*Official* English Football Season 2015-16

[Furball]

Diego Costa really is a charmer isn't he?

The most annoying thing about that was the referee ****ting out of giving him a booking.

People always go 'well you wouldn't see that in rugby' when the reason for that is that referees don't stand for players acting like arseholes. Referees can moan about a lack of respect all they want in football, the rules allow them to caution players for dissent and I can't bring myself to feel any sympathy for them of they're not going to book players who run up to them and scream in their face.

 

[sledger]

It's all political though isn't it? A ref cracking down on dissent would lead to arseholes like Mourinho kicking off and having a moan, putting pressure on the league etc... leading to the refs being told to avoid doling out cards for that sort of thing. Or so I suspect, at least.

 

[Furball]

Fine, save us the bull**** of this "Respect" charade then.

 

[grecian]

Did Leeds have a spell in Division 2 in the mid to late 80s or have I completely imagined that?

Yep were in Division 2 for most of the 80s, won the Title two years after coming up.

 

[sledger]

Fine, save us the bull**** of this "Respect" charade then.

I'm not disagreeing, ftr. I'd rather see crap behaviour stamped out, I just suspect it won't happen because of the reasons I suggested.

I hate the hypocrisy of the whole "Respect" thing though. The ones who pedal it the most are always the most are always the ones who put the boot into referees the most. They're a bit like UKIP members. "Now listen, I don't have a problem with immigrants/referees, I've got a load of black/referee friends...but...."

 

[Cabinet96]

If only Arsenal had been drawn against this Madrid side instead of Barca.

 

[Pothas]

Ronaldo has actually started to become that player that the ridiculously wrong critics used to say he was.

 

[Pothas]

Isaac Success one of the best names in football.

 

[Furball]

Wouldn't surprise me to see Real get shot of him this summer. He's started his decline; still ridiculously good but he's at an age where Real could properly rip someone off fee wise a la Arsenal with van Persie.

 

[Furball]

Yep were in Division 2 for most of the 80s, won the Title two years after coming up.

IIRC they finished 17th the year after winning the title and I can't think they would've been anywhere near the title the season before: Arsenal won the title and I imagine Liverpool would've finished 2nd as IIRC they were near enough the top when Dalglish resigned. Palace finished 3rd that season as well didn't they?

 

[Uppercut]

Wouldn't surprise me to see Real get shot of him this summer. He's started his decline; still ridiculously good but he's at an age where Real could properly rip someone off fee wise a la Arsenal with van Persie.

The transfer ban means it won't happen. And RVP was a great deal. Was basically buying the title for £25m.

I agree about Ronaldo though. Fergie would be letting him go this summer for sure.

 

[GIMH]

Ticket price scandal - enough is enough, English football should hang its head in shame - Telegraph

 

[Furball]

The transfer ban means it won't happen. And RVP was a great deal. Was basically buying the title for £25m.

I agree about Ronaldo though. Fergie would be letting him go this summer for sure.

Forgot about the transfer ban actually.

 

[Jarquis]

The transfer ban means it won't happen. And RVP was a great deal. Was basically buying the title for £25m.

I agree about Ronaldo though. Fergie would be letting him go this summer for sure.

And a ton of wages and a signing on fee.

But you're probably going to say that buying the title for any price is worth it

 

[GIMH]

Shearer was trying to compare it to Blackburn, but that's obviously rubbish as they just spent more than anyone else.Might as well say Chelsea or Citeh. As much as I hate to say it, but Leeds maybe the closest recently.

I said similar on a different forum when someone said Blackburn was the last one like this. Someone posted this

Blackburn didn't buy the Premier League title in 1995 ? they earned it | Football | The Guardian

Fairly interesting read. Still think you're right to cite Leeds, Blackburn signing Sutton made them faves with many people after pushing United hard towards the end of 93-94.

 

[Uppercut]

And a ton of wages and a signing on fee.

