TRon

Yes. It's called finishing in the top 4 of the PL.

But we just qualified with what we had, and clubs like Chelsea went the other way by doing exactly what you said we should have done. I think this just proves there are very rarely shortcut solutions these days.

Saw that interview and it's fairly obvious that he wants to be part of what's happening here next season. I think Eddie has already come out and said there'll be very few leaving of the current first team squad unless they want to go, so why would we sell him? With a CL campaign coming up, we'll need all our purples. it will be the fringe players like Hayden and Hendrick who will be encouraged to leave.

Isn't that because we just outsource some jobs like call centres and manufacturing to third world countries rather than pay the going rate here?

I could imagine McTominay might have been an option if we were playing in the lesser EUFA competition. I can also imagine that if we qualified for the CL then we might upgrade to higher level transfer targets. This debate could be raging on the basis of absolutely fuck all tbh.

Funny I was thinking about this today, on hearing someone describing low value jobs vs high value jobs which require more intelligence. The point he was making was that many labourer jobs are menial, so get less pay, but does that make them low value? A high rank solicitor or a surgeon can earn plenty more than the average Joe on account of his skills, but he would still need his roof tiles replaced, or his drains cleared. Or do they do that stuff themselves? I have always been drawn to the socialist models in other countries where there was at least the idea of equality, although I can see where these have maybe led to less growth because there's less incentive for change than there is in the capitalist system.

The colours work well, but there seems to be a bit too much going on with the logo itself, it's all a bit disjointed.

Gordon looks like he's got some pace and skill about him. Not sure about the end product yet, but he's shown enough flashes for me to think there might be a player there. McTominay I'm not even sure what his position is. He just seems to be a gangly big player who puts himself about a bit without much finesse. Presumably that's why Ten Hag is happy to ship him out.

I do agree with this post generally. Man U still seem to be in something of a transition period, they have not really beaten many teams convincingly, quite often they seem to have sneaked a win by the odd goal. I suppose it shows that Ten Hag has them well organised at least. But even though Liverpool have had a car crash of a season, I was always more worried about them going on a streak of wins than I was of Man U. As it is, we'll probably end up ceding 3rd place to them on the back of losing our shooting boots against Leicester, but it doesn't feel like there's THAT much between us and them now.

I don't watch Man U that often but I was impressed by Martinez on the couple of times I've watched him. Might not be the tallest, but he looks like a really tenacious defender.

It's precisely why we won't go down that route. The cartel and their media friends are just itching to stop Newcastle crashing the party. It must be infuriating them that PIF have barely given them a sniff to date.

Questions over fitness as well maybe? Don't know how his availability has been for City since I don't watch them regularly, but he missed a lot of games for Leeds in the Premier.

The Fellaini comparison is a pretty good one tbh. He wasn't that good technically either, but he was big and physical, and he got some goals.

I always thought the "realistic" meant players we actually had a good chance of signing, so those reported in the press would be deemed more realistic, and the rumours thread would be more of a poster wishlist. Guess it just depends on your interpretation of realistic.

Add Maddison to that. Rumours that at least two of them in Tierney and Maddison are already agreed, at least if you give any credence on what gets posted here.

Those talking about CL money being pro rata depending on the ranking of the team are missing this bit. The sponsorship deals we'll be able to negotiate on the back of CL exposure will multiply exponentially. Thats' what will bring the real money, and of course everything that goes with an expanding fan base.

I would just merge the transfer threads tbh, everything's realistic now.

Isak and ASM have looked pretty tasty in the times they've been put together on the team, you just get the feeling Isak is the type of striker Maxi just loves to work with.

So have a few others tbh, this squad have given everything, that's why I only see fringe players leaving.

He'll be pissed he didn't squeeze out an extra hundred mil for the asking price now. The club will be worth double what he sold it for now, and that's being conservative.

This is what I was thinking as well. Not sure it's that easy to pick up genuine quality anywhere, everyone seems to be after the same players. Just got to look at the fees being quoted for Szoboszlai, a player I'd never heard of prior to last week. Obviously it can be done, Brighton have been doing it for years now, but their structured for it, and it takes time to set in place.

After watching our bore draws with Palace and Bournemouth when they played that way, I wasn't looking forward to playing Leeds last week after Sam rocked up there. Same yesterday when Dean Smith decided that was the way to go. We do struggle against the low block, but it was more bad finishing than anything else last night, we should have won 3-0 I reckon.

Didn't realise how good a save it was until I saw the replay, it happened so fast. Not only that, but Schar had his wits about him to clean up the rebound. Fucking hell, we came so close to a tragic ending there, no two ways about it.

I thought we'd missed out on a fairytale takeover season with a happy ending last season. Could never imagine we'd get a better story than that, but here we are.

Well I was assuming whoever buys him will negotiate the fee and the wages down a bit, but if there's clubs out there willing to pay him 200k/week I guess that does rule us out. I just assumed we'd be competing with anyone once we established CL football, but maybe it is too early for that yet.