80

That'll teach those silly Swedes for keeping their league football VAR-free. They'll definitely see the benefits of it now.

I think my only issue is I abhor crap statistics and sophistry. I can get along with the idea that we play better with Longstaff in than Tonali or whatever - especially as he seems to be removing some of the worst parts of his game in recent weeks - but the justifications based on points picked up and games not lost etc. are invariably shite. The original one was outright bait. Would be better if people just use their eyes and say "Bruno looks a lot more comfortable alongside him" or "the opposition find it a lot harder to pass through our structure with Longstaff in the team". Of course, that does beg the question of how we've managed to spend £60m on a player and still find the same players we had in January 2022 are our best midfield spine, three out of four of whom played for Steve Bruce.

Plus the last time I checked, it wasn't this much. I think a good year for a top referee including bonuses was £100k, and it can be as low as £50k. Which is neat but nothing amazing in this world. You can make that money selling cheese strings to corner shops.

When you're surrounded by 20-something year olds screaming at you who can buy and sell your family several times over, you're liable to feel underpaid and resentful. It's inviting corruption, is my point.

A bunch of underpaid, low status, middle aged berks with the power to influence outcomes in a multi-billion pound international industry. It would be weird if very serious attempts weren't made.

We should examine just leaving FIFA.

Wonder why he's meriting this assassination.

Another thing to consider in all this is that PSR might collapse - or at least be heavily altered - in the next year or two, thanks to the associated parties and debt rulings. That might lead player prices to severely spike again.

PSR profit is paper profit ultimately, though. It's like selling Barnes for £30m and saying we've made a profit on him. In PSR that's kind of true, but you can't lose sight of the actual money, either - and thanks to spending little last summer, we're less desperate for PSR slack than we were.

He's thinking of you describing it as being a decent profit, I believe. Which I'd disagree with, as we supposedly paid £63m for him, and will owe Sociedad 10% of any sale. Profit or gross, I'm not sure - assuming it's profit, that would give us £15m on the sale, which is sod all for assuming all that risk.

No, the forum's objecting to the idea he's worth any less than that...

He was on the decline from when Grealish said he'd been made to look stupid, around November or December time.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/nov/12/england-nations-league-lewis-hall-audition-thomas-tuchel-newcastle After about ten paragraphs you get some decent quotes from him. Lads, he's a Ben Arfa fan Interesting that he says he arrived expecting to play a lot more last season. Sounds like he's done really well to fight through that difficult period last season.

That contract runs out in July 2028 though... So there's seriously no rush. Unless he spits the dummy, and I think he's bright enough to know that if a club's offering £80m-£90m for him, they're clowns who aren't taking buying him seriously.

You'd have to imagine there's someone worth us hiring in there?

That, most definitely, is the spirit.

That's why something in the 90s is unacceptable... Replacements don't grow on trees and we need enough to buy at least one plus another good player for another position to make letting him go worth our while. Otherwise, why sell? A pile of money won't score the goals that actually make us money.

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if this chat is somewhat agent driven. Not necessarily Isak himself, mind. Just need to stand our ground as supporters, whatever happens we should get a positive result.

It is. Although I'd also be interested to know how those results compare with games where we've had Willock, Bruno and Joelinton but no Longstaff (I doubt there are many of those, mind).

Yes, and the earlier part of this season too. It is interesting as it's as though something's clicked in his head - gives me some hope that he might have turned some sort of psychological corner.

I'm assuming he's done here. If he's not trusted enough to play against AFC Wimbledon at home, what hope is there?

Struggling to see much wrong with any of that. Even contextualises calling Klopp a cunt with the stories of him being an abusive bully.

It's really heartening. I was starting to get worried those predicting the demise of his career as a permacrock would be right. He looks dead happy too.

As much as anything, I imagine they're managing his minutes still. They're doing something right anyhow - great to see him back looking like this.

Been meaning to ask if anyone's followed how he's getting on.