stozo

I’m going to sleep and dreaming of Europe (and in my dreams Bruno lifts the Champions League). Goodnight my friend.

I didn’t even watch the match tonight but having spent a very many hours watching messrs Xisco, Rivière, de Jong et al. play for Newcastle over very many years I am willing to bet that Bruno in a 2-1 home win against a mid-table side was not ‘crap’.

After careful reflection I’ll give Bruno a pass on tonight after scoring the winner in our last PL game and then becoming the first Captain to lift a domestic trophy on 70 years.

Absolutely chuffed for the bloke.

Apologies, I meant domestic trophy!

I'm happy to take that risk. I've seen us win 432 Premier League games so far - but not seen us win a trophy yet. I can wait an extra week or two for win number 433 in the Premier League, if it gets us our first trophy in 70 years.

Ideal XI: Pope, Trippier, Krafth, Burn, Targett, Miley, Longstaff, Willock, Osula, Barnes and Wilson. It won't happen but personally I'd gamble on giving Schar, Botman, Tino, Bruno, Tonali, Joelinton, Murphy and Isak the week off in the hope they'll be really fresh for the cup final.

You've got to presume we won't go up from here but lots to play for from a broader table perspective. And we're already at the stage where you assume we are going to very likely finish above three sides (Sheff U, Blackburn and Southampton) who were already well established in this division. Loads still to work on in terms of the progression of the team but I think we can pleased we've done a decent job this year - and a bright future ahead.

The problem is though that with PSR the ramifications of getting into Europe are not huge. Conference League generates only low millions, Europe League a bit better but really to feel a positive financial impact you need Champions League. So the question becomes do you gamble for the Champions League and accept you're in a mess if you miss, or be more conservative and see how the season plays out. It seems we've decided the latter, and after the mess we got ourselves in last Summer, I am OK with that.

I mean the logical move (impact on this season aside) is both. The money for Duran is flat out insane and this is the last chance they’ll get to get £50m+ for Watkins. The money that would release for Villa to spend in the Summer would be pretty exciting for them.

Have said it before in this thread but the pool of clubs who are professional & have a good standard of coaching in countries where he’d qualify for a work permit is very small.

Who knows what the case is but I actually suspect he'll happily move for the right deal. Sadly for us, to avoid booking a PSR loss that means finding someone to pay circa. £16m (assuming he's amortised some of his fee over the half season) to buy him. And if he doesn't fancy Saudi (which it sounds like he doesn't) then we are not getting that from anyone else. Which means he'll holdout for the next 6 months and then we'll likely have to loan him somewhere (probably covering a % of his wages) to cut our losses in a way that doesn't harm out PSR position too much. He'll be at Panathinaikos or back in Portugal in the Summer, it's just we'll have a problem on our hands for the next 2/3 years. But we made our PSR bed, and now we are lying in it.

The problem is when you get under 24 hours from breaching FFP and getting a points deduction, you have no negotiating power. Forest obviously knew he was a dud and saw us as their ticket to get rid of him.

I’ll take the other side and say we should win easily today. Bournemouth are not far off a Spurs level injury crisis, to the point where Jebbison (who has been recalled from his Sheffield United loan) will probably be the only outfield player on the bench who you can call senior (unless there is a surprise return). They only made two subs in the week (one of which was forced) and I imagine they’ll fade in the second half (as they did against Chelsea).

9 points off top if we win tomorrow, followed by a home game and playing the bottom side. Are we...in the title race?...