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Reply | If a miracle happened and we went up via the playoffs
at 19:47 20 Jan 2025
Regarding Luton and the best stadium in L1 etc, it's not that long since they were non-league, and in the shittiest stadium South of the Arctic Circle.
The point surely being that the new stadium can give them financial security for the next 50 years i.e. plenty of time for them to climb back up to the PL again, even if after a spell in L1 or below.
(Agree with all the rest of your post) |
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Reply | If a miracle happened and we went up via the playoffs
at 19:41 20 Jan 2025
I suspect 90%+ of Bees fans would far rather "make up the numbers" in the PL, than go back to the Championship. While I am sure the owner and execs at the club are determined to try to progress to beyond that status, even if it must seem long odds-against to neutral outsiders.
As for Fulham fans, I'd guess it's the same, at least if their owners weren't gouging them shame-facedly over ticket prices. |
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Reply | If a miracle happened and we went up via the playoffs
at 19:32 20 Jan 2025
Take it from an ex-bookie, that's not the way to do it. If you must have a punt, decide which is the more likely, no matter how marginally, then put ALL your stake money on that.
Otherwise you're absolutely guaranteed that one bet/half your dosh will be a loser.
Of course you may decide that the other bet has so little chance that it's not worth backing either, in which case save your money for The Derby in June. |
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Reply | If a miracle happened and we went up via the playoffs
at 19:22 20 Jan 2025
Isn't the point about Luton that they're using their unexpected one season windfall to help pay for their new stadium?
Which over the long term, will do far more for them than spunking it on players transfers and wages, in a hardly-guaranteed attempt to bounce straight back up again. |
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Reply | If a miracle happened and we went up via the playoffs
at 19:17 20 Jan 2025
A good point (imo).
When Bees got promoted from League One in 2013/14, under a certain Mark Warburton(!), they made a very good attempt at gaining an immediate second promotion (tailed off to finish 5th and flunked the p/o's).
Had we gone up to the PL that time it would have been a disaster, since our players simply weren't good enough eg our leading striker was Andre Gray.
Then after five seasons consolidating and building in the Championship, in 2019/20 we got to the P/O Final and were beaten by Fulham, before winning the P/O's the following season (vs Swansea). Most Bees fans agree that the first time probably would have been too soon, so we'd have struggled to survive. But by the second season, we were so much better prepared eg signing Ivan Toney as our main striker, hence our staying up.
All that said, we'd still all have taken it in the Fulham defeat season, if only because the parachute money would still have given a massive boost to our chances of bouncing straight back up following a one season relegation. As eg Fulham did after they had gone up before us.
So if you get the chance, go for it! [Post edited 20 Jan 19:34]
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Reply | Half a million a week for 9 years!
at 14:01 17 Jan 2025
You can sign a player for as long as you like, but you can only amortise (word?) the cost over the first five years max.
My guess is that M.City are protecting themselves against Haaland leaving for Real Madrid on a free, or small transfer fee.
And by offering such a huge weekly wedge, they've probably been able to up the release fee which the player will undoubtedly have in his contract.
Whatever you think about where they get their money from (Clue: Stink. Week old Fish.), it cannot be denied that City apply it very cleverly, unlike eg their Manc neighbours. |
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Reply | Working Mens Clubs/ Constitutional Clubs.
at 00:01 16 Jan 2025
Priceless - and thank you for that gem!
One further addition, Turner and the temperance movement started in Preston.
I've been to Preston and I find it very hard to believe that they would abjure the only thing which could make life even half-bearable in that (otherwise) God-forsaken place!
Strange folk. |
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Reply | Identity Crisis
at 18:46 15 Jan 2025
Euro Poop?
You might want to rethink that one...  |
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Reply | Tamworth
at 18:42 15 Jan 2025
Why would the FA willingly forego their cut of the gate receipts from a crowd of 50k+ at White Hart Lane? Makes no sense.
While after the England NT,and Wembley stadium, the FA Cup is likely the FA's 3rd biggest source of revenue, as well as its (still) most prestigious competition. |
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Reply | How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 17:05 15 Jan 2025
More specifically, the urine was mixed with alum, an aluminium ore, for tanning.
And I seem to recall reading that during the Middle Ages alum had to be imported from Europe, which was expensive.
Anyhow, during the 16th century, deposits of alum were discovered in North Yorkshire, near the coast, and a mining industry grew up. However they needed vast quantities of urine, so had to source it from outside the region.
With the biggest population in England, London was an obvious resource, the urine being sent up North by ship (no canals or proper roads back then).
This was doubly useful, since the barrels of urine served as ballast and income for the return journey of ships which had originally sailed to London with cargoes of processed alum, coal and timber etc.
And where did they get these barrels of urine? Out the back of every pub and tavern in the city, they'd have a big barrel for when punters needed to relieve themselves and I assume these would have been loaded on Thames barges and taken downriver to where the ships from Newcastle and the North East used to dock. The "Prospect of Whitby" in Wapping is named after one of these ships.
All of which represents the last time Northerners were legitimately able to take the piss out of Londoners, with the "trade" being very much the other way in the hundreds of years since! [Post edited 15 Jan 17:08]
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Reply | How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 16:59 14 Jan 2025
The phrase "Daylight Robbery" is thought to derive from the introduction of a Window Tax in 1696.
In order to reduce their tax liability, a lot of householders bricked up some of their windows, thereby having their "daylight stolen".
You can sometimes see the results of this even today:
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Reply | Welsh clubs having their cake and eating it
at 16:48 14 Jan 2025
Irrespective of the technicalities, and the reasoned arguments from WelshRanger, somehow this doesn't "smell right" to me.
