The College Dropout

That’s excellent news. From a NUFC perspective - the deeper the PIF ties to the region. The better. That’s a power move.

I wouldn’t mind keeping all of the defenders + Longstaff. Maybe let one of the defenders go.

Did you watch the West Ham game?

That messaging - to me - meant trying to be as good as possible within reason. Ambition with a cap. The media would say "the Geordies want to be in the CL - that's unreasonable." When we had an Owner that flatlined revenue for over a decade while it grew for all other PL clubs, let the stadium become decrepit, poor training facilities & academy - worse than our neighbourhood rivals. For all Shephard's faults - at least he tried. We had great training facilities for the time. Tried to make big commercial deals etc. PIF are talking about becoming number 1 - so all that "a club that tries" shit is out the window for me personally. I'm ok if they downgrade long-term expectations - they just need to communicate that. But for now i'm judging them on their approach to becoming number 1.

No. Their PSR position doesn't change with new owners. They've been trimming the wages which will benefit them long-term.

Aye yeh I’m not averse to the odd signing with no resale value. Just needs to make sense. But it has to be an exception.

On Merino and Solanke. Merino’s a great fee and probably decent wages. Most Arsenal fans weren’t delighted by that transfer either as it seemed economically driven. The Solanke deal looks like a luxury signing for Spurs aye. But the vast majority of their signings are done with resale value in mind. And Spurs have zero PSR issues. They pay less than 50% of revenue to wages. Ours is close to 80%. We have totally different financial positions.

Don’t know enough about Tomori to say whether it’s a good deal or not. I do know that he’s lost his place in the side to the younger Thiaw who many said didn’t look v. good when we were linked. My memory of Tomori is he’s one of those CBs that doesn’t win his headers - which I personally can’t stand from a CB. They have to be genuinely excellent in other areas to makeup for it imo. Might still be a deal. But I don’t trust those Milanistas. They sell for a reason. And he’s Nigerian so I’m taking your advocacy with a grain of salt. You back your boys.

Agree with @r0cafella Unless it’s a fabulous deal (like a low release clause) or a free transfer - we need to sign players with resale value. Like… 90% of players. Clubs like Arsenal and Spurs rarely sign players without resale value. When they do they are relatively cheap deals for them.

What’s the shit reasoning? Not scoring many goals in the last 4 years? Theres this notion that Dyche is stopping him from scoring. It didn’t stop Chris Wood. DCL still gets shooting opportunities and chances but he statistically misses them the most. Outcomes/goals = shit statistics= shit eye test = shit The only justification for buying him is good performances 4 years ago

For 2 seasons. 4 years ago. Under one of the greatest managers ever who built the team around DCL. He’s never scored consistently under any other manager. Not Rafa or Lampard. 4 years ago Sadio Mane was a world class. Again he’s not shown any form - for 4 years. Everton have numerous decent FPL picks. DCL isn’t one of them because he’s not any good. I’ve had numerous Dyche players in my 3 top 100k finishes on FPL. Lad is just pony.

Wood had 4 seasons scoring 10 or more in the PL. the previous 4 seasons at that. DCL has 2. The last coming 4 years ago. In his entire career he’s only scored more than 7 league goals those 2 seasons under Carlo. DCL underperforms his xg more than any player in the division. DCL is fucking shit.

You were right. I advocated for him. Great player on his day. Even in the summer I was on his side. But he’s done. Been a good servant. Him coming back was another reason I sold Isak on FPL ffs.

Christensen will be on mega bucks. And is injury prone iirc. @r0cafella the club have a grand plan they just haven’t told us yet or actioned it but it 100% exists. Just waiting for other clubs to finish fighting our stealth war. The pawns.

You’re lying.

It’s a shit idea and a killer for the champ who has low squad value.

Compared to commercial income? Overall revenue? Academy? Infrastructure? Within the restraints he imposed - the transfer strategy was ok. The worst thing was shit free transfers and renewing too long. Standalone transfers and wages were 6/10. Academy, commercial income etc. genuinely 2/10 But those restraints only existed because of his ineptitude.

The transfer approach in theory was one of the few things of the Ashley era that was not a total nightmare. We tend to hyper focus on transfers because that's the easiest thing to see in terms of "investment". It was the flatlining of the revenues and lack of investment elsewhere which told the bigger story. People in the media would say "Ashley is only investing in the team what the club gets in". But dude made no effort commercially (actually used NUFC for free advertisement), academy, training ground, stadium. We lost 100's of millions in non-transfer revenue with his ineptitude.

I don't expect both the RW & CB signings to come in on big wages. We need to get back to the Bruno/Botman + Minteh model.

Agreed. Howe loves Burn, Botman & Schar but one will have to sit it out. Honestly, I expect Botman to sit on the bench and get minutes from there (probably for Hall) for a while—well into February—before eventually replacing a CB. I assume it will be Burn, but Schar hasn't covered himself in glory recently.

Brighton don't have genuine CL ambitions though.

Dont think this is true mind. The new directive means VAR is going with the referees decision if they saw it 95% of the time. Even when the decision is wrong. In the PL anyway. Don’t know what they are doing in the CL. Vini got kicked in the box no foul so dunno.

It is that simple mind. Most teams finish within 3 places of the squad cost on average. You’re absolutely wrong about squad cost and wages. From the last known account we are 7th and 8th in squad cost and wages swapping with Villa. Wages 8th closer to Everton, Villa and Leeds than the 6th place club Arsenal. The squad cost was 7th - 100m short of Spurs in 6th (who have spent 500m since these accounts iirc). Again closer in wages squad cost to Leeds, West Ham & Everton. The bottom line is the squad is far closer in value and wages to Wst Ham and Everton than Arsenal or Spurs. Im not arguing the point that we should be happy with 11th. If Howe finishes 11th he will fairly sacked. But some of you expect him to overachieve as par. Not The atmosphere at the club, squad or recent transfer windows make finishing higher than our budget and cost an unreasonable expectation. Howe benefitted from atmospheere for a long time - now it’s against him (although partial self created). Some of the clubs that will finish above us will do so not because they have better managers. But because the clubs are better run. Smarter transfers, better atmospheres. For a club to over achieve the transfers, squad building and atmosphere needs to be good. Ours is not.

I think 7th and 8th is a good target. But those spots don’t guarantee European football. Again maybe I’m being too black and white. But to me you target 7th or 8th and hope it brings European football and take what you get. Or European football is the genuine target which requires top 6 or a cup to guarantee as a target.

To guarantee Europa league you must finish 5th or win FA Cup. It’s likely 6th will do it. Anything less is unlikely which doesn’t make it a viable target imo.