Restart Date (ITK info)

[Rudders]

More than two thirds of votes on BBC website so far are for calling the season null and void.
Slightly surprised at that.
Teams like Leeds, Coventry, Rovrum, Barrow etc just can't be told unlucky son, whilst your West Ham, Villa, Norwich etc get a free pass.

I am sure that HRH Sir Tricky Trev Brooking will be sat at FA HQ in his West Ham kit, looking out his claret and blue windows, pondering this very issue

 

[8lade]

More than two thirds of votes on BBC website so far are for calling the season null and void.

That's easy, two thirds think their side have under performed and starting from scratch they'll do better.
Could have a crack at naming the sides in the Prem who are comfortable with the table:
Liverpool, Leicester, Wolves, Sheff Utd, Burnley, Newcastle, Southampton.

 

[William]

I've got a question for someone more in the loop than I on sports science.

If the season restarts in June and the players report back for training in May, is that enough of a pre-season to get the new signings "up to speed" or will they then need another full pre-season after that?

Talk of there been no pre-season after this and the new season starting almost immediately.

If this is the case are we talking about the potential for them not being fully "up to speed" until the 21-22 season? Just one of the many things stopping me sleeping at the moment and can't imagine what havoc its playing in Wilder's mind.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Sky/TV payments. Believe Sky have already paid for the full season, unlike TV companies in other countries

Last season the clubs in the Premier League who weren't involved in Europe made around £100m - £120m from TV money.

We've already spent £70m+ on the transfers of Berge, McBurnie, Mousset, Robinson, Osborn and Freeman.

The pile must be diminishing pretty fast.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

Smart move by Sky would be to show the lot on standard subscription. They'd get a huge boost in numbers while keeping current punters happy and get larger than normal audiences for most of the games. UHD for the "game(s) of the day).

 

[LoughboroBlade]

We've already spent £70m+ on the transfers of Berge, McBurnie, Mousset, Robinson, Osborn and Freeman.

I think it’s more accurate to say that we’ve got commitments up to £70m+, which will very likely not all be due to be paid this season.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

I think it’s more accurate to say that we’ve got commitments up to £70m+, which will very likely not all be due to be paid this season.

I just don't understand how any football clubs are going to survive this, ourselves included.

 

[stringer]

Last season the clubs in the Premier League who weren't involved in Europe made around £100m - £120m from TV money.

We've already spent £70m+ on the transfers of Berge, McBurnie, Mousset, Robinson, Osborn and Freeman.

The pile must be diminishing pretty fast.

£70m spread out over the duration of their contracts. £22m didn’t land in Genk’s bank for Berge, for example, when he signed. So using very rough figures, closer to £20m spent on those players so far

 

[LoughboroBlade]

I just don't understand how any football clubs are going to survive this, ourselves included.

Well for starters we will likely be helped by certain fees not being payable until the season finishes (eg. the add-ons for McBurnie) and as I mentioned before the transfer fees we’ve paid for the likes of Berge and others will likely be spread over a couple of years, so will draw from the next chunk of PL money. I don’t think it’s rosy, but I don’t think we’re in a mess either.

 

[blade67]

what like Italy & spain who are overloaded. also why theyve had to convert excel Arena. we have been told to stay at home to not get to that situation

ambulances - you could if government hadnt all ready potentially get 1st refusal & even then then taking it would be a PR Disaster as i stated before because taking ambulances that NHS Could use. would go down as well as coughing in a lift. & you could be in ambulance with a guy with a broken leg. but what happens if hospital go sorry we are ridiculously busy & cant take him

if the club medical staff are sufficient then explain why the St John ambulance medics have been present at every game up & down the country week in week out for decades if they weren't needed. if in these games at Wembley we get a cech muamba & ramsey then what. also its risky going to hospital you might go in with concussion & come out with coronavirus

i dont like this any more than you but i am not defending this or critical of it, i would love wake up & say football returns tomorrow. i am just being realistic & there is no point getting our hopes up for something that isnt possible until the NHS are coping. that just the horrible truth

the excel had 19 patients in it over the weekend and 100's of spare beds across London hospitals. I'm not slagging off doing up the excel cause spare capacity is the right thing to have but it looks like the NHS has stepped up to this. It helps that most patients are being treated with CPAP rather than a ventilator and they are cheaper, easier to get hold of and easier to nurse people on.