Imo these four clubs should just have to choose to be fully Welsh (and leave the EFL), or continue with the hybrid whose benefits they've enjoyed for over 100 years now (i.e. no Welsh League Cup-to-Europe backdoor).
And speaking about being "fully Welsh" reminds me of 25-odd years ago(?) at Griffin Park, when Bees were up against a lot of clubs like Hereford, Shrewsbury and Bristol Rovers etc.
When they came to town, their fans were inevitably subjected to "You're Welsh and you know you are" - childishly amusing, if hardly original. This was then extended when Swindon, then Oxford arrived. It reached its peak for the visit of Reading, which must have baffled a few Biscuitmen! [Post edited 14 Jan 17:02]
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Reply | Identity Crisis
at 16:32 14 Jan 2025
Sorry for taking this further off topic, but re Tierney Clarke and his design for the Budapest Chain Bridge, his near identical prototype for this, built over a decade previously, can still be seen in Marlow:
But to get us (tenuously) back on topic, may I congratulate the OP for having migrated back North of the river, by whichever bridge, for that is surely where all sensible London folk live!
(Tin hat on, in anticipation of incoming) |
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Reply | Tamworth
at 15:52 13 Jan 2025
Of course it's at the FA's discretion, but this season they're up against a new, insurmountable problem, not of their own making, namely UEFA expanding their own match calendar.
Take Spurs as an example. They have already played 6 midweek EL group games so far this season but still have two further EL Group games on Thurs. 23rd Jan and Thurs, 30th Jan. Depending on how they do in those games (as yet unknown, obviously), they might have two further "Knock-out Group Play-Offs" on Thurs. 13th and Thurs. 20th Feb.
They are then open to qualifying for two "Round of 16" games in March, two Quarter Final games in April and two Semi-Final games on 01 May and 08 May i.e. up to 16 potential midweek games in Europe alone.
Add to this the fact they've also had four midweek Carabao Cup ties so far, with another to come on Wed.6th Feb. Should they get to the Final, that will be on Sun.16th March, meaning they'd have to reschedule their PL game on Sat.15th to a midweek date. (Same applies to L'pool, should they go through in Spurs place).
Remember, too, that the PL allows two weekend for the FA Cup 3rd and 4th rounds, meaning that they (PL) need to reschedule their games to midweek instead. And those PL clubs which progress beyond that are scheduled to play 5th Rd/Qtrs/Semi's at weekends in March and April i.e. their PL games scheduled for those dates would then need to be rescheduled for another midweek slot.
And that's just Spurs - there are 6 other English clubs in Europe this season, all facing the same, hideously bloated schedule, with an additional 5th CL place for an English club almost certain to be added next season (i.e. 8 English clubs in total).
Which means there simply aren't any guaranteed midweek slots left to accommodate FA Cup replays - and that's before you factor in possible weather postponements at this time of year!
Besides which, you ignore my point that the FA actually has a vested interest in staging as many FA Cup games as possible, since they take a cut out of the gate receipts from each match.
Meaning they wouldn't have taken this decision if it were at all avoidable.
I suggest a strongly-worded letter to UEFA! [Post edited 13 Jan 16:13]
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Reply | Tamworth
at 14:12 13 Jan 2025
Sorry, but this will NOT have been the FA's doing, not least because they too receive a cut of the gate, so more games means more revenue for them.
As I mentioned in the other Tamworth thread, this is down to UEFA expanding their already bloated competions to see (midweek) Group games being played into the New Year, meaning the FA can no longer guarantee to find free midweek dates on which to stage replays:
(See Post #4 on this thread) https://loftforwords.fansnetwork.co.uk/forum/316764/tamworth-v-spurs/#4 [Post edited 13 Jan 14:13]
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Reply | Tamworth
at 18:07 12 Jan 2025
It would be a nice touch if Daniel Levy returned Spurs' share of the gate receipts to Tamworth: 3,700 at £35(?) x 40%(?) = c.£50k
Then again, there is more chance of Tamworth winning the FA Cup than that tightwad doing the decent thing. |
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Reply | Tamworth v Spurs
at 17:50 12 Jan 2025
Re the OP, a pre-season friendly in Bangkok doesn't really interfere with the in-season calendar (though it does show how clubs bleating about player fatigue/too many games are hypocrites).
And as for your "FA utter disgrace" comment, this one cannot be pinned on them, if only because they get a cut of gate receipts, meaning the more games, the greater their revenue.
No, this one is fairly and squarely on UEFA, who have extended the CL/EL/ECL so much more this season (extra teams/ties, basically), that the Group stages now extend into the New Year. (Previously all games after New Year were knockout games.)
Anyhow, with so many English PL teams playing in Europe after Xmas, there simply aren't enough midweeks to guarantee fitting in FA Cup replays as well as the extra European midweek ties.
Agree that UEFA are an utter disgrace over this, though. |
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Reply | Leicester City v Q.P.R Match Type Thread.
at 18:15 11 Jan 2025
Benham's stats guys have crunched all the figures back to the year Dot, and concluded that Cup runs are a distraction from league form. (This is probably more so when you have a small squad?).
And for Benham, the league is everything, since without PL football, Brentford are quite simply unsustainable at Championship level or below, even with the new stadium etc.
While mere survival is the glass-half-empty view. The glass-half-full view notes that each PL place is worth an extra £3m. By contrast, the prize money for winning the FA Cup is £2m. (Ok, Europe as well, but if you get as far as the Final but lose, it's £1m)
Meaning that should Bees go all out for the Cup, suffer extra injuries, suspensions or fatigue etc, such that eg you draw your next league game which you might have expected to win (or lose when expected to draw), those dropped points could easily cost a league place.
None of which makes it any less of a bitch after you've just lost 1-0 at home to Plymouth.  [Post edited 11 Jan 18:19]
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