ariotofmyown

Look, I know it's the closed season and things are a bit quiet, but get a grip!  This is reading like the property supplement from the Daily Mail.
 Football forum, remember?

He also managed Birmingham so let's not go there...

I'm rooting for Oxford in the playoffs to make it a Jim Smith 1,2,3

Poor Marinakis...
If only those selfish witnesses didn't keep getting themselves killed, he'd be able to clear his name properly.

Well, there's a club in the 'Combined Counties League Division One' (Step 6) called London Colney, with an average home attendance of 20. Ripe for investment I'd say.
Same league, Amersham town, runaway winners with 111 points from 42 matches only averaged 67.

It's also a surprise how small their crowds are, especially as they've been relatively ok within the last 20 years or so. Bham is a huge place and surely they could make it more welcoming to locals and try and grow a bit.
There always seemed to be a line of supposedly rich people trying to make them successul. Maybe they just look at the name of the City and presume they will have a huge catchment area of fans. They probably don't know how much they are disliked. Wolverhamptom, Coventry and West Bromwich are smaller places, but all with bigger crowds and more history.
Someone should form a club called London Town and wait for some rich fool to invest millions.

Last seasons thread seemed fairly popular with over one hundred thousand views so I thought I’d try and find out a bit of what we can expect for next season.
As we know, because they told us so, nobody has more away fans than Leeds so I have looked at their away ticket allocations and prices they were charged for the season now ending.
Interestingly they had a reciprocal agreement with a few clubs to set the price for both sets of fans so I have noted this accordingly.
Obviously we don’t know exactly who we are playing yet but I will try and amend this when we have the final tables.
 I have noted the full allocation and adult and over 65 price.
Leeds I have based on what Southampton fans are paying.
Ipswich. 2,000.  £34/ £27
Leeds. 2.018. £47. Cheaper with clubs with reciprocal deals.
Southampton. 2,825. £30/ £25.
Norwich. 2,022. 36/26 reciprocal.
WBA. 2,009. £28/ £23.
Hull. 2,083. £24/ £16.
Middlesbo. 2,571. £29/ £ 21.
Coventry. 2,529. £37/ £32.
Preston. 5,644. £28/ £20 reciprocal.
Bristol City. 3,000. £30/ £26.
Cardiff. 3,213. £21/ £16 reciprocal.
Swansea. 1,971. £34/ £21.
Watford. 2,104. £20/ £10.
Sunderland. 2,000. £29/ £26. reciprocal.
Millwall. 2,008. £32/ £22.
QPR. 1,816. £31/ £22.
Stoke. 2,604. £25/ £19. reciprocal.
Blackburn. 7,337. £30/ £24.
Sheff Wed. 3,869. £36/ £26.
Plymouth. 1,734. £26/ £21.
Birmingham. 2,227. £30/ £25 reciprocal.
 

I think their catchment area doesn't help them. Birmingham is a huge area, but you have Villa, Wolves, WBA (and others) on the doorstep, and those teams have actually won stuff so it doesn't surprise me that most fans gravitate away from Birmingham City. Plus, they're a bunch of c**ts so I wouldn't want to be associated with them either. Those other teams are all better thought of than Brum.

It's also a surprise how small their crowds are, especially as they've been relatively ok within the last 20 years or so. Bham is a huge place and surely they could make it more welcoming to locals and try and grow a bit.
There always seemed to be a line of supposedly rich people trying to make them successul. Maybe they just look at the name of the City and presume they will have a huge catchment area of fans. They probably don't know how much they are disliked. Wolverhamptom, Coventry and West Bromwich are smaller places, but all with bigger crowds and more history.
Someone should form a club called London Town and wait for some rich fool to invest millions.

I used to know one as a kid who was a bit of a fool. Remember when Johnathan Hunt was playing ok for them and Barry Fry said he wouldn't expect 25 million or something for him. This kid thought Fry meant it and Hunt was valued as one of the most expensive players of all time. I think he joined us a couple of years later for about 100k and wasn't very good.

I think a big part of getting out of Lg 1 is acceptance you are there.  Because we were such a basket case, we took it quite well and management appeared humble enough to not feel the big I am.  If you think you are better than it, it will consume - as endless Tuesday night cup ties versus teams like Harrogate Town takes it's toll.
The budget helps, but is not all.  Where BC will have issues is if they don't mentally accept the difference and carry on as though going up is inevitable.  I found that we had the effect of being everyone's cup final: you can defeat anyone if primed for a one off match.  

