KaKa

12 minutes ago, STM said:

What would be interesting, is how Pope reacts to us signing a shiny new keeper. 

 

Whether we like it or not, Pope becomes expendable. Not because he's a bad keeper but because he still holds financial value. If a reasonable offer came in and Pope was offered number 1 elsewhere, it's hard to see how that deal wouldn't happen.

 

We would be in a position where we needed to find a number 2.... presumably late on in the window.

 

Not sure an overhaul of our goalkeeping department was something I expected this summer.

Howe rubbished reports of him being unsettled or expendable after the match today, for what it's worth.

7 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

That's true, but it would make life a helluva lot easier for us too if we had a keeper at least comfortable kicking the ball. They don't have to be brilliant at it, just comfortable.

I agree. Be surprised if he isn't better than Pope at least a little bit, as Pope can be pretty poor. Popes body shape and everything, just looks completely wrong when kicking the ball.

2 minutes ago, Froggy said:

Worth noting the leak merchants were feeding the press with stories of how they hated McKenna's training style and compared him to a school teacher. 

 

Granted this was years ago, but some of them are still there. 

They hate the new manager already!

This just keeps getting better and better!

6 minutes ago, timeEd32 said:

 

If reports are to be believed it's also dependent (from the player's side) on City winning tomorrow.

Interesting. I could see that too.

Would especially make sense if he's been sold on coming in as deputy initially until he settles in and adjusts to the English game. Getting game time in the cup competitions to start with.

I'm not sure the playing out from the back is as much of a priority as we may have thought.

I think the priorities are shot stopping, dealing with/claiming the ball from crosses/set pieces and then getting out to deal with balls in behind the defensive line to cover for our high line when pressing.

Think our play out from the back will largely be as it is, which is pretty risk adverse and more direct when needed.

7 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

I doubt we sign anyone or fully commit to targets until we know for definite what’s happening with Tosin and Kelly. If we don’t manage to bring them in then I’d imagine a CB becomes more a priority over a GK.

I agree.

This fee for Mamardashvili is likely contingent on not having to commit any outlay to the centre back position.

1 hour ago, Jack27 said:

 

Nice timing!

At least when Spurs sacked Mourinho before the final they sent him packing.

Imagine having a manager that's been sacked sitting in the dugout for the game still.

The evidence against this regime just keeps piling up!

17 minutes ago, Kanji said:

 

Mate, do you know which articles mentioned we may be looking for 2 roles? Sporting and Performance Director? 

I've ready a number of them but can't really recall now which ones. I see some folks have shared a few though.

4 minutes ago, 80 said:

Oh, I'm not losing any sleep over it. I'm pretty confident all will turn out fine

 

Just a bugbear of mine, your use of the word qualified. That's kind of my point (which I know you understand based on your other posts elsewhere about potential signings). You can end up with a credentialism, with people being assessed on where they've worked previously or what UEFA licenses they've attained rather than their actual talent and knowledge. Potentially generating a shortlist of qualified people with all the capable, suitable people excluded.

I meant qualified as far as what the club wants from the person that fills the role.

Some of this has been mentioned in some of the articles that have come out.

For example more experience on the recruitment side, particularly when it comes to selling players and getting really good value.

9 minutes ago, 80 said:

As I say, I really don't know. But one or two articles have basically made it sound as though the agency, after conducting it's own assessments and such, weeded out the majority and presented around half a dozen profiles to our board, before the final two or three went to Yasir.

 

So depending on our attitude to the search - and I fully respect we're probably still time-poor - it's possible we wouldn't even know who the other applicants were. Even with your points system, it's essentially the equivalent of filtering Amazon products by 4 stars and above. But with the stars being awarded by bots and accountability-allergic bureaucrats. "No one's ever been fired for buying IBM".

 

I'm also a bit surprised at the suggestion Spors would make it to the final two before his references were checked... At this level I would've thought that would've been nailed by the agency a while back.

I wouldn't worry too much about this.

I cannot imagine the approach is overlooking any qualified people.

Giles might still be on the list, or perhaps getting him out of Brentford isn't straightforward, or it isn't convenient for him to move right now, or he is missing something key that we are after ... could be anything!

2 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

I think the glee is just seeing the type of guy he is in the end, and showing Man Utd to be the awful entity that they've become. I've no doubts he's probably one of the best in the role at what he does, but we'll move on.

 

 

 

There were a number of really good articles posted yesterday on the whole situation.

It turns out we are actually looking for something different with our next hiring, as Ashworth wasn't as strong on the recruitment side, and we really need that, particularly in regards to selling players.

The main things he was good at, have largely been put in place, and we needed a bit more from him, rather than having him just overseeing what he had implemented so far.

Looks like we are now targeting a stronger recruitment DOF along with a head of Performance.

Looks like we've taken the opportunity to better address what is needed at the club. Will not be losing any sleep whatsoever over Ashworth going.

17 minutes ago, 80 said:

It'd be interesting to find out on what basis our recruiters are screening out applications. Whether Giles is one of them or not - again, we can't make too many assumptions at the minute. 

 

I have to say, I'm not entirely comfortable with us (apparently?) outsourcing the search to an external agency again. It made more sense to me the first time around with Ashworth, when we'd just been taken over and had much less internal infrastructure.

