In what was a huff and puff backs to the wall season for us we managed to scrape together 40 points
In the Premiership Watford finished 48 points behind Man City
It's a great article. I suppose it's all about what you want from football. When I go to NYS, I'm looking forward to meeting up with mates, an entertaining game and hopefully 3 points or a good draw against a bigger club - probably in that order. I always remember the unenthusiastic reception that Sterling's first goal received at the Etihad in their 7-0 demolition of us. To me that summed up the problem with upper Premier League football - for the Man City fans there was no excitement, no passion and no point in being there unless you were into sadistic executions. Give me a couple of pints in the NY Tavern, an end-to-end match and an injury time winner any day!
In what was a huff and puff backs to the wall season for us we managed to scrape together 40 points
In the Premiership Watford finished 48 points behind Man City
They'll probably win it next year.
Frog, I don't claim to expertise and my JH comment was slightly t-in-c. However, I don't think misbalance in wealth per se is the main problem. What we have seen is a situation similar to that experienced in Europe when Spain began to import vast amounts of gold and silver from the Americas which led in part to rapid inflation and social dislocation. The prime problem in football imo derives from TV (and overseas merchandising) money which has fed through to ridiculous player wages and transfer fees.
Btw Frog, just to get some context: I know many on here don't rate snooker, calling it a pub game etc. But with snooker there's no hiding, no subjectivity as you can see average breaks per player, numbers of centuries, number of 147s, ranking tournaments won etc. Now quite a few people think that Ronnie O'Sullivan is a genius and that Hendry, Trump, Higgins, Selby, Robertson and Ding are pretty good too. Yet only one player has career earnings over £10m and he's been playing at the top for 25 years, only one player has once earned more than £1m in a year and the average yearly earnings of the top 5 players (£5-600K) - players who I suspect have a higher international profile than most footballers is less than that of many bog standard Championship footballers. Wages in football are just stupid.
A very skillful sport however there are no sliding tackles and a diving header could see you with a dinted head.
The one quote that I hear said and used too often to justify the high wages is that it's a short career. What a load of crap that is because they don't lose the use of their limbs when they finish and could take up a ob with the rest of us.
There is a coach in the game that has earned more in the last two years than he did in his entire playing career.