nufcjmc

If you mean risk free under say under 27 and already playing in the premier league then no chance and no one I also would suggest if your a 1 in 2 striker you will already be at a "next level" club on great wages so unless its something like falling out with a manager your unlikely to get one unless you unearth a gem. If you mean going for someone either older (that we would hands down dismiss in the past) or someone from the other leagues who may move for a wage boost and there being a risk they do not replicate the same form I would argue there must be players out there like that. Especially if we have an increased budget for that position as a lot of times our unwillingness to go for older or pay a premium have led to us dismiss players. That's the problem - scouting is so good these days that up-and-coming players get snapped up at 18/19, put on massive wages - Haaland, Moise Kean, Martial, Mbappe. There's no one in the championship good enough to make the step up and the bottom half of the PL is slim pickings as well. Maybe an older player like Giroud or Rondon could work as a stop-gap? My knowledge of European and world football is crap since i stopped playing football manager so i'm sure there must be some names out there. Certainly not disagreeing about the youth they are either already silly prices with little to no experience/consistency or are already playing at a club that is deemed next level either challenging for honours in their home leagues or in Europe. However not all players get a chance to play in these big clubs always moving onto the next hot property that always lends to some of them moving away from becoming disillusioned or wanting that pay increase. I don't see a lot of football now I am a dad of 2 little ones but I do know we have a better chance attracting and find them with a better manager and more money on the table for the potential selling club and the player themselves. When he hear release clauses of 60/70/80 million based on a budget suggested of 150/200 it is possible to bid for these players and not break the bank (if they want to move to you of course).

I was thinking about this actually. If you assume the likes of Kane etc. are well beyond us which they are who would people go for in the £50m or more sort of bracket to take us on very quickly? Obviously would need to be someone on the way up from France, Spain or Germany I guess. I am sure I read Arsenal want to move on Alexandre Lacazette who looking at his stats has been a 1-3 striker for them since he has been there, 29 this month good enough for us? Good buy depending on price? Depending on manager/formation etc you either need two strikers or a striker and a number 10, don't mind the idea of buying an older player in one position and a hot prospect in the other. However have to be realistic as some players will simply not move for money and want European football which we are no where near.

If you mean risk free under say under 27 and already playing in the premier league then no chance and no one I also would suggest if your a 1 in 2 striker you will already be at a "next level" club on great wages so unless its something like falling out with a manager your unlikely to get one unless you unearth a gem. If you mean going for someone either older (that we would hands down dismiss in the past) or someone from the other leagues who may move for a wage boost and there being a risk they do not replicate the same form I would argue there must be players out there like that. Especially if we have an increased budget for that position as a lot of times our unwillingness to go for older or pay a premium have led to us dismiss players.

A proven 1 in 3 striker proven as in more than one season or more than one team. Ideally we would have a 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 number 10 to back them up but being very wishful. I also don't have any names but surely that is a realistic goal if spending around the 60/70 million mark again the budget spend is total guess work.

newcastle's released a statement no contact football allowed in phase one they set out the following: On Tuesday - by which time all test results will be known - players and staff will arrive at pre-arranged times staggered in groups of a maximum of ten players, with each working in groups of no more than five in separate areas of two pitches to allow for social distancing measures at all times. Players will arrive in their training kit, parking their cars at least three spaces apart, and will head straight out to the field, with no access to the main building. They will then leave immediately after training. All equipment - including balls, corner flags, cones, goalposts, GPS units, boots and gloves - will be regularly disinfected and players will wear protective snoods on their faces at all times.

may as well drag on till the end of Ramadan next Saturday so they can celebrate properly..............

in this thread it has to be the latter. whoops got me there, almost made that tweet ambiguous/negative good save!

so is it they "are" dragging and its not over or that "have" been dragging and the end is near.....

followed up with this one though: Paul Smith @Smudge1962 The @premierleague are dragging their heels and prolonging the process so as not to be accused of not investigating the consortium thoroughly enough following certain allegations made against them. My understanding is they have found nothing significant to block it #nufctakover

It is.......and it isn't. Its with the PL but there's a month worth of checks been done . Only thing is would they tell the Sellers/Buyers straight away if they couldn't allow it to go ahead or do they complete everything then tell them. IF its a two way dialog where issues are identified and passed back to buyer for comment/clarity they would surely know if they have hit an insurmountable obstacle as they wouldnt be able to move past that point. Unless they are at the final question/nothing else left on the buyers to do list and they await the outcome assuming no issues.

