Pata

Yeah, just think that the injuries are the main thing on people's minds right now and many have forgotten how good he is when fit. Non-penalty xG+xA per 90 of 0.95 (22-23) and 0.89 (23-24 although on half the minutes of the previous season) are ridiculous numbers for someone who is seen as a clear backup now. Isak's numbers were 0.53 (22-23) and 0.83 (23-24). I wrote a long post in his thread after the season that we can't really fail with him and both selling and keeping him have merits. He's a brilliant backup when fit but also getting the £10-15m fee would help instead of letting him walk next summer. Still think it's true, if he can score 10 goals in the league with limited minutes like last season (actually 9 but close enough) he could easily be worth that 10-15 million fee we could have received for him. Finding a replacement would be very expensive like you said in a window where we have two very clear big money needs (RW and CB). Osula really helps as now we have someone who can play striker on the bench when Wilson is injured unlike last season.

Think he's really good but simply too expensive and old for us to buy at this stage. Resale value means a lot and he turns 27 soon.

Great signing! I didn't know he existed couple of days ago but he's exactly the player profile we sorely missed last season and our academy hasn't been able to produce. Absolutely no risk involved either with the low fee and means we can spend more on a RW and a CB. Think Wilson has become underrated here too lately, he's still one of the best backup strikers in the league even with all the injuries and no Europe means Isak should be available more often which should be good for Wilson's availability too.

Villa are in injury to Watkins away from starting Cameron Archer in the Champions's League. Lukaku is still good but they would surely need help with those wages.

I don't think we would get enough for Joelinton to replace what he brings to the team, £40m max and I have no idea who would even do that. It's different with Bruno and Isak, there aren't many clubs in the world who wouldn't like to have them and the money we would get would be so much higher. It fucking sucks but we have to be able to sell players at the right time and Bruno turns 27 soon, pretty much the last age where we could get maximum money for him. Isak being two years younger means he's more likely to leave because he's a top 3 striker in the world than us being forced to sell due to his age. And I'm in no way advocating that we should sell them, just getting personally ready for it when PSR and FFP are still a thing.

Why would Howe say we want to get rid of a player unless it's a Fraser style freezeout situation?

The first few pages of this thread are juicy.

Ooh, this is a new one.

Not a huge fan of the Adidas kit last season, just looked like Spain. Usually they are the lushest kits around though.

IMO Barnes was an opportunistic signing but there's some history being re-written here. Gordon hadn't nailed down that LW spot when we signed Barnes and one reason we went for a pure LW was that Gordon was seen as a LW/RW/SS. After few games into the season Gordon had been so good at LW that moving him to get Barnes in to the lineup didn't make sense anymore and the void at RW started to look worse. Didn't help that Barnes wasn't fit during the autumn/winter injury crisis when we had so few players available that we probably would've needed to move Gordon to RW for some games in any case. In hindsight it's easy to say to that Barnes was unnecessary signing and the funds should've been used for a RW but it wasn't that clear when he was signed. In other universe Gordon was injured for most of the season and Barnes carried us at LW, there's always some luck and chance at play and criticizing decisions afterwards is never hard.

Same thing would've happened to Schalke if they would've been relegated to third tier which was a real possibility at one point this season. Too much debt to get the license for the third tier and they would've been forced to start from the bottom of the pyramid. Think both clubs are historically pretty equal to NUFC in size, so sad.

I see him waiting for Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Spurs or even West Ham. None of those have anyone even close to as good as Isak is ahead of him and the extra games in Europe would guarantee minutes. Edit. Forgot Zirkzee, think Man Utd are off the list.

I think Toney is too established striker to be the backup especially without the extra Europe games and he wouldn’t come here due to Isak. Think it needs to be someone younger who doesn’t mind being the clear backup and if we can’t sell Wilson he’s filling that role which is fine.

Your original post still doesn't make sense. Timing of the hire wasn't optimal and the people at the club obviously knew that but that's how things ended up happening and it's still good that he now has input on this transfer window. To even think it was possible we didn't have any plans in place pre-Mitchell is frankly just thick. I just don't have time for shite opinions, mate.

There's absolutely no chance this is true. It would be simpler if we had announced Mitchell at the end of the season but for reasons we don't know it only happened in July. Also signing players that Mitchell wouldn't approve would be a catastrophe in so many levels but it doesn't mean we didn't have any plans in place, we are well run now. You just need to have a go at someone, no idea why I didn't put you on ignore during the season with your weekly Howe-tantrums.

You must have passed the IQ test then.

WTF did you mean then? Please explain.

Hiring a highly regarded DoF is absolutely wank planning?

Sensational that even if parts of the season were very gung ho.

Yup. Pope being out meant our CBs couldn't be as aggressive anymore as Dubs wasn't cutting out the long balls behind their backs. Opens space in the midfield when our CBs were scared to get tight and bad things happen.

Villa already did that with Philogene. Instead of loaning out your youngsters you sell them and have a buyback clause to get them back. It can't keep going like this, these swap deals are also getting ridiculous but such an easy way to get past the regulations.

'Luis Diaz (locked 8th fast player in EPL last season at 36.42km/h)' Nah, it's a bullshit example but I don't think Thiaw is too slow.

That is such a bullshit example, Diaz isn't going full speed and think that should be a pen.

I’m sure you’re completely neutral source for this.

Nice move for him, will have to try and catch up with some Fenerbahce matches next season. Have a feeling they’ll love his style there.