TRon

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

CL qualification helps, would be daft to think it doesn't. But being a cartel club helps more. It's simple enough really.

That's why fans opinions need to be taken with a pinch of salt tbh. Complaining is the easy part, finding a solution is why you hire experts. Paying more money when you have rules specifically preventing you from doing so is a good example of the difference when the rubber meets the road.

Our success in the transfer market is a double edged sword in this regard. Rivals are probably looking at our targets then jumping in on the back of it. Not the worst strategy when you think about it.

Just because in England fans are laughing at them, doesn't mean they aren't big hitters abroad. Kids in the east, and probably Europe as well will still buy a Man U shirt over a Newcastle one. You don't see that?

Those are the ones Howe wants though. I imagine the board are trying to persuade players to come in while still staying within PSR guidelines, then cartel clubs are coming and offering similar or better terms and getting it done. That was the whole point of PSR.

That's not how a starry eyed player will think unfortunately.

That's because other teams didn't throw their hats in the ring.

And more pull because they are associated with success over the last half century while we aren't.

That's why it's imperative to hold onto Isak unless we get enough money to pay over the top prices for lesser players.

Fuck all. From his own words there's a very small pool of players we are interested in, if the cartel clubs are also chasing them, then it's living in cloud cuckoo land to expect to land those players on less wages and with less pull than the glamour clubs. Only way to do it is to blow them out of the water by kicking PSR to the curb. Is that realistic?

Fans are always pessimistic, but in reality bigger wages and bigger legacy usually wins through. He'll be disappointed not to play CL but he'll figure it's only one season.

This is why those people who think we need to capitulate to Liverpool on Isak are bending too quickly. £80m for Jackson and £120m for Isak FFS.

Yes, and it's a ridiculously expensive deal, which is why there's no way we let Isak go to Liverpool unless they cough up seriously big money.

I am assuming we don't sell Isak unless we get two strikers of an acceptable quality.

I really hope this one has not been ruled out yet. I don't really trust the Sesko links, this one feels more doable, even if it drags on longer than we'd like.

It's about the message it sends to the rest of the squad. If they see the leadership hold firm that will give them confidence in the project they've been sold. It's a terrible message to let Isak go to one of our rivals because we feel we can't match up to them. It's about more than the player for me, it's about PIF's intent around the club. I get that Howe might not prefer to keep an unhappy player around, but I think he will be on board with the bigger vision as well. I doubt he wants to be seen as second best to anyone.

It might be smoke and mirrors while we seal the Wissa deal instead.

The other side of that is if we don't sell Isak to Liverpool, then sign Sesko or Wissa, that leaves them with an unproven stringbean striker in Ekitike, while we will have two powerhouse strikers on our books. We don't have to take any L, we hold the whip hand here. We can just refuse to sell Isak and that's the end of it.

Don't know why we aren't doing more deals like this in the first place. I imagined this was Mitchell's forte before it all went tits up.

£120m would be a shit deal when Liverpool spent £116m on Wirtz. Jacobis or whatever his name is, is not the only one who makes a call on this. I reckon there's no way we capitulate for that price so let's see who's right.

If we could somehow get the Sesko deal done while Man U are still out of the picture, that pulls this window out of the fire. Imagine we keep Isak as well then Liverpool have to come up against us at St James with only flaky Ekitike as their big gun. Tables turned!

Ouch! Difficlut to unsee that now.

By that logic even selling for £90m would be a great deal. These are all speculative scenarios in your own head at the end of the day. Maybe you could be right. I would say probably not.

How much for?