steve_69

and then one of the thick cunt presenters chirped in with 'but i still think Newcastle will go down' followed by 'why aren't English managers given a chance in the Premier League'?

Even Djilibodji went for about 8m despite barely even playing for them. Buy them low, rent them out every year, keep the good ones and still sell the ones that flounder at a profit. They're just taking advantage of the loopholes that exist, I don't blame them but if the authorities aren't interested in stopping it then why wouldn't you? How could they stop it though. Their argument will be that they're developing players, loaning them out to get experience but if they're not deemed good enough they get sold. To be fair, if they are good enough Chelsea will probably put them in the first team squad. I don't think there's anything underhand in what they're doing at all

If it's true that Fernando is available for £4m we be mental to go anywhere near Delph

They've always made decent money from their academy, selling 4-5 players a season for a few million each. Now that transfer fees have gone crazy there's even more reason for them to keep doing it. Ake just went for £20m and was never realistically going to get anywhere near their first team, £9M for Bertrand Traore, £7m? for Atsu and another fee for Cahlobah. It's a great business model, I wish we could do something similar.

This could be the best piece of transfer business we do all summer, even if we make a huge loss. The only way it could be bettered is if we manager to offload Ginger Jack.

Well he can carry the ball and go past players, that's a massive upgrade just there. Goes for the return pass as well which Colback would never dream of. I suppose the only question mark would be how he will hold up to the pace of English football and getting clattered a few times. Rafa wouldn't be signing him if he thought the physicality was an issue. He knows the Premier League too well to take that sort of risk. It might take him a while to adjust but he's a big enough lad, I doubt he'll be phased.

Realistically I can't see that happening. The only way I can see them leaving is if they accept a loan deal to a championship club

He definitely looks to be. He hit a couple of peachy cross field pings

Why no option to buy?!

His Youtube highlight reel isn't the most exciting watch. Seems a bit average

Urgh!!

It's unsurprising really. Even if he was an absolute superstar their thread would be identical to that. As with Murphy, Clark, Yedlin & Hanley last season - I had my doubts but each one of them proved to be successful by contributing in us coming back up. He'll get a clean slate when he walks through the door and I'll judge him based on his performances for NUFC as everything else is pretty irrelevant. What they don't seem to be taking into account is that he'll be managed and coached by a world class manager this time around, rather than David fucking Moyes

Why do we need to get rid of deadwood first? If the money's there we should spend it. Then if someone wants to buy our deadwood we can shift them as and when. It just doesnt work like that man.... How big of a squad do you think we can have? Do you want the wage budget so high that it becomes unsustanable? The way the club is run our budget will be surplus money only, I would have thought the wages being paid are already accounted for before Rafa is told you have X amount to spend. So yes we'll have extra bodies, but we should be able to buy players in and then work on shifting those who no longer figure for this season. Then work on shifting those no who longer figure for this season? Thats what the club have been trying to do since the transfer window opened, thats the problem, we are struggling to get rid of these players If we sign players like Gibbs etc on high wages and fail to shift deadwood like Riviere, Hanley etc then our wage budget will be unsustanable. I know its frustrating but I dont think the club are willing to take the risk of spending big whilst we have so many players on our books The additional problem that we have is that I doubt many (if any) clubs want our failed players and if they do it'll be for a pittance. Ashley wants to make money back on every purchase, which means we're stuck with some of the s*** we've bought, like Riviere for example. Yup I think the club is willing to admit that they are going to make a loss on players like Riviere, but we still have far too many players that other clubs dont want Until these players leave, Benitez wont able to spend big and bring in the targets that he wants You can imagine with prices sky-rocketing like they have, we'll be asking for £10m for Riviere, £25m for Mitro, 40p for Colback.......

Why do we need to get rid of deadwood first? If the money's there we should spend it. Then if someone wants to buy our deadwood we can shift them as and when. It just doesnt work like that man.... How big of a squad do you think we can have? Do you want the wage budget so high that it becomes unsustanable? The way the club is run our budget will be surplus money only, I would have thought the wages being paid are already accounted for before Rafa is told you have X amount to spend. So yes we'll have extra bodies, but we should be able to buy players in and then work on shifting those who no longer figure for this season. Then work on shifting those no who longer figure for this season? Thats what the club have been trying to do since the transfer window opened, thats the problem, we are struggling to get rid of these players If we sign players like Gibbs etc on high wages and fail to shift deadwood like Riviere, Hanley etc then our wage budget will be unsustanable. I know its frustrating but I dont think the club are willing to take the risk of spending big whilst we have so many players on our books The additional problem that we have is that I doubt many (if any) clubs want our failed players and if they do it'll be for a pittance. Ashley wants to make money back on every purchase, which means we're stuck with some of the shit we've bought, like Riviere for example.

The fact that he's challenging Mike specifically, rather than Charnley or this 'fixer', suggests Fat Mike is far more involved than he himself is letting on

He looked very good for Hull last season.

Yeah, it's starting to become a bit concerning now. I get that we don't want to be spunking massive sums of money on players we don't think are worth it but we knew there was a good chance we'd be going up for weeks before it was confirmed, you'd think we'd have done a little bit of leg work. There's still plenty of time left in the window but we're not exactly showing any urgency to get shit done and Rafa made it clear he wanted to get players in as early as possible so they could be involved in pre-season. Same shit, different day sadly

We should definitely start monitoring him Are you crazy m8? We've gotta first think about considering to monitor him. Apologies, i've lost track of all the stages. Can we get an official timeline together please for all the stages between thinking/considering/monitoring all the way through to get it over the line It's tricky though because there are interim stages like considering monitoring and thinking about considering. There's also tracking as well, where does that fit in? It's a very complex process

We should definitely start monitoring him Are you crazy m8? We've gotta first think about considering to monitor him. Apologies, i've lost track of all the stages.

We should definitely start monitoring him

According to a Leeds supporting mate of mine, Vurnon is on the verge of signing for them.

It is a more physical league. Players don't get the protection from referees that they do in the Premier League. That could be because the standard of officiating is shit or because the refs just don't pander to players hitting the deck at the slightest touch. Either way, it is more physical. That said, any player who has the ability to perform in the Premier League should, in theory, be able to do even better in the Championship. Doesn't always work like that though.

As has been said before, Rafa likes to keep a compact squad. At that time Krul was coming back from injury, Saivet was probably suffering a crisis of confidence and De Jong was coming back from long-term injuries. It made more sense to loan them out so they could regain fitness/confidence than it did to keep them around, because we had to hit the ground running in the Championship. It mightn't be a case of Rafa not rating them, more that he felt other players were likely to be first-team ready imminently. Now that they're back he can take a second look at them in a full pre-season and decide if they warrant being part of his squad. I'm just speculating though, he might just think they're all s***.

I know he looks like a scruffy geriatric. That's about it