[Archived] Aston Villa. Post match chat

[tashor]

Brilliant!!

Everyone of you fleurklers misses the fleurkin' point!!

No wonder we are fleurked.....

[tashor]

...........

R.I.P. ( relegation is preferred )

[tcj_jones]

For argument's sake, assume that Rovers, Preston and Burnley each have a base support of 15,000 each and that the three clubs were merged into one. Is the new club going to attract 40,000 plus fans for every home game? I think not.

Twenty years ago, London had two evening newspapers, the Evening Standard and the Evening News, each selling about 400,000 copes a night. The Standard took over the News, leading to its circulation rising to about 750,000 before settling back to around the 400,000 mark.

The net result was 400,000 lost newspaper sales and the loss of more than 1 million readers. The same would happen in an East Lancs football merger: lost fans, three lost historic clubs and a new club that no one wants.

Thats an excellent way to simplify the problem. In theory a merger could be beneficial but a large part of the various clubs fan bases would be lost. Perhaps in 100 years after a merger has taken place we will see rapidly increasing attendances when the club has gained a history and some success, but in the short term, and even mid-long term(if there is such a thing... ) fans will not abandon tradition and allegance and follow a new team. The immediate affect could well be a reduction in attendances, which would put a new merged club even deeper in the mire.

Imagine we sold every player and member of management as well as our ground to Bolton, would we follow what is effectively a new team? No because it is not Blackburn Rovers.

[Manchester Blue]

I watched bits of both West Brom and Palace and wasn't in the least disturbed to see them winning. Whilst it would be easy to have a comfort zone of poor teams not winning, I feel we are good enough not to worry about other teams. I've seen enough under the new regime to be confident that we should be pushing to break into the top half rather than worry about the bottom 3.

It is interesting to see the unfancied sides picking up points against some of the supposedly decent teams like Fulham. Another sending off tonight for a team that seems to have no discipline at all. If as expected Cole gets his ban increased then they could be in some trouble.

Onwards and upwards.

[Oklahoma]

I leave you here for a few hours and someone comes with the idea of merging

Are you crazy?

That will never happen. If we can't keep Premier league standards witout Jack Walker, we better go down.

I believe we can keep up to premier standards.

The lack of supporters at games as much to do with our current situation.

Most supporters aren't willing to pay to see the team strugle.

[philipl]

Oklahoma, love it!

An American report, presumably based on watching TV footage. A good read apart from his confusing left and right (well they drive on the wrong side of the road!)

He likes Amo!

Have a sinking feeling about that Titannic description though.

[Alan75]

Thanks for that philipl.

Not only cant he tell his right from his left, he cant tell the time either.eg Rovers didnt score till Flitcroft came on to take control.

Love his descriptive contradiction of Jansen

hot-shot striker Matt Jansen relegation to the right-wing saw him substituted in the second-half, after another dismal performance. The young Shearer-prototype is a natural goal-scorer, proved by his match-winning strike against Portsmouth, and subjugating him to right-wing duties is only strangling one of the team's best prospects.

Oh I'm sorry for our American friends if this is the standard of match reports they get.

[Oklahoma]

A draw may have suited both teams, but in all fairness either team could have walked away with three points and Blackburn should hope for an extra-large Christmas present from Sir Jack Walker's son-in-law, Richard Matthewman, in the form of a decent defender or two.

Even the american guy agrees with me

[thenodrog]

That will never happen. If we can't keep Premier league standards witout Jack Walker, we better go down.

I believe we can keep up to premier standards.

The lack of supporters at games as much to do with our current situation.

Most supporters aren't willing to pay to see the team strugle.

Jeez Oklahoma.........You aren't thinking straight are you? Lest we all forget. We couldn't even have got into the Prem without JW!

And btw how many supporters can you rem paying to see the team when we were in the 3rd div?

[Oklahoma]

I know we wouldn't be in Premier without Jack.

But I also know that, thanks to Jack, the team has infrustructures that are one of the best in England and, with a wise management, can produce quality players to sell, balancing the budget that way.

Edited October 5, 2004 by Oklahoma

[thenodrog]

I know we wouldn't be in Premier without Jack.

But I also know that, thanks to Jack, the team has infrustructures that are one of the best in England and, with a wise management, can produce quality players to sell, balancing the budget that way.

Thats how we were in the late 50's early 60's Oklahoma.

Then the powers that be moved the goalposts we sold all our home grown players through necessity and dropped to the 3rd Div in less than a decade.

