Unbelievable

His goal scoring record is kind of baffling. 11 in 5 at U23 level, 19 in 9 at U21 level and then at senior level 2 in 16 in League One and 0 in 28 across Championship and PL, even accounting for most of those appearances being as a sub. I realise the overall level of defending at academy level will be lower, but to go from scoring a brace every game on average to hardly scoring at all at senior level is odd. I think his youth level scoring record shows he can be a good finisher, and based of the clips he seems a good striker of the ball with both feet, so it may just be a matter of building his confidence up, training with better coaches and playing with better team mates that could lead to him unlocking his potential. He couldn't have found a better environment to come to and develop, although bar another horrific injury crisis I don't expect we will see much of him in the first season, maybe the odd minute here or there and a runout in a cup game vs lower league opposition.

Squint and could think you're looking at an Isak clip

And we shouldn’t. These investments should easily get a decent return (on average), and there might be the odd long terms first team player between them. I’d rather we focus on academy signings than pad out the first team if the players we really want are not available. Also wages for those players won’t increase our cost level too much, which is where our PSR problem comes from at the moment (cost).

His goal scoring record at U21 and U23 level is pretty damn good like Hopefully under Howe’s coaching that can be replicated at a (much) higher level.

Two footed, direct, confident. A lot to work with there.

Think this is a clear sign that Callum is staying tbh. Doubt we'd get much interest after his latest injury

And what if I think it was a mistake not to play him earlier? Are we not allowed to highlight areas where we think Howe could perhaps have done better?

"Just" playing in Europe isn't going to cut it if we want to make inroads in the "top six" and eventually topple them. If we are going to significantly grow commercial revenue under our own steam we need to compete in the latter stages of the PL and CL regularly, as well as have on our roster some instantly recognisable and highly thought of players. In short, we need to overachieve vs our competitors. Thankfully I think we have the ownership, management and a foundation of players to be able to do that, but it sure as hell won't be easy.

Ensuring you get the best bang for your buck and success on the pitch go hand in hand of course. Financially speaking we cannot structurally compete with the "top six" yet, and I agree success on the pitch will help raise our profile and with that increase our commercial income, but in order to be able to overachieve on the pitch we need to make every signing and sale count. As Stavely said, we cannot afford (m)any mistakes,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but would that not only affect the PSR situation from the moment of signing the extension as opposed to the whole financial year just closed? Could have been done in January assuming he was willing to entertain the idea, and perhaps still could have helped a bit, but probably not as much as you might think (assuming 40m on 3,5 year is 11.4m amortisation + 3.1m wages per year = 14.5m old situation to let's say 40m on 5 year is 8m amortisation = 6m in wages = 14m for an increase of 60k to 120k in line with Isak's contract as an example). Plus in that scenario we'd obviously also increased our cost level for this year and years coming up. Keeping our best players by rewarding them with better deals they may deserve is probably going to prevent us from bringing in players while our revenue is as low as it is, isn't it..?

This is massive. I think we're going to hang on to him this summer (unless a stupid offer comes in), but you could say we're taking quite a risk. Imagine he gets a bad injury this year and spends most of it on the sidelines. We'd be going into next summer transfer window with a depreciated asset on his last year of contract, unless he was willing to commit to us long term before then. Realistically if an offer we can't refuse does come in we are going to have to consider if we are willing to take such a risk, or go for certainty and take one step back to take two steps forward.

Cards on the table is not going to test our resolve. 100m+ might.

If it’s just for Japan I imagine it’s under 1m and therefore exempt of ratification

That the same geezer as we've been discussing the five previous transfer windows since the takeover. Good player him. Sadly never available.

Agreed, newish member who is always disagreeing without ever offering any analysis or thought and is clearly on the wind up. Guess I've found my first ignore list member in 20 years on the forum.

That one argument was. Why are you in here re-hashing old arguments while at the same time criticising people for posting in here?

Comparing a club potentially coming to regret letting a youngster go to a club having let a player go and probably regretting it is not the same as comparing two players and concluding they are of similar quality though is it?

In fairness Madueke has looked more impressive playing for PSV before his Chelsea move than Minteh has done for Feyenoord last season. I reckon Madueke at 40m is decent value considering his age and experience.

Decent runout

Lewis Hall is taking the piss here

Stayed home with a small injury

Livra doesn't look up to speed

Murphy is some RW like

Brilliant work from Willock