If I didn't despise our current owner so much, I wouldn't want this to happen tbh. I'm quite uncomfortable with it. I'm very confortable with it as it happens. If someone wants to carry on with mike then that's their own decision but opinions shouldn't be forced on to others. After all this is a football forum and not a human rights forum or mumsnet. We’ve never been stuck with Mike, ever. People don’t have to turn up, they chose to. That’s on them. We are stuck with Mike we the normal supporter don't have the money to buy the club and we were here long before Mike Ashley so while he may have the keys its the supporters club.

I think whats annoying me at the minute is how the leak makes it open to public debate. If this wasn't leaked I assume its all 100% behind closed doors with no influence from any parties. The fact that press can say pressure is mounting from external forces means if it does fail I hope its all rewritten and allowed open to public consultation first before allowed to be voted it.

Truly awful From what I recall I remember feeling his was a "plodder" did a job he was asked and you get what you pay for and signing cheap "usually" means you are buying limited players. I didnt dislike him as he did do a job but nor did I miss him leaving the club.

I dont think your going mad, well you are going mad in the sense of willing for it to be completed with no concrete information other than statements every so often from the press saying "our understanding is that". It allows massively for you to fill the missing gaps yourself with hope or doom and gloom. If I was a business willing to invest potentially 500/600 million into something it isnt a short term investment, while the virus may affect the next couple of seasons this isn't a own it for a couple of year and look to move on. That's not to say that some of the parties may not say enough is enough we will revisit this when it all calms down but again why would they do so at a massive financial loss to themselves? If we were in the looking at the account phase and seeing about a bid I can totally see why you would walk away due to all of the new variables to consider particularly in terms of the clubs now value, however we passed that tipping point before lock down. It almost sounds like I am trying to convince myself and in a way I am because no one knows for sure.

Not wanting to give excuses but there are three sets of directors surely as there are 3 investors, time differences between countries, some staff not at work or working at reduced capacity due to where/how they are working. Other priorities for the league in terms of the virus response and keeping all clubs informed/happy etc."project restart" I can see why this process is not a quick glance rubber stamp kind of job, added to the fact its leaked "early" means we dont know if this sort of timescale is normal as we normally are just told they have been taken over. I am worried and not worried at the minute its a bit conflicting due to lack of information and the only new thing to bounce on in the press is now negative.

Similar line of thought, I was thinking what if the issue was what delayed things last week in terms of unforeseen and clarity needed murmurs and final reason is leaked now. Hopefully these stakeholders making up the bid are so determined they will overcome any obstacles.

That would surely be the responsibility of individual clubs how they handle it. There's no fitness requirement to play games. I guess those who want to win desperately will find a way. Otherwise worst case scenario would be two teams playing at slightly less high intensity than usual. so we may end up seeing a few mini beer guts on the pitch rather than in the stands.....

its been a more light hearted tangent than debating cliques or politics

Think that's a fair point actually. We have sort of got used to the idea of wanting great long term value out of every signing, but with the deep pockets of the Saudis, they would probably not blink at spending plenty on big name players who are approaching over the hill status. £100m down the drain would probably be worth it for the exposure worldwide, and short term results that it would bring. its essential if you have a strategy of buying older players as not to sound like current lot but they have zero resale value. You buy them for what they offer in the here and now (or the hope they reproduce it at your club). Some will fail as they cannot transition to us, transition to this league, transition to the manager or other players around them etc. Having owners that cut losses and are happy not making a monetary return on every one is a good thing. At the end of the day you can spend big on players and they not be as successful as the cheaper gems, it mainly allows you to spread your wings in terms of a talent pool and not dismiss players because of transfer fee or age which has heavily limited us on certain sales going through. It actually reminds me of the Keegan days a bit. If you can recall, he wanted to bring Henry here in his second stint as manager, and of course it was laughed out of the boardroom by Ashley's mates. It did seem a bit extravagent, but he was probably looking at results and stature as a club worldwide rather than resale value of one individual player. I remember even from his first stint as manager, even if he bought players like Beardsely and Venison who were in their 30's, adding them to the squad actually inflated the value of the whole squad because of the success they brought with them. I think there needs to be a balance as with everything too many old players even high calibre ones restricts the type of play you can play due to their declining speed etc you dont want a squad of 30 somethings as it just means you need to do major squad overhall on a regular basis which is no good as the more players you need to replace the more likely you will bring flops due to higher turn over. Just because a player is 30/31 does not mean they cannot add value or bring on your younger players which as you say in itself adds value to those individual players. Taking losses on players will happen and while we have managed to make profits on Ashleys way we have also had some losses/lucky to get our money back players. I think having alot of money means as a supporter you dont (or at least I wont anymore) shite we have blown 20 million on him we now cant spend this window or we are shopping for free's as the money is all gone.

