Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [30th January - 3rd February 2016]

fez said:
Its just a freak season and it won't happen again for a long time.
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Exactly the statistics against it happening again are not worth anyone trying to emulate, so the spending carries on and nothing changes. Sure there will be a couple of managers who have chairman saying "well Leicester did it" but it won't last long.

Every thing has lined up perfectly for them this year and I couldn't be happier to see it happen but let's not make out this will be some game changer in the world of football.

Vardy will be offered Eleventy Billion at a top four club and he will go or the clubs wage bill will get a lot higher while they slip back down the table. He's probably this years Kevin Phillips :p
 
It's sad but true. This has been a freak season for practically every club and that's what has given Leicester the opportunity to do what they've done - they've been fairly tight at the back and had 2 forwards consistently fit and performing out of their skin, and they've found themselves doing just enough to win games. They've not been dominating games and it's hard to see them being able to reproduce this again next season even before you take into account the potential improved performance of other clubs and having to deal with more games.

If Leicester win the league or even if they make it into the CL it'll be fantastic for them but there won't be lasting changes. The FFP regs that every PL club signed up to has made it nigh on impossible for them to establish themselves. I'm just guessing but even being in the CL and earning an extra £30-40m per year, Leicester will barely be in the 10 top in the PL money league and still miles behind at least 5 other clubs - meaning they're spending capacity is still miles behind those clubs.

In many ways Leicester's success has the potential to do just as much long term damage as it has good. Look at the financial mess Bolton are in and the mess Charlton got themselves in (are still in?) - this is a direct result of trying to build on the relative success they had and not being able to. If Leicester made a big push this summer, signing higher profile players on much bigger contracts, they're then in a position where they almost have to qualify for the CL again next season or face a fire sale to avoid financial melt down.
 
Or maybe it's just that our Scouting network and scouting team is actually decent........ not just throwing absurd sums of cash at other clubs for players who don't fit the mould of the club (Di Maria, Fellaini) for example. Fellaini was just a desperate panic buy just because they felt they had to buy a player... the most laughable transfer united have made in decades, he's a useless donkey... that's one or two examples... there have been plenty of other clubs spending ridiculous sums - look at how rogers spent the suarez cash - where are they now, crap players, crap team, milling about in the midfield with a potential micky mouse cup to win. Amazing.

Yes it's hard to envisage Leicester in the top 4 consistently - if we do finish in the top 4 this season, but I'm immensely proud of our club that Steve Walsh and co. can actually scout out good players - in the long term the more money you have will mean the more success you can have - but you need to be able to spend it wisely, not just throw it any "superstar" player and expect success off the back of it.

Our owners are building this club up and they're not exactly short of cash, Vichai is worth around £1billion... Vardy's just put pen to paper on an £80,000 per/week contract till 2019 with us and we've only a few days ago bid £20,000,000 on a player - a far cry from the position we were in 5/6 seasons ago in League 1.
 
You don't understand FFP and or are missing the point. Your owners could be worth £10billion, under the terms of FFP that Leicester are signed up to, the club has to break even. The financial gulf between Leicester and Spurs (the 6th richest side) is massive, the gulf between Spurs and Liverpool (5th richest side) is as big if not bigger and then the gap to Utd (the richest) is even bigger.

To do what Leicester have done this season is remarkable but it's almost impossible for them to maintain it. The best players cost the most money and get paid the most and if Leicester's players are the real deal then 1 way or another they'll end up leaving because Leicester can't and won't pay them what they'll get elsewhere.

And briefly on Vardy. I believe it was Henry Winter who I heard or read say this but Vardy was supposedly very big on protecting his future when he signed his previous deal with Leicester, insisting on various clauses if he played for England etc. If he does indeed sign a new contract it wouldn't be a big surprise if he's insisted on protecting himself again.

I'm not trying to take anything away from Leicester though. Again, it's a remarkable achievement regardless of what happens. It wasn't quite as big a shock but when Liverpool went on their run and came close to the title, while it was awful to miss out the way we did, it's still the best season I've experienced as a fan in a very long time.
 
Watford: Gomes (GK); Paredes, Prödl, Cathcart, Holebas; Behrami, Watson, Capoue; Jurado; Deeney (c), Ighalo

Subs: Pantilimon (GK), Nyom, Anya, Suarez, Guedioura, Abdi, Amrabat


Chelsea: Courtois; Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry (c), Azpilicueta; Mikel, Matic; Willian, Fabregas, Oscar; Diego Costa

Subs: Begovic, Cahill, Baba Rahman, Loftus-Cheek, Kenedy, Traore, Hazard
 
Everton: Joel Robles; Coleman, Jagielka, Funes Mori, Oviedo; McCarthy, Barry; Lennon, Barkley, Cleverley; Lukaku


Newcastle: Elliot; Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini, Dummett; Sissoko, Saivet, Shelvey, Townsend; Wijnaldum; Perez
 
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As we have kept one clean sheet at home all season and hardly have a good home record, Newcastle will still be in it until the 95th minute. Even 5 minutes after the full time whistle we can still blow a lead.
 
BaZ87 said:
You don't understand FFP and or are missing the point. Your owners could be worth £10billion, under the terms of FFP that Leicester are signed up to, the club has to break even. The financial gulf between Leicester and Spurs (the 6th richest side) is massive, the gulf between Spurs and Liverpool (5th richest side) is as big if not bigger and then the gap to Utd (the richest) is even bigger.

To do what Leicester have done this season is remarkable but it's almost impossible for them to maintain it. The best players cost the most money and get paid the most and if Leicester's players are the real deal then 1 way or another they'll end up leaving because Leicester can't and won't pay them what they'll get elsewhere.

And briefly on Vardy. I believe it was Henry Winter who I heard or read say this but Vardy was supposedly very big on protecting his future when he signed his previous deal with Leicester, insisting on various clauses if he played for England etc. If he does indeed sign a new contract it wouldn't be a big surprise if he's insisted on protecting himself again.

I'm not trying to take anything away from Leicester though. Again, it's a remarkable achievement regardless of what happens. It wasn't quite as big a shock but when Liverpool went on their run and came close to the title, while it was awful to miss out the way we did, it's still the best season I've experienced as a fan in a very long time.
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Teams can just keep buying cheap lesser known players, will they always get stars, nope but a great scout can find cheap and good players. Martial was only a couple of million what 1 or 2 years before he left for £60mil. Leicester can make a killing in the transfer market.

A rich owner can also just create a fake sponsorship deal to keep the right side of FFP and a super rich club can simply just break FFP, cough, City, cough.

Your theory that without breaking FFP they can't stay in the top four, so they wouldn't be in the CL anyway..... so why not break FFP, win the league for 3-4 years, not get in the CL, but they weren't going to be in it anyway without breaking FFP right, so what does it matter? After 3-4 years of being top 4, their sponsorship deals would still go through the roof as would ability to attract great players. If they could repeatedly win the richest league with the highest salaries well, money talks more than CL participation. 3-4 years later they could be breaking even but having established themselves as a top team with a top 4-5 budget and can genuinely compete to get in the CL.

FFP doesn't hurt rich owners at all, the super rich owners are the only ones who can sustain a top 4 run while failing ffp and not getting money from the CL and the long term potential benefits would still be worthwhile.

A team without money would struggle to sustain higher spending to compete for top 4 consistently and would likely go bust before they could become a top level team financially.
 
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Shelvey is having a shocker. He should have gone off instead of Saivet.

Elliot has tipped three shots onto the woodwork so far in the second half :o
 
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