ponsaelius

Premier League clubs are not stupid like they used to be. The likes of Brentford and Bournemouth etc might be small clubs but they're ran by serious people, data driven, solid sporting and business models. The days of clubs having no scouting network to speak of and just buying solid aging pros on big salaries to stay up is gone. I just can't see any market for Lascelles in this game. I like him and he's been a good pro for NUFC but he is not a modern PL defender and is a depreciating asset. A comparable player is maybe Conor Coady who Wolves managed to get £7 million for at the same age. But he's a better player, played multiple times for England, played far more football in recent years. And he's been signed by a Championship club looking to recruit for a specific promotion niche. Clubs will still see some value in an experienced solid defender in a dressing room, like Brentford picking up somebody like Ben Mee. But he was a free transfer.

Every club in the land is dealing with FFP and financial controls. Players with potential or age on their side (and low wages) will continue to go for big money, but aging average players on big contracts you will just not be getting fees for anymore. Every single club has to operate in a landscape where players are financial assets to be bought and sold with the future in mind. It's honestly a bloody miracle that we had Forest give us money for Wood and a nominal fee for Shelvey in this market.

It isn't like. Dubravka is an injury prone 34 year old goalie and Lascelles has a year left on his deal. Just because it's what you want it to be doesn't mean that's what it is. If we could get £25 million for those two they'd already be long, long gone. Time and time again it is clear we more or less can't give our fringe players away because they're crap and yet people think it's football manager. If we could sell people like that we wouldn't be considered cashing in on a genuine asset like Maxi.

Plus you're not getting £25 million for that lot

2 zip

Rather than postponing you'd think it would be better to just flip the fixture with the return one.

He had 3 really brilliant years. Best player in the Championship right up to being PL team of the season in 2012. Absolutely imperious at times. However I think it was gradually diminishing returns ever since he put in the transfer request to go home the following season. It was almost weird that he ended up staying another 3.5 years after that. I think his worsening performances and ultimately captaining the team to relegation was a sad way for things to end and overall he ended up having arguably more average/poor seasons than he did good. That said it would have been absolutely fascinating to see him in a proper side like our current one, with a stronger defensive partner and under a manager like Howe.

In fact watching that sky sports video half of them are crackers with his left It's clearly his swinger technique wise but he's definitely very competent with his left which is a massive threat. Totally different to Miggy who won't even use his right at all. Be great if he could mix it up and play both sides, despite all previous evidence saying he's never played on the right.

I thought that about him but if you watch the compilations he's actually scored loads with his left foot considering he's played exclusively on one side. I think he's actually pretty two footed.

Getting a bit tedious this one. Hopefully he's in before we jet off to the US.

Wonder if he and Gordon have been told to be back this day or have voluntarily done so. Very short breaks for the two of them, particularly Gordon.

When we signed Hayden as a Championship player he'd have been on probably 10k a week. A progressive club would have moved him on 3-4 years ago in his mid 20s when he had a market to low Prem/high Champ clubs with an affordable wage bracket. Instead, like with so many other players from that era, they have been kept on because we've refused to invest and improve the side. But we're seeing so clearly now what a false economy this is when you end up with aging average players on big wages. The club being taken over and trying to rapidly progress has only underlined this more starkly.

He has signed a new contract in the PL while he's been here though. At a conservative estimate he's probably still on 30-40k a week. Maybe more. That would put him as one of the highest earners in the Championship. The problem we have is the bottom has fell out financially in the Championship. And even if a club is going to gamble financially to try and go up, at a push they're going to do it for a player who's guarenteed to make a difference at that level, not an injury prone defensive midfielder who played 12 games for Norwich last year. Unfortunately we're going to really struggle to shift any of our deadwood without simply subsidising loans or paying people off.

My dodgy stick has all National League streams like. Not that it matters, I'll be there getting soaked in the uncovered east stand

I mean they wouldn't have their jobs and we wouldn't have this level of investment without PIF in the first place. You can't exactly bite the hand that feeds you. Frustrating reality is we don't really have the profile of player that would be of interest to Saudi clubs - other than maybe ASM or Almiron.

That's the problem with free transfers. Inflated wages. See also Hendrick, Jeff.

Not entirely fair on Lewis. He's has had injury problems and he wanted to go out on loan last summer by all accounts but was kept around by Howe because of Targett's injury. Pretty sure he has been repeatedly described as one of the best trainers at the club as well by other players (distinctly remember Maxi saying so in an interview). Definitely needs a loan/transfer this summer though for everybody's sake.

IMO only Man City are guaranteed CL football every season.

Without overspending last year to get Isak we don't get Champions League imo. That then doesn't unlock the revenue from the CL, limits the size of new sponsorship deal, stops us signing Tonali. Etc. Unlike the previous owner the club fully understands that in modern football the more you spend the more you get back. I trust them to keep investing strongly, because it just makes long term economic sense to do so at this level, even if they are also wary of the fact that we will need to stay within FFP in terms of wage bill and fees.

It was always going to be 3-4 signings max. I still think it will be that - with a clearing of deadwood and one relatively big sale.

It might not seem it because of how much they spent last year but I think Chelsea are actually cutting cloth accordingly. They're refusing to re-sign top players like Mount on 300k a week and instead signing younger players on cheaper wages on long contracts. It's a fundamental change in model compared to the last 20 years. I think there's a big question whether they become title contenders again or whether they just become a club that buys and sells but doesn't win titles.

We appear to be signing some real talent alright

I've always had a sneaky feeling he'd go for a fair bit less than the kind of blustering fees talked about last summer, mind.

£120 million in pure profit selling academy players in Grealish and Chukwuemeka last couple of years. They've also sold and recycled other players too (Ings, Targett for example) We've not had a single sale of any note which is why we're hamstrung by FFP.

All comes down to contract length, really. Tbh in the current market they've probably undersold both of them.