oldtype

He does look like a kid wearing a Haaland halloween costume.

Given the tight margins we’re operating within, I wouldn’t let concerns about the rest of the season prevent me from doing a move that benefits us long term. There’s not much left to play for and we probably wouldn’t get as much money for him in the summer.

I assume we’re doing it because it will allow us to strengthen other areas of the squad so it makes sense. Given how good Livramento is we were probably going to sell him in the summer anyway. Livramento guaranteed to pull a hamstring the game after this move goes through, of course.

All of this FFP stuff is dumb and annoying, but I guess worrying about this is better than worrying about not having any money to begin with.

I continue to be puzzled by this narrative. Why do we have to sell one of our best players to “advance to the next stage of the project?” If we sell Bruno for 50m and buy his replacement for 50m how is that helping anything with regards to FFP? Why not just keep the good players we have and spend what we can instead?

I think it's as simple as creating hardship exceptions for injuries/suspensions. If a player is injured and out for the season or suspended for being a gambling addict and out for the season, that player's wages should not count towards your FFP cap. I am assuming no club will ever have enough injuries that spending into these exceptions would endanger their long-term financial health. Although if we didn't have loaded owners, us this season may have been at risk of doing so.

You could couple it with revenue sharing, so that a percentage of any revenue past a certain threshold goes into a pot, which is shared among the non-threshold teams, with an obligation to spend that money on player salaries. That way you could make it so the total amount spent on salaries would be roughly the same. You'd basically just be shifting a portion that spending from the top clubs to other clubs. Again, it's not particularly realistic but there are ways you could engineer this if you wanted it to work.

FFP should be changed to be an actual salary cap. Not that that would ever happen, but it should.

They really should just abolish the Carabao and hype up the FA Cup more. I realize you can’t do that in reality because some group of people somewhere will lose money and clout, but if I could wave a magic wand I totally would.

I mean, let's be honest. There aren't a whole lot of club employees (other than those who have ties with the area) who would not up and leave immediately if offered the same job at Man United. That's something we're trying to change but it remains the reality for now.

One could argue that there’s not much left to play for this season other than the FA Cup. Not saying we should write it all off or anything, but I don’t think we should be throwing a wrench into our long term planning or selling key players for the sake of chasing a Europa slot. If we can get one without overreacting in January, that’s a nice bonus.

Last few posts in this thread make me feel like we deserve to be sold back to Ashley.

Sigh

Oh my God are we actually going to go through?

It's amazing how we instantly look like a functional football team again now that we only have "a lot of injuries" as opposed to "a ridiculous amount of injuries."

Positive jinx!

Every time Joelinton has to shoot the "womp womp" sound effect plays in my head.

Milan don't look like much of a threat at all. Now that I've said this we'll probably concede in the next five minutes.

I imagine the long-term fatigue effects get a lot worse when we have to travel.

Players look very up for it, which is not surprising. Could be the last CL game of their careers for a lot of them. Fighting for the right to stay in the spotlight.

To this day I cannot believe I was in the away end at Stamford Bridge when he scored that goal and everything else that happened that crazy day. I will feel a connection to this guy forever.

The squad is deep enough, as is demonstrated by the fact that we were coping just fine when we had a normal-sized injury crisis. It’s the extra-double-sized injury crisis we have now that we can’t handle.

We’re basically missing six of our first-choice eleven and each of their second-choice replacements. Freakishly bad luck.

Would have been a crime against humanity if we left here with a point.

I think the players and the fans are on the same page in terms of just wanting this game to be over.