The College Dropout

Apart from Liverpool, no other top club has a proper "backup striker" that can't play anywhere else. Even Liverpool all can play multiple positions with the possible exception of Nunez. It's not good value for money to have a singular backup striker unless the player is accepted to be substandard. They won't get enough guaranteed minutes. Forest have a backup striker. He doesn't get minutes. City's backup striker gets most of his minutes off the wings. The 4th choice CM gets a lot more minutes than the backup striker. I do think Howe will have to change his tactics if we get into the CL. Isak pressing the way he does, he'll have to get subbed regularly at the hour.

Think he's too small for us/Howe. Might sign him for the flip I guess. Don't see us selling Barnes now that European football is confirmed. He's an actual rotation option. Gordon is considered more physically robust than Isak too. Barnes on, Gordon up top will continue to be a viable move IMO. That 4th choice CM role is too crucial. Unless Miley develops like crazy over the next few months I think he's too far off it. Milner played that role for years at Liverpool, Curtis Jones is doing it at Liverpool now. That's Merino's role for Arsenal and was Jorginho's role. It needs to be a really good player that will end up playing 30-40% of minutes in a season through injuries, suspensions, dips in form for others and rotation. The gap from Joelinton to Miley is massive.

Hall is a different level of prospect to Osula. Hall cost 2x at a position that is generally cheaper than strikers. Hall was given a couple of starting opportunities in big games (Dortmund away springs to mind) and when he didn't perform Hall shuffled him to the back of the pack to rebuild. Hall's pathway to LB was also a lot easier with Targett and Burn in front of him. Osula came with less hype and expectation. Hasn't started a single game of note iirc. And has one of the best strikers in the world ahead of him, in the prime of his career. Backup strikers don't tend to play that much. i don't see Osula becoming a viable rotation striker the way Wilson was intended to be with Isak last season. I think next season Isak will just have to be a 60-80 minute player to save his legs.

Is it? Why? I think he'll have to stay and will end up getting more minutes due to European football. But I don't think it would be because of what we've seen so far. I would probably want Miley to go out and on loan. But I don't think he will/can. I expect us to sign another premium midfielder but also sell at least one of Willock or Longstaff so Miley can't be sold.

The Villa side with Gareth Barry, James Milner, Ashley Young, Downing, Delph, Bent etc.? Good side that. Not many fancy foreigners but lots of good young English PL players. Young - Milner - Barry - Downing all in their prime. That's a very good PL midfield, especially for that era. Excellent professionals and characters to have in a squad. The first 3 would play PL football late into their 30s and be dependable players in multiple league-winning sides. Young & Milner winning league titles with 2 clubs. Downing himself got a Liverpool move too and I think he was ok from memory

Agreed. Don't see why Delap would join too unless we told him Isak would leave the following season. A new CM is more important than a new striker. Most top PL clubs backup striker is someone that primarily plays wide. I'm fine with Gordon + Osula personally. If we sign a RW that can also play uptop - great..

I'm not talking about what I wanted. It's best for Forest to lose. But they were never going to lose to this Man U side. I gave up the goose on Forest when they beat City. They'll not finish any lower than 5th. They keep grinding out results, have tremendous belief, can defend, can score a goal etc. They've got tough fixtures but after that City game, I expect them to get it over the line. Comfortably too. It's between 4 clubs. Villa might get Europa but those 3 massive games means they won't get +3/+4 points against the rest to finish 5th. Don't think Fulham or Bournemouth will get 65+ points either. It's us, Brighton, Chelsea and City. 2 of us. I think we can get to 68 points and that will be 5th minimum, nearly always is - comfortably too. I'm only interested in the CL. The new format makes it worth £50m as a minimum and compounds our raising profile like no other. If we can keep our best players and add a couple quality players. I really think we close the distance to Arsenal and Liverpool (and City). We won't have the depth of the last 2 but it really closes. That's only possible with CL.

