ohmelads

You tell me. What happened?

By blaming Schar you're falling for the bullshit excuses for a disgraceful decision. What's Schar done other than stand his ground after being aggressively shoved to the floor?

I suspect the cartel/PL would just move the goalposts again with another rule change to ensure we can't include those revenues.

Who knows, but it does look like Ratcliffe is hiring his cronies and for Ashworth, moving to a 'protected' club that can and will forever outspend us and work for his mate is a no brainer. The PSR deadline was surreal; it wasn't publicised at all until pretty much the day of it and clubs seemed to suddenly be in panic mode overnight and we were suddenly selling Minteh and Anderson. It was all very strange and makes you wonder if some clubs were contacted by the Premier League and informed of their 'situation'. It's hard to believe these wealthy clubs wouldn't have the accountants telling them this was coming. But that's another conversation. To respond to the rest of your (previous) post, yes, they will want the best they can find. I just hope they look at Chelsea before making rash decisions.

Ashworth is apparently long term pals with Ratcliffe, who has also appointed his old mate Brailsford.

The quotes give off unhappy Benitez/Keegan vibes under Ashley. He'll be very tempted by the England job. England have a golden generation of players that many feel has been an opportunity missed under Southgate. In Foden they have the technical European-style midfielder that's been missing for generations and along with Bellingham, he's a generational talent with his prime ahead of him. It's looking increasingly clear that whatever Newcastle do, barriers will be put in place to ensure the cartel clubs position is untouchable and Howe is probably growing frustrated with that. Add in the turbulent and strange summer with the last minute sale of youngsters and departure of Ghodoussi and Staveley and it doesn't help us.

How long before those players settled and were regular starters? Barnes and Isak got major injuries early on. It took half a season before Tino was trusted with regular starts and nearly a full season for Hall. I imagine the big signing (if we make one...) will be a right winger and we need him to be ready to make an impact early. To do that, his chances are far higher if we get him in for pre-season.

To be fair to him, that's not his game and he isn't asked to do that at club level.

In sections of the media, the narrative will be how good Spain were as a deflection from negative takes on Southgate. Unlike Italy in Euro 2020, this was a good side that deserved the win and fair play to them for being brave and playing on the front foot. Having acknowledged that, the media narrative of showering praise on Spain is also a way of letting Southgate off the hook yet again. He was awful throughout the tournament and England played in spite of him. When I speak to fans from France, Spain, Italy, they feel England are underperforming under Southgate (interested to hear views on here too if anyone's reading). Even the Scots, Welsh and Irish I speak to think Southgate has wasted a generation. That's the only crumb of comfort I take from this final. We still have the core of an exciting squad and surely a new coach to release the shackles.

Agreed. I think the press are up to their usual shit but the club need to put a message out that he's not for sale.

Press making mischief I reckon, perhaps aided by clubs that would benefit from unsettling a player they're interested in. There's no benefit for us in offering Gordon around but there's plenty benefit for Liverpool and others to this story suddenly appearing.

If they sold him on (which would imply he didn't play much), it'd be hard to make "a huge profit" if they're paying him say £7 million in wages a year. If he hadn't been playing that would lower his stock too. And if they were loaning him out because it didn't work out, they'd potentially have to pay a chunk of the wages to enable the deal to happen.

You have a point, but I think referees are letting more things go because they know the VAR is there. It's impossible to prove this, but I think it's only human nature that they would ref a game differently with VAR than without. He lets it go and VAR intervenes and chalks it off as a success. What we are also seeing, I believe, is cases where a ref has a gut feeling but lets play go on feeling the VAR has his back, only to be let down by a shocking non-intervention (e.g. the Gordon pen). We then have these pointless "independent panels" who tell everyone there is nothing to see here; we are told arbitrary stats that it is 96% correct (an absurd claim); we have ex-referees tying themselves in knots defending the worst VAR decisions. All of that only undermines VAR and the credibility of those paid off to defend the indefensible, and I think is part of the reason why it isn't getting better.

Gordon is a huge miss for this one.

You're posting this a day after Gordon's completely indisputable pen wasn't given. The hand of god goal may or may not have stood under VAR depending on whether or not the VAR was on the toilet or wanted to offend the ref on the field or whatever the reasons are for missing these blatant calls. We are all (across all clubs) complaining about awful decisions just as much as we used to. Sometimes VAR gets correct decisions that used to be missed, and sometimes it re-refs good decisions/non-decisions that used to stand. I'm not convinced officiating is any fairer.

I'd rather we are ruthless and sell this summer while we can still get a decent fee. We got £15m for Chris Wood who was 31 at the time. I reckon a promoted team would take a punt on Wilson's injury record to get a quality and experienced Premier league striker when fit. I see the argument about how hard it is to get a quality backup, but half of the season he isn't a backup at all because he's injured. With age it'll only get worse. Say we take the risk on his fitness again; he'll be 33 next summer, worth significantly less and we'll still need to replace him. We need a wide right player anyway so I'd put the money and his big wages towards a versatile player that can play both positions. They don't come cheap, but clearing Wilson's wages would help a lot.

Would the fact we waited for his extended gardening leave at Brighton and eventually settled financially with Brighton not be a factor in any arbitration? I would have thought they'd also be wary of what legal precedent they're setting if he's able to go there before the summer window closes.

Gut feeling is he's going back to Chelsea in summer. There's been no clear reports on his loan terms besides a couple of blokes on twitter.

We can only speculate, but the Hall and Tino deals could have been Ashworth trying to do exactly that, at the significant expense of squad balance short term. The fact Howe has hardly used our expensive summer signings and has nothing good to say about Ashworth would indicate Howe didn't have enough of a say, if anything.

The instability is never good short term but I think it's a net positive long term in all honesty. We need someone committed to the club's vision and on the same page as the management team. Last summer was a mess in hindsight and left the squad totally unbalanced with loads of full backs and only two forwards. The Hall and Tonali deals were on his watch and if we argue transers aren't on him then we can't really credit him for any of Brighton or West Brom's finds either. He'll be joining that doping guy from the cycling as another of Ratcliffe's old cronies. They'll have to pay a lot if they want him any time soon.

Suspect it's simpler than that. We're haggling with his agent over a new deal and this looks like the club's way of saying "the offer on the table is our last and we're serious so if you don't sign, we'll be forced to sell in summer". Would be gutted to lose him but this does look like a game of brinkmanship.

It would probably hurt us in the short term, but sometimes there's a smart time to sell. Trippier has been instrumental in turning us around and is a leader in the group, so I would worry about his departure. But if we keep him, what's the plan next season? If Trippier is number 1 then not only does it hold Tino back, but chances are Trippier's performances start to drop with age while his wages don't. If he's number 2 or rotating, then his wages are just too high to be a bit-part player. We could give those wages to someone who starts every game and improves the first XI not just now but hopefully for years to come. Whether we keep or sell, Trippier's time as a top player is limited. You need a squad, but with FFP we're not allowed anywhere near the same spend as the Sky 6. We're going to have to make these types of difficult decisions and the key is is all about timing. We could hang onto him too long and end up with a high earner whose legs are going and limited interest from clubs that can afford his wages. If we were touch and go for 4th right now, this would be a much harder decision. There is more of an argument to think a bit longer term now with the way this season has gone.

Eric Dier.

Neither was Joelinton's. The point is they're so similar that you can't call one a foul and not the other.

Curious what Arteta thinks about the challenge from Gabriel for the goal. Very similar to Joelinton's (against Gabriel ironically). Although in fairness Arteta never did clarify what his meltdown was in reference to.