What is the point?

[Trav Le Bleu]

In any club outside the big six trying to be successful?

 

Any time a club like ourselves or Brighton or or Crystal Palace have a bit of success and produce some talent, even though you've put a good team together, the big six (plus big teams abroad) just come along and take the best players (Chelsea especially with their plethora of not even bench warming stars).

 

I'm almost at the point where I don't want us to have any star players, cos they won't be staying. Vardy was a rare exception in the modern game.

 

Some will no doubt argue that we need to be successful to keep our best players, but even when we won the EPL Kante was off and Mahrez made it clear he wanted to be.

 

Now a similar thing is happening with Palace and you look at a relatively large, wealthy club like Newcastle too with Isak.

 

They should just clear off to their European Super League, with a caveat. They can't sign players from any country's remaining domestic leagues, only players they produce themselves and sign off each other.

 

But that's a pipe dream

 

[MonarchFox]

Problem is if you try and are successful your players are soon wanted.  Look at Bournemouth, virtually sold their back 4 this summer.

 

Then PSR just screws up anyone else that actually could do it like Newcastle.

 

My kids play football and I get more enjoyment out of that nowadays, as well as attending non league games

[RoboFox]

Wait, are you saying that elite football has locked in the status quo as a they want to protect the dominance of the wealthiest thus entrenching a cycle where the same clubs consistently qualify for lucrative competions - stifling progress and creating predictable, marketable tournaments featuring globally recognized brands thus driving up the value of media rights, commercial deals, and licensing all in order to generate massive revenues for its governing bodies? 

 

Edited 21 August 2025 by RoboFox

[Gamble92]

Just now, RoboFox said:

Wait, are you saying that elite football has locked in the status quo as a they want to protect the dominance of the wealthiest thus entrenching a cycle where the same elite clubs consistently qualify for lucrative competitions creating predictable, marketable tournaments featuring globally recognized brands thus driving up the value of media rights, commercial deals, and licensing and stifling competition all in order to generate massive revenues for its governing bodies?

I read this in the steamed hams voice 

[Jordan]

What is the point of supporting a League One team when if one of your players does well, there’s a Championship club just waiting to swoop in and buy them?

 

Why bother supporting a National League side when your best players won’t be staying around if they get any interest from EFL clubs?

 

etc.

[davieG]

Teams like ourselves Brighton, Palace whoever's doing good at the time take talent from teams below us.

 

It's not that they take them that's a problem it's that they take them and often don't even use them as they have so many already as the risk of them not working is so much less. Plus they can always sell them probably at a profit as they are now viewed as 'elite' players.

 

Happens at Academy levle as well.

[fox in the sox]

33 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

In any club outside the big six trying to be successful?

 

Any time a club like ourselves or Brighton or or Crystal Palace have a bit of success and produce some talent, even though you've put a good team together, the big six (plus big teams abroad) just come along and take the best players (Chelsea especially with their plethora of not even bench warming stars).

 

I'm almost at the point where I don't want us to have any star players, cos they won't be staying. Vardy was a rare exception in the modern game.

 

Some will no doubt argue that we need to be successful to keep our best players, but even when we won the EPL Kante was off and Mahrez made it clear he wanted to be.

 

Now a similar thing is happening with Palace and you look at a relatively large, wealthy club like Newcastle too with Isak.

 

They should just clear off to their European Super League, with a caveat. They can't sign players from any country's remaining domestic leagues, only players they produce themselves and sign off each other.

 

But that's a pipe dream

 

But players/managers moving up has been the case for many years with fewer staying at clubs for long periods. Outside of the ‘big 6’ you can only have success for a short period because in the end you can’t keep replacing quality with quality. Agree that PSR has made things even harder though for the smaller fish.

[The Quick Brown Fox]

It's not like we produced Kante or Mahrez. 

Its part of the game, and any club like ours needs to sell stars to keep running. Only the super clubs can buy who they want. Not something I'm overly concerned with. All part of the game isn't it? 

