macphisto

Any examples of decent players at this stage of their contract signing an extension? Interesting situation where data analytics seems to be determining what Liverpool offer as opposed to personal opinions.

I wrote about fans in Thailand watching the match. This is class. This is what it means to be growing our global base. I wonder if there was anything like this in other countries where the gathering is just made up of locals, not Geordie expats? Any footage from Saudi Arabia?

Different landscape now, who's paying these big transformative fees? The external money from PSG/Man City and even Chelsea, under Ambramovich, that oiled the transfer system has really gone down due to PSR and possibly Qatar losing a little interest after hosting the World Cup.

Celebrations in Thailand was class!

I wonder if we could claim damages/ loss of earnings in either not being able to strengthen resulting in us not finishing in a European place or being forced to lose Anderson/Minteh on the cheap/against our wishes? Apologies if it sounds stupid, I didn't tread the whole thread.

Completely different clubs and from afar I see them as good places for players to get accustomed to the Premier League without too much pressure. I would chuck Brighton and Fulham in the same category too. It is completely different at Newcastle where players don't have that bedding in period. I'm not saying don't buy young but they have to be top pedigree, like Hall, and they don't come too cheaply. I'm sure there will be occasions when we buy a cheap player from nowhere who can do a job but that will be very rare.

I'm not so sure we did buy to sell initially, more buy young (better value) and develop the team. The problem with selling our main players, where are the buyers? A lot of money flowed into the game through PSG, Barcelona and Madrid when we talk about Suarez, Bale, etc. No one is spending that type of money now.

I wonder what agents are making of the lack of spending? Must be losing a lot of money so I wonder if they're agitating for change behind the scene. Obviously not bothered about the welfare of agents but they are a powerful influence in football.

Very few people follow Leicester in Thailand, all of the traditional teams have big followings and I see quite a few Newcastle tops too; last year I even saw a local wearing the Joelinton hawaii shirt.

Is it not more Levy is like Charnley? Ashley's equivalent would be Joe Lewis. I saw references to Bale and Modric, I think that model's now dead as there just isn't the funds out there and PSR; no one is paying that money anymore.

Without reading the article, I don't think there's too much wrong with the headline. We'll have gone 2 years without a first team signing by the summer, no significant progress off the field, and we are nowhere near exploiting all of the loopholes regarding commercial income. The above is fine but don't blame PSR; PIF simply either do not want to invest as they initially led us to believe they would through their statements or are currently reassessing their whole football strategy (Newcastle, Saudi Leauge and World Cup). One other thing to note is maybe Eales was meant to play a more prominent role PR wise but unfortunately he can't do that.

Is this first time of PIF using a Saudi club to get money into the club? Seems more than a coincidence that the same club has gone for two of our goalkeepers.

Is that the same Barclays who was involved in the libor scandal? So fair criticism of Staveley is her dealings with Barclays? Bizarre thing to bring up, only fair criticism is PSR but we have no idea if she was responsible and if she was who should she have not bought or sold?

Be even more interesting to see what would have happened had we got Zola instead of Asprilla as they both left Parma at roughly the same time (not sure who left first); think we'd be talking about a living legend.

For anyone having a go at Staveley, we don't know what was promised in terms of incoming commercial deals. The other thing is no one says which transfer we shouldn't have done or who we should have sold that would have covered the shortfall?

That was nowhere near organic growth, there was no way we could afford that sort of money in such a short period. You're saying we naturally went from Hall having to put in his own money, what around £200k for Kilcline?, to the club having enough money to pay for Shearer? I don't know the full details but I'm sure Hall left the club with a lot of debt (maybe he got money back through the flotation) and I don't mean the stadium. Also worth adding they were also taking money out of the club for things like warehouses in Gibraltar. There was no way we were making enough to cover all of our costs.

Don't put that on the fans, it was the various owners, at different times, who raised expectations. With regards to Man City and people talking about natural growth. We've just released a 30 year old shirt celebrating when we were anything but organic growth; breaking the world record for a defender, Barton, and the world record for Shearer as examples. It was absolutely class at the time and I'd love to experience those times again.

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.