Freedman out!

[BWFC_Insane]

Or Eddie might have run out of money quicker and we'd gone down sooner.

Or his money would've lasted far longer...

We panic spent to stay up and try and go back up under sub standard managers after BSA left. BSA would've had us mid table Prem in all those years for far less money. Of course hindsight is 20/20 and BSA would've left not long after he did regardless. And as long as our succession plan involved Sammy Lee as manager the downward spiral was guaranteed..

Sam was looking for a way out the summer before he actually left. He wanted out then but was persuaded to stay on by Eddie promising him cash for a striker.

[TANGODANCER]

I know Trotter fans are a bunch of high-rollers where football is concerned, but do we maybe not sometimes stop and think just how much money a million pounds actually is? If said high rollers are so gainfully employed as to earn fifty thou per anum, it would take ten years of continuous work to earn half of one million. Eddie Davies wrote off what? a hundred and eighty five million on our behalf to give us a fresh start. Despite that, right now we're in queer street up to our necks and can only pay journeyman wages to our players (poor little sods, sob, sob) and yet we still read daily about nonesense like Alexis Sanchez and Oxlade Chamberlain swapping multi million fortunes for more, more, more and that seems the norm. The game is screwed more ways than the Maitre De's bottle opener at the Ritz, most of the clubs are owned by folk who don't even live in Brittain, chicken pluckers, hot dog magnates and hedge fund and investment gamblers, and the scales are so far off ballance it will take a couple of centuries to even level them. Being in the Premiership, and all it entails, would probably write us off as a club in a season. A couple of seasons in this league are probably what we need, but then again, our fans wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than Champions League, F.A Cup and topping the division. Days of wine and roses was a myth fifty years ago and we're back where we started ten of those years ago (oh, a division worse after having been two till this season) talking about Sam Allardyce and the succession of management failures that followed his leaving. We need to lower sights and fight at this weight before taking on the Maywethers',
Grips must be got and dreams put on the shelf...Oh, er COME ON YOU WHITES....

[BWFC_Insane]

TD...the game isn't screwed. Most premiership clubs make a profit now.

The TV bubble has been said to burst for well over 20 years now...guess what it never has.

The money involved is mind boggling. Crazy. Mental. But the industry can sustain it. We went down at exactly the wrong time. Just as the riches increased. And we may well suffer for that for decades. Thems the breaks.

[TANGODANCER]

TD...the game isn't screwed. Most premiership clubs make a profit now.
The TV bubble has been said to burst for well over 20 years now...guess what it never has.
The money involved is mind boggling. Crazy. Mental. But the industry can sustain it. We went down at exactly the wrong time. Just as the riches increased. And we may well suffer for that for decades. Thems the breaks.

185 million written off isnt screwed buddy? Our whole current situation isn't screwed? It's lunatic is what it is. But for Eddie Davies where would we be now? The " industry" is sustaining a whole army of wallet-fillers, accountants, solicitors,directors of football, family board members who are only seen once a year at A.G.M's, Shylock agents who are probably the richest men in football and Bentley-driving millionaire footballers ever looking to grab a few more million. That's what I meant by "screwed". We have these European embargo committees ( who seem to make rules to suit themsleves), your actual Sep Blatters etc, and a whole army of people who don't ever kick a football all drinking at the honey trough in the "Premier League" whilst the like of us, just one division below struggle to pay our ground staff and players. The glorious F.A, once the epitome of fair play in the game, are nothing more than a memory of what was, ie, when the game was a sport and the real winners, as ever, are the Inland Revenue quietly raking in a fortunes in taxes for the government who are always crying poverty and advocating cuts at every turn. Yep, "screwed" will do to describe it all for me. You call it what you will.

Amen.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

TD...the game isn't screwed. Most premiership clubs make a profit now.

The TV bubble has been said to burst for well over 20 years now...guess what it never has.

The money involved is mind boggling. Crazy. Mental. But the industry can sustain it. We went down at exactly the wrong time. Just as the riches increased. And we may well suffer for that for decades. Thems the breaks.

