The College Dropout

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.

All iv'e done is share football opinions You're a joke mate.

People have claimed we couldn't afford to give Isak a new contract due to FFP. With the additional spread of amortisation, a 100k increase is about £2-3m a year net addition to PSR. £150k would be closer to £5m. So 5 APT deals at just under a million would get Isak a new contract at £250k last summer - paid by APT and amortisation spreading. Probably would've helped us get closer to £150m at the least. These are the types of things an Owner as rich and powerful as PIF could do if they were serious and dedicated to us being a force in this league.

On that note - let me check in on the people I manage.

I'm still not defending Isak We offered a new contract in the summer right? That's too late. Yesterday's price, is not today's price. By the time we offered a new contract he knew Liverpool had 350k+ for him. About a year after Amanda said he would get a new contract and at least 6 months after Mitchell said he wouldn't get it. I think we offered him a new contract after we knew Mitchell had resigned. We looked a mess to him and Liverpool. The whole thing was poorly managed. We didn't manage the things we had control or influence over well. The entire saga.

The bluster man. Did Brentford respond to Wissa's statement? The bluster of our owners man... all you can do is judge their actions. Their words mean nothing.

Aye i'm not defending Isak. But the club is not entirely blameless. Players, agents etc. all need constant managing. That power/leadership vacuum contributed to this saga. The club tried to rely on the 3-year contract and neglected managing the relationship. And then didn't even use the leverage properly when it came down to it. Giving him a new contract or even trying to have the full discussion brings the relationship/management of the situation a lot closer. So I don't buy that it wouldn't have made any difference. At the least, we would've known he was going to be a major problem much earlier and could have put more things in place. With Yasir hanging out with Trump, Eales and Mitchell doing God knows what - there was this massive gap between the players, Eddie and the supposed power people. It's all part of that rudderless, lack of speed, drive i've spoken about at length for a long time. So i'm done for now.

I don't take football that personally. Isak's behaviour has made me dislike him deeply but I genuinely don't begrudge players for trying to make the most of their careers. I do expect them to honour contracts and the like though. But they are v. young men with often awful agents. Football clubs are meant to be run for hard-nosed business folks thattake that into account, Everyone acts in their own best interests. Fans do. It almost got ugly with Longstaff here - how sad is that? I cried tears of joy when we won the League Cup. It meant the world to me. But being objective - a player of Isak's calibre will want more than that from his career. League titles, European titles, Ballon D'Or nominee - some of those will be his career goals. But he's gone about it in the worst way possible and as a Newcastle fan, I hope he fails miserably. Not loved at Anfield. A fate worse than Michael Owen - not beloved anywhere. And even Owen left Liverpool in more understandable circumstance, won Ballon D'Or etc. I genuinely want the worst for the lad professionaly and I hate having vindictive thoughts/feelings.

He's been a dickhead no doubt. Lost respect for him totally. If our ambition is capped at this though, most of our v. best players will leave and I will be happy for them to leave. Obviously not like Isak though.

I support Newcastle United. I back the team and Eddie to the end. If we are midtable or in the Champ, it's all the same. I just need to understand what the aims of any Owner is. When I realised what the game was with Ashley, I was less invested. We were part of "the PL others". Happy to be in the division. No more no less. Didn't even want European football because we wouldn't invest in a team that could cope. This ownership group.... the penny is dropping about what teh game is. Just wish they were a bit more honest and transparent. They've come in talking about plans to become a major force in Europe and PL, becoming number 1. I don't really believe that to be true. Or at least backed up with the necessary action. Football's such a competitive thing you can't be half-arsed and expect great results.

Maybe so. We will never know. Giving him a new contract is done to partly avoid such a situation. It would give his agent an opportunity to try and negotiate a release clause too. Even if he never signed a new contract after protracted negotiations. That closeness would inform the club early, that Isak is likely to want to leave. Mitchell closing down discussions and then leaving left a communication and feeling gap. Which is partly why we ended up being on the backfoot when things turned up. This is why i keep saying "duppy know who fi frighten". The whole contract thing was an indication of a misaligned and fractured club. We didn't manage the situation. We keep saying the club is rudderless - this is part of it. I keep going back to Levy. He manages things from top to bottom, this is what Amanda was doing. Players might be upset and angry, but Levy/Staveley are there to manage the situation as best they can. We didn't have that - that was our first sign of weakness and misalignment. As I keep saying, I don't think a hired gun CEO changes that. When shit gets real some type of Owner needs to intervene and it can't be on Aug 20 something months after the star player lets it known he wants to leave. That doesn't happen with Levy and wouldn't happen with Amanda around.

Under 1M we can do whatever we like APT I believe.

Their stated ambition wasn't a league cup win and scraping into the CL. If that's the ambition. That's also fine. I'm less mad at Isak if that's the case. Why waste another year at a club of limited ambition? Go and win your trophies boy.

No it's not. We have 25/26 games in 17 weeks or so. And the squad is 1 or 2 light. What use is all that money? This period cost Villa their CL place last season.

The failure starts from hiring Mitchell and then not getting a new contract signed. Isak first let his dissatisfaction known before the season ended it seems. It doesn't start in pre-season.

Well then they've fucked it in it.

What were our results in those games he didn't score? ---- I don't think Villa are doing better than us. Our approach of paying a premium for players that can develop into world class or close has served us tremendously well. But I think their approach to PSR has been better. With the riches of our owners we could be even more aggressive. We could've done 3-5 APT deals at 999k just to get Isak his new deal last season. They can setup some multi-club BS to benefit us. They just don't care too. Which is my ultimate point about PSR. Our Ownership could do more to increase the limits, to use workarounds.... they just don't want too. It's not a priority for them. How good can we be with Owners that don't have us as number 1 footballing priority? I've said that all year. I credit Villa for their Owners pushing as hard as they can in every way they can. I even credit Chelsea and Forest owners for doing the same. Lots of dodgy deals. They are determined to succeed.

Ross Barkley and Donyell Malen I reckon. I'd happily have those 2 and send our boys out to get minutes and develop. We play with 3 CMs they play with 2. 2 injuries in midfield and Villa start 2 of Tielemans, McGinn, Onana & Kamara. 2 injuries in midfield and we are starting Lewis Miley or... changing the entire formation. That's the difference in the squad. It is us that is playing 8 intense European games this season as well.. not them. We have Eddie though.