Premier League 2019/20

[The Lusophone]

I do wonder if they ended the season now what they'd do about relegation. It seems patently unfair to relegate Aston Villa, who despite being in the bottom 3 have a game on the teams directly above them. Maybe they could do it with a 22 team league next season if the Championship also finishes?

[TCO]

I suggested the 22 team Premier League here ages ago and still believe it's the best solution.

Relegating teams or denying promotion is going to cause a legal catastrophe for the Premier League. I think that's the only way without finishing the league!

[gunnar hendershow]

22 team league and scrapping the League Cup for the year (or, hey, maybe for just one season not having PL participants in it or something) are the most sensible approaches. There will be a ton of battles over whatever approach is chosen. At least Liverpool had already run away with the title, so awarding it to them is reasonable.

I'm not certain how they manage the promotions, maybe they do a 6-team playoff? Probably hard to squeeze in from a scheduling standpoint. And then you'll have all your clubs in the 7-10 position who are just a handful of points back who feel rightfully that they could have made the playoffs and maybe even gotten promoted.

[Adam]

I think you could make it work with a 22 team league. Whether or not that would be for one season only or permanent is a consideration but they could realign the leagues by relegating nobody and promoting:

Leeds & West Brom to the Premier League.

Coventry & Rotherham to the Championship.

Exeter, Swindon and Crewe to League One.

Barrow, Harrogate and Notts County to League Two. Or just Barrow to make that a 22 team league for one season only.

But you'll still have teams miffed st not getting a shot at promotion from 3rd/4th down in the EFL leagues. Plus there's issues like the fact Southend and Bolton are dead and buried in League One, Bolton with a 12 point deduction that essentially hasn't served as a punishment if they are reprieved.

[DavidMarrio]

Honestly don't see why we just can't wait to finish the season and keep the integrity of sporting competition in place.

They are gonna slap a World Cup in the middle of one and that's going to cause issues for a few seasons when that comes around. Just either going to have to have a few midweeks games at perhaps the expense of the League Cup possibly or when there isn't a European competition scheduled for that mid week. 

[Colly]

I agree. I keep hearing ITK types saying that it doesn't work financially, but I've yet to have an explanation as to why, surely the tv deals are based on a number of fixtures in which case they'd want money back for this season if cancelled, or if just based on actual calendar (albeit Aug-May) years it doesn't make a difference if Augusts games are the end of the 19/20 season. It's not even that many games left to play, especially with no Euros and as you say a World cup in the middle of 22/23 anyway, leaving Summer 2022 as a bit of a buffer.

[METALMAN]

I was kinda bored of this season anyway. Best to knock it on the head and pretend it never happened. Fairest option all round really.

Edited April 23, 2020 by metalman

[FLiam]

Remember VAR?

[TCO]

The more this goes on the more sympathy I have for the FM 2021 team. This is going to be an absolute bollocks to code into the game whatever solution they come up with!

[Lineker]

18 minutes ago, Liam Mk2 said:

Remember VAR?

I read something overnight saying that VAR might be scrapped until this is all over. Something about having all the officials enclosed in such a small working space.

[gunnar hendershow]

17 minutes ago, Lineker said:

I read something overnight saying that VAR might be scrapped until this is all over. Something about having all the officials enclosed in such a small working space.

They'll just make them all WFH 

[Naitch]

You mean it isn't already being done from Clattenburg's living room?

[Baddar]

There's not a fucking chance that Barca have actually offered Semedo and Umtiti in a straight swap for Ndombele.

[Kyle]

8 minutes ago, Baddar said:

There's not a fucking chance that Barca have actually offered Semedo and Umtiti in a straight swap for Ndombele.

The football press are chucking darts at a list of names, or Barcelona's transfer team have gone bonkers in quarantine.

[Gazz]

23 hours ago, TCO said:

The more this goes on the more sympathy I have for the FM 2021 team. This is going to be an absolute bollocks to code into the game whatever solution they come up with!

I know it wouldn't happen for financial reasons, but it would probably be less of a pain in the arse to just go straight to FM22 and have a proper rebuild.

[Naitch]

I think this works better for FIFA and/or Pro Evo but I'd love a one-off "throwback" game. Take one of the classic databases and rebuild it within the FM20 game engine. There's clearly demand for it, when you think about how many fan-made historical databases get made, except they're limited by hard coded parts of the game.

[TCO]

FIFA will just update the squads and kits and ignore everything else, leaving it as a standard season for all leagues. Their money isn't in the game modes, it's in Ultimate Team where it won't matter!

[Naitch]

The only reason I say it works better is because they've clearly already seen the value that including legendary former players has, especially when it comes to Ultimate Team, and the timelessness/lack of depth in FIFA/Pro Evo games means that it doesn't matter if you have a 23 year old Ronaldinho mixing it up with present day Mbappe. Football Manager requires the simulation of the entire football industry, as well as the progression of time, so it's a lot more difficult to present in a realistic manner.

[The Lusophone]

7 hours ago, Baddar said:

There's not a fucking chance that Barca have actually offered Semedo and Umtiti in a straight swap for Ndombele.

Newest dumb rumour - PSG have offered Draxler and Di Maria for Pogba.

[FLiam]

Di Maria?