The College Dropout

If we were able to sell Miggy and satisfy the requirements, would you think that would be inexcusable? I think not selling Trippier was a mistake. And we probably overspent in the summer. All massive fees. Mistakes have been made. But unless we are forced to sell a star player, I don’t think it’s gross negligence. It’s close though. If Minteh didn’t have that breakthrough year, we’d have to sell a star player it seems.

You better believe it buddy. The rush for the end of the month means we arr on track to breach. Sales after that is to create headroom for more transfers. I don’t think having to sell is gross mismanagement either. But having to sell Minteh does mean we’ve miscalculated along the line. He’s not one we would happily trade. Having to sell Isak Gordon or Bruno would be gross mismanagement. we do have to wake up to the fact we don’t have masterminds in charge. They wil make mistakes. They wil take risks that backfire. imagine if we didn’t have Minteh to sell. We would have to sell an even more valuable player.

I don’t think it’s staggeringly bad. When Eales said we need to trade that was foreboding selling players we might not want too because of FFP. We aren’t selling our finest China. Having to sell the best players would be staggered flu bad management. If we were able to shift Miggy or even a Wilson we would say we’ve managed PSR well. Having to sell Minteh - a potential superstar is bad and evidence of miscalculation at best. But not gross mismanagement. 1/4 of the league are in the same boat.

This is fair. We are in a bad spot. But not the worst spot. The worst thing about our approach is that we’ve left it so late. When Villa sold Luiz we had few outgoing links. I thought we were ok. Now there’s multiple stories a day.

Aye. I agree it’s not the worst situation. But scrambling around 48 hours trying to get players off the books is desperate like.

Not this again.

Tbf we didn’t know we were heading towards failing PSR. The club must’ve known it was a real opportunity which is why I think we courted transfer offers. Eales put out that message and there was a rush of bids for a few of our players. My best guess is that we thought we could make up the gap in league prize money? Knowing what we know now. It was a mistake.

Maybe. But why would Adidas do underhand dealings? Sela are a legitimate business and we are a high potential club. By circumvention I’m talking doing something we wouldn’t otherwise do because of PSR. Eg selling the stadium. A thousand official partners. Deals with Adidas as a partner is not circumvention. There’s no evidence of a proxy war. Others are fighting. And we are not. Seemingly. Chelsea exploited loopholes from the start with the 8 year contracts. We could’ve done that. We can sell property too. We could do 20 999,999 deals. Chelsea even have a fake main sponsor. It’s risky and aggressive. That’s not our approach. Success should come but the road will be a long one - unless others do our dirty work or we pivot approach. Villa and Forest owners have come out against the PL. We’ve not done that either.

Makes quick deal easier.

I think any swap deal we do would be for a backup player. We don’t have saleable assets at 40/50m that we want to sell. I like Murillo but we don’t have anyone to trade him for at a similarish price point.

Don’t believe the rumours at all. Imo the club is putting this out to show what a shitshow PSR is and to soften the blow of selling Minteh.

Something something PSR.

This is just PSR crap. If not for PSR we wouldn’t want DCL or Elanga. But we are in a ‘well scratch your back if you scratch mine’ situation with a small group of clubs. Looking to trade players of similar value and picking the best of a bad bunch.

I would be happy with Anderson for Elanga. Do we have a relationship with Forest beyond the bald guy? I don’t believe the Gordon shit for a minute. I think the Gordon/Isak stuff has been put out there to soften the blow of selling Minteh or Anderson.

A good deal from Adidas is not FFP circumvention. Don’t get the second paragraph. I’m not saying PIF aren’t ambitious. But it’s not the same aggressive approach taken by City. City wanted to dominate the league and Europe as fast as possible and would exercise any legal (and potentially illegal) manoeuvre to get there and maintain it. Including being uncooperative with the league and UEFA and now taking some of them to court. PIF so far have shown no ambition to be so aggressive and adversarial. It looks like they are happy enough to take a step back on the playing front, to work within the rules and try and take 2 forward. City, even Chelsea seem unwilling to do that. Chelsea have aggressively exploited loopholes. We have not. A lot of people have spoken about some master plan of other teams doing our bidding and us moving in the dark. That might be true but there’s little evidence for it. We are just complying with the rules pretty much straight down the line.

It’s a good question. We do seem to be fucked tho. So you have to think about PIF and us.

Agree with those saying a points deduction is a non starter. If it’s sell Minteh or get a points deduction it’s sell Minteh. But short of about 6 first team players - I would sell anyone else in the squad over Minteh just due to the ceiling. And obviously I would prefer a sponsorship hack. Doesn’t seem to be happening. We are selling the lad by the Looks of it.

