The College Dropout

There's no way we "knew" that in January which is the latest point we should've been formulating an escape plan.

It doesnt make any sense. 3.5 + year option for us. Aye. If it was 3.5 surely we would be in contract negotiations already. Maybe it was smart FFP play. Have 3.5 year contract with an option for 1-2 more years. That front loads his amortisation costs. If we extend at the end of the 3.5 year period he would’ve amortised nearly all his fee.

That 3.5 year deal makes no sense in hindsight. Surely you sign a promising player that needs to develop to a 4-6 year deal? Like the Isak deal.

How are we going to rapidly increase revenues from here? How are we going to increase our revenues by £75-£100m per season in the next 3 years? That's what we'll need to do to continue to spend and not sell players.

1. We already gave Forest cash for a player we don't want or need. 2. I genuinely think the plan was to sell Bruno. It's the only plan that makes sense. The Minteh situation 70% great scouting, 30% luck that he's been so impressive, so quickly. And even then - he's been so good, we shouldn't sell him. These things look great on paper. But within context, you have to ask a few questions. Yes - they've done a great job overall. This situation hasn't been great though.

Agreed. The only thing with the Swiss, like Solvakia, they might lose their nerve. At 2-0 against Italy, it was way more nervy than it needed to be. The defence look ropey as owt. I don't care what anyone says - you don't want Walker, Trippier & Stones as 3/4 of your back 4 and the main leaders under pressure. City they play up high away from goal and have other players to bring composure. Movement still spins Walker. Stones & Guehi is two sweep-up type defenders. We need a more aggressive one in there. Trippier is Trippier - never been amazing defensively.

I think it's clear from his cameo - that Saka has seemingly forgotten how to play as a LB/LWB. He looked like he had no idea what to do. Maybe he can re-learn in a few days. Btw that Foden offside as awful, awful play from him. Miles offside considering the position of him and Trippier. In that moment, he had 1 job and failed miserably.

Really don't want MGW. Where is he going to play?

The big clubs can always spend big. But the others can't. Us, Villa, Everton, Forest - we had been stimulating the market. I also don't think the other clubs mind. They are like us in many regards with Ashley. The PL is the gravy train. Clubs like Brighton just need to stay up to be profitable. A struggling Everton & Forest is a good thing. 2 more teams likely to go down. Why would they want more ambitious owners like Villa, those are more clubs that won't get relegated? Brighton just vultured us for Minteh. They are loving it.

Behind our old lad at Forest right? The shit one. Can only assume he's shit too.

You're using big words but the logic isn't coherent. We do not have the revenues of the clubs you mentioned. We will be hit with points deductions or fire sales if we do not keep tight with expenditure.

Clearly, nobody else of equal or more repute wanted to pay Lloyd Kelly 70-80k. Unless something is putting other clubs off - injuries, attitude, age, when you sign an established player on a free transfer- you will usually pay them more than anyone else would. Which might make it difficult to sell them going forward. Free transfers are great for top clubs that can snap up the talent they can keep and hold with little care for resale - that's what Real Madrid do (Courtois, Alaba, Rudiger etc.), can sign them all at 30. Like I say, the ends justify the means. Villa don't want to sell Kamara, he's been key for them getting into the CL. It's worked out. You just don't want too many of those on the books. Which is why they sold Luiz. He was on lowish wages, close to contract renewal time so they cashed in. The only issue is that desperation made them accept a lower fee than he's worth imo.

We don't have the revenues to support that and the club know it. Unless we increase revenues substantially we'll need to sell, sell, sell. If not for Minteh we would have sold Gordon or someone. While we don't have the revenues needed. We need to be able to have markets for nearly all of our players. It doesn't matter what we pay those who can go to elite clubs (Bruno, Isak) - others will pay more. But your Joelintons, Willocks etc. we need to be able to shift them quickly if needed.

