We are surely setting to need a sale before the end of the current accounting period, whether January or June. And I’m not very clear on the rules for Europe but, from the bits I’ve read, we are definitely going to breach this year. Albeit the initial punishment seems to be a fine - it’s only after a few years you get into Villa’s position of being unable to sign anyone.
I miss the old days, where between the matches we used to talk about players, how to set up, and general football stuff, rather than spreadsheets and psycho-drama.
Pretty sure we always talked about psycho-drama. Maybe a bit less about spreadsheets but we had to sell Peter Davenport to pay for the Exec Stand, money has always been a factor.
I agree, to a degree. There was always an issue around the size of the club, income, and how investment vs the team was managed. What there used to be was a broad parity in wages and the ability to make transfers. So success largely came down to sporting matters. The difference now is that we live in a post financial doping era, where the intent was to place competitive squad building out of reach of the many, and a set of rules enacted to ensure the ladder is well and truly withdrawn (not just things like psr but also reduced compo for the nicking of academy players, disproportionate real terms reduction in prize money/exposure for competitions that all teams have access to, failure to enforce competition rules, different financial rules for new investors over existing owners, allowing multi-club ownership and turning a blind eye to rule evasion using it, media prioritisation of a small cohort of clubs to their financial and exposure benefit, and countless other major and micro-measures).
You don't sell Davo now to build a stand and increase your turnover to impact your competitive status. You sell him because you broadly have no choice, and you can't replace him like for like.
I’m still not massively sure I’m over us selling Prutton to Southampton and Gareth Williams walking out to join those cheating cunts on a free. Football fans have always loved psycho-drama, it’s just evolved.
Oh, the glorious years of Doughty austerity. Loved on these boards as much as the Starmer austerity of today. The gradual demise of everything. How fun that was.