5 minutes ago, dkw said:

I've thought all along they believe there's a split coming where clubs will be allowed to sell their own TV rights all over the world, possibly on their own streaming platforms. That's where they see huge monetary gains, I've a feeling the Prem clubs American owners are looking to gain enough voting rights to take control of all this. There are a lot of American owners now, it can be far off being a majority.

Yes I guess it has to be something like that ... and what a sad day that will be ...

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Wyss' involvement is a strange one for me ... the guy is already 90 years old !!! He's surely more likely to be pushing up daisies than counting his dividends in 2032 ?

Cannot argue that one. Maybe he plans of being cryo frozen soon?

27 minutes ago, GarnachoCheese said:

Plans often don't work.

True. We will see when it comes time for a sale or a super league is created.

1 hour ago, RMH said:

The only way of doing that is if the Club's value increased. At the rate that we're going, it wouldn't surprise me if this lot devalued the Club and no-one meet their valuation (ahem FOS contract ahem).

Super league, as dkw said la Liga Barca and real style TV deals, and perhaps United possible sale will be a push for market values.

7 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Yes I guess it has to be something like that ... and what a sad day that will be ...

Yup we will be getting half time shows and music playing after we score goals... oh wait...

5 hours ago, RMH said:

The only way of doing that is if the Club's value increased. At the rate that we're going, it wouldn't surprise me if this lot devalued the Club and no-one meet their valuation (ahem FOS contract ahem).

Todd said in one of his interviews halfway through last season that the club is worth more now than the price they paid for us. . Dunno if that included the massive debt or not

Or even if it's true

From somewhere or other...

With major US sports leagues regularly playing regular-season games overseas, it would be no surprise if American owners of Premier League clubs pushed to do the same, especially given some of them also own US franchises in the NFL, NBA and MLB.

Last year Liverpool chairman Tom Werner told the Financial Times that he hoped to see Premier League games played in New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Riyadh and Rio de Janeiro, raising fears among some fans of an attempted resurrection of the '39th game' concept that was considered and then abandoned by the Premier League in 2008 after a fan backlash.

3 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

Todd said in one of his interviews halfway through last season that the club is worth more now than the price they paid for us. . Dunno if that included the massive debt or not

Or even if it's true

He really doesn’t know, does he? He thought a front shirt sponsor was worth £65m and no one paid that. Now the value is £45m. Whatever Todd the toad says is irrelevant, it’s what others are willing to pay that matters. I’d bet that today’s real value (as in what others would pay to buy it for, not what the board think it’s worth) of the Club, having been dragged down to midtable from title contenders, is not what these bunch of cowboys paid for.

36 minutes ago, RMH said:

He really doesn’t know, does he? He thought a front shirt sponsor was worth £65m and no one paid that. Now the value is £45m. Whatever Todd the toad says is irrelevant, it’s what others are willing to pay that matters. I’d bet that today’s real value (as in what others would pay to buy it for, not what the board think it’s worth) of the Club, having been dragged down to midtable from title contenders, is not what these bunch of cowboys paid for.

We’re also not likely to finish top 4 at this rate, so £65m is a piss take to potential suitors.

Even £40-45m doesn't seem to be leading to an actual deal though LOL

20 hours ago, dkw said:

Ive thought all along they believe theres a split coming where clubs will be allowed to sell their own TV rights all over the world, possibly on their own streaming platforms. thats where they see huge monetary gains, ive a feeling the Prem clubs American owners are looking to gain enough voting rights to take control of all this. There are a lot of American owners now, it can be far off being a majority.

That's a long-term plan by the big clubs with world-wide fan bases. Presumably in conflict with the PL's overseas rights sales which rely on the inclusion of the big clubs. It would require a two-thirds majority (14 clubs) to see light of day. Even if enough smaller clubs fell into American hands they wouldn't have the world-wide support to earn more than they do now from the existing situation.

The commercial success of American sports is driven by collective broadcasting agreements, so American owners (especially Boehly and FSG) would understand the importance of revenue-sharing. The gulf in television revenue between American sports, the EPL and the individually-negotiated rights like other European leagues only evidences the need for collective agreements. I actually think American owners would strongly opposite individual agreements because it drives down the collective asset value that they desire.

What I do think they will push for control over are things like rule changes, games played outside of a traditional home/away series, and things like All-Star games etc. I also would not be surprised to see the league expanded to have 40+ rounds.

On 01/11/2025 at 11:32, dermott said:

That's a long-term plan by the big clubs with world-wide fan bases. Presumably in conflict with the PL's overseas rights sales which rely on the inclusion of the big clubs. It would require a two-thirds majority (14 clubs) to see light of day. Even if enough smaller clubs fell into American hands they wouldn't have the world-wide support to earn more than they do now from the existing situation.

the "big clubs" will throw the smaller clubs some crumbs and they will get what they want, club owners now are only interested in short term gains, most dont care about the league as a whole, they couldnt give a sh*t if a League 2 club dies as long as they get an extra 2% income.

