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Thursday Fulham Stuff - 16/04/20...

Started by WhiteJC, April 16, 2020, 07:53:27 AM

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WhiteJC

'Clubs at every level are at risk' - the financial nightmare facing football


Leeds United's players, coaching staff and senior management have volunteered to take a wage deferral because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic

Luton chief executive Gary Sweet has warned the future of clubs "at every level" are at risk unless there is "a swift and material aid package" from the game's authorities to deal with the impact of Covid-19.

Sweet has been a central figure in the Hatters' rise from non-league back to the Championship and, having experienced the issues involved in running a club at four levels of the English pyramid, is seriously concerned as the game's suspension heads into its second month.

"Lower-league clubs are vulnerable because they are so reliant upon ticket income and many Championship clubs are vulnerable due to the severe overstretching of expenditure," he said.

"At Luton we have the benefit of Championship central distribution and a relatively low cost base. This situation is going to hurt us, so I dread to think how it will impact some clubs."

On 3 April, the Premier League agreed to advance £125m in payments to the EFL and National League, although only £2m of it will go to the 68 National League clubs.

The situation in the EFL is so bad that Tranmere chairman and former FA chief executive Mark Palios said that without a strong plan this week it "will potentially lead to carnage, for clubs players, owners and fans alike."

Writing in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday he said: "This week is absolutely critical for the EFL and the survival of many of the 71 clubs that it represents.

"The only way out of this mess is to take the opportunity to fundamentally restructure the flawed financial model on which football has been based since the establishment of the Premier League. We have to address the unregulated wages market, which means the mega-salaries paid at the very top of the game have a huge inflationary impact all the way through the professional pyramid.

"The crisis facing us should not be underestimated. When Bury FC collapsed, its community was devastated and there were lots of platitudes about ensuring that it never happened again. But it is about to happen again and many times over, unless we change the way we are handling this, and change it urgently.

"In a week when the Covid death toll hit 10,000, it will sound trivial and melodramatic but this is perhaps the most important seven days in the history of the EFL."

Where are we now?

English football is stopped indefinitely.

Premier League clubs meet on Friday, but it will be mid-May before Uefa comes forward with its proposals, having already warned that any league ending its season prematurely puts places in next season's European competitions at risk.

Non-league clubs are considering legal action after the FA Council ratified the decision to void the season between tiers three and six - the divisions below National League level. National League clubs have been asked to vote on ending the campaign without knowing how promotion and relegation is to be decided.

In Leagues One and Two, the deadline for payment of April's wages is approaching and mass furloughing of players is being threatened.

Meanwhile, in the Championship, business plans are under even greater strain than normal.

No consensus among the Championship 24

Of the 21 Championship clubs who competed in the EFL last season, the latest published accounts for five of them included parachute payments that came with relegation from the Premier League.

In 13 instances out of the remaining 16, the club's wage bills exceeded their income. In their accounts, Reading and Birmingham said there was "material uncertainty" over their ability to exist as a going concern. As is the case for the majority of Championship clubs, they are reliant on funding from their owners.

It has been reported that in order to protect themselves, if agreement can not be found between individual clubs and the Professional Footballers' Association over wage cuts and deferrals, a "nuclear option" of all 24 clubs going into administration was being considered.

But this notion has been rejected by alternative sources influential within Championship circles.

"It is hard enough getting all 24 clubs to agree the time of day, let alone the detail about how you could go about doing that," said one. "It just wouldn't happen."

Each club has a very different funding model.

Some - Stoke and Preston are two examples - have long-standing, wealthy owners, who have already vowed to honour their financial commitments. In contrast, Leeds and Birmingham have already reached deferral agreements with their first-team squads. Others are looking at other ways to reduce costs. West Bromwich Albion chief executive Mark Jenkins has taken a 100% pay cut.

