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You make a good point - Andy Howe and Nickson had a play in past signings didn't they? No issues with that going forward they unearthed some gems. Just find it odd people are quick to criticise Amanda/Mehrdad for past spending but Eales gets away relatively scott free

Wolves starting to spend the Cunha and Ait-Nourhi wedge: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c5yg3d184ndo

Before they became rich we were buying their best defenders for £4m a pop (Domi, Goma, Rozehnal)

Tbf he’s temporarily been replaced by Howe’s nephew - it doesn’t get more jobs for the boys than that

I'm sure it happens at City. I'm sure Monchi was hired at Villa because of Emery too. And obviously it happened at Liverpool too. If the manager is THE man and the club want to build around that particular manager, he'll have input. It's not entirely clear at our clubs who does what. Roman Era Chelsea - it was Roman's club. He made all the major decisions. Marina was his main advisor and seemed to run the club day-to-day. Petr Cech (was it?) and others seemed to have important roles but Roman made most of the major calls. It's a bit unclear with us - whose baby is it? When Stavely and Mehrdad where here. It is obvious they ran the club and had the direct line to PIF who could be convinced to go bigger than initially planned. You had Reubens, Eales & Ashworth but S&M where the dominant figures. Ashworth seemingly was in charge of contract extension decisions and heavily involved in transfers. But we don't know the extent he influenced the budget. Indeed it seemed he had planned 2 FFP exit routes and when he left S&M closed one of them. I *think* Ashworth was key in signing Tino & Hall - we were linked with Robinson previously and in retrospect - that looks like a Howe #1 pick. I think Howe liked Hall & Tino but I doubt either was his #1 choice. We need someone that can challenge him and provide him with smarter alternatives. No disrespect to Robinson, if his contract was up next week he would move to a top 8 club.

Jammies or no jammies?

Also clubs will wait until the end of June to ramp up pressure on any clubs possibly needing to sell so they can drive the pri especially down a bit more.

Swap deal for Trafford with Popey, this lad as deputy.

If the CL draw is favorable I'm officially putting feelers out for Spurs, Burnley, CL game and Sunderland. @Interpolic

I don't think he said that did he? Obviously that's a rancid look for him if so. i do think an air of inevitably existed though, we put the cart before the horse and rightfully so, Bruce had to go and given the speed we move at can you imagine where we would have been if we would have hired a DOF before Eddie?

The Craig Hope Special™️

Ive convinced myself most clubs are waiting until July 1st and the new financial year so was kinda expecting a big calm before the storm (Cartel clubs seem to have their own rules 🙄)

I understand what you're saying, but you can't really go from the man who had free roam and basically become an overnight celebrity to some idiot who he hired slating him and saying "he can sack him if he wished" The whole scenario was a shit show if we're being honest.

That dog food story rings a bell, pretty sure I know her brother too. Is his first name Shields ?

It'll most likely begin to pick up next week as we move closer to the end of the month.

I hear your points but I think it's important to recognise that at any other club the sporting director is the authority on the football side with the power to dismiss the manager. Managers do not get get an input in who is hired for the sporting director role at any other club either mind. Obviously we've gone down the road of giving Eddie the keys which is understandable and some will say deserved but doing so has created dysfunction as well.

Have to admit, I expected movement sooner too, plenty of time to prepare.

Hiring Mitchell aka "jobs for the boys" without barely even telling Howe about it? Letting Mitchell have a free roam and him even insinuating he can "sack Howe if he wished" Posting cringy photos on twitter and pretending to be "one of the fans" Running the club into a firesale of young talented players just so we don't get a points deduction? I'm sure I'm forgetting some other stuff too

Wouldn't surprise me if Saudi Arabia had an agreement with FIFA to help with the looming CWC if needed when they were given the WC.

#wait

Every. Single. Game. Is. Fucking. Difficult. We really need seriously strengthen going into this season.

Really surprised we haven't seen some early movement tbh. We've had 18 months to plan, monitor, negotiate and prepare bids. I'm sure there's stuff happening behind the scenes but this really is dull.