General Premier League Thread 2022-23 - mod note in OP 12/03/23

wonder is it an accountancy thing? Becuse the fee is after January does it count in the Summer window? Maybe it makes no difference. Only reason I can think of for it to be so easily triggered.

Accepting the 90 point plus requirement without addressing the elephant in the room is silly though.

There is very little most teams can do so get 90 plus unless you are city (aot Liverpool striking gold in three seasons).

You state it like it's the new target teams will have to achieve but I doubt anyone other than City ever will.

You can see it in recent posts in their thread. The justifications will be immense. All those years saying all those things about how City were a fake club, etc. Forgotten in the blink of an eye.

You are talking through your butthole to be fair. Fans of all other clubs say that Man City's success is fake because they couldn't have been competitive without that investment and inorganic growth.

Some United fans may have had an issue with the Arab owners from some moral standpoint, and feel free to search through the United thread for posters who both criticised City morally, and are defending the idea of Qatari ownership of United. If you can find those few posters I will certainly support you in calling out that hypocrisy.

Personally, I don't really have any moral issues with that region or any other as I don't demand everywhere to be the same as where I come, or call on them to change according to how my country changes.

As I say the justifications will be immense. It’s now not where City’s money came from, just that they ever had any. And accepting a murderous Qatari regime with open arms is a sign of your enlightenment.

This aspect will be good craic until you realise three sports washing projects are going to be duking it out for all the marbles until the bubble in football pops significantly (and the fourth sports washing entity owned by the same lads who own Utd can meet them in the knockout stages of the CL every so often, fun).

Drumpot, my friend, on this depressing day my quarrel is not with you.

Sportswashing clearly works, when the goal is to deflect news stories away from your murderous regime and gain political favour outside of your home country. In football it also gives you an army of ready made defendants pretty much overnight - look at City fans most recent moment of putting a banner together for the QC defending their owners actions.

If you think these people are pumping billions upon billions into sport for the love of the game, then you’re completely wrong.

Sad thing is United don't even this type of ownership, they have spent more than most clubs over the last decade, it was just spent poorly. Without the debt on the club they are equipped to spend what they want.

It benefits Qatar only as they know it's a huge profile club that took a massive fall and a fan base desperate for success again. The glazers are absolutely despised too so anyone that comes in is a hero.

Same reason they have been trying to buy perennial London losers, Tottenham. Turn a desperate fan base into their undying supporters.

Sports washing in football absolutely works.

Exactly. People who probably didn't know there was a country called Qatar before their World Cup bid have since then been bringing all their crimes to worldwide attention. How does sportswashing work if before you got involved in sports nobody paid any attention, and now they are a murderous regime?

But the Olympics didn't cover up the Holocaust, or the World Cup Putins assasinations.

They might provide a smidge of good publicity in a river of shìt but its still just a river of shìt.

Or am I just greatly overestimating peoples intelligence?

People are talking as if Sheikh Jassim already owns MUFC and has used a few hundred million of his own money to rebuild the squad. Most United fans still want the Ratcliffe bid to be successful. But no matter who the new owner is, the majority of United fans just want the club to be debt free, no huge sums of dividends take out each year, and a board that prioritises footballing success ahead of commercialisation. They don't want a billionaire coming in spending their own personal wealth on signing new players. All they want is to see the profits generated by the club each season invested back into MUFC. So as long as either Jim Rafcliffe or Sheikh Jassim don't start breaking FFP rules, don't use illegal methods to get money into the club, don't "loan" their own money to the club for transfers, then I can't see how the owner of the club would de-value any future success MUFC have on the pitch.

Why wasn't Chelsea bought buy an Arab state? They have the money to blow any US bid out of the water. Big high profile London club up for sale and they didn't win the bid.

Because it's the wrong profile, no disenchanted fan base, an current owner who was adored, plenty of recent success.

They don't buy these clubs for the love of football.

5bn for Manchester united is pocket change compared to the 220bn they just spent on the world cup.