McCormick

See where you’re coming from but I disagree. Everyone’s been saying it for years but if he could finish seasons the same way he starts them, he’d be considered world-class and out of our league. There’s games where he looks like a 100m player and others where you could sub him off for Jacob Murphy and the team would improve. If, and it’s a fairly big if, he can find even a teeny bit more consistency he’d be sensational for us.

Shearergol’s post has me imagining a world where we’re signing either Raphinha/Bowen/Sane. The most marquee of marquee RW signings that are -arguably- borderline realistic.

Watch nonce here but if he got it for 500k that would be an amazing deal; he could flip that and sell it for triple the money. If you’ve got the sway at the dealer, buying a RM is pretty much a license to print money for the filthy rich.

Barnes and Mbuemo always put up great g/a numbers. That’s not boring to me but to each their own I guess. edit: damn, npw

Impressive from West Ham if he ends up there.

Yeah, I don’t really rate David that highly, especially as a 9. His level is probably around lower-mid to mid-table imo.

Tbf though, that’s the same for pretty much any player.

That’s completely fair . Mechanical watches are fairly pointless, especially when you’re usually just checking the time on your phone anyway. I dunno though, I just like them.

As a Rolex (well, watches in general) collector, I feel personally attacked . If you don’t want all the flash and baggage that comes with a Rolex then just get a Tudor; they’ll fulfill all your tool watch requirements at a fraction of the price. Same company and basically what Rolex’s were 20 years ago. Rolex’s today are still simple and timeless(ha ha) for the most part. The added complications are just for Horology nerds and pushing the envelope for what watchmakers can achieve; which I love. For me, they still offer one of, if not the best value in terms of luxury timepieces in the market. In saying that, getting your hands on one at an AD is the most obnoxious buying experience in the world though.

Have an awful feeling that Villa will go in for Raphinha if Diaby does leave.

2 years of good development isn’t something to be sniffed at. See your point though. In any case, I’d definitely prefer Summerville.

Yeah but he’s like 20. That’s like saying Miley isn’t even our best midfielder. I really like Gnonto, but can see why people would be a bit deflated if he was to be our marquee rw transfer this summer.

He’s had a very poor season by all accounts. Think he received 2 red cards in the CL as well. Would fit in to our transfer strategy of buying players when their reputations have taken a hit; it was only last year when Benfica slapped a 100m euro price tag on him. You could probably get him for half that now. Risky but could have a huge payoff if last season’s form was just a blip.

Sorry, I meant “special” as in he’s got a really unique profile, not that he’s an elite-level player (at least not right now, anyway). The guy has all the tools, physically, and still so young; with a manager like Emery that’ll know how to use him, he’ll have a proper breakout season imo.

Onana is very underrated on here for whatever reason. He’s a special player imo; really good signing. Maatsen’s no slouch either. Decent to very good signings if you ask me, and I absolutely hate the Villa.

Guy’s always injured too.

I know it’s uncool to care about England games but man I’m a nervous mess for this one .

Not much point posting xi’s. You can copy and paste that for the next game if we make it through.

I don’t think I was that bad. People were talking about “why doesn’t MBS have a word” when it wasn’t going through so I was just bringing a more sensible take to the table, I guess . See my post above; I just said it wasn’t a priority and I stand by that now.

I don’t think I was skeptical that they were interested in buying us, I believe I was just trying to subvert expectations that we were as important a project to them than what many were thinking. I still stand by that; we’re 300m operation in a 900bn plus investment portfolio. They’ve much bigger fish to fry so to speak.

Was I? Apologies for that . I’ve just worked alongside PIF long enough to know they can sometimes make massive promises only to not deliver. I don’t know anything about how Newcastle fits in to their plans so I’m just speculating (without any real basis) like the rest of us.

Honestly, no idea. Best case scenario is they see us a strategically important investment for their “brand” (we’re certainly not making them any money) but that means having the more unpalatable aspects of sports-washing becoming more important. Who knows. It’s certainly significant one way or another.

Hopefully this isn’t part of PIF’s new remit to scale back and focus on projects that achieve higher growths. They’ve already partially curtailed a lot of their flagship projects so I don’t see why they’d start diverting more funds to Newcastle United- which is a relatively minuscule project in terms of returns and achieving their vision.

Cherki is a terrible fit for us. Super lazy and zero stamina, athleticism or professionalism; wish people would stop linking us to him.

If we want to make up ground we need to buy the best we can get right now, not mess around for 2 seasons developing prospects while our league position suffers; meanwhile our best players are being yanked off of us by CL teams. I get the whole PSR angle but the best way increase our revenues is to be successful; prize money and better commercial opportunities will follow. What we’ll be doing is buying for the here and now while also developing highly rated prospects. I believe that’s how we move forward as a club.