General Premier League Thread 2024-25

Deise Vu

From what I’ve seen of Utd so far with regular shots of Doom & Gloom in the stands, the best Utd fans can hope for this season is not to get soaked sitting in their seats.

I would say the atmosphere around the building is toxic with fear. Apart from the players that is. Like all other multi millionaires, they don’t really give a sh*te.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122582050#Comment_122582050

If you are going to focus on wealth then you should realise that rich people always want more money. The better you play the bigger the next contract.

That's not the problem.

Deise Vu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122582545#Comment_122582545

If you believe every time a player gets a bigger contract he redoubles his efforts to get an even bigger one, you are not watching the same footballers I’m looking at.

Some keep their standards, more get complacent. Whatever happens, they will absolutely absolve themselves from blame.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122582617#Comment_122582617

This is the case at United over the last decade in particular, but it's not the same at every club.

The culture around the squad has been rotten for years, off field problems and bad attitude reflected by performances on the pitch. The likes of Sancho, Ronaldo, Greenwood, even Giggs would have been shipped out of the likes of City without their feet hitting the ground, Klopps Liverpool too.

Im no fan of Southgate at all, buy if him and the olnew owners can clear out the squad and bring in lads with talent who are ll willing to pull in the right direction, then it might be worth taking a punt. It won't be exciting, it won't be entertaining for outsiders looking in, but United need to change something. I'm not sore ETH is able to do that tbh, he certainly hasn't showed signs he is so far anyway.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122582617#Comment_122582617

Every player at Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool to mention bigger clubs.

United are supposed to be in that bracket and they've signed players, superstars, year upon year to be in that group but for some reason, no matter whose the manager, they don't reach anywhere close to the levels they achieved at their previous clubs.

I'm editing just to add the names of some of these players. Di Maria, Alexis Sanchez, Pogba, Casemiro, Sancho, and see how he played when he went back to Dortmund, Mkhitaryan, Fred, Varane and I'm forgetting loads.

Deeper Blue

I see the Premier League have approved Chelsea selling two hotels to themselves for 76 million pounds. Unless I'm missing something you'd have to really question how that's being allowed to happen.

IrishOwl...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122583110#Comment_122583110

These are the kind of decisions that would have you believing that nothing will happen to City in the end.

Mitch Connor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122584272#Comment_122584272

I don't see how.

The PL has accussed City of breaking the rules through fraudulent activity.

The only action the PL could have taken on the Hotels is to declare the value of the deal to be inflated - and there is no real evidence to support that claim.

There is simply no rule saying the sale of assets to an associated party is not allowed, or would be ignored for the purpose of PSR. The member clubs had the opportunity to change this view towards such transactions in June, and they voted to leave it as is.

This simply is not the PL bowing to the might of Chelsea, it is simply the PL enforcing the rules it can inforce. Anyone suffiently clued in on the PL rules could have told you this is exactly how it would turn out (which is also why Chelsea did it).

So, I don't see you can claim this decision would lead you to believe City will get off - there is simply no similarity to speak of in the two cases, imo. Unless you can point to where I am completely missing the point.

golfball37

The hotels here physically exist. The companies sponsoring other teams to inflate revenue are questionable.
It’s not the same thing at all.

loyatemu

I see from Twitter that Fulham now have an official CFD partner, that according to people who've looked into it only exists on paper and all their employees on LinkedIn are fake. What an age we live in where clubs would even have a "CFD" partner (they're the financial jiggery-pokery instruments that brought down several banks during the big crash but I think in this context they're a spread-betting tool, of course).

Mitch Connor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122584614#Comment_122584614

I think the difference is more clear than this.

City are not being accused of breaching fair market value for the sponsorship.

They are being accused (amongst other things) of SAYING Sponsor A paid (for example) 20m for sponsorship while in reality the sponsor paid 5m and City gave themselves an additional 15million and claimed it was from the sponsor - or they gave the sponsor 15million to then give back to them - something like that.

Under the current rules, an owner can cover X amount of losses per season. City were using their owner to fund far more losses, and hiding it behind sponsorship deals that were claimed to be far higher than the sponsor themselves were paying.

In the Chelsea case, it is not that the hotels exists, it is simply that there is no rule against selling the Hotel to an associated company and booking the profit.

City could have sold their training ground to the themselves (for fair market value) and 'generated' revenue that way in the same way, I think. But they didn't.

And, to be clear, I don't think what Chelsea have done should be allowed, but it is. I also don't think you should be allowed to book profit or revenue on a player sold from your team to a sister team owned by the same group.

