The General Football Thread

This is lazy journalism



They’ve missed the words “and Staying Down” from the headline.

 

Sharpe

Jackett was getting a lot of stick from Pompey fans at the beginning of the season but I think he was an upgrade on Paul Cook. Given Portsmouth's position in League One, I think you should be considered fortunate as Jackett could easily walk in to a Championship job. I would not be surprised if he was replaced as that has often been the kind of knee-jerk reaction you would expect from Fratton Park. Given that Portsmouth's squad was weaker than last season, Jackett did a really good job getting you in to the play-offs this time around.

It will be interesting to see how things fathom out in 20/21 because you would expect the likes of Middlesborough to bounce back up if they ultimately get relegated. I do not think that next season will be easy but you need to invest in a bit more quality on the pitch. You were easily brushed aside by Saints in the League Cup this season and we didn't really get out of third gear. It will not be an easy league to come out off and the impression you get as an outsider is that your owners are quite happy with the status quo. Portsmouth should be holding down a berth in the Championship but , considering the playing staff Jackett has at his disposal, you cannot really argue that you are under-achieving. Do you think Portsmouth would fare better with a new manager? I would suggest that Jackett remains your best hope. It is just a matter of being patient. I am sure you will get promoted within the next 5-10 years.

 

I get that . Someone said Points deductions should not happen given the current Crazy Circumstances and I agree 100% . Think it was Libby , but not certain .

 

It was me I think. It would be a complete outrage.

 

I've taken penalties both against people putting me off behind the goals and in front of no-one. It didn't make a huge difference to me. The scale of importance of the peno being the major influence in my nervousness...Be more nervous taking them in Gaelic football as it's a smaller goal and slightly further out

 

Not that my opinion matters but I'd certainly say the force majeure clause certainly applies here.

 

Think I might have as well, though as it's turned out this had little to do with Covid.

 

The circumstances at Wigan were explained on Radio 5 last night. Apparently the new owner bought the club in May yet many at the club were unaware that there had been any change in ownership. Now owned by a Hong Kong based businessman, the club was put into administration due to the financial situation presented by Corona-virus. This argument does not stand up to scrutiny given that the circumstances in May had hardly changed from in July other than matches were now being played. There were rumours that this move was associated with a betting scam in the Philippines albeit I have not heard any more of this story since the weekend.

I am not sure of the argument for force majeure as these are usually applicable to events beyond the control of man and the legal argument seems perverse in this instance because the decision to go into administration appears to have been taken by the owner even if the intentions now look questionable.

As a football fan, I am 100% sympathetic with the staff and supporters at Wigan - especially as the club appears to have been used as a pawn in some debateable business decision. After what Dave Whelan had done to build this club up, I think it is a disgrace what has allowed to happen. If any enquiry reveals any wrong-doing, I hope that the business -men responsible are held to account. They should not be allowed to walk away from the mess they have created unaffected.

 

was not aware of those facts Ian , thanks for posting .

 

You’ve missed quite a bit out Ian. Go back to my post on it from before. The company that bought it was set up in January this year and is part owned by the owner of the previous club owner. It’s a scam.

 

Interesting interview with Rick Parry reference the Wigan situation - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53341269




Dan Roan: How surprised were you?

Rick Parry: "It was a tremendous shock - a bolt from the blue.

"Normally if a club is facing administration you get warning signs. Generally they don't pay HMRC, they don't pay the players, there are problems with creditors and it happens gradually.

"It is really unprecedented for an owner [Au Yeung Wai Kay, the head of Next Leader Fund that took ownership] to put his own club into administration, literally overnight. It is completely unprecedented for an owner who has only just acquired the club for £40m to put his prized asset straight into administration and therefore destroy its value to him.

"It makes absolutely no sense to us - it's a real mystery, I've never seen anything quite like it."

Roan: Does the EFL need to take some responsibility?

Parry: "He passed the tests. You can criticise them and say they need to be beefed up, but he did pass the test. He wasn't a complete newcomer because there had been a transition from the previous owner, who had been there two years.

"The previous owner had been putting something like £24m in, and had secured Wigan in the Championship. He introduced the new owner, there had been partnerships, it had evolved. This isn't somebody who appeared from nowhere.

"Our test, bluntly, is limited, it's an objective test, there are limited grounds to turn down an owner. It is a test that, by definition, the more foreign owners you have the more difficult it is to apply because of the amount of information that is available."

Roan: Was the EFL lax in the application of the rules?

