SAK

Wasn’t intended to be but if you look at the rich Middle Eastern nations the common denominator is oil wealth the only exception is Egypt which has a large tourism industry due to interest in its ancient civilisation. I exclude Dubai as that’s a constituant of the UAE which through Abu Dhabi has oil wealth.

Kiss of death that.

I’d take incremental improvement right now rather than a big bang which we’ve tried but can’t seem to pull off. We need to replace and improve on the output Wilson and Longstaff offered, improve on an ageing Schar and improve on Pope due to his poor ball playing ability. Im sure there’s players out there we can get that can do that.

@Wandy I think it will happen but it’s on pause until the new CEO comes in to move it forward. It will take a long time as they will want to review the plans that’s before you get into all the design work (architects, structural engineers, service engineers, consultants for the pitch design/install, cost consultants) and then all the planning work before submitting to the council. If the plans are for Leazes Park as suggested if we get permission I doubt there won’t be legal challenge by groups concerned about the loss of green space. I reckon 6-8 years from now.

Yes, they invented homosexuality.

Doubt we’re being sold. No racist but a lot of these Middle Eastern countries lucked out due to geography and didn’t amass wealth through brilliant business acumen. I think our current limbo is a mix of incompetence from PIF, Eales about to leave and Mitchell’s departure breaking the link from club to PIF and not having the drive of a majority owner who is a person rather than a business entity like when we had Stavely for all her faults. As we’re an investment for PIF and not a vanity project they’re not going to push more important projects/investments to the side to deal with our shit. Yes, they want success for us but not at the expense of other more important things for them. Again this is where Stavely was good as she could get on to them and make things happen. Hopefully when the CEO and DoF sorted we’ll operate better but fear that won’t happen until after the transfer window closes.

Can get with the delegate responsibility part. I think having to run things past PIF part of the reason why we’re slow so would want less of that.

Don’t PIF already have three board members not including Yasir Al-Rumayyan. They need to delegate more responsibility to the CEO and DoF. In that Amazon documentary Stavely was running everything past PIF if I recall. If we’re still doing that then I can see why we take an age to get things done.

I wouldn’t want them involved day to day, don’t seem very fluid or responsive. Leave them to sort out the strategic stuff like new stadium and training ground. Leave the buying, selling and contracts to club execs. PIF can help the situation by hurrying up and hiring Eales and Mitchell’s replacement.

Where does it say in order to sponsor it, it must brand new? The benefit to the sponsor is their name plastered across Skysports news as they conduct interviews at the training ground, newspaper photos with the same and our own content through our social media channels.

Exactly, not sure why anything needs running up the chain to PIF in term of day to day operations. PIF should set the budget and let the CEO and DoF know much they have to play with. CEO and DoF handle the rest.

But what does that mean, retracted our bid or just left it on the table but not going any higher.

Possibly, I don’t think he rejected us rather his club wanted more. If ‘pool don’t pay what Eintracht want who knows.

Fair enough but that was 8 years ago. Prices inevitably rise, average players go for £30-40m now where a decade back that would have got you an elite player. I’d argue the pool of superstar players now is smaller than back then (Messi, Neymar, CRonaldo, Suarez, Muller amongst others and Issk is a superstar player in my opinion (all the talk from rivals supports that).

But a related party transaction doesn’t mean it has to be below market value. If Jackson is being quoted at £100m plus how can anyone argue Isak at £300m isn’t market value?

Not that I want to sell him but when the Jhon Durans go for £70m how could they argue Isak isn’t a £300m player?

Fair enough but few clubs play with two strikers these days as it leaves the midfield light on numbers.

Isn’t there an attacking midfield out there for around £80m we can sign and then give Hugo and his agent and Liverpool the finger.

Wish him all the best. He tried hard and loves the club but technically fell short and with the on field progress we’ve made we’ve outgrown him. He’s a decent player and with a run of games will put in solid performances but as a bit part, which he would have been here if we extended his contract, he wouldn’t get the game time to get up to speed and would have felt the crowds irritation when used as a sub.

Don’t tell Chelsea or Liverpool.

But they could help us by delaying their signing. No one in Europe is paying £60-70m for Nunez so they can get him at will. Let us tie up Ekitike then buy Nunez.

Fuck football reasons, it’s about honour now.

Saudis ready to offer up the money for Liverpool to sign Isak/ Ekitike🙄

Do well in the CL and if he really wants to move he could be Lewandowskis replacement at Barca in future.