I just really hope neither them or Spurs get into the CL via Europa league. Man U seem capable of turning it on against big name sides. We must get 3 points against them. If we don’t. We don’t deserve CL. Our game is between their EL QF games. He’ll probably start Eriksen CM again.

Forest secured CL with that City win imo. Worst case scenario today was a draw.

Want Forest to win the cup. Elliot Anderson and Wood from ours. Proper club. FFP Brothers. And almost certainly finish top 7 unless they implode. Dont see Brighton catching them and the rest are too far back.

They are not a great side at all. I’ve long thought this but thought they would definitely finish top 5. They’ve got good fixtures but it’s not a formality.

Chelsea are doing illegal things imo. I expect Villa to be able to at least double their main sponsor if they win the FA Cup this season. They signed that deal after relegation battle seasons.

We are largely in the same boat. We need short term results to increase medium term revenues. I think we both need 2 seasons in the CL out of 3 to keep the team together and keep building strongly. successove yeara without CL will mean taking steps backwards. Aston Villa’s main shirt sponsor is worth 6m per year and ends next year. Ours is worth 25. Top 6 is 50m minimum. If they can get 2 CL Campigns in 3 seasons could they land a sponsorship closer to £40m per year? Can they expand the stadium? even if their plan works they’ll need to continue to produce good academy players and wheel + deal. Same with us. If we don’t succeed now, how can we hold on to our best players and build on them? We can’t we would have sell - if not this summer then next. If we Dont get CL football this year or next we’ll need to cash in on our best players

Villa will have raised an additional £150m in CL money and player sales this season. They’ll be fine. Manchester United have shrinking revenues - no? Last season they were in the CL. High amortisation costs too.

I knew from the early clips that Hugo was a baller. Hall too.

Disagree a bit with the sentiment. This new CL format is a killer. The 2 teams that have done the best in the comp from England have underperformed in the league (Arsenal would've hoped to be in a title race). Back to back CL campaigns is going to be super difficult for clubs going forward. That 5th spot will be well contested for some time.

I've said similar before. Saudi launch an invitational, invite Man City, Juventus and 5 Saudi clubs. $100m entrance prize.

I think commercial viability is a bit more complex than what we've said. But the main shirt sponsor seems to be half what the lowest in the top 6 get and 20% above the one below us. I think we should be able to justify a bumper increase. Major 10 games ahead. Our Adidas deal is much closer to the top 6 though.

It’s a major reason I want us to get into the CL, keep our players and sign a couple major players. It shifts the narrative. ATM there’s still a media view of ‘Newcastle can’t spend because of PSR. If they are to get to the top, Eddie, Isak and co. will have moved on as part of the journey.’ Qualify for the CL. We keep our boys. Spend £200m on quality. We become a serious serious outfit. I have no idea if we could do that. But assuming we play 10 CL games minimum, I think that nets £50m in income from TV, prize money and gates alone. Pushes our FFP up. 2 CL campaigns in 3 years and a Cup win. Sela is half the money Spurs get from AIA and less than the rest of the top 6. Why can’t we get deals at the same rate as Spurs? Or 90%? Our recent windows and last seasons performance have had the pundits comfortable again. Especially Carragher and Neville. Cup win, CL and some big signings will put the fear of God into them.

Liverpool will be fine. I reckon Salah signs a 2-3 year deal and they sell him next season to Saudi for £50-100m anyway.

Absolutely smashed.

Lads a cheat code

He doesn't leave this summer imo. Only way he leaves is if he decides he wants to level up - even if it's only 1 level. I don't think anyone in Europe has both the interest and willing to pay the money.

Agreed that the one skill he seems to have is befriending people in the media. Which is why he goes apeshit when the media turn against him. Bruce got an extremely easy ride in the media with us. Funnily enough, neither Rafa nor Howe have invested much energy into that. Both care more about managing players (obviously) and the fans.

No bigger indictment of a coach than what ex-players say. I listened to what Dwight said about Bruce, Pardew, Jones, Howe, Rafa etc. He was candid but tried to be respectful. If a coach doesn't coach, discuss tactics and can barely motivate players... there's not much to say.