Unbelievable

I only brought up I'd not have him in my top 10 center backs over the past two seasons because of the fee we're reportedly paying tbf. It feels to me we're paying top dollar and at the point of peak value (so far) for someone I can't say I had down as one of the league's very best defenders. How many on here have genuinely commented on Guehi in those terms over the past two seasons, let's be honest?

It's not a crime. It's just that I've never thought over the past two years of Marc Guehi of Crystal Palace fame as one of the top class center backs in the league, or one that would command (close to) a Newcastle United transfer record fee. Also, Micky van de Ven is class. Unlucky to have got injured, similar to Botman. I won't have a bad word said about him.

Ok, here goes: Van Dijk, Stones, Ruben Dias, Saliba, Gabriel, Van de Ven, Ake, Akanji and I'd have Schar and Botman ahead of him t0o. It's probably partly me not paying that much attention to Palace, but I genuinely can't say I've ever sat and watched a game before this Euros and come away thinking I've just watched a center back masterclass by Marc Guehi, or even that he caught my eye. I made a point of re-watching our extended match highlights vs Palace of last year (only featured in the 4-1 game I was lucky to attend), and it was a horror show.

Bastards

I agree it feels like only a matter of time before he signs. Although I have no reason not to trust the club's judgement on this considering their track record to date, I can't help but feel we're overpaying a fair bit on account of the PL/English player premium and on the back of the Euros where he was hyped a fair bit by the British media. Can't personally say I've ever considered Guehi as one of the best CB's in the PL either. If you'd have asked me to list the 10 best ones over the past two seasons I doubt he'd have made that list.

Urgh. People dissing Eredivisie and what Minteh did at 18 year old at Feyenoord should take note: this guy was beyond useless when out on loan at Feyenoord, aged 21…

Couldn't hack it with Derby in his league one loan (2 goals and no assist in 16 appearances, mostly of the bench) when he was 19, so doubt he'd have set the Belgium or Dutch league on fire

Villa after Geertruida, along with RB Leipzig. Final year of contract, so probably available for a reasonable fee. Would be a decent alternative to Guehi for us.

Fully expecting him to be PL top scorer by 2025/26 now

Exactly. What are Masters and co going to do? Penalise Man U for non-compliancy of PSR regulations? That's a surefire way to get the sack. And therein lies the problem...

PL have tied themselves in a knot here. Everton and other clubs (including us hopefully) will have a field day with this in their next meeting.

The question about our long term strategy is an interesting one. I think original statements about competing within five years were over-optimistic, but Staveley always laboured the point that PIF are patient, long term investors, and with the 2034 World Cup being in Saudi Arabia, I imagine the more realistic ambition is to have us up there by that time, and also to have their league and national team at a level where it is seen as competitive with European and South American leagues, and the leading competition in the Middle East. Maybe a few years earlier in line with vision 2030. In any case, looks like they're targeting the next decade to really make a splash on the world stage, and we are probably a small cog in that machine. As for how our owners plan to get to "number one", perhaps unrealistically, it looks like they prioritise doing things the "right" way and avoiding scrutiny where they can (they get enough already simply for being who they are). That means being compliant with whatever regulations are in place, but at the same time probably lobbying hard behind the scenes for those regulations to be changed in order to allow us to compete more fairly with the current biggest clubs in England and Europe. We got off to a great start with CL qualification last year, were unfortunate this past season and if we can get back on track and qualify for CL next season it is probably not unrealistic to achieve our 30% revenue increase year on year under our own steam, before and without related party sponsorship deals being responsible for the majority of it. As we all knew and felt before Ashley finally sold up, the potential for this club under its own steam is to compete with the top six. Our commercial revenue flatlined for 14 years while all our competitors doubled and tripled theirs. We suffered pathetic ownership and it set us back more than a decade. Consider the financial and political might of our current owners however, and we can expect to compete long term, but it will definitely take more time than the originally muted five year plan. As you say, other clubs are also developing and growing, so we face an uphill battle. So far most big decisions have been spot on, and no doubt there is more to come. Let's enjoy the ride as much as we will the destination if and when we finally get there.

