Personally, part of me wants UEFA to dare to ban us and we then take the whole FFP thing to the courts. Would a judge rule that such an anti-competitive set of rules are legal ? FFP was brought in to maintain the status quo so the elite old guard can't be challenged by ambitious others - like us. The other part of me worries about Pep and top players in their prime leaving.The Der Spiegel stories seemed to indicate that they wouldn't challenge the Etihad one but that the Aabar & Etisalat ones were over-valued (in their opinion). But they also claimed that all these were related parties whereas our view was that they weren't. Had they not changed the rules, as I said earlier, then we'd still have failed but the battle would have been to claim mitigation under Annex XI & the battle over who was or wasn't a related party would probably have ended up in court. By changing the rules on the application of Annex XI they avoided that battle.
Pep seems pretty sure we’re not in trouble
I suspect he’s privvy to facts and conversations that aren’t in the public domain that mean it’s all bollocks
Yes it is shit at the moment. They are going after us for something that may or may not have happened years ago. When this is finished they have nothing left. They can play city bingo all they want. It won’t change a thing. They have nothing left to beat us with. The bingo will get boring for normal intelligent fans. Other cartel mmembers have literally nothing else. So while we are still in battle the war is almost won. The Der schizer articles are the last throes of a broken regime.I personally don't like the continued digging by the journalists, and the statements about us, but I do get why the club are just sitting back, and observing how it unfolds. I am sure things are happening behind the scenes, and there's nothing wrong with us keeping our cards close to our chest. I am confident that if they tried to impose any kind of ban, we would shaft them.
Having money isn't just about buying players though, it also helps you keep hold of your better players - look at the side Southampton would have had now if they'd been able to hold on to their better players ;-
- Insert Goalkeeper -
Clyne, Lovgren, van Dijk, Shaw
Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lallana, Wanyama, Walcott
Mane + striker
Didnt Lallana also refuse to turn up for pre season training iirc..Yup, beautifully illustrates the anachronistic nature of the rag and dipper "b-b-b-but we earned our money" anthem, and the impossibility, in the modern Chimps League era, of "growing organically". They are concepts that belong in the 1970's, yet they are levied at us as the only acceptable path to success. And to pre-emptively counter the claim that clubs like Southampton "don't have to sell", Lovren threatened to go on strike and Van Dyke downed tools. What choice did Southampton have?
£188m spent on Southampton players since they sold Suarez, they could have bought the club for that and the Saints turn a profit, so yep, it would have.Probably would've saved Liverpool some money if they'd just bought Southampton.