Think that's a fair point actually. We have sort of got used to the idea of wanting great long term value out of every signing, but with the deep pockets of the Saudis, they would probably not blink at spending plenty on big name players who are approaching over the hill status. £100m down the drain would probably be worth it for the exposure worldwide, and short term results that it would bring. its essential if you have a strategy of buying older players as not to sound like current lot but they have zero resale value. You buy them for what they offer in the here and now (or the hope they reproduce it at your club). Some will fail as they cannot transition to us, transition to this league, transition to the manager or other players around them etc. Having owners that cut losses and are happy not making a monetary return on every one is a good thing. At the end of the day you can spend big on players and they not be as successful as the cheaper gems, it mainly allows you to spread your wings in terms of a talent pool and not dismiss players because of transfer fee or age which has heavily limited us on certain sales going through.

Its a clique i tell ya , a clique ! I don't think there is a 'clique' on here, what we do have is a group of very regular posters who tend to 'listen to' eachother and 'quote' eachother, and that seems fine, as they are the ones who have 'put the work in on here' and kept this forum going for years. I have been on here for many years, but I don't post too often, so consequently I don't get "quoted or re-quoted" all that often either . . but I think that is ok. We have some very good regular posters on here, who I enjoy reading !! I tend to agree with this I have certainly taken more out of this forum in terms of the content than contributing. Part of that is my dyslexia and lack of confidence to air my views, while micky taking and people reading things out of context and having rants (which I believe is normal in most forums on set topics) I certainly feel welcome. The regular posters are big personalities and I have been here long enough to see many come and go and yet here we are still around as a site which I am really proud to be apart of. Discussing things at nausea does become a bit tedious and that is partly down to the fact in these 5 weeks or so there has been little in the way of concrete new information. A newer poster who hasnt read the last 100/150 pages may take exception to their point being missed or not given the same weight as others but that may in part be down to the fact its been discussed already.... more than once...... then discussed again.

Potentially 4 players? Possibly 1 striker,2 centre midfielders and 1 centre half. I dont know and have no clue on names but I am hoping 60-70m on one striker young (under 26))and one you can build around 20-30m on an older striker or depending on formations a new number 10 (switch the 60/70m spend on this player depending on formation) age not as much as an issue as long as your not stuck with a 37 year old on 300k a week 25m right back 25m left back 50m new central midfield player so hoping for 5 minimum, obviously great point by neesy clubs will find it hard to hold onto players when there is a bigger need to balance books coupled that with modest player sales say 10/20 million we may be able to get another high quality player or get rid of the dead wood and have some higher calibre squad players.

Not paying in full for players will stretch that budget further if need be but we need quality not quantity.

Everyone is upgradeable with the right funds, the issue is keeping to ffp we don't have unlimited funds if we have 150/200m to spend we need 2 strikers, midfielder, left back and right back first and thats the money already well spent I recon.

I am not sure some grounds are capable of being the 12th man for the team, it certainly may not be played with the same tempo and bad decisions may well not be as contested. Also bad tackles etc not sure how much boo'ing does affect players. I think due to how bad some players potty mouths are its unlikely it will be played in silence anyway with fake crowd noise played through speakers for some atmosphere and to hide those go fuck yourself comments.