The College Dropout

They need to be able to do all of that at a really high level to replace Tonali though. Prime Jorginho can do all of the above but (1) Tonali overruns him more time anyway (2) does that even suit a Howe midfield? currently Mainoo does all of those things. But at their best Sandro just bullies Mainoo out a game. That level of player would be wanted by elite clubs. Thats essentially Bruno G. I don’t think 2 Bruno’s work for Howe. And finding the next Bruno is a gold rush. On paper Tonali is a lot harder to replace and improve upon than the reality.

We've not been able to replace Isak, Wilson, Joelinton, Murphy or Schar at this point. I'm not confident we can replace Tonali. Who by my measure is still the second best CM i've seen from us. He's the only Newcastle midfielder where the opposition can't live with his physicality, work rate and nous consistently. Just grinding midfielders down. He's a major reason we've managed to get those big results against top teams and for the CL campaign and League Cup win. First win at Emirates he was amazing League Cup. Final amazing.

Gone from over rated to under rated on here. He was never excellent on the ball. He's the exact player who was billed to be - probably better imo. There were talks we overpaid, not true at all. Was never a better player than Bruno. And he'll be difficult to replace.

The back post tap ins are Great. bur he’s not a good footballer at all. Should’ve rated at Forest and been a hero there.

When we were solid at least we wouldn't concede. And when we had Wilson or a Barnes, Isak, Bruno, Gordon, Schar to Joelinton etc. we had common routes to goals or magic. We don't have that KO punch anymore and frail mentally. Some of it is coaching for sure. Longstaff's comments ring loud. But a lot of it is we don't have the personnel.

This is the major thing.

Maybe £70m, £75m. I don't see a planet where he goes for £80m+ personally. Maybe he has a great world cup and someone comes in for silly money like the Grealish or Mount transfer but I don't see it.

Which team is paying £80m for him?

We won't get it imo. £75m is A LOT of money. That's more money than Diaz, Olise, Semenyo, Eze, Cherki etc. Who is even buying him?

Think he's a £60m-75m player this summer. Haven't done the maths but £60m would be £40m+ accounting profit as a rough estimate. And about £7-12m in wages. That doesn't get us terribly far if his replacement costs £30m-50m mind. That's £10m-18m per season in costs.

I disagree a bit. Some are born leaders. But most get it through experience. We'll be moving to a model where we sell our best players and selling most players at peak value/age. Trippier, Burn, Schar and co. will be off in a couple of seasons. Realistically we will likely sell more than one of Bruno, Joelinton, Hall, Barnes, Gordon etc. At some point - we will need to buy experience. Even Arsenal have bought experience in Norgaard.

Will remember him fondly. Over rated at times but still a fine fine midfielder and only behind Bruno G for those he watched a lot. For me - after Isak leaving it’s open season for the squad and won’t blame any of them for leaving. He was the first domino - the poor transfers and season compound it. I think we’ve been poorly run club for too long (at the top) to lament players wanting to leave for more money and success.

It’s more than making hires. They need to be active owners. The most successful clubs have active owners that do things, use power and make things happen.

More likely delusional. It’s PIF-tastic to have lofty expectations that they don’t have the expertise to execute

The owners argument is like the new manager argument. You judge them based on their own merits. The only way to bridge the gap is to aggressively maximise all avenues for growth and sporting success. They are not doing that. Even if they were doing that it would be unlikely we would have caught up by 2030. The existing evidence suggests they either say things they don’t believe or they are deluded.

Would rather they be honest. Telling me we'll challenge for PL and CL by 2030 - they either think we're easily pleased idiots or they are bullshitters. I'm perfectly content to be a club that challenges for Europe each season with owners that will do everything they can to bridge the gap to the top 6. That's all you can ask of any Owners - they do all they can to maximise our potential and raise our ceiling. This idea no other owners would build a new training facility or stadium/expansion isn't true either.

Now - ok. But in the summer Howe didn't report to Nickson.

He would've cost <£10m and it wouldn't have been a major deal if things didn't work out.

Woltemade’s position is only slightly better than Wissa’s. Think there’s no chance he starts up top Every Howe player needs a level of aggression. He doesn’t have it

They’ll give a penalty to Man U.

Beyond the risk. A lot of clubs don’t want to spend the time developing those players. Newcastle 2030 is one reason I think the club went with the strategy they did last summer.

Nah. We are the type of team that needs a strong end to the season. Even if it’s just the last 2-3 games.

But to answer your questions. well firstly. The plan is to not actually be Brentford or Brighton. Thats fundamental. It’s to take elements of what they do well: Brentford have the lowest wage bill of any team to stay up every season for the last. Brighton regularly outperform their wages and squad cost. Neither club has shown a real desire to consistently qualify for Europe or do considerably better. As neither get close to maxing their spend under the rules. Their owners having invested their own money into the clubs are happy with regular PL football. Currently only us Villa and Forest have ambitions to challenge. I personally think we need to leverage every trick there is. A part of it is signing players to expose and flip. But not the whole story.

Not calling you stupid. Didn’t read your post directly. Seen this convo many times. Saw Holmesy quote W