By Tony Attwood
Since we saw Arsenal losing the Champions League final we have had the most incredible parade through north London, defeats to Girona, Betis and Dortmund, and a draw againsts Cesc’s team. Not the best of outcomes, but quite watchable.
Meanwhile, five players are noted as incoming (including one from the under 21s) for a total price of €176.50m. They are
| Players | Club | Transfer Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Bruno Guimarães | Newcastle United | €87.50m |
| Piero Hincapié | Leverkusen | €49.00m |
| Christos Tzolis | Club Brugge | €40.00m |
| Illan Meslier | Leeds United | Free transfer |
| Tommy Setford | Arsenal U21 | – |
The total cost is established at €176.50m, while we have four players listed as leaving Arsenal for a total of €46.15m…
| Players | Club | Income |
|---|---|---|
| Leandro Trossard | Besiktas | €18.00m |
| Jakub Kiwior | Porto | €17.00m |
| Christian Nørgaard | Everton | €8.15m |
| Karl Hein | Werder Bremen | €3.00m |
And meanwhile to our meanwhile, the media pound away with more and more and more names of players we should be signing, and there can be little doubt that if we get a couple of less-than-exciting results in early matches we shall be told that… everything was foretold through media commentaries during the close season, and it’s all our fault, and really we should have sacked the manager for not taking their advice. Or something like that.
Of course the window still rumbles along open, and the media refuse to go back and remind us of the 97% of the transfer projections they got wrong, presumably on the basis that it was all Arsenal’s fault for not following their advice in the first place. In othere words, a pre-season as per normal.
Meanwhile, Manchester City have seven arrivals (of which two are players returning from loans)…
| Players | Club | TransferFee |
|---|---|---|
| Elliot Anderson | Nottingham Forest | €135.00m |
| Mathys Detourbet | Troyes | €25.00m |
| Jeremy Monga | Leicester City | €11.70m |
| Pierce Charles | Sheffield W | €3.50m |
| Gerónimo Rulli | Marseille | €2.00m |
| Pierce Charles | Queens Park R | End of loan |
| Max Alleyne | Burnley | End of loan |
And they have said farewell to no fewer than nine players who they had on loan and have now handed back.
But surely the main issue with the Mancs is that the case brought againsts them by the Premier League has still not reached a resolution. And it is surely worth asking the simple question, why is this….
The possible answers are:
- The case really is so phenomenally complicated that the lawyers are still working their way through the evidence
- The League has told ManC that the club has lost every aspect of the case, and that working on a modest punishment for each offence, the overall punishment is ejection from the League, or at the very least to the Conference. In return, the club has said, “if you impose that, we will sue you for so much that you would never even be able to pay the legal fees, let alone win the case, so the league will sink.
- ManC has said that they will accept a guilty verdict and a modest points deduction, provided it doesn’t take them out of the Champions League (so no more than 18 points), meaning they can continue in the forthcoming season in the Champions League and simply be shown as 5th instead of 2nd for last season. But the league has said no, that is far too lenient, and the two sides are stuck at that position.
- The League are themselves mindful of being sued by Manchester City and so are willing to impose a “fine” of money rather than points, but in consultation with other clubs have been told that anything less than a removal of Mancheseter City from the Premier League for at least a handful of seasons (for example by banishing them to League Two) will lead to a revolt by other Premier League clubs and they have suggested they will resign from the Premier League en masse. In reply, the league has pointe out that Premier League Rule B.7, makes it clear that no less than three seasons’ notice must be given for the clubs to announce that they will resign. The clubs have agreed and announced that they will all give notice to quit in three years time the moment the fine is announced. Fearful of losing all their clubs except one, the management committee of the league has failed to announce the “fine”.
- With the various “solutions” above all reaching a point from which neither side will move, the League on one hand and the ManCs on the other have agreed to a cooling-off period which comes to an end later this forthcoming season. If no agreement is reached at that point, the League will announce its result, and ManC will announce their reply.
- Meanwhile ManC have been considering setting up their own league made up of clubs with sponsorship arrangements as large as those seen through ManC. It would be an international league and would demand recognition from Uefa as a League in its own right, even though it is spread across various countries. ManC have told the rest of Europe that this will happen, and as a result, no clubs other than those in the new “open sponsorship” league, as it is called, will be allowed in. This new league will thus dominate all of football, including the existing European competitions such as the Champions League.
- Analyses of the likely outcome of this process have been sent to leading clubs across Europe with projections of how their income will collapse once the Open Sponsorship League is established, given that the Open Sponsorship League will have deals with all TV networks which preclude the networks showing matches from other leagues.
- The European Union establishes that the action of the Open Sponsorship League is itself anti-competitive and thus bans clubs based in the EU from playing any Open Sponsorship League clubs.
- The UK, being outside the EU, is not covered by the ban in point 8 and so is able to show Open Sponsorship League matches on TV – these games being scheduled exactly at the same time as matches from what remains of the Premier League
- The development of an anti-gravity engine which can power everything from cars to stations that provide heat and light makes oil irrelevant, and the countries that have depended on oil exports find themselves without influence in Europe. Clubs that have joined their Open Sponsorship League are unable to find any new league to play in, and close down. Football returns to where it was, except for those clubs that chose to follow the oil companies and their sponsorship. They go into liquidation.
