Icecream Snow

I know it's wrong, but I'd say Alan Gow for number 2

Like who? How many clubs beneath us actually employ a Sporting Director?

Posted this before but it highlights the gap between the "big 6" and everyone else. Largely because success and star players brings additional commercial revenue.

They used to do these a lot, but used to be a breakfast in early February instead. I went to the Paul Lambert one when we were doing well in the Championship, and Alex Neil just after he'd replaced Neil Adams.

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/dodds-calls-for-mcalear-recognition-270232/ Billy Dodds expressed his surprise that Reece McAlear has not been included in the Scotland under-21 squad after the midfielder's wonderstrike for Caley Thistle against Dunfermline. “I just think he is a top quality player, intelligent. He is only 20 and he can’t get near that team, when he has been consistently playing first team football and scoring unbelievable goals. “He’s played for Motherwell and gets a big move to Norwich who paid a lot of money for him. He should be in the team, from what I’m seeing this week and knowing what he could bring – I’m astounded." McAlear found he was in and out of the starting 11 in the early part of the season, but with injuries to Roddy MacGregor and Scott Allardice he has been given the opportunity to become a mainstay in the side – and that chance is one he has grasped with both hands, growing in stature with each passing week in the middle of the park. “He’s in the gym all the time," Dodds added. "Kirk Broadfoot takes him under his wing. Broaders is religious when it comes to the gym and a lot of young boys follow suit. “(McAlear is) quite a slight boy, but strong. I’m just gutted for him he’s not in the under-21 squad.”

Supposedly he's under contract to Spartak Moscow till 2024, so he's not a free agent unless FIFA/UEFA were prepared to rule his employment contract invalid.

For God's sake man, everyone else can look dignified so why can't you?

With Brexit though I think Smith's the best we're going to get. Going abroad would mean someone with experience in managing in top leagues recently, and I struggle to see how they'd drop down to the Championship without a big budget or salary. Before the Brentford away game we had 2 points from 10 games ( goalless draws against Burnley and Brighton ), and Smith brought some belief and fight back whilst working with what he had. Idah getting injured before the Man City game and subsequently being out for the season killed the glimmer of hope we had left (and maybe Sorenson getting crocked in the Watford game). Those were two players who had really started to improve under Smith. Before Idah's injury we beat Everton, Watford and drew with Crystal Palace in successive games, and we haven't had a point since.

Wouldn't be surprised if it was Everton. They sacked Marcel Brands in December, appointed Kevin Thelwell at the end of February.

I thought in 18/19 we still had the hangover from Naismith, Klose and Pinto's wages. I think there were a few elements that could have been deferred to the next financial year, but I think because we'd made a large profit in the previous financial year, we made sure to post a loss to reclaim the corporation tax.

I think that just reflects how the club has been run though. Certainly Liverpool and Arsenal have been far more frugal when it's come to purchases, and they've both been able to take say 7-10% of the revenue out each year.

My dad was born in Battersea, London (literally next door to Chelsea) and grew up watching Bobby Tambling, Terry Venables, Peter Bonetti, George Graham etc. He moved to Norwich and married my mum and started taking me to see Norwich in 1990 because they were the local team. He's 74 and he's giving up after 30 odd years as a season ticket holder. He's got more right to support Chelsea than the bandwagon plastics, but doesn't even bother looking out for their results these days. I've given up trying to debate with the plastics. There's a certain breed of person that just wants to attach themselves to something successful, and convince themselves they're a part of it, just so they can look down on others.

This type of topic drives me nuts. The Big 6 all command revenues of £400-650m a year. Liverpool, Arsenal, Man United and Spurs are run as business with the owners looking to take 7%-10% of the revenue out as profit. Man City and Chelsea are the playthings of super-rich billionaires. Even Leicester with their recent successes have struggled to hit £200m in revenue. Most other football clubs do not make a profit, only eat up huge losses. Gao JiSheng spent £210m for a 80% stake in Southampton in 2018, and recently sold his share at a loss for £100m. He didn't put a penny in or take a penny out. Likewise at West Brom Guochuan Lai bought the club for £200m and has only put in around £7m. Both instances were because the Chinese government instructed businessmen to buy into football clubs, to extract the knowledge and take in back to China. China has now reversed that policy. Villa have spent £300+m over the past three seasons (though they did get £100m for Grealish) just to sit in midtable. This is old but it highlights the gap between the big 6 and the rest of the league, with the rest of the league relying heavy on TV money. Most of this comes from overseas commercial opportunities, Man United claim they have 500m fans worldwide.

If anyone thinks buyers are queuing up to buy football clubs, then they should read this article. https://theathletic.com/2956329/2021/11/17/the-championship-is-for-sale/ Owning a football club is fun and there are worse ways to spend your money than bringing enjoyment and pride to thousands. But they are bloody expensive — money pits, if you will. According to Kieron O’Connor, the football finance expert behind the Swiss Ramble Twitter feed, Championship clubs have lost a combined £2.5 billion over the last decade, which is what happens when you spend £1.16 on wages for every £1 you earn, as the clubs did in 2019-20. So, they are all “for sale”, to one degree or another, as nobody can afford this level of attrition forever — their accountants, families or investment committees won’t let them — but, clearly, some are a lot more for sale than others. Here, then, is our attempt to rank them in terms of how badly they need someone else to pay the bills, or how ready they are to share the burden.

It's certainly between him and Raab, but Boris probably just shaves it.

We'll see. Cummings has said there some decent photos of Boris at parties so they'll hit the front pages at some point. Is 5+% inflation due to GDP contractions from Brexit or the Bank of England printing money and buying the government Covid debt via Quantitive Easing? Either way the Bank of England base rate is being forced to rise (though we couldn't have zombie rates forever) with another rate rise predicted next month and an expectation that it's be 1.25% by Christmas, so that's mortgages going up. On top of that there's rising energy prices, rising food prices, and a general cost of living problem. And if Boris says "he's solved Covid, and it's over now", what does he blame if the gaps on the supermarket shelves persist?

Sums it up though. The British public keeps electing tub-thumpers with no grasp of anything.

Former No10 aide Dominic Cummings warned: "There's waaaaay better pics than that floating around, incl in the flat." *munches popcorn*

My company runs logistics operations for several large blue-chip companies, so we're frequently exporting goods and trying to get them into USA, China, Russia etc (and now Europe). So it always amazed me with the portrayal of the EU because it wasn't perfect, but literally nothing matches the pedantry of customs officials, and our clients are invariably paying customs brokers to get them through the minefield in the first place.

Give this guy the internet

Kind of, but having owned Jimmy Carr's first five or six DVDs and having seen him live, his whole schtick is trying to make a joke out of shocking materials or situations in a cheeky way. One of his opening jokes from one of his shows was "What do you get if you put a a baby in a blender?", and I'm not doing the punchline. I like the guy, but he is deliberately trying to shock people, it's just that normally people don't take it personally.

Four quitting. Though 'bring your own booze' Martin Reynolds is just going back to the Foreign Office. Only they will know their real motivations, but they would have been, or about to be interviewed by the police over the various parties at Downing Street so quitting now and finding another job may limit the fallout to their careers. I think the last Smashy&Nicey Harry Enfield sketch had the DJs rushing to the media so they could announce they were resigning before the station could announce they'd been sacked.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60149753 Jordan Hugill's probably enjoying that one

Worries me that he shares an agent with Todd Cantwell though. Their clientele are rapidly turning into a motley crew.