For all the crap your owners get - you've ended up doing pretty well to avoid being in this mess for June. Obviously you have massive revenues but clearly you'vve restrained yourselves in the transfer market a bit to avoid this situation.

You have to look beyond face value. 1. That Anderson fee is inflated and not genuine. We will spend similar money on a Forest player if not more. We haven't fleeced them like we did for Wood. 2. Minteh deal to us is like the Lewis Hall deal from Chelsea. Aye we've got a good fee for a youngster that probably isn't ready to start regularly. But we've also sold a prospect that could play in the side for the next 10 years - with a ceiling of ability that high. We'll end up using the money we've got to spend more money on a replacement. Nobody thinks Chelsea's approach is cool - not even their own fans.

I think that when you sign an established player in their prime on a free transfer, you probably sign him to wages that nobody else would match. Only thing is perhaps his injuries put other teams off. Take Tosin - had he joined I would say the same thing. We've probably given him a deal nobody else would match, unless he's better than everyone expects - he might be hard to shift if needed. I like Kamara at Villa. Rumoured to be on 175k. I think he's worth every penny but his wage reduces his market substantially. Tielemans, Villa could only shift to Saudi. While we don't have massive revenues. We need players that can be sold easily. PSR champions of the world Brighton & Spurs do this v. well. Only 1 or 2 are on the megabucks. The rest all have wages that can be easily sold (in the main - that one French lad signed for megabucks is an exception).

Aye - i'm keeping my stocks in Minteh and look forward to seeing him play in the PL. I think he has all the playing tools needed to go very far in this game. He's got pace, he looks big at about 6ft. He's quick now, he can get a yard quicker with more strength. Put it this way. He has nearly all the same football attributes as Gordon - quick, tall, carries the ball, presses aggressively. With the added bonus of being better 1v1. Gordon has a better weaker foot mind. He's got the raw technical and physical materials. He's got the eye test (minus the one footed thing). He's got the underlying stats. He's got the productivity stats. Everything that can be measured by sight or numbers - he has - which is why Brighton have signed him for £30m. The rest is mentality, luck with injuries, physical ceiling, technical ceiling etc. that we don't know.

Agree with this. I can't give him all the credit but Brighton is v. strict on wage budget. I thought it's imperative we are too - to prevent fire sales in the future like we almost had to do. Since he left we've secured our top players on big deals. Which is good but might also be a problem. I like Joelinton but he's not irreplaceable. I don't like us singing players to big contracts that nobody else will match. Villa have that with Tielemans and maybe a few others. We now have it with Joelinton & Kelly. If we needed to sell them, I don't think we could. Forcing dals for 1st July feels a bit more than "spinning a narrative". FWIW I think part of the Forest money is more aligned to what we'll give them later in the window than a PSR hole.

Staveley has fed into that with her win CL comments within 10 years or whatever she said. To do that you would expect more aggressive moves. Everything we’ve done has been fairly low hanging fruit. The hard stuff. Stadium, a lot of sponsorships - we’ve not done. The fans expectations are aligned to what the ownership have stated. It’s also why players like Bruno, Isak and Tonali joined. But the club have not followed through on the difficult commercial stuff. The owners did know worst case scale too we needed 30-50m for FFP. And my belief is we tried to sort it by selling Bruno. Or commercial deals that were too late.

I’ve thought the same as you about PIF. They are interested and invested but it’s not a ‘win by all means’ situation like City have. Invested but definitely also passive(ish). I’ve never thought there’s a master plan to usurp the rules. We’ll do the best we can within the rules. I also agree that many seem to think we have geniuses running the ship. And even then competent people make mistakes too.

What did they say?

Aye thought so.

Spain moved the ball so quickly in midfield. I thought the goal was offside though.

IMO English people tend to think nearly every very confident person is a cunt though.

Jude’s got too much confidence for the British public’s liking. Lots of people can’t wait to criticise him. —- I don’t like this Spanish teams defence and Gk.