macphisto

Not pulling you up over this, just curious with the development in that area. Is the ground still visible?

I wonder what land/Buildings (that could be demolished) the Reuben Brothers own in Newcastle that could be used for a stadium?

I would not be surprised at all to see Sterling move this summer and seriously I could see him here based solely on the fact that not many teams will be able to afford him. These words from Guardiola could be read in different ways. I guarantee the reply would be a lot more emphatic if the question was asked about Foden. If Sterling does leave then where could he go? PSG as a replacement for Mbappe if he leaves for Madrid? I can't see any other English clubs going for him apart from possibly Arsenal.

We got two England and Brazilian internationals when we'd only won two games all season

Strange, if I was a manager at Man U then he'd be one of the first players I'd sell. I say that as his stagnation as a player mirrors Man U as a club and it would be a symbolic change more than anything else. He has potential but I just don't get the fuss over him.

Have Raheem Sterling or Sadio Mane been mentioned in this thread? I could see both being available in the summer. I know Sterling misses a lot of chances, reminds me a little of Dyer in how he strikes a ball, but he is creating those chances in the first place. Think he'd be a cracking signing. Mane, I'm not so sure about as ludicrous as that sounds (not sure why?).

I'm no expert so I might not have understood this tweet correctly by Kieran Maguire but it looks like you can raise up to £90 million over three years doing it this way.

First two would do for me, New Balance seemed to have done a decent job with Liverpool and would have given them great experience of selling football shirts. I like how you mention ACG, this is complete fantasy but I'd be well up for going into partnership with someone like North Face if they ever tried to break into football (complete non-starter). I wonder who we could get to sponsor our matchday clothing like Dsquared2 and Man City?

Imagine them with Geordie Jeans

I didn't know that about Puma's other kits, I was thinking more along the lines of I couldn't see Ashley/Barnes/Charnley giving a toss about quality in the past. I wonder if the club could front load any deals, as in tempt a sports company to give us a big deal that's comparative to some of the bid clubs? Say a 8 year deal that compares to the biggest deals now but wouldn't rise over the 8 years. There could also be penalties if we don't reach certain league positions, etc. I'm just thinking that we would be the perfect club for someone like New Balance who tried to break into the big time with Liverpool. Just a way to help with FFP. I get where you're coming from with regards to building the brand with kids on the street but one aspect that I don't know about but could have a huge impact is the Saudi market. Will the Saudi's feel a sense of national pride to wear the shirt or not in the immediate future (particularly when we have Saudi sponsorship and not Fun88)? Population of 35.6 million with a median age of nearly 32 years and who all have decent disposable income (prime target group) could prove hugely significant.

Is it about quality or where we can get the best deal for the club, particularly where we want to be? I think people are being short sighted when it comes to the quality of our shirts. Newcastle under Ashley is a completely different proposition to Newcastle under the new owners where were entitled to the same treatment as Man City/Borussia Dortmund in regards to Puma. Whoever we work with, it would be in our power to insist on quality products. Castor currently have none to very few international distribution networks, no retail outlets overseas (how many in the UK?) And finally don't even have an app. This all matters as are they going to be able to meet our ambitions and also offer us a top deal? Why should we almost be a ginny pig for Castore as they develop?

They're all very niche teams in the grand scheme of things where the only people buying the shirts are local supporters in the main. As Izakaya says, someone like Nike could get their gear out to any part of the world in large numbers. I'd still maintain they're small time as look who they work with compared to the major sports brands; not even the same league. How many retail outlets do Castore have in the UK/worldwide? Also need to look at how sports retail is developing where major brands are making and selling their own products themselves and bypassing traditional sports shops. Nearly every major/middle ranking city has an Adidas/Nike/Puma retail outlet not to mention an online presence. This is important as it means the sports companies make more profit and in turn can offer better deals to clubs. In many ways Nike/Adidas are replicating Ashley's Sports direct model of making and selling their own stuff; only difference is that Sports Direct brands aren't as premium.

