Unbelievable

Huh? Surely if they are slow it’s because there’s multiple layers of management signoff needed, etc. I.e. a rigid process regardless of urgency or circumstance, for better or worse.

Then what..?

Spot on. We’re also seemingly (more or less) exclusively after players who have stood out at PL level and so competing wilfully against other strong PL clubs. The players in question may also hold out for better offers financially and with more successful clubs. We’re obviously doing this by choice. Hopefully we have a plan B when all/most the players we wanted have gone elsewhere or their clubs are not willing to deal on reasonable terms.

Speculation, but even if so that would be a stupid decision. We can’t afford to forego top talent going for reasonable fees because they want an out in case things don’t work out and a bigger club comes calling. In Dean Huijsen’s case Bournemouth had a very good defender in their ranks and tripled their money inside a year. It was definitely a gamble worth taking at the time. Besides, what’s to say such players don’t come to appreciate our club and may stay for years. After all, we’re a club going places and a great place to play football at the moment. If he’d come here and with us qualifying for CL and winning a cup, there’d be every chance he’d be willing to stay on and perhaps even renegotiate terms. We’d be handicapping ourselves massively if we would insist that players can’t have release clauses.

Who?

I disagree in the sense that I believe we CAN afford to gamble, and therefore I think we should. Our first team is good enough to challenge for top four (evidently since it has done for 3 years) and even much maligned players like Murphy and Burn are worthy first team players who can’t be easily displaced. Then there are players who have had a relatively bad season (Willock, Longstaff, Gordon) who if they stay could improve us if they play to their potential. We have some decent money to play with this summer (let’s assume 100-120m before sales) and we mainly need to strengthen our numbers, although a true injection of quality in some areas wouldn’t go amiss. i therefore personally would prefer us to spend on unproven young players with a high ceiling rather than spend double on proven non-top players with PL experience. Ger Bayayoko instead of Elanga and spend the remaining 30m on midfield cover for example. Likewise I spent much of last summer advocating picking up Huijsen for the reported 15m over chasing Guehi for over four times the money. Most of our first team players are perfectly dependable and we can afford to “gamble” on Lewis Hall like project players who will see us with top players in their mid 20’s or saleable assets in a fee years time, instead of players in their late twenties that we need to be looking to replace sooner or later. We need to bring the average age of the squad down and we need to pad the squad out in multiple positions, so going for “proven expensive” might be a gamble in itself as it might leave us short in numbers still.

No doubt it would improve us, but there is not a single name in that lot that really excites me. I think Trafford and Pedro have the potential to be top players. Elanga I’m not sure is a good fit for what we need, and Guehi I’m far from convinced about. For the outlay of probably around 200m I’d not be overly excited. Not that I think we have anything like that amount to spend anyway.

Remarkably unimaginative and, I imagine, expensive

Source?

I honestly don’t think AC9’s career would have panned out the same way had he stayed with us. He was playing for the shirt and unplayable due to his physical attributes. Could have become a club legend imo. Shame that Ashley pushed him out.

What happened in the 16 years after perhaps? I could have guessed you’d missed those the way you go on about the new owners without any awareness of what preceded them.

Counting the four Saudi clubs as a bigger priority, each no less. I’ve heard it all now

I'd say it's fair to include the purchase price in a statement like "they've spent X amount on us". I don't know where the £338m mentioned comes from, but I'd be amazed if it e.g. included sponsorship money they have brought in through related parties like Sela, Noon and Saudia. All told I'd say they (the owners combined) have invested well over half a billion in us and probably closer to 750m. By my definition that's the best part of a billion, and it's only the beginning too. Are people seriously suggesting our owners haven't invested enough? Quite what were you expecting post Ashley if I may ask?

No you did not. If that's what you would have said not too many would have disagreed. It's blatantly obvious their 2034 World Cup bid was their main priority and set the whole football thing off for them. Then their own league is probably their second priority as it directly affects their key stakeholders. We are in the end "just" one of their many investments, albeit a high profile one even their top brass have taken a particular personal interest in. What you did say to start this whole thing off though was: Which in my opinion is just pure nonsense. There is no lack of ambition or acumen on the side of our owners and we are firmly among their top priorities in football, which is obviously also a main priority for them as a whole. To suggest otherwise is simply ignorant or disingenuous. They have spent the best part of a billion on us and in doing so have elevated us from also rans to competing for trophies and CL qualification as the norm, and this is only the start. They are preparing massive investment in our infrastructure and it's entirely plausible that if it were not for rules put in place by the PL to hinder our progression they would have invested much more on the playing side already. I just don't understand this constant nagging every time they do something that does not align 100% with the insular NUFC interest. They have many more interests to serve than only their NE1 one. I can't believe that still needs explaining over three years into their ownership.