Football Shorts — Part III

By 'penalties' are you really talking about Liquidated Damages?

This phrase has been thrown around by many on here as a condemnation of the clubs and the leagues... for doing what exactly?

For restarting while people are still dying?

Or for doing what they need to do to survive as businesses?

You choose your poison. I just find the continued judgmental virtue posturing offered by so many totally incongruous considering the existence of these clubs and of the professional game itself is presumably something we are actually interested in?

Rant over.

If they were as open about it as you are and said "Project Restart is about TV money and the fact that clubs need it to survive" then that would be integrity! A bit of honesty from them would go a long way.

If these clubs had put all their professional footballers on furlough for the whole time we have been in lockdown, then we wouldn't be in this position where we need to put lives at risk. It's a shit show really... greedy bastards, the lot of them.

Paul the Esk — why the fuck didn't they put their stars on furlough?

To a certain extent, they just thought that the money was going to keep flowing and did not think that it may not; the Media Companies followed normal business practice and did.

Quite frankly, I thought that next season was going to be difficult, as it will be, and therefore thought that it would have been better to concentrate on it. But, looking at these figures, most clubs are looking for any harbour in a storm and need Project Restart to get them through the next few months.

I can see little happening at Everton transfer-wise this Summer, and Everton then trying to make do with what they have got.

Thanks for the information, Paul the Esk. Hopefully Ancelotti with his new Management team can keep it all together and get performances out of the squad that previously have been below par.

Ancelotti was a lone voice at the start of this crisis, who correctly forecast the implications, so he will have been thinking and planning how to deal with it.

Lucky Everton have an experienced manager at the helm, but we still have some duff managers in other parts of the Everton operations, who care or know little about the importance of cash-flow.

As FME will have a time-limit leading to termination of the contract, it seems that the FA are in a rush to get games played so that the contract cannot be terminated.

Whether they are doing that in the financial interests of the clubs, or the FA itself, is an interesting question.

In any case, I don't see that the clubs would have to pay damages either for games completed, as you stated in a previous article, or games that are going to be completed in order to fulfill the contract.

If you have a source outlining the terms of the contract, I'd be interested in reading it.

There is more to this rush to finishing the season than meets the eye, as you have raised in your posts. Our neighbours have put six players up for sale to raise 𧴰 million. They also objected to media companies getting enhanced access in the coming matches, because they had got enough of a payback.

Looking at the situation, I feel the club is possibly in the worst situation of all Premier League clubs for the following reasons:

1: already an extremely high and unsustainable wage bill relative to income.

2: The club as already running a huge loss prior to the virus, and the year before that, with this year also projected to be a loss. That's losses 3 years running, which would make it very difficult for the club to get any loans or financial assistance the way Tottenham or Manchester United are doing.

3: Heavy reliance on the owners to keep funneling money into the club, even with very dubious schemes such as selling the rights to the naming rights among them. It's very possible that the virus will have impacted their other sources of income heavily and suddenly subsidising a luxury like Everton will not be a priority for them.

4: Poor overall management and leadership at the club on many levels. It's clear that the people in place and their ability to drastically improve the situation is not up to the level needed; this is shown in the year-on-year poor performance on and off the field.

5: Bramley-Moore Dock. This could be like a noose around the club's neck at this time. It's impossible to know how the future regarding game attendance will be; if many people keep staying away from the games, even in 2/3 years time, such a stadium will become a huge loss-maker. Stopping the project now and writing off all the expenses is also a huge loss. It's a very difficult situation and tough decisions will need to be made.

6: The situation of the squad. The poor player trading over a number of years has resulted in a squad with many substandard players; there are very few bankable assets among them, and the ones we would like to sell are nearly impossible to shift due to their high wages. This isn't something that can be fixed in 1 or 2 transfer windows.

Overall, I'm very pessimistic about the future of the club in the next year or two. The survival of the club depends on the ability of the owners to keep funding a loss-making business, that will need even greater subsidies due to reduced commercial, matchday and broadcasting revenues.

Or, we could go full steam ahead. I expect the government and / or local councils would (should!) be keen to give grants or subsidies to capital infrastructure projects that will grow the economy quickly.

In the worst-case scenario, we could see the redevelopment of Goodison being on the drawing board (as happened over the park) but I suspect we are too far down the road to Bramley-Moore Dock for that to happen.

It's a huge risk to spend 𧺬M over the next 2 or 3 years building a stadium that might not be used. It's impossible to predict how this virus will unfold over the coming years, mutating into something more deadly that could still keep large gatherings impossible.

Regardless of whether a vaccine will be found in the coming years, which I doubt since it takes on average 10 to 15 years for a successful vaccine to be developed for viruses, people's habits may permanently change. Many of the high risk or vulnerable will stay away from games.

