickets = full stadium.

I guarantee that a fair percentage of those sales are to people who will never go to any games themselves and will sell the tickets on. Alternatively, they are to fans of other clubs who will use 1 match a season and sell on the others. The amount of football tourism in London is large but by January there'll be some wide open spaces.
 
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I welcome the West Ham approach (not the stealing off the taxpayer bit obvs) of charging cheap prices to fill up the place. I hope we go down that path with our new stadium.
 
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