Football: Fever Pitch

[Wilbur]

Everton should be one of the crown jewels of the PL.

Instead, it has owned and run by morons for the past decade.

[Iskaral Pust]

It’s noticeable that several of the PL clubs are up for sale.  Higher interest rates makes the debt load more expensive (most bank loans are floating rate, although some will have issued fixed rate bonds), and it’s becoming more and more expensive to chase a CL spot now that Newcastle are rich & competent, Arsenal have returned from their wandering across the desert, United have moved on from comedy managers, and Spurs have enough stadium revenue to finance their squad more consistently.

As an owner, the PL looks like a bad financial bet unless your fans are willing to accept mid table.

[BigFatCoward]

51 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

It’s noticeable that several of the PL clubs are up for sale.  Higher interest rates makes the debt load more expensive (most bank loans are floating rate, although some will have issued fixed rate bonds), and it’s becoming more and more expensive to chase a CL spot now that Newcastle are rich & competent, Arsenal have returned from their wandering across the desert, United have moved on from comedy managers, and Spurs have enough stadium revenue to finance their squad more consistently.

As an owner, the PL looks like a bad financial bet unless your fans are willing to accept mid table.

I think it's important to remember newcastle have got where they are without acting super rich, its mainly competent. Most premier league clubs could have afforded to do what we do. It's a total outlay of 200 million (and 60 million of that was on isak who has barely played). As Everton and others have shown, it's not financial muscle that is most important. 

Which makes it frustrating as clearly we didn't need the current (undesirable) owners to turn it around, just someone moderately wealthy and invested. 

Though it could be argued Bruno, Botman etc may not have come if it wasn't for the promise of untold riches and almost guaranteed success down the line. 

[Raja]

I don't think Arsenal can cope with facing two bald men within the same week

[Raja]

 

[BigFatCoward]

40 minutes ago, Raja said:

 

Biesla is probably wondering why he has travelled to meet their representatives.  

if i'm Arsenal, i want to lose tonight and city to go all the way to the final, winning the league (galling coming from a Newcastle fan - 96 years and counting) after this long has to be their number one priority. 

[Raja]

2 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Biesla is probably wondering why he has travelled to meet their representatives.  

if i'm Arsenal, i want to lose tonight and city to go all the way to the final, winning the league (galling coming from a Newcastle fan - 96 years and counting) after this long has to be their number one priority. 

I think we'll play a strong team, our next game is in 7 days. No idea what kind of team city will put out though

And of course we'll play Dyche's Everton

[Consigliere]

Ajax have sacked Schreuder.

They should go for Bielsa.

Bielsa managing Ajax is the hipsters dream.

[polishgenius]

The football connoisseurs among us will be delighted by the Dyche news.

[BigFatCoward]

31 minutes ago, Raja said:

 

And of course we'll play Dyche's Everton

So probably significant injuries to Odegaard, Saka and Martinelli at least. 

[Rorshach]

33 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

The football connoisseurs among us will be delighted by the Dyche news.

Considering the option was Bielsa, who'd leave before joining, I'm overjoyed.

Also, he's not Samuele. We've tired Samuele.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Dyche. Noun. Curse brought on the Premier League by the ever less competitiveness of the league. The gods responded to the ever growing boredom of predictability with the curse of Dyche to suck the joy out of any football match.

[Rorshach]

I notice you haven't tried watching regularly while having Allardici in charge.

[Consigliere]

8 hours ago, ants said:

What did they pay for Everton? You would think the value would have gone down. 

£300m.

£200m in 2016 for a 49.9% stake and later another £100m to increase his stake to 94%.

He's also been funding the construction of their new stadium - not sure how much he's put in so far. Unclear how much he's funded Everton's transfer spending which stands at around £700m since 2016.

There was also a share issue representing £250m worth of investment to help cover the club's losses during the pandemic.

The latest reports say that Moshiri is not selling the club though. Just that he's looking to secure investment to help complete the stadium. He told Everton's fan advisory board that he's close to having a deal done. 

[Spockydog]

Moshiri is just the front man. The club is reportedly owned by Usmanov.

