macphisto

If it was a choice, I'd go for Eriksen well ahead of Lingard. I agree with the club looking to lower the age of the squad but I also like the idea of a few older top pros who have been there and done it to be role models, leaders on and off the pitch, help raise the standards in the club and also maintain team discipline. They would also play a key part in helping young overseas players settle and let them know what is expected. The question that poses is are there many older players from the Ashley era who could act as role models for promising young players we sign in the future? What got me thinking about the above is the situation at Man U, where from the outside it looks like they are really missing older players to set the tone for younger players to follow.

I really don't get this kind of thinking, why would you put off changes that you'll make at some point in the future? Take away Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and possibly Spurs and we are more than capable of matching any other team by the end of the 2023/24 summer transfer window if we make the right signings, starting this summer. One other thing to bear in mind regarding FFP, prices are only going to go up in the future so if we can get the right players now then we should go for them as we'll save money. We should focus primarily on 1st team starters, with current 1st teamers moving down to squad players. This would be supplemented with the odd top quality youngster to boost the squad/impact substitute. We'll see how this summer goes but I think we'll be pleasantly surprised by PIF's ambitions. They're not messing about, just look at them so far: Director of Football, gone for one of the best in the business Manager, went for Emery who has worked for some top clubs. We can see with Man U's search for a manager that there are not many top quality managers around and Howe fits in with where we are as a club with the potential to also grow as a manager. January Transfer Window=2nd highest spend in Europe and could quite easily have been a lot more with confirmed bids in excess of £60 million Including a sought after Brazilian international A £25 million striker who will not be viewed as a 1st team starter after this season. It begs the question how much would they be willing to pay for a striker that they see as part of our long-term future? Mark Leyland joining from Liverpool as Analyst coach when Liverpool are widely regarded as being one of the best clubs in their use of data Academy: Only rumours on this message board so I'm possibly scraping the barrel, but rumours today that we are after academy staff from Chelsea

Where would you expect us to be after 4 years? Personally, I'm expecting something along these lines: 2022/23-bouncing around between 6th & 11th place 2023/24-bouncing between 4th-10th place but finishing in the lower half of that spectrum 2024/25-A real sustained challenge for the top 4 2025/26-Genuine top 4 team, we may finish 5th but say on the last day or by a point or two 2026/27-Possible challenge for the league

And the player who committed the foul went in goal???

And that's when Cole was considered one of the best fullbacks in the world. I don't know if this would correspond with his decline as a player but it felt like he was never the same after Terry went with his girlfriend.

Bridge was involved around the England setup for a long time, just checked and he had 36 appearances as a starter and sub. Anyone with that type of profile would now be a lot more than £30 million. As much as I'm happy with Targett, his profile is nothing like Bridge.

I totally agree on players like Bridge and Bellamy who would be a lot more than £30 million in today's market. £200 million is not all of our money in one go, far from it. I can't give suggestions as I don't know enough about other leagues but I'm sure there are a fair few players of Bruno's standard we could get and that is what we should be looking for. As I said in my last post, interesting summer ahead but I think we will all be pleasantly surprised.

I'm very sure our deals will come through very soon to allow us to stay well within FFP! I enjoyed our exchange and hopefully we both agree on enjoying the summer ahead!

Not every player but in the main people are defying logic if they can not see the relation to spend and league position. As I have said, it is no coincidence that by far our best player this January was the most expensive one who will end up close to £40 million with add ons. We should now be looking at Bruno-type of players not Targett-type of players which is what people are indirectly advocating through free transfers, clauses and £20-£30 million on players. I have nothing against Targett, a good player who will be around the 1st team for a good few seasons but buying players of his standard in the future won't improve the team in my opinion.

We have the money, there is no need to keep any back. That's not saying spend £500 million this summer but £200 million would be more than reasonable.

Exactly, so they aren't key words. Not an issue as it stands will be even less of a one when we sign new commercial deals. In an ideal world yes we need more than 4 players but I honestly don't think our squad is as weak in relation to other teams as we think it is.

Talking about the 1st team, not boosting the squad, Targett was a great signing but I think we now have enough at that level and if we introduced a player of similar pedigree then it would not improve the team. For want of a better way of putting it, we now have a team of Targetts and need to step up in terms of quality.

I said there would be exceptions to any price band if you read my original message. You can have decent scouting but you will still buy as many bad players and good in the £20/£30 million bracket. Look at our January transfer window, it is no coincidence that our best player by far, a level above all the other players we bought, was over £30 million and will probably end up closer to £40 million.

