angelman

So I get this bull's hit email from the club...."tell us your views". It state "we will first ask you about your matchday or event attendance experience before introducing you to a range of potential improvements." Which launches into a survey. It starts off with the usual ones, that get asked over and over and over again. Catering. Do I want to eat there blah blah blah. FFS, this gets asked every time. How many games do I go to, pre-season, season etc etc. So then the real questions turn up - the potential improvements. Basically I get asked whether I would pay £1500 for a Season Ticket Plus, whatever that is. They did explain, but as I have zero interest in spending even more on a ST to watch **** football, I wasn't interested in finding out. Not least as there is no way in hell I would shell out £1500 on a ST. And then to cap it off, they ask about my disposable income and whether it has gone up/down in the past year. I guess they cross that with respondents who are stupid (??) enough to be happy to pay £1500 for a ST. FFS Saints, there are much more pressing issues at hand then whether you can fleece people for £1500. I suggest you try and retain those that have spend £500-700 first, me included. Do they really think that we are part of the modern phenomena of corporate largess that London, Manchester, Liverpool clubs can tap into? Hell, we can't even sell out most games. I was surprised by this survey, not that they want to join the big boys by offering super expensive packages, but the timing of it. Are they really that blind to the feeling amongst supporters? Or maybe it is just me!

Is it though? You compare it to a ticket at the Mayflower, as after all both are supposed to (!!!) offer entertainment, and it is on par or cheaper in most cases.

Anyone think that the top 6 this season won't be made up from the same lot in the top 6 last season, and the season before? QED

I saw plenty of empty seats from my vantage spot high up, so can well believe 3k empty.

I know the point you are making..... As I said, when things are **** as they are now, it is easy to moan. When we finished 6th, we looked at things and said "glass ceiling". The two are pretty much the same thing, just one is more entertaining than the other. As things stand, we will never ever be able to compete with the big boys, even with a sugar daddy. And if things get a bit iffy and the big boys feel threatened, the goal posts will be moved, and they'll bring in a change in the division of TV money. But even having said that, I look at the industry at the top, and think that it is nothing but greed. Football is a funny old thing. It started off a sport, then it became a sport and business and now it is pure business. Money and the pursuit of ever more is at its heart and when that happens, nothing much good comes of it. People really have no idea how to behave properly. I guess that is to be expected when you are overly nummamorous. But the PL and all the foreign owners, who want to change things so that they line their pockets even more, would do well to remember that the whole is very much greater than the sum of the parts. I cannot really see a Euro league as the Yanks & Chinese will be upset. Instead I would have thought a world league, maybe even with 2 divisions will be on the cards. I'm sure Shanghai vs Liverpool will be enthralling, but not sure the travelling away support will be accommodated with "20's plenty".

I think one of the problems is that we are part of the EU and it would be restriction to trade to stop EU players plying their trade wherever they want. But I agree that we should restrict it, and I also agree that vested interests won't let it happen. TBH we as a club are pretty irrelevant. The owners of the Big 6 make no secret that they don't see the rest as being anything else but an inconvenience to them making more money. They openly meet in London every now and then to have a chat about how they can screw even more money out of things, how to make things even more uneven. It's amusing that Leicester and West Ham join them in some vain hope of making even more money for themselves at the expense of the rest - I guess they are tolerated as the Big 6 need votes (at present) to change things. I think Everton are also with them. The governance of the PL has to be called into question as well.

Not totally. Obviously now when we are doing ****, football is broken. But... Even when we were doing well, the problems were still being talked about. Glass ceiling etc. Same problem, different view. We are in a competition that we have little to no chance of winning. We have little to no chance of qualifying for the top European competition (only 3 non Big 6 clubs have this century). What is the point of being in a competition you cannot win? As for CL, it is a complete irrelevance.

I think things have changed. Last season, the top 4 lost 7 of 112 games to non Big 6 of which 4 of those were no doubt due to Mourinho having a flip out. Shows that there is a pretty big gap between those at the top and the rest.

I know I always say that the current season is my last, but I really think this is, unless we go down. I can't see the point in being in the PL. I am not enjoying going to the games and feel it a bit of a chore. I enjoy the rare times we score, but am ambivalent when we let a goal in. Basically I am bored.

https://carlingtap.carling.com/goal-of-the-month/2018-9 Get voting. TBH, I can't see him winning as there are many who go for big club players. I fully expect a Liverpool player to win! Having said that, there are some crackers in there as well.

