The Prophet

They have been incredibly commercial revenue at a very healthy rate year on year mind, with us set to exceed £400 million I'm the latest accounts (if reports are to be believed).

I agree, Wharton doesn't cover as much ground and struggled with the defensive side of the game, but he's much better with the ball, hence why he feels more like a Man City player.

Feels Wharton would be a better fit for City than Anderson.

Asked in the other thread, but any chance it gets overturned?

Just seen the incident. I think he's kicked the ball away and is waiting for contact, but because he pauses he plants his leg awkwardly and falls over. It's probably why he doesn't appeal. Either way, extremely harsh decision.

Can we appeal it?

Happy birthday when it comes.

A nice run out with ten men absolutely fucks us for Saturday too.

Just seen the Villa score. Jeez, their top five spot really is at risk.

Worse than Villa in the cup? Must be bad.

To be fair, that's usually in response to some form of disproportionate head loss.

Guessing of course, but that's potentially because we have ample room for growth within the rules. Hopkinson's CV makes a lot of sense in that regard.

Chelsea and Man City were bought in an environment that meant they could afford to throw unlimited funds at the playing squad until they got it right. One thing that both owners did though was ensure there was always a presence at the club. At Chelsea, Buck was an ever present, while Tenenbaum acted as the Stavely-esque conduit between club and owner. Later when Abramovic became more hands off Granovsaia became an enormous presence at the club. Similarly City have had Al Mubarak, Pearce and Edelman in the set up from the off. Since Stavely left, we still haven't really stumbled on formula that ensures PIF are a constant and engaged presence within the club or appointed a present individual that they're willing to delegate those big decisions too. Yasir as a non-exec chair, simply isn't around enough to influence day-to-day.

Not to pick on Haydn's point specifically, but is interesting the narrative has snowballed from "a couple of our signings might not work out" to "it was a disastrous transfer market" to "we're crap in the transfer market". Up until this summer our incoming business was very highly thought of. Plus, it was pretty widely accepted last summer was poorly executed due to Howe, Howe and Nickson being put in a position that they're unlikely to be put in again going forward. I just think as football fans it's very easy to get stuck in the short term thinking of it all. That's not touching on the merits of individual signings either.

I was thinking more the "perennial contenders" comment.

Not that I think we'll achieve the stated ambition, but he's not saying we'll win the Premier League to be fair. He's probably given himself just about enough wiggle room. For example last season, we had second in our hands with two games to go, but we were never in the title picture. If we'd pulled it off though, I'd imagine a CEO considers that being in the picture.

Slightly ahead of schedule according to Howe.

The number one take away from the summer should be that we aren't in a place to be paying a premium for Premier League players. Not only does that market bring you into competition with bigger clubs who will offer more generous wages, but it's far from being a guarantee. Having said that, previous transfer markets demonstrate that it's probably still too early to be coming to any firm conclusions about the summer business. Granted, it's not delivered in the short term.

I'll be honest, I didn't see it first. It's probably why I'd be a shit scout.

If we miss out on Europe, I was thinking something like: In - New first team keeper - Two players to add depth to the backline - New first team centre mid Out - Ramsdale - Trippier - Schar - Willock - Osula That would obviously have to be adjusted if anyone such as Tino or Tonali asks to leave, or if we get an offer that's too good to be true for say Joelinton or Wissa (I'm optimistically thinking Saudi). I know others aren't, but I'm happy to give Elanga, Wissa and Nick more time. Granted, I accept there's a bit of risk in that.

There aren't too many PL midfield bursting with pace mind. It's all about how we set them up.

If Tonali does indeed leave, I'd be more than happy to give a Miley, Bruno, Ramsey midfield a go. Lots of ability there.

More confident about this than I was v Everton. We look so much more comfortable when there's naturally space in the game.

That sounds like a regular summer to be fair. I don't know enough about Ross Wilson to comment on how good his oversight is in terms of transfers. I'd say over the last three to four years, our transfer record has been pretty good, but we've had four or five different eras within that. At the moment at least, it looks like we're going to miss out on Europe. While that weakens our hand with the likes of Tino and Tonali, it will mean that less incomings will be required. I'd be suprised if we're not looking at a fairly routine four in, four out kind of summer.

A summer of minimal turbulence would do us so much good. We've had the summer of 24/25, where due to poor executive decision making, the squad was completely unsettled by a late firesale. This set the tone as a much loved board member was by all accounts forced out. Further, following a very long and very public pursuit, the man responsible failed to secure his preferred Sporting Director, instead turning to his mate, with disastrous consequences. Not that I need to recap, but summer 25/26 began with our Sporting Director walking out days before the transfer market opened. With no CEO, Howe who was just recovering from a serious illness, effectively became de-facto Sporting Director, with two glorified scouts and two board directors for company. It was a mess, as target after target was taken from our grasp by clubs with more status and wealth. This was before our main goal threat and one of our best players decided to chuck a granade into our summer plans, going on strike to force a move. It's been an absolute fucking mess for two years now and it's always been left with Howe to pick up the pieces. He deserves so much better.