Hughesy

Get in!

Don't dislike that team. Glad to see Mbemba back and like the look of a midfield 2 of Hayden and Merino.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/nov/23/terrace-tunes-viral-source-september-chant?CMP=share_btn_tw Relatively interesting about the Chancel Mbemba chant.

If it's relegation clause linked to the HMRC investigation, that seems perfectly reasonable. Less so if it's purely performance based.

This is all sort of in line with the timetable I was expecting. DD just doesn't take that long.

Given the timelines that I've worked to on actual DD exercises, the DD should be coming to a close quite soon (if the start dates we were given are correct). To a degree, DD can fill the gap you leave for it, but over a month for a business like NUFC would be unusual. As I've said before, NUFC is a relatively straightforward business with clearly defined income streams.

I'd be intrigued to know what would happen if at the end of the season each team from the PL, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga played the team that finished in the same position as them in the other leagues (not sure what you'd do with the Bundesliga). Make it the 39th game (and 40th and 41st...).

Interesting re Mort as Ashley doesn't use Mort's law firm anymore. In typical Ashley style, he uses a much much cheaper law firm. Given the identity of the law firm that he used to use, I'd also question the truth of Ashley's story about not knowing he needed to repay the existing debt when he purchased the club.

As mentioned before, a takeover of this size with the relatively limited DD involved (i.e. NUFC as a business isn't that complex compared to a lot of deals - they don't have loads of overseas subsidiaries, income streams are pretty limited (mainly tv contract and season tickets etc) shouldn't actually take that long. Obviously the HMRC issue is one that needs to be negotiated, but an indemnity for tax liabilities isn't exactly unheard of. I'd be surprised if we haven't heard anything by the end of November.

No game until 18 November after this one, so might be worth giving him a bit of extra time to recover.

Those processes take weeks because we are in a cue and having our checks done. I'd be surprised if Stavely's backers are in a similar situation. So you reckon this should be done already? Don't be daft. In fairness, you can get acquisitions done pretty quickly if the parties are willing (big 'if' there with Ashley). DD for a business as relatively simple as NUFC shouldn't take much more than 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks.

Decent article by Douglas on Mitrovic this evening.

Was just trying to write something on Perez and I think you're spot on actually. He's a very strange player to work out - feels like he should be able to play as a number 10, but something just isn't clicking.

To get bites. This one worked perfectly. I'll rephrase then - what's the point of getting bites? I'm failing to see what particular itch making something up on a football forum scratches. Maybe I've missed some obvious humour.

Don't really get the point in making stuff up regarding takeovers, transfers etc. Just seems a bit weird - why waste your time?

In fairness, the DD stage on a business like NUFC shouldn't actually take long. It's not a complicated business to review.

It's the one with Tom Markham on it - 2 weeks ago maybe?

Disagree. He had this horrible habit of passing to his team mates at shin/knee height meaning they had to get it under control before they could move it along. Like a pitching wedge. His long passing was non existent also. Exactly this - his passing was really not very good. His pace and movement were very useful to the way we played (together with Bellamy and Robert), but I think it is forgotten how much better Dyer was made to look by having Speed alongside him to cover for him and the intelligence of Solano outside him - Solano helped Dyer so much in that respect.

Always thought he was hugely overrated - technically not that great and lack of footballing intelligence and/or composure.

Quite like the fact that his first instinct is to attack space when he has the ball at his feet.

It'll be an electronic dataroom.

£300m for transfers. Can't even fathom spending £30m, let alone £300m.

Can agree to disagree - think he did exactly the right thing in shepherding him away, but I just think you've got to be tighter to your man in the box there. I don't think you should be giving the opposition the space to turn and hit it that close to goal.

Do you not think he should have got tighter to Gabbiadini? Think he allowed him too much space personally.

Merino just looks so much better than Shelvey when he's on. Merino seems to always know what's going on around him, whereas Shelvey seems to get caught in possession too often and/or tries passes that just are never likely to come off.