Unbelievable

Hazard, Countinho, Hleb, Woodgate, Anelka... All moved from PL to La Liga and flopped hard. Does that make them bad players or devalue the PL? Look, of course the Dutch league is a lower level than the PL, La Liga, etc. It currently sits as the 6th strongest European league, just below Ligue 1 and above Portugal, Belgium, etc. It's still a fairly decent level and a good proving ground for young players. Therefore Minteh's stats at that level are far from meaningless, even if obviously they equally don't mean he will smash the PL. The reason this is a bit of a bugbear for me is that the league's quality has been gradually and systematically eroded by, notably but not exclusively, Premier League teams that have consistently over decades taken the best youth products from our academies, often at an age before they've even had a chance of first team football. Back when I was young I'd argue the Eredivisie was not far if at all behind the PL in terms of quality of the top teams, and Dutch teams regularly won European competitions. Now Dutch teams find themselves competing for South American players in the hope of selling them on for a profit in order to survive. Also, ever since the influx of big money in English football, first with the formation of the PL increasing TV revenues and then with oligarch owners, the balance has gradually shifted more and more towards the PL being the far stronger league evidently. To me cherry picking a nation's best young players from youth academies and having ten times more to spend on your squads is comparable to how FFP has internally within English football served to solidify a status quo whereby only an entitled few can compete and everybody else is just making up the numbers. This kind of self sustaining imbalance is bad for football, plain and simple.

Neither does Teun Koopmeiners

Luuk de Jong also scored 3 in 7 CL games, 8 in 11 if you include CL qualifiers. He also scored twice for Sevilla in a won Europa league final vs Inter, and played for Barcelona and the Dutch national team. Could it be he’s not entirely shit and NUFC completely mismanaged him, as we did to so many players at the time..?

I’d be interested to hear who’s on this long list. Also, show me a league, foreign or lower, that doesn’t have its fair share of failures. Sometimes good players adapt badly to new surroundings, it happens.

Good manager, what a shame for them

When he commented on Liverpool's supposed interest in him earlier this week.

You rate Championship higher than Eredivisie and first round Champions League? From what I've seen this kid would be wasting his time playing the likes of Sunderland week in week out.

I told my mate I think he's being harsh calling him a headless chicken based on what I've seen. The boy is clearly very talented, but he's not 40m talented.

The difference between an Ashley led NUFC and this lot, mind boggling

Class this

Minteh has not fucking dominated the Eredivisie man

You reckon? He’s seen every minute the lad’s been on the pitch this season, most of them live in the stadium, so I suggest his opinion at least has some merit.

FWIW my match-going Feyenoord supporting mate thinks 40m is a ridiculously high fee for what he calls a “headless chicken”. I’d normally be loath to sell our potential future stars to rival clubs, but considering FFP is sadly a reality we have to deal with and there being no guarantee Minteh will become a world beater I think letting him go is the safer option if it allows us to invest a multitude of that through the profit it generates. On another note, I hope the club continue to keep their eye out for young promising players like this. We need to get good players before their fee becomes too high for us, and we need the transfer income through developing players. Whatever we decide to do if a bid actually comes in, we can’t really lose if a young player we brought in for relative peanuts is worth a multitude of what we paid after one year out on loan.

From that Times article: Isn't it odd the PL would ask other clubs for legal support? One thing is clear, the big six minus one are shitting themselves over this.

I'd rather we became successful through natural progression, but the fact of the matter is we have indeed first held back by horrific ownership and are now being held back by a regulator intent on not allowing us (and others) to compete on an even keel with some of the established big clubs. Just give everybody an even playing field, i.e. the same limitations in terms of allowable expenses on squad, infrastructure etc. and let the best team win I say.

FFS

Close!

Such a fucking cry baby

It couldn’t possibly be any more blatant could it..?

With no European football commitments in midweek I imagine the club’s target for next season will be to qualify for CL..?

Just seen the score. Urgh

Not confident at all, but howay City!

My point is I don’t particularly believe loyalty or morals exists amongst football professionals (notwithstanding a few notable exceptions). It’s all about getting the best available people on board and allowing them to do what they do best. In any walk of life, if someone comes along and offers you better terms and/or a more appealing role you’re going to consider it. Quite aside from everything else we’ve lost one of the best in his field of work whilst still paying him, and have been rejected by or first choice replacement. It’s not a great situation for the club to be in no matter how we spin it.

I must have missed all the signs that Ashworth was doing a bad job for us. As far as I am aware we’ve been doing pretty well overall and he was an integral part of that?

I said we'd lose millions IF Man U look elsewhere. They are under no obligation to pay us what we want, and unless I'm mistaken the arbitration is between Ashworth and NUFC and doesn't oblige Man U to pay more that they may want to. It's not certain we'll lose millions, but it's certainly not far fetched.