S-Clarke

The Super League - Home Page

The money they are talking about is insane. If that money is out there (and how, by the way, given the current climate?) then just share that equally throughout every league, and let that filter down the levels of football in all countries. It's the only fair way about it. But that won't happen, because this money has been tapped into via the mega Oil wealth of Man City, the Russian money tree of Abromanvich etc. They want their money to benfit them and them alone. Could be a massive PR stunt of course, on the eve of Uefa announcing their new UCL format - but it's still all very dirty and it's not a nice game anymore.

Super League organisers say each club participating in the competition will receive a payment of €3.5bn - that works out at just over £3bn. In a statement, the League said: "The new annual tournament will provide significantly greater economic growth and support for European football via a long-term commitment to uncapped solidarity payments which will grow in line with league revenues. "These solidarity payments will be substantially higher than those generated by the current European competition and are expected to be in excess of €10 billion during the course of the initial commitment period of the Clubs. "In addition, the competition will be built on a sustainable financial foundation with all Founding Clubs signing up to a spending framework. In exchange for their commitment, Founding Clubs will receive an amount of €3.5 billion solely to support their infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the COVID pandemic."

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham are among 12 clubs who have agreed to join a new European Super League (ESL). In a seismic move for European football, the Premier League clubs will join AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid. The ESL said the founding clubs had agreed to establish a "new midweek competition" with teams continuing to "compete in their respective national leagues". It says the inaugural season "is intended to commence as soon as practicable" and "anticipated that a further three clubs will join" the breakaway. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Uefa and the Premier League condemned the move when news of it broke on Sunday. In a statement, the ESL said: "Going forward, the founding clubs look forward to holding discussions with Uefa and Fifa to work together in partnership to deliver the best outcomes for the new league and for football as a whole. "The formation of the Super League comes at a time when the global pandemic has accelerated the instability in the existing European football economic model. "In recent months, extensive dialogue has taken place with football stakeholders regarding the future format of European competitions. "The founding clubs believe the solutions proposed following these talks do not solve fundamental issues, including the need to provide higher-quality matches and additional financial resources for the overall football pyramid." Manchester United co-chairman Joel Glazer will be a vice-chairman of the Super League. He said: "By bringing together the world's greatest clubs and players to play each other throughout the season, the Super League will open a new chapter for European football, ensuring world-class competition and facilities, and increased financial support for the wider football pyramid." What is the proposed format? The league will have 20 teams - the 12 founding members plus the three unnamed clubs they expect to join soon and five sides who qualify annually according to their domestic achievements. It will start in August, with midweek fixtures, and the clubs will be split into two groups of 10, who play each other home and away. The top three in each group qualify for the quarter-finals, with the teams in fourth and fifth playing a two-legged play-off for the two remaining spots. From then, on it will have the same two-leg knockout format used in the Champions League before a single-leg final in May at neutral venue.

Basically a champions league that no one else can ever be a part of. 3.5b has been allocated to each founding club to help with infrastructure costs, and to offset against the COVID-19 troubles. Honestly, this is just the pits.

Jesus christ, you're having one here mate.

We'll probably win and look a lot better than we did today, and that would sum it up. Battle for 12th is on.

My point said that form and how you feel about your club should go out of the window in these games. This is Southampton, we play in Semi Finals about a handful of times in our lifetimes. I'm gutted we couldn't go today and I'd have been there through whatever method. Yes, tickets are expensive, but this was still my club in an FA Cup Semi Final and I'd be paying to watch it.

Yep, I do. What's your point?

You watch or go to an FA Cup Semi Final no matter how you feel about your club at this moment in time, form or predictions go out of the window. These are one off games, we don't get many opportunities to play in them. Your attitude isn't great and pretty much sums up the attitude of the players on the pitch today as well. 'It's just another game'. When I look back to last season, what was the point of beating Man City 1-0 at home? Backs to the wall, heroic stuff - but for what? 11th? What's the point. Those sorts of performances need to be in these competitions. Priorities seem a bit skewed all over.

To be fair, defensively and positionally he was alright tonight I thought. He was done for pace a couple of times, but that will always happen if the full backs push up and the midfield don't cover. He's been much worse than that this season.

Yeah, we've just lost an FA Cup Semi Final. Yeah. Never mind. Show some fire boy. He is part of the problem with this squad.

So the 9:30 announcement whatsit has come and gone then.

The club is in limbo at all levels and it's hurting the football business, at all levels. Until we get an owner with a strategy or a plan then we will continue this way, sleep walking to nothingness really. I think we're quite fortunate to have the local board we have, with the likes of Semmens etc - as I think he's done a fine job with absolutely no backing at all. It's been like polishing a turd really. The stability (or emptiness in our case) at the top of the club will always filter down to the playing sides. So, i agree - if we continue this approach of 'sell before we can buy'' then we will end up going, because it's about to go pop for us. Sell Ings and replace him with a £10m player who has to bed into the league - it's curtains. Ralph needs to grow some balls and tell them where to stick it if that's going to be the continued approach. I don't think we'll have a takeover by the summer and I fear we will have to face a relegation before we can actually find that stability ownership wise again. KL has a lot to answer for - Gao was either a massive liar in terms of his plans, or she was just after as much dollar she could get. Sadly I think it's the latter.