Parry: "No - he passed the test, albeit it self-certifications and he provided the assurances. What none of our rules can legislate for is an owner changing his mind."

Roan: Does this all show that the ownership rules need to be tightened?

Parry: "It's no use just talking about owners' and directors' tests as if that is going to solve all of the problems. You really need to go back to why did we end up with Chinese owners in the lower reaches of the Championship in the first place?

"Why can we not have community owned, sustainable clubs? That goes for all the structural issues that I have been telling anybody who will listen, and most people who won't listen, for the past x number of months, from the select committee onwards.

"The Championship is a financial nonsense. We've got clubs spending 107% of their income on wages, we've got the major distortion of parachute payments, we've got £400m of owner-funding required - £16m per Championship club. There are owners gambling on getting into the Premier League, it's unsustainable.

"We need to make our clubs sustainable - we shouldn't be relying on random foreign owners."

Roan: Is coronavirus a plausible excuse?

Parry: "If he said it in February, then it would be plausible. What I don't get is given we are coming out of the crisis and heading towards playing again, why would you buy a club in June and then put it in administration at the end of the crisis? That's the bit that doesn't quite stack up."

Roan: Do you have sympathy for staff members who have lost their jobs?

Parry: "Enormous sympathy. I have sympathy for the town, sympathy for the supporters - we know how it feels.

"It is so horrible for them because they must have been feeling relatively optimistic."

Roan: How confident are you the EFL investigation will get to the bottom of what has gone on here?

Parry: "We want to and we are determined to. How confident can you be when it is thousands of miles away with limited jurisdiction? It will be challenging.

"We want to try to get to the bottom of this because, on the face of it, the Wigan staff, the fans, the players, the town... English football has been treated with disrespect in this.

"This is something complete out of the ordinary."

Roan: How much veracity do you give about the rumour someone bet on Wigan going down?

Since it was announced that the club had entered administration, various rumours have surfaced - including one Parry recounted to a fan while being secretly filmed - that Wigan had been the subject of a bet to get relegated.

Parry: "Almost none. It's highly unlikely because while the betting market in the Philippines is not the most tightly regulated, they are run by some extremely smart people.

"The likelihood that a Philippines bookmaker would take a substantial bet on a club to be relegated is almost nil. It is not going to happen - it is very implausible."

Roan: Do you regret speaking to this fan?

Parry: "If you say I shouldn't speak to football fans, or engage, I don't think I'm going to change that style.

"Do I regret somebody being deceitful and filming without my permission, frankly, yes. Taking a comment out of context? Frankly, Yes.

"We had a 10 minute conversation on the EFL rules, the state of the club. That was a throwaway line right at the end of the conversation in the context of, 'This is so odd isn't it? Why on earth can this have happened?'."

 

We need to understand what has happened to safeguard the future of other clubs.
That is now the most important thing, and offers very little solace to Wigan unfortunately.

 

I've just seen that Wigan's next three games are against Barnsley, Hull and Charlton. If the 12 point deduct was to remain, they would be the three sides directly above Wigan in the table - and all five within five points of them (and safety). So they could yet get themselves into a position where they stay up even with the deduction.

(Their fourth and final match is Fulham. And if Fulham have nothing to play for, then expect them to rest most of their XI ahead of the play-offs.)

 

Almost there for Leeds. I for oñe will welcome them back to the PL

 

Me too Ides, be good to have them back and hope they finish the job. Think Biesla will be an interesting character for the league too.

 

Leeds were like the anti-Christ when I was young, but they’ve certainly paid their dues and deserve to be back in the top league again. They are also a living example to those weird Saints fans who pop up and say that they hope we get relegated in order to rebuild. You can be a long time in the lower leagues.

 

I'm sorry, Parry, but a crap test that does nothing for weeding out shysters does not absolve responsibility for the EFL when it is an EFL test. A DBS check has more stringent checks than this which you admit below this is self-certification because what shyster is going to be honest in a test like this when they don't have to be?

Mmmm, I wonder how we could make clubs more sustainable. I dunno, maybe introduce a salary cap? I mean, it's seen as a way of ensuring sustainability of clubs in League One and Two and I doubt many of them are spending 100% + of their turn overs on salaries, but yeah, let's not introduce it in a league that really needs it, fantastic work once again by the EFL!

 

luckily you won’t have to worry about what’s introduced or not in the championship

 

This was an absolute must-win for Luton, and they are seemingly going to get just that.

An utterly horrendous result for Huddersfield though - Christ, how they have dropped - and they miss a golden opportunity to secure survival. Instead, they slide deeper into trouble.