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Might require two separate players instead. Or a CM and a right winger who can cover up top.

Forget him. Next

Totally agree. We also tend to sign better players than we are linked with. I remember a time when most of us would have taken Lingard and Tarkowski.

Kluivert.

Don’t get me wrong, I think he did a very good job last season, but it wasn’t miraculous. We have a midfield of Italian and Brazilian internationals, the starting RW for England, one of the best young strikers in the world, two of the brightest young full backs in the league, a La Liga winner, settled CBs and a few other players who aren’t too shabby. We really should be finishing above Forest, Brighton and the others chasing Europe regardless. We did very well, but it wasn’t a miracle.

Why are you pinning that on Staveley when Darren Eales was CEO from July 22 and from what we know PIF had final sign-off on all big financial decisions? Staveley probably had to leave because of her own finances rather than the club's.

Assuming we are looking at similar profiles to Pedro, Cunha etc, any suggestions on who/where we go next? Pretty unique profile so struggling with any names.

I swear some people would be happier now if we’d signed a couple of players in this window not capable of holding down a first team place, now or in the future. Our strategy on transfers is quality, not quantity and it has clearly been working. Because of PSR we cannot afford to make one mistake in signing a wrong (expensive) player, whereas the likes of ManU can, repeatedly, and still beat us to signings because they can pay more. It’s very unfair but that’s the way it is. NUFC needs to be smart in the transfer market and we are.

Villa are at risk.

Bit surprised there haven't been more talk of Justin Kluivert, with the Bournemouth-Howe connection and NUFC connection through his dad. Reportedly valued at 30-35m Euros. Can play as forward and on both wings. Leverkusen "preparing a bid" apparently.

The new CEO appointment will have more of an impact on out approach to PSR as much as anything. Eales clearly prefers to play things safe.

Maybe on paper but in reality no. The contest is we also won a cup. The atmosphere in the club was terrible and that does matter. And we have a thin, ageing squad that we couldn’t improve. That means having to take the same squad and come up with new winning tactics where most other clubs are able to evolve. In the context it was A1 managing.

I'd say Miracle is the wrong word. Eddie Howe is an outstanding coach, so its not "Miracle" he took us back into the CL and won a trophy. The year previous was the outlier because we had terrible injuries.

Aye, tbf just realised he came from PSG didn't he? He would have been on a high wage there and wouldn't have taken much of a cut.

PIF actually have a financial interest in Chelsea, they have billions invested in Clearlake Capital which owns 60% of Chelsea.

And this is why Stavely is no longer with us. Disastrous mishandling of the finances.

They'd have been able to afford him regardless tbf. They're in a good PSR position thanks to their non-player sales going through.

Could be wrong but didn’t they spend 50 to 60 odd million on him (possibly with more in add-ons)? 2nd highest transfer in Bundesliga history iirc. Imagine he’s on a fair whack, considering. Pretty sure he’s out of our reach, which is a shame.

Howe absolutely did do miracles. Everyone around us strengthened, yet it still didn't hold us back and got us a trophy. This season was more impressive than his top 4 finish easily.

Both are terms used by Geordies, just the Mackems decided to lay claim to one of them in the 90’s, alongside calling themselves Mackems, changing their logo to a design more similar to ours, and electing to adopt the nickname the Black Cats, and they have the audacity to call us 92’s.

Howe is the head coach. IMO Tino and Hall are where they should be. Both were recognised as top talents when we signed them. I can only talk about when I can see. We’ve got no long term CEO or DOF. No news 3.5 years later on stadium and training centre. 3.5 years to deal with PSR/FFP and it’s still holding us back more than any other club.

In the league, with our squad, it was about par. Man Utd and Spurs were horrendous and Villa (with a better squad) had 12 CL games.

Not many players with that Cunha/Pedro profile around. Covers two or three positions across the forward line and midfield. Interesting to see what we do next.

I really struggle with you TCD. Sometimes I like what you say but there's times like this when I feel its utter waffle. "No evidence" we werent strongly interested in the 4 players you mentioned either then. Again we are back to this thing where you pick and choose which things to believe and then dismiss others perceptions of the situation. "Not a good look?" To whom? Internet bellends like us? You do realise this is all horseshit right? To the wider viewing public we ain't no laughing stiock, in fact we've been roundly praised for our transfer business. We didn't sign Elanga or Trafford last year because of PSR constraints. We nearly did but decided it wasn't smart, given the costs. (Again, that's my perception, I might be wrong, no problem). If you mean how long it takes to negotiate a fee, we'll i entirely disagree, all clubs take their time because they try to save money, rather than to get deals done super quick to appease impatient fans. Think about how ridiculous that is by the way? "I want you to pay x millions more to get the deal done now, oh but by the way when we are skint in the next two years I'll be back to criticise you for that and tell you its 'not a good look'". We aren't that important.

With the Club World Cup this summer (double window) and a PSR deadline it seems to have been a bit distorted the reality regarding doing the business early. Man City in the winter window and the early summer window dropped a serious amount of money in response to poor performances. Liverpool have kept their business to this summer as opposed to last season due to a change in Sporting Director and likely a title boosting their financials. You also have some players that had specific release clauses, obligations to buy or contract decisions to be made i.e. Delap, Danso and Cunha. Whilst I'm not currently worried, I think the comments at the end of last season from staff and players reflect a need for incomings ahead of a multiple competition campaign. We know the areas we need to strengthen and while it looks like we're missing out on targets such as Mbeumo it partly feels like fans expected him to sign and therefore disappointed. If we ended up in September having signed Trafford, Antonio Silva, Xavi Simons, DCL and Ederson (randomly picked linked players) you'd likely have a mixed reaction of overjoyed we've made signings to those that were a "wait and see how they perform". We've got money to spend from 1st July, let's see what happens.