How much longer do you give him though? I've had it with him tbh. He's almost into his third season with us and he's still done absolutely nothing. He's biggest moments came in his first 2 or 3 appearances for us. I think he's a lost cause. Mane had some power/presence to him, Moussa is like a guy you're afraid will snap in half if you touch him. Not suited to this league and another enormous failed piece of scouting at what was £15m outlay for us.

I think this way of playing does rely on the full backs, I think that's to be expected. But I agree, we need more from the attackers. Moussa is just diabolical, is there anyone who rates this guy? Just a muddle of legs and no strength on or off the ball. Redmond is Redmond, maybe 1 purple patch a season which lasts 1 1/2 games. Pretty shit. Adams is bog-standard. Ings is your only real quality, and he's your focal point up top - we need so much more quality from wide/cutting inside to play this way in my opinion. It's possible that Ralph is the right man at totally the wrong time in terms of where we are as a club (re: ownership/finances etc)

To be fair, I reckon the league will grow without them. You'll have a more even playing field. Clubs like Leicester, Everton etc in with a chance to win things - and everyone else with those late surge chances to maybe get into Europe. It would make the PL a bit like the Championship, but with a bit more $$. Could be quite fun. Let these 'powerhouses' fuck off and play with each other and let the real teams/fans get on with the proper job.

It's kamikaze really, once the oppo break the press...it's pretty much a guaranteed shot on goal for them. Is Salisu the answer to provide us with the pace at the back? Possibly. But he looks incredibly rash and dives in too much from what I've seen.

Probably everything on the pitch in terms of aimless running, energy, running stats etc. We just don't have the quality to play the way he wants IMO. The club either backs him or we go in another direction, as this group are not suited to play his way over any prolonged period in my opinion.

Can't wait to see Maguire and McTominy in the super league.

Agreed, there is lots of running - but it's a lot of aimless running. No real purpose to the running because once they get the ball, they don't have the quality to either see a pass or actually play a pass. As I said above, if the club is nailed to playing this way and backing Ralph (and I think a high press approach is a modern approach and a right approach to take) then we need to invest, we need to back him. Otherwise it's pointless and a waste of everyone's time, including Ralphs.

Arsenal panicking that they're being left behind, same as Spurs. So they pull this card. Hopefully they end up back on their arse.

That was one of the lowest quality games of football all season, it really was. Both teams were absolutely dreadful. I'm not happy with how we performed, I don't think we showed up enough. I really don't feel there are any leaders in this squad, a load of quiet schoolboys. We need a bigger squad and much better mentality/experience in the group. Otherwise this will continue with this lot. Whilst I think the way we try to play is the right way, with the press etc, it's a bit kamikaze with 1) this squad and 2) those defenders. There is no pace at the back and Bednarek is going to be hung out to dry once we push up. Ralph is nailed to this style though, so we either back him and let him buy the right sorts, or we let him go and bring in someone like Allardyce. This squad is in desperate need of quality injected into it, but even without quality we should still have enough about us to make more of a game out of that in my opinion. They will all wake up tomorrow and realise what a wasted chance this was, neither side showed up really but the result was pretty much expected when we have no shots on goal in a semi final. That alone was a disgrace. I'd like to see Moussa, Bednarek, Bertrand, Redmond gone - get shot. Replace those with better quality and we have have a chance going forward.

It's quite sad to see what's going on to be honest. The history of this club and our 'current' philosophy is built on developing - but it doesn't seem as if there is much to develop. So the entire club is at a standstill really. We have no money to buy ready made first team players, and the younger age groups are seemingly not near any level - so we're 'paused' at all levels pretty much. I must admit, I don't know too much about how the academy has been managed in the last 4 or so years - but it seems like we're short in squad numbers across all age groups? (so we keep having to dip in to the younger groups at all levels in order to plug the gaps). Coaching is possibly not great either? It's a long way from the Dodd and Williams days, that's for sure. Feels like people at the club have had to run all elements on financial scraps for years and now we're starting to see the output of that.

I'm fairly sure people were saying similar before we faced Bournemouth tbh. You have to be confident before a Semi-Final, what's the point otherwise? I'm looking forward to it. Clubs like Southampton get to semi finals a handful of times in our lives, so let's just enjoy it and actually look forward to it rather than sitting here fearing it in dread. For what it's worth, I don't believe league form really counts. These are one off games and strange things can often happen in one off games. Wigan's league form didn't worry them during their cup run either. Let's just enjoy the occasion, it's a shame we can't be there but it's a perfect day for it.