Leicester City
Once one of the best run clubs in England – which led them to winning both the Premier League and FA Cup in recent years – the bubble looks to have burst at Leicester City.
Recent accounts showed their wages were 105% of turnover. This means they were spending more on wages than they earned. And does not take into account all other expenses.
This has led them to still not signing anyone this summer and captain, leader and legend Kasper Schmeichel departing.
Things could get a lot worse in the coming weeks as Wesley Fofana, James Maddison and Youri Tielemans are linked with moves away.
Often in football you hear the saying a “club needs to sell before it can buy”. In Leciester’s case, they need to sell just to balance the books. It is unlikely any of the above mentioned sales will free up cash to purchase replacements.
Leicester are a warning to all clubs not to over spend just because you have a temporary high (looking at you West Ham).
A couple of consecutive seasons in the Champions League or Europa League might make you think you’ve made it, but if you then give out long term contracts based on remaining in those competitions it cane quickly go wrong.
Europa Conference for Leicester last season and no European football this season means that they do not have the money to pay the contracts signed when they did have mid-top level European football.
The seasons will only get rougher for our opponents tomorrow.
Aubameyang
If you have not watched Arsenal All or Nothing, look away now as the below contains spoilers.
Anyone that has watched it will understand exactly why Aubameyang was stripped of the captaincy and then allowed to leave to Barcelona on a free transfer.
When your employer has a folder of disciplinary issues on you, clearly you are the problem.
It is unbelievable that some fans still back Aubameyang and blame his demise on Mikel Arterta’s “poor management”.
It was not poor management that leds Aubameyang to be consistently late to training – and even not turn up. Nor was it Arteta.s fault that Aubameyang – despite being in his 30s, the captain and a senior player – decided to still be the class clown.
If you look back at Aubameyang’s history, he acted in exactly the same way at Dormund. A quick google of the key words “Aubameyang discipline” will bring up countless different examples which eventually led to the German club suspending him.
He is clearly a bad egg who does what he wants with little disregard to management. And anyone who has worked with a character like Aubameyang will understand how poisonous it can be.
£7.50 a Pint
This week some pictures of West Ham’s pint prices went viral – £7.50 for a (plastic) glass of the amber nectar.
Tomorrow we might find that Arsenal’s prices have gone the same way.
Food and drink prices are most clubs are not set by the actual club but by the company they sub-contract refreshments too; Arsenal and West Ham both use Delaware North.
This means what happens at one club is likely to happen at another.
At Crystal Palace last Friday my pint of Heineken at half time was £5 – it was my cheapest pint of the day.
£7.50 will be enough to put me off grabbing a quick pint at half-time and will probably just encourage me to return to the pub quicker.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
More likely the COVID-19 situation contributed to Leicester’s wage/turnover issues, than a case of budgeting for continued European participation. All clubs took a massive hit in turnover. Credit to Leicester, they are doing what they can to balance the books.
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I believe leicester were the only club not to furlough staff too
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West Ham are an extreme case, the contract with Delaware North is nothing to do with the club and they get no revenue from refreshment sales. That goes to the stadium owners who are only allowed to charge West Ham a peppercorn rent for use of the stadium so presumably it’s one of their few sources of revenue. At some point I’m hoping the London politicians stop spending my taxes keeping the stadium afloat and the holding company just goes bankrupt.
Not sure how significant catering income is at Arsenal but it certainly seems to be a big earner at the spurs Stadium.
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