£1 Billion

[SilverFox]

...spent in this transfer window alone. I don't even want to think about wages.

Football is really stupid money. This bubble has to burst. It is totally unsustainable on this upward curve.

I still love the game (especially now in this very rare time of unprecedented success for us), but footballers on or approaching 100k a week is just plain stupid. I might even be able to accept exceptional wages for players like Messi, but there are some mediocre players making ridiculous sums to kick a ball around badly. Hard to swallow when some people have to choose between food or heating.

No real point to this thread. Just a moan. Pissed me off that spending a billion pounds on smug looking pricks is apparently something to be proud of.

 

[M17TT C]

Dr Evil would be happy.

 

[Mawsley]

I hope my son can become one of those smug looking pricks.

 

[SilverFox]

Would be good for the lad if he could. Doesn't have to be a prick though.

 

[Mawsley]

Would be good for the lad if he could. Doesn't have to be a prick though.

He has the smug looking prick bit down, he has the genes.

 

[SilverFox]

He has the smug looking prick bit down, he has the genes.

Kids...God bless em.

 

[Lako42]

Why is it unsustainable?

 

[Mawsley]

Why is it unsustainable?

His cheeks hurt after five minutes.

 

[SilverFox]

Perhaps I will qualify what I meant. For now, while TV money is there, for the very richest of clubs, times are good. It probably is sustainable for those clubs medium to short term. If anything happens to TV money (and don't say it could not ever. ITV digital going belly up wasn't all too long ago).

The picture for the super rich is not as rosey.

You can't physically can't keep increasing the cost while income for most is finite. All we will see is more insolvency and colossal debts for 99% of teams who don't have billionaire owners propping them up. This is the bleak existence of most championship teams and could be for premier league teams if the gulf is allowed to grow. Some 60+ teams have dealt with administration since 2000.

Far from fixing the problem I also think that FFP will actually widen the gap without resolving the real issue (which should be caps on salary and net spend on a squad) because it rewards the rich and heightens the likelihood of what should be a thrilling contest becoming in the fullness of time the SPL preordained bore fest as the gap between have and have not widens. In those circumstances people become less interested in the product which has a knock on effect on sponsorship, revenue and yep...tv money.

That's my view anyway. Upward curves plateau and dip. What goes up always eventually comes down. I hope we are ready when it does.

 

[SilverFox]

His cheeks hurt after five minutes.

That was your web cam?

 

[homer]

A third of that billion has been spent by the two Manchester clubs, so not as bad at it sounds for the rest of us

 

[FIF]

A third of that billion has been spent by the two Manchester clubs, so not as bad at it sounds for the rest of us

but maybe today ....

 

[Lako42]

You either play the game or you don't.

I wouldn't be against the whole ****ing show going belly up and seeing what remains.

After we've won the Champions League in it's current form, obviously.

 

[Mawsley]

 

[jb5000]

I dare say that they work around what would be considered their fair share, but a footballer on 100k a week is probably paying a nurse's annual salary every week. Let's have more of that sort of thing

 

[homer]

I dare say that they work around what would be considered their fair share, but a footballer on 100k a week is probably paying a nurse's annual salary every week. Let's have more of that sort of thing

Three nurses' annual salary

 

[FIF]

And the nurses can play football.

 

[homer]

And they almost certainly wear fishnet stockings

 

[Mawsley]

And they almost certainly wear fishnet stockings

Footballers on 100k a week?

 

[SilverFox]

One billion one hundred and fifteen million two hundred and thirty thousand pounds and counting...

Holy shit!