Yorkie

Fair enough. I'm not sure. Maybe it's something to do with the PSR cycle and we need to wait for June to come around. Oh @timeEd32!

We're not skint; we're complying with a set of financial rules which limits our ability to spend, relative to the teams we're seeking to usurp. The rules are revenue based and because ours is much less than our competitors, we have less flexibility and a much narrower margin for error when it comes to signing players. This leads to us taking a theoretically risk-averse approach to recruitment where we only invest if we feel certain that the player is both available at a fair price and will improve us somehow. Clearly we've taken the view this month that no such player is available so rather than deviate from that approach, they've decided to not invest.

I've never believed that to be the case tbh. He was our 'break class in case of emergency' PL-proven striker in the event we lost Isak and couldn't secure our other targets. I don't think it was ever about signing a direct replacement for Wilson and a direct replacement for Isak; it was just about re-tooling the striker department as well as we could.

You'll be giving it a miss then aye?

They perform well for us and/or they will provide an acceptable financial return.

Explain.

Context does come into it.

All very interesting. Guess it's nothing to do with the incredibly logical and uncontroversial reasons given by the manager in this morning's press conference, then. Whatever you feel about the summer signings and the judgements made on who we bought: the strategy is to A, improve on what we have and B, invest with as much certainty as possible that they will get a return. No one ticked both of the boxes this month so they, collectively, put their faith in who's already here and will attack the summer window from a position of maximum strength. It's really not that deep.

What makes you say that? Not doubting you. I predict it'll follow a similar path to the previous one, where the clubs all but unaffected by PSR hoover up talent from the clubs from 7th downwards in the revenue tables, whilst those teams recruit from the next tier down - i.e. Europe.

Lovely that. Fucking loved that game face of his walking out against PSG. Ah man. What a skipper. All the best, Lascelles.

Fixed

I imagine he'll inexplicably cop some flack for that.

By my reckoning a third of the league didn't make a first team transfer, including us. It's obvious that we don't have the flexibility to do anything meaningful this month and/or we don't want to jeopardise our summer budget. PSR constraints will probably still scupper us to some extent, but this summer is absolutely critical and we need to be as financially strong as we can be.

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I didn't say they were doing it deliberately but they might recognise the silver lining of paying through the nose. It completely distorts the market.

Literally everyone who can afford to buy proven PL players does so.

What've you seen of the third/away (depending on what that navy one is).

Not saying I agree but that's exactly what they'll be thinking. Burn's had some good games at LB this season anyway. He's had some nightmares too, but it's not the death knell people say it is.

If we're going to finish in the Europa places, we just need to avoid a truly miserable losing run and hope everyone else in the pack keeps dropping points by May. Our fixtures then are Brighton (h), Forest (a), West Ham (h), Fulham (a). Picking up 10-12 points there could change everything.

We will protect Hall by playing Dan Burn at LB. Targett has been behind Burn since the Autumn of 2022; don't see why that would suddenly change.

We've been absolutely spoiled by likeable centre-backs during the majority of his time here; were in not for Schär and Burn he'd probably be my favourite of all. While not being an amazing player, he's had far, far more good games than bad in a Newcastle shirt, and for a decade now he's clearly been a great leader on and off the pitch. I've got really fond memories of him as a brick wall in the Championship and a dependable player when we came back to the PL under Rafa. His form when he returned to the side in 2023/24 was crazy; it wasn't just the PSG game - where he was immense - he was fantastic in general during that spell. Seems that ACL has been really cruel to him and I'd love to see him get back to playing regularly at Leicester. Feels like a good move for him.

£60million for a young player with barely a season under his belt in Ligue 1. Heavens to Betsy. If I knew any better I'd say that the cartel clubs are happy to inflate the market beyond the reaches of the likes of us. That's even more than what Man Utd paid for Yoro a couple of years ago, who is no more than a work in progress.

They're an even better example of how PSR dictates everything and why the people behind out summer recruitment should be cut some slack.

Pinning all of our problems on recruitment and then using Man Utd as some shining example of how it could be is such a frustrating take. They've bought expensive shitehawk after expensive shitehawk and then spent yet another fortune on two of the league's best attackers and, hey presto, they're doing better than fucking shit for once (three games after peddling another manager at great expense).