The College Dropout

You can be embarrassed without anyone else. It’s the feeling of being ashamed and self conscious. like ‘wow that’s how I’m behaving, I should be better than that’ even if nobody else knows/cares. This summer has been embarrassing. But I’ll be happy to get Thiaw in.

We clearly don’t know what we are doing. But at the same time I believe in Eddie as a coach and a developer of talent. Not sure about the player or the fee but I am sure Eddie will get the best out of him

Club record signing is likely to be highest earner tbf. I was never convinced the Sesko deal would be done because of the agent. Same thing happened to Arsenal and they moved on.

What clubs? Especially in the EPL? As in a major shareholder or family member doesn’t have involvement.

For a period of time he was excellent. I remember when that short duo we had made him look like prime Patrick Vieira. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I liked him a lot at the world cup and liked what I saw of him prior to that or that very next season. He's not kicked on but I always liked him. He found some form at Juve iirc. Under Howe he scores a bucket load imo

In the comp I saw there was some dodgy first touches in there before a goal.

Them ah bleach! I think I want Jackson instead now...

I like how this kid scores scruffy goals. He's got the sniff. That first touch though....

Scored a hat-trick when played upfront last season iirc

There's so many things we can do if we were really determined to get around PSR. Even with sales. @Kanj suggested loaning Isak out if we don't need the PSR headroom this season so the obligation (bullet proof) starts next season for the £150m. That's an old hack PSG did to sign Mbappe, think he was on loan for 2-seasons on the books.

And there’s always workarounds. We can have a low fee and low wages. Bur agree a massive obligation to buy say £80m. Then use a Chelsea like clause to only pay £5m to squirm out last minute. None of these football rules are airtight. Some creativity goes a long way. Our refusal to pursue any hacks makes me believe it’s a lack of desire rather than a lack of feasibility @r0cafella

I don’t believe loans are easy to benchmark on fee or wages. So many loans are done with favourable terms to the new team as a lot of first team loans are distressed. Villa wouldn’t have broken their wage structure for Asensio or Rashford with the loaning club paying at least half.

We've not tried any loans to know for sure. Loans of this type are tough to judge FMV because the loaning club rarely pays their entire salary. Many such cases. We've not leveraged the Saudi league for incomings so we just don't know.

Mainoo can't get around the pitch well enough for Howe imo

Lastly, this is elite European football. If we are to become a dominant force, it's unlikely we will do so by being a low-priority investment by PIF. That's not how this game works.

What we miss most is her drive and vision and her ability to get people to buy-in to it. You said it right - we don't have an Exec Chair like Levy... and we are unlikely to get one. That's the core problem. No hired CEO has any leverage to be assertive with PIF or the Premier League. Staveley was and the Reubens are the only likely candidates to be Levy/Parish/Perez like. As shit as the Glazers are. Their strategy is a good one. Ratcliffe and INEOS do numerous things but clearly Man U is a priority. Bringing them in as minority but significant shareholders and handing over football operations was a smart choice. While they do have a new Management team, Ratcliffe is steering the ship. It's his baby and someone with authority and influence is trying. It's not just a Glazer-hired suit. INEOS don't seem particularly competent but it's not the rudderless ship Man U has been for so long. That's what we had with Staveley and that's gone. Much like Man U - if our manager leaves this whole thing will crumble. @The Prophet

What other CL team will be down their best player and only have 1 starter to introduce? Plus losing out on a number of squad players. And we came into last season meek as hell too. We’re even worse this season.

Squad for GW1 is going to be embarassing.

All of our hires have been "best in class" imo. Some have been bad fits or not worked out but we always hire reputable names.

Eddie worked well enough with Ashworth. The core issue is the clubs aims and resources don’t align. Eddie will have been told he needs to qualify for Europe every season imo. Eales suggested that a lot. Them he needs a ready made team for now. If we are rebuilding and allowed a season or two to get back - I think Eddie would be happy to bring in players required to develop. He did that at Bournemouth.

And don’t use that power (as far as we can see). Nah we do miss her. She was influential to PIF and was running the club in reality. Having relationships with everyone from Yasir to players. She had a clear vision she was working towards and mobilised every part of the club in that direction. I don’t expect any new CEO to have the power or influence on PIF that Staveley did - castrating them from the jump. I also don’t like how she’s the only person blamed for the PSR issues. The leadership and board was largely in place including Eales and Yasir. Why weren’t they on top of the numbers? It shows how hands off PIF are/were and how little influence Eales has. When Staveley left - Eales responsibilities grew but his influence and power didn’t. I’ll only say this once today - we’ll only be as good as PIF are determined to succeed and their competence. Unless a new CEO can come in and change the demands and get PIF to bend rules, they’ll be limited.

This summer has been 15 months in the making. It’s not just recent missteps. Does losing interest mean the same thing as not being top priority? Maybe it’s cope but I think it’s more of a competence issue than strictly an interest issue. Again, maybe it’s the same. PIF move too slowly and not aggressive enough around the rules. To succeed in European football you to be fast and aggressive and bend the rules. Everyone else does and if you don’t you’ll be left behind. Could just be cope and they don’t care. Which is why we don’t have bums in important seats. When every fan knew this summer was critical.

Football clubs are not a pension fund business. To get to the top of the game like Yasir has said - you cannot run NUFC like a pension fund. Crystal Palace, to Forest, to Spurs, to fucking Real Madrid - none of these clubs are ran like pension funds. All of them have active CHAIRMAN. Was the day after our sale, Daniel Levy emailed the premier league to push through the APT rule changes. Forests owners are doing so many dodgy transfers and personally breaking contractual release clauses with players and forcing them to stay a further year. Florentino Perez has been waging war with UEFA for at least half a decade in an attempt to preserve Real Madrid as the dominant force in European football. This is what Chairman’s of football clubs need to do to survive and thrive. We aren’t beating Daniel Levy with hands off owners.

When you are getting arsey with other posters it’s time to log off and go to sleep