ponsaelius

Henderson went for £12 million. That's your benchmark for an inflated Saudi transfer I'd say.

Think comparing him and his brother shows how much luck comes into it in making it at the top level. At one point Josh was playing for Cardiff in the PL and Jacob was out on loan in the Championship. Fast forward now and Jacob has played CL this season while Josh has dropped down to upper League One. In reality I don't think there is quite that much of a gap in talent level between the two. They both sold for basically identical fees a year apart. Jacob has benefitted hugely from firstly the club being so dysfunctional under Ashley that we regularly kept inadequate players around for years and offered them long contracts, and secondly from landing on a manager in Howe who has subsequently been able to squeeze every last inch out of his talent level. That's not to do Jacob a disservice - I think he's clearly got an excellent attitude himself and is a good pro. I just find the sliding doors moments in football so interesting when you look at players' careers. In another timeline both brothers possibly end up playing out their careers in the Championship.

Bernardeschi and Matty Longstaff link up, the MLS is such a trip

Let's be fair he's a much better player than Perch

Thought he was good but end product let him down a little bit yesterday.

Dare we say a baller

Geeetin Longy

I'd be surprised if we don't pursue a slightly more peripheral site for a new training ground complex. It's one of few land uses that really doesn't need to be in an urbanised area near public transport. Always felt that the whole training ground, academy, DWP area is prime long term housing land - particularly if you could get an additional train station on the new Northumberland Line around there.

Cracking goal although TBF he was making up for being doubly at fault for the Atalanta goal.

Why are they even checking this

To be honest their injuries seem to have actually forced them into a pretty settled XI - which has probably been of benefit.

I think the time to sell him has probably been and gone now, although it depends if there was Saudi interest. It'd probably be best to just keep him but not as automatic first choice, with Tino getting a lot more game time and probably becoming first choice. Then hopefully in a year or two Shahar will be ready to step up to the first team when Trippier does go/retire.

PIF Off

Reminds me of a similar deal to when Liverpool signed Matip on a free. Big and physical but also technical defender, slightly under the radar as a player. The fact that Matip had opted for Cameroon as he'd never got near the German youth set up is similar to Tosin being chased by Nigeria.

As we'd be signing him from another English club we can't actually officially sign him until after July 1st when he's a free agent, I believe.

Definitely a very impressive job although possibly slightly overplayed in terms of the financial perspective. What they're paying Kieffer Moore must be up there as one of the highest paid forwards in the league. They have rich owners and have been able to leverage that to their advantage in January - to sustain the momentum that that they've built.

They've only lost at home in the league once this season, to Leeds in August. Would be a pretty astonishing bottle to fuck it up now.

I wonder if the aim is to do a complete Gallowgate/East Stand rebuild first, host the Euros, then eventually do a re-build of the Milburn and Leazes to form one cohesive design.

If it's just Gallowgate extension you wouldn't have to. You could do a large amount of the work while the existing is place - then complete during off season like Liverpool did. Only likely a small period of time with reduced capacity.

You didn't have to be a genius to see it was unbuildable nonsense.

We won't get £15+ mill for him at his age and injury record in the age of FFP. If we do we should snap their hands off as we need to start selling players at the right time. Hopefully he bangs a few in between now and the end of the season to get a solid cash offer. Love him but it's time for him to go IMO.

Their wage bill is about 21st in the league I think. The fact they got playoffs last year was massively overachieving. This year is more about right for where they should be.

I haven't played in years but that's a good description. The sequence for that almost Ipswich winner was peak FIFA.

That Hull - Ipswich game was absolutely sensational

The same Isaac Hayden who's not good enough for Standard Liege and currently being kept out of the QPR team by Jack Colback. We need to upgrade on Longstaff (we basically already did) but some of the shit spouted on here is embarrassing tbh.