Premier League 2011/12 Season

I honestly felt it reached a point whereby the FA wanted to rein the entire matter in, but its like a tube of toothpaste, they squeezed so hard when Blatter and Warner fucked them over, that the paste will still be flowing years from now. They are an embattled and embittered Association and have finally- the logical conclusion of their stupidity- turned on their nearest and dearest in the pursuit of this ill-advised war against FIFA. A war they can't win mainly because, right or wrong, and its a lot of both- nobody likes the English in the broad political sense.

 

really disappointed Rangers have been deducted the 10 points, Lennon deserved his title without an asterisk next to it. If we don't drop points to them between then and now (and in the slim likelihood the police let the game go ahead un-rescheduled) we can win it at Ibrox though which would readd some lustre :crafty:

 

Lol at Celtic chiefs stating that the SFA will/would do just fine without rangers...the only reason most retain an interest in that putrid league in the series of old firm games, and if I bother to catch bits of Celtic vs Motherwell etc., its primarily to see if Celtic drop points to their old firm rivals. Without Old Firm, theres no TV money, and essentially, no SFA, unless you're talking some minnow league operation.

Having said that, its fun to watch weeping and gnashing of teeth at Ibrox

 

I take a certain base satisfaction but the simple reality is that this is going to cause trouble down the line. You are going to have a lot of pumped up goons out there looking to reaffirm their manhoods now.

 

If it means Celtic come to England, all the better.

 

How do the BBC feel about this? I know Sky are heartbroken.

 

You can at least draw comparisons with Portugal & Holland as is, where 3 clubs dominate, although even then notto such an extent. Down to one it's entirely farcical. We'd be living on the north poll with 150 days straight sunshine and no night. Start us in Division 2 down south, whatever it takes.

 

It's a shame clubs have to go into administration. Glasgow Rangers may have had 10 points deducted, but we all know that Celtic were pulling the strings now and were going to win the SPL title.

I'd love to see Celtic in the EPL. Really would. Extend the premier league to 22 teams if needed.

 

If Celtic are introduced, they can bring their Winter break demands with them. I think there should be no football over the Christmas period. Ruins my Christmas and New Years for one.

 

It's great on paper but Celtic in the premiership opens up weird dynamics, tbh. We've never caused big trouble down there but as a permament feature I don't know how the 'Irish issue' sits in the English league, especially without Rangers as the lightning rod for the anti-Brit thing in our away support. I can see us becoming a 'problematic' element, if Im brutally honest.....whereas up here & especially in Europe we generally gravitate towards our better nature. I just dunno how that whole aspect would play out.

 

I think most would welcome it. The size of your fanbase would mean there's a real chance of developing into a club that could compete. I hope it happens.

 

Celtic would definitely change a degree, remove the Carthage that is Rangers and Roman Celtic might get a bit flabby, a bit corporate, a bit "Oh my God we're sorry Paddy McCourt said something to Evra".

 

Fuck that, the Boxing Day fixture is one of the great piss ups of the year!

 

This put a bee in bonnet. Having looked at the numbers pretty thoroughly, the forecast looks about as good as you'd imagine. Even I under estimated just how much we're handicapped by not being on TV. It goes way beyond the direct money from Sky.

To summarize:

Current Turnover 70m approx.

Estimated increases in the first year:

Match day revenues, merchandise & misc - 15m (if we regained O'Neil era attendances and spiked our shirt sales)
TV revenue - 40m (if we took as much as Bolton)
Sponsorship - 30m (if we took roughly as much as Spurs)

First year turnover - approx 155m, which would make us richer than Spurs but 30m or so behind Liverpool. Mind boggling jump. And remember we have zero net debt, as is.

Long term growth potentials:

*Merchanising. US & Ireland especially would expand in time but also Australia & Asia. General sales here would inevitably rise a bit. Probably not as lucrative as the factors below but I'd estimate we could add an extra 10m to the 15m we take in already.

