Official Premier League 2010/11 thread

[Pesci]

I doubt the Prem wants to get into the business of docking points for stuff like this to be honest. Pompey were docked points because enough's enough but I doubt we will be.

[Sam]

So Manchester United have announced an £80 million loss despite £100 odd million profit :/

I'm imagining our fall from grace will put Liverpool and Leeds to shame, which isn't a good thing.

[Colly]

So Manchester United have announced an £80 million loss despite £100 odd million profit :/

I'm imagining our fall from grace will put Liverpool and Leeds to shame, which isn't a good thing.

You realise that makes no sense at all don't you?

[badotori]

Was that pre-tax profit?

[stokeriño]

Operating profit.

(Meaning neither tax nor interest payments on their debts are included in that figure)

[DavidMarrio]

The Premier League has approved the takeover

[stokeriño]

A thought: could you imagine what the Everton fans would be like if Liverpool went into the Merseyside derby on negative points?

[DavidMarrio]

the thought of the Everton fans if they got beat by Liverpool on negative points

[Crybaby Bunting]

IF Liverpool suffer a points deduction and IF Everton manage to beat Liverpool then suddenly the prospect of relegation could be pretty real.

At the moment they're stagnating in middle ground, I see them getting enough points to keep them comfortable in the midtable... yet when you're at the foot of the table after ten games or so you experience a totally different type of mentality. Sure a few wins could take them out of the relegation zone, but it's much easier to keep yourself above the relegation zone than it is to claw your way out of it.

You'd be surprised by how many games Newcastle threw away in their relegation season by pushing for the win instead of just making do with the draw, if you're in the relegation zone then you can't afford to draw... yet you can't afford to make any last minute risks that will naturally fuck you over, and with a defence sporting Jamie Carragher... my god :/

[marksbros6]

IF Liverpool suffer a points deduction and IF Everton manage to beat Liverpool then suddenly the prospect of relegation could be pretty real.

At the moment they're stagnating in middle ground, I see them getting enough points to keep them comfortable in the midtable... yet when you're at the foot of the table after ten games or so you experience a totally different type of mentality. Sure a few wins could take them out of the relegation zone, but it's much easier to keep yourself above the relegation zone than it is to claw your way out of it.

You'd be surprised by how many games Newcastle threw away in their relegation season by pushing for the win instead of just making do with the draw, if you're in the relegation zone then you can't afford to draw... yet you can't afford to make any last minute risks that will naturally fuck you over, and with a defence sporting Jamie Carragher... my god :/

Not a Liverpool fan (COYS) but do like the club (have lots of friends and family who support them, and have been to Anfield myself and was impressed with the atmosphere and history).

It boggles the mind the current situation. Hicks and Gillette blocking the sale that would save the club and escape a points deduction? How much money do they think people will offer them for it if it's bottom of the table on minus points? The whole situation is stupid and all of football, not only Liverpool fans, will lose out if the courts don't rule in Liverpools favour.

[stokeriño]

As far as I am led to understand it, they're basically gambling on some magical new buyer saving them in the coming week before RBS calls time. The club has nothing to do with it - the £140m (?) they would effectively lose from the proposed sale is.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Dream scenario for Hicks and Gillette: They win the court case and manage to sell the club themselves in a week.

Dream scenario for fans: Hicks and Gillette lose the court case and the new American owner comes in.

Worst case scenario for everybody: Hicks and Gillette win court case, can't sell the club, go into administration and the new American owner changes his mind given the new situation.

[Guest Jacob]

I cannto believe some of the Liverpool fans i know on this situation.

They were part of the whole "Thanks but no Yanks" campaign and they detested Hicks/Gillete and pretty much every single foreign owner who is only interested in lining his pockets rather than building a successful football club.

But now this new owner who seems likely to take over..they are all kissing his ass saying "The glory days are returning". Its just beyond logic.

[stokeriño]

I cannto believe some of the Liverpool fans i know on this situation.

They were part of the whole "Thanks but no Yanks" campaign and they detested Hicks/Gillete and pretty much every single foreign owner who is only interested in lining his pockets rather than building a successful football club.

But now this new owner who seems likely to take over..they are all kissing his ass saying "The glory days are returning". Its just beyond logic.

The silver lining is that it would appear their xenophobia was simply a crass veil for their hatred of their current owners rather than anything more chronic.

[therockbox]

I cannto believe some of the Liverpool fans i know on this situation.

They were part of the whole "Thanks but no Yanks" campaign and they detested Hicks/Gillete and pretty much every single foreign owner who is only interested in lining his pockets rather than building a successful football club.

But now this new owner who seems likely to take over..they are all kissing his ass saying "The glory days are returning". Its just beyond logic.

