timeEd32

I think it started as a fun play thing that became way more difficult than he ever would have imagined. But he also bought in at a great time financially so now he's riding the wave of TV money. Likely happy to cash out but only for a premium.

Looking back the first report I can see is June 2 in the Times. Five days later the Times said he preferred Chelsea to Newcastle. Over a week after that his agent was talking to Goal.com saying it was still up in the air. Now seeing how vocal his agent was to the media and since it sounds like agent fees were the reason Abraham fell through, I'd guess this was the same. The fees being paid to agents is insane and I can understand why we don't want to pay them, but it's the price of doing business these days. It's like Pearl Jam fighting Ticketmaster in the 90s, except Pearl Jam was doing it on principle and trying to change the industry. We are just cheap bastards.

"Caballero was a free agent, so Benitez didn’t anticipate problems getting the first-class keeper he wanted. The Argentine agreed wages and was looking forward to playing regularly." I assumed when that didn't happen that we weren't willing to pay the wages he had been on / what Chelsea were offering. If it's true wages were agreed I can't imagine what we were fucking about with but it's pathetic.

2 with Rafa. 9 without. That probably won't change for the next 6 months.

Chopey, I'm a born and bred Geordie and I'll never support another team til the day I die. Kindly f*** right off, you absolute rectangle. There's not a chance I'm settling for now being 'good'. We've got an absolute cretin for an owner and he's trying to push his 'we're only Newcastle United', small-time rhetoric that some people will fall for. Not me. We're Newcastle United and we deserve more. We deserve a club that at the very least tries to be better. We have the best manager we could possibly hope for and he's being shafted big time. How any true supporter can stand by and claim these are the good times is beyond me. Give your f***ing head a shake, man. I gave my head a shake and a question came out would rather have a good owner and a s*** manager ? Yes, actually. 1000x yes. Managers come and go. If we had a good owner there would be long term hope.

Arsenal x-x Leicester City Watford 1-3 Liverpool Chelsea 2-0 Burnley Crystal Palace 1-2 Huddersfield Town Everton 1-1 Stoke City Southampton 2-0 Swansea City West Bromwich Albion 0-0 Bournemouth Brighton 0-4 Manchester City Newcastle United 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur Manchester United 2-0 West Ham United Won't nominate a game as I missed the deadline.

Yet another? We have Shelvey, who will miss at least 5 games through injury/suspension. Merino and Hayden, while promising, are completely unproven. If Diame is playing we're in trouble. I suppose you can count Saivet as well but clearly Rafa doesn't rate him much. We could definitely use another CM.

"Newcastle United, welcome back to the Premier League" from NBC. https://www.facebook.com/NBCSportsSoccer/videos/1543778342368523/

Think there will be at least one other. Aren't many high profile games most of the weeks, especially Southampton and Burnley away. Will probably get picked at least four times in December alone.

I've seen a few people say things that lead me to believe they wish we had built a new stadium before the SJP expansion. Is that a common opinion? I wouldn't have thought that would be popular.

Pretty sure it's an obligation for Merino. We just have no money (allegedly) so we're deferring the payment.

Rotherham away.

So Kenedy to provide competition at LB, across the midfield, and as a LWB option if we do try three at the back. A proper goalkeeper, a striker, and either a #10 or another CM and we'd be in decent shape all things considered.

As an outsider with little connection to the city outside of the football club I can tell you that it is a beautiful place and miles better than anything I've seen in Leeds or Manchester. My wife, who has zero connection to the city, really loved it and she's generally 'meh' about England.

Why not? Edit: This is interesting - hadn't read that before.

Ligue 1 is really fucked if the top clubs can afford Neymar and Ronaldo (even hypothetically) and Massadio Haidara would be the highest paid player at St. Etienne.

Comes from here I think: http://www.asm-vizu.net/showthread.php?19068-Infos-provenant-du-cousin-de-la-belle-s%9Cur-du-voisin&p=1025951&viewfull=1#post1025951

I genuinely don't believe people actually think the bubble is going to burst if i'm honest, wanting it sure but believing it? nah, there's zero evidence to actually suggest it's going to do anything but grow. I'm pretty sure that Sky subscriptions are going down for a start. Aye and i have said this before but the reason the Premier League is so huge has nothing to with the English viewership, if it were then why does Italian and Spanish tv deals pale in comparison? It's because worldwide they are nothing compared to the Premier League, while the American,African, Asian and what not continues to grow it does not matter. It's incredibly short sighted to just look at what Sky and BT are doing, that's not the reason the league is so big even if they are the ones paying the big contracts atm. The current situation is exactly because of BT though. It's not at all short sighted, it's just acknowledging that that's the reason for the latest increment and if their increased spending and Sky's increased spending starts failing then it'll have repurcussions on the money involved in the Premier League. The bit in bold is what's short-sighted. As soon as Sky and/or BT determine it's not financially viable for them anymore there will be a host of offers coming in from all over the place. Also, overseas rights currently account for just about 1/3rd of the total payout. I would expect this share to continue to grow overall, but it's already more significant to clubs in the bottom half as overseas rights benefit all clubs equally whereas domestic rights disproportionately benefit those at the top because of the way it's distributed. For the top 6, the overseas money was less than 30% of their payment for last season (as low as 26% for Chelsea), but it was over 40% for those in the bottom 3. There have already been reports of some of the deals for the next cycle (2019-2022). NBC ponied up £1B for six years (which is double what they were paying in the last cycle). That plus new deals in China and part of Africa already have the next cycle at almost 50% of the current total. When all is said and done the next cycle will probably at least double the overseas rights, so this "bubble" has a ways to go.

The bubble will burst though, it is unsustainable. It doesn't mean it's happening straight away, it just means that we're still in the bubble, but it'll burst eventually with the way things are going. Why? It's not a bubble just because something has a high value.

Everyone needs to cool it with the bubble talk. There's absolutely nothing to suggest there's a bubble about to burst and all signs point to this continuing for the foreseeable future. It's like everyone for the last few years saying "there's a tech bubble, this is not sustainable." Guess what? Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix, etc keep seeing their stock rise. The rich are getting richer all over and the Premier League is at the top. It has global appeal timed with a shift in viewing habits that made live sports incredibly valuable and they are going to ride that wave into the next one, which will be the aforementioned tech companies trying to eat into the media landscape. At some point the rights deals will level off or decline a bit. Or maybe there's a global recession or World War III and this comes to a crashing halt. But if Ashley is planning for that eventuality then we won't be a Premier League club when the time comes.

According to ESPN it's done.

Real quotes and many of them. Almost sounds like he thinks they expect him to be able to navigate this league regardless of the squad. Just buy our world class manager some talent you fucking cunts.

Think it says more about the status Barcelona and Real Madrid have achieved. Think they are without question the two most attractive clubs in the world.

There's a lot of speculation here (https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2017/aug/08/premier-league-2017-18-preview-newcastle-united), but...

Coutinho to Barca done according to ESPN Deportes. £81.6m with bonuses that could take it to £108.8m.