Living in Uttoxeter i know a few Birmigham fans and on saturday i was lucky enough to be in the same pub as some of them as they got relegated.
I'd done a 15 mile charity walk from 0800 to 1230 and we went to my local, the Three Tuns in Utch for a buffet and drinks. The walk was in memory of a fellow Rams fan who passed last year with proceeds to Macmillan.
As we gathered in the pub some local brummies were there who i knew and their match was on telly. 
I'd done the walk in a Rams shirt so was wearing it in the pub. As the game progressed and we saw that they were going down one of them came over and gave me a bit of stick cos of me Derby shirt. 
I reminded him that my son had given him a good hiding 20 years previously and it would be embarassing for him to receive one from someone his dad's age!
His dad came over and dragged him back with profuse apologies.
 
I have zero reason to be sorry that Birmingham have gone down!

I read on the BBC website that they played Hull 4 times this season in the league and cup.  And had a different manager for each game.  That might be a bit of clue as to why they’ve ended up getting relegated.
Oh well.

It was a block of Birmingham fans who deliberately made out that Hull had scored. And they did it twice. Seems even some Birmingham fans hate Birmingham….😂

Similar to Big Jule in Guys and Dolls "33 arrests and no convictions".
The Vampire Ship is an in-depth investigation by a Greek journalist. He hasn't as yet proved anything, but it's a fascinating read and raises allot of questions about how Marinakis has operated in the past. So many people have died in suspicious circumstances who were linked to the story that it demands exposure and investigation, but whether it will ever lead to convictions is unclear due not least to the way business is conducted in the region.

Without changing, you are now centre left, comrade!

Good point, some people cheered too when Chris Martin used to go a bit easily to win free kicks.
This is pretty much the same as blindy supporting a drugs cartel mafia boss, who hasn't even done a good job for you. He's led you too a points deduction by purchasing 100s of players where you might just stay up this year. And not only have you all fallen for his "blame the refs" diversion tactic, you all know he's a gangster too!
 

Yeah, we probably were. If it was a choice between going bankrupt and a con man "saving" us, we didn't have too much to lose.
If it had been choice between going bankrupt and having a drugs baron own us, I think starting again would have had reasonable support.
If it was a choice between being a lower mid-table championship club
OR
selling our soul to a drugs baron, getting a lucky promotion thanks to Cooper, becoming a laughing stock, then going bankrupt due to woeful financial mis-managment, we probably would have stuck with that Fridge guy. He was a bit of a fool, but at least no one would get assainated.

Cooper got you up and kept you up, despite the crazy amount of players and spending.
Enjoy it whilst you can, the mid-term future looks bleak, if not the short-term. Your financial situation is already looking perilious, that would be the case even if you weren't ran by a gangster.
Hopefully you find a way to be ran sustainably, with a non-criminal in charge and both clubs can battle it out in the future, ideally in the Premier League. I just despair of the willfull ignorance of football supporters to not ask questions.

Spending 160m in the process, then no

Cooper got you up and kept you up, despite the crazy amount of players and spending.
Enjoy it whilst you can, the mid-term future looks bleak, if not the short-term. Your financial situation is already looking perilious, that would be the case even if you weren't ran by a gangster.
Hopefully you find a way to be ran sustainably, with a non-criminal in charge and both clubs can battle it out in the future, ideally in the Premier League. I just despair of the willfull ignorance of football supporters to not ask questions.

Good point, some people cheered too when Chris Martin used to go a bit easily to win free kicks.
This is pretty much the same as blindy supporting a drugs cartel mafia boss, who hasn't even done a good job for you. He's led you too a points deduction by purchasing 100s of players where you might just stay up this year. And not only have you all fallen for his "blame the refs" diversion tactic, you all know he's a gangster too!
 

Oh forgive me I forgot. 
Stadium inflating and selling to yourself, player value fabricating, HMRC and local business not paying--DCFC were the arbiters of morality 🤣
Give over will you.. 

You know it’s been a rough season for Notts Forest when your defence for your owner being an “alleged” drug trafficker and witness tamperer is to mention Derby selling their stadium to themselves.

I didn't get to many games this season, but did see his debut away at Charlton. The team looked much better straight away and it was also when the 3 cbs looked like it could work.
It took a few weeks for people to realise, but this wasn't 5 at the back. It was 3, but with Adams infront stopping the opposition running at that. As the season went on, Adams started to show he could play a bit too and became more than just a great ball winner. His positional sense is great too, always in the right position.
Regardless of other signings, getting Adams in early would already give us a solid defensive foundation for next season, alongside our exisiting CBs, including Forsyth and Nyambe who could play a back 3 too, plus Wildsmith.
In terms of priorities, Wilson, Ward, Sibley and Elder are decent enough for the wing backs.
We can focus on more attack minded midfielders and centre forwards.