The Barclays Premier League thread 2015/2016

[The Lusophone]

Well fuck.

[Baddar]

Knew they'd equalise once I saw the 6 mins go up. We've played well today, but are going to be waaaay off the CL places now.

[Whisper]

Fucking Memphis.

[stokeriño]

The bad news for Newcastle is that our league form under Hiddink now runs DDWDDWDD...

[Sam]

I don't get Memphis. He's been brought on having not had much game time recently. He has a clear as day pass and plays an awful pass and then can't be arsed to track back which leads to their goal. 

Won't be seeing him for a while.

[Gazz]

11 minutes ago, stokeriño said:

The bad news for Newcastle is that our league form under Hiddink now runs DDWDDWDD...

The good news for Chelsea is that our league form under McClaren reads like a Welsh village...

[stokeriño]

Kurt Zouma will undergo surgery for an ACL injury sustained on Sunday and be out for six months as a result.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

[MDK]

Torn ACL yet still Happy

[Hobo]

Liverpool have said they're going to be holding emergency discussions to review the ticketing after Saturday's protest.

Ian Ayre was going to do a Q&A with fans this evening but it was cancelled because those talks are apparently on-going.

[Colly]

I saw something earlier on that said all the changes (that increase, whatever the reduced tickets are) net Liverpool some pitiful increase overall which really doesn't feel worth it for this PR nightmare and if you stretch it two points dropped.

[Gazz]

I can't imagine for massive globally branded clubs that matchday ticket revenue actually constitutes that much of their income. I remember reading a quote from a Bayern Munich director (Ulli Hoeness I think) about that tripling their season tickets would only make them 2.5m Euros more revenue, which is peanuts to them.

EDIT: Found it, this is from January 2014

Quote

Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness today accused Premier League clubs of 'milking their fans like cows' in charging high prices for season tickets.

Explaining his decision to keep season tickets at Bayern lower than their counterparts across Europe, Hoeness said: "We could charge more than €130 (£104). Let's say we charged €380 (£300). We'd get €2.5m (£2m) more in income, but what's €2.5m to us?"

"In a transfer discussion you argue about the sum for five minutes. But the difference between €130 and €380 is huge for the fans."

"We do not think fans are like cows, who you milk. Football has got to be for everybody."

"That's the biggest difference between us and England."

 

£104 a season to watch Bayern vs £77 to watch Liverpool vs Sunderland.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

It's because we have too many owners who are in it for profit and have no interest in the actual club outside of money and success which leads to money.

[The Lusophone]

Alternatively, we have too much of a competitive business environment, as opposed to the faux amateurism of German football which is dominated by Bayern to the extent that even though 1860 sold their 50% ground share in the Allianz Arena back in 2006 when facing bankruptcy, they were facing the exact same fate in 2011.

You won't get a Roman Abramovic or a Khaldoon Al Mubarak in German football because German clubs are required to be membership led clubs, which only leads to a situation where Bayern always wins, and when someone else wins, Bayern can just take their best players anyway.

[Lineker]

Quote

Everton appear to be edging closer to a takeover after talks with American investors John Jay Moores and Charles Noell progressed.

Moores, the former owner of Major League Baseball franchise the San Diego Padres, and his associate have been in negotiations since December. The pair have undergone a six-week due diligence period looking at the club’s books and speaking to major shareholders chairman Bill Kenwright, Robert Earl and Jon Woods.

Reports suggest the Americans are looking to secure a deal for £200m in the next few weeks. There has been interest from other parties but none are as far down the line.

Everton have not commented on any of the recent potential takeover speculation but at the club’s AGM in November chief executive Robert Elstone said: “There has never been more people interested in investing in Everton and the chairman is confident [investment] will be secured in the near future.”

At the same meeting Elstone said the club’s plans to move to a new £300m home in nearby Walton Hall Park were more dependent on securing partnership funding from the city council than they were on fresh outside income.

“We are not working on the new stadium on the premise that we are about to secure new investment or need new investment,” he said at the time.

[Lineker]

The Football Supporters’ Federation will discuss organising a widespread walkout of Premier League matches with supporters’ groups in response to the rising cost of attending matches.

After 10,000 fans staged a 77th-minute walkout during Liverpool’s 2-2 draw against Sunderland on Saturday, the FSF plans to convene a meeting of supporters from all 20 top-flight clubs in the next week to discuss what options are available to them.

“The FSF will be convening a meeting of representatives of supporters’ organisations across the Premier League to discuss the next steps in the campaign. There are a number of options. The Liverpool walkout very successfully highlighted the whole issue of the affordability of football and the clubs need to be made to listen,” Kevin Miles, the FSF chief executive, told the Telegraph.

Last week, the FSF expressed bitter disappointment that Premier League clubs failed to back a measure to cap away ticket prices at their most recent meeting. It is understood that while no vote was taken on away tickets at Thursday’s meeting of all the Premier League clubs, informal soundings were taken that made it clear the proposal would not received the two-thirds majority required.

While a widespread walkout may be hard to achieve, the FSF has also called on frustrated fans to air their grievances with club’s sponsors, as many at Liverpool have done with Subway.

[Colly]

Meh, my tickets been frozen for half a decade and remains so until 2020-something. Screw solidarity...

[Benji]

"I know, let's pay the full amount and then walk out early, making the stewards' job easier come full time. That'll show 'em."

Why not just... not buy the tickets in the first place? If you keep paying that much, they won't stop, because you're fulfilling the demand.

Football fan logic is weird.

[Colly]

In fairness in this case the protest is about next season's tickets, it's sending a message rather than anything else. The issue of course is that people will still buy next season's, and the board will know that.

[The Lusophone]

If they do get a mass protest together, they should probably have it happen before the 77th minute. Half our fans are usually gone by that point anyway.