General Premier League Thread 2023-24 Mod Note in op 27/6/23 And 21/05/24

Presumably TNT had first dibs. Not really a standout second fixture there tbf.

Blame the computer.

Some small anomalies that I've seen from the overall fixtures over the season.

West Ham don't play a game outside of London until November.

Wolves having a horrific start to the season in terms of difficulty.

Man Utd 8th season in a row of playing their first game at home.

Liverpool play Man City & Newcastle back to back twice with both Newcastle games being midweek (that applies to all fixtures in those GWs being duplicates).

I'm sure VAR will help Wolves :P

I think you are playing Frimpong out of position there, and totally exposing them down their right hand side. You have also dropped one Bruno for another and that might not go down well!

Plus, you have to show every team a minimum number of times. So you will always see less desirable (for the neutral) on TV in the first half of the season so the TV companies can load up on the 'big teams' in the second half.

This is how Opta see the first 5 games - apparently Liverpool have the easiest start, and Thomas Frank will be out of a job mid-September! He's doing media stuff for the Euros so he'll get another job in football anyway.

The new deal including Sunday games (for the Europa/Conference teams playing Thursday) only kicks in during the 25/26 season. This upcoming season is ran under the same set of packages, quotas etc as that for the last 2 seasons.

I was shocked to hear Luiz wanted to move. He's loved by the Villa fans, they are in the Champions league and I'd imagine it's not a money thing.

From Villa's perspective I'd want more than McKennie. I'd value Douglas Luiz in the £80-£100 million range. McKennie is only worth about half that at most. Illing junior is worth sfa.

I think the two Americans, Weah being the other, would be a fair deal.

Are they getting money as part of this deal?

I'd find it hard to believe that City would have a sell-on clause that's still active.

City had a buyback clause for Luiz that expired after 2 years, but it seems they may retain a 20% sell-on clause. (Although I haven't seen anything that confirms it one way or the other). Clubs inflating gross values in swap deals helps FFP type rules in the short-term but the downside is sell on clauses, agents fees and registration fees are usually based on a percentage of the gross values.

maybe he's waiting for the England job?

Could be waiting on the England job, but also figure if EtH blows up during the season, which is possible, he'd be high on the list of 'available right now' managers that Ashworth might call (if he is ever employed by United)

Can't see many Leicester fans being too pleased with this Cooper appointment. They're a big step up from Forest imo. I wish him well but I think he'll be gone by Christmas. Time will tell.

I think Cooper is an excellent coach. He wasn't responsible for the sh1t show at Forest, and still kept them up, would have kept them up if he was kept on too.

No frills, pro ably not sexy or media friendly, but a good coach

Everton are looking for £70m for Branthwaite, I know Fofana went for similar, but that was Chelsea and Chelsea are mad. £70m for a centre back who plays in a deep lying team that offer him loads of protection in a defensively minded team….just seems nuts. You’d wonder how much it would take now to buy someone like Ruben Dias, VVD at 26, Saliba, etc.

Everton are looking for 70m, they won't get that. I'd see it more as a John Stones sold from...checks notes...Everton in 2016 for 50m. In fact, with inflation of fees into account 70m would probably represent better value than that.

If it does happen it will be in the 50-60 mark which seems right.

I think there is, but it just means saying 'no' when the number gets too high, and accepting moving onto the next target. As it is, over time they've kind of cultivated an impression that if the seller holds out, United will eventually pay the asking price no matter how high.

they paid something like £25m for Akanji, one of the few bargains they acquired.