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Aside from the fact that it disadvantages us, is there any reason why this is a bad rule to have on substance?

I'm not sure I even want Europa at this point to be honest. I don't know if we can handle all those extra games.

Everyone just looks like they need a vacation

Makes you wonder how many of the players we treated like donkeys in the bad old days would have been perfectly serviceable under a competent manager.

The point is that it can never be "above board and proven to be so", because by definition there cannot be a bona fide, arms-length negotiation between our club and a Saudi club. It is always self-dealing no matter how much the two clubs engineer it to look like it's not.

I’m just saying that if the club engages in self-dealing with Saudi clubs on a regular basis it will actively impede my ability to enjoy supporting it. If you don’t care, that’s fine. I’d just rather not be supporting a club that does that, regardless of whether it’s against the rules or not.

Not being able to spend silly money for one window is hardly going to doom the club.

I don't know if the ASM price was fair or not, all I know is that there's exactly zero chance it was the product of bona fide negotiation.

There is no way whatsoever to make it an arms-length transaction if a Saudi club is involved. The man who owns us could make any of these clubs sell us any player at any price with a single phone call. It will just be a matter of agreeing a fee that is not the product of bona fide negotiation, but rather an attempt by both sides to figure out a number where we could plausibly argue that it's "market value." It is even more fraught with loans, where we could conceivably even get players for free. I don't really care if it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. We have enough advantages money-wise that we can make do without dipping into the Saudi League well. Plenty of other players out there.

I agree. Even if it's not technically against the rules for us to transact with Saudi clubs, we should avoid doing so if at all possible.

Only one thing can save us now: Shefki Kuqi on a free transfer.

Yeah, give them a raise and prohibit them from ref'ing in other leagues. Sorted.

Arsenal fans are being ridiculous babies. That said, to be fair, I do think it's a problem that Premier League refs are taking lucrative deals to ref one-off matches in UAE or Saudi Arabia when those two countries own Premier League clubs. They should be prohibited from doing that. Can't afford to have even the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Antoine Sibierski made 39 appearances and scored 8 goals. No, that's not a typo.

Imagine how screwed we would be if we actually sold more of the players we thought we didn't need in the summer.

Are we not allowed to make injury replacements to the CL squad? I vaguely remember doing something like that on Football Manager a decade ago...

The crazy thing about that season is that I never even thought about getting relegated because I just assumed it couldn't happen to us. In retrospect, finishing 13th was basically a miracle given what we had to work with.

We should just throw Livramento on the left and see how it works. Too much runs through Trippier to start playing him out of position.

Are we even able to make signings for money in January, or does FFP mean loans only?

Apologize for being negative, but I'm more or less ready to throw the Champions League at this point. We're very unlikely to progress anyway with two out of three remaining games being away and it's getting to the point where we can barely field an XI.

This reminds me of that season under Roeder where everybody was injured all the time and the matchday squad was Peter Ramage, David Edgar, Shola Ameobi, and eight randomly selected fans. Except we're somehow still good, I guess.

"I want to see more of Livramento and Hall. How come we spent 60 million pound on two fullbacks who never get to play?" (monkeys paw curls)

It will all come full circle when literally all of our players are injured and Eddie Howe himself will have to kit up and come onto the pitch. Howe, Howe thyself.

Every time even a hint of negativity starts creeping into the discourse the team immediately bounces back with two or three crazy results on the trot. It’s unbelievable.

Howe's ability to get buy-in from players who don't even make the matchday bench might be his greatest superpower. These aren't even young prospects, they are players who clearly have no long-term future at the club. Not only do they somehow stay happy and match-fit, their skills actually improve, which is something I've honestly never seen in the context of any sport.