While I cannot disagree that we are hugely boring to watch - I have been bored most of the time since Koeman left, with the odd period of thinking "why can't we always play like this?" - there is one bit of the article that is completer tosh. "He appears to have caved to supporters' demands to play two men up front" - what utter, utter rubbish. Caved to supporters' demands!!? If he has, then he should be sacked. That he saw that 1 up front wasn't seemingly working, as did supporters, is not the same thing as caving in to supporters' demands. Writing that in an article (I haven't read the rest of it) takes away any and all gravitas.

Spurs are being indulged far too much and too often. If they, and for that matter West Ham as well, cannot provide a ground for a home tie, then they should forfeit home advantage.

NC left the owner with little choice. That is if I understand things correctly. He didn't want one of her people on the board, ie to keep an eye on how he spent HER money. But let's not be revisionist about it. When Koeman got us 7th and 6th, I didn't see many people saying Les was inept.

My thoughts exactly. And not against their crapest team either.

WTF!

You know what Darren? I'm with you in this, and that is the saddest thing about the situation we are in. Those 2 seasons with Koeman where we could hold our own with anyone, are gone.

We were lucky to have Koeman and he did a fabulous job for us, while having one hand tied behind his back. And Gao, who knows what he is doing with the club! It is sad the way we are going, but I can only say that the decline is running in tandem with my feelings of malaise with football in general. I suspect though that the two are somewhat linked. 5 wins in 38 games just isn't very entertaining. While we show flashes of excellence, over 90 minutes we are pretty dire and have been since Koeman left. I go to the games now because I love the club, but really, I watch the football with little expectation that we are going to win. Oh what a difference it is to when Koeman was here. We gave everyone a game - top 6 included. What is it now - 30 games against top 6, with 0 wins. Paddy Power are giving 5/1 for relegation which seems pretty decent, and I think I might toodle on down and lay something against that. We seem to already be at the stage of hoping that there are 3 worse teams than us, which currently I am not wholly sure there are. Someone needs to step in, grab the club by the scruff of its neck and give it a damn good shake. If the manager cannot do that with the players, then he should sling his hook.

Carrillo again dropped for the w/end loss to Betis.

Leganes won. Carrillo played 0 minutes

Ooops. Dejan seems to be in a whole heap of trouble. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6185705/Dejan-Lovren-face-five-years-prison-charged-perjury-alongside-Luka-Modric.html

Is he Glasgow? I find it hard to keep track of his various personas on here.

I liked the light show. At least it was something different. Was surprised about the heat of the flames as I could feel it quite easily at the back of the stand. Not really football, but its something different. A tale of two halves. Its quite often that we come out in the 2nd half and get dominated. And throwing a 2 goal lead away is just criminal. On a totally different note, I like the way the Daily Express sports pages are today. Couldn't see the fact that we played last night on the main sports bit, so went to the football section. Their stories went.... Liverpool, CL, Man U, Neymar, Man U, Liverpool, Salah/Hazard, Liverpool, Liverpool, Liverpool, Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool, Ronaldo, Fantasy PL, Salah, Liverpool, Man U, Man U, Celtic, Liverpool, CL, Spurs, Liverpool, Man U, Liverpool, Messi, Spurs, Chelsea, Man U, CL, PL table, Spurs, Barca, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U, Chelsea, Man City, Man U, Chelsea, Man U, Leeds, Real M, Man U, Liverpool, Barca, Liverpool, SFC v BHA predictions........ So no mention of the game at all last night. While I realise that we are not the most popular two teams on the planet and that the Express isn't really fit for my backside, it does sort of sum up the way football is these days, even if the Express do things in extremis. And this is one of the reasons I find football so unappealing these days.

That's the spirit.

Now here's a big surprise. Jack Wilshere joins Andy Carroll on the injury table.

They won't get a points deduction. The PL are a bunch of pansies and don't want to upset their members, unless they are a small fish. Usmanov - oops no, it's Moshiri isn't it? - has got a lot of money to fight it if he so chooses. And then the problem is, that it opens Pandora's Box with players being tapped up.