Kudus wasn’t a similar profile tbf. He’s older and more proven - at least at international level. But Minteh has performed at a similar level to Kudus in the Eredivisie at a younger age. Minteh’s ceiling looks higher.

What’s revisionary? We needed a RW last summer. We didn’t get one. We didn’t need a LW but we got one. We don’t have any genuine quality at RW. We’ve got 2 at LW. That’s weird squad building. I’ve been lamenting the lack of RW all year. And boring people about Palmer and Kudus. Had we signed one of them we would be less bothered. Howe would rather play Murphy or Almiron at RW than Gordon. Your point is moot. A legit Brazilian international like big Joe - lots of offers for around £20-30m. Also an attractive player to do a weird swap deal with pre new contract. If not for PSR I think we seriously consider if Minteh is the answer to the RW position. He seems to have a lot of Eddie Howe characteristics. Pressed well. Tall. Quick. Direct.

Pre new contract he would’ve been an easy sell for £30m-£40m to a rival PL club. Modest wages. Proven performer. Decent age. Not now with the new contract. I was with Dan Ashworth being tight on his contract. Gordon’s minutes at NUFC have come predominantly on the left. In his first half season - only left. And straight away this season last season. He’s only started RW once under Howe iiirc. Howe would rather play Murphy at RW than Gordon. We’ve spent £80m+ at LW. £8m at RW and we’re selling him for 3/4x. That doesn’t smell right.

Aye. The best light is we took calculated risks. Needed a better league finish. A better CL or Europa run. Miscalculated and need to sell our most promising young player. Bad but not a total disaster. It does show (potentially) PIF are happy to abide by the rules. No raft of boogey sponsorships. No court battles. We need to recalibrate our own expectations a bit. Maybe Minteh leaving and becoming a big success might vex PIF and get them active. ATM they are passive to PSR and letting other clubs lead the fight. IMO we should be fighting stronger. As mentioned a quarter of the league have fallen foul. Publicly we are pushing back the least.

We paid a lot of money for a player whose value is unlikely to increase, in a position we were well stacked in. At the time it seemed a luxury transfer. If he was a RW people wouldn’t be complaining. We spent 40m on a LW in Jan, then another 40m for another LW in the summer. Joe’s also impressing at LW. 0 RWs. Except a wee lad, who excelled out on loan. He’ll never play for us though - in part because we bought a backup LW who is 4 years older than the first choice. Between the fee, wages, sign on fee, agent fees , bonuses. Barnes squad cost likely to be 12-15m - that’s a lot of the PSR gap. Similalry with Tonali - why so expensive? It does make you question the transfer activities. Should we have cashed in on Trippier and Wilson in the winter? Lots of questions. Had we had European football in 2024 and qualified for Europa - we might not have been in this position. So there a lot of moving parts. Nothing perfect. Nothing disastrous. Although this transfer is gutting.

This is where I kind of agree and don’t. We may think he’s ace. All the indications are that he’s ace. That’s why a lot of the smartest clubs in Europe are after him. But our PSR position is FUCKED. Risking a points deduction is a non starter. We need to sell. We’ve don’t have many options. Willock, Wilson, Anderson, Targett, Almiron etc. nobody wants them for the money we need. So it’s the fine china in Isak or Bruno or the young wonder kid. So it’s the wonder kid. A club like Brighton will ensure terms are favourable to them. No buyback. Low/no sell on. This is even a lucky escape. Isak would’ve been next. I would’ve rather sold big Joe personally. Puts into perspective what PIF are willing to do. And the fact they’ve not got everything right and are perfectly measured in the transfer market. Which is ok. But we can stop that ‘we have the smartest people in thr world running the club, they wouldn’t put the club in such a position’. They just did.

I go back to ‘how does PIF see this investment’. I don’t think they see it they way ‘City Group’ do. We’ve not made genuine attempts at PSR circumvention. Even Villa’s owners seem more determined to change the status quo.

PIF look to have no desire to go the court route. Btw I think everyone at the club realised this could happen (and worse). They would sell it internally as ‘we disnt sell Bruno or Isak. It’s a win.’ If Minteh was a CM or LW. We wouldn’t mind so much. We have loads of those. It’s the fact that it’s only age and experience keeping him away from being our first choice RW. ‘we’ll need to trade.’ I also think it smashes the notion that we’ve been super cautious and we have geniuses in the backroom. We’ve miscalculated our transfer activity sure. But so have a quarter of the teams that finished above us and more than a quarter of the league. Same thing Villa fans have to grapple with. Speculated to gain ground. Now have to balance PSR books. Unless Villa want to continue playing Chelsea games again next summer, I expect a quieter summer from them. Which is shit. They’ll probably finish 9th. Only issue is that this felt avoidable. Tonali and Barnes transfers in particular. A lot of money.