Evidently, distrust exists. BBC Sport understands EFL chairman Rick Parry is in receipt of a letter from a club questioning how wage deferrals - existing and in the future - are going to be paid and whether, until salaries are honoured in full, clubs are going to be allowed to make new signings or agree new deals with players whose contracts expire on 30 June.

The argument is some have stretched themselves too far and should not be allowed to avoid the consequences.

When Covid-19 has been dealt with and life has returned to normal, it is anticipated the financial operations of EFL clubs will be looked at again.

Insiders have told BBC Sport the present "Profit and Sustainability" regulations are "not fit for purpose". The EFL already has a working group looking at the rule, which allows clubs not recently relegated from the Premier League to lose £39m over a three-year period. However, rather than look at the whole issue with scepticism, as has been thought likely, it is hoped the experience of the past month, and what lies ahead, will allow all parties to adopt a more mature position which, in theory, will provide the breathing space needed to reach more acceptable - and workable - regulations.

Closed-doors impact

However well run they are, a football club that cannot play football will eventually hit financial problems. All will take a hit if matches are played behind closed doors, as expected, when the games eventually return.

Leeds' average attendance is 35,321, by far the highest in the Championship. They estimate their total loss of income from ticket sales, hospitality and retail if Elland Road remains empty for their final five home games of the season is £3m.

Club officials feel they could reduce the impact if they could offer fans the option of watching a live stream of games on their website. This would not help Blackburn, who gave Leeds an allocation of 7,700 for their game at Ewood Park on 3 April and, at £40 each, would have generated more than £300,000 from the visitors alone.

A closed-doors end to the season would cost Luton between 10% and 15% of their income for the entire campaign.

Collapsing transfer market

In talking privately about his club's own position, one Championship executive spoke of his relief that a couple of potential January signings did not happen.

But, along with gate receipts, sponsorship and central distributions from television and the Premier League, selling players is a valuable source of income for Championship clubs.

In January alone Bristol City sold skipper Josh Brownhill to Burnley for £9m, Bobby Decordova-Reid's move from Cardiff to Fulham became permanent for £10m and West Ham paid Hull £20m for forward Jarrod Bowen.

It is now accepted, with reduced finance across the game, the transfer market will undergo "a correction", which is bad news for those clubs planning to raise funds in the summer.

"It is not going to be a seller's market, that's for sure," said one source. "If clubs thought they could get a certain figure for a player, they might well find they can't now."

What happens now?

There are two big questions that need to be answered. When is the season going to resume and is there a deadline by which games need to be finished? No-one knows the answer to the first and no-one in authority is saying anything about the second.

However, some club executives feel protecting next season is more important than how this one ends.

Like any businesses, football clubs hate uncertainty.

Indications are that Sky will not ask for the money they have paid for this season back. However, if the middle of June arrives with no indication when the 2020-21 campaign will begin, they are unlikely to hand over their first payment - and that would concern every club as it would chop off funding.

Some club officials privately back the public view of PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor that the next two seasons should be played exclusively in 2021 and 2022, with the latter terminating before the World Cup in Qatar.

Admittedly, it is not entirely clear how 2022-23 would work, nor how European club competitions and the delayed European Championship and Nations League would fit into that schedule.

But it is an idea - along with many others.

"We have meetings every couple of days and things get mulled over," said a club source. "But that is all we do. We are just guessing. The fundamental point is we don't know when the season is going to start again."



https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52275018

WhiteJC

Marcelo Bielsa, Slaven Bilic or Sabri Lamouchi - Who is the Championship Manager of the Season so far?
Sky Sports' Keith Andrews, Don Goodman, Andy Hinchcliffe, Scott Minto, David Prutton and Gary Weaver selected who they think has been the most impressive manager from the 2019/20 campaign...

We asked our Championship pundits to pick their Manager of the Season so far.

Our experts Keith Andrews, Don Goodman, Andy Hinchcliffe, Scott Minto, David Prutton and Gary Weaver selected who they think has been the most impressive manager from the 2019/20 campaign...

