Minhosa

Exactly.

I’m glad you are. Maybe the fans just need to sing his name some more He is fucking dreadful. Zero technical ability.

£55m. No goals. 1 assist. 6 months in but he made some good runs. Mint.

Yeah. Really. What do you think he contributed in attack?

Shite. Again.

Would take the £20m all day long. What does he owe us PSR wise?

I have a feeling they may go for TAA over Tino tbh. He'd probably be a better too tbh.

A good few of the latest signings are from London and the Midlands mind.

Absolutely and that appears to be the plan. Flack, the kid from Leyton Orient, had offers from Man Utd and Liverpool but chose us despite having no links to the area. On the other hand, Bonas (the kid from Carlisle) was part of a midfield duo for them where the other player had all but agreed to join us too but opted for Liverpool after a late move from them. We're basically competing with the best academies in the country now rather than trying to focus only locally. I can't recall his name but we've got a kid at under 15 level who is the starting CAM for England Under 16's. He's one of the best the Academy have had apparently but has a challenging background which, they fear, might hinder his progress... This is where the new training ground, when it's developed, will be a game changer imho. It's really not unthinkable to imagine the whole thing being paid for by the investment in/sale of youth player over the future years, if we get our recruitment and development right.

I can't give specific details but I know someone very close to Nickson. He said to me that Nickson never gives anything away regarding potential deals but will occasionally give a view after the player has signed or left. He told the person I know that: 1) He had not actively scouted Woltemade but was asked for his view on him as the deal was being negotiated. He told the club 'not to expect a prolific PL goalscorer' and that was his only involvement. 2) He spent the summer focused on our outgoing business and Andy Howe took over the incoming deal sheet. 3) When Ashley was owner, Nickson was a lone wolf but he now has a team and much more infrastructure yet 'he's never spent more time travelling'. That's all the guy was told and Nickson is apparently very guarded but I thought the Woltemade stuff, in particular, was interesting...

Just on subject of youth players. The club has significantly developed their approach since the takeover with regards to youth prospects. The current Under 15 side is viewed as the second best in the country by those in the club (behind only Chelsea in their view....) and has a number of England youth internationals in it. Some of them are playing a year up for England, so clearly we're attracting players with massively high ceilings now. These kids are always approached by the best academies in the country. They've largely got their pick. Newcastle's sales pitch to them is smaller youth squads, full of quality and a clear route to the first team (as we're now seeing with Leo Shahar who was signed as a kid and also with Sam Alabi signed from Oldham who's recently got some time on the bench). Now, whilst this doesn't help us now, I'd hazard a guess that half our bench will be made up of our own development players within 3 years. These kids are bought for relatively big dollar too btw, Lucas Flack (GK) signed from Leyton Orient for £350k (he was 13 at the time). Thomas Bonas (MID) from Carlisle for £100k, Les Yeutembip (CB) from Charlton for over £600k and Josh Kenchington (CB) from Barnsley for £400k with adds on taking it up to seven figures if he reaches his potential. All of the above (aside from Les) are Under 15's. There's plenty of others signed for decent fee's too. In the older age groups, there's high hopes for Michael Mills and Sam Alabi, both of whom train with the first team every day at 16/17 years old. This is a major development from the Ashley era where we'd never have spent these fees nor attracted kids from outside the area on any scale. I'd imagine, based on this investment, the intention is both help Howe (or any future manager) with either useful options for the first team squad or PSR fodder.

Would make perfect sense tbh. He’d be an ideal fit for them and they’re the only PL club who could afford him/need him.

The price you pay for something is how you measure value. It’s perhaps not the only metric but it’s the most important particularly in a PSR world. Why do you think it’s always brought up (positively) regarding Schar? He's been incredible value.

Lewis Hall?

Think this could be a particularly interesting option when Tino is back fully fit. Him and Hall from wing back positions could be immense.

Aye. Class that too.

A lot of folks around me at the game were saying the same.

Makes sense. I just struggle with £55m for that in terms of value for money given where we are PSR wise. Given he’ll have a very limited sell on value.

Genuine question, what would you see as decent value from Wissa?

He’s had a good week. Thought his distribution was exceptional all day today. Feels like it’s taken a while to get back to his previous levels with his passing range but thought it was bang on today.

Agreed. Miss it tbh.

Thought he was excellent aerially today.

Biggest shithouses we’ve had at SJP this year?

Would be an interesting choice if we were given the option of selling ALL of the summer buys back to their previous clubs for the exact same fee or NONE of them and keep them to see how they develop here. Purely from a commercial level we’d be looking at losses on them all bar Thiaw and possibly Woltemade given his standing back in Germany. But any profit realised on Thiaw would be quickly eroded (and then some) by Elanga. In this hypothetical scenario, I’d flog them all and take my chances we could find a decent centre half to replace Thiaw.

I thought he did pretty well today. Lovely through ball to Wissa and was generally tidy in possession. I don’t fully see what he brings beyond that but there’s definitely hope he can build on what he’s shown to date.