timeEd32

@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"...

If a player scores after a keeper save then the first shooter gets an assist.

The £15m profit was for 2023/24. We’re allowed a healthy loss this season, but because of previous purchases and wages we entered the financial year using much of that room.

We don’t know what the rules will be though likely either what they are now or something more like UEFA’s. There’s some calculations in the OP (see UEFA section), but we also have a lot of expiring contracts in June that give us more options than the last couple seasons. Who gets extensions and what sponsorships we announce in the coming months will be key things to watch.

The most concerning part of these articles is that we seemed surprised in both January and June at the position we were in regarding PSR.

I’m quite happy that the narrative building up around this is that Eddie was let down. He’s the best asset the club has at the moment. This is not to say he’s blameless in whatever happened - I think they can all share some - but, maybe influenced by stuff on here, I thought the bullseye might be on him.

They hadn’t really shown any teeth yet though. That plus the related party stuff got worse. But yeah, fairly lofty claims were made after then.

This combined with the joke that is Vlachodimos is probably my least favorite part of the window. That or our complete inability to sell anyone. Pope has to make it through the season.

Isn’t it about to be Rafa’s cycle to manage? Eddie will get his rest until 2026.

I think there's only one transfer window saga to resolve at this point... @SUPERTOON where's your Donnie Darko review?

I think we all generally agree on the state of play. There's just a wide range in what that means for our outlook. I am somewhere closer to Unbelievable on the @r0cafella to @Unbelievable optimism continuum, but as I posted in the Mitchell thread we have a very big 12 months coming up starting on Sunday.

I think you're both saying things that are true but possibly talking in different timeframes and with different levels of optimism. We are miles behind on commercial, matchday, and player trading revenue which means there are many opportunities to grow. We're also doing a decent job of establishing ourselves in "the next two" group with Villa, which provides some safety, and I think that gap to the rest will continue to grow. I think the near term concern is we've done most of the easy things, we know the stadium problem can't be solved overnight, and those ahead of us aren't standing still. It's not inconceivable that in the next year or two the gap to the big 4 or 6 actually widens again unless we have some big moves coming soon.

There's been a lot of Staveley praise (much of it valid), but I think it's worth remembering that her dealmaking ability also led us into a nightmare in June. I do think at least part of that dealmaking ability was not balking at requests to throw in an extra X million £.

That almost defies belief.

The thing that's going to annoy me if we deal with them now is overpaying for MGW, Elanga, an academy kid, or literally anyone else would have been so much better than taking the Greek in June. They must have really had us over a barrel.

Maths and a few of us screaming into the void.

That ended so well last time.

I think the definition of "big money" will greatly determine how I feel about this.

Yes, and Olise. It proves we have a shiny briefcase full of cash we're ready to deploy for anyone says the common refrain. Except it doesn't. As @TheBrownBottle said, it is far more likely given where our finances are that those were considered two guaranteed success, bar raising first XI players who we'd have zero regrets about next June even if the impact of signing them was selling Gordon or other.

I'm going to scream if I read this one more time.

I think this is all accurate and I think what the events of this summer have done more than anything is set up an absolutely massive 12 months both off and on the pitch. For Eales and Silverstone - there have to be revenue increases in some form or fashion. They've both said there are things coming. For Eales and the new COO - there needs to be clarity on the training ground and stadium For Howe - he needs to get the existing squad focused, get us back to our best, and hopefully deliver European football (or a trophy) For Mitchell and Howe - there is a reset opportunity coming, but that means there are a lot of decisions to make and they need to get almost all of them right Contracts expiring in 2025: Schar, Longstaff, Wilson, Burn, Lascelles, Lewis, Fraser, Krafth, Dubravka, Ruddy, Gillespie, White Contracts expiring in 2026: Trippier, Gordon, Almiron, Pope, Targett, Hayden - Who do we extend and who do we let go? - Can we tie down Gordon and Isak? - Who do we sell (proactively for real £, not desperately try to flog in their twilight)?