Football 2025-26

[charlierc]

3 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Aaahhh makes sense.

 

Either way he did a brilliant job putting Chelsea on the world map. 

It's interesting to think what the situation would've been had it been Arsenal - they already were an elite level team in 2003, given their 2003/04 was going invincible ofc, and the then-Arsenal chairman has gone on record to say it was a miscommunication to give him the impression they weren't for sale at all.

 

But then we're dealing with alternative football realities. Always an inexact science that one.

[thetime]

23 minutes ago, charlierc said:

It's interesting to think what the situation would've been had it been Arsenal - they already were an elite level team in 2003, given their 2003/04 was going invincible ofc, and the then-Arsenal chairman has gone on record to say it was a miscommunication to give him the impression they weren't for sale at all.

 

But then we're dealing with alternative football realities. Always an inexact science that one.

 

Its interesting, that these multi billionaire owners don't go for the elite top clubs. Say a Utd, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus etc etc. 

 

More about the level or 2 below. Like Chelsea, City, Newcastle, PSG. Project (😬) they can build, so its all about them. 

[charlierc]

16 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Its interesting, that these multi billionaire owners don't go for the elite top clubs. Say a Utd, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus etc etc. 

 

More about the level or 2 below. Like Chelsea, City, Newcastle, PSG. Project (😬) they can build, so its all about them. 

I think some of the complexities with buying Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich make buying them difficult - the Bundesliga's 50+1 rule makes buying one of them outright tricky, while Real and Barcelona are technically fan owned clubs.

 

As for English clubs, the off-putting thing is probably price. Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal are in the billions, whereas Newcastle cost the Saudis about £300mil. To say nothing of all the recent takeovers in lower leagues, for better or worse.

[lost]

Another what if?

 

I think the guy who ended up owner Everton, Usmanov was originally on the board at Arsenal and first tried to wrestle control away from Kroenke. Arsenal fans appeared to back Usmanov as he was richer than Roman and thought they'd get similar spending to Chelsea. Would Arsenal have ended up like Everton when the Ukraine stuff kicked off if he'd of succeeded or would of had an easier transition to new owner like Chelsea?

[thetime]

1 hour ago, lost said:

Would Arsenal have ended up like Everton when the Ukraine stuff kicked off if he'd of succeeded or would of had an easier transition to new owner like Chelsea?

 

They wouldn't have ended up like Everton, no chance. Would of meant a bit closer to United and shared titles out more. 

 

Arsenal have to be the most consistent side of the tradional big clubs. They have only finished outside the top 10 once since 1976.

 

The traditional big clubs when I was growing up in the 80s.

 

Utd

Liverpool

Arsenal  

Spurs

Villa

Everton 

 

Paying for the stadium hindered Arsenal massively at the start of the century. 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2025 by thetime

[rock_on]

A decent if performance in the first half from the lionesses despite going a goal down, could easily be 1-1 if England hadn't scuffed a number of shots wide. We know from earlier in the tournament they're still very much in this at 1-0 down. 

 

Anyone going to predict the TV rating for the match? I'm going to say a peak of 15m so somewhat below the 2022 peak.

[charlierc]

3 hours ago, thetime said:

 

They wouldn't have ended up like Everton, no chance. Would of meant a bit closer to United and shared titles out more. 

 

Arsenal have to be the most consistent side of the tradional big clubs. They have only finished outside the top 10 once since 1976.

 

The traditional big clubs when I was growing up in the 80s.

 

Utd

Liverpool

Arsenal  

Spurs

Villa

Everton 

 

Paying for the stadium hindered Arsenal massively at the start of the century. 

 

 

 

 

It was even suggested during a book on the famed Arsenal Invincibles season in 2003/04 that they had major financial issues during that campaign, hence why they'd been small spenders in the summer of '03 including missing out on a planned move to sign Cristiano Ronaldo.

 

Usmanov is obviously a different case given his shadow financing of Everton unquestionably became a problem for them. Which, in a curious symmetry with this Arsenal situation, even coincided with taking out big money to build a stadium. Difference ofc now is that in the 2020s it's just a lot more f**king expensive to build a new stadium, something Newcastle might find out if an announcement on that ever happens.

[charlierc]

22 minutes ago, rock_on said:

A decent if performance in the first half from the lionesses despite going a goal down, could easily be 1-1 if England hadn't scuffed a number of shots wide. We know from earlier in the tournament they're still very much in this at 1-0 down. 

 

1-1. Game on now.

[thetime]

52 minutes ago, charlierc said:

It was even suggested during a book on the famed Arsenal Invincibles season in 2003/04 that they had major financial issues during that campaign, hence why they'd been small spenders in the summer of '03 including missing out on a planned move to sign Cristiano Ronaldo.