IncognitoMan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122582880#Comment_122582880

Yeah there is an attitude issue at Utd.
It's mostly because of underperforming players getting contracts they would not have gotten elsewhere.

But the club did not handle the situations around Sancho, Ronaldo or Greenwood badly in recent years.

Sancho - was given time to get his head straight. The manager could not have backed him up anymore than he did. Gave him 3/4 months to go and get himself sorted out. Sancho came back and still underperformed. ETH changed tactic as the previous had not worked and Sancho reacted in an unacceptable manner. He was moved on after.

Ronaldo - Wasn't happy to stay at the club beyond the summer. No deal came. Club moved him on once he crossed the line and showed he wasn't willing to knuckle down for the team.

Greenwood - Club handled this pretty well, at least initially. He was instantly suspended and the situation was reviewed when he didn't get convicted. It was complicated by the fact there was no conviction but they did make the correct call once they saw the potential backlash. Should never have looked to potentially take him back but I wouldn't say that City or Liverpool wouldn't at least do the same.

Giggs has not played a match for Man Utd in a decade. Was not involved with anything around the club over the last few years. Won 13 PL titles while he was at the club. So I am really confused as to why his name is here?

Also, saying Man City or Liverpool would move on players who have issues going on outside the pitch just isn't true. I mean City have Kyle Walker on their books don't they?

Anyway, the issues at Utd are more the players on the pitch are not good enough to represent a club of Utd's stature far too often but those aren't the right examples to use imo

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122586104#Comment_122586104

Walker has never done anything other than harmless, stupid stuff.

They had Benjamin Monday and dealt with that very well. I'm not defending Man City as such, on my opinion all Premier league clubs seem to do the right thing in serious situations regarding players.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122586104#Comment_122586104

Ronaldo should not have been brought back. There are no criminal charges stuck to him, but anyone who looks into the story knows what happened in that case in the US. When the likes of him is welcomed back it sets a tone IMHO.

IncognitoMan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122586969#Comment_122586969

Harmless… Depends on your point of view I suppose

When the whole world was in the early stages of lockdown as we genuinely didn't know how to deal with Covid he was breaking lockdown to meet up with prostitutes. Harmless you could say now but he 100% did not have that info back then.

He went on to break the lockdown several times

Then there is the aul exposing himself to women in bars…

It's not the worst of the worst but the poster was claiming that these players could never get away with such things at City…

I just don't think that statement to be true

IncognitoMan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122586999#Comment_122586999

In hindsight yeah I'd say the club made the wrong move bringing Ronaldo back but that's more down to the effect on the pitch.

At the very least they should have agreed to part ways the following summer when it was clear his head wasn't in it at Utd anymore.

The stuff in the US allegedly happened in 2009. There isn't a club on the planet that turns down 2010s Ronaldo because of that allegation.

It's shady and doesn't sound right but at the same time there isn't a conviction so what does a club do?

Should Real Madrid not have signed Ronaldo because of it? Should Juve not have signed Ronaldo because of it?

TitianGerm

Just a heads up but for whoever is fond of football manager then the 2024 game is free on Epic Games until next Thursday morning.

AidoEirE

Mod Edit

Warning issued.

doc_17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122593019#Comment_122593019

thanks. Loved the old Championship Manager versions back in the early noughties. But they got ferociously complicated and time consuming!

Sorry if that’s off topic!

Iseedeadpixels

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594168#Comment_122594168

You can download CM 01/02 for free and update it to modern year and squads.

doc_17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122596389#Comment_122596389

yeah, I know. But getting the time to play it is the problem!

AdamD

Odegaard off injured tonight, looks like Arsenal will be without their entire first choice midfield for the NLD.

eh i dunno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122596389#Comment_122596389

Might be free but the divorce in 6 months will cost you a few quid. Too addictive

doc_17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122598914#Comment_122598914

They were extremely fortunate to avoid injuries last year, hard to expect that kind of luck all the time.

theoneeyedman

Arsenal (and later Spurs when away) can't wear their normal jerseys in the forthcoming North London derby, too much white on the jersey and refs are insisting on the change.

First time in 125 years or whatever of the North London derby, probably a headline in the Mail tomorrow saying it's all part of the Woke agenda.....

ronjo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602212#Comment_122602212

Yeah, it was amazing how Arsenal had zero injuries last season

doc_17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122605272#Comment_122605272

Zero important ones. Compared to everyone else they were blessed.

