Football

[paultheeagle]

Gateshead F.C have frozen their season ticket prices at last years price. Have any other teams?

Yes...The Palace did....Next season Palace fans will have Premiership football for Championship prices.

Well we did it....What a fantastic achievement it is, just three years ago we nearly went out of business, saved at the last minute by our current owners..God Bless 'em...They are all English to...a rare thing in the Premier League these days....Nobody gave us a chance before the game, including me, but once again our team proved all the doubters wrong....This Roller Coaster of a football club goes marching on.....we are simply the best.

I think I might have got the Premier League wrong....Judging by the happiness and joy our promotion has given to so many people it appears that the challenge of trying to become an established club in the top flight is one worth taking on. We have sensible owners who are also Palace fans and they won't chuck millions of pounds they can't afford at trying to stay in the Premier League but will rely on sensible signings and our Youth Academy to produce a team that can compete at this level....We want to do a West Brom or Swansea not a QPR or Portsmouth.

Thank you all for your congratulations and best wishes.

[paultheeagle]

By the way....I have been away for a few days and I watched the game in a pub in Skegness on Sky with a couple of Chelsea fans, a nutter from Sunderland and 12 Leicester fans....Everyone of them wanted Palace to win ....

Not sure why

[gfwgfw]

Nah - disagree gfw - without Roman Chelsea would not be playing professional football today.

Tinker, yes, correct

I have really enjoyed Chelsea rising from the ashes, and applaud their record of achievements

However, Roman's hiring and firing ploys are tantamount to a very spoilt "thingy" and today announcement has gone well beyond the pale

Kindly

Graham

[Manoverboard]

By the way....I have been away for a few days and I watched the game in a pub in Skegness on Sky with a couple of Chelsea fans, a nutter from Sunderland and 12 Leicester fans....Everyone of them wanted Palace to win ....

Not sure why

I watched it with the other 54,988 Leicester City fans and they were absolutely gutted

[oldbluefox]

With good reason!!! Bl**dy Watford!!

[paultheeagle]

With good reason!!! Bl**dy Watford!!

Note to mods.....can you please stop censoring the bloody word.....I have got a feeling I might be using it a lot next season.

Thank you.



I am watching England v Italy in the Under 21 European Cup.....where's our Wilf....That Stuart Pearce is bruddy useless.

Our Clyne is playing though.

[Quizzical Bob]

With good reason!!! Bl**dy Watford!!

Note to mods.....can you please stop censoring the bl**dy word.....I have got a feeling I might be using it a lot next season.

Thank you.



I am watching England v Italy in the Under 21 European Cup.....where's our Wilf....That Stuart Pearce is bruddy useless.

Our Clyne is playing though.

You Clyne? I think you'll find he's ours now.

[Manoverboard]

Are you all poised to watch the destruction of the best footballing team, the most inovative and exciting, the highest scoring in all the Leages etc etc ... in the Championship, but not yet the World ?

Loan loophole set to be closed ... tomorrow, thanks Olly

[paultheeagle]

Are you all poised to watch the destruction of the best footballing team, the most inovative and exciting, the highest scoring in all the Leages etc etc ... in the Championship, but not yet the World ?

Loan loophole set to be closed ... tomorrow, thanks Olly

That is extremely good news for all those English Clubs wanting to produce young, skillful English players..There are enough jonny foreigners in the Premier League, we don't want to many of them in the Football League. A few can enhance our game, teach youngsters new skills but if every club went down Watford's route where would that leave English players..

That was Holloway's point, not that Watford had done anything wrong, they hadn't, no rules were broken, they found a loophole in the rules and went for it.... It so nearly worked for them......Bruddy Palace.

[Manoverboard]

Paul ... sorry, but I genuinely believe that it is bad news.

I do not believe in protectionism on the football field nor at any other place of work because it can only lead to falling standards and a reduction in skill levels ... at that point the fans walk away from the game and watch La Liga etc on TV. Sky win and the smaller local teams go out of business.

The footballer of old had a hunger in his belly and used the game the lift himself out of the gutter, that no longer applies here in the UK cos they're too soft and victims of the Nanny State although the Academies do a decent enough job.

The England Team right now cannot find a striker ... what is that all about ?

Coming back to Watford ... the only winner in this is moanin Olly, that is NOT the way to achieve excellence in any sport.

He'll no doubt be spoutin on for only having a set niumber of players in a Club who were born within 10 miles of the Club next ... the guys a Luddite, albeit a colourful one.

[oldbluefox]

I don't approve of bands of loanees anyway. It seems to me that wealthy Premier teams now scoop up the best of the talent in UK, and abroad, into their 'Academies'. This provides them with a relatively cheap way of bringing on home grown talent who are then loaned out to lower league teams to polish up their progress. The greater majority of these lads never make the first team of their clubs and ultimately end up on the scrap heap or in the lower leagues.

This has effectively taken away the revenue stream for our lower league clubs who relied on developing young talent which they, in turn, sold on to the bigger clubs. As the cream of the country's talent has already been creamed off by the big clubs the raw talent they are left with will never command high fees.

