kingxlnc

Second most important question: What's this signing done to our PSR 'headroom'

The most important question; Is he the Turkish Kuol or Minteh?

It’s all hypothetical anyway but surely it’s not a big jump to assume that with SBR coming in having finished 2nd, even if a rebuild was required at that point, he’d have done a better job than the bloke who did actually do it and finished 13th with some of the most drab and dour football ever? Keegan was a motivator, admittedly not much of a coach. Dalglish was more of an overall manager. SBR was both of those plus an excellent coach who could improve players. So even if there was no money to spend I don’t think the drop off would have been as big.

He had to start from a way lower base. The first two years we finished 11th with the dross from Gullits and Dalglish teams. Eventually he built his own side. yes a core of their players became key in SBR side (Given, Speed, Solano, Dyer) but given the chance to work with KK’s team from that high place we were in was infinitely better than when we did actually come in. Not only would we have had SBR 3 years earlier, where he was healthy and younger, we would have been getting him straight from Barca, where he had just managed Ronaldo, Pep, and Mourinho was his assistant. He would have probably come with him and our whole trajectory could have been different. Certainly the loss of reputation and prestige from finishing 13th and then 11th for four seasons really rammed home that the 2nd seasons were an anomaly instead of our rightful positions every year. Whereas taking Barcas manager who had just won 3 trophies could have gotten rid of our own trophy drought. I would have trusted SBR to rebuild KKs side with his wisdom and nous than what KD and RG ended up doing that’s for sure.

I understand but Robson was a great coach whereas Dalglish was more of a manager. Robson would have made ends meet and made it work way better than Kenny.

To this day if Robson had replaced Keegan we’d have a PL title under our belt, even if not straightaway but during SBR’s tenure. Give him Keegans team without needing to tidy up all of Dalglish and Gullits mess and given his contact book plus maintaining NUFCs reputation as one of the biggest clubs back then, you’re probably seeing the likes of Zidane and Ronaldo play here.

Agreed such an overrated manager was so pleased when he almost destroyed Liverpool in 2011 but they got rid before too much damage was done. Still spent 35m on Carroll

Would be happy with all of those. That would be a perfect summer tbh.

We either go super young, like Harrison and the Georgian or Turkish, ie not first team ready or we go full blown purple. we need a happy medium category where they have got decent credentials and could become decent first teamers

I agree but we are super slow with prospect monitoring, look at players like Perrone, Angelo, Vitor Roque from a few years ago. We monitor and scout for ages whereas other clubs just pounce and get them in. Forest, Chelsea, Man City, Brighton, Bournemouth in particular. 10-15m is a punt these days. We have to be less risk averse in my opinion. Put aside 30m a season for these types of signings. look at this Greek striker Brighton just bought. We were linked for ages also. All three Man City defender signings the same. I understand this Jan we weren’t in a position to buy but that’s not always been the case, we’ve been too perfectionist in my opinion.

Yes in 2012

Trafford / Pope* / Ruddy Tino/Trippier*/Krafth* New RCB/Schar/Lascelles* Botman/Burn Hall/Targett* Tonali/Miley Bruno/Longstaff*/New CM Joelinton/Willock* New RW/Murphy Isak/David/Osula Gordon/Barnes That is potentially a 25 man squad next season. Starters in bold. It doesn't scream out title contendors but it does have two decent players per position. Anyone with a * is potentially to be sold/replaced. Trafford, David, new RW, new RCB are the four absolute musts, as well as to sign a Longstaff replacement and maybe even a back up RB. Lots of holes to plug, that's for sure. Then to take time for them to learn Eddie Howe's system - could be another slow start to next season.

The denim one should make a reappearance that was a cool kit, the first kit I ever owned!

Wasn't Justin Kluivert primarily a RW or LW?

Would like David for that role

Chukeweze would have been nice cover for Almiron at least, a game changer from off the bench Can't have hurt - cheap loan. Cover for Barnes, even Isak

The new Amad

It is annoying to see how ruthless other PL clubs act when it comes to player purchases, we try and get everything perfect but others just buy with impunity

Wouldn’t even mind that as a spare body to cover Murph

So do we think there will be a nice surprise tomorrow at all?

Genuinely think Howe has us punching above our weight this season - the summer was SUCH a disaster. We've had 1 striker fit all season, 1 RW producing and another barely featuring and sold, 2 CB's inc best defender and the other an ex club captain out for half the season, the other ex captain with 10 assists last year barely featuring completely out of form. Having to pay £20m - a huge amount - in the top 12 all time NUFC purchases - and biggest outright purchase last summer (Hall was already confirmed before) for a GK that never features and a pointless outlay. Then being forced to lose Anderson and Minteh - probably 60-80M worth of young talent who have their best years ahead of them (neither would have been sold without PSR). Then getting rejected multiple times for our first choice signing in the summer, and our other freebie signing we had all but agreed. The other free signing turning out to be rubbish too. When you really put what we've had to deal with, we've honestly done amazingly. PSR has stifled our competitiveness but not killed our spirit thankfully. It's majorly frustrating though with what could have been. We keep saying we're 1-2 purples (RCB, RW, poss GK) away from a title-winning XI but the depth is really poor and can't be fixed in one summer. It really is 3-5 seasons away at our current run rate.

3

Honestly, we need to sign up a few free transfers to pad out the squad, David for example would be a great Wilson replacement and even to play alongside Isak. If we need to get rid of a 40-50m player I’d be willing to let Joelinton go and even Botman at a push. If we got a 90m plus offer for Gordon or Bruno potentially would let go but would rather not. I wouldn’t even mind a Barcelona/Bayern type of move for a purple (not Isak or Tonali) if it means we get 3-4 players in exchange, eg Christiansen, Raphina, Tel etc There are decent players going for 25m fees, Tomori, Danso for example. Even Khusanov would have been around the same. We definitley need to use more loans - especially in an attacking sense as the talent of game changers is low on the bench. Look to Saudi or the bigger clubs. Tel on loan would be good. Look to the French league it’s worked for us in the past

But it’s bordering on negligence how paper thin the squad is. injury to Isak, Osula starts injury to Tonali, Longstaff starts injury to Murphy, Willock starts out of position the drop off is huge and dangerous for our goals

Ironically if we had Anderson and Minteh we’d have young legs and less concerned about depth and a refresh. Even if Longstaff and Willock were allowed to leave with Almiron just those two it would definitely have been better for us.