Simon3737

His contract ends next June anyway so I assume he’ll have one more half season loan in January to follow this loan and then be a free agent. Thanks always to Josh for setting up ‘that goal’ to get us to a cup final!

I don’t think the whole idea of lucrative international friendlies is going to appeal to many English top 6 fans. I can’t see many rushing to get a PPV subscription to watch Arsenal vs Shanghai Rovers at 7am UK time. I appreciate keeping their domestic fans happy isn’t the motivation of the big clubs any more, but maybe this idea will wake some more of those fans up to the flaws in clubs just getting richer and richer. I can’t see English fans being all that interested in a super league with no jeopardy of relegation either. Surely it would just be dull. Ultimately, I think dull competition will make it less profitable for the billionaire owners of these clubs. The Premier League is only the richest league in the world for 2 reasons. It has celebrity players and it’s more competitive than other elite leagues. I think English top 6 fans protesting (socially distanced obvs) would be the best way to stop this direction (like how Man United fans stopped the Sky purchase). Time to cheer on the top 6 fans! 😳

Something that I think may have been missed so far is that the £250 million would only be a loan! EFL clubs would be expected to pay it back later (I assume with interest). As I mentioned before, i have sympathy with the proposed structural changes to the League size and Cups, but that clearly isn’t the main motivation of the Big 6 here (and I’m pretty sure they’re all in on this behind the scenes). The main motivation is to dominate voting and money for ever more. And I’m totally against that.

The voting proposal is a terrible idea and we’re clearly being used as a fig leaf to let the big 6 dominate everything. However, I think the rest of the proposals are pretty good. I was as excited as everyone else when we got to the League Cup final, but it’s basically a pointless tournament. And the Community Shield is just a glorified pre-season friendly. I think the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy (as we should all still call it 😀) has far more merit than the League Cup because the teams involved actually care about winning it (rather than just being a back door into Europe for big clubs having a bad year like Arsenal last year). Maybe they should just expand the EFL Trophy to include the Championship too (i.e. all EFL teams, maybe call it the EFL Cup 😀). Reducing the size of the Premier League would mean every team had something to play for. At present, there are around 3 teams each year in mid-table obscurity for the second half of the season (no chance of getting relegated or getting into Europe). There was an idea years ago from somewhere suggesting 16 clubs with 4 up 4 down. I think that would be a good idea. I know we’d get relegated occasionally, but it would be easier to come back and it means if the likes of Arsenal could genuinely have a chance of getting relegated occasionally.

Sky couldn’t get PPV to work when they tried before, so hopefully people won’t pay up... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PremPlus

St Mirren FC? I guess he won’t need to borrow so much to buy them...

I was worried that the whole 1st team squad would now be told to isolate for 14 days as they must have been in close contact. It’s possible to incubate COVID for up to 14 days before testing positive as I understand it (hence why testing arrivals at airports wouldn’t catch everyone). I guess it’s different rules for elite sports than the rest of us...

He was only 10! I think we can safely call him one of ours. 😀

On a positive note, one disadvantage the B Team has is that quite a few of our under 23s are unavailable to them because they’re in the 1st team!

Obligatory YouTube clip 😉

It’s pretty windy in London today. Let’s hope it’s a nice calm day in Burnley this year!

I seem to remember Gao borrowed the money personally to buy us, but as soon as he’d bought us he transferred the debt on to the club (and recovered his personal debt). I’m not overly concerned in principle about owners funding us with debt. The key issue is the cost to the club of servicing that debt moving forward (as that will reduce the amount of money available to reinvest in the club).

‘Let’s go Wilde’ all over again. What could possibly go wrong?? 😏

Out of interest, when do clubs announce their 25 man (over 21s) squad list? Is this after the transfer window closes? Also, I notice the Transfermarkt links you attached list Sims and Hesketh as 1st Team, rather than B Team. Is this because they’re over 23 now?

Any idea when the OS player info will be updated with the new kits?

Let’s bring back Jermaine Wright and Richard Dryden. Top 6!

Thanks as always for keeping this thread up to date! I notice that the ‘unwanted players on long contracts, thanks Les’ saga is finally starting to resolve itself. By next summer, we’ll ‘only’ have 3 of them left (or 4 if you count Forster). I expect all of the unwanted players with 1 year left will be loaned out for next season then quietly disappear (unless we can actually sell any of them!).

Bring back Wise and Bassett! Their reign was cut short too soon! 😉

I’ve got a solution. Let’s cancel Wesley Hoedt’s contract, but don’t pay him anything. Instead, agree to use his copyrighted logo as our new sponsor so he can build-up his celebrity brand worldwide. Simple! 😀

This video convinces me that masks work....

Familiar?? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324243695042

To be pedantic, that post-lockdown table isn’t quite right (as 4 teams played 10 games). We’re still 3rd though 😀 https://www.givemesport.com/1586210-liverpool-6th-man-utd-2nd-premier-league-table-based-on-games-since-lockdown-only

I’m sure that’s just tactics to inflate Forster’s sale price. Ralph clearly favours younger players. I can’t see him being happy having our 1st and 2nd choice goalkeepers over 30.

Exactly. With the obvious caveat that I only know what is rumoured on here, it sounds like these 5 players are a net drain on our budget (i.e. the loan fee and partial wage repayments from the loaning clubs is not enough to offset the wages we pay them). If that’s true, then the only way to recoup these losses is to sell them for a fee and evidence suggests nobody wants to buy them for the wages they think they deserve (and are paid now, thanks Les!). It looks like they are all simply running down their contracts until they become free agents. On that basis, we cannot recoup any of our investment. Every month we keep them is losing us money. Assuming the above is true, we should just sell them as soon as we can for any amount for a quick sale. For example, selling Carrillo this summer for £1 million would literally save us money (compared to subsidising him every month until he runs his contact down). I expect we’d get some willing buyers in a bargain basement fire sale situation, but (in economic terms) letting them leave on free transfers may well save us money. This would be terrible publicity for the club obviously, which is probably what’s stopping them. Alternatively, of course, maybe the rumours are wrong and we’re making profits on these loans and everything is fine!

Thanks (as always) for updating this. I can’t see any solution this summer other than releasing all of our over-21s with contracts expiring and selling our 5 unwanted over-paid players for big discounts. I think Gao is better to take the hit in one go this summer so we can start rebuilding immediately with the new DoF. I don’t see much point in continually loaning the unwanted players out until they run down their contracts and leave for free.