So its official

[Keen Blade]

Going into Christmas, two of the promoted teams are in the relegation zone and the other is hovering just above it. With Wolves likely to get a new manager bounce I think there's a very real chance all 3 promoted teams could go straight back down again.

Yet I haven't heard a peep about it from the media. Are they scared to even think about it? Do they not want to admit that The Greatest League In The World might not be all that great if promoted teams keep going straight back down? This is going to happen more and more unless the PL money is distributed more evenly throughout the pyramid.

Can't wait for next season if we do go up!

Worst case scenario :
Once the pattern of the promoted clubs coming straight back down gets established ...
It's a small step to a closed shop with no relegation.
It's already approaching a de facto closed shop.
Most of the PL clubs are owned by multi-billionaire individuals or companies or even countries like Abu Dhabi & Saudi.
If we don't get there before the closed shop comes in , our parachutes will disappear and we'll be among the also-rans of the Championship , trying to compete with the billionaires down here.

I'm hoping our new owners have analysed this scenario and would not have acquired us without having a strategy to get to the PL and stay there.

I can't imagine that us remaining a Championship club can work financially for them.

 

[Charlieblade]

It’s the top 5 or 6 clubs that sell the Premier League around the world, the rest of the also rans that change over the years don’t really matter.

If they wanted a truly competitive league, it would take drastic changes, which I can’t see happening any time soon.

The EPL sounds like it is becoming yet another European country regarding football. Dominated by the same handful of wealthy businesses in Spain, Germany, Italy and France.

If the EPL uses the same model as other European countries, it will be dominated by the best run business models in other European countries? What about the football?

Best run business models, or best run football club, playing by UEFA or FiFa rules. A bit of both? Newcastle the model …….

 

[CornwallBlade]

Two things that might make the premier league more competitive outside of the top clubs.

1) A reasonable wage/salary cap: Bring the wage limit down so big teams stop signing superstars on 200k a week etc, which allows them to outbid lesser premier league teams for players.

2) Get some proper financial regulations that stop lesser premier league clubs having to sell their best players to make ends meet: I'm not a fan of the current FFP/PSR rules and these new rules (whenever they get implemented) about spending a percentage of your revenue don't sound good either.

Will they do the above to make the premier league better, absolutely not.

EPL don't care about anything other than the money generated by the big six, who themselves can't allow teams like Villa or Newcastle (just to name 2) to get anywhere near the premier league title.

It may be that changes over the coming seasons. Big 6 plus anyone owned by US/Middle east based entities? TBH I’m not at all excited about being a member of that club.

 

[Charlieblade]

Any salary cap would have to include European and Turkish members of UEFA, or players will gravitate towards the exclusive countries not joining in?

 

[ReeceofBDTBL]

The best clubs can’t have all of the best players, there’s talent allover the planet wanting to achieve their dream of playing in the prem.

A well run club with decent funding would’ve done better than us, Burnley and Luton last season.

If burnley had done a decent job of their £100m recruitment and not had a manager trying to play the Man City way with a newly promoted team they could’ve stayed up.

It’s not impossible, we just made it look impossible last season because we were a shambles.

Never back down, getting promoted would once again be a fantastic opportunity for our club to move forward and grow.

 

[Frank the tank]

Best thing that could happen to English football would be the growth of the Saudi league
If that becomes the most lucrative league money wise it can hopefully inherit all the frankenstein traits of the repulsive premier league allowng that to refocus on its strengths which are of course the supporters in the stadium and tribalism and passion they bring

 

[Shadota]

Just seen some rumours about a takeover - anyone in the know?

Yeah - it was Everton

 

[Charlieblade]

Best thing that could happen to English football would be the growth of the Saudi league
If that becomes the most lucrative league money wise it can hopefully inherit all the frankenstein traits of the repulsive premier league allowng that to refocus on its strengths which are of course the supporters in the stadium and tribalism and passion they bring

Football in the UK has not been dependent on paying supporters for quite some time. It used to be the US version that attracted older stars for a final pay day. Now it’s the oil rich Middle East.

Passion and tribalism went out with the old first division, and the EPL business model replaced it.

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Yeah - it was Everton

Aaah...

 

[CornwallBlade]

Football in the UK has not been dependent on paying supporters for quite some time. It used to be the US version that attracted older stars for a final pay day. Now it’s the oil rich Middle East.

Passion and tribalism went out with the old first division, and the EPL business model replaced it.

Agree wholeheartedly with this. Gates of 30-40,000 without massive tv revenues could never sustain a business that consumes cash like most EPL clubs. If a break away ever happens, what would be left would be a financial environment that could only support something akin to the Championship now. That may be fine for us as supporters but a) it wouldn’t attract top international players and b) we’d have little presence in European competitions. Personally, I would be perfectly happy with that scenario but maybe I’m just harking back to the 1970’s

 

[reedy63]

I want us to be promoted back to the premier. We have a chance, so we have to take it. Now that the takeover has finally happened, the main question, in my opinion, is whether they can keep us up. Time will tell.