27 Aug 2026 13:45:44
Regardless of the fee, which looks low considering what you have City selling reserves at compared to us losing our best forward.
Selling Ndiaye 28th August would be a disaster. His workrate and quality defensively on top of his attacking abilities will not be replaced.
Be nice if for the first time I can remember we said No.
Think we all know what we'll do though. Water is wet.
27 Aug 2026 14:06:04
Unless football rules change on spending and players' wages, we will never compete and will probably never win the league again, foot.
27 Aug 2026 14:06:43
Football has finished for most clubs.
27 Aug 2026 14:09:59
There needs to be a sporting benefit playing at our new stadium. We can't be losing our best player for money reasons. He's in the early stage of his contract, so we should say no!
27 Aug 2026 14:32:41
Agree, Skylark, but we still have to try. Spurs just signed Savinho from City's 2nd team, basically for 75m. If we sell Ndiaye, it's what our value is, not what theirs is.
Also agree with Toffee Ace. I'm becoming more negative, I accept that, it's slowly becoming a chore to watch us (last 2 games excluded) .
What's the point of this massive stadium if going to the game gets to that - and I accept that it's my personal perspective and likely not others, but seeing a player like Ndiaye every week is something that keeps me going.
27 Aug 2026 14:33:52
Players control where they play, unfortunately. We can say not for sale but ultimately if he decides he wants to go he will. We just need to ensure we get the best deal possible.
27 Aug 2026 15:00:11
I think you are right, Skylark. The rules have hamstrung the majority of clubs. Regardless of form and league position, if you generate stupid amounts of money outside of ticket sales and competition prizes that others can only dream of, you will continue to buy up all the talent and do better. Even if you have a team that defies the odds like Leicester, the starting 11 end up being broken up and enticed elsewhere by money.
We can say no, but that isn't always in the best interest of the club. It's a money game these days where there are heavy penalties involved (unless you are the breakaway 6 of course) if you don't comply.
Until they get rid of the rules, which they won't, we can expect the clubs forking out up to £100m on a player to dominate because they can have a bench of international quality players. They can pay the equivalent of two starting 11s and never fall foul of the rules.
Look at how Newcastle and Villa have had their squads rocked this summer despite doing well in the last few seasons. You start to think: what's the point? Anyone we get in, and does well, will end up leaving in a season or two.
If anyone can think of a way to make the system more fair, and would be accepted by the Premier League or breakaway 6, then you are smarter than me.
27 Aug 2026 15:22:00
We haven't won a thing for 31 years yet still 8th overall in the country's most successful clubs. And we can probably go another 30 years and still be in the 10. Football has 'been over' for 90% of clubs ever since it started.
27 Aug 2026 15:39:29
So What's the point? Wouldn't football be great and more entertaining if most teams competed on a level financial playing field.
Football is finished for me and the World Cup just clarified it for me.
27 Aug 2026 17:26:21
Communist football? Life doesn't work like that, and neither does commercial sport. When we were bragging about our riches that coincided with our successful stints, did any EFC fan stand up and say "this isn't fair, I'm appalled at this unsportsmanlike buying honours"? No, of course they didn't. Perhaps a realism of finishing in the top 10 of the biggest league in the world should be deemed as success? Perhaps it's the fans' expectations that are the problem? If you wanna go and play tiddlywinks, be my guest.
I suspect you'll be here next week, and on and on and on.
Go and watch a game from 30 years ago. And, honestly, tell me the game's gone backwards.
27 Aug 2026 17:29:43
Are you the tiny minority who didn't finish the WC eating a little humble pie? I hated and derided the expansion, yet it was a thoroughly entertaining, no, it was a great WC. Sometimes it's ok to be wrong. Provably.
27 Aug 2026 17:43:37
I understand your points, FBS, but the major issue now is the restriction on teams to spend that were not in place when Chelsea and Man City were spending. Yes, I remember the good times in the 70s and 80s when we were one of the richest clubs in the country.
But that didn't stop a Blackburn Rovers with heavy investment, becoming a major player in the league. It's not possible to do now.
27 Aug 2026 17:52:18
They didn't have the restrictions 30 years ago, FBS.
Now it's a different game.
I also didn't enjoy the World Cup, but I'm not fussed with international football. The whole Trump trying to influence things, and corruption with Infantino, seemed to be what came out of the World Cup for me.
27 Aug 2026 18:14:45
SCR's basically told every owner to run your club like an adult. And honestly, it's about time. If you grow your commercial side, you grow your wage bill, simple. No more sugar daddy nonsense, no more "my billionaire's bigger than yours".
Clubs like ours have all realised the game's changed. You want to compete? Build stuff. Improve facilities. Make your stadium earn money even when there's no match on. It's not rocket science.
Everton are the perfect case study. We've spent about £170m in 14 months without flogging a single player. Not one. And that's before the stadium's even fully up and running with all the extra revenue streams. We're basically still in the tutorial level of what it can generate.