 

I realise that the exact way in which we're using them could vary a lot, and therefore affect my opinion. But if we're quite reliant on them cutting out 95% of the field, as portrayed in the media, there's scope for it to hold us back a lot. The worst case scenario is assessments being carried out by miniature versions of that Eghbali guy at Chelsea.

I'm pretty certain candidates will be graded on some sort of point system, and the club would then be involved in deciding who to move forward with. Can't imagine that would be left purely to the agency.

30 minutes ago, Unbelievable said:

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.

If Man Utd look elsewhere then Ashworth will remain on gardening leave until 2025, which is another year and so £1 million in salary. Well worth it to protect all the information he was privy to during his time with Newcastle, which is the whole point of gardening leave.

As for having to write off what we paid Brighton, which was around £3 million. It's hardly some big disaster. Never mind the fact we still got some value out of the toad, as he put a baseline structure in place throughout the club and hired a bunch of new staff.

It's not at all some catastrophic loss of millions for Newcastle. A catastrophic loss is spending £90 million on Antony.

13 minutes ago, gdm said:

I don’t get this idea that we are losing millions? Our price for him is double what we paid for him at least and we won’t budge and you’d imagine arbitration would rule that we at least get what we paid for him. 

It's such a strange outlook man.

I'm completely dumbfounded by it all.

Not that I necessarily think we will go for him, but this is what Maldini has said about his next job ... 

“For my job, the alternatives (in Italy) to Milan are very limited,” he said in December. “I could never go to another Italian team. Possibly I would only evaluate the offer of a high-level foreign team. I like winning and building. Saudi Arabia could be a stimulating option, who knows.”

12 minutes ago, Unbelievable said:

Pope and Bruno for 80m, that article can fuck right off

Didn't even bother finishing it.

No idea who wrote that nonsense and what they were on.

42 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

Aribo, that's the one

Joe Aribo is never ever a winger!

Why Southampton signed him and played him there that season in the Premier League, I will never know.

Looks like they finally realised he's a central midfielder and he's been doing well there of late for them in the Championship.

I'd have him ahead of Longstaff every single time.

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

All things considered - i'm one of the bigger supporters of players like Wilson, Wood, Murphy and Nicholas Jackson. Try your best, have some ability - I'll like a player as long as others don't overhype them (Almiron, Anita, Colo at times). And I love a physical defender.

 

Every time I see us talk about a Nigerian player - you seem to be a fan 

 

I like Awoniyi and he's a handsome lad to boot. Good replacement for Wilson in that regard. Not seen enough of Adebayo to comment jus thought it was funny.

I'll only really pipe up if I like a player though, so it would seem that way 

To be fair I wouldn't sign Awoniyi, but that guy is one of my favourite people in football. Such a good dude from very very humble beginnings.

Adebayo came up because it looks like that is who Everton are targeting to replace Calvert Lewin, and some said they'd rather have him. He was causing Premier League defences trouble prior to his injury, and has the physical attributes that would work well in our system, so I get it. I think he'd be really useful as a back up. Would I actually want us to target him as a priority though ... not really, he'd be one to go for further down the list, only if we struggled to get better.

2 hours ago, gdm said:

 

It's so incredibly simple man.

Let's drag it out and go to arbitration.

Already doing early business, while Man Utd are in limbo.

It's all absolutely perfect.

2 minutes ago, Jack27 said:

are we on a roll, or what?

We're cooking up a storm!

Love some early business being done before all the summer madness starts with all the tournaments taking place.

2 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

@kaka is there an active Nigerian under 30 playing in a top league that you don't like?

Most of them are solid to really good players, so to not like at all in some capacity? I'd need to see a full list, there'd be a few I'm sure. 

Off the top of my head, I definitely don't like Ola Aina though. 

You seem to only rate super technical players at the very best clubs like Man City and Real though, so we have very different outlooks on things.

I don't need a player to be perfect to like their game, and liking them doesn't mean they're necessarily a world beater or top player either.

3 minutes ago, Conjo said:

Adebayo is the type of player I imagine every opposition player dreads to face. The striker version of Joelinton, just hard as nails, but fairly quick and dare I say it better in front of goal.

 

Would love him here.

He is incredible in the air too.

6 minutes ago, timeEd32 said:

 

I like Adebayo a lot. Awoniyi another that I'm surprised isn't talked about more. Both had injury problems this season, so slightly small samples below but...

 

Only players with more G / 90 than Adebayo: Haaland, Isak, Jota, Palmer, Olise, Wood, Richarlison, Trossard, Salah

 

Only players with more G+A / 90 this season than Awoniyi: Palmer, Olise, Haaland, De Bruyne, Jota, Salah, Isak, Richarlison, Wilson, Watkins, Foden, Nunez, Bailey, Son, Mateta

Awoniyi is also a handful and is a top guy character wise, but his injury problems are just continuous.

I wouldn't be involved in any kind of deal to sign him.

Wish him the best though. Really great guy is Awoniyi.

6 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

Am I mental to suggest I'd probably rather have Adebayo? 

I'm pleasantly surprised others on here like him too.

Thought he had a good season for them that would have been even better had he not got injured for a bit.

Just now, andyc35i said:

I’d actually take that lad from Luton, he’s such a handful and gives us a different dimension. Looked good every time I’ve seen him and a solid backup

I like him a lot, but didn't want to say so on here, because I couldn't be bothered with the responses from people that didn't really watch him closely.

I agree with you 100%.