80

That said... He himself is liable to be a symptom of the wider PIF corporate culture. If it hadn't been him, it seems likely to have been someone else. I can't say I've got great expectations of whoever his eventual replacement will be.

His biggest impact seems to have been assassinating Amanda and Mehrdad. I thought it was striking that for all the many remarks, likes and retweets Mehrdad still has for the club and fans on Twitter, there was silence when Eales' diagnosis was revealed last year.

It was definitely made to sound cosy enough, kind of 'mutual', no dramas etc. But there was certainly an emphasis on it being us in no hurry to get things done as he already had a safe contract. At the time, it could just have been taken as false pride from us of course, but going back to how I started posting in this topic, it matches up with what's been said in recent days.

Honestly, I think illness is doing great things for Eales' reputation at the moment. Even if people wanted to complain or brief about him, who would want to kick him in the current circumstances? So it's understandable that not much is said, even if that's wrong. But it's absolutely true to say this isn't all Mitchell's fault, that ought to be obvious.

Oh I believe money is there, just that it might only be released for players that match certain criteria that didn't exist in the first 18 months of Eddie's reign. And those criteria would likely also make them look surefire hits for our cartel competitors who, thanks to a corrupted system, are permitted to spend more money than us. The ramifications of that would look something like this summer.

Trafford - I don't strongly disagree with the decision, but it ultimately boils down to how confident you were that we could sell a player for £6m-odd in the following 11 months. We bottled that pain then, but now find ourselves in a different kind of pain. Isak - sure, discussing terms with him then was unusually proactive, and turning tail on that was a normal enough thing to do. And we can still offer him a deal now. But all of the aforementioned, along with general developments like another successful year having passed, will affect the outcome of that. I think everyone agrees the club felt like a colder, less promising place to live and work at for much of the last year, despite the best efforts of some. But I don't think the reporting was muddy at the time, my recollection was all the usual media figures - like Douglas and Edwards - sang quite a consistent story about it. So I think that matches up well with it being a specific call by the Mitchell-Eales regime.

I think something that needs to be taken into consideration is what targets the board (what remains of it) find acceptable. Howe might have control of talent scouting, but not the budget devoted to those talents. I still find it hard to accept that when Howe was at his most powerful and most desperate to ensure both his and the club's survival, he was readily looking to buy untested Ekitike, unheralded Guimaraes and disrespected Dan Burn, as well as buying the dip on Isak. And then only later became fixated on Premier League experience and statistical guarantees. I find it plausible that the 'process driven' financial controllers of the club, once they eventually got their feet under the table, have created themselves a neat little value matrix which means they will only seriously loosen the purse strings for 'sure things' which satisfy some conservatively defined metrics. This would likely confine the range of targets we can seriously approach to the types we're now linked with. By definition, a Juventus Huijsen might not be eligible for consideration in those circumstances - "8 figures on a kid with 15 top fight appearances, wtf??". I think it's generally agreed that you're far more likely to survive as a corporate figure at PIF if you attach a lot more weight to mistake aversion ahead of entrepreneurialism, creativity and vigour.

Re: Isak's contract and Trafford's deal, it tallies quite closely with what was being reported last summer. Briefs were going out that we had said no thanks to additional contract discussions and were very relaxed about the situation.

Absolutely crazy.

On the downside, we'd probably also need a new right back, a new CM and maybe a couple of left wingers. Due to having never bought Livramento, Tonali and probably both Barnes and Gordon. An additional upside would be we wouldn't need a larger squad to cope with Europe this season, mind.

Yeah I don't see that happening. It's not in the DNA of a typical resourcer-appointed employee.

Oh I'm waiting for that particular joke. We need to get in that world club cup sooner rather than later...

Oh aye, that's why I didn't say it is sweet You'd think just the tiniest bit of joined up thinking would go a long way though...

That would be sweet.

Well, it probably helped create him the chance to work us for a third time, so that's a pretty good reason.

"Make sure you don't embarrass the VAR system"

Depends on the contract, the player, and what gentlemen's agreements had been made beforehand.

I think we'll need to start getting them to lie if we do want to shift him

If the situation is that bleak then it might just be a case of only going for players we can be confident they won't target then. We can't control what they do, only what we do e.g. ditch higher ideas, especially if there's any sign a player would flinch like Ekitike, and flood ourselves with Mintehs.

It's a valid point, but strictly speaking we don't know it's fully true e.g. maybe we could've done a better job of convincing them, maybe we should've worked out long before the season ended that they weren't happening. I'm not seeking to jump on anyone over how this summer has gone yet, for what it's worth. I'm fairly phlegmatic about the situation.

Appearing mildly frustrated is pretty strong by his standards, to be fair.

I was bracing for something there, but yeah, that's not pissed off. Not in the sense of the phrase that I understand anyway. Disappointed though. Interesting that he's wanted a set piece coach for so long. I see it as a good thing - I had taken it that he was just determined to do things in house with Tindall and co. Also that he saw Mitchell going as a genuine disruption to the summer. I think he makes clear there that he wants a sporting director of some kind in.

Expect we'll get one from Austria like last year. Hopefully less stormy this time around

That's a bit stiff