ponsaelius

Hiring the player liaison guy from Milan speaks to how we are approaching this. It's pretty fascinating actually - I think the club will be conscious of the issues Italian players have had settling in England in the past and will be doing everything possible to mitigate for it. It's asset value protection at the end of the day.

Man City like us wouldn't won't lose anybody now Mahrez has gone. Man United will probably be fine too - unless Onana reverses his position with the NT. Arsenal would be Partey and Tomiyasu. Tottenham will lose Bissouma and Son potentially. Liverpool would just be Salah and the new Japanese signing (Matip doesn't play for Cameroon anymore). Chelsea I think it would just be Jackson - but that would be a bit of a loss considering their striking options. Villa would be fine. Brighton would be both Mitoma and Adingra which could potentially be big losses in wide areas. Lamptey too. Overall it's probably not the big impact it has been to the big clubs in previous years - as I think there is less big African stars at the top clubs.

Following up on this as I think it is a really interest point considering how clear this transfer policy is shown to be. I really don't mind it personally. I don't think it's just Eddie who will be pushing it, but I think Ashworth will be right behind it as well. There are quite a few reasons why focusing on a core of English players makes sense. 1. Team spirit. We're starting from a low base in terms of squad quality and a lot of our recent success has been built on collective team spirit and camaraderie within the group. In my opinion, and it may be a controversial point, it is simply easier to do this if you keep a solid core of domestic and local players. New players are more likely to settle in the area and stick around, it retains a clear lingua franca on the training ground, limits too much cliqueing within the group etc. Having local NE players involved, even of a lower skill level, reinforces this further. Obviously as we improve this can't be maintained at the cost of the talent level in the squad - but it's a good base line in the short-medium term as the momentum of the club carries us. 2. It is 2023, not 2010. If we'd prioritized English players even 10 or so years ago, and I will have even said this at the time on here, I think it would have been significantly to the detriment of the squad. The value wasn't there because there was a dearth of talent in this country. Since the St George's Park reforms, this is no longer the case. There is actually a pretty strong depth of English talent and they are often tactically astute, technically proficient, physically robust. Ashworth will know that well enough more than anybody. I'd also say this increased depth in quality extends to Scotland too who are producing much better players that they were previously - and similarly there appears to be a potentially good generation of Irish youngsters coming through below the admittedly weak current national team. 3. Risk and value. The perceived understanding, and has been the case for a while, is that English players are overpriced. That's still possibly somewhat true but I think it is becoming less so as a result of the increased supply of good English players (see above), and I don't think the prices are any wilder than the rest of the market. While you may pay slightly more upfront for an English player, I think there is a lower chance their value will hit the floor as with a signing from continental market. There's been loads of cases of English players who went for what I thought was crazy money - but would probably cost you more now. Morgan Gibbs White is probably the most obvious recent example of this where the fee Forest paid seemed enormous but in hindsight was probably the best signing they made last summer and he's probably worth even more now. The other factor here is that PL clubs have loads of money - so even for players who don't do so well you will nearly always have a re-sale market down the league. Big flops from continental Europe you have a bigger risk of having to cut your losses if the player bombs or wants to go home. I think it's also worth noting that we are not exclusively buying from the domestic market. Some of our biggest signings and best players have been from the continent - so we are not limiting ourselves. But we are striking a balance between a domestic core young English talent and only getting 'marquee' signings from abroad where we are feel they are sure things (Botman, Bruno, Isak, Tonali).

Forgot about AFCON and Asian Cup. We'll be one of few clubs completely unaffected by that.

Agree though that the homegrown keeper thing seems an easy win for us to get a slightly bigger squad registered and I'm surprised we haven't looked at it instead looking to renew Karius and Gillespie. Krul, Forster, Woodman, even Alnwick tbh. We probably have more club grown keepers knocking around than most clubs at a reasonable level. Particularly the first two could have easily performed Karius role as third choice. I'd probably have equal trust in Forster as I do Dubravka these days too tbh. This will not be an issue in coming years as players get club grown status for us or we have a stronger academy so can pad out with u21. But it does limit us a little bit in the short term.

Do you not think it means that digital tickets that get rejected would have to go? IE if people have printed a digital ticket (so the barcode won't work), either to change the name on it or just innocently, would then have to go to the box office? Like you say I cannot believe they will be randomly rejecting tickets at the turnstile at 7:50pm. It's nuts.

Surely Gillespie won't be registered? We don't need four keepers.

We're playing 4D chess in the transfer market, like. This one has fallen into our lap.

Nobody is just going to give up millions of pounds, which is basically what you are suggesting he do. The clubs who would be signing him (Celtic, upper Championship clubs) would be expecting him to take a pay cut of around 80-90% to fit into their pay structures. The only way he's leaving is on a heavily subsidised deal. And then it's not just on the player - it's down to the club to find a move that is the best economically for the club. We will be holding on right until the end of the window to see what deal presents the most favourably.

Seems a perfect storm of our interest and Chelsea needing to sell. Still feels like they'll want cash upfront while it's been said we can only do a loan with obligation type deal.

Gateshead by all accounts threw away strong results in the last minutes of both the first couple of games. I really think they should be making play offs this season.

Can't really see more than 10-15k for either game, but those are very reasonable prices so maybe I'll be surprised.

He was reported to have signed a 6 year deal but it's never actually been announced. The rumour seems to be that this has stalled.

I get the impression, from Insta, that his lass is dragging him around everywhere tbf. Love it though. I don't remember many players being this visible in the region after signing.

I don't think he lives on Beverley Terrace anymore - think he sold up recently. According to his former neighbour!

The other thing to consider with Hall btw is whether the player even considers himself a left back. He has by all accounts always been a midfielder, who got into the first team at left back.

There's probably a good few hundred (?) Saudi students at both unis. Plus when I did my CELTA at International House there was quite a few there. No guarentee those groups have actually flown over tbf.

Yeah, I get that. But even then he still has 3 years left on his deal so it's not like theyre at immediate risk.

I can see why this link is lingering on. The lad is supposedly a boyhood fan, he has the same agent as Eddie/Livra/Barnes etc. Undoubtedly there must be some players who are looking at Chelsea's business and wondering what their career path is when players are being treated like assets to be managed. Hall is possibly one of them - even if he was open to signing a new deal. I also think Chelsea now are completely unemotional with players. They will sell anybody if the offer is good enough and it makes good accounting sense. However I just can't see us offering the kind of deal that would tempt them to sell at this stage. They will be better off letting him go to Palace for a year and his value increasing through more gametime.

Maatsen has proven in the Championship while Hall has proven himself in the PL at 3 years younger.

Half five on a Tuesday? Be packing me Korea shirt for work.

Actually saw this about half an hour ago as they were already on the ticket website.

Roma signing Renato Sanches and Paredes from PSG this week I think so I would say unlikely.

That's the Job Bulman in Gossy. What's he doing man