Memphis

Trippier has been awful. All the things people have said about Trent Alexander-Arnold this year apply to Trippier but even moreso...

Bringing back all the wrong memories here

Bruno's red card has proven to be a major turning point for us.

Wasn't handball. Off the chest. Uncharacteristic from us, bad defending, no one tracked Nuñez coming in from the left, big gap between the CBs

He is incredibly professional. Incredibly driven. Incredibly detail-oriented. Pivotal. Has been almost perfect.

That second goal was absolutely off the charts gorgeous. Prime Barcelona stuff. I just can't believe this is Newcastle United now. Amazing.

We're in a weird spot. I agree that it's risky not to replace Shelvey but I'd argue that it's equally risky to replace him just for the sake of doing it. If we can get one of our targets now, then we need to go ahead and do it, even if it was originally to be a summer move. Otherwise, given what should be a lighter fixture load for the last few months, it's not crazy to think we can handle it with our squad as is. We're not at Shefki Kuqi levels here.

This was from 2019. Look how far we've come. Soundtrack of a porn film, camera work of a glaucoma patient.

I think at this point you have to assume Gallagher will be sold, not loaned, sooner rather than later. His sale, sadly, can easily make up much of the insane Enzo fee since he's homegrown. And besides, when would he ever play for Chelsea again? He needs to leave for his career.

Enzo about to sign a 15 year contract with Chelsea for FFP purposes

I suppose this shows the power of good club media/presentations - and, to be fair, Gordon's personality... ...but I've never had this quick of a change of heart on a player. I'm so impressed with his demeanor and the way he handled himself with all the players. Fuck it, I'm all in.

I'd be pleased with Gallagher on a loan with an option to buy - but less pleased with an obligation to buy. In the summer, we'll have a better idea of our financial position and whether or not we'll be in Europe next season, and can plan accordingly. He may well prove to be worth something close to 40m compared with other options. Or perhaps not. We'd be able to decide.

I was watching the press conference and here is Howe's full quote on Gordon's best position: "On either wing, I see being his primary position but he can play as a number 10 or number 9. He's done that this season for Everton. So he gives us that flexibility with Chris's absence that we now feel we have strength in numbers in the forward positions." He clearly sees him as a Wood replacement, not like-for-like, but in terms of his ability to play in that forward position.

I wish he would at least do rhyming couplets or some Nostradamus quatrains A young man from the league of one with brother and father of note Once thought himself too good for the club yet reality will strike soon The truth is on the dotted line but the bald-headed scribe knows nowt Follow the skies as the whirling metal bird carries the future

I don't know what I expected him to sound like but that interview was one of the better introductory ones I've seen from us, including the questions. I'm warming to the signing a bit more. Has a lot to prove but I'm very intrigued to see how it goes from here.

Apart from Ornstein, who is their transfers/breaking news lead, The Athletic tends to want their writers to write more detailed, nuanced pieces. They're not trying to sell daily papers, they're trying to sell long-term subscriptions. So they tend to want analysis pieces, interviews, profiles, etc. rather than strictly news stories. I say this with some experience as I used to write for them here in the States. It is a little different for the UK department, of course, but the overall culture is similar. The remit at the Athletic is quite different than in other places I wrote. I'd judge them differently, as they're not trying to break news, especially on individual transfers. And they generally don't.

That's correct. Doesn't matter for FFP purposes how we pay Everton, only the length of player contract matters.

Not yet. Supposedly will happen this summer but whatever we do now is still fine.

REMINDER - you cannot know what it means for our FFP situation without knowing the contract length. 5 year deal - 8m/yr in FFP 6 year deal - 6.7m/yr 7 year deal - 5.7m/yr 8 year deal - 5m/yr Wait until we see the contract to know for sure.

If he signs a 5 year contract, it's 8m of FFP cost per season. Reasonable enough for a young English player. I do trust Howe to get the most out of him and I'd suspect that Ashworth et al do too, that's why he's coming in.

We will sign Anthony Gordon unless we don't and he's going to be the only one in unless he isn't.

The state of this headline...

Purely based on my interpretation of what has been said and written about this window, it seems to me that there's a mild disagreement between Howe and Ashworth/PIF about the necessity of signings this window - outside of replacing Wood, that is. It's a tricky dilemma because obviously finishing Top 4 would be a gamechanger for the project, but would anything realistic we do this window make a substantial difference in that pursuit? Perhaps from Ashworth's perspective, the answer is no...because outside of an obviously incredible signing, which I've no doubt we would do, it's hard to make the argument in his mind that a single player (or two) will be the difference between 4th and 5th. And until we have the certainty of improved revenues, that signing represents a higher FFP risk for us. In the summer, everything changes. Different market, different planning, different FFP calculation due to new commercial deals coming on board. Howe clearly wants some fresh faces. And personally, I would argue that fatigue is starting to set in and we're going to have to be careful about squad fitness. I think signings would be valuable. But it's hard even for me to make the argument that the names mentioned would make a vital difference in our league position come May.

No, selling homegrown players is what's excellent for FFP. Chelsea selling Conor Gallagher would be pure FFP profit, as they developed him. So if they sold him for 40m, all of that goes back into the accounts as profit - there's no other transfer fee amortized to deal with. FFP allows teams to amortize - or stretch out - the transfer fee over the life of the signed contract, which is why Chelsea are signing players to 7 and 8 year contracts. 80m for Mudryk divided by 8 years equals 10m per year of FFP cost. But selling Gallagher gives them an immediate 40m credit. So it's almost a cheat code allowing them to sign multiple expensive players and not have it cost against them on the FFP books, at least not this season or next.

It's fascinating to watch the other journalists feel compelled to follow whenever someone tweets out an "update" on the story...someone tweets out that the move is close, three others jump in and "confirm" they're hearing the same thing. Then something changes, and those same journalists "confirm" that, too. Edwards, Douglas, Jacobs all tweeting the same thing. So that means they're talking to the same source. Or one is and the others are just trying to keep up. That source is probably not us. All of that is to say no one knows anything about what we're doing. They have to update something for their jobs, and people salivate over all of it, but at least from our club end, there is no concrete info getting out. At this point I have no clue whether or not we'll sign Gordon. I'm not the only one, it seems.