MW May 6-8: God save the King, we mean it maaaannn

Cellar-Door

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Aug 1, 2006
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Every replay I’ve seen makes it worse - what possible reason could there be for not giving it?
Because it's a "top 6" side against a team that isn't. We have more than enough evidence to know that the FA strongly favors the traditional moneymaker clubs at all levels in refereeing and discipline
 

the1andonly3003

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Jul 15, 2005
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Not at all. Burnley has a crazy ownership structure with a number of investors owning a piece of the holding company Burnley FC LLC, but the biggest is American hedge fund magnet Alan Pace (89%). Pace loaded £90m in debt on to the club to make the purchase, a controversial move since Burnley had been one of the best run clubs in the EPL. They had by far the best profit to expense ratio In the EPL during their last stretch in the league. The football might have been boring, but the business was the envy of every non-mega-club.

The debt hasn’t stopped the club from investing in the squad, as evidence of their fantastic season. Getting back in the EPL will do a lot to service that debt as will adding more investors.

JJ and Kealia are definitely high profile investors and JJ’s name will certainly help market the club in the US. In their statement last week, Kealia said she’s very interested in Burnley’s women’s side. I doubt that’d she’d actually drop down to the English third tier to play for them while she still good enough to play NWSL/WSL ball. But having a high profile investor care about the women’s side is a big help.
Perhaps following the league for the last 10 years has made me a snooty fan. Not sure I want to listen to JJ Watt tell us he is going to put Burnley on the map in the US (he does have the physique of Atlas, so he quite possibly could carrying the town across the Atlantic and drop it in middle America)
 

67YAZ

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Dec 1, 2000
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Perhaps following the league for the last 10 years has made me a snooty fan. Not sure I want to listen to JJ Watt tell us he is going to put Burnley on the map in the US (he does have the physique of Atlas, so he quite possibly could carrying the town across the Atlantic and drop it in middle America)
Gonna guess the Watts didn’t invest enough to put a lot of direct effort into the club. Lebron bought 2% of Liverpool 7 years ago. There’s been some Lebron x Liverpool merch, but I can’t remember any specific FaceTime he’s put into the club.

For the Watts, they get a toe dipped in sport ownership, something I’m sure they are interested in. But like maybe we get the Watts to show up at an NBC Fanfest and a random match at Turf Moor here and there.

It’s be a lot more fun if they bought into a rugby club and JJ produced a web series of him learning to play.
 

Mighty Joe Young

The North remembers
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Sep 14, 2002
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Stewart Atwell (the VAR) ref should be fired. His reasoning on the non- hand ball call was his hand was “within the body line”. If that was true he could have caught the ball and it wouldn’t be hand ball. He could reach out and intercept any cross as long as his hand was in front of him. To top it off Lindelof moved his hand toward the ball - and outside his body line. Where do they get these clowns?
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Apr 15, 2006
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They’re more interested in proving how hard refereeing is than they are in calling the game correctly.
 

the1andonly3003

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Jul 15, 2005
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Chicago
Gonna guess the Watts didn’t invest enough to put a lot of direct effort into the club. Lebron bought 2% of Liverpool 7 years ago. There’s been some Lebron x Liverpool merch, but I can’t remember any specific FaceTime he’s put into the club.

For the Watts, they get a toe dipped in sport ownership, something I’m sure they are interested in. But like maybe we get the Watts to show up at an NBC Fanfest and a random match at Turf Moor here and there.

It’s be a lot more fun if they bought into a rugby club and JJ produced a web series of him learning to play.
Probably a number of appearances on PL Live. Listening to Mustoe ask Watt a real football question was cringeworthy today.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
Leicester look like a side resigned to going down. With Liverpool, at Newcastle, and a resurgent West Ham after today, you have to figure they're only taking 0-3 more points.
been saying this for a while. LEI dont give a fuck. many valid criticisms of Everton but they are fighting.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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Jul 2, 2006
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5-2 Fulham now.

It was during that stirring 5-3 win against Van Gaal's United in early 2014, with the Foxes coming back from 3-1 down and Vardy torturing United all day and hitting his first ever PL goal, that Leicester really announced themselves in the league. It feels like this 5-2 drubbing is sort of the poetic bookend to their PL era.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
5-2 Fulham now.

It was during that stirring 5-3 win against Van Gaal's United in early 2014, with the Foxes coming back from 3-1 down and Vardy torturing United all day, that Leicester really announced themselves in the PL. It feels like this 5-2 drubbing is sort of the poetic bookend to their PL era.
thats really sad
 

swiftaw

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Jan 31, 2009
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Everton score after 35 seconds against Brighton. Can they hold on for the other 89 minutes.
 

Royal Reader

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Sep 21, 2005
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UK
It is, to be honest. They had fantastic achievements and the shine on that PL title will last forever but its kind of sobering that you can win the league, win the FA Cup, be a top 5-6 side for a good stretch, and still find yourself going down within a couple years.
Eight years or so seems to be the wall in terms of prem participation for clubs from medium sized provincial cities with home supports in the high 20ks. Really, you have the Sky Six, Newcastle, Villa, Everton (I know, I know) and West Ham, then about thirty clubs who think their natural level is the Premier League (some of whom haven't seen it in twenty years). Leicester are one of those, but sometimes we think that a great few years resets the fundamental math.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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What a huge result for Everton if they can see this through.

One more win takes them to 35 points, which would almost certainly be enough.

Even one draw and two non-terrible losses in their last three matches would give them 33 and likely a better GD than Leeds or Forest, which might see them through given how some of the other sides are playing.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
What a huge result for Everton if they can see this through.

One more win takes them to 35 points, which would almost certainly be enough.

Even one draw and two non-terrible losses in their last three matches would give them 33 and likely a better GD than Leeds or Forest, which might see them through given how some of the other sides are playing.
Yep.

best I’ve felt in awhile