 

Usmanov is obviously a different case given his shadow financing of Everton unquestionably became a problem for them. Which, in a curious symmetry with this Arsenal situation, even coincided with taking out big money to build a stadium. Difference ofc now is that in the 2020s it's just a lot more f**king expensive to build a new stadium, something Newcastle might find out if an announcement on that ever happens.

 

With your finances, why are Newcastle holding back announcing a new stadium? 

[rock_on]

Well done lionesses - doing what the men's team can't; winning trophies!! 

 

You'd expect it to be an absolutely massive TV rating for the penalties as well which is always interesting.

 

 

[steviewevie]

Never in any doubt 

[charlierc]

I've said before that I f**king loved being at Wembley when England won the last Women's Euros final in 2022. Retaining it despite doing every knockout game the hard way has to be respected.

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

 

With your finances, why are Newcastle holding back announcing a new stadium? 

No idea. Same with the new training ground, one that still looks to be using the same facilities as were there in 2005.

[thetime]

17 minutes ago, charlierc said:

No idea. Same with the new training ground, one that still looks to be using the same facilities as were there in 2005.

 

Missing a trick one might say. One aspect that got city's owners major brownie points, was regenerating there part of Manchester. 

[lost]

It does seem to be so important in modern football regarding the infrastructure around the stadium generating other revenue on a match day and FFP. Alot of West Ham fans are saying they'd of been better off paying for their own stadium rather than signing the deal they have for the olympic one.

[rock_on]

13 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Missing a trick one might say. One aspect that got city's owners major brownie points, was regenerating there part of Manchester. 

 

The proposed site for the new stadium is one of Newcastle's important parks/green spaces so I think there may be some snags arising from that and the council delaying any go ahead for them to build on the proposed site. 

[charlierc]

On 27/07/2025 at 17:53, rock_on said:

Anyone going to predict the TV rating for the match? I'm going to say a peak of 15m so somewhat below the 2022 peak.

Peak from BBC and ITV combined was about 16.2 million. Not far off tbf.

[charlierc]

10 hours ago, lost said:

It does seem to be so important in modern football regarding the infrastructure around the stadium generating other revenue on a match day and FFP. Alot of West Ham fans are saying they'd of been better off paying for their own stadium rather than signing the deal they have for the olympic one.

I mean I'm aware West Ham have a long, long, long list of complaints about agreeing to the Olympic Stadium deal.

 

The original sin there is the fact it was commissioned in 2007 to be a pure athletic stadium with a sub-30k capacity after the Olympics then Boris Johnson decided it should instead be a massive football stadium after construction began and shamed Spurs out of their plans to demolish it when the Olympics were done.

[rock_on]

There should be a rule that football cannot be played in stadiums with athletic tracks. 

[Skip997]

Madness going on a Liverpool. Going after Isak when we’ve got plenty of attacking players. Desperately need central defenders 

[rock_on]

So glad the football season proper kicks off on Friday at 8pm - been missing domestic football over the summer. 

 

8pm on Sky Sports Main Event for Luton Town v AFC Wimbledon

[Neil]

congratulations to the FA for not making the lionesess's celebration completely naff!

[rock_on]

1 hour ago, Neil said:

congratulations to the FA for not making the lionesess's celebration completely naff!

 

The BBC did their best to make it look naff. At least it's finally all over and we can focus on the domestic men's football for the next few years until everybody suddenly becomes a fan of women's football for the 2027 World Cup.

 

Speaking of World Cups does anybody know when the kick off times are going to be released for group stage matches for 2026, presumably after the draw is made in December so they can optimise for television audiences in different parts of the world? Going to be some very late night/very early morning kick off times you'd imagine. 

[Neil]

12 minutes ago, rock_on said:

everybody suddenly becomes a fan of women's football for the 2027 World Cup.

years ago, i used to occasionally watch the womens fa cup final, but used to find the play too ponderous to keep my interest. the quality is hugely improved on what it used to be and i really enjoyed the euros games i saw.

[Alvoram]

2 minutes ago, Neil said:

years ago, i used to occasionally watch the womens fa cup final, but used to find the play too ponderous to keep my interest. the quality is hugely improved on what it used to be and i really enjoyed the euros games i saw.

I never watched until England's recent successes in previous tournaments. But I agree entirely with you, I had no issue with the quality of football on display and I have enjoyed the games I've seen.

But then I'm a lower league supporter anyway. We were league 1 a couple of years ago. 😂

I also agree the celebrations looked fantastic, wish I could have been there.