I'd bin Castore as soon as possible if I was the club. Not only are they small time but I wouldn't be surprised if they somehow have links to Ashley given they provide the shirts for both Rangers and Newcastle. We should aim to create a similar partnership that Nike and PSG have together. PSG is more of a sub-brand of Nike/Jordan now than simply PSG merchandise and will allow us to maximise revenue from both supporters and non-supporters. Another big thing to consider are distribution networks, I travel a lot and I can't think of the last time I saw a Newcastle shirt overseas. With that in mind I'd go for Adidas or Nike, lesser extent Puma. I know Puma were our recent short makers but I can imagine they thought there was no point in them promoting our stuff overseas as no one would buy it. Castore simply don't have the networks to sell our stuff overseas in sufficient numbers. Talking about Castore being small time, they remind me of Sandbanks which is owned by Jamie Redknapp. Trying to create a premium brand from nowhere (check out the prices of the jackets). Keep an eye out on Sky Sports as you'll see Neville and a few others wearing the brand. Flintoff has already been accused of promoting the brand on Top Gear.

We didn't have a huge debt unless, an utter fallacy. Yes, we had debt but a few years of not spending much would have sorted us out. A lot of the debt Ashley inherited was associated with the stadium that only became fully payable after a change of ownership. What Ashley claimed was a debt, "a blackhole", was the way every other club conducted their transfer business by paying in instalments. This is a good article on our debt at the time. Also no reason to not assume that our commercial revenue would have continued to rise to help offset our debt. My main problems with Shepherd and Hall is their football decisions, hiring Souness was an appalling decision. They were welcome to a return as they did invest their own money at one point to grow the club, something that Ashley never did.

I thought it was a simple case of Keegan wanting Ferdinand as his main striker.

I was just googling and it came up on this fans forum I like the line that they hadn't promised to spend it all in one window. I forgot about the links to Ruiz who ended up at Fulham where he just wasn't suited to English football. It's like reliving a nightmare reading those minutes again.

Not sure if this has already been said but they'll be some clubs not wanting to sell just yet as they'd then be expected to reinvest the money in a replacement within this window. If they leave it a few more days then they can always say they ran out of time to find a replacement. Similar to when we sold Carroll and "ran out of time" to sign anyone. I remember we pledged to reinvest all his money which then turned into money we just used for the general running of the club. For some reason, I remember his transfer fee being linked to work at the training ground, including new manhole covers. I might be completely wrong on the last point but something rings a bell.

Yes, for the top players but not for what we need for the here and now to improve the team. This is a unique situation in terms of our position in the league relative to our finances now. I don't think you can go off the past too much. I would be staggered if there had not been numerous approaches to the club prior to January by agents offering players this window who we could get and would improve the team. Maybe not the best players but definitely better than what we have which wouldn't be difficult.

4 days? Where's that come from, did they buy the club in late December?

Two thirds of the Premier League are not facing relegation and 19 teams in the Premier League have won more games than us. The league title is sown up by Man City, realistically only four teams are in relegation trouble all there's no reason for most teams to push the boat out in terms of buying players.

With a team as poor as our team, I'm surprised we haven't had more deals lined up at the beginning of the month. We haven't got the luxury of time and every point is so important now. Yes, it is a difficult month to buy top players but not to upgrade on our team.

His remit is to keep us up so we can judge him. You can also judge a manager by how much a team improves. I really hope he does turn it around but so far I've been very disappointed by him. As someone said previously, we're now scoring fewer goals than under Bruce. One shot on target against Watford at home is terrible.

Is that not balanced by getting more out of other players being enthused by the future ahead such as Wilson, Joelinton, Willock, Lewis, Saint-Maximin, Dubravka and possibly others? I'm not saying they all have a future at the club but nearly all footballers have an ego that surely Howe could tap into as a means of motivating them by future opportunities at the club. Based on Howe's last season at Bournemouth and so far at Newcastle, the bloke has forgot how to win at the top level.

Of course he should be getting more out of the team, particularly when combined with the positive atmosphere around the club now. Realistically, he couldn't have made a worse start. I know people will say give him time but we don't have that luxury.

That's not how I see charisma, I've given you a rough idea of my definition both in the examples I quoted and Forbes article. You can't divorcee man management from charisma as they are intertwined (again, refer to the Forbes article). I couldn't give a toss about interviews but for me Howe doesn't have much of a personality or presence (charisma) to inspire players. We certainly haven't had the new manager bounce under him.