timeEd32

Isn't that mostly just from being in the CL?

At some point you'd think the PL (both the member clubs and actual leaders/employees) would like to stop spending most of their time talking about financial regulation and lawsuits. But in reality the thing that will likely break it all down is Man United and a couple others complaining enough that they can't compete with the top European sides.

Unless Palace are nowhere near Europe (likely) and also nowhere near relegation (questionable) come January then I can't see him going then, barring a massive overpay.

Yes, and for those four or five teams it has largely come down to right manager/players/time. Those clubs you mentioned are largely irrelevant to the point because they got to the top when the gap from 1 to 10/20/50 was much, much smaller and when there were far less financial rules. It'd be impossible now to go from the 2nd division to breaking the world transfer record three years later like Newcastle did. What Levy and Spurs realized is they needed to grow to the point of being part of that group financially and they did so knowing they had the benefit of London behind them. It started with player development/sales and has since morphed into the new stadium and commercial revenue growth. There's no guarantee of winning anything for those six, but it's possible every season. Everyone else is looking to outperform their revenue or hoping for a miracle.

* £250-300m.

After the time period TCD is referencing Spurs played in a LC final, finished 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and then made a CL final and another LC final. They could have won multiple trophies. They are actually a very good example of how you can do just about everything right and still fall short. There will always be an element of the right players with the right manager at the right time. But they've set themselves up to be in the mix every year.

Totally get the possible disconnect you're talking about and I know Eales has again said Europe is the goal, but we don't know that everyone isn't a bit more realistic in private. I'd also like to think that if PIF does expect consistent top 6 that someone other than Eddie would be blamed based on how the summer went. If none of that is true then Eddie basically made a rod for his own back by finishing 4th.

I wanted us to move him on all summer for cost reasons. Don’t want him to go now as I think it’d leave us very thin at the back. You’re right he wasn’t bad all season; before mid-November he was on course to be in the PL Team of the Season. But 7 of his 11 assists (all comps) came in a 30 day stretch from late Sept. to October starting with three at Sheffield United. The other four are still more than Tino fwiw.

Also Eddie is extremely loyal to this players and from what we’ve seen is very hesitant to sell, so if he lets Trips go at this point then you know he thinks it just has to happen.

Something like that. That game sticks in my head as one of Pardew’s shining moments while here.

Really didn’t think he was that bad. He does seem nervous going to his left though. Hopefully that will vanish with more time. His kicking is atrocious but I’ve promised myself I’ll be accepting of it because the alternative is watching Dubs stand still.

Thought he was solid. It’s just his permanent shortcomings people are complaining about.

Yes but we haven’t played our pressing game all season. And if that’s going to be a thing then we need to become much better with the ball, but that feels like a harder problem to solve. Schar back will help loads though.

7 points from 9 without playing particularly well. Fixing whatever is up with Gordon and getting our press back seem to be the two biggest things to solve.

Murphy with an all time bad cameo so far.

Harsh on Barnes. Gordon should be off.

Really hope it’s still 1-0 when Tonali comes on. The first time through ball opportunities are just waiting for him.

Isak has to square that ball sooner. Barnes would have walked it in.

Completely unimpressed by Gordon and I don’t think it’s the position change.

Really lazy from Gordon there after giving it away.

Matches UEFA I believe.

@Colos Short and Curlies I was going to reply to you in the Eales thread, but TCD has nailed my main counter here. I agree that I don’t blame them for going for it to some extent coming off the surprise CL qualification and I’m very sympathetic to the fact our season had more bad turns than just about any reasonable projections. The five day stretch from Nov. 28 (Paris handball) to Dec. 2 (Pope shoulder) probably cost us £15-25m alone, despite the injuries and Tonali suspension. But the bad luck, 7th place finish, and CL exit don’t explain just how far over the PSR limit we were in June. That’s not going for it; that’s just irresponsible. I don’t know if we thought last summer that there was no chance of keeping Bruno and we pre-spent that money, or Joelinton was the primary plan (though I question what his market would have been), or if we weren’t actually that worried about breaching PSR until Everton, but something went very wrong. And if we were going for it then why did we add ~£5m in costs on an 18 year old project (plus commit to that fee for this year)? And why did we do that after any calculations in August would have shown we were far past reasonable? Any indictment of this window really needs to go back to last summer, and it’s why I don’t think anyone involved since June 2023 is blameless. For that reason I was fine with us not doing much this summer because I felt like we needed a bit of a reset financially, but the Guehi stuff and, even worse if true, desperate bids for Elanga make me question what we’re doing.

According to that article it was £50m, which would be complete and utter insanity. I really hope that’s not true because it’s a clown show.

Depends what you're right about. I don't think you're going to convince anyone on Team Minteh that he didn't create another goal.

Turns out Opta does distinguish between "Assist" and "Fantasy assist"...