Even before the virus, I couldn't see a solid business case for Bramley-Moore Dock. With the virus, it's absolutely not viable.

I am very much in agreement with your points about the club and also your view on the stadium. The case was marginal at best even with low borrowing costs.

I will be writing a more Everton-centric piece for sure.

We can all wish the virus to go away, but unfortunately it seems to be part of our lives for the coming years. Our older and vulnerable fans will mostly stay away and it just will not be possible to fill a stadium like the good old days.

I guarantee you that this virus will have been forgotten about when Bramley-Moore Dock is opened in 2 - 3 years time.

We may as well just fold without the new stadium. Goodison is a dump now and embarrassing for a club that has been in the top division for years and years.

John's view (#24) is much more realistic and not in the least "overly pessimistic" for you to dismiss it out of hand.

Each to their own. I suppose you are a member of the Johnson & Trump fan club? Each to their own, as I say.

I actually admire Johnson and Trump, two people that have risen to the top armed only with bluff and bluster. I fully expect Trump to be re-elected, Johnson probably not as the Brits are not so easily fooled a second time.

This to me says that the clubs have already received money for matches that have not been played, so in this case I agree with you that there will need to be a payback, rebate, whatever you want to call it.

But not a penalty, or a return of monies paid for games played.

I live in a pro-Republican state and suffered business issues due to the Democrats and Obama and especially Obamacare which virtually put a lot of small and medium-sized businesses out of business and made some crazy policy decisions (IMO) regarding the likes of Iran.

Personally, I admire Trump for the way he has dealt with the economy in particular and is the first person to challenge China for what has been raping the Western economy for decades. In fact, the US economy and unemployment levels have been the best in 50 years under Trump.

Having said that, Trump and to a degree Johnson both make me cringe and the tweets are just insane. On a human level, the man is an egotist and very dictatorial and that is not good.

I am very anti-Democrat – especially against the likes of Pelosi, Schumer and Nadler and the IMO racist Stacy Abrams and Kamala Harris but I cannot see any possibility of Trump being re-elected.

Sorry for stealing a football debate – just wanted to put my tuppence ha'penny out there.

Obamacare didn't put "small and medium sized businesses out of business" in any way, shape or form – when Obama left office, small business was doing better in America than it ever had before. I know, I own one, and most of my friends are small business owners. 2016 was an awesome time to own a small business in this country.

As for the way Trump has "dealt with the economy", maybe you haven't checked the numbers recently. Bleach Boy inherited a thriving economy from Obama. But he promptly exploded the deficit with his tax giveaway to his big-biz friends, plus his economic growth numbers and job growth numbers were never quite up to Obama's, and now of course he has trashed everything with his head-in-the-sand-and-lie handling of the virus crisis. 40 million newly unemployed and hundreds of thousands of businesses lost – which could have been largely avoided (along with a massive loss of life) if he had reacted like other nations did.

As Terry says of Eric, you're entitled to your own opinion but, in the words of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, you're not entitled to your own facts.

I am sorry to disagree with you as we agree on so many other matters but, as someone with over 300 employees at the time of Obamacare, we had to cut back to less than 50 equivalent full-time employees as Obamacare for all employees was simply unaffordable. So he may have helped your business but he certainly did not help mine.

You mention facts not fiction and it is a fact that, just before Covid-19, the US economy and unemployment levels were the best they had been for over 50 years.

Personally, I don't like Trump and I think he is an embarrassment as President of one of the world's leading countries and I do not want or think he will be re-elected but you have to acknowledge some of the things he has improved. And correspondingly, nice guy though he was, you have to acknowledge there were 2 economic slumps under Obama and a lot of wrong policy decisions.

That is not 'malarkey' – that is fact as I have seen it – and I've been here since 2004. I suppose we all have our prejudices and sentiments but that is my objective view.

Yes he's an egotist and dictator, that's probably because he's a businessman, not a politician, and is trying to run the country as a business. So he lacks the diplomatic skills of politicians but doesn't give a fcuk 'cos what he says goes.

Trying to get your head around American demographics is a daunting task, especially as an outsider. There are linkages which generally defy Western European comprehension but much of US politics has been taken over by the right-wing Christians, who incredibly voted for Trump in their swarms – despite his despicable morals. There is no reason to suppose they won't come out again in full support all across Middle America – the so-called red states that hold disproportionate sway in the anachronistic and hugely undemocratic Electoral College.