*Sponsorship. This is really the potential cash cow, IMO. That ties into the foreign market dimension above since sponsors are basically paying for TV viewers. And rich ones preferably, which makes the potential in America lucrative. United currently take in more in training shirt sponsorship than I've estimated for our first year sponsorship revenue (which I set at 60% of Liverpool's), so even if we progressed half way towards that sort of league, you could add 30m to first year turnover. Personally I find that pretty feasible.

*Match day revenues. The small south stand would be replaced to bring us up to about 80k. In the prem you can assume allot of space in any renovation would go to swanky hospitality areas. With expansion & inevitable ticket hikes I think, within 10 years, you could add 30 million to my estimated first year match day income of 55 million (up on the current 45m, which accomodates the slack of far more empty seats than we saw 10 years ago).

*Potential Champions league participation. And with a team good enough to progress? Extra 30 million?

Grown turnover? I think you're likely looking at approx 200 million if we consistently don't make the CL, but float around the UEFA Cup level. Bigger than Liverpool basically (unless this new stadium materialises), which in itself seems to make it unlikely we'd consistently fail. Given that kind of base if we did break onto the self sustaining Champions league gravy train the potential seems big. Possibly not quite United big, but probably Arsenal big.

 

Boxing Day & New Years Day are days of rest :nono:

 

Yes, there is that aspect to it, but I find that it gets overloaded and overheated. There should be a winter break, abolish the transfer windows, dismantle the notion of weekend/monday heavy football schedules, make it a more weekly affair. You will actually make up time rather than lose it.

 

Anyone looking to explain NUFC's position in the PL should look no further than European competition this year. The quality of the premier league is in steep, steep decline. Arsenal just got absolutely smashed by a bunch of old geezers (great for me as I lumped on, and I mean lumped on, Milan at 12/10 this morning)

MTF

 

Hell yes!

MTF

 

As we've discussed before, Celtic fans haven't made too many friends when they have travelled down the road to Newcastle for friendlies in the last ten years or so. And Geordies generally have a lot of time for the Scots, regardless of religious persuasion. Celtic v Chelsea anyone?

MTF

 

Celtic-Chelsea would be a total powder keg.

As I've said, Im not sure what the Newcastle thing is about. I had a Geordie auntie as a kid by marriage so I'd been down a couple times as a kid & teen prior to the Shearer testimonial and I always got 'fenian this & fenian that' in the hoops. I thought I was in Larkhall. So I've no idea what the roots of the whole thing are but I suspect they precede that testimonial.

 

Arsenal hammered tonight.

 

"Milan are not good enough to be in the Premier League"......:shit:

 

who said that? ::

 

Probably no one individual- I am merely mimicking the sort of nonsense that has gone on, with good teams, like Celtic, being told that they would be in the Championship, or good players, like Ibrahimovic, being described as not good enough to play for Chelsea, or only get into the Chelsea squad. Guys like Zanetti {Inter Milan} were being passed off as "old" - before they won the CL with Inter under Mourinho. The tone was, from Irish journos too, that Italian football was "weak, in crisis, nobody going to the games". Arsenal weren't beaten tonight, they were destroyed by a club who 3 years ago they beat in Milan, 2-0, at the same stage of the same tournament.

 

Ah getcha.

Slight tangent, but I was watching the Bundesliga highlights yesterday & I always think the standard is higher in Germany than England too. At least in depth terms. Munich & Dortmund may not be better than Man Utd or City but by the time you get to comparing Hamburg & Sunderland or Hertha & Blackburn.....much more competitive league

 

Yeah but Stoke are tearing up Europe and.....:shit:

Feebles was correct- the standard is dropping off- and the Italians have already made moves to create a Premier League of their own. The EPL has one advantage- anyone can be an owner and anyone can fire money at players to attract them. Bottom line is that none of these guys, Torres, Ronaldo, Tevez, etc, really want to live in England, its the $$$ that attracts them.

 

Fulham were beating the likes of Wolfsburg and Hamburg only two years ago

 

Ah well, Im talking shit then. I was probably just impressed with the huge crowds.

 

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