TRon

Where would they build this new stadium? Isn't there already a census of some sort being carried out gathering opinion of whether fans would be on board with moving to a new stadium? I think this is already in progress.

I think his contract situation needs sorted if it expires in 2026. If Guehi's value drops with every window, so does Gordon's with only 2 years left. He needs to be offered a new deal on wages to reflect his current status.

From the Mail article: --------------------------------------------------------- Palace didn't budge on their price. Newcastle didn't fold. Palace's valuation may have seemed excessive. But at the very heart of the club's sky-high valuation was the player's refusal to push for a move. If Guehi had made clear he wanted to leave then chances are that he would be a Newcastle player today for a fee less than £75million. --------------------------------------------------------- Now that might be journalistic bullshit, but was something I was questioning previously in this thread even before it went to print. It's just an opinion, you don't have to agree with it. But I doubt very much if he'll end up here now, just think with each window his price drops and cartel clubs will jump in.

The only way he backs Howe over Eales or Mitchell is if he thinks they were both poor appointments. PIF have brought in all appointments including Howe because they were the best they could get after fairly extensive research. I would think he'll want all of them on board doing what they were hired for.

He was interested but hardly had his heart set on it, or he'd be here.

That strategy is not going to work though, unless PSR is blown out of the water. Unless we can keep buying top class players and spending hundreds of millions net without selling basically. What we've done last couple of windows is attempt to add whatever quality we can and keep our purples, which is the right thing to do as it stands. But will that give us a club which gets CL this season? I don't think so personally, I think we are a couple of players short. So as another season goes without either a trophy or CL, our top players will get itchy feet and we might end up selling anyway before we assemble a squad equal to the cartel clubs.

It means he wasn't that set on it either. It was said a few times in the last couple of weeks in the transfer window that he needed to push a bit more, but he never did. That's not a criticism, you can perfectly understand why he was open to everything but committed to nothing. For me though, I always thought that meant he would end up at Liverpool or another cartel club once the price starts dropping. Look elsewhere.

It's The Sun, a red top tabloid. Shit stirring is part of their sales strategy.

It did reinforce the point that if Guehi had pushed for the move the deal would have been done. He really wasn't that fussed, probably happy to come if the deal was agreed, equally happy to sit on his contract running down, knowing he'll get a bigger payoff the closer it gets to expiring.

I think if there are any problems, it will be that Howe very much likes to do things his way. Would Mitchell employ Howe's nephew for example in whatever capacity he's currently employed? Eddie might trust him, maybe he's really good at his job - but Mitchell will surely want his own people in who will be familiar with his methods. The only way this works is if Howe accepts MItchell's recruitment model. That's what he's been hired for.

If you think about it, maybe it's a gravy train for PL officials as well. Just imagine the amount of pen pushers needed at their headquarters gainfully employed to sift through all that shit. It's the gift that keeps on giving ( to themselves).

That's a fair assumption since it may well be Howe prefers his own people to source his players and doesn't want Mitchell to bring in his own team. I can imagine that could cause some friction, and Howe already alluded to this in his early interview when Stavely and Ghodussi left about how important it was for him to be happy and supported in the job.

Maybe all of that is true though, it's not necessarily blame delegating. As a new DOF without any previous foundation his job was to go with the plans already in place.

I don't know where we are with the multi club option or if we are even pursuing it. So not much point in me giving an opinion on it.

Agreed. I am not that going to get involved in a Mitchell vs Howe debate, it's already descending into "this guy comes across as a snake oil salesmen" kind of talk. Howe was recruited to do a job, Mitchell has been recruited to do a job. Let them get on with it. Personally I just don't think the old method of letting the manager control recruitment works in the modern era. He obviously has to have input, but if the manager leaves and you get a new man in, suddenly all the players brought in become useless - unless they are valuable in their own right. That's where recruitment has worked so well at Brighton, and that has NOT been geared around the manager's needs.

Our interest in Elanga was something prior to Mitchell arriving, the alleged £50m bid this summer wasn't confirmed.

Can Howe keep achieving with this team unless we buy players who appreciate in value though? How do we replace Longstaff, Almiron, Krafth, Burn, Targett, Schar and so on, which at some point we need to do, I think that's evident.

Abu Dhabi and Roman got all their spending done and won plenty before the charges could be brought. That put them in a position of power which we simply aren't in. They are on an equal footing with the cartel clubs already now, and I would argue Chelsea are already one of them anyway. Perhaps them selling hotels to themselves and getting away with it will see us now making similar moves. We don't know what agreements we had in place with the PL before they rubber stamped the takeover, but could well be there was some tacit agreement we would play by their rule book. Without knowing the facts it's all speculation.

I don't think we can criticise our previous spending too much, we had pretty good returns on the pitch on the back of it. But the cold hard facts are we can't continue that road indefinitely because basically we'll end up buying no one as those players will leave for nothing at the end of their contracts, and we'll not be able to spend big again to replace them. Just look at our last couple of transfer windows.

He's basically said he was bidding for Guehi because he was working within our current parameters as he'd only been in the job for 7 weeks and trying to deliver the player Howe wanted.

I think there will be some friction because it's pretty much common knowledge that Howe likes PL ready players, and he trusts his current scouting team to provide him with what he's looking for. His job is judged by results on the pitch not profits and losses, so that's totally understandable. Mitchell's remit is different, he has to buy players who will prove an asset further down the line and won't lose value. For that he wants to be able to cast a wider net, and presumably that's what has got him success at previous clubs. Ultimately I think Howe will have to work with this as the PL's FFP/PSR rules make it pretty much mandatory to generate profit or spend less every year. To put it bluntly, I hope Howe will be able to compromise on this as all clubs are going to have to operate this way unless the PSR restrictions are challenged and removed.

You have not really addressed the major issue which I outlined though. PIF don't have many friends in British football, there is understandable caution in breaking rules as we are more likely to have the book thrown at us by the PL than other clubs. Citing Chelsea doesn't really prove anything as they are one of the cartel clubs who the PL is beholden to. Leicester fair enough, but given how hard PIF fought to get the PL to rubber stamp their takeover (after govt pressure) you can hardly blame them for waiting for precedence before challenging the PL themselves.

I don't think it would need to be much of an offer either, he'll probably stay for relatively low wages. I don't think he wants to move, and it's not like there will be a queue of attractive clubs chucking big money at him.

Which is why I hope we don't go back there in January unless we KNOW Guehi wants to come here. The cartel clubs will be waiting for his price to drop, then they'll wait until Parish comes to them cap in hand requesting they give him an audience for around £45-50m. Our chance of getting him was always to pay a premium, and while it might still be possible in January, it would be dumb to make the same mistakes again.

What motivation is for them to circumvent those barriers? The PL laws will be written in such a way that the interpretation is probably left up to their own officials. To challenge them would mean taking them to court, and this is an ownership which doesn't have many friends in British football. PIF need to work with the PL as much as viable, and unfortunately, the running of the PL is dictated by the cartel clubs.