McCormick

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.

Fair. I just think that it’s not as out of the question as many are making out. A 65m+ offer comes in and they’re at least picking up the phone.

Because in 2 years he’ll be worth half that? Not saying they necessarily will but they’re reeling from not being able to get a 100m fee for Paqueta. For (let’s say for arguments sake) 65m we get a guaranteed high-performing PL player that pushes us up the league and they can spend half that on some highly rated 22 year old punt from abroad. Everyone’s a winner?

Bowen would be amazing for us and anything under 60-odd million would be good value as well for what he’d bring to the team. This is a make-or-break season for us; we really do need to challenge for a top 4 place or risk losing our key players to rivals, widening the gap. We need results quickly and Bowen is as close to guaranteed class as we can get in our current position. He’ll be under a lot more pressure to achieve this season, so if Howe thinks Bowen is the key to CL places then we should go for it.

I imagine it’d be the same for footballers under Saudi labor law. 1-5 years you’re entitled to half your monthly salary as an entitlement then 5+ it’d be the full gratuity.

If we need to sell players before the next PSR deadline, I’m blaming all of you dhgate misers.

Gasping for any scrap of transfer news now. Wonder if we’re waiting to sell first?

England - Netherlands semis screams nil-nil then pens .

Was cheering for Turkey but they look really tidy. Want Netherlands to win now for the easier game

I’ll shut up . Get in.