Championship pundits pick their Team of the Season


You can watch or listen to our pundits choices for Team of the Season, Player of the Season and Manager of the Season below...

Keith Andrews
I'm going to go for Marcelo Bielsa for a number of reasons. The first is how Leeds have dealt with the disappointment of last season and the way they have dealt with that capitulation. I have been in the position as a player, and it's so difficult to get over.

He did very little in the transfer market but it has been extremely effective.. Ben White to replace Pontus Jansson was a big move, but it has turned out to be an absolute masterstroke. Helder Costa took a while to get going but he has been good, too.

They started brilliantly, then they had a wobble. I was at that Nottingham Forest game in early February when they lost and you thought the wheels were coming off. They then went to Brentford and got a draw, and since then they have stabilised and kicked on. If they get the chance I expect them to finish the job.

Don Goodman
It's his first season in the Championship and it's probably very different to anything Slaven Bilic has experienced so far. The recruitment has also been excellent at West Brom, I do not know for certain if Bilic was involved in that, but I would love to think he had a say. And he has given youth a real chance, too.

They were one of the top scorers last season and attacking was never an issue, but they are more cohesive and front-footed now. Last season they were a good team but they did not get you off your seat as much as this team. It is a more collective effort now and they are still the top scorers in the league.

I also love the decisions he makes during games. They have gained 24 points from losing positions this season, which is more than anyone in the Championship, and that does not happen by accident. It happens because you have instilled character in your team and make good calls at the right times.

Andy Hinchcliffe
You have to give Bielsa and Bilic credit as they are managing the top two teams, but it's not a huge surprise to see them where they are.

But no one really expected to see Nottingham Forest where they are. Sabri Lamouchi has deservedly got them they through how good of a coach he is and how he has set them up.

They defend so well and break with pace. It's not over-achieving, because they deserve to be where they are. And that is largely down to him.

Scott Minto
Tony Mowbray has done well at Blackburn and I would npt rule them out of sneaking into the play-offs. Steve Cooper at Swansea and Alex Neil at Preston have done great jobs, and Scott Parker has done a very underrated job at Fulham. It's his first season of full management and even with great players it is not easy to blend a side of big talents after being relegated.

Bilic did not really know the Championship but has done fantastically well, and Bielsa has kept everything calm at Leeds after last season, which is incredible. But Thomas Frank deserves unbelievable credit for what he has done at Brentford.

He lost key players like Romaine Sawyers and Neal Maupay in the summer, but he has replaced them and made the side better. He has turned Ollie Watkins into a striker, they are impressive at both ends of the pitch with the best goal difference in the Championship and he has done it on a budget that is nowhere near the big boys.

David Prutton
Leeds and West Brom were expected to be up there, although it is fair to see Bielsa and Bilic have done a great job.

Forest and Brentford, however, have improved leaps and bounds this season. Sabri Lamouchi and Frank have both done excellent jobs, but it just has to be Lamouchi for me, if only for the fact we actually might be all set to witness a Forest manager see out a season!

They were nowhere near last season, really, and he has had them right up there for the whole campaign. He has built a team that is far greater than the sum of its parts.

Gary Weaver
It's unfortunate for Nottingham Forest and Sabri Lamouchi that the season got suspended just after their 3-0 loss at home to Millwall, because they had mostly been excellent before that.

Lamouchi has come into a massive club with huge expectation and brought the whole of the red half of Nottingham together, and you can feel it on matchdays when you go there.

He has a magic touch and the players hang onto every word he says, even those who are not playing are happy. He's revived a club and given them some hope and dreams.



https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12040/11972584/marcelo-bielsa-slaven-bilic-or-sabri-lamouchi-who-is-the-championship-manager-of-the-season-so-far

WhiteJC

The Long Read: Sean Delaney

We Fulham supporters have lived through our share of suspense over the years, sitting on the edge of our seats with bated breath at many a match, so we should feel right at home watching Killing Eve.

