SteV

If Sky get first pick, then you’d assume the only possible rival would be Man City v Spurs. But I suspect your mate will be proved correct.

Nowadays players are sounded out through ‘intermediaries’ long before clubs get to the stage of putting actual bids in. If we had of agreed a fee with Palace it’s almost certain he would have signed IMO. The info that @Shadow Puppets had was that he told the players in our squad that he knows, that he was just waiting for the green light from Palace.

There’s no way we would have pissed about trying to get things sorted with Palace for as long as we did, if we hadn’t had the thumbs up from his people that he would come.

Seemed to be quite the opposite last summer…

Tbh, it was just an example. Maybe he isn’t the best player to use because perhaps there’s a theory we could get even more than that if he was sensational again next season. I suppose what I was trying to say was that in general I’d be against release clauses, unless the amount is so significant it completely transforms one, two, maybe even three windows for us, and perhaps allows a wage structure increase alongside that. If we look at Huijsen, who the convo originated about, making ~35m off him is great, but, for us, it probably buys one very good, or maybe two good players. Set against the (what I would consider negative) impact that has on the perception of the club externally, that’s nowhere near enough.

Legs (and hand) have gone.

The bold bit we can go round in circles arguing as we’ll never know, but I disagree. When a player views a move as a stepping stone, as long as it’s to a PL club, I think they’ll choose the one that offers the best release clause (assuming there isn’t a massive discrepancy in wages). It’s all about how they’ve mapped their careers out. We’re trying hard to establish ourselves with the elite (despite being massively handicapped by the rules), so it’s no good allowing the perception of the club being a stepping stone in any way. Having said that, if a player were to ask for a release clause where, if activated, the money would be genuinely transformative, that’s different, and I can probably get on board with it (so if Isak said ‘I’ll sign a new contract but I want a release clause of £150m’, then fair enough).

His subsequent transfer to Real Madrid…

Will be back in the Irish league by 22.

We weren’t in for Huijsen because he wanted a release clause so he could piss off after a year. Other than the financial upside of that, we don’t want players like that.

You don’t think they’d be a slight issue with wages there?

He’s become a better all-round player than he was at Watford like. Difficult to quantify that with anything other than the eye test mind, and whether that means he’s now worth ‘double’ is obviously open to conjecture.

Had two of them already though, so in terms of how much ‘stronger’ they are from the end of last season, it’s basically negligible (unless you want to count the manager, which I suppose is fair enough)

Depends what his starting point is/was. If it’s miles away from what we’re prepared to offer, it’s a waste of time of bothering.

Not sure upgrading our manager is actually possible.

Who have Spurs signed?

Depends whether they can keep the hit rate up with the transfers from other markets. Big ask. Already got a left back in haven’t they?

Kane’s currently on 400 grand a week.

Daily non-update from the Chron https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-united-handed-transfer-plan-31892134 And for those who refuse to click on the aids of the Chron website

Dewbai has fallen

Aye, UEFA basically said to the major/bigger teams, ‘we’re going to change the format to negate the advantage your higher coefficient gives you, but to compensate for that, you’ll get a bigger share of the money’

Green with envy marra.

Will need to pay world class money for a world class talent.

Odd that Liverpool have just bought someone from Leverkusen for a price that most thought was oddly high…