[Claridge]

1 minute ago, The Quick Brown Fox said:

It's not like we produced Kante or Mahrez. 

Its part of the game, and any club like ours needs to sell stars to keep running. Only the super clubs can buy who they want. Not something I'm overly concerned with. All part of the game isn't it? 

But top teams now have 25 star players and most of the best youth. All a little boring with virtually no chance for anyone else to really complete with the top clubs

[dayday]

Didn’t help that our recruitment since winning the league has been pretty shocking 

[J.Lisemore]

54 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

In any club outside the big six trying to be successful?

 

Any time a club like ourselves or Brighton or or Crystal Palace have a bit of success and produce some talent, even though you've put a good team together, the big six (plus big teams abroad) just come along and take the best players (Chelsea especially with their plethora of not even bench warming stars).

 

I'm almost at the point where I don't want us to have any star players, cos they won't be staying. Vardy was a rare exception in the modern game.

 

Some will no doubt argue that we need to be successful to keep our best players, but even when we won the EPL Kante was off and Mahrez made it clear he wanted to be.

 

Now a similar thing is happening with Palace and you look at a relatively large, wealthy club like Newcastle too with Isak.

 

They should just clear off to their European Super League, with a caveat. They can't sign players from any country's remaining domestic leagues, only players they produce themselves and sign off each other.

 

But that's a pipe dream

 

Much sweeter when clubs like ours and Palace win these trophies though isn’t it. It’s always about the success of the club for me, players come and go (Vardy an exception, he’s built different) we have to accept that the bigger fish will pick us off from time to time but it’s also in our hands on how well we rebuild that and go again. 

[StonyFox]

They just want a closed shop like most American sports. It then doesn't matter who wins or loses, as there's no jeopardy. They just want a handful of big clubs with all the best players and to sell it to people who support superstar players like Messi or Ronaldo rather than teams. Look at Inter Miami, they don't win anything, but are now a global brand selling kits in English shops, all because of 1 player. 

 

I coach kids' football, and one English kid supports Portugal because of Ronaldo! It still seems alien to us because domestic football is huge here, but outside of the big footballing countries, there are billions of people who want to buy a kit with their favourite player on their back, no matter who they play for, rather than their local team's kit. 

 

It's all fuelled by greed

[PAULCFC]

Thought this for a couple of year's.After we won the title the powers that be made sure no one else could get near the top (even Newcastle with all their Billions)....so what is the point?Go up and more  than likely come straight back down/settle for mid table mediocrity after spending millions to get into the PSR breache club again?.....Modern Football Is Rubbish!

[Wymsey]

Thought it was going to be a thread about some posts being mysteriously deleted.

[Libertine]

1 hour ago, Gamble92 said:

I read this in the steamed hams voice 

[ithuriel]

Well, you can only get so far due to the Prem being as rigged as possible for the big boys season in, season out but I'd rather support a club like LCFC which has huge highs and massive lows, when we beat Man City in the Community Shield their fans were like meh, they were so used to just buying the league etc.,  whilst we were like yes, get in.

[RoboFox]

Besides I'm far too preoccupied with being pissed off at how shit our football club is rather than how shit football in general is.

 

I can't stand outside the Premier League offices and boo without being sectioned, but I can boo our own players in the stadium.

Small victories and all that. 

[Jazzy_Jeff]

PSR forces clubs to sell their best players up the chain to those who generate more revenue. It was brought in to keep the “bigger” clubs at the top. Whilst it exists, the Liverpool’s, Chelsea’s, Man Utd’s will be fine and everyone else will suffer.

[BeaumontFox]

11 minutes ago, Libertine said:

Tight cvnt wouldn’t have sprung for a Krusty Burger. He’d have served up the burnt tatters.

Edited 21 August 2025 by BeaumontFox

[BeaumontFox]

Fans “the club is burning to the ground!”