Sean Delaney has a foot in both camps. A third generation Fulham fan, Sean also stars in the BBC's award-laden spy drama as Kenny Stowton, the awkward hacker recruited by MI6 to work alongside the title character in their pursuit of assassin Villanelle.

"My grandad came over from Ireland to be a mechanic, and the guys he was doing his apprenticeship with were Fulham fans," Sean tells us. "They took him along, and he fell in love with Johnny Haynes.


"It was ingrained into the family after that. I grew up in North London so there were only about four Fulham fans at my school, and two of them were me and my brother. It was a tough place to support Fulham, surrounded by Gooners and Spurs supporters.

"There were times growing up where my Dad and I couldn't afford to go to Fulham that regularly, so my Uncle used to take me. He was hardcore Fulham. He passed away a couple of weeks after the Europa League Final, and the Club put together a chaplain service for fans who had passed in the last year. I just always thought that was the biggest testament to Fulham as a football club, that my Dad and Grandparents got to go to Craven Cottage for this service, and got to talk about how much Fulham meant to him. In terms of how much Fulham means to us as a family, that sums it up pretty well."

With success as an actor comes a busier schedule, but Sean still finds his way to Craven Cottage as much as possible.

"This season I've been quite a lot," he says. "I went to the States for work about three months into our Premier League season last year, so there were a lot of 9am starts in the Fulham bar in New York, but other than that I try to go as often as I can.

"The most emotional moment I've had was the Play-Off Final. I'd just spent six months in the West End doing a play called The Ferryman, and had missed a lot of games. I'd be running backstage to try and catch the scores. I had a holiday booked in Corfu after because I'd been doing six days a week for about half a year. The Final was scheduled for the last day of our holiday, so I tried to get a flight back, but there were none going. I was convinced I was going to miss it, but then last minute I managed to get a flight to Basel, and from there another one to London, landing about two hours before kick-off.


"I ran home, dropped my suitcase off, stuck on my Fulham shirt, bolted to Wembley and got there with half an hour to spare. Everything that happened in that game... it wasn't good for anyone's blood pressure, but I wouldn't go back and change the sending off. That last 20 minutes was just the longest time in the world, but the pay off at the end was magic. The only thing I've seen close to it was probably the Hamburg game.

"My other standout memory would be Sheffield Wednesday at home [to secure the Division One title] – the Sean Davis equaliser. My early memories of the Cottage are when I was young enough that my Dad would sit me on the railings they used to have when it was all standing, at the back of H6. Davis got that equaliser right at the death, and I remember that goal going in like it was yesterday."


And so on to the topic that any first conversation between two Fulham fans inevitably turns to; favourite players.

Prepared for the question, Sean outlines a theory: "There's a thing about Fulham, right, where there's two categories of player. There's the ones that you'd pay money to see play football for any team, any day of the week, the Mousa Dembélés and Louis Sahas. I remember when we signed Mahamadou Diarra and watching his first game for us thinking, 'oh, f***ing hell, the standard is unbelievable.' And then there's the people who just breathe Fulham and bleed Fulham, the Brian McBrides and Brede Hangelands. When I first starting going I remember watching Rufus Brevett and seeing how aggressive he was and how much he put his body on the line. Chris Coleman and Kit Symons were the same.

"But I think the person who fits best into both categories is Steve Finnan. I'd have to give a shout out to the Clint Dempseys and the Danny Murphys and the Mousa Dembélés, but I think Steve Finnan is probably my overall favourite player. I feel like sometimes his work ethic would overshadow how good he was, like people maybe forgot how technically gifted he was. If you combined Brian McBride's never say die attitude with someone as talented as Mousa Dembélé, you'd probably end up with a Steve Finnan character."


Like the rest of us, Sean is currently enduring football withdrawal – ("I think it really has exploited how important football is for a lot of people.") – but a morale boosting statement came out of the BBC recently, revealing that the third season of Killing Eve had been brought forward a fortnight. With the previous series left on something of a cliff-hanger (again), it's a real boost for fans of the show.

