TRon

That's why the Phillips signing might be the important one in this window. We have no sort of midfield to compete for Europe as it stands.

First thing that came to my mind as well. Graeme Souness levels of hope over good sense.

Ironically it's the rest of the squad which is far more replaceable, but not many clubs will give us money for them because they aren't that valuable. Those comparing us with Man City in the early years might want to think about that. After they bought Toure, did they then have to think " Ooh we better sell him quick so we can afford to buy other players".

It's actually the right way to grow a club, I agree with it 100%...if everyone was on a level playing field. But thanks to the way FFP has been structured, and PL rules keep getting amended, it's obviously worked out great for the clubs who have already done their spending years ago and have monopolised the CL positions as a result.

If any player flops you would struggle to get your money back for them, that's the same for any club. At this point we don't even know if he will flop or go on to be a future superstar. The real blot on our copybook was buying a player who has since been found to be indulging in illegal betting rings.

Not every transfer is going to be perfect, we will make mistakes like every other club. We got caught out by the undisclosed gambling scandal around Tonali, whether that was lack of due diligence or just bad timing is not really clear. But he could still turn out to be a good investment, at worst because of his age we would probably get our money back if he doesn't work out. The real problem is we didn't have enough cover in midfield once he was banned, and even if we sign a replacement this month, it's already cost us the CL and the Carabao Cup. The season has been badly impacted by our restrictions on spending money. Long term that might work out more profitable, but other teams with years of spending behind them are just pulling further ahead.

So what? It's not our money, and the Saudis don't seem to have any problem doing it for their own league. Again, I'd rather sign a 25 year old, the real point here is we aren't allowed to buy the players we need to right now because of restrictions put on us from outside.

It's the principle rather than the exact £ amount or the exact age. I don't particularly want to buy 30 year olds for £20m but being able to do it if it would make the difference just because we don't give a shit about the money would be nice. At the moment we are restricted to buying promising full backs for £40m in the hope they will go on to increase in value and it's impacting what we can do in the present. Again, I am very happy with the signings we made, but we clearly lost out on other targets like Diaby for example, because we couldn't afford to sign all the players we needed to address our weaknesses.

It would be nice to sign a £20m 30 year old who is already an established star in a position we need, just because we can afford it without worrying about the sell on fee. That's how Man City became perennial CL stalwarts within a couple of years.

I prefer having players who can come on and get a goal or make one off the bench. For that reason I like Miggy better starting and then being replaced by an impact player off the bench if we need a goal. Miggy's best work is defending so at best he could be brought on to defend a lead.

I'm ambivalent on this one. I like him as a player, but he's only started scoring goals this season. I'd be wary of buying him when he's hit form and then finding he can't sustain it season after season. Think of a similar scenario if we'd put Miggy for sale after he scored 11 goals last season. That would have been the biggest fee we would have commanded for him based on one blinding season.

It's ridiculous that we are allegedly the richest club in the world and we have to sell players we don't want to in order to fund investment to reflect our our actual buying power. I can't think of any other industry where you have to perform such financial gymnastics just to keep less wealthy competitors happy.

I could see that tbh, at that price it's probably worth a punt. But a forward lives or dies by his goals at the end of the day, will be interesting to see how that pans out. Fair play to Ange for backing his own judgement though.

Probably best just to lower expectations of this game all things considered. A full strength Newcastle side can give City a game any day of the week, one with a severely weakened mdifield is unlikely to cope. It's a game we might have lost anyway, we need to make the points up against the lesser sides once our players return from injury.

He looks a decent footballer, but the lack of pace will kill any top level interest in him. Tripper who's struggled against it over the last month or so had an easy time keeping Clarke in his pocket.

Tbh I think if we can get Phillips that would cover our major concern for the rest of the season. We don't really have a natural no 6, and you would think he would plug some gaps defensively we've seen this season. Barnes and Murphy should be back this month and that gives us more wide options. Another striker would be ideal but I don't think it will happen.

Come to think of it, it often felt like Bruce was taking a dump in the dugout in a metaphorical sense.

He couldn't even keep a neutral face on the pitch let alone look happy. You'd think Bruce was taking a dump in the dugout the sheer disgust on Schar's face when he looked at him.

They seem to value them more than their new manager does.

This and the Isaac Hayden thread being bumped hasn't exactly started the new year with a bang. One of those days when you half wish the site was down.

In every way.

It's not a very long list tbf.

Well that does speak to how highly valued he is from a neutral POV. Obviously there is more attachment from the fans because of the local connection, but ultimately it's what you do on the pitch which makes other teams willing to throw big money for your players.

I don't for one minute think Howe would sell a homegrown player, but if you look at it dispassionately, it makes sense for just that reason. His sale would generate plenty of income to make much bigger signings. At some point we'll have to make hard decisions if we want to stay a CL club.

I'm hoping the Kalvin Phillips talk will materialise into our midfield signing for this winter. Don't even want to think about Henderson unless I'm forced to.