Hopefully, but we've had sponsors for our pre-season tours before, so wouldn't surprise me if they were.

Could be Sela Cup specific

You had assumed people would stop posting in a thread that's been around for 11 years because someone created another generic thread, which only seems to exist for people saying how much they hate other clubs, 2 days ago?

I don’t think we do. Not compared to other positions at least. We have four “purples” for those 3 positions, a pretty reliable backup and a few youngsters who are good enough backup and will only get better (Miley and could even add Hall if needed). Bigger gaps to plug with the limited funds we have.

The reason for their covid related lack of revenue is hardly relevant to the matter, which is why the PL ratified their covid related massive (relative to others) PSR deductions it needed to be compliant, while at the same time deeming those of others (Everton) excessive and docking them points.

Tiny club? Condescending much mate?

I appreciate that and I acknowledge there is a lot of guesswork involved, but probably safe to say then that the real figure would be in the 45-55m range as it stands?

Love it! Thanks Rich. Wasn't aware so many of our players had their contracts extended along the way. So with that added our current expected P/L position for the current PSR period would be approx. 38.8m (54.65 - 16.3m) excluding the impact of increased and decreased wages on those extensions, so probably a bit higher in reality (Bruno and Joelinton in particular will have seen their good form rewarded with higher wages). That would be a lot more in line with compliancy for the 105m total loss over any consecutive 3 year period.

Oops, you're right. Capology for wages is GBP, whereas transfer fees from Transfermarket were in EUR due to my settings. I will correct the posts. Thanks for notifying

Cheers, at least that gives us a decent "current starting position" of an approximate 55m loss if nothing else changes this PSR year (unlikely).

Potentially. Can't find it having been reported though.

Trying to estimate the impact of our business so far since the closing of the last PSR period 30/6 or impacting the upcoming periods: IN: - Lewis hall for 28.3m on 5+ year contract at 7k/week wages (again, seems low but we'll go with Capology): +5.66m per year amortisation and .36 per year in wages => + 6m cost per year - Vlachodimos for 20.2m on 5 (?) year deal on 45k wages (wages he was on at Forest according to Capology): + 4m per year amortisation and 2.3m per year in wages => +6.3m cost per year - Osula for 10m on 5+ year deal (ignoring add-ons) on 12,5k/week wages (wages he was on at Sheffield United according to Capology): +2m per year in amortisation and +.65m per year in wages => +2.65m cost per year - Kelly for free (assumption no signing on fee, but high wages as per Capology) and 150k/week wages: 7.8m wages per year => +7.8m cost per year Total cost increase per year for incomings: 22.75m OUT: - Lewis Hall loan fee reported as 4m => -4m cost per year - Minteh for a one-off profit of 30m -8m original fee = 22m in the previous PSR period (so no impact on current), 1.6m amortisation per year and 4,.k/wages per week off the books: 1.6m amortisation and -0.21m saved in wages => -1.81m cost per year - Anderson for a one-off profit of 35.3m as youth product in the previous PSR period (so no impact on current) and 30k/wages per week off the books: -1.56m saved in wages => -1.56m cost per year - Released Ritchie (45k/week), Karius (10k/week), Dummett (35k/week) and Hendrick (45k/week) on frees and assuming no more amortisation on their contracts as all signed on frees or eons ago: -7m saved in combined wages => -7m cost per year Total cost decrease per year for outgoings: 14.37m So I reckon that we've increased our cost base by about 8m per year,or we've added Osula's 2.65m to timeEd32's 52m loss base, making our current projected loss around 54.65m. We have the 2021/22 70m loss dropping off, so we're within compliancy range for now but this loss level is unsustainable as on average we're only allowed a 35m yearly loss. Any further incomings (Guehi at estimated 20m annual cost, right winger?) would need their amortisation and wage cost covered by increased revenue, be it from player trading or commercial deals. Not undoable, but certainly feels like we're building a pyramid scheme of sorts for ourselves here with ever increasing rolling costs that need to be covered by significant and permanent revenue increases. A lot will hinge on Silverstone delivering the ambition of 30% commercial revenue increases year on year. Barring that we will become like Brighton in that we'd always be at risk of having to sell our best players and gamble on prospects.