But you're probably going to say that buying the title for any price is worth it

Meh, I don't really care whether it was good from a business perspective, although I suspect that it probably was.

It's just that as a fan winning the title is always so, so much better than not winning the title. I'm poking fun when I say it, but I also do think a lot of Arsenal fans have forgotten what it means to win the title. Would you really prefer an alternative history where Arsenal were £25m+wages better off, but Sylvain Wiltord at Old Trafford or Wenger wearing the "Comical Wenger" t-shirt at the victory parade never happened? And instead of that you had an extra season of Gallas's tears or Eboue's bizarre last-minute penalty box fouls? I don't know if "any price" is worth it. But definitely more than we paid for Van Persie.

 

[Furball]

Ticket price scandal - enough is enough, English football should hang its head in shame - Telegraph

I can see both sides of the debate here to be honest; my half season ticket for Rangers came in at £262 for a Scottish Championship side and I reckon there will be a price increase when we get promoted, so I reckon I'll be looking at about £550 for the season or thereabouts, which works out at about £29 per game, so to be honest given how much we get overcharged in Scotland I don't think £77 a game for a seat in a newly built facility, watching much better players (inb4jokes) is enormously expensive. People will compare it unfavourably with football on the continent and specifically Germany; a premium seat at a Dortmund home game will actually set you back €78 and the cheapest seats right at the very back of the corners will still set you back €31. And then there's the usual supply and demand caveat; if the seats sell out then they're arguably too cheap.

That's the case for the defence anyway. What Germany does have that England don't is safe standing areas; the cheapest Dortmund ticket available for their game against Hanover is €16.70 because one end of Signal Iduna Park is a massive terrace. So while a seat is actually more expensive than most people might realise, large numbers of Dortmund fans can still be accomodated really cheaply. And you could certainly argue that with the enormous revenues coming into the English game through TV money, they can certainly afford to give match going fans a bit of a break when it comes to ticket prices. Again, it's also worth noting a lot of the attraction to TV companies is that Premier League matches are well attended with great atmospheres; the product starts to look less appealing if it's being played in front of half empty grounds (see Scottish football).

It requires clubs and the league to stop being so short sighted and work together for the good of the game though, and at the moment the only collective position clubs seem to be in agreement on is "how can we make as much money as possible." If they're not careful, they'll create a generation of fans who watch the game in the pub rather than at the ground.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah I just don't get the Van Persie argument, was so obviously worth it.

 

[Pothas]

Ticket price scandal - enough is enough, English football should hang its head in shame - Telegraph

I know it is nothing compared so some Premier League prices but I was thinking of going to Sheffield Wednesday away next weekend, they were going to charge me £36 to watch Championship football. When you factor in a train ticket of about £40 it was just not worth it.

 

[Furball]

I said similar on a different forum when someone said Blackburn was the last one like this. Someone posted this

Blackburn didn't buy the Premier League title in 1995 ? they earned it | Football | The Guardian

Fairly interesting read. Still think you're right to cite Leeds, Blackburn signing Sutton made them faves with many people after pushing United hard towards the end of 93-94.

Yeah Blackburn finished 4th in 1992/93 despite losing Shearer to injury for half the season and ran Utd close the season before. They were one of the top clubs around at the time and were throwing money around like it was going out of fashion; their strike force for 1994/95 cost £8.5m between them, which was enormous money at the time (both Shearer and then Sutton were British records when they were signed.) Blackburn had also lost out on Roy Keane the season before (another British record at £3.75m) and had spent millions assembling their squad; Paul Warhurst and David Batty both cost in the region of £3m, Tim Flowers was the most expensive goalkeeper in Britain at the time (£2.5m), Mike Newell cost £1.1m (at a time when they weren't even a top flight club), Kevin Gallagher cost £1.5m, Ripley £1.5m, Jeff Kenna cost £1.5m...it's not like they came from nowhere. Their trajectory is quite similar to Man City's under Mancini, who finished 5th, 2nd then won the title while spending massive amounts of money.