The Democrats have Joe Bidden. Hardly the kind of charismatic leader needed to oust Donald the Tyrant. I don't think he stands a chance unless there is a huge backlash against Trump. No sign of that but, if they can get their voters to actually turn out and vote, then they have a chance. They did it with Obama, who you'd think would have been universally popular as an articulate intelligent and well-meaning do-gooder after the fashion of earlier more iconic presidents.

What astounded me while living there was the absolute guttural hatred a substantial number of Republican voters I knew had for him. It rarely reached the public arena but was strongly expressed in private. When you listened to this, you couldn't help feeling there was definitely a racist overtone to the tirades.

What is still hard for me to understand is how religious the American people are. A vast number of them got to church every week. The number of churches is just astounding, and the so-called mega-churches that have congregations in their 10s of thousands each week, simply unbelievable.

And the religion they provide is hard-nosed, such a contrast to the European humanism that has taken over (softened?) our traditional religions. In the US, they use their distorted right-wing religion to totally justify things like completely trashing the earth and its resources, ignoring climate change because (a) god has given 'us', his disciples, all this to make the most of, and (b) the Second Coming is imminent and so there's no need to preserve the world for all the heathen lefties who'll be consumed by Armeggdon after The Passion whisks away the righteous ones. Yes, people really believe this stuff...

A fundamental belief in the literal truth of The Bible is central to all this, giving them dominion over women, queers, and of course, slaves. Yes, The Bible is full of stuff about how keeping slaves is just fine... with Jesus not only condoning it but making a disgusting analogy between slaves and their masters, and how his subjects should be beholden to their god. Time to burn down the churches, eh? But you can't because, in the US South especially, they are the refuge of the repressed minorities.

Who was that bloke who talked about the Opiate of the Masses?

And don't forget the xenophobic nationalistic middle America rednecks that are the reason Trump got elected, and will be re-elected.

Those that voted for him before have no reason not to do so again.

As for "Those that voted for him before have no reason not to do so again", you might check this out: https://rvat.org/#homePageStories.

And here are some other folks who never voted Democratic in their lives but have found reason to do so now:

Retired Marine 4-star General James Mattis, Trump's own former Defense Secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership."

Admiral Mike Mullen, another former chairman of the Joint Chiefs: "...[Trump] laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces."

4-star Admiral William McRaven, director of the Osama bin Laden raid: “President Trump has shown he doesn't have the qualities necessary to be a good commander in chief… The country needs to move forward without him at the helm.” To Trump he said: "Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation."

Republicans all.

As for Obama, it was he, not Trump, who was the best economic president since Bill Clinton. The last time a clueless Republican crashed this nation's economy with a lack of response to a sudden crisis -- GW Bush in 2008 with the mortgage meltdown -- it was Obama (with Joe Biden) who repaired the damage in just over a year. We were plummeting into a recession and losing 700,000 jobs a month when he took office. Amazing how quickly he turned that around.

Also, Obama was a better job creator than Trump: (https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/02/07/obamas-last-three-years-of-job-growth-all-beat-trumps-best-year/#5558841a6ba6),
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2019/07/05/trump-is-falling-almost-1-million-jobs-short-vs-obama/#5a2d13fa8caa),
...and a much better wealth creator for the middle class. His GDP growth numbers year-over-year were better than Trump's. And he did it without exploding the deficit as Trump has done -- or lining his own company coffers with our tax dollars as the openly corrupt Trump has done.

As for Obama's policy mistakes, they look like punctuation errors compared to the epically bad decisions and actions Trumputin has taken against his own country's best interests.

I'm genuinely sorry your company was harmed by Obamacare, but there are always going to be winners and losers in any major policy change, and it's a simple fact that small business as a category thrived after Obamacare was implemented. And personally I think it made us a better country. Cutting the number of uninsured Americans by two-thirds and protecting us all against health insurance abuses and restrictions was a good thing for millions of people.

My bet is "four more years".

2008
Q1: The economy shrank 1.8%. Initially, the BEA thought it shrank 0.7%.
Q2: The economy rebounded to 1.3% growth. The initial release said it grew 0.6%. Many people thought the Fed's rescue of Bear Stearns ended the threat to financial markets.
Q3: The economy shrank 3.7%, less than the -4.0% initial estimate.
Q4: The economy collapsed, shrinking 8.9%.44 The BEA initially said it shrank only 3.8%, which seemed bad enough.

2009
Q1: The economy shrank 6.7%. The initial estimate said it shrank 4.9%.
Q2: The initial estimate that the economy contracted by 0.7% was unchanged.
Q3: The economy rebounded to 1.7% growth.
Q4: The positive trend continued, with the economy growing 3.8%.

This was the first 2 years of Obama.