Why ffs have you still not grasped the freedom of contract situation that is encouraging players to see out their contracts before moving on for free?

We got lucky with Duff and Dunn (cos next year or the year after they could both have gone for nowt) but it wont keep happening cos football post Bosman is denying even the traditionally bigger 'buying' clubs of the cash to spend on purchases.

Income is now so dependent on Murdoch that it is basically prostituting itself to Sky's every whim. That much is undeniable. Sooner or later this income will reduce in real terms or be shared out even more unevenly than it is now** and then the clubs will become dependent on their individul level of support to produce income from gate receipts and merchandising. And BRFC simply do NOT have a big enough support base to stay at the top level!

Next.

btw just thought but if the rest of the Prem after the top 3/4 were to ever be anything other than cannon fodder for the big boys Sky should make sure that the bottom teams receive more from the pot than the top teams. This would allow them to strengthen themselves and turn the Prem into more of a spectacle and less of a procession. But we all know that this will never happen.

[pg]

If you continue that line of reasoning theno, you end up with an American approach to professional sports... which resembles the ultimate in socialism.

Salary caps, concessions for poor-performing clubs, etc.

Interesting how the USA love their 'free trade and capitalism' yet have clearly discovered that rampant capitalism applied to the sporting arena soon becomes very dull and boring.

[thenodrog]

If you continue that line of reasoning theno, you end up with an American approach to professional sports... which resembles the ultimate in socialism.

Salary caps, concessions for poor-performing clubs, etc.

Interesting how the USA love their 'free trade and capitalism' yet have clearly discovered that rampant capitalism applied to the sporting arena soon becomes very dull and boring.

Certainly pg. And isn't some system of restricting salaries to a percentage of a clubs income being mooted over here? If so that will surely prove to be another nail in the BRFC / Prem coffin.

next

[USABlue]

If you continue that line of reasoning theno, you end up with an American approach to professional sports... which resembles the ultimate in socialism.

Salary caps, concessions for poor-performing clubs, etc.

Interesting how the USA love their 'free trade and capitalism' yet have clearly discovered that rampant capitalism applied to the sporting arena soon becomes very dull and boring.

Certainly pg. And isn't some system of restricting salaries to a percentage of a clubs income being mooted over here? If so that will surely prove to be another nail in the BRFC / Prem coffin.

next

Been here before haven't we? A salary cap that represent a percentage of the clubs income only favours the big teams again. A salary cap that is the same for all teams at the same level is what is needed to help create a level playing field.

[joey_big_nose]

I am wondering what sky is actually thinking about all this as they hold the key to the leages future. Their over riding concern will be how can they increase/maintain their pofits for the forseeable future, so in that context the two big questions would be..............

1. Would a more competitve premiership (one where 10 clubs could compete for the championship) bring in more subscribers than the current oh so predictable version?

and

2. Would a European superleague generate more cash for the Murdoch clan than either versions of the premiership?

I cannot see why Sky would not be investigating this, they have to make sure the 'product' (god I hate that word) does not get stale.

I am sure that if over the next ten yeas we just see Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal winning the title supporters will vote with their feet...... but if they all just park their arses on the sofa and watch it on telly that might just be what Sky want.

Its a hard one to call, but the game wuld be immesurably improved by a leveller playing field. Unfortunately money, rather than entertainment, will be the deciding factor.

Edited October 6, 2004 by joey_big_nose

[MCMC1875]

Excellent article in The Times (6 October) by Martin Samuel, on the plight of the Premier League:

'Sympathy slow in coming for United now boot is on the other foot'

Can someone please set up a link?

Go to:

thetimesonline

sport

columnists

martinsamuel

Edited October 7, 2004 by MCMC1875

[Neil Weaver]

Here you go MC..........

Mr Samuel's article about MU (might not be accessible to our non-UK readers though)

[tashor]

Fantastic article.......we can but hope.

I'm off to sleep, perchance to dream.

[cn174]

2. Would a European superleague generate more cash for the Murdoch clan than either versions of the premiership?

A European Superleague has been talked about for years, even before the Premiership. Basically the reason it never went ahead was because the respective FA's of the countries said that if teams joined the superleague, they'd no longer be part of the football league and therefore wouldn't have access to the traditional European competitions ie the Champs league or UEFA Cup.

There's a very good book on Amazon called "Premiership" which goes into all the financial/marketing/tv side of football right back to the 1950's.

[thenodrog]

Id applaud that article if it had been written by anybody else but that fat cockney spuds fan who thinks that football success of any kind should end at the Watford Gap.