Official Premiership 2008/09 thread

[Ben E.]

Yeah, you're right. I didn't even consider the business side of things at all. The report now is that a group of investors are in talks to buy the club now for closer to 80m than 100m.

Not reduced much, just from around £300 to £129 for a 16-21, or £199 for over 21. Not reduced much at all.....smile.gif

That's amazing. Almost sickening for me

Edited June 6, 2009 by Ben E.

[Adam]

Well, my season ticket has frozen because I managed to renew before the June 1st deadline, but for some reason they've actually put the prices up now. A lot of fans were bitching about it, but since we have more sales than last year at this stage, they've clearly all gone out and got their new season tickets anyway.

[therockbox]

Arsenal's first six fixtures, apparently. Was shown briefly on Sky which seems like a big fuck up.

[Crybaby Bunting]

If that's true then Arsenal will be hard pressed to be in the Europa League places after the first 10 matches.

[Matt]

I don't think they've even been finalised yet.

[Dynamite]

They are scheduled to be released Wednesday so they must be pretty much completed barring the odd complication that might not yet be sorted out.

[Adam]

Yeah, after reading what happens to sort out all the fixtures (Paul Fletcher's blog on BBC Sport, pretty informative and surprising how much goes into it!) I'd say that the fixtures are pretty much sorted by now.

EDIT: Then again, why would they play West Ham on the opening day? The article mentioned that they usually check it to see if any derbies or 'big matches' are taking place in midweeks, or on the first and last day of the season.

Edited June 15, 2009 by AdamDRFC

[Matt]

They've probably got all the rounds of fixtures sorted, but they won't know when they'll each be played.

[Adam]

I don't think they do it like that-they have to factor in events like horse racing clashes, shared stewarding and personal requests from the teams on certain dates and certain fixtures, I highly expect those six fixtures to turn out to be Arsenal's first six fixtures unless somebody in the production office was messing around...which I'd find an odd thing to do.

EDIT: More importantly, they also have to factor in the distances for midweek games for fans travelling, plus home/away/home/away sequences and stuff like the boxing day to following weekend travelling and the fixtures either side of the FA Cup.

Edited June 15, 2009 by AdamDRFC

[Crybaby Bunting]

To be fair, most teams in the Premier League are from London... so naturally we should get at least one 'derby' in the opening fixtures.

Even moreso now that two notable northern teams are no longer with us

[Lord Nibbler]

To be fair, most teams in the Premier League are from London... so naturally we should get at least one 'derby' in the opening fixtures.

There are only 5 London teams in the Prem.

As this BBC article points out, it's fucking complicated.

Just to give you one example; every club is paired with another in regard to when they play their home and away fixtures. This is done for a number of reasons, one being so that clubs like Everton and Liverpool do not play at home on the same weekend.

West Ham, it turns out, are paired with Dagenham and Redbridge. But for reasons of revenue Southend request they do not play at home on the same day as the Hammers as they believe it impacts upon their attendance.Football League fixtures officer Paul Snellgrove, Glenn Thompson of Atos Origin and FSF president Ian Todd with the actual fixtures computer

Southend, though, are in Essex, as are Colchester, so they cannot play together on the same weekend. Colchester share stewards with Ipswich so those two clubs also request they do not play home games on the same weekend. Transport links dictate Ipswich and Norwich do not play together on the same weekend either. In other words, when West Ham play at home can have an impact on when a club as far away as Norwich (108.8 miles) play their home fixtures. And there are 12 other professional clubs in London....

[Matt]

I don't think they do it like that-they have to factor in events like horse racing clashes, shared stewarding and personal requests from the teams on certain dates and certain fixtures, I highly expect those six fixtures to turn out to be Arsenal's first six fixtures unless somebody in the production office was messing around...which I'd find an odd thing to do.

EDIT: More importantly, they also have to factor in the distances for midweek games for fans travelling, plus home/away/home/away sequences and stuff like the boxing day to following weekend travelling and the fixtures either side of the FA Cup.

No, they don't do that. >_<

[Adam]

From the BBC article about the fixtures:

One year he objected to Morecambe playing at Dagenham and Redbridge in midweek. They tried to alter the fixture but found out that it would negatively impact on so many other games that what Todd calls "the least worst option" was to maintain the status quo.

This is surely proof that they do? As they would have changed it due to the long distance if they could.

These might include issues such as potentially sensitive fixtures being played on the opening or final weekends of the season and derby fixtures taking place in midweek.

This isn't strictly what I was saying but proves that they do in fact take into account geography with midweek fixtures. My first one is better to be fair.

[Matt]

From the BBC article about the fixtures:

One year he objected to Morecambe playing at Dagenham and Redbridge in midweek. They tried to alter the fixture but found out that it would negatively impact on so many other games that what Todd calls "the least worst option" was to maintain the status quo.

This is surely proof that they do? As they would have changed it due to the long distance if they could.

These might include issues such as potentially sensitive fixtures being played on the opening or final weekends of the season and derby fixtures taking place in midweek.

This isn't strictly what I was saying but proves that they do in fact take into account geography with midweek fixtures. My first one is better to be fair.

Well almost all our games against Brighton, Yeovil, Bournemouth, Southampton, Portsmouth, etc: an the last few years have been on midweeks. Then again, that's probably cos its us and they like to piss us off with 3am Tuesday morning kick offs in Timbuctoo.

Edited June 15, 2009 by --Matt--

[AJ]

At least a 3am Tuesday kickoff in Timbuktu would be a novelty. Hell I'd rather travel there than the South coast.

[IAceI]

Sunderland's last midweek game of the season was moved to Monday from Saturday.

The opposition? Portsmouth away. Massive kudos to all the fans who went to that on a worknight.

[Matt]

At least a 3am Tuesday kickoff in Timbuktu would be a novelty. Hell I'd rather travel there than the South coast.

Nah, we'd have police escorts all the way

[EddieG]

http://www.premierleague.com/page/ActimIndex

So according to this Anelka was the best player all season.

[9 to 5]

Well, he was top scorer. You could make an argument for Anelka being the best player.

[therockbox]

It's a completely flawed system. If anyone seriously thinks Agbonlahor, Berbatov and Kuyt were in the top five players last season they need their head checking.