macphisto

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

If that does happen then the people in charge are completely clueless. What targets should we meet considering where we were and how much has been invested? From an investment point of view we are where we deserve to be.

Maybe we decided to bulk the squad up at the expense of the first team, apart from Tonali, for Champions League football which I fully understand.

No excuse, when money has been there under Howe, it's easily been spent. Take a step back, PIF didn't spend any money in the summer on transfers, refused to exploit loopholes to get more money into the club, no progress at all on the stadium or training ground even though the decision on the stadium was "imminent" and Saudi clubs spent no where near what they did in the previous summer. You can make valid arguments in each point above but when put together you can see a clear pattern that PIF took a step backwards from football. Maybe they're taking time to decide what they want to do in football and have a joined-up strategy as they have Newcastle, Saudi League and now the World Cup.

That's how smokescreens work, they are supposed to be "genuine".

Olise and Guehi were smokescreens to say we tried to buy, we just didn't have the will or capacity to spend money this summer. When we've had money, we've spent it under Howe.

I think he's talking about our opponents, people like Levy, being very proactive in preventing us from growing; in contrast to PIF's slow - slow approach.

Which Global audience? Any one East of Middle East and Champions League is on too late. America and that's people finishing work at best on the East Coast, West Coast would be too early. Is it mainly Basically Africa and Europe who watch the matches?

We'll see and hope you're right. Quality normally always shows in the end and we don't have as much as other teams in my opinion.

Each to their own I guess.

The New Era hats are pretty cool. Picked up a trucker cap and bucket hat at the weekend. The jacket felt quite big, normally a medium in everything and went for a size smash one in the the end.

It's what we'll be come May unless we spend big in January. It is what it is, next summer will tell us all what we need to know about the intentions of the club.

I find it so weird that people make the sound of booing. Sound like an idiot and something children do. Grumble, swear, moan (all natural sounds) but booing is so strange and unnatural.

That's what we are.

Who have they sold? Can we compare to them in terms of quality of players to move on? No idea about Villa but I don't see a lot of clubs lining up for our players. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but selling a few players after we finished 4th was the time to push on. Wilson and Willock would have been prime candidates but were they already injured by the end of that season?