The College Dropout

Tino was needed at that time. Our RB was 33 years old.

This is the main we’ll probably have to sell a purple next summer anyway.

Agreed. Not a good fit for us. But he tried hard, fairly mobile for a big lad, won some headers. He did a job for us. The move was best for all parties. He’s now playing in a team that plays to his strengths and playing the best football of his career. I never bought the ‘he’s shit’ tripe. He looked decent for us imo in a system not suited to him. And his record before and after proves he had something.

Nope. We carry wages and amortisation. Isak costs on the books is the same now as the season he signed. Contract extensions reduce amortisation but in Bruno and Gordon’s case somewhat offset by a 50-100% increase in wages. We’ll find out next year. But I don’t think we are doing a great job of keeping the wages down. We probably have 5 players on £100k+ and we wanted to add another.

He’s scored something like 18 league goals since Nuno was appointed. Up there with Cole Palmer and only behind Haaland. Good fit.

He’ll get 13 in total. Great start for me too. TC active. This is the week DCL has got to score.

Always liked Chris Wood. Bad fit for us. But a good PL striker.

Nah he’s Nuno’s man which I think has given him confidence.

I don’t understand what you’re saying here?? How can we grow to be as big as Man U organically? Man U won the PL era. We are going to grow organically and beat Real Madrid 3-0 in the CL semifinals? We don’t have the brand. We don’t have the location. And we won’t have the revenues ‘naturally’. 8th is about our natural level. We’ll need unfair advantages elsewhere to close the gap. Building a £4bn stadium and continuing to invest as much as possible into the squad is one of them. Creating a top 5 academy in England within a decade is another despite not having a top 3 catchment area (London is like 4 different areas, midlands, Greater Manchester have more kids).

To become #1 in Europe is what we are talking about btw. Let alone catching and surpassing Spurs. We’ll need to get the best youth in the country and abroad. That’s not natural. Sure we need the best kids from the NE but we’ll need to take the best from London and further afield like City do.

There isn’t the talent in the NE to do that ‘naturally’ to the level we need it. London is a top 3 youth footballing city in Europe, how do we compete with that naturally? City and Chelsea are getting the best kids from around the world. How do we compete with that ‘naturally’? Billion pound business talking about becoming #1 naturally is naive.

Investing heavily in the academy isn’t natural. We’ve not had a top academy since 19**. It’s only possible if we dope it with the best facilities, coaches and players from the country. Newcastle United are not going to close a £200m revenue gap to SPURS naturally. Spurs have compounded success, in a wealthier part of the UK and created rules to prevent easy financial doping. Let alone Arsenal and the ilk. Almost £400m revenue gap to Man City. How do we catch them naturally in 20 years? When they continue to exploit financial loopholes like multi club ownership. We do not become #1 in every department ‘naturally’. It will come at the force of PIF money, power and determination. Smell the coffee boys and girls.

Clubs will get higher gate receipts from the more and bigger matches. So far it looks more competitive than the old group stage. Only 8 automatic qualifiers adds jeopardy.

I don’t believe there’s a ‘natural’ way to catch the Cartel clubs. That’s the point of the cartel. We are going to build a stadium and spend the max we can anyway. That’s not natural.

What’s spite got to do with it? Levy is actively blocking us every way he can. Spurs is his biggest life’s work and he’s doing everything he can to ensure Spurs remain at the top table - he’ll not lose a blink of sleep if that means stopping us. He’ll actually sleep better. He’s definitely thought of us as the last thing before he sleeps at night. Or one of them at least. This is the game PIF are in.

Still the right profile of signing and plenty of time to come good. Only issue with the profile is the fee and was big. Barnes, Tonali, dare I say even Isak - wrong profile. Should’ve only signed 1, the first we did.

Tino’s a good transfer. Smart. But the fee was another premium. And we should’ve sold Trippier by now. Tonali is the Longstaff replacement but we should have signed someone else for half the money and wages. Knowing what we do now we should’ve sold Joelinton and Wilson too. Joelinton on the super max don’t make sense.

Yep.

Yeh he did. The header. I like Callum man. He was great for us. But he looks done. I wanted him to stay but that looks to have been a mistake.

Where did I say they are not making effort or go backwards? We are progressing as a club undoubtedly. There’s evidence for that. You said they are doing everything they can. Thats different from making progress? Yasir said himself he wants us to be #1 in every department. Thats not my stated ambition that’s our CEOs. And i do believe him because this seasons goals are ambitious. But I don’t think it’s possible for NUFC to be come #1 in every department moving the way we move. It’s too slow, it’s too cautious. No business in the world can become #1 from #35 in a global and competitive and saturated market without urgency, big bets and a good appetite for risk. My current view is we are ambitious but are not actioning a strategy to meet that ambition. Levy has urgency. Day one of the takeover you know he was moving. Days later they are trying to close loopholes. Saudi start buying Saudi clubs, he’s moving to close the gaps. Our rivals are urgent. Our rivals try and close loopholes. He’s doing everything he can to stop us. Everything. He’s not wasting a day or taking a chance or trying look to play nice.

Stadium - i'm hopeful here but it's taking more time than we had hoped and they initially benchmarked for Training ground - low hanging fruit. We await the big plans Exploiting loopholes - If they are not exploiting loopholes they are not doing everything they can. Sponsorships - low-hanging fruit too. Done as much as any reasonable owner would. Is the Saudi Investment Fund doing everything it can to make Newcastle #1 club in Europe? Everything? I don't have evidence of that. The evidence would say probably not.

These are mammoth signings tbf both in terms of reputation and fee. Deluxe signings. What's the phrase for this type of signing again? IMO, we shouldn't make those types of signings either or make them a season-on-season thing like we did with those 2. I don't know why we pivoted from the Botman & Bruno approach but we did pivot. But the manager refuses. He views them both as LWs, knowing he was also willing to play Isak, Willock, and Joelinton LW but unwilling to consistently play anyone bar Mutphy and Almiron at RW. That didn't make any sense. Injury crisis or injury crisis because they leave the team short. But the squad would've been more balanced with a RW for half the cost of Barnes and a CM for half the cost of Tonali and we'd have one of Minteh or Anderson on the books too. You have to remember - nobody knew that spending spree would put us in position to. breach FFP. We didn't even know points deduction was a thing. We didn;'t even get going on making silly transfers until the last 9-10 days. We mismanaged our spending and sales 100%. Right up to June too.

That's my point. They failed and we didn't capitalise. Probably costing us European football this season. What is the evidence for this? IMO the stadium, training ground, exploiting loopholes and sponsorships would give the greatest indicator.

I don't believe Eddie re: injuries too tbf.