alexf

Wissa would make it a quadruple of hijacked bids by cartel clubs this summer. Quintuple if we count Chelsea twice for Delap and Pedro. Because I think Spurs have the money, the CL pull, the fact he can stay in London so doesn't have to relocate his family and also chance to link up with the manager he knows well again. Bit annoying that the one summer we finally had money to do some business again, most of our first choice targets are being pinched.

Isak can't play 60+ games. Not at his top level anyways. Every season we have had him so far he has missed games and also played with knocks/not 100% loads of times.

They have been bailed out a few times now whenever they need it for extraordinary fees that no one else is paying, so yeah something is dodgy there. That Diaby lad was abit of a flop really and they should have had to take a hit as no one in Europe was paying them what they paid to take him. But in came Saudi with the full whack, even though Diaby is a relative nobody and won't move the dial for their league at all. Same for Duran, seemed like behind the scenes he was abit of a nob and yes he was having a good season etc but no one else was coming to Villa with that sort of fee to try and take him and then to just give him away for free on loan 6 months later just proves something ain't right there. Would be like us buying Ekitike for £70-80m then just loaning him out to someone in January. Just wouldn't happen.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned in all this is....surely the other cartel clubs won't just sit by and let Liverpool have a free run at Isak if we agreed to sell him. Surely he almost ensures a period of Liverpool dominance if they get him and those with the cash to compete with them won't want to allow that to happen. Even if they don't need him you would think Man City will join the race even just to drive up the price atleast.

Did anyone clock how smooth and fluid his first touch and pass was, compared to everyone else in that drill they were doing in the training vid? Different gravy this fella.

Was he injured last year? Barely remember him kicking a ball for Fulham? Surprised they would want him back.

And they aren't even the worst examples. There have been so many players that looked great elsewhere but for whatever reason the premier league can sometimes just overwhelm some. Maybe it's he speed or intensity or something but it's happend time and again to high rated players. I'm sure Ekitike has all the attributes and if our scouts have deemed him good value then it's a safe bet he might be a success. There are never any guarantees. But players like Isak, Salah etc are rare commodities and don't come along that often. So chances are he will be good but won't live up to the price tag he's going for now.

Indykalia is the the account that posted that weird letter to nufc to let Isak join his dream club or something bullshit earlier in the summer wasn't it. Also that video on the other page reminded me of another pet hate. News outlets like sky and many others on YouTube etc continuously posting pictures of players in the shirt colours of the teams linked to them long before a deal is even close to happening. I don't even like it when I see it done for us in Newcastle shirts. It's cringe and disrespectful.

Those laughing at the tenuous Man U link...he did say in that interview posted that he was a Man U fan growing up. Still if he was a true Man U fan then traditionally he should be refusing to join Liverpool on that principal alone. Anyways I'm also ambivalent about this now too. Only allowed myself to get slightly drawn in and watch a compilation of him when it looked like a deal was close the other evening but now back to not giving a shit and just preferring that we ensure we still have Isak over anything else. Plus I think the fee being quoted to likely get him is a bit ridiculous for the small sample of his potential we have seen so far. He is far more likely to flop in England than necessarily become the next Isak. I think I'd be happy if we nail all our other position targets with that money and then whatever is left over we try and pick up some depth in CF elsewhere. If we can't get him at the the £70-75m we were hoping for.

I'm actually pleased about the Longstaff news because that to me indicates we are in for a new midfielder who hopefully will be able to bring more than Sean was able to last year.

Christ if that doesn't put into context the inflation in football these days. No intended offense to Sean, but the world record fee at the time for Big Al is roughly the same as a one year left on his contract Sean Longstaff in 2025.

Lol if Liverpool follow us around for every transfer now until we agree to sell them Isak. Just flaunting that superior PSR position over us and scuppering ever player we go for

Would be good to have matching bids and then get an old school style transfer of having Keegan and Fergie holding meetings and persuading the player to join their club. Unfortunately will never happen as their wage brackets are a completely different level to ours. If he joins Liverpool there are two possible outcomes. He develops into an even better version of Isak and they don't want him anymore, or he is Nunez MK II.

