timeEd32

I'm struggling with the blame on the US tour. I imagine it was a hectic week+, but we basically approached it like this: Villa - A team first half / B team second half Chelsea - A team Brighton - B team There were some outliers, like Trippier played almost two full 90s in a span of three days. Probably not ideal when ramping up and I can also accept that the PL opposition may have upped the intensity a bit. But we stayed in a single time zone, though we could have helped ourselves by being based between NYC/Philly and not Atlanta (logistics and PL decisions from the PL may have forced our hand ... or Eales), and it was a couple weeks before the season started. A week on the east coast with first class/charter travel shouldn't be too much of a burden. One mistake was probably playing four other preseason games on top of those three. 7 games seems like a lot.

This is good news. The manual drawing of the lines is ridiculous.

“For our biggest game of the season we’re going to dress like we’re in Varsity Blues…”

It's just money for the operation of the club. Plus, a portion of these investments is what allows us to register £35m in losses per year (the £105m over 3 years number) vs. £5m/£15m over three years.

106 miles was always ridiculous and scaling back a $1.5T project is much different than a few hundred million to £1B project, but it is another example of some possible PIF issues as @TheBrownBottle has mentioned before.

Easily the 4th against Brighton. Even though it wasn't, it felt like the CL clinching goal and I thought Wilson's before it was offside so barely had a chance to celebrate. Plus Bruno is my son's favorite player and he hadn't scored in awhile -- we lost our minds when that went in.

I love Trippier and don't really want him to leave, but in our position it's also such an inefficient use of resources to have Tino as a second choice player. It's a good problem to have - one I wish we had in more positions - but a problem nonetheless.

His change of pace / acceleration really stands out. A nice benefit that he won't be involved with the Euros or Copa America, so he'll get some extra time with the coaching staff this summer.

We also had, by accident, one of the league's most elite goal scorers with 29 goals (behind only RvP). It was just split across two players and fueled by one of the greatest purple patches the sport has ever seen.

When you are consistently outperforming your goal difference and all of the underlying stats there is definitely an element of luck / good fortune. When it's sustained for multiple seasons there is probably also an element of skill in winning games. It's hard to draw where that line is.

I maybe wasn’t sarcastic enough.

While we're fantasizing... Mbappe - Free Kvaratskhelia - £45m Zaire-Emery - £45m Salah - free loan via Saudi Sorted.

They must really be hoping that Everton and Forest stay up as this will all blow over. Either one of them getting relegated because of points deductions would be such a messy situation.

Top 6 would have been locked awhile ago with Tonali and a couple less injuries. Very frustrating.

Considering the development of just about every player in the last 2+ years, do you know what Eddie would do with a player as talented as Rashford? That's pretty much the end of the argument right there.

I'll save everyone a few pages: N-O: The difference is one is overachieving and one isn't Froggy: Look at spend / net spend since takeover N-O: That's misleading, look at squad value and wages Froggy: (ignores wages) Ten Hag didn't want half those players and he didn't want Antony at £85m. Our squad value is inflated because our board is dumb. N-O: As if Eddie Howe's ideal squad includes players like Ritchie, Dummett, Krafth, and Gillespie. Man United has half of a first XI on higher wages than Bruno. Froggy:

You're a very good troll.

Burn being a serviceable (second choice) CB would be very helpful for how we allocate summer resources.

Except you never know exactly what your weekly allowance is and the overdraft penalty is only decided after the fact.

I don’t hate VAR to the extent you do, but I agree with this. I roll my eyes at all these headlines of latest goal ever, etc.

Never been on r/soccer. It's an abomination.

What did I just read?

Yeah, that is part of the math problem for expansion too. In our case it also depends on if PIF will pay for it out of the kindness of their hearts or saddle the club with debt. If the former then it doesn't really matter what it costs in either scenario.

Yes, being able to invest is critical to kickstarting things. But Chelsea is also the best example of what I'm talking about. Two decades of success propped up by owner losses. It made them a global powerhouse, but they are now also vulnerable. Despite having a higher profile and far more recent success they now have a £100m+ deficit compared to their 'inferior' neighbors. They've made a business out of player trading, but that is also the most vulnerable revenue stream next to European payments. I'd much rather be in Tottenham's position heading into the next decade or two. I'm not arguing for leaving SJP by the way. I've said before I think it's a fairly simple math problem on what revenue number the current stadium can get to. I also think our current number is deflated because of various Ashley leftovers, so the gap to at least a Chelsea isn't quite as big. But I don't think you can just dismiss £50m+ as if it's nothing. If you accept lower matchday income then you need to make up for it elsewhere as Liverpool have managed to do.

Yup, we're on a decent trajectory and I'm optimistic about commercial deals being announced this summer. But it's a very, very big gap. I don't really understand this disclaimer. Sure, it would help in the short term. But to me the attractive thing about increasing these revenue streams is you can get to a point where it becomes owner agnostic. The biggest benefit PIF could provide isn't spending ungodly sums of money to win a few trophies in a decade or two before leaving for one reason or another; it's positioning the club to be a sustainable force for many decades to come.