stevegrant

Even though they technically could make them all free, and still turn a significant profit.

The article on the website suggests that's possible. There's also a form you can fill in to claim seats that aren't renewed if they're in an area where there's not much availability.

Correct. A complete non-story.

This has been going on for a while now, and UEFA have finally decided to do something about it as it's been getting silly, so there will be an away price cap for the Champions League and Europa League from next season.

The simple economics are why prices across the board are still as high as they are. Obviously they've artificially forced away prices down, and while I'd love to pay £20 a game I'm content to pay £30 (mainly because it's a significant drop from the £50+ we were paying at some grounds before that agreement came in), but ultimately the only thing that will force the hand of clubs to reduce home ticket prices is for vast sections of seats to be unoccupied for games. Unfortunately there are enough mugs (and I'd probably include myself in that) who won't sacrifice going to games in order to force clubs to reduce their prices. If there was a concerted effort across the board at clubs at all levels, something might get done about it, but while someone will pay the going rate, the clubs will continue to charge what they think they can get away with. Our attendances this season have perhaps shown that we may have reached that dotted line of what most people deem to be acceptable, so I certainly don't see our prices going up any time soon (despite the nonsense that appeared in that survey last year), but whether they'll prompt a move in the opposite direction in order to attract people back for the lesser games, who knows?

Top of the league

They'll probably think internally that it's actually a very difficult balancing act, that they feel they have to strike a balance between giving fans a good deal and maximising their revenue, when in actual fact matchday revenue only accounts for 11.2% of the club's revenue these days. A drop of £100 for 15,000 adult season tickets (complete guesstimate) would cost £1.5m in terms of reduced ST revenue (from renewals - at those prices, they'd get more new ST holders as a result), but would massively increase the goodwill factor among the fanbase, which would likely lead to an increase in merchandise and catering sales over the course of the season. They seem to ignore the intangible knock-on effect of making fans feel like they're having the **** taken out of them for the last two or three years.

It was all about when the deal was accounted for, and therefore the amortisation (depreciation) of his value started to be registered as a cost in the accounts. There was talk a while ago that there might have been a get-out clause for us if he was unavailable for a certain percentage of our games due to injury, but that was rubbished recently.

Hangover dependent, I'll be there

Most formations are pretty fluid these days. Even when we played with three centre backs against Cardiff, Jack Stephens stepped up into midfield whenever we had the ball, so that went from a 5-2-2-1 without the ball to 4-3-2-1 in possession. I think Saturday looked like the most representative of the 4-2-2-2 we know Hasenhüttl likes to play, we played a lot through the middle of the park (taking advantage of Brighton being exceptionally sloppy in that part of the pitch) and left the wide areas relatively vacant. Bertrand and Valery got forward a fair bit in the first half, but we tended to operate more defensively once we took the lead - looking at the average position map here (scroll down and click the "Player Positions" tab), Bertrand's average position was basically in midfield, while Valery was a very orthodox full-back, with Ward-Prowse operating quite deep in front of him, which I guess was a result of Bernardo and Knockaert instigating most of Brighton's attacks down that flank in the second half.

It's around £2m per place. He was definitely limping towards the end of the game yesterday. Hopefully it keeps him out until July.

I think the lead in both McCarthy and Forster's boots would have prevented them from even attempting to come and take that cross, tbf.

I think the fact that Gallagher only gets on the bench when literally every other option is unavailable says a lot. I'd be amazed if he's still here next season - should be plenty of takers in the Championship, he's proven himself capable at that level.

I'm not normally one to defend Austin, as overall I don't think he's anywhere near good enough for the role that we've largely asked him to perform over the last couple of years, but he's always been pretty quick over a couple of yards, especially in the penalty area - it's when he's had to do work outside the penalty area where he's come up short (and a long way short in many instances), probably no more so than the reverse game at Craven Cottage where he mustered just 16 touches of the ball in 69 minutes, in a game where we had around 70% of the ball.

I think a lot of that was to do with how Fulham (bafflingly) set themselves up. They basically had no right-hand side at all, with Odoi - a centre-back, and a largely rubbish one for this level at that - playing a nominal full-back role but kept getting dragged inside, which gave Bertrand and Redmond a laughable amount of space down that flank. On their left side, they had proper cover, so it made sense for us to try to exploit their right flank with two of our better wide attacking players combining to pretty good effect.

Yeah, sorry about that. Our certificate provider were particularly tardy in issuing our renewed certificate

Zaha handed an improper conduct charge by the FA in addition to the red card itself, so he'll probably be looking at a two or three-game ban instead of the mandatory one :lol:

If you're betting on 0-0, you should always go for the "No goalscorer" bet instead, as that'll cover that exact scenario. You'd still win even if the score is 1-0 if the goal comes from an own goal. The odds are (almost) always the same.

An utterly baffling assessment of his own performances with absolutely zero grounding in reality Since joining us, he played 41 Premier League games - full 90 minutes every time - and we conceded 66 goals in those 41 games (1.61 goals per game). The games he's missed since he joined, 18 of them (only one missed through injury, I think, v Palace last season when he had concussion), we've conceded 28 goals (1.55 gpg). So not a huge difference, but there seems to have been a noticeable reduction in "how the **** have we conceded that goal?!" moments since he lost his place. Worth noting that it was Mark Hughes who eventually dropped him after the Fulham debacle, and Kelvin Davis showed no inclination to restore him to the team for his one game either. Also, considering Ralph hasn't exactly been quiet about some of the negatives he's seen from players (having particularly called out McCarthy and Obafemi in interviews and press conferences for various reasons), I find it very difficult to believe there hasn't been a detailed conversation where Ralph has laid out exactly why he's not been picking him.

Largely depends what ticket you buy - if you've got an "Any Permitted Route" ticket, i.e. not franchise-specific, you'd probably be OK.

This is also very true.

For what it's worth, I personally don't count the words "d!ck" or "crap" as swearing. Others may have lower thresholds, obviously...

Maybe, but it's impossible to say for sure either way. Hughes did what he was appointed to do last season - as it turned out, we probably should have thanked him and sent him on his way at that point, but hey ho...

A few Charlie Austin stats from Saturday's game: 68 minutes played 0 shots 5 completed passes from 10 attempted 1 aerial duel won from 5 attempted 0 tackles 16 touches Yes, you read that right. SIXTEEN touches in 68 minutes. Absolutely pathetic.

Perhaps he doesn't particularly "love" playing football at the moment, considering the last three or four years has largely consisted of a horrendous knee injury, the associated recovery, and a dramatic loss of form and the stick from the fans that comes with that. Also, while £40k a week is obviously a ****-load of cash for you and I, put it another way... would you take a near-50% pay cut to work a similar job at a different company? I certainly wouldn't.