Can Pardew Have A Merry Top 4 Christmas?

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I wouldn't rule it out

But we need to keep focus and not let it slip against WBA. I think Swansea will play well against us and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't pick up points there.

However Manu aren't playing great at the moment and I think Saints at home is one we can get three points from.

If he keeps it up like this, he can have a very merry Christmas. Obviously top-4 is an absurd ask, but if we continue the way the season has gone thus far, Pardew's Christmas can certainly be very merry indeed.

By Christmas No

By the end of the season No

lets see what January brings eh?

And by that I mean outgoings not incomings.

I have given up on hoping for ambition from this lot.

Dave,

We haven't had outgoings of note so far so why would we start now?

Becuase I think the only reason Cabaye didn't leave is becuase we couldn't get the deal in place in time.

And as a side we are very dependent on him.

I think he will go in January, so will Colo (although I am not blaming anyone for that one), I also wouldn't be amazed to see Krul out of the door either.

Hopefully I am wrong.

by the end of this season i think the only regular first team players who will have left the club are;

Cabaye
Colo
Jonas
Shola(possibly)

The sale of Carroll and Ba were exceptional circumstances and apart from them we haven't sold any star players since we were relegated so i cant see why we would start now.

Cabaye will leave. Question is when - my thought is end of the season - I'm just not convinced that the clubs which can offer Champions League need a player in his position.

I think Anita can fill Cabayes boots, but he is more lightweight than Cabaye. Which isn't ideal in this league...

We'll not sell him until after the world cup, a good competition could add a few million onto his value.

He probably won't want to leave until after the world cup, moving in January could lead to a dip in form and could lead to him being left out of the french squad.

Anita is perfectly capable of replacing Cabaye, he may be more lightweight but his passing is better and his corners are to, plus he can tackle a lot better.

Cabaye will leave for a bigger hampions league team and become a squad player and maybe realise like a few players who have left in the last few years that the grass isn't always greener.

It would be nice to get into the Champions League, but to be honest, it wouldn't make much difference to me whether we finish 5th or 4th - they are both awesomely wonderful, 4th being better of course. But CL participation for Newcastle may well be just a matter of making up the numbers, which would be jolly, given the magnitude of the competition, but not much more than jolly.

I would have thought that you would be more enamored by the financial incentive of a Champions league spot ahead of a Europa League spot Nick?

Even qualification for the Group stage of the Champions League is worth over £7m! Surely that would be even more fabulously awesome for the wonderful accountants?

And even if you fail to qualify, you can join the Europa League! It's like having both!

I agree with your logic, note to self.

Another thought, maybe Cabaye would stay if we got a Champions League place. Stability in the team is one of the reasons we are doing so well.

I like Anita but to me he's really only the poor man's version of Cabaye.

Quote:

Note To Self
I would have thought that you would be more enamored by the financial incentive of a Champions league spot ahead of a Europa League spot Nick?
Even qualification for the Group stage of the Champions League is worth over £7m! Surely that would be even more fabulously awesome for the wonderful accountants?

And even if you fail to qualify, you can join the Europa League! It's like having both!

Yes, indeed, the financial rewards would be great, but a one-season participation for the CL wouldn't really be that much in the great scheme of things. It would be nice to get into the CL, of course. All I'm saying is that I would be really delighted if we take 5th place again also.

On a separate note, I cannot understand why UEFA give such huge prize money to CL qualifying clubs - it's a bit like begging the playing field to become more and more uneven, annually, but if they want to, who am I to ask them to stop. As long as Newcastle perform above their net outlay, then I'll be happy.

I'll admit my tongue was in my cheek a tad with that statement. Hopefully no offence was taken.

Regarding the prize money for the Champions League compared to the Europa league; the prize money is relative to the revenue it brings in. Consider how much BT paid for the TV rights. Then consider how many other sponsorship deals are in place for the competition. Europa Cup simply doesn't have the same market appeal.

The Champions League is the biggest competition in club football. The participation revenue reflects that.

Now, Europa league may have had a negative impact on our Premier League campaign last year, but I did enjoy the clubs run in the competition. I wouldn't mind watching us play in it again - though I'd prefer Champions League.

Quote:

Note To Self
I'll admit my tongue was in my cheek a tad with that statement. Hopefully no offence was taken.
Regarding the prize money for the Champions League compared to the Europa league; the prize money is relative to the revenue it brings in. Consider how much BT paid for the TV rights. Then consider how many other sponsorship deals are in place for the competition. Europa Cup simply doesn't have the same market appeal.

The Champions League is the biggest competition in club football. The participation revenue reflects that.

Now, Europa league may have had a negative impact on our Premier League campaign last year, but I did enjoy the clubs run in the competition. I wouldn't mind watching us play in it again - though I'd prefer Champions League.

No offence taken, certainly.
But as to the prize money, I thought the prize money was additional to TV money. I thought TV money went to clubs, and later UEFA gave out some prize money. Giving more prize money because they've got more TV money seems, as I said, to be UEFA begging for football to become more and more boring and uneven.

But please, correct me if I'm wrong, when I think that prize money is additional to TV money.

Without being a professional accountant or having the books in front of me; you're right - they are separate. My understanding is that the TV rights for the competition are UEFAs to sell. And the Prize money is also UEFA's to decide.

When they sell them, this is split equally among teams involved in each round (i.e. all the clubs in the Group stage get an equal share of the TV revenue from those games, those teams who qualify for the knockouts get an equal share of the TV revenue for the knockout matches, etc).
They get a large share of the TV revenue because, well, it's their players who are contracted and licensed being televised.
That is just the TV revenue - which for clubs in the Group stage under the current agreements amounts to around £7m.

For comparison, the Premier League TV Sponsorship works out at approximately £40m to each club. Regardless of where they finish - that's what they get as a share of the sponsorship from Sky and BT.

In addition to this, there is the prize money. The bulk of this is made up from the other sponsorship deals (like Gazprom Gas, Heineken and other major sponsors). This is broken down into prizes for qualification, and is separate from the TV revenue. A group stage win will earn approximately £750k to the winner; a draw splits the prize equally between the two clubs. A club making it to the later stages will accrue more prize money than one who gets trounced in the Group stages - which is fair and reasonable.

Again, making the comparison to the Premier League, each club gets a cash prize based on their final position in the league on top of TV revenue. This is approximately £25m for first place, with a little more than £1m deducted for each place below.

Really, it's not too dissimilar to the FA cup, except there's a larger pot of money to split up.

The year celtic got to the quarter finals they made 11million from the champions league, its not a lot for a club the size of ours to gamble on when it would undoubtedly affect our premier league performance. Having said that it would be amazing to be in it again.