Up it goes. How to build a team not challenging for anything 101. And they were going to show us how much better a football club could be run…

10 hours ago, RMH said:

Up it goes. How to build a team not challenging for anything 101. And they were going to show us how much better a football club could be run…

Yes, but think of the resale value!

So then, here we are again. In December failing flat on our faces and lacking both quality first choice options in some positions and quality available back ups to the actually quality first team options.

We replace Jackson, a petulant, immature try hard who cannot score goals consistently with Delap, a petulant, immature try hard who scores even less than Nico did.

We replace Nkunku, a player of multiple positions master of none with a lazy attitude with Joao Pedro, who plays multiple positions but is a master of none and has a lazy attitude.

We replace Madueke, a player lacks in consistency and would often run down vlind alleys offering sometimes a goal threat with Gittens, a player lacking consistency And often runs down vlind alleys offering little Gola threat.

We lacked a proper back up for Caicedo last season as Lavia is always injured so we added Essugo who... you guessed it... Is always injured.

We added a back up for Cucurella, which we did not have last season, who appears to not be trusted so Cucu is run in to the ground.

We lacked a quality left attacker, often having to use neto or Noni there and to solve that problem they gave us Garnacho.

How to take problems and make them worse, and be rewarded with fat new contracts, by Paul Winstanley and Lawrence Stewart.

Standing still. That's all the club will ever do under these directors and manager. This is our peak.

We'll likely fluke another Top 4/5 finish and horrifically win the league cup, which will be enough for the owners failing to see the context.

Edited December 7, 2025Dec 7 by Sconnie Blue

Will dine off the CWC for a while.i dont see a trophy this season.

TBH given the hand that was dealt in Feb/March 2022 I'm not quite sure what people are expecting.

Is there a way to make the owners lose money so they f**k off and take the tourists with them? Not making it to top 4 for consecutive seasons could be a way, right? It looks like we are on our way of not making it this season.

1 hour ago, RMH said:

Is there a way to make the owners lose money so they f**k off and take the tourists with them? Not making it to top 4 for consecutive seasons could be a way, right? It looks like we are on our way of not making it this season.

We will. We have too much quality not to.

1 hour ago, RMH said:

Is there a way to make the owners lose money so they f**k off and take the tourists with them? Not making it to top 4 for consecutive seasons could be a way, right? It looks like we are on our way of not making it this season.

Sadly no there is not . Failing to get CL would not do it. Even us getting relegated would not imo.

16 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

We will. We have too much quality not to.

Will be more difficult this season. Villa don't have CL, City are better than they were, United and Spurs are as well.

I'd guess Arsenal and City pull away as a top 2, then Liverpool recover and join ourselves, Spurs, Newcastle, United and Villa in the top 3-5 race.

Maybe someone else can join that pack like Forest did last year, but right now nobody else is showing to me they have what it takes.

6 hours ago, Cockyroach said:

TBH given the hand that was dealt in Feb/March 2022 I'm not quite sure what people are expecting.

A debt-free asset for a cut price amount, that happened to be one of the best clubs in the world?

The only people complaining about what a hard hand they were deal with are BlueCo, because as it turns out running a football club successfully is a lot harder than their egos would allow them to imagine.

On 08/12/2025 at 00:05, SydneyChelsea said:

A debt-free asset for a cut price amount, that happened to be one of the best clubs in the world?

The only people complaining about what a hard hand they were deal with are BlueCo, because as it turns out running a football club successfully is a lot harder than their egos would allow them to imagine.

Running a successful football club is easy if you have endless kremlin money to throw at it. Not so easy without it, is it?

Just to be clear though, you couldn't pay me enough (LOL) to return to the 2000's RA/JM era either. Trophies aside, a style of play which quite literally left me sedated at times.

9 minutes ago, Cockyroach said:

Running a successful football club is easy if you have endless kremlin money to throw at it. Not so easy without it, is it?

Other clubs manage it.

I would just settle for a competently run football club, but we don't even have that. I've never known a football club to struggle to much for a front of shirt sponsor.

2 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Other clubs manage it.

I would just settle for a competently run football club, but we don't even have that. I've never known a football club to struggle to much for a front of shirt sponsor.

I guarantee you would then have people moaning the directors/owners are putting financial probity above winning trophies, they don't care about the club etc etc etc. The genie was let out of the bottle 2 decades ago here and it will never go back in. The real issue is we're just not a big club without the use of financial steroids. People need to accept that.