macphisto

I wonder what the Saudis are up to with their league as I'm staggered they haven't lined up Salah on a free for next summer; for so many reasons he'd be their ideal signing.

Top is class but the old predator boots (I assume they're an updated version) in the pic are even better.

I could easily see the current regulations change for three reasons. One is that it has made the league more competitive and that is why we are seeing Spurs and Man U where they are. PSR had made it very difficult to buy any decent player in the PL which means a lot of teams are now hanging onto their best players. The other reason is that a lot of teams rely on selling players; I personally don't think we made a genuine bid for Guehi but a lot of those type of deals would now go through with changes to PSR. £60 million+ is a huge amount for clubs like Palace. Last reason is that the Premier League will want to keep it's position as the top league in the world.

I agree about willing buyers and this is where the Guehi "bid" does not make sense. How could we bid for a player knowing we would then have to sell without a buyer lined up? If we did have a buyer lined up then we should have sold that player. Only thing I can think of is that there's now an understanding in the PL that clubs with PSR troubles will trade amongst themselves to get out of trouble in future.

In reply to both you @tgarve There's been plenty of talk on this message board about the atmosphere in the ground with people talking about having singing areas, standing etc, when people are nostalgic about the crowds pre-Keegan. Yes standing played a big part in the atmosphere in the old days but another huge part of it was 13-16 year olds from places like Walker, Byker, Daisy Hill and Wallsend (I'm sure there must have been the same from the East End too). In those days, you could just turn up on the day in a large group and we probably attended about half of the games in a season. They were a huge part of the atmosphere. Those very same kids are now some of the most passionate fans the club has. How are 13-16 year old from those areas going to be able to attend the match now, and more importantly in large groups which would rely on all of their parents having enough money at the same time? It's worth adding that relatively speaking those areas are much more deprived now than they were pre-Keegan. Build a 80,000 stadium and if we can fill it then great, if not then offer discounted tickets to the areas above and similar to ensure full-price fans in the future and a better atmosphere.

If we went for 80,000 and demand was not there after a few years then you could easily throttle supply to keep demand high by having say 10,000-15,000 seats set aside for school kids/other groups at £10 a ticket. Gives the club good PR by allowing under privileged groups into the ground, ensures future supporters and would be the best thing you could do for the atmosphere.

Probably more to do with delays on PIF's side. I could see us having a limit on payments that need approval from Saudi Arabia.

Al Ula is getting a lot of influencers to drive tourism, my GF wants to go 😅! Normally you'd think the alcohol ban would put young people off the place but a lot of them don't drink so maybe not an issue as it would have been in the past.

Talk of Martin's age reminds me of Ajax looking at academy players in Ghana that popped up the other day. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDcB3RmNOCe/?igsh=MXF4ZjR0cGxlYmh6aw==

Donovan Bailey and Denise Lewis rocking our shirts in 1996 on Sports Personality of the Year!

I do think Ashworth is very over rated and his track record is not that great but I do have sympathy for his last two roles. Director of football was never going to work at Newcastle with Staveley and her husband and likewise at Man U where there are so many chiefs.

I agree with @80 about fluffing us with words. I'd also add that I don't think the bid for for Guehi was genuine, a smokescreen to hide we weren't spending money but could say we tried. Are we really to believe money was there but we couldn't find anyone to improve a team that finished 7th last season? If we don't buy anyone in January, the messaging about January isn't sounding great at the moment, then it would confirm the money was never there for me. I say all of this in relation to Howe and where we finish. Who knows internally what our real targets are?

I wonder if they are demanding Europe? Want it, yes but demand it? Their actions certainly don't say they are desperate to finish high up the league.

There is no excuses but there are very valid reasons if we don't. There is no way you can reasonably demand European football if you have not invested in the team for 18 months. Also important to take into account that due to Tonali being an idiot our main signing of that summer is now having to be bedded in a season later than planned. As a thought experiment, if we had all been told after the summer of 2023 that we would not sign another player up to now. Where would most people have predicted we would be? I'd say where we are now. We can all look back and say why did we buy Barnes, not a new RW, etc. but Howe is not the Director of football and whatever his influence in recruitment did he know the taps would be turned off after 2023?

I wonder if Craig Hope's latest article is the club laying the ground to build a new stadium?