timeEd32

For sure, might have even forced his way out this coming summer. But we'd be better off.

Struggling to stop thinking about what might have been after this weekend. The whole summer and season is different if Liverpool hadn't swooped in.

Counter attacks from corners is tracked. Wish I had access to the data. Liverpool was most successful last season; we were 19th in terms of turning defending a corner into a counter. I know you mean the other way though, don't have that.

The top 3 in that list make up 3 of the top 4. Man City and Liverpool are first and second in open play goals.

There’s little reason to believe agents so he’s probably full of shit. But I also don’t believe unknown sources at rival clubs or Ornstein (or any other journalists) interest in or ability to filter out the bullshit, so if we told me this was phase one of Arsenal following Liverpool’s how to unsettle a player playbook I could be convinced to believe that too.

I'm not arguing anything against them other than the fact they are spending just like we are. They've done a better job of playing the system than we have, particularly in the last two years. There's likely some blame in there for Eddie, but I put that far more on the club's owners and directors (or lack thereof).

Not as if they haven't spent a penny in the time since. Onana, Maatsen, Malen, Guessand, Abraham, and all the loans. The volume of their business is dizzying honestly. And that's where I'd start with any comparison of the two clubs -- since the 2023/24 summer window closed we've had a revolving cast of people in charge of both the club and its transfer business. We have not been run very well.

I'm not arguing Howe hasn't been backed (and I'm pretty sure the comment about that was referring to this month). He's gotten every penny available, which is the best thing you can say about PIF. I am very tired of some putting Emery on a pedestal when it's basically arguing which identical twin is more handsome. They've both done excellent jobs.

That's an incredibly disingenuous metric to use considering the starting squads and their use of free transfers / loans with high wages (you can, of course, argue we should have used those more). Wage growth from 2020 - 2024 Aston Villa : £108.8m > £252m Newcastle: £107m > £219m Their wages remain similarly higher in the latest Deloitte numbers.

We might get away with it -- I hope we get away with it because the freak out will be immense -- but we're putting a lot on our backline being able to remain fit through the next 6 weeks as well as Tino returning on his expected timeline.

I mean yeah, that was the whole strategy initially. Underperforming / relegated British players and under the radar / flawed continental players. It comes with risk, but ultimately it's why we were able to sign those players. If you wait until they aren't risky then this past summer is evidence of what happens.

If there's any truth in this they must be missing a decimal point in the price.

6 weeks or so ago I had some doubts watching him about whether or not he wanted to be here. Having a baby and being tired seemed to make the most sense, but this would certainly explain his form. The Tonali we had from December 2024 to a couple months ago was a revelation. The one we have now is a bit of a liability; I really hope we don't get another few months of this and then an exit.