"With all this going on I thought it would be delayed if anything," Sean admits. "It's a weird time for everyone and people just need as much respite as they can get, and if Killing Eve coming out early does that for an hour a week, then it's really good that we can play that part at this time.

"The stylish, cat-and-mouse traits of Killing Eve are definitely there again in this season. I'd say the emotional and personal stakes of each character get cranked up another couple of gears. It's darker and funnier, and a lot more thrilling, this one. I think this is the most amount of personal impact you'll see in the series to date."


For those unfamiliar, Killing Eve focuses on the complexly layered relationship between MI6 operative Eve Polastri and the woman she's tasked with bringing down, the international assassin known as Villanelle.

Unlike most thrillers, though, the show is packed with humour – something that Sean thinks sets it apart.

"It seems like the rule of it is if a scene is getting too dark or too gory or too emotional, they'll tuck in a line which undercuts it all through comedy," he explains. "It will be something really inappropriate to what's going on, in the same way that if something's really light hearted the whole way through, they'll chuck in something dark to mix it up.

"It always comes at a time when people aren't ready for it, which I think is really important. You get a lot of TV series that come and go and don't really have much impact because they try and do a genre that someone else has done before. You're never going to compete with The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Band of Brothers, because they're the best in their genre. But if you put something that can fluidly move into any of them, then I think you're winning, and personally I think that's why people have caught on with this show so much."

The role of Kenny is Sean's first major role, but one which has already given him the chance to work with a stellar cast featuring the likes of Jodie Comer (Star Wars), Sandra Oh, pictured with Sean, (Grey's Anatomy) and Fiona Shaw (Harry Potter).


"For a breakthrough gig in a TV show, to work with people who are that seasoned and that experienced is great," he states. "I'm in this career for the long haul, and I just want to be as good as I can. And as far as an apprenticeship goes, learning from people like that on the job can only stand me in good stead. I look forward to taking what I learnt from it and applying it to stuff outside of Killing Eve.

"Kenny is a great character. I get to crank up any shyness or awkwardness that I have as a person. It's really fun to play someone who's petrified by any kind of social situation and isn't quite sure how to articulate himself personally, but when it comes to intelligence or information he suddenly comes into his own. That's his comfort zone and he can be quite eloquent and articulate.


"It's my first recurring part in a TV series. I was really struggling, I was doing loads of temp jobs, I was doing a bit of bar work, and at that point I'd also spent 11 months working as an assistant in a new homes real estate office in Peckham on the weekends as well, which was stopping me going to Fulham, but I needed the money. And then this script came out of nowhere. I knew it was going to be really good because I'd seen Fleabag, which was also written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

"But when they'd first written it, no-one in the UK wanted the show. A small channel called BBC America in the US had taken a chance on it, so we weren't sure if it was going to see the light of day, we weren't sure whether people were going to be interested. And then literally overnight it suddenly became this hit. I'm really proud of it. We were just trying to make as great a TV programme as possible. The pressure's kicked on from that first series because that was only meant to go on one channel and hopefully it would be good. And since then, since the awards have come through, it's become a bit of a global hit, and going into a third series I've definitely felt the pressure of trying to maintain this great thing that we'd made."

With the success of Fleabag and Killing Eve, creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge has become something of a national treasure, with Sean insisting she deserves every single accolade that comes her way.


"She's brilliant. I think she's a genius. I know that word gets thrown about a bit, but I think it's appropriate for her. As brilliant as the ideas she has in her head are, she's so flexible when it comes to adjusting it, or taking something that someone else is doing and applying it to what she's written. She writes as she goes along, which has the danger element of forcing everyone to be in the moment, because things can change at any time. And I think that danger translates to the screen really well. That's why all of her stuff, whether it's Killing Eve or Fleabag, no matter if it's a high or low stakes situation, you're always on the edge of your seat because you have no idea what's going to happen next."



http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2020/april/12/the-long-read-sean-delaney