We could get away with 4 players of top quality in my opinion. If not £200 million then not far off it, the evidence is in front of our eyes: 1) For PIF to go through the hassle of buying us for over a year, how they were almost publicly humiliated by the delay (at least in their eyes) 2) Al-Rumayyan attending a few matches (he doesn't waste his time and signifies the importance of Newcastle) 3) January transfer window spend that was already high and could have been much higher with the public bids for Carlos, Botman and Ekitike (say another £60-£80 million though maybe we wouldn't have bought Burn) 4) Publicly stated aims to be challenging in the next 5 years 5) Regional prestige of PIF in relation to Qatar and UAE 6) PIF absolutely minted Despite all of the above, do you really think PIF are going to mess around with free transfers, contract clauses and "bargains". Yes some clever transfers will come in handy but they'll also throw serious money at the club too. The main consideration for them will be to ensure they don't get ripped off in the process, spending a lot of money won't be the issue apart FFP.

As I said, I just used him as an example but if the club think he would be an improvement then go for him. That was the main point I was trying to make.

Trippier whilst a good player is 31. As you said, Bruno was more than £30 million and will probably end up closer to £40 million with addons which is the minimum price bracket we should be looking at in general as there are always exceptions. I understand people thinking we need to address the overall quality of the squad but I actually don't think the squad is that poor now. I could see us shooting up the league if we buy 3/4 real quality players, on a lesser scale but not too dissimilar to when we bought Robert and Bellamy under Robson. I would much rather go for quality over quantity as we can cover some of the holes in the squad that would be left over.

These are just examples, I'm not advocating we go for these players but Philips from Leeds or Abraham from Roma. We might be in with a shout for either of those players and they would both cost £60 million-ish. If the club thought they would improve the team then why not go for them?

I agree that in general we have had up and down times in our transfer history but the times we have challenged was when we relatively spent a lot of money. I am not saying getting ripped off, the key is value for money. I just don't know why some people are wanting to go down the free transfers, last year of contracts route only. There is a place for them but the key principle under these owners should be value for money. If a good player for £60-£70 million wants to come then go for it. All the players you listed are decent solid players, people like Targett and Burn I could see being around the 1st team for a few seasons ahead. The thing is though is that we can't have too many of that standard in the team overall, if we had the equivalent of those players elsewhere in the team then we wouldn't be much better than we are now.

I could also give you a lot of others, many more than you listed, who are in the price bracket and would not improve the team. Just have a look at the transfers for this season. If we have the money then why not go out and buy the best players you can who are willing to come? It's like some people have been Ashleyized and are frightened to spend big money. Stuff this slowly, slowly approach. That is not to say there is not room for free transfers, buying cheap older players for experience like Trippier, but in the main to make significant improvements to the team we'll have to spend big money. Who knows what our scouting system is at the moment but even if we had the best setup then we'd still recruit as many bad players as good in the £20/£30 million bracket.

I don't think you can get any decent players for £20-£30 million anymore. We'd pretty much be trading like for like; Almiron, Willock & Wood are all players in that bracket. Obviously there are exceptions in any price band but £20-£30 million buys you bang average players in the main. I'd reserve £20-£30 million for exceptional young players where there is also a risk but if it goes our way then they could become great players.

I'm interested in seeing where the CEO fits into the club? Stavely and Ghodoussi in their interview with Caulkin a few weeks back said the following "We want a CEO that can help us grow and put Newcastle on the global map. That doesn’t mean Mehrdad and I will step back because we won’t. We’ll just have more people to do the work.". I wonder if it's as simple as Stavely and Ghodoussi having the CEO and Director of Football report to them in the following areas: Ashworth= football side of the club CEO=commercial side of the club In a normal setup, I would have thought the Director of Football would report to the CEO. I suppose it might not be too dissimilar to Newcastle under Hall where he was fairly hands on and the Chief Executive was Freddie Fletcher. Only difference back then is we didn't have a Director of Football.

It's his coat that is even more strange. Am I right in thinking part of the design incorporates the waist of a pair of trousers that are unbuttoned?

If there are any holes in the squad then I don't think it will be for the want of trying. I feel the whole "evolution over revolution" is more about us looking primarily overseas and therefore we can't have a whole new team made up of players without PL experience. There is also probably an element of the club wanting to send the right signals out before the transfer window opens in these reports.

What fan pressure? We didn't do anything and still attended matches. There was no fan pressure apart from a funeral procession.....

It might be best to wait until Ashworth and a new CEO are officially in place for those type of developments to be announced. I'm sure things are happening in the background, with Ashworth's unofficial input.