That's why everyone's suddenly obsessed with infrastructure. It's the only way to stay in the fight. Buy players you can't afford, then panic sell when wages choke you? (Villa right now) That era's done. Build your club properly or get left behind.
The sponsorship we've got with the stadium and shirt is because of the stadium. All of the big companies, blue chip companies are now interested in us because we now look like a good investment for them. In their eyes, if we grow, we help them grow.
So no, we're not over and done with, in fact, we're at the very beginning, if done right, of being able to compete.
27 Aug 2026 18:24:46
Give me football thirty or even forty years ago any day. Players today spend more time diving and rolling around like they've been shot. No substituting half the team (another sporting advantage) , no VAR, which still gets it wrong.
Just 22 players trying to win a game of football. Not wondering where their next big move is coming from or their desire to play 'Champions League'.
27 Aug 2026 18:36:57
I don't know any football fans who didn't think it was a wonderful WC, even despite the ridiculous commercial er water breaks and the state sticking its nose in with refs and red cards. In spite of that, it was great. Baffling to me that any fan of the game didn't like it, but hey, you do you.
And yes, as someone who's also an F1 fan, I believe if you want to break the bank, you should, and the consequences are bankruptcy and shuttering the gates and selling it all off to start as a minnow in the non-league when it goes tits up. I also want to see the pinnacle of sports, and think it's outrageous that club owners can't just stuff brown envelopes and tap up who they want and splurge the cash.
But the leagues and FA feel it needs to protect the product. Something definitely is lost. But, if we are honest, let the reins loose and we'd still be lucky to make mid table cos our owners are far from the richest. No Concorde moments.
I think a decade of clever academy builds could be a shrewd way to bypass the pecking order. We often comment on here with envy the Brighton model. It seems, either way, it's a mountain to climb. But a few wins a month is fine by me. Love it actually.
27 Aug 2026 18:37:56
Only thing, BJU, is we will always be playing catchup. The breakaway 6 have got a huge income away from matchday profit and that cannot be 'caught up'. The rules also favour cities and the south in a wider context, but that's a longer conversation.
Chelsea and City owners didn't follow SCR rules and look where they are now.
Also, the expanding of our infrastructure (well, the stadium) nearly ruined us.
We were lucky to get out the other side.
The warning signs for me are Leicester, Villa, and Newcastle. They have had Champions League football, but their squads have been raided, and they have not been able to break into the elite. I'm less confident we can do it.
27 Aug 2026 18:46:49
I think those rose tinted glasses need a wipe mate. Have you seen what passes for shin pads these days? I used to wear 2 pairs and used them as a weapon. These days they're basically a credit card. The boots? They're measured in grams. So no wonder players stay down, they don't have the armour. I rewatched a lot of the 1985 season recently.
If that's what you want the game to be like, I'm sorry, but you're just wrong. Slow, backpass, meatheads trying to assault anyone with close control, and an occasional few minutes where a football game broke out. Utter tosh. The game will never be perfect, but it's far better than 40 years ago.
27 Aug 2026 18:51:59
Villa have won a trophy, Leicester have won 2, Crystal Palace have won 2, even Wigan.
I'm an optimist, though, and can always see rays of light. Although I understand being an Evertonian can drain any kind of hope of glory in 90 minutes of football.
27 Aug 2026 19:06:19
Would it be pathetic to make a 5 year assault on the League Cup? It's surely the one that's almost winnable? Would fans want a cup over anything else?
27 Aug 2026 19:36:02
I agree with Brass. Players feign injury now even though they haven't been touched. They don't need big shin pads because you're not allowed to tackle anymore. Shirt pulling at every opportunity, and players spending more time with their agents than with their club.
Yes, there were hard men in the game, but there was an awful lot of talent too. Not really sure how you can say today's version is better, but that's your opinion, it doesn't mean you're right.
27 Aug 2026 20:35:05
Lots of information in posts to digest.
I never liked the World Cup, but I wasn't invested in it like others were. I don't watch international football - I find it boring.
I feel the quality of the football has come on since the 80s. I don't like the way the clubs have been capped at their current financial status, and how some clubs have to sell players to abide by financial rules. That's not what the game is about for me. I would like the finances to be removed from the equation and, as long as owners can cover the running costs and expenditure of the club without causing it to go bust, let them spend what they want.
Or introduce some sort of system where there is a wage cap related to European competitions to allow bigger squads for Europe.
Although a handful of teams outside of the breakaway 6 have won something, they have been stripped of their best players and the majority of silverware has been won by a handful of clubs. It's a system I don't like and don't see it improving.
28 Aug 2026 08:04:22
Skylark is absolutely correct, and the quicker the fans wake up, the quicker we get proper fair competition.
In the meantime, Baaa and grin and bear it, Baaa.