I think the St john'sambulance people are for the crowd not the players - no crowd, no need for extra medics

 

[YES Blade]

£70m spread out over the duration of their contracts. £22m didn’t land in Genk’s bank for Berge, for example, when he signed. So using very rough figures, closer to £20m spent on those players so far

But we've also got to make payments for Norwood, Egan and maybe one or two others.

We'll still be looking at paying out upwards of £10m in the summer for transfer fee installments, which I don't know cash flow wise if we'll be able to make those payments as things stand.

 

[blade67]

I also think that games will resume in May. We had that little poll on here a few weeks ago didn't we? And I responded "May" for the football to resume. I think it will be behind closed doors though - and that's o.k. for me. Not ideal, but o.k.

I think if they can get the players tested, to see if they've got it, or had it, then there would be no good reason not to let 22 blokes come together to kick a pig's bladder into an onion sack in an empty stadium.

I've seen the other comment about Italy and virus timelines - I think that has no bearing on anything at all. Totally different situation in terms of the coronavirus and how they have handled it there. Totally different situation in terms of football TV money as well.

In the absence of the whole thing going pear shaped in the next 2 weeks this is how I see it (based on a bit of logic and a bit of a rumour from an ITK source).

Each teams' players get holed up with coaching team in a hotel in late April
Matches start mid may (potentially at neutral grounds) behind closed doors
2 to 3 games a day played with the same TV crews covering them who are also isolated for the duration in hotels near the ground(s)
Whole season over within 30-40 days

Simplifies the logistics and allows the teams to get fit and play every 3 or 4 days, Keeps a proportion of the population under control for another 3 or 4 weeks, whilst we get used to the new world order and permanent social distancing.


I've no idea at all what 20/21 might look like - totally mental

 

[stringer]

But we've also got to make payments for Norwood, Egan and maybe one or two others.

We'll still be looking at paying out upwards of £10m in the summer for transfer fee installments, which I don't know cash flow wise if we'll be able to make those payments as things stand.

Very true. Another million for Egan and maybe £500k or so for Norwood. Still not quite £70m, is it?

 

[guancheblade]

Behind closed doors would crap. Football without the atmosphere is rubbish, just ask pig fans

Easy.

Every ST holder gets to watch the games streamed for free. They also get an iPad installed into the back of their seat at BL. Then you skype into it from your home just before KO. ipad volumes set to maximum. There'd actually be noise inside the ground!

Singing the Greasy chip butty in perfect sync might be more of a challenge than usual though!

 

[YES Blade]

Very true. Another million for Egan and maybe £500k or so for Norwood. Still not quite £70m, is it?

No, but we've committed to spending that money and an increased wage bill.

That money hasn't left the club bank account yet, but we've still got a hell of a lot of outgoings coming up and question marks over whether we've got money to cover it with zero income at this moment in time.

 

[Blade82]

That would be really harsh. Why should anyone lose there points for something out of their control? There are plenty of us who have had zero money for weeks now and might need every penny they can get if this carries on much longer

I agree on another thread I said the same a few weeks ago, where in tough times this money would be needed by some families. Even a gestture to part refund the games between now and the end of the season.

However as a business the club need to retain as much of that income as possible to pay wages. So to give fans the options may be the way forward as I’m sure some fans would be happy to keep the points.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

£70m spread out over the duration of their contracts. £22m didn’t land in Genk’s bank for Berge, for example, when he signed. So using very rough figures, closer to £20m spent on those players so far

Point taken but that money is still spoken for and has to be paid at some point.

Makes you wonder what is currently going on behind the scenes with all the sponsorship deals for next season and such. Presumably it's all been put on hold which is more loss in revenue.

I wonder if clubs will still release new shirts which would have been used for next season in the coming months? All the deals with kit manufacturers will have gone tits up as well.

All in all it's a pretty big mess.

 

[YES Blade]

I agree on another thread I said the same a few weeks ago, where in tough times this money would be needed by some families. Even a gestture to part refund the games between now and the end of the season.