No one's biting now Froggy. We've moved on to despising Liverpool more now, Man U are old news.

Now enter Chelsea to out bid everyone..

Cunha definitely jumped too soon. Should have waited to see what other options were available to him this summer.

If we give him the pay rise he wants but he's already indicated that he wants to leave next summer, I can see maybe why the club have hesitated if it means paying out near £10m extra over 12 months if he is going to leave anyway, especially if he and his agent are insisting on a release clause being inserted which could affect us maximising a sale fee. It's a big risk ofcourse and if it was £10m cost to keep him happy and performing at his best instead of sulking and downing tools then it's probably worth it. But don't think he's necessarily that type of character and + if we bump him to £300k a week then our wage structure is messed up and you'll get Tonali's agent, Bruno's etc all expecting bump ups aswell from their £100k bracket.

Even if we got silly money it still doesn't really make sense for us to allow him to move this summer and especially to a rival if we have any ambitions to progress ourselves. We proved last year that on our day we can beat Liverpool on the big occasion. We allow him to move there, it basically ensures Liverpool likely stay top of the pile for the foreseeable. We lose the main thing that is helping us stay ahead of the rest of the pack of chasing clubs like Villa etc and we fall backwards. Not quite the same but it's abit like if Liverpool had sold Salah to Man City when they were ahead of Liverpool and winning all the league titles and because they could afford to offer more in wages and possibly more trophy success. They would have said no chance at any cost because how are you supposed to close the gap and catch up to the teams above you if you give them your best players and increase that gap exponentially. Not to mention Salah will be off in a year or two and there's no guarantee they can replace him with equal quality so they will naturally be less of a force without him.

He clearly did what most of them are stupidly doing and put €'s instead of £'s in his tweet and then it makes more sense that Liverpool were trying for £100-120m. Which was widely reported yesterday as their opening valuation.

Also the news outlets jumping on the "it's Newcastle or no one" line. Surely that just translates as, we are the only official bid on the table currently. Not that the player would turn down other clubs for us.

That bandana or whatever looks cringe asf but it's kind of endearing how his barnet gets worse everytime you see him. Think he'll have a better season this year if he stays. He's a very driven individual looking to improve and hopefully he keeps progressing. He'll have to because with Elanga arriving, Barnes and Murphy's form from last season and the possibility of an Ekitike or a player of that ilk still to arrive, he won't be a guaranteed starter, especially if he's out of form.

Highly likely this is mostly agent driven and he's trying to get the best wage for his client by showing that Liverpool want our player and how much they are willing to pay him in wages and that he's clearly a top bracket player so we need to pay him accordingly. The thing is the club don't have to do anything and could even keep him on his £100k or whatever he earns now. Only risk is if Isak would then sulk for a year and play below his levels.

A sensible post. Yeah you don't just pay out the max value if they can be bought for considerably less. If we had a £200m release clause for Isak but we're happy to deal at £150m, teams wouldn't just slap the extra 50 down "just to get it done" there is far more nuance and consequences to overspending for us that has to be considered. If the lad can be got for £70-75m then we are in. But if the price climbs to the 85-90m release clause then we walk away. The lad had one good season in Germany, the price already is inflated at £70m.

Because the initial noises were that we were close to agreeing a fee around £70m which was probably acceptable for us to pay out, but the release clause is rumoured to be around £86m. So we add on £16m just like that because Liverpool have allegedly threatened to bid aswell? Unfortunately £16m + any additional costs in agent fee % etc could mean the difference between getting a new GK or CB. We have seen how strict PSR is and the club won't risk spending beyond it's means. If we can't get Ekitike at the price we value him because the cartel clubs want to play politics then fine we have to just deal with that unfortunate circumstance and move on.

Also wouldn't be surprised if teams have caught in to our relatively good track record with signings recently and thought "if Newcastle are seriously in for them then they must be good" seems to be what Chelsea do anyways.