oldtype

Okay never mind, I'm a dummy.

If I understand this amortization stuff correctly, the longer we hold a player, the smaller their book value becomes, which increases our FFP boost when we sell them. So we can afford to let a player go for slightly less in the summer and still get the same benefit since it's all monopoly money for us anyway.

Still convinced that we'll lose this.

I think the pretty obvious problem is that all the clubs who would want our players are operating under the same constraints we are. We need to sell before we buy, but so does everyone else. And there are no buyers. The Saudi League is the way around that, but as others have discussed in this thread, there are still human beings involved, and if it doesn't work it doesn't work. And frankly I don't mind us steering clear of selling players there anyway given the obvious conflict of interest.

Damnit, I keep forgetting that these fuckers are good now.

Maybe it's the masochistic NUFC fan in me but I think it would be a lot less fun if we could just spend infinite money every window. It's a good thing that ownership is being forced to think about building sustainably and growing the club's commercial infrastructure instead of just going out and buying Robinho. The Saudis (hopefully) won't be there to bankroll everything forever.

I'm sure we could figure something out at backup RB in the summer if we have to. I just don't think it makes sense to have Trippier blocking Livarmento's ascent to the starting role next season.

We're never going to get this much money for him again and we were probably going to move him on in the summer anyway. Given the reality where we are this season, it makes sense.

The "all of our creativity comes from our 33-year-old right back" model was never going to be sustainable anyway. We have other creative players, they can step up to fill the void. We have a whole half-season with relatively low expectations for Howe to figure it out.

I assume he's been pushing for a move because he feels that he's good enough for the first team and is frustrated that he hasn't gotten his debut yet. Probably sees the chances that Miley has been getting in our squad, and knows that we're always going to be one injury away from him starting every game for the remainder of the season.

I'm happy that we're not looking at short-term impact players at inflated prices this January in order to improve our league position. We should see our never-ending injury crisis this season as an opportunity to grow young players for the future, rather than a hole that has to be plugged with average veterans or loan signings. This will give us an extra body to put on the pitch if there's nobody else, but also a player that can grow with the club long term. Of course he's not going to win us as many games as Kalvin Phillips this season, but that's not the important thing for where we are in our development. Given the FFP constraints, we just can't afford to spend money looking for a quick fix (unless it's a Chris Wood sort of situation where we need to avoid relegation).

With our injury luck, he'll be anchoring the midfield alongside Miley by February.

Our injury record and the idea that he could very well be forced into a first team run this season is probably one of the reasons why he's keen on a move.

I guess the fee for this guy is why we needed to get Manquillo off the books.

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.