I've always liked Klopp but that's neither here nor there. Obviously he has cycles of fallowness and success. And this season they're the "victims" of an aging squad, lost/diminished strikers, key injuries, etc. BUT, as much as Pool fans are bummed right now, sitting in a tie for 9th place, don't you think that they'd do it all over with Klopp? "Winning a few things here and there" included: 1. First league title in 30 years! 2. Second UCL title, and first in 14 years 3. More minor trophies like: Club WC, Super Cup, FA Cup, League Cup
See here is the thing, good managers do it one time, great managers do it multiple times them are the rules. I think Klopp is good, but they make it out like he's some all timer. I mean Chelsea won the CL and CWC is Tuchel an all timer? I mean what are we doing here? So continuing on, great managers refresh/rebuild teams as well. Again the guy is decent/good but not what the media and LFC fans make him out to be. That's all
It's really crazy, but I've come to the conclusion long ago that all this high level football is just tax evasion/money laundering, a half a dozen of one, six of the other
One might assume that, but might vanity also apply to PE investors? I'm sure you know this way better than I, but there are other prominent hedge funds that own big teams, or at least big chunks of big teams. ACM/Redbird/Elliott comes to mind. Are many/most of those other investors seeing or expecting ROI from their footy investments? It's an honest question.
They are but IMO, and from talking to guys in that space its about selling at the high, which is why a lot of them take larger positions in lower valuation clubs. There's a guy who does this for a UK based firm they are currently going crazy buying Italian Serie B clubs
Thankfully they don't have a consistent striker or otherwise they'd be in with Arsenal, et. al. in a dog fight for top 4.
Basically Klopp is suffering from the same thing Shankly did: overreliance on his aging stars without replenishing with new talent in key spots. BTW: anybody catch Osimhen's outrageous goal v. Roma? Surprised that Chelsea didn't put in a bid for him yet. Little doubt he's going to be the apple of everyone's eye come the summer transfer window.
So were all the posts and articles of Chelsea not spending like under Abramovich just wishful thinking?
Chelsea have brought in Madueke, Mudryk, Badiashile, Felix, Santos, Fofana and about to secure Enzo. But can't they only add 3 new players to their CL squad? Thats, well, awkward for someone.
Cucurella learning in an interview that Jorginho has left Chelsea for Arsenal... https://streamable.com/kvyify
They are going to run into FFP limits eventually, hence why they didn't just pay Benfica the release clause 2 weeks ago. No CL revenue next season will further tighten how much they can spend. A lot of this spending was a condition on sale of the club, where Boehly agreed to invest 500m in the squad and 1bn into the stadium and infrastructure. Chelsea will probably have a net spend of ~125-150m a year going forward. The problem is going to be Liverpool with their likely new Qatari owners and United with their new owner. I could see each of them doing 250m+ net spends this summer.
Bellerin has joined Sporting CP. Meanwhile Everton had a bid for Giroud rejected. They say you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Sadly for Everton, they also miss 100% of the shots they do take, may take, and will ever take going forward.
This is why football is completely broken In order to justify these spends, Private Equity FC will need to juice the asset value which will inevitably mean returning to ideas for new competitions. They need more televised games
My borderline realistic ideal scenario would be for Arsenal, City & Newcastle to finish 1-2-3 like they currently are in the table. Then ManU & spuds have a 2nd half collapse that opens the door for Brighton, Fulham & Brentford (no particular order) to round out the top 6. That would leave ManU, spuds, Pool & PE FC all ranked anywhere from 7 to 12. My borderline erotic 2 year fantasy is for ManU, spuds & PE FC to have a huge collapse next season and be relegated.
Yes, but it's only a matter of time before they climb back up the table. With that kind of investment it seems inevitable. Unless they are complete buffoons.
Sadly was used very facetiously by me, bet their contracts are ********ed because even after the last few near misses they probably see themselves like Leeds did around 2000, too big to go down.
NUFC-MUFC in the League Cup Final on Feb 26… sorta tasty that. Two historic clubs. Who’ve had to endure fallow periods and desperately wanna prove themselves. OK, Newcastle owns that category with 54 years without a trophy! Plus there’s that little memory of an intense feud nearly 30 years ago. Was gonna cancel my ESPN+ subscription since we’re out of both cups but maybe I’ll keep it just for this match?