stevegrant

Spending on infrastructure isn't counted towards losses.

Don't think that was anything to do with the pitch, the club had covered it for a week before, but the surrounding roads and pavements were still covered in snow and ice, making it pretty dangerous.

No idea what the Turkey thing has to do with anything, Buttner was at a Dutch club when we fortunately missed out on signing him.

It probably was, but who cares?

Christ, it comes to something when I'm siding with MLG

We only know one specific bit of the figures. We don't know how much the club has made from matchday revenue (although last season's figures give us a reasonable indication), and we certainly don't know how much the wage bill and other costs have increased by. I think it's fair to say that a large part of the increase in the "equal share" parts of the Premier League money will have been eaten up by new signings and contract extensions, and there wasn't a particularly big exodus of fringe players on big money.

Not sure. Obviously the merit payment (i.e. depending on finishing position) isn't known until the end of the season, but the portions that are equally distributed are known from the start, so it's possible (probably quite likely, actually) they're paid in two or three lumps during the season to ensure clubs' cashflows remain stable.

Surely I can't be the only one that's a bit annoyed that Liverpool have had TWENTY-EIGHT of their 38 league games televised this season? No problem with the TV companies broadcasting the top teams more often than the rubbish ones, but surely there should be an upper limit of, say, 20.

(courtesy of @sportingintelligence on Twitter)

Looking at Soccerbase, he's been on the bench since the beginning of February. 13 starts, 7 sub appearances, 4 goals. His Wikipedia page presumably hasn't been updated for a few weeks.

Not that I'm aware of, I worked out the figures by using the online system to look at games which hadn't yet gone on sale.

The club would have signed off on the design, I find it difficult to believe that Adidas provided us with a kit design that we didn't approve. Sour Mash is right above that Adidas ****ed up with their supply chain, though, stock levels were well below what was deemed acceptable for months.

As a paid subscriber, you don't get adverts served to you from this site, so it must be something you've picked up from elsewhere. Suggest you run a full anti-virus and malware scan on your PC.

Or that they're falling back in line with what pretty much every other club does.

Just over 20,000 sold for 2013/14, which was a drop of around 750 from the previous season.

10%, but that figure is after segregation is taken into account. Incorrect. The Coventry game in 2012 is the stadium record as the club managed to squeeze the segregation down to the absolute bare minimum. I think the netting was only covering an area two or three seats wide, if that.

The family section always has around 100 seats available even after the "sold out" signs have gone up, I'm assuming they are unable or unwilling to sell individual tickets to adults in that part of the ground. Corporate sales have largely been terrible since we were promoted, so that could account for anything up to 1500 empty seats in a "sold out to the general public" stadium.

French journalist Julien Laurens seems to think he'll be in the 23, which I must say I'm surprised by. The impression I had was that Deschamps wasn't in the slightest bit interested in him, but apparently he's watched him quite a bit this season.

Good luck to him finding a buyer for a club that is still hemorrhaging cash and a fanbase who turn on the team at the first sign of mediocrity.

Win

The primary issue for me is coaching. There simply aren't enough coaches of the required standard at youth levels, and a large part of that is because of the cost of getting the relevant qualifications. The UEFA A Licence course apparently costs anywhere between £2500 and £3500, depending on where in the country you are. In Spain, the course costs the equivalent of £435. It's little wonder there are at least ten times more qualified coaches in Spain.

http://www.espnfc.com/blog/_/name/bundesliga/id/647?cc=5739 Leverkusen and Frankfurt have already declared that they'll be disbanding their B teams. The main justification is that the level those teams play at (mostly regional fourth tier, with Stuttgart and Dortmund's B teams in the national third division and as with today's proposals, no promotion to the second division) isn't sufficient enough for the most talented youth products, and that rather than play them in the B team, Bundesliga clubs tend to send them out on loan to second division teams (or newly-promoted top flight clubs) for the season which gives them a much better test. The same is true with our kids. Those who get sent on loan to a much lower level are probably those who we've assessed and decided aren't going to make it at the top level so it's best for their own development that they get some competitive football at the right level. As Les Reed said on the Footballers' Football Show a few weeks back, we don't like to loan out youngsters who are on the fringes of the first team.

I'm amused that they used the Spanish and German league system as their beacons when if you delve a little deeper, they're not all they're cracked up to be themselves. From the summer, the German clubs have agreed that B teams for top-flight clubs will no longer be mandatory, so Germany, one of the nations we're trying to imitate, is already moving in the opposite direction.

I assume all those complaining about this will also be boycotting their favourite curry house in protest?

I got 2 out of 3 from predictions at Christmas, had money on Cardiff and Norwich to go down (Sunderland were my other pick but the odds weren't worth bothering with), and also had a bit on Fulham to stay up in February after they'd got a point at Old Trafford and should have beaten Liverpool a few days later. Sadly that one wasn't to be, but still comfortably in profit on those bets.