McCormick

fuckingggg helllll!!! Trips!!!

Howe is an absolute wizard. What a courageous display from us. Brilliant.

State of That defending. Christ.

I remember some player responding in awe at one of his exclusives saying something like “wow this guy is good, I didn’t even tell my wife about this”. The guy has obviously has decent sources and rarely misses.

Alvarez, up until recently, has been pretty average, honestly. Up until last year, the guy was your basic cdm grafter; great defensively but couldn’t pick out a pass with any real precision. Not sure why but he’s been sooo much better with his passing recently and looks like a really good midfielder now. If you’re looking for someone energetic to break up play and lay it off, he’s very decent; just don’t expect any visionary chance-creating passes from him. In saying that, 50m seems an outrageous fee for the guy.

Sure, but that’s why he’s “only” going for 30m. Adding end-product to his already impressive skillset and we’d be looking at a much more prohibitive asking price.

He’s young and supremely talented; 4 years younger and better* than Sarr and Dennis who went/ are going for similar fees. *much higher ceiling at least and definitely a more unique style of player.

We’re seemingly prioritizing not getting bent over on transfer fees than getting in our targets. Must be getting to the point soon where we may have to bite the bullet or be left without the additions we wanted. 60m and 30m for Maddison and Pedro, respectively, aren’t particularly unreasonable asking prices. Interesting to see how well our bullishness has served us once the window closes in less than 2 weeks time.

We still won’t meet their valuations imo.

Palace have a very good squad and manager; said it a few times that they’ll do very well this season. Been making incredibly smart moves in the transfer market for years now.

There isn’t a Newcastle tax. A Premier League tax, sure. Teams will tend to sell if you get to or close enough to the value they put on their player. This idea that teams will willingly miss out on a great payday and take a lower offer from other teams just to stick it to Newcastle is ridiculous.

A bird in m’ha- nah fuck it.

His hit-rate is impeccable though.

Ugh.

Be hilarious if he’s been given some ambassadorial role at the club

Wouldn’t be in my best interests to speculate on that

Extended to 2027 recently didn’t he?

Most if not all PIF strategic investments have been “ready-made solutions”; buying an international event company (despite having a few of their own failing ones), buying Uber despite having Saudi-made, government operated ones like Jeeny and countless other examples. KSA PLC has a clear focus on quick growth and success and this has been a cornerstone for their economic development for years, decades even. You say Yet KSA’s ascension over the last 50 years has been centered on exactly this. They didn’t have the expertise/ operational structures before (and still don’t really) but did have a lot of money; so they went out and bought it. Even culturally, the idea of buying something less than stellar and fixing-it-up isn’t really something that you can ascribe to the majority of (high-net-worth) Saudis. Buying success now, instead of slow-build success is a key part of their growth model. Obviously giga projects are slightly different but this NUFC project obviously doesn’t fall into this category.

So am I . Saudi’s tend to want success quickly and will usually pay a premium for that. With PIF in particular, they love a ready-made solution.

Sorry mate but that’s utter nonsense. If we’re gonna generalize an entire culture, then history suggests it’s the complete opposite.

I shouldn’t have watched that Watford podcast that @Kid Icarus posted. I rated him before but I didn’t realize just how highly he’s thought of there (they think he’s a 50m player). I now want him more and less convinced we’ll sign him .

come on. Surely it’s fair enough to judge each potential deal individually? Anyway, decent player, great potential and fits our play style. Happy enough if this goes through.

As I said earlier, it’s not a bold take to suggest that 30 million for a prospect who has yet to have a break-out year at the top-level is bordering on a bit mental. And this is from someone who does rate the guy. …But then you see Everton rejecting a 45m bid for Gordon and nothing makes sense anymore. So, yeah.

Not sure about that. Forest and Wolves have proven that if you’re willing to pay the going rate, top players will join you just for the appeal of the Premier League.