Bmuff

[Tails]

One season in the premier league and he'll get all his money back and more.

I imagine he'll be expected to fund the transfers and wages needed for them to stay in the league. Or he'll take the TV money and run, which could still leave them in a dire situation. Although at least they would be a premier league club in a decent location that someone else could take on.

[kerry red]

Can't be as bad as Brum, though.

Apparently the annual salary for Zigic alone was more than their whole season's gate receipts

 

[PetsWinPrizes]

Though Brum have been idiotic, you can at least see the potential there and why it would be tempting to splash the cash in the hope of getting them established in the prem. Bournemouth though? Average crowds of 9k this season, and that's including the increased away gates you get at that level.

I don't begrudge their fans, except the ones who revelled in our problems, but the media arse kissing gets on my tits. Manish on the Football League Show never fails to mention 'what a great job, Eddie Howe has done', never brings up the wads of unsubstainable cash he's burning

[Saxondale]

See this was the problem wasn't it. Streams of isn't swindon evil for what it's done nonsense when we had about 25 pros in comparison to muffs 35 but were still certainly trying to buy out way out of the league.  And all the time the media was banging on about how great other teams were doing. Well guess what, behind any team doing well is a widespread fiddling of figures and massive overspending. I don't feel sorry for any teams any more. They go in to a cycle if splash the cash and burn. It's all a fiction. Let's face it the only plucky under dog doing well has been Yeovil. Every league is the same, you spend you get success as long as you continue to spend because some other fucker is going to increase the spending.

It's a stupid game. You might as well just get the owners round the table at the start of the season ask how much money they have and give the league to the richest.

Next time some one comes rattling buckets for poor old Portsmouth / birmingham / Bournemouth / qpr / Bolton  or whoever else is on the pint of bankruptcy because they chased the dream by living unsustainably, well they can fuck off.

[london_red]

It's a stupid game. You might as well just get the owners round the table at the start of the season ask how much money they have and give the league to the richest.

Next time some one comes rattling buckets for poor old Portsmouth / birmingham / Bournemouth / qpr / Bolton  or whoever else is on the pint of bankruptcy because they chased the dream by living unsustainably, well they can fuck off.

Burnley look like they're doing alright. Got a couple of fans as chairmen, tried to lower costs (guess they got a few quid for Austin which helped) and now got promoted to the Prem without spending gazillions.

Don't know the ins and outs of their finances, but even if they are in the minority seeing clubs like them and Swansea getting success without running at a massive annual loss has to give hope to those that want to see our club run in a similar way.

Then we can stop the dick waving over whether our prospective new owners are worth 700k or 7m or whatever as it shouldn't matter if they can run the club properly.

[Ardiles]

Next time some one comes rattling buckets for poor old Portsmouth / birmingham / Bournemouth / qpr / Bolton  or whoever else is on the pint of bankruptcy because they chased the dream by living unsustainably, well they can fuck off.

Absolutely.  My list of 'don't like' clubs doesn't match up with most people's: Franchise (obviously, although I hesitate to call them a 'club' anyway), and then Wigan, Fulham, Portsmouth, Man City.  The latter examples are all clubs who would be nowhere near where they are (or, in Portsmouth's case, were) were it not for completely unsustainable spending that distorted competition to the point it became meaningless.

In Wigan and Fulham's cases, their owners simply took clubs going nowhere and out-spent the opposition in to submission before, inevitably, they acquired a place in the top flight.  Promoted to the Premier League?  Of course you were.  How could you not?  I see nothing of any merit in either 'achievement'.

Man City?  A great old club with a proud history that owes last (and probably this) season's title to petro-dollars.  To the fan who grew up on the terraces of Maine Road, sorry, but your support is irrelevant.  Supporting Man City these days must be like cheering a stock exchange flotation.  Pointless.

But it's Portsmouth that ires me the most.  That FA Cup in 2008 was purchased, not won.  Portsmouth's natural place in the general pecking order is a little, but not that far, above us.  And for a number of years in the early 2000s most of their fans allowed themselves to think that their rise up the rankings was merited and that things had changed.  It hadn't.  They were then, and still are, a mid-ranking side with a small but enthusiastic fanbase.  By spending money that they did not have, they robbed the rightful winners of the 2008 FA Cup (who ever they might be) of a trophy.  I'd like to see them return it, but they won't.  The 5-0 thumping we gave them last season was one that I really enjoyed.

Bournemouth may shortly join the list.

[THE FLASH]

Caddis back at the county g...

[PetsWinPrizes]

Saxondale raises a good point and it was true in the League 2 Championship year too, we were 'buying promotion' (which is to a degree a fair criticism) but Crawley, with far far lower gates and a similar wage structure were the plucky newcomers

[Honkytonk]

Saxondale raises a good point and it was true in the League 2 Championship year too, we were 'buying promotion' (which is to a degree a fair criticism) but Crawley, with far far lower gates and a similar wage structure were the plucky newcomers

Crawley aren't a football club though, they're a muddy field with some stands around it.

[Peter Venkman]

Crawley aren't a football club though, they're a muddy field with one stand and some raised paving slabs around it.

Corrected.

[Honkytonk]

Corrected.

Cheers Venks.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

See this was the problem wasn't it. Streams of isn't swindon evil for what it's done nonsense when we had about 25 pros in comparison to muffs 35 but were still certainly trying to buy out way out of the league.  And all the time the media was banging on about how great other teams were doing. Well guess what, behind any team doing well is a widespread fiddling of figures and massive overspending. I don't feel sorry for any teams any more. They go in to a cycle if splash the cash and burn. It's all a fiction. Let's face it the only plucky under dog doing well has been Yeovil. Every league is the same, you spend you get success as long as you continue to spend because some other fucker is going to increase the spending.

It's a stupid game. You might as well just get the owners round the table at the start of the season ask how much money they have and give the league to the richest.

Next time some one comes rattling buckets for poor old Portsmouth / birmingham / Bournemouth / qpr / Bolton  or whoever else is on the pint of bankruptcy because they chased the dream by living unsustainably, well they can fuck off.

Spot on. Sadly this sums up modern football. I used to like clubs like Brentford and Bouremouth now I find myself smiling every time I see they have lost.

[kerry red]

So what are we saying about how football club's should operate?

I can't think of any smallish club that has sustained a period of success without a large injection of cash somewhere along the way.

Without Black's cash would we still be floundering, Scum-like in Division 4?

Yes, Yeovil made it to the Championship but they are coming straight down and we are yet to see what the effect of that season will have on them next season.

[Abrahammer]

It would be a bit boring if every team stayed in roughly the same area of the fooball pyramid for decade after decade.

I like seeing different teams move up the pyramid. Ideally do it the "right" way and don't buy it but if money is what it takes then fair play to clubs who take this route IMO.

[pauld]

So what are we saying about how football club's should operate?

I can't think of any smallish club that has sustained a period of success without a large injection of cash somewhere along the way.

Swansea. Reading (OK, they had money spent but on the infrastucture, not just buying up all the best players). Charlton for a very long time until they decided that finishing mid-table in the Prem was boring and sacked Curbishley.