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Villas approach nearly worked but to say it didn’t work is about as straightforward a truth as you’ll see on the football forum.

If they'd scored 2 more, then yeah, kinda.

Rachel Locke has just lost her argument as it is clear what her intentions are and it's not protecting hedgehogs with that 'Saudi Super Stadium' jibe.

Edit: nevermind. So uh, how about them Magpies?

Outside looking in it would seem a crazy choice. If they got 90 points again next season they'll probably go up.

I agree with TCD for the most part. The odds are we'll lose one or possibly two of our top players next summer, hopefully for a substantial amount of money. Getting Champions League football again doesn't guarantee those players staying but it does make us a much more attractive proposition to the players we look to recruit. How we invest that money from selling Isak, Tonali, Gordon, whoever matters and we'll be able to bring in a much better calibre of player if we have both the money and the prestige of repeated CL qualification.

Could be the green light for Joao Pedro. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpw7gn5kyreo

Lol. I said what I said

If Liverpool had scored a second in the league cup final, would that mean Howe’s tactical approach didn’t work? The approach was a good one and it gave us the best chance of success. If we ended up losing the match because Liverpools bench was much stronger, that doesn’t negate the success of the tactical and motivational approach. By your own calculation the risk cost Villa £20m. Thats the cost of a bench player for them. And they should make that back in the difference between Europa League and no European football. Villa having saleable assets is a different matter but semi related. If we go for it with permanent signings, we will also have saleable assets.

Grealish would spent most of his time here getting pissed if we signed him

Saudi Super Stadium sound glorious

Would love to see a map of the postcodes of those 28,000 signatories. We all know what it would look like.

That's interesting, I didn't know that. Ange always seemed to be alone on the touchline. I can't remember seeing him in conversation with another coach, exchanging ideas, and I'm not aware of any particular sidekick / mentor who has worked in close partnership with him. Clough had his Taylor, Ferguson relied on a series of assistants, and of course Eddie has his Mad Dog. Things started off well at Spurs, but when problems arose, I wondered whether he had anyone to turn to for advice or to bounce ideas off? He's been a big fish in a number of smaller ponds, and maybe he's used to being smarter than those around him or those in opposition to him. The Premier League, of course, is different.

Daft that, 24 points above Sunderland and a fanny's whisker away from promotion, unless they have Klopp lined up they should be backing him not sacking.

I disagree fundamentally. FFP is all about the short term. For us - 2 years, back to back CL football can become transformative. It will give us the buffer to falter in a medium term or compound success. We need to consolidate our successes. That requires taking a risk. Either we add to our class players and confirm ourselves as CL regulars. Or we sell them and fall further behind. We take a calculated risk and fail - we sell Isak. If don’t take a risk and fail - we also sell Isak.

Yep, I do this. I use this forum as a bullshit filter.

Brother, the approach didn't work. The goal they had when they committed an additional 500k per week was to make the champions league and they failed. Let's also not forget the elephant in the room which is our dear owners, without paying over the odds for both Diaby and Duran Villa would be in literal PSR hell a luxury we simply can't afford.

Bit pointless, they'll just hire him back in 18 months.

The approach worked - it just didn’t land the spot by a whisker. By the end of matchweek 24, they were in the CL, FA Cup and 4 points behind us and 5th place. They ended the season with the same amount of points as 5th - taking the race to the last game of the season, while playing 6 more games than us in that time. And more games prior. The approach worked. It made them competitive on 3 fronts and was a bit of luck away from being a complete success. If we take the approach that leaves us without enough quality in-depth, it will not be close. We will not qualify for the CL or Europa League and many on here will call for Howe to lose his job. As for the particular loans - we’ll only know late in the window who will be available as usual. Players won’t make squads or first teams and deals will be available. Same in January. We need 4 quality additions to the team to compete on multiple fronts. If we don’t it will take a miracle for us to requalify for the CL. Isak and Tonali will be liable to leave anyway. Whether it’s all permanent transfers or a loan or 2 - we need that squad.

Just come here then, keep away from Socials.

Feels like he was 29 about 5 years ago though. Used to love him at City but he does give the impression his best years are behind him though. Moving to Galatasary just seems to rubber stamp it.

Not a lot tbf, but for me the goalkeeper is the least part of our problem. It is annoying though seeing clickbait social media videos titled "Newcastle swoop for two stars!" only to come here and see it's all bullshit.

It was a risky move, and Monchi's style. Now those loan players are returning, and you'll have to sell players to meet the Financial Fair Play rules. That might weaken the squad. In PSR, it's all about the long game, not quick wins; steady growth, not rushing things. Unless you have revenue at least 75% of the sky six, gambles are a no no. I include loans in this too.

everyone says the club lost all structure and momentum when they got rid of him. can we hire Maldini as our sporting director?