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The problem with this is Eddie has - in word and deed - demonstrated he's totally committed to the psychology of trying to achieve full system dominance in every game we play. He doesn't like taking what he sees as a step back in the slightest, which gets exploited by teams who know this and don't feel the same way. It'd be a major change for him to stop doing it that way, and I can't see it happening. To his credit, it's a winner's mentality.

To me it's a fine idea, but Wilson is made of tissue paper so I think it would be irrelevant after one or two games... Really limits our options on that score. Not that I'm overly worrying about the situation, but I'd be interested to know roughly when Eddie thinks Osula will be genuinely first team ready.

It's honestly a bit odd to me that people seem to be seeing it as a new thing. It's as though people have been conditioned into thinking he's just a ball spraying quarterback, but he was dynamite in his earlier days for us in more offensive areas. It wasn't that long ago, either.

Yeah, agreed. Talking about our missed chances forgets all the goals our opponents cudda shudda scored as well. Games like Brentford are going to be a lot more informative about the rest of our season, to be honest.

It was only a couple of months or so ago Howe and Tindall were doing an interview together and both agreeing he was the one most likely to make a go of management. Gave me hope he was back on track at the time.

Have to admit I'm surprised by tonight's performance. I was bracing for something grim, and was pessimistic until Schar's goal, which is unlike me. Hope this is Bruno and Tonali bedding into their new roles. Let's see if we can do something against Brentford...

I think he's just not naturally a stable guy. By his own words it took a lot of work from himself and others to get him to where he got. You hope for the best and want a happily ever after, but in the back of your mind you know it's not guaranteed.

That he's been on the piss.

If it's what everyone is assuming it is, what a mess.

I've always thought that was a valid possibility. A proper sick joke of a throwback.

I tend to agree with you, but there is a chance they're just fluffing us up with words, in terms of Europe being a necessity rather than a nice thing. It's possible real ambitions have changed, particularly since Staveley and Ghodoussi left.

You're right, I probably should've said July to illustrate how the profits and losses fall into different periods so that once the loss of this year's amortization drops off in three years, the 'profit' of his sale would still be there for another 12 months. But I was just trying to keep it simple to illustrate the basic mechanics of it. If I understood @Sibierski rightly - and I'm not sure I did, to be fair - it seemed like he was thinking in terms of a player's real value dropping as his contract wears down. Which is a legitimate point but irrelevant to what @r0cafella was saying, which is that selling Barnes for approximately his book price will do very little to help us buy players in the next 6 months. Off the top of my head, we'd be about £6.5m max better off by July, factoring in wages saved but ignoring any agent fees or loyalty clauses Barnes has in his contract.

I'm not sure what you mean, sorry. The issue is if we sell him below a certain price in Jan (say £28m for the sake of argument), we'd actually be more likely to have to sell someone in a panic before the June deadline - because the PSR system would say we've actually lost money on him. Whereas if we sell him later (say June), £28m might count as a £4m profit because his 'PSR price' has gone down over time (amortization). Basically the later you sell a player in their contract, the easier it is to make a PSR profit, even if that's totally separate to actual real money.

From what someone was posting earlier, the little smarty pants appears to have found a loophole as the armband isn't part of the kit They'd probably go for a catch all disrepute charge, if they want to.

Not sure what money we'd get for him, given the circumstances. He's obviously worth something serious to the right teams, it's just a question of whether they're in the market. We need to get a good fee for him for PSR reasons - we haven't cleared all that much off his original bill yet. £25m might go down as a loss for us. IIRC his actual price was always hazy.

Thought experiment: Eddie is locked in here until at least Summer 2028. Despite any friction, the board and Mitchell genuinely respect what he does, they're content with what he offers in terms of player development, being a steady hand and such, while the club gradually progresses off the pitch. So long as we're not in a relegation fight, at least. CL is a sincere hope and investment within PSR is fully available, but 11th is fine enough if we're consistently uprating the Isaks and Halls who can be traded with a view to the future. What do you want to have happen in the coming year? Spend in January? Hang on to our purples in the summer for another push next season? Squad car boot sale and rebuild? Are you gutted with this news or delighted with the certainty and absence of urgency? Personally, I think it's crucial we go into this June debt free, and if that means no signings in January, so be it. Then, a full rebuild in the summer. I don't think we'd have the luxury of being too picky about exactly which players leave. One way or another though, the spine of Howe's squad has always been players he inherited or got in that first rushed transfer window - Schar, Burn, Trippier, Longstaff, Joelinton, Bruno, Murphy/Almiron etc. And we know most of them have pretty severe limitations, which must constrain his tactical options. My hope is Eddie privately thinks there are key flaws in what we have that are preventing him getting us to the next level, and he has firm ideas of what he'd change if we lost - say - Bruno, Joelinton, Gordon and Livramento, along with the Almirons, Trippiers and Targetts, in return for a boatload of cash to spread around the squad and Mitchell's assistance in picking up players who might be stars of the future but are also at least viable in a PL first team. Then it would be a case of going again with a new model, probably from a lower base but hopefully with a surer footing in terms of technical ability, squad consistency and trading potential.

I was gonna turn up and make some quip about James McClean but it looks like we've moved past that by now. Personally, I've never been so excited to sign Mark Guehi

That's subject to a priest-judge deciding which right they prefer, but either way you'd retain your right to it. NB. I think human rights discourse riddled with horse shit and intellectually bankrupt.

Everyone palpably shat themselves

Ironically, given the talk of human rights, it's literally article 18 of the human rights declaration that everyone has the right to manifest and observe their religious beliefs in public.

I'm looking on the dark side of life for this one. Fear it could be a turning point.

It's the hazard of trying to plan anything in advance, especially a display. There's always a chance something will come up which is more important, or makes it out of date or whatever. But you have to take the risk if you want to ever put something special together. It's to WF's credit that they don't just plough on because it suits their personal timetable, and try and do what they think is best for the club and its people.

Not that I strongly disagree, but my guess is Howe is concerned about doing a Tomasson on Osula before his career really gets going here. Osula's PL experience is of not scoring goals in the PL so far. Given that - arguably - we haven't been stretched for forwards this season, given we have fewer games and Isak, Gordon and Barnes to rotate, I find him being very conservative with Osula more tolerable. But I definitely wouldn't mind him taking more of a chance on him... A burst of youthful enthusiasm could really do us some good right now.

Aye, agreed. Wor Flags have always been spot on at judging the moment, and as good an idea as it is, doing a Keegan retrospective seems a bit self indulgent when we have our backs against the wall and today's leadership deserves support.

Agreed, although I think he's gotten weaker at it over the past couple of years. Think that's just from lack of usage due to where he's been positioned though... I'm confident it would come back with a bit of time and encouragement.