TRon

We're barely into November man. He'll be back in the side before the end of it, there'll be plenty of games for him. Last game he played in the cup win over Chelsea, he was outstanding.

I'd be surprised tbh. More likely to go back to Italy if and when he does go anywhere.

You can never guarantee a result, but what I would expect to see is us looking in control and dangerous when we get the chances.

It's away from home, Longstaff should stiffen up our midfield and defensive resilience. Makes sense to play him in this one.

Would be funny if they weren't our direct competitors. Not to mention it delights Liverpool.

Nice little end to the evening that. They were 2-0 up when I checked in at half time.

He played in midfield today so in Parish's mind that will have added another £30m to his value.

Nice statement from the club to put that out. I know it's to mark the 3 year anniversary, but it still shows some appreciation of what he's done.

I think our last two games have been our best performances of the season for me, and they were built on being compact and not giving free goals. If we can stop the opposition scoring, I am pretty confident we can find at least one goal ourselves, so I think Eddie will want us at our most disciplined tomorrow, and defending from the front.

Yep, that's why I always think it's not purely about money. Even if you were to take the cynical view that the Saudis bought it for sportswashing, it's still done a lot more effectively with a winning team on the pitch.

I'd be raging if we concede 3 goals tbh. Even 2 would be unacceptable. If we want Europe we have to go to places like Forest and stand firm.

I agree with a lot of that actually, because most of it won't cost a huge amount of money, and might even pay back dividends. The only one I can't get my head around is spending over a billion on a new stadium because from an investment POV I just don't know if an owner today would consider it a good investment. Happy to be told otherwise though. Levy built a new stadium a few years ago, but it came at the cost of investment in the first team iirc. He quite often cited stadium costs as a reason they couldn't spend on players, and that was when they were in the CL.

But it still won't close the gap unless we can compete for the best players so we can build a winning brand. How do you propose to change that?

Don't think they'll be looking forward to playing us like. Of course they'll want promotion, no team doesn't want to be in the PL. But the last thing they'll want is to come up against us when they know they will get a good hiding. They've lived off the Pardew years for a decade until we put them right in the cup.

At least that should prevent us from having to sell young assets to satisfy PSR. Still doesn't seem to be clear just how much we can take the piss with the sponsorship restraints, no one really seems to have given an opinion on it in the press. Or if they have it's still quite cagey.

Agree with this. Yes we can run our club more efficiently than the cartel clubs, but you can't count on that as a long term policy because those clubs are all trying to be best in class in the same departments. That's how Man U poached Dan Ashworth. The only way to close the gap guaranteed is to compete for the best players short term, that will catapult us into the top echelons and get us that brand value. The rest of the stuff like infrastructure will go alongside this because all obstacles to becoming a leading world club will have been removed.

We don't.

No I don't. I think we need removal of FFP/PSR to compete properly. I made it quite clear. All the rest of it, multi-club ownership, new stadium etc, are all still avenues, but they will be looked on as investments. If they can bring some return in an acceptable period, we can pursue those anyway.

As long as those boundaries are wide enough to throw enough money to bridge the gap I don't see why we won't do it. Previously the sponsorship restrictions were a roadblock. If that's an avenue where we can make up the difference, then there will be more incentive for the rest of it.

There's no way any club outside the cartel can bridge the gap without spending like Man City or Chelsea did. PIF do have the means, we won't really know if they have the intent until the legal roadblocks are cleared.

He's obviously a good player, he's looked great for Milan and Italy. It's more a question of whether he fits into our style of play under Howe. It is still early days though, there were promising signs last week against Chelsea when he was played more centrally. If he can't replace Longstaff then we should probably consider selling him and buying a better version of Longstaff.

I said it at the time. I assume it's no big deal to lose a few milion here or there, but it's just more money we won't see down the line. It seems to be a growing concern with players like Trippier, Miggy, Targett and so on. I guess the idea must be they are more valuable than the money and we should write it off basically.

I don't know if we'll be buying the biggest stars immediately, for a start most of them will still prefer established CL clubs. But I do think it will allow us to start competing for the best of the best youngsters who would see an easier path to the first team here than Man City or Liverpool. Eventually, I would imagine the aim is still to be number 1, just we'll do it over a period of a few years.

I probably worded that wrong tbf, they aren't cartel, but they did buy their way into the elite whether the cartel like it or not, same as Chelsea. But I think they are already suffering from a lack of pace in midfield with Rodri gone, I just don't think they'd want Bruno right now.

Don't get me wrong, if PIF want to go ahead with a brand new stadium regardless of our spending restrictions, I'll be delighted. It's not my money. Even so, our best bet is that PSR is brought crashing down. If that happens then I think the sky is the limit, because I am convinced this is a vanity project first and foremost, and if they are allowed to build a winning side, they will throw everything at it.