(sorry, this started as a response to the Barnes narrative and then meandered through some of my frustrations with the anti-Eddie stuff) If you are unhappy with where the first XI or squad is currently and/or you're unhappy with our lack of business for two years then it can be traced back to that window. It's not about any one specific player, but it is a fact that we overspent. The most generous explanation is the overspending was a calculated gamble backed by a belief there'd be an easy exit ramp come June. The gamble was European progression / the ability to compete in the PL and starting with the CL draw just about everything went against us. Our group, the injuries, Tonali, more injuries, the handball in Paris, and then more injuries. The presumed exit ramp was that Bruno's release clause would be triggered or to sell Joelinton (Ashworth's plan), but Ashworth leaving in the middle of that season meant that we no longer had a plan (that assumes we did have a plan; there's a more damning alternate history that would say we were just drunkenly maxing out the credit card all summer). That led to the Anderson/Minteh scramble, which was unfortunate. The reason this entire debate seems preposterous to some is that we unarguably hit a home run in terms of the players we brought in. It's just that almost all of them took a year to have a significant impact (which should maybe be a lesson when making judgments about this past summer's business). The amount we spent that summer though is also why we then went three windows without adding anyone of significance, which I do think has caught up to us a bit this season. Ultimately the players we bought that summer and the ones we didn't sell are a big reason we won a trophy less than 12 months ago. A trophy many thought they'd never see, so I find it really difficult to care too much about Yankuba Minteh and what might have been. Those players are also the reason we're currently in the Champions League, progressing in the CL, and on course to absolutely shatter our revenue record. We seem to have (over)reacted to what happened in 2023/24 by telling Staveley to get lost and hiring Mitchell behind the manager's back. You can then draw a solid line connecting those decisions to the Isak saga (it is very possible Isak would have been a prick regardless, but we did not help ourselves). A lesser manager may have crumbled and NUFC would be run by Paul Mitchell right now. Instead, Eddie went and won a trophy and finished 5th which gave him all of the power (probably fair to say too much power) because we took forever to sort out the top of the house. You can be upset with Eddie for a number of things, but I'm easily blaming the following ahead of him for everything other than his hilarious obsession with making subs at 60 minutes: 1) PSR and the cartel clubs - they haven't been able to completely hold us down, but it's done enough to significantly impact our squad building. It forces us to make close to zero missteps, which we have somehow come close to doing (at least through 2024/25) 2) PIF - as far as transfer business they've allowed us to spend every possible penny, but they've yet to make the significant commitment to the training ground or stadium (I still think it's coming, but it's definitely been slow). They are ultimately responsible for the lack of leadership at the top this past summer. 3) Eales - I don't want to be too harsh on him given the health issues which may have impacted him in ways we don't fully know, but you can make a pretty long list of marks against him. Notably, he needs to carry some of the blame for not having a better plan in June 2024 and he's directly responsible for Mitchell and how that went down. If I'm being pessimistic the final tally on this season probably looks like a 9th place league finish, Champions League R16, League Cup semifinal, FAC 4th round, and revenues over £400m for the first time. You can create a nice sky is falling scenario where none of last summer's signings come good, multiple players leave, and we waste this summer as well. If that happens it will be a true setback and we'll likely have a new manager sometime in 2027. Or you could zoom out a bit, recognize this very well might be a transitional season, be excited about a summer with a leadership group in place, look forward to some very big games coming up, and put some trust in the man who hasn't really steered us wrong yet.

The benevolence of the modern footballer is really overlooked. They get passed around for extraordinary money and then entertain us for free. It's remarkable.

Why does Luis Enrique keep getting mentioned? Right up there with Pep and Klopp in terms of the least likely options.

The impact of not being able to add anyone new for that period of time is definitely overlooked, as well as the fact that our inability to offer more in wages forced us to miss out on certain players. This doesn't excuse what is looking like an underwhelming summer, but hard to take any argument that downplays the impact of PSR too seriously.

Competitively speaking the coefficient is basically meaningless now. It does still determine some of the payout, though less than it used to. The value pillar is from European and non-European TV payouts and is based on how much a country's broadcasts are putting in plus a club's coefficient. The first part means every English club ranks pretty well, but then we rank low among the 36 in 5 year coefficient. The other English clubs are getting €10-20m more than us for that portion of the payments.

Fair play for admitting it, but seriously? This helps reinforce my opinion that there seem to be a lot of supporters not enjoying the Champions League performance or appreciating yet another League Cup semifinal. The league form is not good, but I don’t know why it needs to cause this extreme of a reaction when there are other good things. And if you’re expecting consecutive CL qualifications then your expectations are too high. And considering that just about every manager and play is complaining about the number of fixtures and the difficulty of playing multiple games every week you’d think our best manager this century would get a little grace when we have half the resources and smaller squads than they do.

Not really his fault but watching him after Ekitike is pretty depressing.

Oh fun, they are back.

Have a feeling Eddie will be furious about taking a short corner there.

If we were playing one game a week I’d be annoyed. Not sure what he’s meant to do under the circumstances though.

So frustrating watching us give the ball away over and over again.

Nothing to do with 60 years of history and double the money.