timeEd32

Douglas (I think): Following up from last week, has there been any contact between you and Paul this week or is it something that you've just kind of forgotten about really? Eddie: (laughing) I'm not gonna go into every week in terms of our contact, but collaboration as I've said last week is what we're looking to do to take the club forward. Hope: Have you spoken to Paul this week? Eddie: (raises eyebrows and nods towards Douglas) I think I've just answered that one, Craig. I'm not gonna go there. Hope: You're not gonna go there. Would it be good, beneficial, if you and others, him, whoever at the club did sit down and have a conversation and address some of the concerns that's been... Eddie: Just so people know I've had conversations with senior members of the board this week, so I'm in regular communication with them. And as I said, trying to collaborate, trying to work together for the benefit of the club. Always. That's always in my heart and always will be while I'm manager of the club. Followed by a very leading question about how Eddie has said he needs to unify the players, staff, and supporters. ---------------------------- It's clearly not all rainbows and sunshine between Eddie and Mitchell, but Hope is really trying to keep this issue front and center. Eddie seems very relaxed IMO.

I thought Bruno was on closer to £200k / wk?

Possibly no Isak… Barnes — Gordon — Miggy would be my preference. But guessing it will be Murphy.

We’re going to have to sell players. Players who are good. My comment has nothing to do with his form.

Because of his age Joelinton has to be on the list of players we'd consider selling for the right price. He feels like enough of a name that Saudi could be an option too. But the problem we have with him (and little Joe) is he offers unique attributes for which we have no alternative. Maybe we wouldn't be after a like replacement for Joelinton as maybe that's part of how we need to evolve, but it would definitely create a big gap.

This thread is annoying when Minteh is good and and when he's bad.

I'm increasingly dying to know the details of summer 2023. It just doesn't make sense at all in hindsight. We were going to buy Pedro in August '22 and then changed course and spent more than double on Isak. Then we bought Gordon in January. We had pushed things to the financial limit and knew we had to make a profit in 2023/24. On the plus side we had SELA starting and Champions League qualification. The unexpected CL money could have been the get out of PSR jail free card, but it almost seems like it became a noose. It's like we felt we had to buy more players and lose no one in order to compete in four competitions and, while I have tremendous sympathy for how the season actually played out, the entire plan seems flawed no matter what is presented as the intended solution. The blame for that has to mostly lie with Eales, Ashworth, and Staveley.

Pretty sure Sturridge wanted to die sitting on the same set as Alexei Lalas all summer.

Could just be the perspective of the player, but this is interesting: "Looking back, I probably should have stayed and fought for my place, but I just knew that Mike (Ashley) didn't want me there. Pardew wasn't big enough to stand up to him and say, 'I want to play Perchy.' So, I just thought I'll leave. Was Ashley a lot more involved in player decisions than we thought?

Longstaff is not good enough to be in the first 11 for where we are and certainly not good enough for where we want to be. He's fine for now as a 5th/6th choice CM, but his limitations are frustrating. He also doesn't deserve anywhere near the amount of stick he gets and his quotes about how it's difficult to hear/see some of the stuff about him is honestly sad. Boyhood dream to nightmare type stuff.

This is what makes the "death of the screamer" even more sad. They are even more enjoyable now because it's the one time you can just celebrate.

I don't disagree, but there's an hour of comments left open to interpretation. I don't even really blame Paul. The biggest failure is with whomever at the club decided that that was the right format to provide answers to how the window went.

If Mitchell was better with words he could and should have said exactly that to begin with.

He'll be 26 when next season starts. Past that is when it becomes increasingly difficult to sell someone. He's definitely in the category of 'needs decision' if he's productive this season. We need to find another version of him too. Both are next summer problems though; hopefully we get to enjoy watching him.

I woke up thinking Tino at LB is our best option. Happy to see some agreement here.

I'd enjoy these kinds of stats a lot more if we had won the league at any point since the Great Depression.

Barnes all alone at the back post

Hall’s positioning is so bad.

Right side somewhere between anonymous and actively hurting us. Hall a defensive liability. Gordon good when on the ball. Still seems less active off the ball. Whether that’s intentional, lack of fitness, or disinterest I have no idea. Tonali and Barnes will win the game.

That was pathetic from Hall.

Freedman also said no a month before the PSR mess. Makes you wonder if he got a sense of a tricky situation.

It's because we needed a certain amount for Anderson and they needed something coming back (or forced us to agree to it). But it's really annoying that we were in such a desperate position that we couldn't make it work with a more useful player or a promising kid from their academy. They sent us what appears to be the biggest albatross in their squad, which shows where we were.

They should have done an internal interview released via video (and, if necessary, edited).

Just root against them every week in every competition. It won't matter if they are actually run by the smartest group of businessmen the world has ever seen. If they do not perform, if they are not in the Champions League, and if they are not considered one of the world's elite then this will all come crumbling down.

Surely there's a club somewhere between Sheffield and Santorini where we can cover a chunk of his wages and get him out of here.