Most liked posts in thread: Will league 2 return next season? (Now with Poll)

Shielding, for me, ends when I say it does.<--2m--><--2m--><--2m--><--2m-->

 

That's a surprise. You've said repeatedly that you'll be back in your seat at VP in September watching the games again. It looks like you've transformed into a PL following glory hunter or worse!

 

Cant see a pass for ifollow benefiting the club

If theres 6 friends buy current season tickets then one bloke is gunna buy the ifollow pass and rest watch at his house

Only benefit is saving your seat for when we can watch live

 

Most of the PL clubs don’t make a profit and that will be even more of the case without people in stadiums. A season with no fans will reduce revenues for Man Utd by £110m for league games alone while having most of the costs. It would probably be better for clubs to actually play matches at the training ground but I doubt TV would be happy with that. So it’s not like there is this massive pot of money that can be given out.

And even if there was the PL already gives the EFL a massive amount. £265mill last season was paid in parachute payments split between 8 clubs and the £106m was given in solidarity payments with each championship club getting £4.65m, league 1 £700k and league 2 £470k. The EFL only give out £88m for the TV deal split between the 72 clubs. Are the EFL teams going to generally use it to improve their setup or are they just going to throw more money at players and then plead poverty to the PL again in a few years asking for more? People can have an issue with Salford but one thing you can’t be critical of them about is the way for anything they put into the first team they are putting just as much into improving the infrastructure to allow them to improve the players they have better and it’s something so much of the EFL has forgotten about.

So if any more money is given by the PL it has to be on the understanding that it’s not just going to pay players (The average wage in league 2 is apparently £1,500 a week which is ridiculous). There needs some to be ringfenced for improving clubs especially on the 'development' side. We need lower leagues to be producing better players which will help supply chain of players up the leagues and we need the general level of football to be more technical so we also provide more opportunities for young players released by higher clubs a chance as right now the style differences can make it very tough for players to adjust having spent their key development years learning a more technical way. Teams looking down the leagues more rather than go abroad is good for the lower leagues as it means more money coming down to help financially.

Mind you English sides do have a problem the foreign clubs often don’t have and that’s land. We are a small country with a massive demand for land for housing while having a ridiculous amount of football teams let alone other sports. So just having the land to improving training and medical facilities can be expensive where as in other countries that are larger but with similar or smaller populations land is much cheaper. It might need cooperation between teams and maybe even between sports (could for example City, PA and say Bradford Bulls share training facilities) so that costs are shared.

Either that or partnerships with bigger PL and Championship teams. For example let’s say City did a deal with Man Utd and Utd would send coaches to spend some time working with you and your coaches spending time at Utd. And where your teams could go and use Carrington and your injured players could use the Utd medical facilities and recuperation facilities. It could reduce some of your costs, help improve your coaches and your players. It might also make both the PL teams willing to send players on loan and make them a better fit for the team they are going on loan from. Maybe then we will get away from the kind of managers we have seen you have recently where their only tactic is playing long ball even if your striker is Bilbo Baggins.

Unfortunately what will most likely happen is PL clubs will be guilted into giving more and the EFL clubs will use the money as safety net that allows them to stand still by blowing it in overpaid players of limited ability and the gap will get bigger and the EFL becomes even less of an asset in improving the overall quality of English football when it should be an integral part.

 

It certainly would be and not just ours.

 

Who's said that salary caps can't be introduced?

They are used in other sports and in the EFL, a form of collective salary cap is used in the EFL's FFP system for Div 1 and 2. I might add that it is a highly flawed system in the EFL and needs to be tightened up considerably to make it effective!