The Prophet

According to Baldwards: New contracts for Krafth and Dubs. Contract talks with Schar are progressing. We're in a "position of strength" going into the summer. Little chance of any key players leaving. Focus on signing young, emerging talent rather than established stars.

My point was that we can become competitive (winning domestic trophies and qualifying for the Champions League) without hitting the amount of revenue that Arsenal are currently bringing in. Yes, we'll probably want to get there eventually, but at the moment the rate at which we're growing at is fine.

I agree, but that's not what my posts are getting at. Our revenue needs to continue to grow, but we can be competitive without reaching Arsenal. The same as Arsenal have been competitive before their latest leap. It's baby steps at this point, granted the abolishing of the APT rules might speed things up a bit.

Point taken. I'd argue we could assemble a squad that can compete for honours and regularly qualify for the Champions League without having the third joint highest revenue in the league. Sure to move beyond that we'll need to eventually close the gap, but that'll come hand in hand with more on-field success. In my opinion at least, there's no mad rush to grow faster than what we already are.

I still don't understand why we need to match Arsenal's total revenue to be competitive.

For anyone that missed it.

The rate will slow down eventually, once we exhaust our commercial sponsorship opportunities. We don't need to catch them in my view, not at first anyway. Once you reach a certain amount of annual revenue, you can be very competitive if you're ran well, with smart recruitment and a solid academy. The biggest leaps after that will come with on-field success.

Aye, last summer was the time to be gambling on him. A lot of that article sounds like agent mischief though.

We now have four positions that are in critical need of being strengthened. Big summer coming up.

Yeah, sounds like we could have a case. It also states that we had two sponsors lined up, but they pulled out after the PL put a temporary stop on them, presumably while they did FVM checks.

I'm totally pro-City these days, I hope they burn the lot down.

The cliff notes are that the Sela sponsorship took 165 days to be approved by the PL. The Tweet also claims, based on submissions, we may have a claim for losses as the amount that was originally put forward for the Sela sponsorship was reduced by circa £5 million per annum.

Aye, he'd come in as an option for LCM/LW/ST. If that was RCM/RW/ST then fine.

I'd love Cunha, he'd fit us like a glove, but we have much bigger needs in the squad right now.

I'm not sure about Huijsen yet. Always wary of players who look good in a specific system such as those at Brighton or Bournemouth.

That not a penalty like?

In recent seasons our competitors have been Chelsea, Man United, Spurs and Villa. You could argue the toss on first teams, but they all have deeper squads for sure. It's just a consequence of Ashley's chronic lack of investment in transfers and the academy.

If we're talking about top bracket players, for me, of the side that started on Saturday, only Tonali, Bruno and Isak fit that category. Hall and Gordon are well on their way, but still learning the game and are prone to inconsistencies. The rest are players who are of a midtable calibre who Howe has had overperforming at various points over the last few years or once brilliant players who's age are beginning to catch up with them.

It feels like you lads are all on the same page, but are arguing about semantics?

They were able to gain a numerical advantage v both full backs because they beat our lackluster press with smart, relatively direct football. I'm sure the intention wasn't to leave him hung out to dry.

Promising that they've been abject in their last two away games. Granted, we'll have to improve if we're to get three points. With Liverpool away straight after, it does feel like a big game.

You may be disappointed. Howe will (rightfully) always opt for diplomacy when asked about his players futures.

He went for the man for man press again and as Burn said post-match v Arsenal, you have to get it spot on or you're in trouble. This time we were at least a yard off, meaning when Schar was pulled into midfield, City were almost always able to create an overload out wide. Perhaps in hindsight he should have binned it off and gone for our standard midblock we pull out later in games, but our players looked so off it, who knows if it would have made a difference. That's the most bizarre thing about this season. When we're good, we look excellent, but when we're poor we look lethargic and tactically naive. It's very strange and has been quite evident since August.

It's a distinction without a difference. City isolated Trippier, but they were only able to do so because they exploited our tactic of going man for man.