Fans Back At VP - A Plan

First lets deal with Sancho. City paid Watford £66k for a Fourteen year-old, that's an age where there is no guarantee which players would make it and which won't. Look at the class of 92 at United, Scholes, Beckham, Butt and Neville were not the most talented of that group, Scholes especially at 14 was almost being written off because he was small, weak and his asthma was a major issue. The likes of Ben Thornley, Keith Gillespie, Simon Davies, George Switzer and especially Adrian Doherty were all generally rated higher than those 4 at around the 14-17 age group. The couple of years after the class of 92 were also filled with some top talent that was expected to make the break through but didn't generally have an impact. So £66k on a player who might not even get academy papers let alone pro papers is a fair amount. And it wasn't just £66k either, there were clauses in the deal that could see upto £500k going there way. They also got a cut of the transfer fee to Dortmund and I believe are entitled to a cut still if he joins United. Tens of thousands for a player under 16 is good money for minimal outlay and they stand a much higher chance getting the bigger money later as while its not everything the better facilities give them the tools to have the best chance of fulfilling their promise. If we were talking hundreds of thousands or even millions upfront teams aren't taking as many chances and they are more likely to get stuck somewhere that limits their potential and you then don't get the chance to make good money selling them.

And lets not act like Premier League clubs are just sitting there not giving you any money. They give the league upto £275mill a season in parachute payments each season, this money allows those relegated 3 seasons to transition their squad which generally means selling on the better players for decent money and replacing them with more suitable players for their league which means more money going down the leagues. On top of that the clubs not getting Parachute payments get a share of a £110mill solidarity payment from the PL (That's about equal to your domestic TV deal which is the 8 largest domestic tv deal in Football, you get more than Portugals top devision, All of Belguims football inc womens football, more than the MLS deal in the states, more than Eredivisie and about 80mill more than the Scottish premiership) . They are also getting money from the PL clubs for development costs. How has that money helped? Have clubs invested in their infrastructure to help maximise the potential of the players they have and also to provide the best possible place for PL clubs to send players on loan. The only reason for sending a player on loan to the EFL is to get playing time and there is no guarantee they will get those minutes (Be it because it takes time to adjust but the manager banishes them right away not giving them a chance to improve or because a manager gets sacked and the new manager doesn't want to use them) so they are stuck with low quality coaches and low quality facilities which hinders their development. And its not like even league 2 is a small league. if you look at various metrics comparing leagues you have the PL in first, The Championship in 9th (Ahead of the likes of the top divisions in places like Holland, Switzerland, Austria, Argentina, Belgium, China, Turkey, Denmark to name a few. League 1 which is the English 3rd tier only has the second tiers in Spain, Germany, Italy and France above it, infact even League 2 is ahead of every other second tier league and that's 4th tier. Yet you can send a player to a second tier Dutch club and they have better coaches and better facilities than many Championship clubs let alone a league 2 club, and with how much better off financially league 2 clubs are that's a complete and utter disgrace, no you would rather pay over the hill lumps like Donaldson in excess of £100k a year to sit on the bench. If I was the loan manager at Man Utd the only youngsters I'm sending someone like you are those that have already been decided won't make it and we are just looking for them to put themselves in the shop window, any player with promise is either staying despite the u23 league being piss poor and not fit for purpose or they are getting send abroad where they may actually get a decent football education.

If PL clubs are going to take even more money away from themselves which then potentially hinders their ability to compete and earn more money there has to be some quid pro quo but the EFL just wants to carry on on their path to ruin, after all these clubs now struggling aren't doing so just because of COVID, they were already on that path COVID has just sped it up. I mean you aren't even willing to help yourself as highlighted by the iFollow contract which see's the likes of Bolton and yourselves rake it in every match, with the away teams often getting no money from iFollow (as they sell less than 500 ifollow tickets) while when they are the away side they are selling several thousand away tickets and end up making more than the home side make. Where are the bigger clubs concern for the EFL clubs then? No-where because all they care about is 'This allows us to pay another over the hill player stupid amounts which may help us get promoted'. If you aren't willing to take an unselfish approach yourselves why should the PL bail you out with nothing in return? Be this finally getting B Teams as a number have wanted so they can keep training their best players in house but get them matches in a decent level league that challenges the young players OR something else. I've talked in the past I would like a much more symbiotic setup with the PL teams where each PL team has a club or two from each EFL division and we would then see staff from PL clubs going and spending short periods working at the EFL club, the EFL clubs staff getting the chance to go and spend a few days or weeks working at the PL club, the whole youth teams spending time doing extended blocks of training at the PL team with their better facilities and getting to mix with better players, individuals from the EFL club going over to the PL for a period of time to be part of their setup, if a player is injured being able to go to the PL club for treatment and the EFL club getting first option on players being released in exchange for a buy back and sell on clause (so if United had a player they aren't sure will make it rather than hanging onto them upto 23 which hinders their progress they can let them go but if they come good there is a fee in place to bring them back or if United don't want them back but say Chelsea do United get a bit back. It would encourage less hording of young talent). It would improve the quality of coaching and medical care care meaning players can improve more at that level and where PL clubs are more eager to loan out players because they know there is an improving level at these clubs as they are part of making it better. Especially if some of the money given (and money potentially saved) is put towards improving the facilities