However as a business the club need to retain as much of that income as possible to pay wages. So to give fans the options may be the way forward as I’m sure some fans would be happy to keep the points.

Based on average season ticket price of £400, we'd be looking at refunding around £2m if the last 4 matches are played behind closed doors.

Just playing devil's advocate here, shouldn't a premier league club be able to comfortably afford to refund that money to the fans? We saw the flack clubs got for considering using the government furlough scheme, so why is keeping fan's money any better?

 

[Selly]

the excel had 19 patients in it over the weekend and 100's of spare beds across London hospitals. I'm not slagging off doing up the excel cause spare capacity is the right thing to have but it looks like the NHS has stepped up to this.

The Nightingale hospitals haven`t been created to handle patients now, they have been created to handle the significant uptick in patients when we start easing restrictions - that's the aim of them to create capacity that will allow some of the restrictions to be lifted.

However - you can bet your bottom dollar that crowds gathering of 30k+ are not likely to be high on the "things we should allow first" list.

None of us are getting inside a ground to watch a match for a long time IMO...

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

Players wages are an easy target, whilst I agree the wages are obscene it’s only because they are working class lads getting the money that draws criticism. (See also tv presenters) Stop the high wages for players and the money will still be in the game, it’ll just go to owners or hedge funds that will buy into clubs.

Trying to stop high wages will lead us back to the 1961 fight to abolish the maximum wage, so that`s a non-starter.

I would like to see moves to reverse the " theft " of the game from the working family man/woman, who is ever increasingly being priced out of following his/her team.

With the Premier League Sky money clubs could afford to let fans in for free. £20 for adults and a fiver for kids is enough for me

 

[spongebobblade]

I agree on another thread I said the same a few weeks ago, where in tough times this money would be needed by some families. Even a gestture to part refund the games between now and the end of the season.

However as a business the club need to retain as much of that income as possible to pay wages. So to give fans the options may be the way forward as I’m sure some fans would be happy to keep the points.

Personally I’d like both..... which I would quite rightly be entitled to. As much as I love the Blades family must always come first for me. Assuming you’ve bought Arsenal tickets, would you be happy for the club to keep that money too? Sorry, not meant to be critical of you but it would be unfair to lose points just because some people could afford to to lose cash owed and some can’t

 

[Blade82]

Based on average season ticket price of £400, we'd be looking at refunding around £2m if the last 4 matches are played behind closed doors.

Just playing devil's advocate here, shouldn't a premier league club be able to comfortably afford to refund that money to the fans? We saw the flack clubs got for considering using the government furlough scheme, so why is keeping fan's money any better?

They should be able to, but I think the club will give the customers/fans a choice, play on the heart strings a bit & use loyalty points as the bargaining chip.

Maybe a prize freeze on next years ST’s or free cup games included as a gesture In order to recoup the £70-90 for the 4 games missed (if it’s Finished).

 

[William]

I just don't understand how any football clubs are going to survive this, ourselves included.

Just hypothetical at this stage, but premier league footballers are paid millions more than they can probably justify being paid, especially in a time of crisis. If football and football clubs were facing an existential crisis footballers would have to take pay cuts or they wouldn't get paid at all as the clubs would go out of business and the industry would collapse.

If they wanted to they could cling on to their contracts, but this would put the clubs under so they wouldn't get paid in full and would then be out of a job. At which stage they would have to join another club on a wage that was viable for their new club, probably 10-20 times less than what they were on at this stage. I'd hope the PFA would realise this before it reached this point.

Hopefully it never comes to that with the money swilling around from TV, so I'm sure premier league clubs will survive. Little clubs though, who pay wages purely out of ticket sales, is a different matter. From a business perspective it just isn't viable for them at all and they will have to fold because they have no income. Other than that the footballers would have to play for pittance until the mess has cleared and fans can return?

 

[Berkshire Blade]

We didn't know it at the time but promotion last year may have saved the club. Ticket money isn't that important anymore. Last year it was the biggest income.

