Thanks Aski. It was more to make the point that it can be done (stay up that is) if you recruit well.
I will agree that the recruitment was poor. The saddest thing is when you look at the 3 seasons of both ourselves, Forest, Bournemouth and Fulham from a financial point of view. Obviously Fulham and Bournemouth had a small advantage over ourselves and Forest, having been in the EPL only a couple of seasons earlier before their promotions. Forest had in total a net spend of €20m higher than ourselves in in their first 3 EPL season compared to our first 3 EPL seasons, with Bournemouth having a net spend of €10m higher than ourselves. (Forest €259.7m, Bournemouth €247.2m and Leeds €236.5m). Fulham for their first 3 seasons back in the EPL had a net spend of €93.3m. In total Forest spent €436.9, Leeds €350.9m, Bournemouth €314.7m and Fulham €240.7M. Including loans, Forest signed 58 players, Fulham signed 44 players, Bournemouth signed 30 players and we signed 23. We tried to run before we had learnt to walk, or just paid over inflated prices for at best average or untried players
Lol thanks Rog. In reality I just have a lot of free time, that I need to fill up my day with, so all the mind numbing number stuff keeps me of the streets
i was under the impression it was a closed shop for the top 10 teams until a few started breaking in and hammering on the door. I remember they even tried, or were trying a breakaway with the top European teams in their own league, but it failed,I would love for them to break away, which then would make the FA Cup a trophy to be treasured, like it used to be. and teams vying for the top built on merit, and not the team backed with the most cash.
They weren't proposing a break away from the domestic league though Rog, it was more a closed shop European super league to replace the (then) current Champions league format. Apart form the backlash that those "elite" clubs got from their own fans they were also threatened with expulsion from their own domestic competitions so they dropped the idea..... for the time being.
if you don't play in the English leagues any more, i would still call that a breakaway, the rest of your post is spot on
All of my post is spot on. They weren't proposing a break away from the English leagues, but were subsequently told they'd be thrown out if they went ahead.
Sigh, if the teams no longer play in the English leagues but in a breakaway European league what word would you use to describe it
Oh dear, do we have to do this Roger? You made a coherent post for once so I was trying to be nice. You wrote "I remember they even tried, or were trying a breakaway with the top European teams in their own league". I merely pointed out that they weren't trying to break away, they were trying to have their cake and eat it, by playing in a closed shop European league AND their own domestic league. They were subsequently threatened with expulsion from their domestic leagues if they went ahead.
Sorry Rog, I'm with DL here. Those clubs wanted to form a closed shop super league in place of the Champions League. Once, following the fan uproar, and the various national leagues stating that those clubs would be kicked out of the national leagues, is when clubs started to withdraw their super league applications. They weren't looking to breakaway, they were looking to form a special league just for them to play in, as well as their own national leagues
To be fair to Rog, I thought that they wanted to leave their domestic competitions and play in their own league with no relegation or promotion (back to or other clubs from) their national divisions. I’m guessing but I also think that’s why there was so much uproar from their fans. I also thought the issue wasn’t being kicked out of their national leagues that was the issue but it was a competition not sanctioned by UEFA or FIFA so all the players would be banned from both officiating bodies tournaments, so World Cup, European Championship, Copa America etc. my memory is not what it was so fully concede I could be wrong.