 

Or is it flattening because we are back under some level of restrictions again. The problem is when we go back to more normal people get complacent and that helps spikes happen. If people could be trusted to go back to something closer to normal life but always follow certain guidance then it would be fine but you give people some freedom and they start to take the piss.

And sport seems like one of the worst things for this. Go look up any of the Youtubers such as Away Days (AwayDays - YouTube) for the Hashtag United FA Cup match. Everyone started gathering in the same area thus ignoring social distancing, especially during the pens. With sport its just really hard to police this as people naturally get drawn to get closer for the best views and the atmosphere

 

The Sports Minister made a statement, and responded to questions, in the House of Commons this afternoon regarding the perilous state of sport in current times and, in particular, football.

There was very little detail because such detail is "being actively worked on", but this was my take on the government's thinking:

• they (the government) still see it very much the Premier League's role to support the EFL, with the government providing some support to non-league and grassroots football;
• there were hints that the government is 'leaning' on the Premier League to ensure that they support the EFL. The Minister was keen to point out that the top of a pyramid depends very much on the rest of a pyramid for its strength and, in these times of need, it is only right that the top of the pyramid ensures the survival of those below.
• the government is keen to restart the pilot projects and get fans back as soon as the medical advice permits. No time frame was put on this, but I got the impression that there is a clear desire to make this sooner rather than later.
• reference was made to governance. Clearly the government is wary of any financial support being used to support 'rogue' owners.
• reference was also made to the use of average attendances in determining the level of support that each club receives, i.e. the financial support provided to clubs should be seen as compensation for loss of fans attending. In many respects, I found this point the most interesting, because there was a clear suggestion that financial support shouldn't just be based on the level that a club is at; it would also seem to benefit the better supported clubs, if it is applied with reference to average attendances.

Finally, there was a clear sense of urgency from the government and a large degree of support, from all parties, across the house.

 

I'm here because I had done some work for @king karl before on another forum he had and when C&B shut down and he wanted to give all the C&B people somewhere to go he asked me to get the forum setup for him. And I'm still here managing the tech side of the site and hosting it.

And while I'm not a City fan as I thought most people were aware of I'm an overall football fan. It just annoys me that we keep seeing the PL pumping several hundred million into the EFL each year and its largely just pissed away. There is hardly a EFL club that isn't losing a massive amount each year, they are all basically edging closer and closer every season to going out of business. And their response to that as a whole isn't to try and find a way to be more sustainable, its to take the 'free' money and blow it on the short term trying to get to the PL. And its not like getting there secures a clubs future, just look at the many ex-premier league teams in the EFL, many of whom stayed there for multiple seasons who are now struggling. The EFL despite being Tier 2 to Tier 4 in England is one of the richest leagues in world without the PL handouts but they have been so wasteful with the money they are behind infrastructure and coaching wise than 2nd Tier leagues from countries where even their top tier has less money in it than the EFL and thats just crazy

I'm fine with the PL giving even more money if it means actually making the EFL more fit for purpose. Leagues that allow players to develop, where PL clubs are happy to actually send players on loan as they know they are likely to develop (And if they get injured aren't potentially having their career destroyed by poor quality medical teams) and where clubs own players either grow with them through the leagues or who get sold on which then allows the squads to be strengthened in multiple areas. But right now that's not happening, its throwing good money after bad. And as I said its not even as if the EFL clubs really want to help themselves either, the iFolow situation is a farce that only helps the handful of teams with massive fanbases such as City. You make decent money from all games be it home or away, others aren't because they don't have attendances when fans are allowed in grounds that exceed 10k. If there is a sign they want to help themselves and that they want to make the EFL more fit for purpose then sure lets have the PL throw money at it as it will be good for English football as a whole

 

Why do you think ending the season really helps though. You might be able to 'sack' all the players in that case to save money but you are still going to have costs and no income. The EFL could probably be in as good a position if not better if they could just sort the iFollow situation out so its fairer