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

I also think that games will resume in May. We had that little poll on here a few weeks ago didn't we? And I responded "May" for the football to resume. I think it will be behind closed doors though - and that's o.k. for me. Not ideal, but o.k.

I think if they can get the players tested, to see if they've got it, or had it, then there would be no good reason not to let 22 blokes come together to kick a pig's bladder into an onion sack in an empty stadium.

I've seen the other comment about Italy and virus timelines - I think that has no bearing on anything at all. Totally different situation in terms of the coronavirus and how they have handled it there. Totally different situation in terms of football TV money as well.

I think resumption in May is overly optimistic. At a guess, the government will announce another three weeks lockdown tomorrow. That will take us to 7th May. Any relaxation after that is unlikely to sanction suspension of social distancing rules which would allow team games to take place.

 

[blade67]

The Nightingale hospitals haven`t been created to handle patients now, they have been created to handle the significant uptick in patients when we start easing restrictions - that's the aim of them to create capacity that will allow some of the restrictions to be lifted.

However - you can bet your bottom dollar that crowds gathering of 30k+ are not likely to be high on the "things we should allow first" list.

None of us are getting inside a ground to watch a match for a long time IMO...

Is that first paragraph based on inside knowledge of the plan or a cynical opinion?

It was my understanding that they were built to handle the "peak" and that the plan would be to manage the lifting of restrictions with a properly organised "test and contact trace plan" given that we totally fucked that up first time around.

I can't personally see a plan being deployed where we accept several thousands more hitting critical care beds in a couple of months with the spike in deaths that will come with that. Even Boris wouldn't be able to dodge the fall out from that

 

[Kop sufferer]

The Nightingale hospitals haven`t been created to handle patients now, they have been created to handle the significant uptick in patients when we start easing restrictions - that's the aim of them to create capacity that will allow some of the restrictions to be lifted.

However - you can bet your bottom dollar that crowds gathering of 30k+ are not likely to be high on the "things we should allow first" list.

None of us are getting inside a ground to watch a match for a long time IMO...

In the cold light of day, I'm afraid to say that your last couple of sentences are absolutely right

 

[Deadbat]

Premier League stadiums won't return to full capacity 'for 18 months'

Premier League clubs have been warned they may have to wait up to 18 months before they can host capacity crowds again.

www.standard.co.uk

I got slammed on here for saying we would not set foot in a stadium for around 18 months...and even August 2021 would see vastly reduced crowds if allowed back. Seems some of the experts are saying just that now.

Don't take any glee in this. Love us to be back at the Lane Aug/Sept but it ain't happening. When we eventually are allowed back it maybe on vastly reduced numbers .

Imagine the loyalty point argument then as 30,000 jostle for a few thousand tickets each week?!

Football/concerts/theatres will be the last thing restored to any kind of normality. Lots of clubs will go bust and Sport will be ravaged. I know but the government rightly are not going to allow 20-60,000 people to congregate closely.

I think until a mass vaccine is available I do not see how such large crowds will be allowed for a non essential thing which as much as I love football it is a long way behind most other things. I've yet to see anyone with a convincing argument to how we can be watching games in a stadium any time soon.

As for the May behind closed doors scenario; I'd be stunned if that happens. Closed door games by July/August would be a push I feel but hope they can sort something, somehow before.

I hope I'm wrong and we finish the season soon and are back at games before the 21-22 season.

 

[thawot]

Not a chance.

 

[Digs blade]

I’m missing football so badly. Every time I wake up in the morning for a split second everything is normal and then I remember.

Not seeing the blades for 5 weeks is bad enough but it’s the not knowing what the future holds that really messes with my head.

It almost feels like I’ve lost a loved one and if that sounds over dramatic then I’m just telling you how I feel.

I want to see Billy notch his 250th goal, I want to see Hendo and O’ Connell break into the England side, I want to watch Enda, Egan and Didsy put Northern Ireland to the sword (sorry Ollie) in the Euro play offs and most of all I’m desperate to set foot in BDTBL again - something that has been a way of life for the last 40 years.

I want to meet up with the lads for pre and post match banter, home and away, god how I love my away days.

I’d take a behind closed doors restart ASAP with open arms but I desperately want this massive void in my life to come back quickly