Rudders “no no, it’s just the northern lights!”

 

[bovril]

33 minutes ago, StonyFox said:

They just want a closed shop like most American sports. It then doesn't matter who wins or loses, as there's no jeopardy. They just want a handful of big clubs with all the best players and to sell it to people who support superstar players like Messi or Ronaldo rather than teams. Look at Inter Miami, they don't win anything, but are now a global brand selling kits in English shops, all because of 1 player. 

 

I coach kids' football, and one English kid supports Portugal because of Ronaldo! It still seems alien to us because domestic football is huge here, but outside of the big footballing countries, there are billions of people who want to buy a kit with their favourite player on their back, no matter who they play for, rather than their local team's kit. 

 

It's all fuelled by greed

Reflects a shift in culture in general from the regional or national to the global, which we as part of the Anglosphere are much more susceptible to. 

[StanSP]

I've long felt this and it's what has fuelled my disdain for the modern game. 

 

Money is driving these decisions for the big clubs. It's like the smaller clubs are their scouting networks and never has 'stepping stone' been more appropriate for how smaller clubs are treated, both by players and bigger clubs. 

 

I can't see it even getting any better. Salary caps? Gone past that stage as there's just too much money floating about in the game. 

 

PSR has broken football more so than it ever was, and what Chelsea do or how they act just makes a mockery of it all. Cash strapped? 'sell' the women's club to yourself and then go spend billions anyways! 

 

Man Utd? Billions pounds of debt, making cuts internally, but still spend hundreds of millions on players. 

 

It's a closed shop. Dare a small club succeed. They do it at their own peril. Their small period of success just ends up turning into a nightmare. 

[Finnegan]

People act like this is a new thing.

 

Tell me about the great career Gary Lineker had at Leicester, the 500 games he played for us, the trophies he helped us win, the records he broke?

 

Joachim played more games elsewhere than for Leicester, Heskey played more games elsewhere than for Leicester.

 

The nature of football is that there's always a bigger fish. I'd actually argue it's gotten better for Premier League clubs over the last decade because their best players can't really be taken by many European clubs and if clubs on the continent can't offer Champions League football then ever mid-table teams over here can poach them. You talk about Palace but Palace are looking to raid Villareal to pay relative peanuts for Yeremy Pino who already has 15 Spain caps and is incredibly highly regarded.

 

PSR is a problem, the Premier League is a problem, the Big Six is a problem but they aren't really OUR problem. Our problem is the only business intelligence we had at this club went up in a literal cloud of helicopter smoke and ownership of the club is apparently hereditary? We got in an extremely strong position despite the Big Six and then we shot ourselves in the foot repeatedly and then made the surprised Pikachu face when we fell over. 

 

Or, in meme form:

 

 

 

[foxile5]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

In any club outside the big six trying to be successful?

 

Any time a club like ourselves or Brighton or or Crystal Palace have a bit of success and produce some talent, even though you've put a good team together, the big six (plus big teams abroad) just come along and take the best players (Chelsea especially with their plethora of not even bench warming stars).

 

I'm almost at the point where I don't want us to have any star players, cos they won't be staying. Vardy was a rare exception in the modern game.

 

Some will no doubt argue that we need to be successful to keep our best players, but even when we won the EPL Kante was off and Mahrez made it clear he wanted to be.

 

Now a similar thing is happening with Palace and you look at a relatively large, wealthy club like Newcastle too with Isak.

 

They should just clear off to their European Super League, with a caveat. They can't sign players from any country's remaining domestic leagues, only players they produce themselves and sign off each other.

 

But that's a pipe dream

 

Kante left telling us "Chelsea is a champion club" whilst at the reigning champions. 

 

It goes so far beyond PSR and Sky. The global perception of the big six has been thoroughly drilled into footballing society. Virtually impossible to reverse in the current league context. 

[whoareyaaa]

Makes winning the Prem an even greater feat.