The College Dropout

I’m confident we’ll pay the premium for Wissa or JSL.

It’s not a theory mate. We’ve been a shit show behind the scenes for over a year. There’s evidence of that. We don’t have a CEO or DOF. The last DOF is a primary architect in this Isak debacle and had Howe out in public behaving out of character. You can call me negative but go into any of the player threads. I’ve not been harsh on any of the lads. I believe in the manager with all my spirit. And I still back him to make this all work somehow. I have you bulleted reasons why I’m disappointed in the transfer. You didn’t respond to any but made a personal attack. Brentford and Wolves are doing what I wanted us to do.

Aye. It’s a weaker window than the last CL spree. And we’ve sold our best player. We’ve signed a bunch of Harvey Barnes level talents. Ramsdale aside everyone has been signed for a premium.

To stick to their word. - get the fee they had briefed or close. Not 15% less. - have the replacements through the door first - sign high ceiling replacements or don’t overpay for a middling talent I predicted this though. I said we would sell for less than what we are asking for, considerably so. And then overspend on a Wissa or JSL type signing. Panic sell panic buy. PIF haven’t shown an ability to handle difficult situations.

i dont know if thats true. But If we don’t sign that second player today - what good is the money? The margins are thin. if we get in 2 quality players today that will change the mood music. I already expect 1 of them to be a middling talent.

Yeh exactly. The PSR costs of 5 £50m players over 3 years is about £200m. That’s double the Isak PSR profit.

In Eddie I trust. He’s made Dan burn an England international. But financially this just isn’t a great deal for us. I would be shocked at any other outcome today than (a) signing nobody or (b) buying JSL/Wissa or similar for £50m+. Financially that’s poor. The business is poor. Selling Isak was meant to facilitate a spending spree and it won’t. It also shows the ownership to be weak and to go against their word. They didn’t get the fee they publicly held out for. Thats arguably the biggest L we’ve taken. Also shows we can be bullied by bigger clubs in the transfer market. So and so is not for sale. Their asking price is x - we won’t believe it. I back Eddie to make it work on the pitch somehow though. I’ve said this all year. We will only be as good as the owners are ambitious, competent and driven. The whole summer they’ve not shown the last 2 maybe all 3. The owners are likely to outlast Eddie. These lot haven’t made great decisions or moved without Amanda.

This isn’t really true. We could sign 5 £50m players and that would be fine for 1 season. The following season we would have PSR costs of about £70-£90m to fund again. The Isak money would be gone. One off sales aren’t that great in any shape. Unless that sale is so great it can fund multiple signings over multiple years. You need recurring sales revenue.

That’s outside of the Isak cash though. The standalone benefit is the Isak cash is Nick W and JSL/Wissa. That’s poor.

The premise of major sales is that it regenerates building the squad with quality. This won’t have done that we’ve just replaced the player. That might be successful and that’s cool. But due to selling fairly cheap and buying high we’ll not have used the money for a rebuild. As we’ve panic bought and sold.

Isak was amortised for 6 years at 60m. He played 3 season so has a book value of £30m or so. Wages at about £5m per year. So the PSR headroom for a £130m sale is about £95/100m. Nick W signed for £70m and can be amortised over 5 years. £14m per year. Then let’s say £6m in wages for such a fee. That’s £20m per year and £60m over the next 3 years. JSL/Wissa for £55m over 5 years = £11m per year and let’s say £4m in wages. £15m per year. £45m over the next 3. That’s all the Isak PSR headroom spent. Everything else aye we could sign anyway. We don’t have a large sales funnel like the cartel clubs. I don’t see an easy £130m we can sell every year like they can.

Wilson generated no fee and scored no goals last season. The strikers we sign are replacing Isak’s goals from last season. Nick W has less top flight career goals than Isak scored last season. He might come good and I like him. But he’s not a Isak Replacement alone. Not this season anyway. The Issk money will be spent on 2 strikers. One a fantastic prospect. The other a 29 yo with 1 great season or someone purchased for £30m earlier this summer for twice the price. It’s not great business.

No but we won’t. We’ll make £100m/105m in PSR headroom available to us over 3 years. That will be taken up entirely by Nick W and the second striker. Nick W will cost £20m per season. The second guy about £15m per season if they cost £50-60m. Thats all the PSR headroom gone over 3 years. We don’t have an easy £125m to sell next season so we can’t spend it all in one PSR season. We won’t have the funds to pay for years 2 and 3.

I’m not annoyed he’s been sold. I’m annoyed the fee isn’t a premium. And annoyed we’ll sign a replacement of middling talents for a premium. This sale will not facilitate the spending pre it should have. That’s the burner.

It’s going to woltemade + JSL/Wissa for the entire fee.

I don’t mind a premium on talents like Hall, Tino, Sandro, Isak, Nick W. But to pay premium for Strand Larsen and Wissa? Fucking hell

Honestly the worst thing is the bluster. We can’t take what they say seriously going forward. ‘conditions’. We disnt get the fee. We don’t have the replacements yet and if we do. We’ll grossly overpay for a middling talent. Most massive sales facilitate a spending spree. This will only pay for his replacements.

Yep. If we signed 2 players the profile of Nick W in terms of age and ceiling I wouldn’t mind - especially for decent fees. But we are going to pay £60m for players worth £40m. We already overspent on Nick W. We’ll have a window where we’ve spent £300m and only 1 player has the potential to be top class. That’s piss poor.

Nick W and any other striker we sign for £60m will use all the PSR headroom over the next 3 years.

How much did they sign Nunez for? Argh PIF man. It wasn’t meant to end up like this. Biggest concern is that Eddie leaves next summer. He’ll give us the full season no doubt.

Wissa or Larsen for £60m is going to be the final nail in the coffin. We’ll start some games Elanga Larsen Gordon and we’ll realise we have a midtable strike force.

We’ll 100% overpay for another striker. I’m so certain.

This isn’t a massive PSR fix. His replacements will cost us 35-40m in PSR costs each season. Villa sold a homegrown talent for £100m 4 years ago? They’ve been fucked with PSR for the last couple seasons. What you need is a conveyor belt of sales. Young lads through the academy or you bully from smaller clubs at a young age that you sell for £15-40m. Then you sell decent first teamers for big money like Diaz and Nunez. It keeps the wheels turning.

It’s a shitshow.

They were all coups. Isak had been linked heavily to Arsenal 6 months prior. The shit season put everyone off but Isak is a long time wonderkid. He cost £60m after a bad season for a reason. Tino and Hall - we all thought we had signed future England fullbacks and that has turned out to be the case. Man U did a transfer review and said ‘why did we let Tino Livramento go to Newcastle?’ Similar with Hall. I do agree that we paid a premium for all of them. Botman, Trippier, Bruno all coups. All of these players heavily linked to clubs at a higher level or earmarked for international football. Like Dibling is a coup for Everton. Elanga, Thiaw, Ramsdale, Ramsey (injuries), not the same level of regard in the game. Larsen, Wissa - these are all Nick Pope level signings but on a massive fee. Nick W granted, emerged as a top talent in 2025. If Amanda was here we would’ve landed Guehi imo. Thats the calibre of player we were signing when she was around. Nobody else was after him then either, 12 months later he’s off to Liverpool.