The whole system is skewed in favour of the Premier league and whilst we hear much about the youth policies of the big clubs much has been achieved at the expense of the smaller ones. Reduce the number of loanees any club can have on its books and they will have to rely on developing their own talent. Whilst a loan is a good example of 'try before you buy' it should never be used to prop up a team. Clubs have to be able to develop in their own rite.

As for Watford the owners found a loophole and exploited it. They did nothing wrong, apart from nick a play-off final place from us where we would have given Palace a better run for their money than they did.

[Manoverboard]

... As for Watford ... They nick (ed) a play-off final place from us where we would have given Palace a better run for their money than they did.

Spot on young man

If Watford had been promoted to the Prem, no thanks to Olly, they wouldn't have a team, thanks to Olly, so would not have been able to compete at the highest level ... as it is they may also struggle, thanks again to Olly, in the Championship next season.

.... and that means only one thing ... the Foxes may get their six points back.

[oldbluefox]

The thing is this was not a football situation. It was a business venture dreamt up by the Pozzos who, no doubt, had some very astute lawyers and accountants to exploit the rules. Had Watford got into the Premiership I have no doubt they would have become the premier team in the Pozzos portfolio and monies would have been invested.

I query the wisdom of allowing owners to own multiple football clubs and using one to nurture the other. This looks like a worrying trend which, again, will harm the smaller clubs.

[Manoverboard]

Interesting point that,

Several years ago Jose M was talking about having his Chelsea Team in the Prem and a Reserve Chelsea Team playing in one of the lower Leagues.

Why not ... they could be called Watord and the fans would surely adopt them as their own.

Who owns what is meaningless be it a bunch of Pozzos, Nick the Greek or Elton John surely and especially in different Countries ?

[oldbluefox]

Multiple ownership can only work when interests in one team are not to the detriment of other teams they own.

[paultheeagle]

English football should be played by English players....We will never do anything at International level because there are too many foreigners playing over here taking the place of a homegrown player....A few I can except, they can enhance the game.....But a whole team...no.

A number of smaller clubs survive because they scout talented young players and nurture them and develop their skills..They then sell them on to bigger richer clubs..The Premier League want to stop that, only paying a nominal capped amount for young talent...Small clubs invest a lot of money in their Academies and the Premier League, that generates millions, want those players on the cheap.

[paultheeagle]

I found this interesting...........http://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/article/pala ... 57632.aspx

So we are now part of the elite...officially selfish greedy bar stewards....I am excited about next season but.....

[qbman1]

You'll forgive me if I don't share your enthusiasm PTE. I have enough of the over-inflated hype about overpaid oiks being rammed down our throats for 10 months of the year so I am savouring the break !

[Manoverboard]

Interesting link that Paul, had no idea that the Clubs held ' shares ' in the FA.

I certainly felt sorry for your 91 year old Groundsman who died two days before Palace beat Watford ... but I don't feel at all sorry for that scroat Olly and all that's coming his way over the next 12 months.

[oldbluefox]

57 days to the new season.

[Manoverboard]

STOP PRESS

Loop Hole is Closed .

Well done Olly thanks a bunch.

[Mo2013]

You'll forgive me if I don't share your enthusiasm PTE. I have enough of the over-inflated hype about overpaid oiks being rammed down our throats for 10 months of the year so I am savouring the break !

Ooh dear me. A trifle harsh perhaps? Most people in life will try and get as much money as they can. From the Oxford English Dictionary: oick, oik (OIk). slang. Etym. obscure. Depreciatory schoolboy word for a member of another school; an unpopular or disliked fellow-pupil. Also gen., an obnoxious or unpleasant person; in weakened senses, a 'nit-wit', a 'clot'. Hence 'oikish a., unpleasant, crude; 'oickman (see quot. 1925).

[paultheeagle]

STOP PRESS

Loop Hole is Closed .

Well done Olly thanks a bunch.

Wrong MoB....Well done Olly.....and it seems the other 70 clubs in the Football League agree with him......It looks as if football owes our Olly a great deal...or at least six points when we return to the Championship.

"English Football League clubs voted unanimously on Friday to bring rules for international loans into line with domestic arrangements, closing a loophole that had allowed Watford to bring in 10 players from Italian side Udinese."

Me thinks Watfordiudinasee are sulking and want to take their ball home.

[Manoverboard]

Paul ... if you knew me at all you would know that I do not ' do ' sulking.

Until February 2013 nobody had even given it a thought but then ' Showman Olly ' who thought he was facing a right thumping that afternoon poured his little heart out on Live SKY TV.

I have no issue at all with the correction to the Regulation, nor I am certain will Watford FC, but Olly lost a lot of respect that afternoon like a schoolboy does by telling tales out of class. The vote today went his way but I doubt he won too much personal support.

[The Tinker]

Oi you lot leave me old mate Olly alone - still has a big presence in his old home town and the nicest guy and family man you could meet. (On a football note - you can tell I don't follow footie as I thought it was still with Blackpool )