🤞 Scotty

TS - All that space junk could wipe out the Sky satellites and reduce peoples access to their content.

Rollerball is coming folks

*My post was an external quote.

Lurker - Agree not the managers, and actually I think most managers would rather not have the tours, or if they did, better integrated to a pre-season strategy. Most post was an external quote, but when managers complain about tiredness/the schedule, how often do they complain about long distance tours. Rarely for the reasons you state.

I was under the obviously misguided impression that the FA ran football in this country. How I would laugh if the Sky bubble burst.

The real comparison is sponsor based in Indonesia wants PSF = Y. No fucker bar the opposition want a replay in Walsall (be fair we wouldn't go there if we didn't have to) = N.

Trigger two problems with that. It's good negotiation which would suggest the FA are competent. Two it suggests they don't expect to just get their own way anyway.

scotty it's generally not the managers who agree the pre season tours it's the owners because it generates money and they want to see either success, or money back or both. US and Far East are where the big audiences can be found so they hoare their wares around them. This is why owners with no concept of the English game are bad.

Love this picked directly off the BBC - Replay at Walsall = too tiring. Pre-season matches in New York, Tokyo and Dubai = necessary. Don't believe Klopp and his ilk. The money a small team makes from a replay can keep them going for years. And it's the same as Andy Robertson gets for advertising face cream.

The theory is the FA say no replays from R1 and then appear to compromise and it just starts from R3 instead which is what they really expect to get away with.

Someone needs to take a stand on this and we should be on the phone to other EFL clubs about whether to boycott. This has been completely and utterly dictated by 6 clubs in the PL. For me, it isn't just the replays, its the fact they want to put the FA Cup final on the same weekend as other PL games before the season has finished. I would prefer it if it was like the league cup and teams in Europe could join a round later than this crap.

sav now you say it, yeah it could well do that.

Lurks - And maybe perversely a Euro Super League pulling out the top 6 or so Premier League teams and lots of the big money sponsors/TV rights/owners might make the remaining pyramid more competitive.

I'd say there's a gap between the competitive EPL clubs and the also rans, which would be the EPL clubs and the top half dozen in the championship. Then between most of the championship and the bottom couple - who are really just strong L1 clubs. Then after the top 6 or so in L1 it's all much of a muchness down to mid VNL.

Russ - yep I think you are right, although I think the cut off of clubs is not championship down, it is closer to the top of the Prem. The chart from yesterday really says it all - Man U and Man City each have similar or more revenue than the whole of the Championship (£676m in '22 according to Deloitte). The difference in revenue between Newcastle and Arsenal is greater than the entire L1 wage bill (£164m).

Amen Pete.

Not sure I care much anymore. It's a far cry from the game I once knew. Is the modern meaning of passion feiging injury, rolling around on the ground, trying to get the oppo sent off for a perfectly good challenge? Have you noticed as soon as a goal is scored the entire defence have their hands in the air, claiming some non-existant crime. Told to do it, no matter what? Bunch of overpaid fairies who wouldn't last 5mins against the likes of Hunter & Co. How many old farts are there who played in parks and fields years ago, having to use a walking stick now, because of an old football injury they never got fixed, made worse by staying on because the one and only sub had been used? You don't see Harry Kane stuffing a copy of the Mirror down his socks 'cos he can't afford shinpads. I can hear some whippersnapper saying 'those days are done, Grandpa'. Yeah, they are. Pity. Guess you'll never know the real meaning of 'passion', son.

LD - bit of a busman's holiday!

On the story about Mark Menzies being suspended. It baffling that an MP who previously had to resign as a Parliamentary Private Secretary for allegedly attempting to acquire illegal drugs and paying a Brazilian male escort for sex was made a UK prime ministerial trade envoy to a number of South American countries including Columbia.

Yeah and the broadcasters can pipe in crowd noise to give games the lost atmosphere. Or the new wave of fans will sing the same sanitised songs across Europe because there’s no one to think up anything new.

I very much doubt it would work somewhere like Liverpool to lose the local fans. They're the home of militant - they'd kick off massively about it. I suspect Man Utd would be the same. Probably Chelsea actually.

Already a bit like that isn’t it? In America you have college sports which get decent crowds, and then they get drafted into the big teams. In the UK you have the EFL and non league, and they eventually get transferred into the big teams. We have a bit more of a transition up the leagues but it’s still pretty much a two tier system because of the concentration of wealth in the PL.

The PL have paid 33M to grassroots football though, so surely can't be the bad guys. Over 400M paid to agents this season of course. Imagine a non-league team drawn away at Old Trafford (obviously live on TV) and sending up their U18 squad as they had a big League match mid-week. But perhaps that is how we should treat these big clubs who think pre-season trips to Asia etc are more important.

Sav - I just think in the end when the real deep passion goes, the game will be lesser for it and will become more disposable to its consumers in a way that won't help their bank balances. Maybe that's too optimistic.