The College Dropout

That's the actual problem. Isak's fitness. If he can't stay fit or we can't adapt to keep him fit - we should sell him. We can't have a £60m striker who can only stay fit for 55% of matches. I'm not advocating we sell him. But people are blaming Wilson (a 32-year-old injury-prone backup that is only at Newcastle because he's injury prone) for Isak's fitness issues when it doesn't make sense. Wilson has got himself injured mostly from being run into the ground due to Isak's injuries and Howe's lack of rotation. He played 90 minutes 5 times in 15 days before getting injured at a point. It would've been reckless management to demand that from him 3 years ago as our star forward, it's reckless to expect that from him at 32. He's a back-up. He should start 3-7 league games through injuries. Some more due to rotation. And regularly get 20-30 minutes off the bench. Unless we need the money because of FFP, we won't find a better striker to do that next season. I'm happy to get a RW that can play ST the way Gordon does. But we are so weak at RW.

Wilson shouldn't need to play half a season and Gordon has arguably the strongest back-up in our squad. Wages and fee his back-up shouldn't even be a back-up.

It's moreso that CB is such an important position. You can't have 1 injury causing a significant decline in ability. Especially when competing on 4 fronts.

Its only Burn that starts when everyone is fit. That's signing up for another season with Burn at LB. No thanks. Someone to warm the bench for Isak isn't a priority for me. We still have Isak, Wilson & Gordon on the books. 33 goals between the 3 so far this season.

It wouldn't even be back-up. It would be someone ready-made to step in. If he's left-footed he can start at LB. I think most top teams have at least 3 top options. Dias Stones Ake Akanji Saliba Gabriel White Kiwior VVD Konate Matip Gomez Pau Carlos Konsa Mings Varane Martinez Maguire Evans Schar Botman Lascelles Burn Ours is the weakest by a distance.

Burn has played LB for pretty much 2 seasons. He's an inferior CB to Lascelles. I'm glad he's not considered a CB. Back-up LB or sold, please. This assumes we sign a CB in the summer. I'd rather a CB than an out and out ST. RW LB CB Anything else is a bonus or 1 in 1 out.

Bolded = selling players

What else is he going to say? They keep asking about him at press conferences.

£15m. And apparently £100k p/w for 4 years. Expensive deal all things considered.

No I think it aligns. Getting meaningful minutes would be great for Hall’s development. Getting minutes for Hall isn’t a priority for Howe so Hall sits on the bench all the time.

That’s what he’s saying. I’m not convinced. I think we will be signing him so he has to say positive things.

Howe doesn't think he's ready.

Signing someone for £25m+ for the medium term future doesn’t seem the smartest approach considering he is not getting much game time. I think he’s not as far developed as we had hoped. Being on loan means we can’t loan him out so he’s just had to train loads. We are still optimistic he’ll be a great signing.

Assuming no English club wins a European comp but we get 5th CL spot and a top 5 team wins FA Cup 5th CL 6 Europa 7th Europa (FA Cup winners) 8th Conference If say Chelsea win the FA Cup. We don’t get the 5th CL spot it will go 5th Europa 6th Conferencd league That would be shit.

It pushes European positions down. Eg 6th Europa and possibly 7th depending on Fa cup winner. we want that extra spot.

Chelsea have a history of selling good academy players though.

People don't realise how clueless the FA are.

Definitely has a lot of credit in the bank.

PIF need to buy another club in Europe so the PL ban it.

Aye, I don't believe him on this one. Primarily because at the time of his signing it was suggested the trigger to finalise the transfer was super minimal. He's made over a dozen appearances - if it was appearance based I'm certain he would have triggered it. The loan was only an FFP delay. We should do more of those btw. Spurs pushed back signing Kulu and Bentancur like 18 months.

It will be Levi Colwil and any English player getting minutes at the cartel 6.

We are paying him during gardening leave but it will be less than £2m in entirety you would assume. It's the cost of his replacement which might be high but again... I doubt it will be over £5m. We'll definitely make a b. healthy profit.

I'm taking into consideration hits from other players. But aye I think 30 would need a mini-haul from a lesser owned player. Maddison could do that. A Pau Torres goal perhaps. Bowen brace etc. Also I feel it's slightly against the grain (with engaged players) which has upside alone. I might not do it myself. But I'm thinking about it.

I would prefer a left-footer.

Agreed. But there is an upside to 29.A freehit would beat the non-free hitters by 12-30 points considering a lot will be taking hits. The doubles in 34 and 37 have mostly better teams, so you would want those picks anyway. If you don't free hit. You're probably taking -4/-8 for 29 and then wildcarding 31, maybe taking a hit or 2 for 34. If you freehit you might be able to delay the wildcard until closer to 34. Taking less hits on the way.