R.I.P..................Financial Fair Play - good or bad?

So the likes of city and now spending over £50m on good players (not great players), Man Utd £36m on teenagers (plus add ons taking it to apparently over £50m potentially) and even the likes of Bristol City and Boro in the lower divisions are making bids of £10m for players.

Is this good or bad for the game?

Is it the new reality we have to accept?

For me it solidifies that there is a top 4 and always will be.... a mid table bunch of, maybe 4-6 and then 10 teams who are set to fight it out in a relegation scrap.

It's great to see the best players in the world on our shores don't get me wrong but I'm concerned about the price we will have to pay long term.

We'll see a few sick looking balance sheets when the next financial results are released I' m sure but the men at the top seem happy to turn a blind eye.

I noticed the other day that Wigan and Blackpool were actually in league 1... it wasn't long ago that they will have played each other in the premiership.

The likes of Boro and Bristol City run the risk surely of going the same way if they gamble big money on a return the premiership and don't make it.

If the spending at the top is to continue I'd also like to see a 'development tax' imposed on all transfers to ensure that, say 10% of all transfer revenues are redistributed by the PL into the lower leagues and grass roots for me, that's the only way to safeguard our lower league teams on these shores.

 

I think the quality being added outside the top 4 can potentially make the PL much more competitive in future. The players Mourinho named in his interview earlier in the window have been added to. There is now scope for smaller teams to score successes against the league heavyweights, which can only be good for the league in general. Way better than the situation as is in Spain.

The development tax is a good idea though. It's pretty clear FFP hasn't been working in the way it was hoped. Spreading the cash out through the PL is one thing, but I'd definitely like to see more of it go to the lower leagues, to shake things up a bit.

 

Life is about money not just football then you suffer a horric death in most cases.

 

I get the point but it doesn't just take death to put things into perspective. When I had my kids I took a significant pay cut in changing careers to one which meant I could be home at a sensible time and every weekend. It's not always about the negatives Mr T

 

We operate well within our financial boundaries mate, I don't necessarily agree with the way LVG is going about building his squad, especially since next season will be his last but we're not doing anything irresponsible so I don't like seeing us put in the same category as City. Barca and Madrid are far worse for the game, yet they seem to get held up as a beacon of how clubs should be ran, not for me.

 

I was being positive ie just get on with it it is what it is

 

I think he misunderstood - none of us have much experience identifying a positive Panthro

 

I read Phil Neville yesterday saying that over in Spain they find it hilarious we are paying these fees for players.

At least if we had a tax rule which distributed the wealth it would be a good way of distributing the benefit maybe for the good of the national team eventually.

 

I think it just widens the divide personally.

I laugh with the excitement of how us spending 49m will catapult us into the top 10 or even top 8 in some eyes. You then look and realise we were only the 7th biggest spenders in the league, having been the lowest for the last few windows. So the 49m is a start but as we were playing big catch up, we've possibly only done enough to stand still.

Not a massive criticism but just shows that despite his obvious wealth, Ashley is going to find it difficult to compete if he only wants to spend certain amounts. You'd be looking at another 30m in Jan, another 50m in the summer just to even think about top 8. That is what you are up against now. Man C blew about 150m! They bought high class in Otamendi, Sterling, De Bruyn - they have obviously gone Delph, Roberts also to boost home grown. Some of those players are massively overpriced, but it just goes to show how you can go and get exactly who you want if you are willing to pay the money.

 

I looked on with interest at Barca, the team with a transfer ban... effectively making some signings.
They have and will continue to do what they want I feel.

 

FFP is certainly broken, it's easily bypassed with sponsorship agreements (the £36m Man U spent is easily overshadowed by the £1bn they got from Chevrolet and Nike). Yet another flawed attempt - moderation of anything simply cannot be done via money, because in Capitalism there's always a way around it all.

Instead the focus should be on sizes of squads, people should be the ones moderated, not money.

What I have a serious issue with is Chelsea owning and loaning out around 30 players. It's utter, utter nonsense. There should fairly simply be a cap on the number of players you can own and an encouragement to having "home grown" talent within that squad. That way you diversify the talent as well as the wealth. The cap should also apply to numbers of transfers per window (i.e. Net 3 being the maximum, so you could still sell 10 and buy 13), the window itself should be shut before the Charity Shield weekend, and it should apply to all divisions. Nothing but nothing will stop the biggest and richest teams buying your player, nor should it. But if they had to make serious decisions, they might free up more of the talent they seem to hoard, particularly Chelsea and City.

 

Ridiculous isn't it, guarantee as soon as Messi signs for an English club (hypothetically speaking) he'll be banned for taking HGH when he was younger.

 

I also heard yesterday that Chelsea have 31 players out on loan (THIRTY ONE).
This shouldn't be allowed.
They are literally ring fencing all the best young talent and bending the rules to suit.

 

Who was the last youth to make the step up to regular first team for Chelsea?

They must take a good chunk of change in from these loans every year, which is the only logic I can see behind their method.

Absolute graveyard for talent.

 

Name the player:

2009–2015 Chelsea 6 (0)
2010–2011 → Fulham (loan) 7 (1)
2011–2012 → Bolton Wanderers (loan) 4 (0)
2012 → Dijon (loan) 14 (4)
2012–2014 → Vitesse (loan) 34 (2)
2014 → Lazio (loan) 1 (0)
2014–2015 → Rayo Vallecano (loan) 34 (5)
2015– Sevilla

 

Easy, Gael Kakuta.

He must have some air miles.

 

Yeah

After all the effort they went to sign him they just don't even give the lad a chance near the team. 6 games in 6 years, we've already played Mitrovic in 4 games - he's had 2 yellow cards, one red and no goals or assists but I'm willing to give him quite a few more!!

 

Did you appeal that red? Can see why it was given but it was harsh... the lad rolling around like he'd been shot... ffs, what happened to wearing shin pads? Can't see an appeal working mind, the FA love to back their officials and they're hell bent on making it all non-contact.

He'll just have to learn that, fast.

 

Don't know if we appealed, I doubt it would get rescinded. It was harsh but within the realms of deserved so we probably wont bother. Plus if we want him to learn it may be best for him if he sits out the ban rather than have the club appeal. It is the dirtiest I've seen us play for a while but Arsenal were rolling around all over the place after that once they saw the ref was card-happy, it was winding up our players and fans. They looked very very soft.

 

ps. I actually think he's shown decent promise at times. There's enough there to think he'll get 5-10 goals this season which would be a decent 'start' to push on from next year.