TRon

Look on the bright side. If this one falls through at least no one will be throwing themselves off the Tyne Bridge. (I hope...)

Pretty sure Suarez did the same thing with Liverpool but they told Barecelona to fuck off until they got the deal they wanted.

He'll face the same issues as Mitchell though, if we are signing from a small pool of players, we'll be going up against the cartel every time. Hopefully we can get the timing a bit better next time round. Trafford for example was there for the taking last summer.

How is it vengeful to expect Liverpool to pay a proper price? Do you think if they offered £160m we don't accept it? Look at what they are offering man. They are openly taking the piss.

We aren't navigating it any better now that Eales has stepped aside though. Maybe it can be done, maybe it can't. I don't know which other clubs have done it successfully, but I don't use Chelsea as a comparison because being a cartel club, that automatically puts them in a tier above which means they have more options. Which other clubs have done it? Forest or Villa? How did that work out for them?

Do Liverpool look like they are getting ready to offer what he is worth to you? They are using him to try and lowball us. That is getting butt-fucked. If being owned by PIF means anything it should mean we let him rot on the bench for a month if we have to. That is what sends a real message to the rest of our squad that we are not to be fucked with.

Selling now because Liverpool are lowballing us and trying to pressure us into selling for less than he's worth? How is that not getting butt-fucked? How about telling them fuck off, he's not for sale at ANY price?

Your plan sounds more like bending over and getting butt-fucked to me tbh.

I trust Eddie's judgement on this one. I don't trust the recruitment team to get it done however, so not going to get too worked up about it when it falls through.

It's unfortunate given we were ready to spend big this summer, but as our interim player acquisition team is finding out, going up against the cartel is not a fair fight. We need the specialists to stay one step ahead in the PSR snakepit designed to keep us down.

There's a compromise here which we'll eventually settle on IMO. Give him a hefty pay rise with a release clause of £150m in a year's time. Both parties win.

Whether you liked him or not, of course he was right that we can't beat the cartel in a pissing contest. It's the definition of taking a knife to a gunfight.

Hmm...just hit the last page button and bam! I think I'll probably have to go back a few posts for some context.

Honestly we do need some level headed views to be posted on here which might align us to Howe's thinking. What surprises me most is how it's Eddie's biggest fans who kick off the most about these moves.

This is the sort of boardroom thinking that is probably taking place. It will be a level above most of the hysteria we see from fans on social media.

I think he gets over hammered tbh, don't think he's as bad as people make out. But at the same time I thought he was about 23 not 27.

Fuck me, I hope that's not true.

Which is why I think the easiest option is just to say "In Howe we trust"

Well yeah obviously money is the biggest factor. That's why the PL brought in rules specifically to stop us using ours.

By all accounts he's still employed at the club. I don't know how if Mitchell has left and it was actually Eales who was the one suffering ill health. Don't want to diss on a man in his condition, but he has been a disastrous appointment. Most of our problems stem to this decision.

I would tend to agree tbh, but it's Howe's call. You have to just assume he knows better than us.

I think this might be our strategy right now tbh, hold onto our assets until we have the structure in place to deal with all this.

They are following Howe's instructions.

Not too fussed tbh, he's not what we wanted but still probably a lot better than people are claiming on here.