Referring to Hicks and Gillett as 'Yanks' or 'Americans' in the protests was because it's much more catchy than referring to them as Hicks and Gillett on every banner. Anyone that thinks it was a statement against ALL Americans is an idiot - Hicks and Gillett were referred to as the Yanks or whatever by the same people/groups that held Randy Lerner up as the right way for foreign owners to behave when taking over clubs.

Most Liverpool fans are incredibly suspicious of the NESV bid, and I doubt that even the few Liverpool fans you know seriously think we'll be back to winning the League in a season or two. That being said, there's obviously a bit of excitement, because it would take something very special for NESV to be worse than Hicks and Gillett.

[Guest Jacob]

Seriously the Liverpool fans i know are passionate fools. One of them even said they have a better squad than Chelsea.

Yeah.

[DavidMarrio]

This has been a very humbling and painful experience as a Liverpool fan. I just wanna know whats actually going on rather than sitting and waiting for the court case to happen. But I read theres talk of discussion of Hodgsons future from NESV but Roy has some clause in his contract about new ownerships and how he could get replaced but tbh could just be internet/paper talk.

Found this interesting on the BBC Sports website about what Martin Broughton said

And he also admitted to having searched the world looking for potential suitors such as those at Premier League rivals Chelsea, owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

"We hoped for someone who wanted a 'trophy asset', but having scoured the world without finding one, the conclusion is that there are no more Romans out there," he said.

[britneyspearsisgod]

Pressure to continue buying and keeping up with the Jones' leads to most teams spending beyond their means in order to attempt to compete. If they don't compete then the fans demand changes (see Hull City, get two years in the top flight for first time in history less than a decade after scarce making Division three playoffs), this means that the chairmen are left with the option of running the club as a business and achieving relatively little in the short term and having fans moaning they won't spend the money OR giving managers the means to bring in whom they need to compete and taking the losses short term to build up, as Arsenal did and Chelsea have attempted to do (of course the resources Chelsea have helps to stabilise this short term loss).

This pisses me off royally and it's something that frustrates me - so much stock is being put on buying this player and that player and then when it comes to wondering why England produces no players, it's "oh, why don't we do any good?".

If we learnt anything from Rafa Benitez, it's that a good coach can get the best out of players. Do you think anybody at the bottom of the the football league gets that advantage? To buy a player in when things look bad? No. You work with the players you got to get the best out of them. I'd rather we focus on improving the coaching and management in England than everyone getting their finances in order so that they can buy whichever South American wonderkid makes the front page of World Soccer.

The problem we have here though is that Liverpool have such a reputation and heritage that in order to return to that role ASAP, they need to clear out and buy world class quality. Unfortunately, as RockBox said, it's hard to do that when you have to sell to buy if what you're selling isn't at the same level as what you're buying. You can't buy an iPad if you only had a bag of sweets to sell to leverage against it.

Much like Newcastle, as much as it hurts to see, falling to the bottom is the only way to solve the problem. I can't blame anybody for wanting the best for their club and no-body wants to see Liverpool go into Administration, have 9-points taken off them and getting dragged into a relegation fight. I have seen my club, Bristol Rovers, have to fight tooth-and-nail on the last day of the season to stay in the Football League. I saw Chester City, a team I lived close to, fall into the hands of an absolute arsehole and die. Only now have those fans found happiness in their Phoenix club, Chester FC.

Not saying that will happen to Liverpool, obviously. But what must be accepted is that sometimes it actually helps in the long run for the situation to get worse before it gets better.

[Pesci]

I have seen my club, Bristol Rovers, have to fight tooth-and-nail on the last day of the season to stay in the Football League.

That was a sad day

But seriously, as a Liverpool fan I desperately want to see our club run well first. With our turnover, if it's not being spent on daft loan repayments (which it shouldn't be... or at least not too much of it, if this goes through), we shouldn't slip too far down the table... we should still be a top six club. If we do slip down it'll be more an issue of bad management than the club being run badly, because we should always have the funds and reputation to buy good quality players. Personally, I can wait for trophies, and I'd rather we just blatantly ripped off the Arsenal model and got the young kids in aged 16 (we were beginning to under Rafa, but I'd like to see them given more time in the first team). I just want to be like a smug Arsenal fan who can tell the world how well his club is being run for now.

[DavidMarrio]

Same, I really admire Arsenal with how they are run and the way they don't have to spend money they actually nurture their talent. Rafa's got some decent youngsters in like Pacheco and there is a few home grown talent in the Under 18's who were in the England team in the U18 or U17 tournament think Wisdom and someone else I can't remember his name. Martin Kelly's been given a bit of a run in the team and he looks promising.

Just hopefully we can rebuild and this being the kick in the arse we need to actually see the problems we have and try to get rid of them. Rest of the season should be interesting though.

To move away from Liverpool for a while, Marseille are looking to take legal action against De Jong for his tackle on Ben Arfa