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Shows where the FA Cup is at as a competition nowadays. Needs to have a Champions' League spot as a prize, pronto.

That's right. That said, it might've come as a shock to him that we didn't respond with a flat no. Slightly reminiscent of Ferdinand to Tottenham. I'm not gonna lose any sleep over this situation. I think it's going to work out ok for us one way or another. It's always felt plausible to me that Gordon would leave sooner than others - I don't want him to but he's very ambitious and we're hitting a sticky patch in our development, so if his PSR book value has gone down fast (a good thing), it makes sense for him to be a sacrifice. We've even got an oven ready replacement. Then again, he could be here for another decade. Hopefully so.

I was more the opposite - I didn't know what was going on but felt more likely to be pissed off with Howe not making use of him when we were at an extremely low ebb. As TCD says though, all's well that ends well. Sounds like the story is he was struggling to adapt, in addition to living independently for the first time, so Howe didn't want to integrate him before that was resolved. I can see justification in that.

Am I right in saying you can only view Instagram links if you have an account with them now? Same with tiktok.

Would be funny if this stems from a typo. I guess it's possible (but unlikely) we've done a deal with no signing on fee i.e. the money is built into a higher basic wage, instead. Also, could the agent be willing to 'confirm' a higher value to reporting sites to better position himself in attracting new clients? I don't really like trusting these sites.

It's the modern world, you have no choice now - embrace it and start making money through TV appearances, set up a dodgy little charity

Thanks for the response. Again, I'm not trying to take the piss, but I am interested in investigating the tensions. Do you think it would be a good idea for teams/the league to change some pretty deep customs to accommodate these problems? E.g. to avoid various colour selections for kits and ensure pattern differentiation between two competing teams.

So - and this isn't fully intended as a piss take - do you think it's plausible someone with red green colourblindness could complain about Liverpool playing in a red kit on green grass?

Got to take the little victories.

I agree it makes sense, although Eddie says he's pretty against loan signings where the player isn't intending to stay permanently. I think there's a place for it, though.

It's the price of ambition But we do need to have our shit together to cope wth the churn.

Damn. Can't say I'm too surprised. Been a bit paranoid about our new scouts since Ashworth left. Sure Mitchell will have his own ideas, though.

Blackburn Rovers.

A three minute response time - I love it

Feels like we're more likely to sell Miley than Longstaff at the minute - due to how much interest there is/would be in them both.

To give him a fair shot, he might've picked up signals that behind the scenes things are happening e.g. marketing and medicals being booked. Even if he's out of the loop on who it's being done for.

The little tinker.

So let us pray they are wrong...

Taken on its own I could easily believe the third kit was just flirting with a bit of retro. I accept that's a thing to do right now. But taken in the context of other things like the late 70s logo being updated and placed ostentatiously behind Eales for his recent interview, I think there's definitely balloons being floated to see how the land lies. We do, after all, have marketing gurus who've already notified us our current crest is not optimised for the visually impaired, so the club will be looking to rectify that ().

You seem to be missing my point that it's an industry-wide phenomenon. It would be weird if you couldn't find other examples. I'd see it as more relevant if Man City were releasing kits with the big eagle, or Chelsea were marketing the old CFC lion logo, or Tottenham were re-establishing the complications from their old crest. Are they? Maybe they are.

You mean Leeds and Everton whose owners had failed attempts at changing their crests a few years back? I don't think anyone is claiming NUFC are unique in wanting to blur the lines of acceptability around what symbols represent the club. It's an industry-wide phenomenon.

I wouldn't necessarily see it as bad management so much as a symptom of being in a very hard, artificially complex situation. The best plumbers still get other people's shit under their fingernails.

Have there been any reports specifically commenting on it? From what I remember there's just an absence of it being mentioned, which isn't too conclusive. Re: Kelly, I'm always reluctant to give too much credit to these kinds of reports. Although, as you said recently, the sheer absence of talk about Targett interest makes you wonder if there's credence in him getting big money after all, even though I normally dismiss that as rubbish too.

I think the two key clauses in the idea are the lack of injuries and Europe. Especially Tonali, but also Pope and dare I say Hall really are going to be like new signings for us. Throw in a hugely reduced workload versus our core competitors and it starts to look interesting. But RW and lack of back up up front (Wilson barely counts) leaves us very vulnerable.

Yeah, it gives a lot of hope for the future. 5 years from now will hopefully be quite a different picture for the club.