SteV

On the face of it the Miley contract is another tick in the box for him to go with the Botman one. Although he’ll be judged from what happens transfer-wise this summer, obviously.

Hope the divorce isn’t too messy.

Intrigued to know what the competition for top spot is?

Not confirmed, but… https://x.com/magpie24_7/status/2057495649130594577?s=46&t=OQLMckSuatbpqWF13Al4mQ

Comments from Howe’s presser: ”Anthony’s come back from injury, he’s been great around the group, he’s been absolutely part of the team, so there’s been no issues, let’s see what happens” Obviously it would be foolish of him to say anything to the contrary if we’re in the process of negotiating a fee with Bayern, but given he pretty much went out of his way to praise his attitude, I think we can put to bed the idea that there’s been some kind of massive falling out, or that Gordon has chucked it.

The fact they’ve got the fewest home points in the league is staggering.

Aye, they lost three of the last five and were fairly fortunate to beat us 1-0 in the penultimate game. Man Utd were just a bit too far behind though, and bottled it themselves on the last day by failing to win at West Ham.

With Pep and Silva leaving he’ll become the second longest serving current PL manager behind Lego head, and 7th (I think) longest serving manager in the top 4 divisions.

Got the park and ride from Reading after a Monday night game when we lost 1-0 to a late Dave Kitson goal. Would not recommend.

Reading might actually be the worst located football ground in the country. The definition of soulless. Although I’ve never been to Oxford, and that looks pretty bad…

Aye, Eddie pretty much said as much after West Ham.

Is Swansea ever particularly accessible for anyone except people in Swansea?

Living the dream some might say… There is a point where it morphs from a hobby to a lifestyle choice like.

Think there’s a few divorcee’s amongst them 😬😬 I think over time folk do end up getting themselves into a job that allows them to travel away whenever. Usually that’s self-employment, but also jobs where getting leave when you want isn’t too much of a problem. Doesn’t make it any cheaper like.

That stretch from the New Year to mackem home game in March was as close as I’ve ever felt to it being too much. And although I went to a few aways in that period, I didn’t do any of the away CL games. Anybody that did all or nearly all of them must have really felt the time pressure and the cost. Think it was something like 23 games in 77 days.

Therein lies the rub… You can identify a player, analyse his qualities, see his potential for development etc etc. but you can never be sure that development will get realised. They develop as hoped, you’ve underpaid, and are a transfer genius, they don’t and you’ve overpaid and are a transfer idiot. Such a fine line at elite level.

How many clubs with that strategy, and that strategy ONLY, have qualified for the CL via the PL. Potentially Bournemouth this season (with a touch of fortune if 6th ends up being a CL place). Anybody else? I don’t dispute getting players of the ilk you describe should form part of our strategy, probably a fairly big part, but if you want to challenge the elite, you need to supplement them with a degree of ‘proven’ players. Chelsea’s decline would evidence that.

So if Wissa was the player in the mould of being ‘the one’, were we right to get the deal done, even if it was an overpay? So often you can do the ‘right’ transfer, at the ‘right’ price, and the player doesn’t deliver, so does that then make what you did wrong? And vice-versa? We all think we know how transfer business should be conducted, but there’s so many variables and intangibles, it’s very difficult to get consistently right.

What’s the difference between being ruthless and overpaying?

As I said, it could, and should have been handled far better. But it’s very difficult to anticipate someone who (at least on the surface) appeared to be of good character, is going to go completely rogue to that extent. Hopefully lessons have been learned though….

We could have handled things a lot better obviously, but it’s silly to suggest that him behaving the way he did, didn’t massively impact everything, and make things a lot harder for us.

Missed out the bit where our best player decides to be a massive dickhead and set everything on fire.

I’d guess if the Murrayfield scenario ever came to pass, they’d offer ST holders the opportunity to opt out for the period of time we were there, without it effecting their ST eligibility going forward. Would then increase the number of tickets available for members for that period, and probably with less competition for them, given they’d probably be less demand from members overall.