The game is screwed though. Just like in real life all the money is being sucked up the pyramid, with those just below the apex gambling away to reach the top and those further down trying to survive on scraps. A game in which clubs think Johnny Evans is worth spending 30m on. How much longer can people pay ever increasing prices for tickets, Sky and all of the sponsors products? How long will Qatar Airways et al be able to pump the amounts of money into the game they are? Will they get bored of it after their World Cup?

I think it's a way off imploding yet, but some fans are already realising just how shit the product really is and just how ridiculously over priced and hyped it is. I'd rather go watch Chorley every week despite never having set foot in the town before!

[BWFC_Insane]

TD...the game isn't screwed. Most premiership clubs make a profit now.

The TV bubble has been said to burst for well over 20 years now...guess what it never has.

The money involved is mind boggling. Crazy. Mental. But the industry can sustain it. We went down at exactly the wrong time. Just as the riches increased. And we may well suffer for that for decades. Thems the breaks.

The game is screwed though. Just like in real life all the money is being sucked up the pyramid, with those just below the apex gambling away to reach the top and those further down trying to survive on scraps. A game in which clubs think Johnny Evans is worth spending 30m on. How much longer can people pay ever increasing prices for tickets, Sky and all of the sponsors products? How long will Qatar Airways et al be able to pump the amounts of money into the game they are? Will they get bored of it after their World Cup?

I think it's a way off imploding yet, but some fans are already realising just how shit the product really is and just how ridiculously over priced and hyped it is. I'd rather go watch Chorley every week despite never having set foot in the town before!

People have said the same thing for over 20 years. Attendances aren't falling. TV revenue isn't falling.

Clubs in many cases are actually reducing ticket prices.

It's simply not true to suggest top flight football is losing interest. If anything the global audience for it is increasing all the time. Sure the odd fan here and there grumbles. But ultimately Huddersfield will fill their ground most weeks. And why? Because they are in the premiership.

We may not like it, but football isn't failing anytime soon. Our club may be failing but the game isn't.

That doesn't mean I like it. But realistically the game is financially still on an upward curve with absolutely no sign of that changing.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

There is no such thing as infinite growth. It will eventually decline.

[BWFC_Insane]

There is no such thing as infinite growth. It will eventually decline.

Perhaps. Or perhaps like other industries that have seen similar trajectories it will just adapt and change.

I suspect that the top flight in this country will continue to grow at the expense of those lower down the chain.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

There is no such thing as infinite growth. It will eventually decline.

Perhaps. Or perhaps like other industries that have seen similar trajectories it will just adapt and change.

I suspect that the top flight in this country will continue to grow at the expense of those lower down the chain.

One can only hope man u et al feck off to some wanky euro super dream league and let football get back to being football.

[BWFC_Insane]

There is no such thing as infinite growth. It will eventually decline.

Perhaps. Or perhaps like other industries that have seen similar trajectories it will just adapt and change.

I suspect that the top flight in this country will continue to grow at the expense of those lower down the chain.

One can only hope man u et al feck off to some wanky euro super dream league and let football get back to being football.

Well, that would kill football. So lets hope not. Every club needs the dream alive. If we ever end up with a breakaway Euro league the dream is dead for everyone not in it.

You can't pedal backwards, football is never going back to what it was 50 years ago, and frankly in many ways that is a good thing. I think the FA/EPL etc need to be far stronger in how they manage the game and take the power away from clubs. But can't see that happening any time soon, given the threat of breakaways.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

There is no such thing as infinite growth. It will eventually decline.

Perhaps. Or perhaps like other industries that have seen similar trajectories it will just adapt and change.

I suspect that the top flight in this country will continue to grow at the expense of those lower down the chain.

One can only hope man u et al feck off to some wanky euro super dream league and let football get back to being football.

Well, that would kill football. So lets hope not. Every club needs the dream alive. If we ever end up with a breakaway Euro league the dream is dead for everyone not in it.

You can't pedal backwards, football is never going back to what it was 50 years ago, and frankly in many ways that is a good thing. I think the FA/EPL etc need to be far stronger in how they manage the game and take the power away from clubs. But can't see that happening any time soon, given the threat of breakaways.