AdamD

Timber literally missed the entire season, Partey, Zinchenko and Tomiyasu missed chunks of it

Fitz*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122606771#Comment_122606771

Raya White Gabriel Saliba Rice Odegaard Martinelli Havertz Saka Trossard and others were all available for over 90% of league games which is far more than any of their title rivals, or most clubs in the league.

Basically the entire first choice 11 was fit all season bar a LB, but there is no first choice LB anyways.

One of Zinchenko or Timiyasu was nearly always available anyways. It would be a different story if both were out for months at the same time.

Arsenal had the easiest run of injuries, by far, in 23/24 which is why it is difficult to listen to the 'woe is me' posts this season.

Caustic

That's what it's takes for teams to have a chance against city, Liverpool under klopp competed the years they didnt have big injuries the years they had a few injuries to key players in defense and midfield they fell off.

The year they actually won the league nearly the whole squad out performed their xg, which is unheard of.

But that's the kind of luck you need against city everything needs to go your way and even then it might not be enough.

Also for the lads getting excited by it we might as well see how they get on first with those injuries, klopps teams tended to drop off as I said but maybe artetas wont

Necro

Its all cyclical isn't it. One season one team has a decent run of keeping their first 11 together, the next season another does.. truth is it doesn't matter because City have a bench full of 50-60 mill signings to replace anyone who gets a significant injury there and nobody else has that squad depth.

Not Arsenal, not Liverpool, not Villa, not Spurs, not Newcastle, not United. Chelsea don't even know their best first 11🤣

Sure City just resigned Gundogan for free because Barca needed to jettison someone to sign Olmo!

klose

This is why the league is gone boring imo with city’s relentlessness, Arsenal have two tough fixtures against spurs and city in the next couple weeks missing a few key players, they lose both and they’re 8 points behind city and it won’t even be October and their season will be most likely over league wise.

doc_17

yeah, as I said before, when Liverpool beat them they did so by being utterly releness in the first 20 matches. City probably didn’t anticipate any team being able to do that. Once bitten, twice shy.

Patrick Mahomes

Nicolas Jackson has signed a new contract at Chelsea till 2033.

Regards,

P.

~Rebel~

Their contract situation just makes no sense to me… like — given that the limit of amortisation is now set at a max of 5 years — it would appear that the chief benefit to a long contract is that you keep a player on favourable terms for a longer period, in the hopes they outperform their wages over time. But if you're renegotiating and increasing salaries for the long term based on short term performance, then it's the worst of both worlds. You don't get the benefit of long term wage stability, and you're also stuck with any players who underperform.

ShamoBuc

Dalot has been beaten more than once and gives away the pen, poor enough pen.

Irish Aris

Great save from Onana.

I still can't figure out Utd's formation and player positioning. How on earth does Southampton finds so much free space so often?

AdamD

Why has the ref waited so long to let him take that penalty?

ShamoBuc

How often does that happen that the team who miss a pen conceed straight away.

doc_17

You can see just why Arteta didn’t stick with Ramsdale. The cross from Bruno was only floated and De Ligt headed inside the 6 yard area. A top keeper comes out and easily deals with that.

ShamoBuc

Southampton being shown up with poor defending again for Rashfords goal, well taken but should have been blocked.

Fitz*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122614942#Comment_122614942

He was probably too busy having banter with the away fans or whatever his shtick is.

ShamoBuc

Southampton badly need ht.

Jaded Walker

United in a perfect position with speed on the counter attack which should make it a comfortable win. Dalot is a liability though, doesn't need replacing today but they need to find a way not to have him against good teams.

FourFourRED

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122615022#Comment_122615022

He has been poor today but he isn’t a liability.

NITRO95

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122615034#Comment_122615034

After a poor 45 mins you just have to write off a players entire career now! He's finished. Should probably go play league 1 with Evan Ferguson as I saw suggested in the Ireland thread earlier this week.

Jaded Walker

That was a horrendous tackle. You could end a players career with that.

ShamoBuc

Stupid tackle, knee high, definite red.

Necro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122614974#Comment_122614974

Tbh I think Ramsdale dug his own grave at Arsenal, when you go on a podcast and talk about struggling with nerves before games you can't expect your manager to ignore it and carry on. Don't get me wrong I quite like Ramsdale but the Raya upgrade makes more sense the further removed we get from the initial decision.

Jaded Walker

Important win for United. Hopefully Rashford takes a lot of confidence from that. De Ligt and Martinez looks like a great partnership. Goal difference back to 0. 😁