The College Dropout

Nobody is forced to support premier league football it’s hard to participate in modern life without a smartphone There’s a lower league football club local to you that you can support easily. Many boycotted under Ashley. Nothing stopping you boycotting the Saudi’s. But you won’t and few people have. Because this is a bit of a golden era. If we bent the rules or even broke them - if we were successful you would still support

Do you know who we are owned by? I advocate for having someone with equity in an active leadership position because we need someone with skin in the game to reach the Owners' supposed aims. What we've had since Amanda has left is precisely "another soulless business enterprise, run by moneymen who are happy to stab their own mother's for a profit". Amanda herself fits that bill but she put her soul into it. Can't fault the team and manager, coaches etc. Whatever soul Marinakis has, he puts it into Forest. Can't guarantee the same for our Owners. Fans don't care about Saudi ownership. You think our fans would care about a multi-club model that benefitted us or a dozen APT deals? That's what most people want, the rules to fall and for us to have "a level playing field" with the cartel clubs.

Agree Botman is becoming an issue.

Central midfield. Each wing. GK. A full back.

Exactly. 2 players to my knowledge. so all this talk of ‘well players are just here as a job’ as an excuse for the post doesn’t entirely wash. Only 2 players have publicly supported him since the move with social media posts. One is his best friend in the squad. Aa far as I know. None of the captains have. I don’t really care but Gordon is annoying. I mentioned before he plays in a way to make people think ‘he gets it’ but he doesn’t. I don’t really care if he produces. But he’s not consistent. Bruno and Joelinton do it too but the actually walk the walk in general behaviour. Both are liable for a fee but they try and funnel their focus on the pitch. I would be surprised if they or Dan Burn sent a public social media post for Isak….. because they actually get it from a fans perspective. Gordon pretends to boost his own image.

No he’s class. Always been a big fan of him and a long term believer when others wanted us to cancel the loan. I as one of the first players I bestowed the crown of baller on. I just think he can be got at by class wingers much more than Tino can. Which for some means I don’t rate him.

They don’t regularly get to the latter stages. They’ve turned into England of old. How many semi finals in euros and world cups since they last won one?

There’s so much to this. We are owned by Saudi Arabia. A state that by most people’s metrics oppresses women, migrants, gay people and carries out dodgy trials and executions. Dissidence to the state can result in death. Our owners do way more evil things than they could possibly do with football. They won’t be our owners forever- if you were so principled you would be at a massive distance from the club while they are owners. And your main point about the principles of the game. Welcome to capitalism. I suspect your pension has stocks in companies that have received investigations and sanctions in businesses that have done unethical things. Have you ensured your pension is only invested in ethical firms? The success we have had is entirely down to the Saudi state that most consider abhorrent. Lastly, I’m not advocating rule breaking. I am advocating utilising existing loopholes - as if our ambition is to become a force in Europe within the next 7 years, I think that is needed (and we’ve already done some). 90% of people would utilise a tax loophole if it helped them. If the owners say they just want us to be in and around European places. Cup runs. Then fine. Let’s keep doing what we are doing. Theres a lot of posturing they do so I don’t know what is what. tldr: it’s a current game. We are already corrupt morally speaking.

He’ll not have to run as much for Liverpool and they will have a quality sub option for him too. He’ll be a great 60-70 minute man. I still think there’s another level he could get too physically. Modric is slight, Gordon too but they don’t have much fat on them. Isak is skinny and soft and I don’t think that’s good enough. Not to go all HTL racismo, some of that will be genetic but it’s still not good enough.

I don’t. I would much rather succeed now and deal with ‘investigations’ 5-years down the line.

The durability of Schar and Burn was one of the main reasons we finished 5th. Life savers the both of them.

Cos I think it’s obvious the sensible thing is to call or text him if you must. I do think a number of the dressing room leaders would’ve turned on him.

Apart from Botman did anyone else post a public good bye? Dan Burn? Bruno G? Joelinton? Schar?

If you are spreading Isak’s amortisation costs - then you have to spread the revenue too. 125/3 =£41.667m of additional revenue for 3 years basically. 30/3=£10m amortisation costs per year we still essentially pay for. So the net PSR boost per year is £31m. That’s the cost of Nick W and Wissa per year. Maybe we didn’t need the Isak money to sign Wissa. But that’s the equivalent. It doesn’t unlock a massive spending spree unless we think we can sell £100m net PSR profit worth of players every season. Thats something only the big 5 can really do.

Ah I get you. im not an accountant but i think you maybe double counting the amortisation saving. if you count the amortisation cost upfront then add in the 130m - you can’t do it again the following year. I believe anyway my accounting module was 15 years ago. The wages aye.

Liverpool sell a Fringe player for £33m every year. Thats game changing. A large sales funnel every year.

The Isak PSR profit covers Nick W and Wissa for 3 years. That’s all. All of Isak’s amortisation disappears at once. That’s about £30m. There’s roughly £33m of extra PSR headroom a year. That’s the PSR cost of Nick W and Wissa for 3 years

Villa don’t have an Isak though. Watkins isnt Isak level. That was the difference between us and Villa. Our 1-2 best players are better than theirs. By a distance. That gap has closed. Likewise their squad was way better than ours and that gap has also closed.

Where have I suggested we sign galacticos? I really like the Botman Hall Tino Bruno Sandro Isak Nick W even Gordon I back howe to get the best out of the Wissa’s Barnes Thiaw Elanga etc. but I don’t love those transfers

He wasn’t a key player. And they replaced him with a player of a higher reputation (even though I don’t rate the replacement too much). We lost our best player and replaced him with 2 players most would consider inferior. The aim for us this season should be qualifying for the CL again and CL last 16. I don’t think we have enough about the squad to do that. Unless we strengthen in Jan. CL play offs and some kind of Europe should be our floor. Although truthfully we could finish 8th and I could have no beef.

Aye no old or super ego galactico's but it's still an all-star team. They are finally taking advantage of being an elite team in the best football city/country in the world. And then adding semi Galacticos like Kvara

Who did Villa lose? There's no points for winning transfer windows so I don't really care.

It was still a team full of superstars tbf

OK. I think we need a squad where everyone knows their role and can fill it. I don't know about Malen but Barkley is on a short-term contract. I personally like having Krafth and Lascelles. Proper men and professionals who can do a steady job when needed. I think we are stunting Osula and Miley's development by keeping them as emergency players. Osula in particular, is getting to an age where he needs to play regularly. Neither look like they know who they are as pro footballers. I also think we should do as many PSR hacks as possible so we don't have weak/inexperienced squad battling on multiple fronts. To Villa's credit, none of their loanees or cheap transfers on bigger wages looked like they were on holiday. i thought Asensio was done and he was excellent. Similar with Rashford and he looked good too.

How much money do you think they earn between them? £150k tops - surely? My overall opinion in football is that the gap between the elite and the rest is widening financially. Unless we suddenly get an academy as good as Chelsea/City (a FFP allowed cash cow of some nature) - I don't think you can slow build into becoming a PL force in 2025. Look at how the top 6 have strengthened this summer. I think we need to aggressively close the gap now/asap or the gap will widen. IMO you need to consoldiate your space at the top table as soon as you can. To challenge, I think you need a Norgaard or a Barkley as backup. Or maybe a really top class youngster that can Lewis-Skelly it. Losing Isak for an ok fee - is step 1 of the Leicester/Southampton trap.