Questions mount over Alisher Usmanov’s links with Everton FC

Quote

 

The Guardian has spoken to a series of sources who said they were left with the impression Usmanov owned Everton. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A close associate of one football manager said his interview for the Everton role was conducted in the presence of Usmanov, during which he claimed the oligarch stated that he owned the club.

A second football manager claimed how he was also interviewed for the Everton job with Usmanov present, leaving him with the impression that the club belonged to the tycoon.

The manager said: “My feeling was that maybe [Usmanov] was helping out with the money and maybe didn’t want to be named as an owner.”

When a third manager was interviewed for the Everton job, the oligarch offered his own money to seal the deal, according to the manager’s associate. “The first talk was with Moshiri and then Usmanov came and said, ‘I want you to do this’,” the spokesperson added.

The Guardian is aware of a fourth manager who attended an interview for the Everton role with Usmanov and Moshiri, while sources have added that a fifth football manager visited Usmanov in Germany, on a trip specifically concerning Everton.

The fifth manager declined to discuss his own involvement in the meeting, citing a “confidentiality agreement”.

 

 

[The Sunland Lord]

 

[Consigliere]

Paul Joyce reporting that Everton went with Dyche because Bielsa's proposal was that he coach the U21s until the end of the season (with his staff taking charge of the first team).

[Consigliere]

On 1/25/2023 at 11:53 PM, polishgenius said:

Okay, the thing about Pellistri is not just that he's direct and can take players on and is two-footed, it's that he does those things while also being able to support the midfield, help with the shape in the buildup. Basically he does all the stuff ETH wants Antony for but he can also be a winger.

Surely he has to be given more chances. 

EtH has said today that he wants Pellistri to stay. That'll depend on game time though because Pellistri has made it clear that he's not content just warming the bench especially when Antony has been wank since the WC and Sancho is... who the fuck knows what's going on with him. Hopefully EtH can make another hard decision and drop his pet because Antony has become complacent and is phoning it in with no competition for his place.

[Iskaral Pust]

9 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

I think it's important to remember newcastle have got where they are without acting super rich, its mainly competent. Most premier league clubs could have afforded to do what we do. It's a total outlay of 200 million (and 60 million of that was on isak who has barely played). As Everton and others have shown, it's not financial muscle that is most important. 

Which makes it frustrating as clearly we didn't need the current (undesirable) owners to turn it around, just someone moderately wealthy and invested. 

Though it could be argued Bruno, Botman etc may not have come if it wasn't for the promise of untold riches and almost guaranteed success down the line. 

That’s definitely true so far but if I was  deciding whether to keep or sell my PL club it’s the new long term spending potential of Newcastle that really matters.  Outperforming your budget is rarely sustained for very long to the extent it produces sustained CL qualification, e.g. Pochettino’s Spurs did well but were assisted by Arsenal and ManU falling largely out of the running; and I can’t think of another club that came close to disrupting the CL spots without a big budget.  It’s easier to outperform your budget when EL or mid-table or a cup run represents outperformance.

Outperforming your budget all the way to CL qualification can happen for a while but permanently raising your budget is what tilts the odds over the long term.  The top of the PL looks like a bad financial prospect now because at least 6-7 teams will be spending CL-sized budgets even though only four can actually have CL revenue in any year.  The last time that happened it nearly destroyed Liverpool and Arsenal as they missed out.  And that also makes it even harder for any other club to buy their way into that upper echelon.

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

5 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

That’s definitely true so far but if I was  deciding whether to keep or sell my PL club it’s the new long term spending potential of Newcastle that really matters.  Outperforming your budget is rarely sustained for very long to the extent it produces sustained CL qualification, e.g. Pochettino’s Spurs did well but were assisted by Arsenal and ManU falling largely out of the running; and I can’t think of another club that came close to disrupting the CL spots without a big budget.  It’s easier to outperform your budget when EL or mid-table or a cup run represents outperformance.

 

Leicester did.

And credit where credit is due, Aramco hasn't really outspend any of the top teams (yet).

But overall the vast majority of EPL clubs are not run sound financially, and take/took cash injections from their owners. Liverpool was one of the few exceptions. I think there was an article over at the Guardian just this week. Too lazy to look for it now, but you can do it yourself.