Apparently they budgeted to stay in the top 10 of the Premier League. If they had finished below the top 10 they would have needed to be bailed out financially and apparently they hadn't budgeted for a possible relegation. The word on the street is Administration by November.

Also, from what I had read, the Europa League is in no way lucrative for clubs. Maybe if you're contesting the quarter final onwards, perhaps. It's half a season's worth of extra games if you were to get to the final, which is madness for a cup competition. You can kinda see why some clubs (like my Villa) didn't really bother with is. Obviously I wish they had. Playing the likes of Ajax and Hamburg cannot be beaten!

Appreciate the insight, Nel-A. No doubt, seeing Birmingham in their current straits is difficult for a Villa fan. ;-)

By the way, what did you think of Villa bringing on McGleish (sp)? I heard a lot of Villa fans weren't happy with that move.

There really isn't very much money in the Europa League. A while ago I hunted down these numbers for a different thread in a different forum, so they're a bit old, but...

As you can see, just getting to the group stages of Champions League is worth more than winning the Europa League.

Bonuses Champions League 2008/2009 – 2009/2010
Group Stage (fixed): €5.4m – €7.1m
Group Stage Victory: €600k – €800k
Group Stage Draw: €300k – €400k
Round of 16: €2.2m – €3m
Quarterfinal: €2.5m – €3.3m
Semifinal: €3m – €4m
Losing Finalist: €4m – €5.2m
Winner: €7m – €9m
Theoretical Maximum: €23.7m – €31.2m

Bonuses UEFA Cup/Europa League 2008/2009 – 2009/2010
Group Stage (fixed): €115k – €900k
Group Stage Victory: €40k – €120k
Group Stage Draw: €20k – €60k
Round of 32: €70k – €180k
Round of 16: €70k – €270k
Quarterfinal: €300k – €360k
Semifinal: €600k – €630k
Losing Finalist: €1.5m – €2m
Winner: €2.5m – €3m
Theoretical Maximum: €3.815m (CL 6.2x more) – €6.06m (CL 5.1x more)

Thanks for the info, Zchinque. I know it probably wouldn't amount to much, relatively speaking, but do the teams share in the gate for their Europa League matches? And is there any share of television/advertising revenue that goes to the teams?

Also, did anyone watch the Chelsea/Norwich match? I dodn't get to see that one here in the States, but noticed 10 minutes of added time at the end. What hapopened?

Drogba went down for the count. Had to be stretchered off. Took a punch to the head, and by the way he landed, it seems like he might have lost consciousness immediately. I don't know exactly how serious it is, reports will probably be coming over the next day.

Thanks, Z. I hope Drogba ends up being all right.

Norwich played really well though, I was hoping they would snatch a draw, until they got their keeper sent off and a penalty against after about 80 minutes.
Edit:
According to the channel I'm watching, Drogba has just now regained consciousness. Hope it's nothing too serious.

It came as a shock, certainly. There were quite a few other names that were being thrown about.

The problem is, we spent highly under Martin O'Neill, Randy Lerner, the club owner, let O'Neill have free reign in terms of spending and when he was asked to start to perhaps move on the players that he hadn't used in months (Reo-Coker, Luke Young, Habib Beye, Curtis Davis, etc) he quit! So we were stuck with a huge wage bill with ageing players.

I think of all the candidates for the job, Mcleish was the one who realised he wouldn't have mega money to spend and was willing to go for that challenge.

The fact that he had been relegated last time around and that he had been managing our neighbours didn't sit well. No other manager in history has gone from Blues to Villa. So it's a new thing for us Villa fans to deal with! lol

But truth be told, he's a good guy. Honest, frank, committed. The noises from the players are positive and well, we'll see how we do. I think we'll surprise a few this time around. We have an incredible youth academy at Villa and hopefully we'll see a bit more of them. For instance, keep your eyes out for Barry Bannan :)

(Sorry for the essay btw! Good question deserves a good attempted answer!)

¨ It's because I hate Man City and don't like Chelsea and I don't think someone else can win the league this year. So in match between 2 teams I like on similar level (Tottenham and Man Utd) I have to favour Man Utd as it will help them more long run. ;-)

I am disappointed by Tottenham a lot right now. :-(

It is not much money for most teams but for some poorer teams from Eastern Europe it can be quite a nice bonus.
Also it is minor nitpick but according to wiki Group Stage reward is 1 million not 900k. :-)

The Arsenal defence has been really, really dreadful.

Wow. That was awful. I can't think of a single positive for Arsenal to find in the ashes of that one.

Amazingly Fulham only lost 2-1 and really we were unlucky. The result has already been forgotten thanks to the abject displays by Spuds and the Arse.

Well, no Gunners player died during the game. You can be glad for that.

I suppose. Arsenal being under-manned or not, United were fantastic; so all credit to them. The international break couldn't come at a better time.

Any local Arsenal fans here? I'm those who from London or season ticket holder. What's the situation there? Do you guys still stand behind the team and Arsene Wenger?