ponsaelius

Also I'm not a fan of the idea but just because Homes England have bought a big chunk of the Forth Yards site now I really don't think that would preclude them again being willing sellers if PIF wanted it. It's an extremely difficult area to develop due to remediation required and the other adjacent landowners needed to make a workable joined up site. It also remains questionable in terms of viability at North East land values. This is why nothing has happened for years. A stadium led regeneration plan with foreign investment where traditional sale values aren't as relevant would be one of the few schemes that could consolidate and deliver that entire area, tbh. I don't think the club are interested, but it's probably one of the easiest doors they could push if they wanted to.

It's actually a pretty good and well informed article, and probably the most accurate so far in covering the various constraints that have been mentioned in dispatches about expanding SJP. It also does well to cover the benefits of SJP location in terms of transport/infrastructure which peripheral sites would almost certainly fail on. The only thing it is a bit light on is the alternative sites for a new build in the city. I still don't 100% get why the focus is so much on Leazes Park, when looking primarily at Castle Leazes is a much more viable solution.

6k at Sheffield Utd tonight is shocking.

Not sure they miss Diaby that much tbh, he really didn't pull up many trees last season for me.

I'd really not like to play Spurs in the final. Actually feel a bit ill thinking about it.

I'm sure back in the day it used to be fairly common for players to actually not be allowed to do things like skiing or watersports etc and for it to be written into their contracts. I guess that's not as much of a thing anymore.

He completely spoiled his reputation with the Man United loan and how bad he was last season for me. I would say this run of form has cancelled that out and he leaves with a solid rep.

Cole would have been pre-PL surely. The only other one I can think of is Hayden but I'm sure he never played a PL game for Arsenal.

Willock

https://x.com/StuartBrookes/status/1876911952485568698?t=AkvBULjeGwQW75Dar5qMig&s=19

Unless they're confident in him signing a contract extension they're having a laugh really. His value will be £30 million max by the summer.

It's not like the FA Cup particularly stretches the squad. Rounds 3, 4, 5 and QF are all on allocated free weekends anyway. You're only getting a fixture postponed if you get to the semi finals.

Howe definitely has a blind/stubborn spot in terms of squad recycling to deal with PSR. He didn't want Wood to go either even thought it basically meant we could do the Gordon deal. I get it but we have to also work bigger picture.

Subs feels like something a very old school Italian manager would do. Or Simeone.

The £30-40 million bracket on proven players but still on the up has been the sweet spot for a while. That's where Liverpool have generally found their consistent value, and generally so have we. If they don't live up to expectations you don't lose out hugely in re-selling and there's still room for increase value if they're a hit. The lower end of the cost spectrum it's harder to get first team CL quality and tends to be more high quantity speculation (suits a club like Brighton) while higher than that it's much more likely that you get flops which lose money. The way the liquidity is being pulled from the market through PSR I think that value sweet spot might actually fall in coming years unless something changes because transfers fees are going to deflate. In this sense I would understand a policy pivot under Mitchell to more value signings as we build the squad.

We were very good for about 7-8 games in the second half of the season. But a lot of the rest of the time we rode our luck massively. The +5 goal difference says a lot - it's extremely poor for a side finishing 5th.

Yeah I tend to agree. He doesn't move his arm out of his body for me. It's in a natural position to the side anyway and then moves it backwards reacting to get it out of the way. I think it's a really cheap pen if you get one for that.

Was going to say, I don't watch them very often admittedly, but they've been poor every time

8 million would be an absolutely incredible deal in the circumstances. It won't be anywhere near that, be more like 800k ala the Shelvey sale.

They've been largely shite most of the season tbh. Inter still miles favourites ahead of them.

Arsenal used to be so fun to watch under Wenger. Now I find them one of those teams I barely find the enthusiasm to stick the telly on if they're playing.

Brighton have been unlucky with injuries to their summer signings but have generally been pretty unimpressive to my eyes. I think the home loss to them was worse than the West Ham one - they were poor and did a number on us tbh. Had our strongest XI out that day too.

Agree but I also agree with LFEE that he's unfortunately slipped out of the age/wage/price bracket for us in last 18 months. Think he'd also fancy his chances at a Liverpool move if Salah goes.

It's same problem in Italy, ridiculously north heavy at the moment (the north-south divide being the other way round). Investors buying up clubs like Monza, Como, Venezia, Pisa etc and exploiting marketable image of the places and/or the location near to major cities to attract players. However they all have very small historic fanbases in the same vain as Brentford and Bournemouth. Lot of the southern clubs have huge potential (particular in terms of fanbases and atmosphere) if they had similar investment.

Second half has felt so much like the Palace away game.