It would be a good thing. It would even out the financial side within the remaining clubs, at least to a large extent. Teams will get back to wanting to win competitions rather than aspiring to 4th. It's not a real if you'd rather finish 4th than win a proper trophy.

[BWFC_Insane]

There is no such thing as infinite growth. It will eventually decline.

Perhaps. Or perhaps like other industries that have seen similar trajectories it will just adapt and change.

I suspect that the top flight in this country will continue to grow at the expense of those lower down the chain.

One can only hope man u et al feck off to some wanky euro super dream league and let football get back to being football.

Well, that would kill football. So lets hope not. Every club needs the dream alive. If we ever end up with a breakaway Euro league the dream is dead for everyone not in it.

You can't pedal backwards, football is never going back to what it was 50 years ago, and frankly in many ways that is a good thing. I think the FA/EPL etc need to be far stronger in how they manage the game and take the power away from clubs. But can't see that happening any time soon, given the threat of breakaways.

It would be a good thing. It would even out the financial side within the remaining clubs, at least to a large extent. Teams will get back to wanting to win competitions rather than aspiring to 4th. It's not a real if you'd rather finish 4th than win a proper trophy.

No it wouldn't. There would be less money to fight over, very little in fact. And would still be dominated by the big city clubs.

There will always be imbalance. Always has been and always will be. Unless of course you impose spending and wage caps across the board.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Perhaps. Or perhaps like other industries that have seen similar trajectories it will just adapt and change.

I suspect that the top flight in this country will continue to grow at the expense of those lower down the chain.

One can only hope man u et al feck off to some wanky euro super dream league and let football get back to being football.

Well, that would kill football. So lets hope not. Every club needs the dream alive. If we ever end up with a breakaway Euro league the dream is dead for everyone not in it.

You can't pedal backwards, football is never going back to what it was 50 years ago, and frankly in many ways that is a good thing. I think the FA/EPL etc need to be far stronger in how they manage the game and take the power away from clubs. But can't see that happening any time soon, given the threat of breakaways.

It would be a good thing. It would even out the financial side within the remaining clubs, at least to a large extent. Teams will get back to wanting to win competitions rather than aspiring to 4th. It's not a real if you'd rather finish 4th than win a proper trophy.

No it wouldn't. There would be less money to fight over, very little in fact. And would still be dominated by the big city clubs.

There will always be imbalance. Always has been and always will be. Unless of course you impose spending and wage caps across the board.

Clubs would operate on their income, rather than ludicrous sponsorship deals related to the owners or skewed camps league money. Of course big city clubs would have more income potential, but the gaps would be significantly reduced.

[BWFC_Insane]

Clubs would operate on their income, rather than ludicrous sponsorship deals related to the owners or skewed camps league money. Of course big city clubs would have more income potential, but the gaps would be significantly reduced.

The relative gaps would be wider though.

We could when Eddie Davies was here compete with clubs with more gate income than ourselves.

What you describe in a Euro league, simply sees all the money diverted to even fewer clubs and leaves those left behind with little to go around.

Clubs spending money isn't an issue. As I say, many in the top flight turn a profit. The problem is the money doesn't filter down anymore. But a Euro league ONLY makes that worse.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Nope, you just contain all that money in one place. Everybody else doesn't have to compete with it.

[Bruce Rioja]

Lennon's just signed a three year extension at Easter Road.

[bw@bw]

First act as DoF at Palace -

De Boer, 47, met with Palace chairman Steve Parish and sporting director Dougie Freedman on Monday, 28 August.
Parish and Freedman left that meeting very underwhelmed and with no confidence that the Dutchman was the right man to turn Palace's fortunes around.


Two weeks (and one match) later
Sacks Frank de Boer

Said to be trying to get Roy Hodgson!!!!!!!!!

[nelson66]

I'd pay good money to see the look on Hodgsons face in a board meeting when the "Director Of Football" starts telling him how to do it ........

[LeverEnd]

I'd pay good money to see the look on Hodgsons face in a board meeting when the "Director Of Football" starts telling him how to do it ........

You mean 'educating' him.

[nelson66]

Hi hope Woy can teach them how to run