The Prophet

Was about to say, not heard of the source

The #NewcastleUnited is close to finalizing the acquisition of the striker #VangelisPavlidis, a #Greek player who currently plays for #Benfica. The transfer fee has not yet been disclosed, but it has been reported that the player will sign a five-year contract with the club.

Linked with Gallagher again in the Spanish press.

Am I right in thinking Chelsea nearly bought him, but something came up in his medical?

I don't know loads about him, but much like Sesko, you'd want someone proven alongside him to give him time to adjust.

Detail on #Thiaw / #Newcastle. The player has given his full approval for a transfer to the Premier League; if the English make a decisive move, the path would already be clear. Ready with 4 million + bonuses until 2030 for the young Rossoneri defender.

"No formal approach" "No guarantee it will happen" Pulsating stuff.

Another Ornstein non-story.

Nice interview with him in the Athletic.

Most football banter is absolutely shite anyway, as a general rule its just best to ignore it.

There's plenty of examples around Europe of successful clubs being ran by a solid executive structure, there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Stavely was instrumental in the takeover and driving things forward in the months afterwards. PIF took over a shell of a club ran on a skeleton staff. Stavely thrived on that, effectively working as a de-facto Managing Director, driving forward all aspects of the club. The problem is with club becoming bigger and more corporate, that can become a detriment and dare I say with her health condition it simply wasn't sustainable. What we do miss along with her human touch is her ability to engage PIF. Folk seem to forget they are an investment fund and we are a modest investment in an enormous portfolio. By nature we are going to have to cajole them, we don’t have an Exec Chair like Levy for example. It therefore falls on the CEO, they need to be the leader and the conduit to PIF. Earles' leadership style seems to be quite laid back and friendly. It seems that what we require is a more assertive presence when dealing with both PIF and other parties like the Premier League.

I don't think we miss Stavely per se, but we do miss a conduit between PIF and the club. It's absolutely essential the new CEO is able to open the lines of communication.

It's changed hands a couple if times apparently.

It should be chaos if nothing else. At least we have our outgoings sorted for a change.

This is what makes the CEO appointment so significant.

Doesn't marry up with what he was reporting in June mind.

Fair, I hope you didn't get on anyone's shoulders at the gig though.

Fab and Ornstein are effectively client journalist at this point. They either get paid to put info out, or put info out for engagement, so it becomes very easy for clubs and agents to create a narrative. It's become obvious we don't do this, so the narrative will always run against us.

Trying to squeeze out every penny, as they should.

It'll be largely on them.

In shitted pants?

The Athletic had names we should target earlier. Think it was Jackson, Larsen, Samuel and Ramos.