Tiresias

Sigh we werent great no, disappointing considering talent in team but we still go to the final, i'm not going to pile on, spain way better than us so deserved to win.

Dare Southgate to revert to Trent Alexander Arnold in midfield for the final. Would lose it but would be funny national troll

should never be a pen like

I imagine they have been annoyed but they have also been really realistic in everything they've said from day one that it would take a long time to get to where they want to be. Equally I don't ultimately think they will mind that the club is being forced to only spend what it makes, i do think people are a bit hopeful in how much they purely want to pump money in, I think they want to pump as much money in to get the club to compete but they will be looking more at how to get the revenue up and up and the players will take care of themselves. I also think we are just one investment out of many and our chairman has only been so present cos all the sports stuff he does is clearly a bit of a jolly for him in contrast with the more boring business stuff (and trying to avoid court intrigue that will get him disappeared)

it becomes who does PIF trust most to call the shots, they trusted Staverley. (This could be bad news for Howe as she has clearly been his biggest champion) Maybe they have that trust in Eales (well they oughta have some trust in him since he is still in the job), may also be they have developed trust with the Reubens who despite their lower stake will probably be easier to be more involved.

I mean all football discourse nation wide is ruined by man u talk leaking, amount of time they're talked about compared to every other club

Look PIF has a big massive pot of money from oil profits. They could either leave it in a bank account and that would be fine, or invest it in all kinds of things all over the world. This has some benefits a) Some of these ventures will be profitable and so they are no worse off at the end of the day b) With investment in places such as north east or in somewhere in Africa or south america suddenly that area has links to Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia has some degree of soft power beyond their borders which may come in useful wanting to strike up trade agreements later (or get a government to look away when they do something bad) c) Associates saudi arabia with global generosity and projects rather than you know human rights abuses. I don't imagine PIF particularly wants to just throw billions at us for no actual gain, they want us to be a big mega club like man city which has huge global revenue, not just a money sink.

Eeer didn't she say early she wasn't permanent was going to leave once everything in place, she got it all together and now leaves with a healthy profit

I mean both a) southgate is depressingly negative, incredibly over loyal to certain players and plays a style of football that is not good on the eye and has benefited from some luck b) this has brought the best results of any england manager since alf ramsey and he deserves some modicum of respect for that, even if suspect a better manager may have made less drama of it can be true

I want Right sided centre back to backup and long term replace Schar Right Winger who contributes goals and creativity to the attack (obvs i guess) Defensively minded but technically able midfielder to compete for starting (but probably just in the rotation) but mainly so we never have to rely on Longstaff as a defensive mid again which he isn't. After that I'd be looking to snap up some promising young players. Optimistically to replace squad ahead who will get sold in future, but cynically the type who we grab for £10m and can sell for at least double that in a season or two to help with the psr :/

Forgot, so 7 years does feel odd lol

Everyone going to start copying the chelsea way of doing things and end up stacked with high wage players that aren't performing and cant shift?

I do wonder why a lot seem to think sporting directors are searching through forests finding unknown players in the wild, that's what teh scouts do...it's more surely negotiation and good links with agents etc that makes a difference...

Yeah he could be handy for Nottingham Forest but nothing to suggest he is on a level with Bruno and Joelinton and hopefully Tonali. Would have been great to have made it as a local lad but I suspect he will find his level as some stalwart bottom of the premier league/top of the championship midfielder

I imagine he'll mainly be hoping we can get some new players in before pre season starts in earnest, however that will always be difficult.

They clearly know what they are doing from a business side of things, I still think the long term contracts they've put a lot of the players on will come back to bite them if a lot of them continue to consistently underperform. If they keep chopping and changing managers as well they will have a few good seasons but nothing sustained.

of course it is a consequence of PSR, of course matchday revenue will be exploited by rising prices. Only way round it would be some complicated system where income from seats charged above a certain amount wouldn't count somehow

Possibly protecting us if the anderson and minteh deals fall apart, however it would be absolutely sickening.

As I posted in other thread, this pain is partially due to last season's underperformance and we won't want to go through it again, I suspect first half this season he will be as vulnerable in his position as he ever will be. We start poorly, more bad luck think he'll get the boot because we cannot afford to not finish top 4 again.

I understand why everyone is upset but to some extent (and yes, temporarily, ignoring some rules not working as they perhaps should) this is the price of us underperforming last season. finished 4th season before and essentially budgeted that we would at the least maintain that level. We didn't, we had some horrendous luck, we missed Europe because Man City are cunts who didnt give a shit about the FA cup. We have lost a promising young player who hasnt yet kicked a ball in the league, and our own homegrown midfielder who wasn't really delivering at the expected standard. We can now strengthen the squad and go again. I would not expect Howe to be given the same patience he got last season though. If we don't kick on and look like solidly in European places I would expect Howe to be shown the door by Christmas because underperforming means financial pain, and we won't keep Gordon, Isak and Bruno if we don't finish top 4, and we won't attract the best either.

£35m is mental fee for him and hard to argue with. Always sad when an academy prospect goes but he didn't do well enough last season imo especially when there was a huge opportunity for him to step up in Tonali's absence.

The stupidity of this is though July is another accounting period isn't it so we can spend again we could will go sign a lot for like. Psr surly isn't meant to mean players being shunted around for barely any reason

Before I say this, I want to add that I don't think PSR is working ANYWHERE NEAR the right way. It should not be encouraging sales of home grown players, hell I think encouraging sales just turns players more into horse traded assets rather than allowing teams to build teams. Equally it is also clearly rewarded the already established clubs over any challengers. HOWEVER. I do wonder if there is a somewhat more sensible solution to a lot of these issues clubs are having buying. And that is you know buy and sell players for sane prices (ok somewhat more sane). Players are insanely overpriced right now. £50m+ to buy a decent midtable midfielder. It is pricing out a lot of clubs and that is just as much entrenching Man City at the top. There are two potentially fatal flaws with this however. a) While Man City and Chelsea exist and able to operate seemingly without limit everyone is going to keep players priced high just cos maybe Boehly comes in for that ridiculous fee. b) While European giants can still afford those fees we will lose players to them. The league is desperate to be the best and to be the best they want the Haalands etc playing here. So I think yeah it's not working at all, I do have that little bit of, eeer what if players are priced too high and we all agreed to stop spending soooo much??? If PSR wants to genuinely about levelling the playing field (which it clearly isn't) the league needs to look at wage capping to be honest to stop chelseas and man citys hoarding players in ludicrous squads then pulling up drawbridge on anyone affording to compete. Every team allowed a few with unlimited wages, then quotas of players at various wage levels below that. Maybe that would work. But it'll never happen cos of point B above.

If we don't make champions league next season i suspect howe could be replaced and a squad rebuild will take place through bruno and isak sales (and others) to the liking of new coach. Could be wrong but feels like this season needs to deliver after being given a free pass for last season.