I understand why you do not like Trump and Obama is a very likeable guy. I know who I would rather have a drink with but you cannot claim that Obama's reign wasn't littered with a poor economy and collapse of the housing market and correspondingly you cannot claim that Trump inherited a healthy economy.

I have no doubt you will get your wish in November but I also dread the political manipulation by Pelosi, Schumer and Nadler.

I rest my case.

For a number of years the mantra "a house for all" resulted in people getting loans to buy houses who had no right to do so. There was greed in every sector of a house purchase transaction, from the buyer to the seller, from the mortgage finder to the mortgage lender, to the appraiser saying the house was worth what the buyer was paying, from the agent selling the home to the title insurance company "insuring" that everything was okay.

All of them had a vested interest in making the transaction happen as they had something to gain if it went through. None of them held back as, if the deal fell through, they would get nothing. And by "transaction", I mean that most of these parties walked away after getting their piece of the pie. They were never going to see the buyer again; the buyer was left with his loan being 120% of the purchase price because it was okay to make loans greater than the actual value, loans made without the capacity to repay being properly analyzed and without supporting documentation ("no-doc loan").

And since most of these loans were made at very low "teaser" rates, once the rate adjusted, repayments went up and the borrower did not have the capacity to repay the higher amount.

Please don't blame the Obama administration for these problems that were created under Bush.

Wha?????

Oh, man. I wish you were kidding.

I feel bad about telling you this, but Obama was elected in November 2008.

His first day on the job was January 20, 2009.

All those catastrophic 2008 numbers you just posted were compiled under the disastrous leadership of one George W. Bush. That was the mess Obama had to clean up, beginning three weeks into Q1 2009.

And as you so accurately pointed out, by Q3 2009 he had reversed the disastrous trend left behind by Bush. It was one of the most brilliant (and swift) presidential performances of our lifetime.

Thank you for resting my case.

PS... and of course Obama's point man on getting his fix-it economic policies through Congress in early 2009 was Joe Biden. It's possible there isn't a single politician in America better qualified by raw experience to repair what the Republicans have wrecked (again) than Joe Biden.

Sorry, with respect, you clearly have no understanding of the current American political situation. Biden does have that 'advantage'. He has high respect among the 'black vote', although one of his clumsiest statements this year was when he in effect said that he could count on it.

Trump will lose in November Eric and one of the reasons is that while Hilary did not have the 'black vote' Biden will get a clear majority of it.

Also:

The anti-Hilary hysteria in Republican ranks – and more than a few democratic circles – is nowhere near replicated in the case of Biden. Republican moderates would not vote for Hilary but they will vote for Biden. Michael gave you some elite examples of that – though you, Eric, chose to ignore them. Their voices are vital but the votes of thousands and thousands of disaffected Republicans will cross to the other side.

Michael, in my opinion, gave a somewhat one-dimensional portrait of Republicans. Of course he is right about the excesses of the hard-religious-right and blinded bigots who would vote for Trump if he killed someone on live TV ('Hey, he is the first president to have the balls to do that. He's got balls and my vote').

There are a large number of Republicans who do not associate with the hard-right-religious zealots and their disgusting unquestioned nationalism and racism. There will be many Republicans Michael who will not on, quite frankly, moral as well as political grounds, vote for the most dangerous man on earth. They are embarrassed by the tit-head twitterer as much, if not more, than their lefty neighbours.

Nor should you paint America's middle in broad brush strokes MK. I move between two of those states on a regular basis and I can tell you that it is far more complex than your binary polarity. Trump is in trouble in Illinois and, yes, Iowa. I'll make a bet with Eric that Trump will not win in Iowa for reasons set out in the previous paragraph.

In addition, Trump has not kept his promises to the rust-belt and there is no way that working-class voters there will vote for him in anywhere like the numbers from four years ago.

So, to recap Eric:

Biden will win the 'black vote'. He will get a significant number of moderate Republican votes if they vote (and that too suits Joey). Trump will not win the rust-belt. Biden will win the major cities and suburban women. He will also pick up far more of his primary opponents' votes than Hilary was able to do. It seems evident that the clear majority of young people despise Trump and if they turn out to vote the orange turd is toast.

I might suggest, Eric, that you move out of the orbit of a few friends – friends tend to gravitate together because they share things – and actually engage seriously with American politics IF you want to pronounce on what is a heated cauldron.

Where's Jamie Crowley when you need him? Best wishes, as always, to Brother Mike and Mod. Mike!

What a dreadful comment.

The infection figures coming out of that country really do strike terror.

The people must be at the point of despair. If Jay Wood could see this coming three months ago, millions of others would have seen it too. How the fuck has this been allowed to happen on this scale ?

While other countries are contemplating getting back some semblance of normality, their numbers are sky-rocketing.

Terrifying.