macphisto

I wouldn't read too much into what the co-founder says as there's always ways to legalistically to avoid revealing the ownership of a company. Interesting to look at the amount of Castore stuff being sold on JD Sports and Sports Direct. JD Sports= 38 Castore items Sports Direct= 432 Castore items I wouldn't be surprised if Ashley is part of Castore but is trying to keep his involvement at arms-length to avoid damaging the profile of the brand in its attempt to be seen as premium. Ashley is desperate for a "high quality" brand as Adidas and Nike have almost completely sacked off Sports Direct apart from offering them their sub-premium products.

Is that not because Shearer was playing for England at that time?

Apologies, I was mixing up England and PL! I meant a level below the current England strikers you listed in the PL would be Wood where he scored between 10-14 PL goals a season for Burnley.

Problem is that most of England's players are not the top players in those teams. I don't have too many problems with Southgate as I don't think our players are half as good as they are hyped up to be apart from Foden, Kane and our fullbacks. My one criticism of Southgate is that if we play Rice and Phillips then I'd always have TAA in the team as there should be sufficient cover for when he bombs forward.

The best of the rest would be Chris Wood and I'm being serious with his record for Burnley. No England manager has had such a pick of strikers as Venables in 96 with the players you listed.

@Kid Icarus @Ken Boon What are you actually referring to when you say a higher standard these days? 100% agree about the improvement in players fitness levels/lifestyles and tactical nous/tactical discipline. I'd also say the role of defenders has changed beyond recognition in how they defend, attack and now have to be far more comfortable on the ball. Likewise, the role of the goalkeeper has also changed dramatically, personified by the video of 80s goalkeepers just whacking the ball down the pitch. I would say though that the improvements above have been offset by the fall in strikers and midfielders. The league winners in Italy, Germany, Spain and England all had main strikers in their mid-30s or in Man City's case often preferred not to play with a striker. I know there has been advances in sports science but for not one of the main league winners to have one main striker in their mid-20s is unusual and doesn't say much about the younger generation of strikers. Midfielders, I'll just use England as one example. Compare England's midfield now to the "golden generation". I've got no time for the "golden generation" but I do have to admit that they're light years ahead of the current midfield.

What do you classify as the not too distant future? When do you think we'll realistically compete for the League?

All they need to do is to slightly tweak the model to allow for limited relegation/promotion and it would easily go through with little government interference. With regards to the Americans, if they don't get their money back through the ESL then the only other way is if the Premier League sells its matches directly to consumers, similar to Netflix. Cuts out selling TV rights to Sky, Bein, etc.

Hope we have a better ending!

Justin Barnes was brought in to sell the club and he was there whilst Benitez was still at the club. Just to get this right, Ashley was afraid of relegation when Newcastle was on 35 points or more when the takeover was originally agreed in April 2020? There was no threat of relegation at that point. Bruce, in Ashley's eyes, was doing a good job. Survival looked assured and he never criticised the ownership. In any case, Ashley was never too concerned about the threat of relegation. Apart from one season, he lived with the real threat of relegation every season. Ashley was a typical gambler. I daresay the 10,000 free season tickets played a part but more than that I think he wanted to use money from a Newcastle sale to buy more failing high street brands.

I have absolutely no time for Ashley but if I ever had to give him credit it is that he basically ran the club, certainly in the last few years, with the aim of being as attractive as possible to buyers. I would be amazed (famous last words as he has amazed me more than once before) if he tied us into more than a roll-over sponsorship deal with an easy get out clause. All conjecture but I wouldn't be surprised if the delay is more to do with securing a sponsor that is not 3rd party related.

I'm hoping it's immaterial anyway and we'll attract non-3rd party sponsors; either companies wanting to oil relations with PIF or to target the Saudi market.

It is such a rabbit hole and made all the more difficult for us as Ashley years are in no way a reflection of the club. Apart from our crowds, everything was so far below where we would naturally be.

Are we all not getting ahead of ourselves? We don't know the criteria for fair value, it won't just be league placings.

Stay out of the black and into the red, nothing in this game for two in a bed

100% agree, spending a lot of money will definitely get you into the top six whether you're managed by Klopp or Ole, I would not disagree on that point. Where I would diverge is in the case of Liverpool, 6th place in expenditure and 8th in net spend over the past five seasons. To have appeared in three Champions League finals in the last five years, win the PL/runner-up, is not simply down to them buying success. By rights with their expenditure they could expect to finish around the top four and possibly go through the group stages of the Champions League most seasons. Who knows how much of it is overblown but it is a common held belief that Liverpool's success can partially be attributed to their transfer committee with a strong use of data. This is a long read on their use of data in the New York Times.

£40 million isn't a fortune for a player. Expenditure since 2017/18 (Source) 1 Chelsea FC: £791.55m 2 Manchester City: £776.17m 3 Manchester United: £665.73m 4 Arsenal FC: £582.50m 5 Everton FC: £483.18m 6 Liverpool FC: £482.52m The above expenditure hardly indicates they've bought success. Obviously spent a bit of money but their success is down to them spending it very wisely which most people put down to their use of data (my original point).

Who's the plethora of homegrown talent? City, Chelsea? You missed out Arsenal, Man U and Everton. Yes but the difference between their 4th place and the outlay of those above will be a lot more. Liverpool signed Jota and Diaz for less than what Chelsea paid for Lukaku. No one is pretending they're a Leicester but at the same time let's not pretend they've been bankrolled by a Gulf state, Russian Oligarch or the money Man U spend.

And is that a fortune given their league points, Champions League finishes and domestic cups? Of course they've spent money but no where near the sums of a lot of other clubs who have enjoyed far less success.

No it didn't cost a fortune, apart from Van Dijk, Allison and Kieta who cost a fortune? If these figures are correct, 8 teams have a greater net spend than Liverpool over the last 5 years.

I'm not a massive fan of that chart but it will be interesting in the years ahead where clubs strike the balance between data and their "own eyes" when buying players. From the outside, Liverpool appears to have a very data driven recruitment process, I wonder how much they go against their instincts if the data is telling them something else? One thing about the traditional model of scouting, in general the success rate is appalling.

We're in a strange cycle of football at the moment where a lot of top scorers don't score that many goals. 18-20 goals sounds reasonable and attainable but then Ronaldo was 3rd highest scorer last season with 18. In 2011/12 Aguero was 3rd highest top scorer with 23, Van Persie was top with 30 goals.

Based on the shirts I've seen in Thailand/Vietnam then I'd give the fakes a miss. Not based on any moral issues but more that the quality was poor. Hasn't been an issue as never considered buying a shirt under Ashley.

And that's not including his free advertising too....

I'm sure Newcastle under Ashley was 3rd or 4th most profitable club over the last 10 years. I think I saw it on a Kieran Maguire tweet. I just did a quick search for most profitable PL club but I could only see income