Jon the Hat

I don't think the funds are the issue per se, they seem to have deep pockets. The issue is more getting the fund through the P&S / FFP rules. If you buy a player for peanuts, develop and sell them, you get to bank nearly 100% of their fee as profit in the year. Say you do that with 5-10 young players and generate $50M. You can then spend $250M that year on players, because their value is amortized over 5 years. If you happen to be willing to sell a home grown first team player for $50M as well you can spend $500M. They have done exactly that. Also worth noting the player academy / development costs is not in the FFP as far as i know..

This is exactly the issue. We were not in a position to sell players at a significant loss, and the combination of higher wages and high fees makes it essentially better to keep them on board even if they are not playing.

They know how to balance the books with the help of their prolific youth system (mostly buying developing and selling) then using that to pay large transfer sums. I guess it won't last forever. Was year 1 of the 3 also the transfer embargo under Lampard? Whether they can make a success of those players on the pitch is another matter.

I wonder if the democrats spend much time thinking about why a ****wit like Trump can win there so easily.

I don't think you can really blame him for that, MON was a very hard act to follow and he was out of his depth for sure, but the players we had were very hard to replace. I think you can forget how fortunate we were with Heskey, Izzet and Lennon in particular.

As I said before, I think there must have been a culture of believing there was a lot of fraud for them to almost gleefully prosecute so many. They thought they finally had the evidence to catch the bastards! I am sure there were some genuine cases in their as well, bound to be with that many people, but to use this as a basis to effectively imply thy should not all have their prosecutions quashed and have to start again is pretty horrendous.

They all happily ignored it until they couldn't.

It was inevitable I guess, they can't let Iran act with impunity forever or things just keep getting worse. Lets hope the bloody nose does the trick.

The CEO's wealth is in his share of the business I guess? No doubt some has been taken out in dividends, but a 3rd year of loss making usually means if you want to keep investing your financial backers whether banks or investors will demand some actions to improve profitability. 1.75M is not peanuts when you are losing money, and that is not a one time thing, that is every year forever, with inflation. I am not saying it is the right thing necessarily, but it is a lot more complicated than CEO is rich so they shouldn't do it. I am sure those employees if they feel they can earn more elsewhere will leave.

Poor bloke, I reckon he has lived a cracking life. and I hope he can enjoy what's left of it. I wish him all the best.

I've got a pic somewhere of me behind the bar on an A380 mixing a cocktail. This is a better memory than the endless hangover in the 6 hour stopover in Dubai.

Much better presumably if they fold and everyone loses their jobs in a cost of living crisis? Of course the senior management should also be on a pay freeze, and there would not be any bonuses with a loss like that. Sometimes everyone has to chip in for a business to survive, especially when competitors don;t pay that living wage. Hopefully they can get through it and return to profit and give pay rises next year.

If they were in court stating that the IT system was not capable of error at a point when it can be proven they knew that it was then I agree that would be contempt of court.

I listened to a podcast on the whole debacle a few years ago, and was shocked at the time, not that IT systems go wrong, but that the response to finding numerous apparent shortfalls was to blame the postmasters. How convinced do you have to before this even happens that you are being scammed to take that approach? I am sure there was a longstanding belief that they had a problem with theft, that the new system was supposed to detect it, and then so when it apparently did so they were delighted to be able to prosecute and ignored all and any evidence to the contrary. I also wonder how many hundreds more just quietly filled the gap with their own funds to avoid the scandal. Is there criminal activity? I would think so in the later cover ups, but the initial problem is if nothing else a lesson in confirmation bias.

You don't see the long-term rich caught up in these schemes, they seem to have targeted footballers and TV stars who frankly are not the sharpest financially. I have some sympathy for them.

I see they still haven't admitted anything, but it was undoubtedly a thing.

Do fans ever really like players who get their team relegated? It's bound to harm their legacy. Those who won the league and the FA cup have more status to play with.

DMU Pubs The Fan Club Gigs at the DMU Arena, Shed Seven, Echobelly. Being dumped by my girlfriend and never coming back

Good luck with it all mate, I reckon Ashton hit the Jackpot with you as his Dad, and I am sure his Mum is going a great job too!

He was a good player for us, certainly a player who is better when things are going well, probably quite hard on himself and that comes through in performances. It is ultimately much easier to look good in a team which is performing well. Although that doesn't explain why he is doing well this season

Describing Dave Bassett in his early days as a player-coach at Wimbledon, Wally Downes told me: “As coach he could play himself anywhere, and he fancied being libero [a sweeper], like Beckenbauer. Two block tackles and a headbutt later, he’d make it to the edge of his own penalty area. . . ” Franz Beckenbauer redefined what a defender could be (thetimes.co.uk) Everybody wanted to play like him. RIP.

They make it sound like he was off for a year or two.

Liverpool have no need for him, especially now he looks like an idiot. He would improve our Midfield though, this season and next. Bargain.

I had completely forgotten about Lamey, and also that Collins John was Dutch.

The great thing about such exposure is that when those with it turn out to be complete knobs, everyone can see it, and those who defend then also have the chance to be seen.