Gallowgate Toon

Most Barnes finish ever. Satisfying. Good run from Wilson. He's been making weird choices today when we've had a break sticking very central but that was a lovely bit of movement.

And one of the reasons they finished behind us is because they conceded a lot more goals. Klopp isn't going to change his style much so they currently don't feel any better off in that department to me - he's not brought in super athletic midfield pressers or players known for defensive nous. Looks like the plan for Szlob could be as an #8 but he's only really played as an AM or winger in his career. Still time for it all to change, of course.

Premier League Panel was really good but I think he's gone a bit too nerdy gimp.

Also, while Villa look strong, Emery has previous for starting very well and then plateauing to a more natural (still very good) level in the league. Maybe this is because he puts so much emphasis on cups.

Liverpool's mid looks talented but lightweight to me, not enough to mask some of the defensive frailties they showed last season across a full campaign.

He's getting some flak, like he's meant to be a really good guy and not your typical commercial sleazebag. Obviously his job is to grow revenue but he's apparently a big picture person rather than an opportunist. Commercial departments usually have input into general sale/memberships/season ticket plans but it's very small fry for them compared to sponsorships, partnerships and hospitality so clubs usually have a Head of Ticketing or equivalent to properly lead it. Arsenal had this until late 2021 at least (actually, they might still). NUFC don't appear to have that structure, from what I can tell, so he's likely to have more direct input into this. Either way, there's no way that Eales hasn't been across this in some form, even just for sign-off.

I think it's the latter, unfortunately. The club were looking to move to some new vendors and starting a 'digital transformation' last season; I presume they're still figuring this out following new hires as the ticketing vendor is still SeatGeek (pretty sure it was the same last season). A couple of PL clubs have moved away from SeatGeek this year as they have limitations but they're good enough to handle a better system than this. I don't think the club have a formal Head of Ticketing yet which is quite common at other clubs; so I presume decisions are currently split between the Marketing & Commercial leads with sign-off from above.

Yup, I'd agree that this summer would be a headache - I think he's a fantastic squad striker to have in our position. His age does matter though when it comes to our position with FFP, doesn't it? As we've seen this summer, we will likely need to sell to buy again at some point, but we presumably don't want to be selling Isak or Bruno as we want to meet competitive aims long-term. That then begs the question about who is the next eligible sale to help us progress and when is best to make our move to get as much out of that move as possible. If we're as FFP-obsessed as we appear to be, I'd be pretty shocked if the club aren't already considering when we'd be willing to cash in on a very good player who is starting to get older and has had significant injury issues so often in his career, tbh.

From a pure footballing perspective, it sounds like a nonsense idea, but from an FFP-enforced view (which we appear to strictly be adhering to) it unfortunately isn't, is it? As we've seen with ASM this window, we will have to sell someone else in the next year who holds some decent value to continue to make room for future investment, unless we start going crazy with commercial deals for official pillow partners or make the CL again. Even then, I imagine we'll still have to make some sales. I love Wilson as well and would be way more gutted to see him go than I was Maxi, but he's one of the other saleable assets we have that could fetch money while having pretty big drawbacks around his long-term future (age, injuries). Feel like if we were Pep/City in this scenario, they'd be looking to make the move now, tbh.

Being brutal, this window is probably our last chance to get good money for him and the pragmatic FFP choice would've been to try and move him on (if there was an interested party) over someone like ASM. Great season, minimal injury issues, some time left on the contract, mature player but not 'old' etc. Not all of those things will be true next summer. Toney would be the ideal replacement.

Outside of City and maybe Arsenal, there are some pretty significant weaknesses in every other squad at present.

Really wouldn't be shocked if there were some big underlying issues with his hammies. He definitely changed his running style for at least a few games this year. Reminded me of Dyer who did the same towards the end of his time here for at least a few games and had a really different warm-up routine to the rest of the team. The level of strapping too.

His numbers while being pressured are excellent, I think only Rodri did better than him in this department last season. Every player loses the ball or has games where it happens more often, it's just more pronounced with him because he takes risks in a dangerous area of the pitch. That's necessary for us though because we push high up positionally so our deepest mid needs to work hard to progress play.

Don't think Liverpool have the defensive balance in midfield yet.

Think it's notable that the 2 standouts this preseason have been young local lads with a point to prove. Lots of the senior pros feel like they're preparing for a busy campaign. As you'd expect, he's very raw at certain aspects but that really could work to our advantage in the right circumstances this season.

I'm pretty neutral about him going in football terms but he was a fantastic personality and went above-and-beyond to connect with the community.

Think we'd have to go 4-2-3-1 or some equivalent to make it work which probably suits Tonali and Guimaraes but none of our other central midfielders.

Like the cut of Barnes' jib. Not a game where we had loads of the ball but liked his intent when he got it. Wilson already getting onto him about getting crosses in - love it. See Bruno has been getting some stick but I thought he played well three really nice passes to Barnesy in particular.

Brighton should be a bit worried, tbh. They played a strong side and had lots of ball but relatively little to show for it despite being up against Matt Ritchie in central midfield and a reserve defence bar Pope.

There'll surely be some daft add-on clauses in there to get up to €40m.

Found the latest Athletic article on him a bit weird, like.

it sounded different in my head compared to how it came across written down. Iirc, the only evidence given around his supposed attitude problems was that he was seen at a club on the eve of a game once and had some handbags in training. Both of these are standard fare across football, especially for teenagers, so it seemed an unfair characterisation at the time for what seems like normal behaviour for his age. His on-pitch attitude has always been fine, apparently.

Christ, didn't know he'd been here for 3 years. I actually still think there's some talent there that's just been wasted.

18 year old isn't a model professional. Shocker.

Have a feeling we'll see his class in the CL faster this season than the PL. You can tell he's working things out a bit on the fly. Feels like he's playing it safe while scanning others' movements.