timeEd32

Basing complaints about spending around net spend, ignoring wages, and ignoring revenue while also wondering how we haven’t sold Fraser yet and saying Maxi can’t go under any circumstances is all going to be the end of me.

It's how we got Isak. We definitely have some solid valuations on players and if the selling club is asking for far above that we just move on (or wait).

It does because it's within the 3 year period, but they will come off sooner than they would have had we not done that. "From an accounting perspective" is all that matters for FFP. Hayden is "only" on around £22k/wk according to multiple sources. Fraser a bit over £40k and Hendrick slightly under. The three combined are a little over £5m per season. We didn't write off Fraser's wages and he's probably the most attractive of the three, so I'm really hoping we can convince someone to take him.

I have no idea what the market is for Targett, but if we can sell him for £12m+ to help fund a serious LB upgrade it would be a no brainer.

I think it will be a Gordon / Miggy platoon but yes, the Gordon haters better be ready to see quite a bit of him.

I hope they are always behind us but it would be incredibly refreshing if Newcastle and Villa, two historically big clubs, barged into the closed shop at the top. It’s really quite unfortunate Man City are who they are with Pep because if you take them out I’m not sure how you could possibly predict a champion, top 4, or top 6 right now.

Pretty hilarious they threw in the August and R&A membership for Al-Rumayyen. Bold.

Word on the street is our base for the USA tour is in the Atlanta area and the team is just flying up to Philly and NJ for the matches. That's a bummer for my stalking plans.

Not sure I've ever wanted a player to succeed more than Gordon at this point.

This is probably far too sentimental, but I hope Eddie rotates enough so that the first XI in the first home Champions League game is: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Longstaff, Bruno, Willock, Miggy, Isak, Joelinton

When a player is given an extension you can use those new years to spread the fee out even further. Obviously it’s never announced if the club is doing that so there’s guesswork involved, but in most cases I assume they would. Even with the new UEFA rules that cap amortization at 5 years you can extend it further with a contract extension, which is now also capped at five years from the date of the extension. In Maxi’s case the difference is pretty negligible either way.

Did some rough math here:

I don't want him to be. I made a previous post about how that's my least favorite part of the potential Barnes signing. If you put him in this imaginary XI then Joelinton or Barnes is on the bench. Either way the point stands that our bench is much better than it was a year ago.

#amortisation

Not sure if it's already been discussed in here but they had plenty of time to get him a shirt with his name/number on it if it was confirmed, which makes me think he'll be taking an existing number from someone.

If we sign Barnes and sell Maxi our bench is already greatly improved from the beginning of last season. Defensively is where it needs some serious help. Wilson Gordon / Miggy Willock Longstaff Murphy Anderson Targett Lascelles

Fraser - £2.17m through 2024/25 We should be offering him a free helicopter / private jet to anywhere in the world if we can shed those wages. Lewis - ~£2m through 2024/25 (£6m amortization remaining; £3m per year) I'm assuming we'd want some kind of fee for him. If we could get £6M or more I'm guessing he'd be gone. Targett - £5.2m through 2025/26 (£11.25m amortization remaining; £3.75m per year) For FFP purposes he is costing us almost £9m per year for the next three years -- that's half a Tonali/Isak in terms of fee + wages. If he's not playing semi-regularly then I'd probably rank him #1 overall in terms of the benefit of moving him on. Krafth - £2.86m through 2023/24 Unfortunately with his injury and the fact it sounds like he's still recovering it seems like he's probably just a sunk cost for this season. I didn't realize what he was on until last week and I was genuinely shocked. Dubravka - £2m through 2024/25 or Darlow - ~£1.5m through 2024/25 Bringing back Karius gives us the flexibility to move on one of these two. Seems like Darlow is most likely. ------------------------------------ Getting rid of two of Fraser / Lewis / Krafth / Dubravka / Darlow would pay for Bruno's rumored wage increase for the next two years. Getting rid of three of them would essentially pay the wages of a Trippier / Isak / Tonali level earner.

Donovan's point is ridiculous on multiple levels, including the fact this event he's saying he needs to be ready for is three years from now.

This tactical alteration thing may have some truth in it, but it also feels way too overblown and quite convenient as there's not really a way to disprove it. He's not Messi and it doesn't matter how good he is if he's not first choice for the manager. Plus, it's not "dumb as fuck" when you do the math: Barnes in: £35m fee, 5 year deal - £80k / wk (double current reported wages) FFP: £7m/yr amortized fee + £4.16m/yr wages = £11.16m/yr Maxi out: £40m fee FFP: £40m - remaining £6.75m amortization (estimate based on extension) = £33.25m profit + £3.64m wages saved per year 2023/24 - £36.89m in/saved - £11.16m spent = £25.73m profit 2024/25 - £3.64m saved - £11.16m = £7.52m loss 2025/26 - £3.64m saved - £11.16m = £7.52m loss That's a £10.5m profit even looking out to the 25/26 three year period, but that £25m profit is even more important for this season's and next season's three year period given the spending we had to do over the last two years and the lack of salable assets / commercial revenue. We are going to have to sell players. We are going to have to sell players that are good and other clubs want.

The Philadelphia 76ers and a General Manager they had about a decade ago. The process was multiple years of blatant tanking to collect top draft picks.

There was a narrative forming around Maddison about not fully judging him in a downtrodden relegated side - “he’d be back to his best, etc.” For some reason Barnes isn’t being afforded the same. He’s also being criticized for various deficiencies, while glossing over his output in the most important stat. I’d hope at this point most would be confident that we know his weaknesses, we know where we think he can improve, and we know how he improves the team. Also, you can’t call it a like for like sideways swap with ASM (if we do sell him) without acknowledging that that swap could essentially pay for another player.

For £35m it’s hard to complain about this. If we were signing a player for that amount who had double digit G+A three years running in a top foreign league people would have their pants down. It makes even more sense if we sell Maxi because of the FFP boost that would give us. I think the thing I like least about it is it probably means Joelinton more frequently at LCM and that means Joe Willock more frequently … on the bench? I want more Willock.

Shot straight at the keeper, needlessly gave the ball away, and an obvious booking when beaten for pace. What a fucking waste of money.

Following up with some info from a(n admittedly small) study on top NFL running backs (a brutal position full of cutting / twisting / turning): Excluding players who retired after their ACL injury, the vast majority of players were more efficient in yards per attempt, yards per touch, and fantasy points per game in the second year following ACL surgery. Age does seem to matter. Younger backs in this sample (younger than 26) were more likely than veteran backs to have a bounce-back season in year two after ACL surgery, at least when you look at efficiency metrics and fantasy points per game. Unfortunately, late career ACL injuries have the potential to be career-threatening. I'm not sure I even care if it's on the more expensive side (~£50m). He could be a transformative signing.