The Premier League - 2020/21 - All Match Discussion In Here

Liverpool are going to bloody steal 4th spot aren't they ? ****s.....

 

Flam are flocked I think

 

"Poor old Fulham".

 

I hope we are having a look at some of Fulham's players, they may not be much of a team, but they have a few decent individual players that might fit into our team.

 

Nah, Utd will play their 2nd string tonight vs Leicester in order to have the 1st team back for Pool.

 

The media narrative of how we, Norwich (and maybe Bournemouth) are being promoted back because of parachute payments is really gathering steam now. I don't quite think it's ever been mentioned so much, if Muff come up it will go off the scale. I'm not exactly sure what the reasoning is, Covid? An agenda of sorts? It is true to some extent? I'm not sure.

This article on Fulham's relegation highlights the story that's being promoted generally now, both in written and vocal media.

"The parachute money does count - two of the teams that got relegated [in 2019-20] kept their squad and that's propelled them back into the Premier League," said former England midfielder Karen Carney on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Feels like a simplistic sweeping statement this. Ok we kept Sarr, but we moved on our best Premier League players for sure! Lazy punditry as usual.

 

It’s rubbish. Its relatively rare for relegated clubs to bounce straight back, the only reason we kept more of our players was Covid not parachute payments. And Covid has naturally hit championship clubs more because they’ve lost their main source of income.

It’s such a reductive argument though anyway, without PP you’d have a horrendous standard of premier league outside the big teams, but you’d still get the same disparity in the championship because any newly promoted team would do a Norwich as they couldn’t risk gambling to stay up. The teams that got relegated would still have pots of cash from that years prize money, as they would be far less likely to have risked spending any of it.

With the structure of things now then parachute payments are a necessary evil for all clubs, inclusive of those like Brentford who presumably have designs on being an established PL club one day.

Until such time the gap between 20th and 21st is dramatically equalised then they’re completely necessary.

Anyway, what relevance have parachute payments got if Bournemouth go up? Brentford finished a full 10 points ahead of them. It doesn’t make any sense other than being a ready made excuse for failure.

 

For me it's part lazy punditry and part the fact there's an agenda amongst some Championship to do away with them at the moment.

I've no great attachment to parachute payments but don't see anyone proposing tangible alternatives about how to bridge the gap between the Championship and the PL for newly promoted clubs. The fact is unless a club is bankrolled by a chairman with a nine figure bank balance it wouldn't be able to build a squad in the summer of promotion that could compete at PL level. Get rid of them and you'll end up with more Norwich 19/20 (no significant expenditure) or Fulham this year (matchday squad packed full of loans) type flops. Parachute payments aren't a charity thing or a kickback to former mates - they were invented by the PL itself as a way to try to boost competitiveness.

Plus nothing would be said about parachute payments if it was, say, Villa, Leeds and Newcastle coming back up after a year in the Championship. We all know that. It's the usual elitism shining though. You can't have clubs like Watford or Bournemouth artificially (in their eyes) above their assigned station and so reasons must be found and loopholes must be shut.

 

Really good point that last one and very likely spot on. Ourselves Norwich and Bournemouth are operating at a higher level than the likes of Derby and Sheffield Wednesday and that can only be for one reason, the system has favoured us not because we’ve earned it.

The stupid thing for me is that parachute payments don’t make the league uncompetitive to the point clubs without them risk relegation, and there is no extra money for places in the championship. So the clubs who are against them can only be against them on the basis that it makes promotion harder for them, but if they have designs in promotion what do they think will happen without them if and when they get it?

In the absence of any viable alternatives, surely it’s better to have a system that possibly makes promotion a tiny bit harder, but survival when you get there that much easier, and relegation of it happens not a death sentence to your club?

Seems massively short sighted to me, and driven mostly be jealousy rather than common sense and any long term ambition.

 

There seem to be three camps and it's a bit of an unholy alliance at the moment.

1. The Brentfords of this world. They will need parachute payments when they get there and will no doubt willingly accept and spend them, but for now it distracts their fans to waffle on about them rather than their squad of bottlers. Funny but essentially hypocrites.

2. The Derbys and Nottingham Forests. The biggest group at Championship level. They see themselves as PL clubs being denied their birthright, despite the fact they keep blowing vast amounts of money on players and managers to finish in the bottom half most years, and delude themselves that they could survive without parachute payments if they went up because they're so mahusive.

3. The League 1/2 clubs. The ones I have the most sympathy for but even they're deluding themselves in a way if they think abolishing parachute payments is going to lead to anything other than the PL pocketing the cash for its own clubs.

 

The fact that parachute payments have been around for quite a while, & it's only now that some people are whinging about them, tells me all I need to know. People who don't want the likes of us (and probably Narrch) in the Prem thought they'd got rid of us and are p1ssed off that we're back, and fans of Championship clubs who see themselves as better than us are looking for excuses for their own failures.

Just ignore them. That's what I do.

 

Quite, and as far as I can see these clubs and their fans can moan about it all they want, but it’s down to the PL to pay them and I can’t see where the incentive is for them to stop, as it would surely devalue their product. There was a reason they were brought in and that reason hasn’t changed. The PL has gone from strength to strength in that time and a major factor of that has surely been the league being more competitive, not less.

 

In the last ten years they overlook the fact that as well as us QPR*, Hull*, Burnley*, Palace, Swansea, Norwich*, Southampton, Bournemouth, Leeds, Cardiff*, Brighton, Fulham*, Wolves and anyone else I've forgotten have all gone up without parachute payments.

* First time.

Just because two returned automatically, which is rare, some clubs have got the hump, they overlooked the fact that Covid probably gave us a bit more of an advantage. But as Milton Dammers quite rightly pointed out, it was in Brentford's hands a couple of months ago and they failed to keep up their momentum, however I don't believe Brentford themselves are complaining, it's more like the fans and media.

 

All the gushing over City now they’ve clinched the league. They’re owned by a country FFS.

 

I’m sure Klopp will take it with his typical good grace....

 

I’m not one to come on here and rave about Leicester stuff but if you’ve not seen Luke Thomas’s volley against Manure last night it’s worth checking out. Fabulous goal.

 

Enjoy yourself Filbert Fancy Fox!

 

It was a thing of beauty tbf. Didn't panic and hit the only spot where it would go in.

Best of luck for Saturday.

 

That goal gets better with every view

 

Are you still in touch with your vulpine friend?

 

Yes!
He's doing well.
He received a 'bark box' goodie bag from me last month!
He's at Critter Creek in Florida.

 

Thank you, I’m not feeling at all hopeful about it so I intend to be very well oiled by kick off.

Fair play to him, only 19 and he told Jamie Vardy to get out of his way! Such a clever way of placing the volley. Him and Soyuncu have been pretty wretched recently but they certainly came up with the goods last night. Still sweating on a CL place with Liverpool looming...

 

How lovely! Hope it included a half and half scarf and a clapper for the cup final.

 

Almost certainly and the squeaky toy was the deluxe Frank Worthington version!

 

Yah come on you super gunner gooners!

 

I think I"d rather CFC win.
I'm enjoying the forlorn,gloomy visages of all the North London fans at Hoddesdon in equal measure.
Nothing against FFF,naturally.

 

Yep, credit to the ref for playing advantage. I'm sure he would've pulled play back & given an indirect free kick in the box had they not scored.