Shadow Puppets

For what it’s worth, a few Villa YouTubers have done some videos tonight, and the comments sections are full of Villa fans gutted and believing that they should be holding out for £55m+. So perhaps, just perhaps, this is a good signing and Eddie knows what he’s doing.

😁 It’s what we’ve done since the takeover (Isak, Tonali, Barnes, Gordon, Livramento, Thiaw, Ramsdale among others)… Seems to have worked ok so far.

One other thing to consider, and I don’t know the extent to which this plays a part in his decision making, but as far as I know he’s alone here… in Newcastle. His family visit, but he doesn’t have a partner or kids. That inevitably means he has less ties here… he hasn’t built a life here… he hasn’t got a family invested or intertwined in the community here, helping him make these decisions. He’s alone, and likely his agent has a huge sway over his day to day and future decisions. Contrast that to other players who are truly settled here… Bruno, Big Joe, Gordon, Barnes, Sven… they’re all fully invested in the community.

Also, don’t be surprised if we also go for another midfielder… I know they’re looking for more than one.

Really good player. Obvious question marks over his fitness, but if that can be managed and he can stay fit he’s a cracking player. Sits firmly in the bracket of “buying the dip”. Quality wise, a consistently fit Ramsay is more than £40m in today’s market (when you compare with some of the dross that’s going for that kind of price currently), so getting him in now with the hope of keeping him fit could leave us with a really good player on our hands.

Spoken to a lot of people over the last few days, some of which are extremely close to the goings on. Main takeaways: - Ignore the media and daily stories. It’s all agent / Liverpool talk. Very few things, if anything, are coming from Newcastle’s end. - The stories about him wanting out / telling the club he wanted out before the season finished are bullshit. It was reiterated to me (I think I’ve mentioned this on here before) that Isak played a big part and was one of the main voices encouraging Elanga to join in late June. See his “heart” comments on Elanga’s Instagram at the time. - The players want him gone. His behaviour has been far too disruptive, and he has burned a lot of bridges. He has lost a lot of respect within the squad, despite them opening the door to him a number of times, pre and post Korea.

You're probably right. To be honest, I haven't thought to ask exactly what is being priced up... other than knowing the companies in question do fit outs and that they have been asked for pricing on elements of the stadium and training ground. I don't know to what degree that goes to... obviously prices are massively subject to change... but all I'm saying is that several companies have definitely been approached to help with the costings.

As far as I know, the reporting last week about Guehi was true… we did go back in for him. I assume we were turned down sharpish which is why the Thiaw deal has happened quickly.

The Leazes plan is definitely the one that they’re working on like… but I don’t know what the hold up is in announcing plans. In March, prior to the cup final, the players, and a lot of staff, were given a presentation on the plans and shown renderings. Since the beginning of the year they have been reaching out to contractors to price up certain aspects of the fit out of both the stadium and new training ground. Hopefully some form of communication comes on all of that in the next few months, once the new CEO has his feet under the desk.

At £80m? Or even £60m? I dunno… his YT highlights are the least impressive of any of the strikers we’ve looked at, to me. But hey, if it happens I’ll happily support him. I’m sure Eddie would know his shit and make it work.

He seems strong, ok pace, his first touch looks really poor though. I dunno… I’m not a scout… just seems like a massive massive risk. I’d much rather go for either a proven PL striker (Watkins) or someone who has tonnes of attributes, has some experience in the league, but needs finessing (Jackson).

I really think this guy represents the biggest risk out of all of the players we’ve been linked with. Sure, he’s young, but he’s incredibly raw… and on pretty much every YT clip, his first touch seems incredibly erratic. Still, good goalscoring record, but I’d much rather we went for Watkins, Jackson etc before him.

She brings up some good points, and is pretty knowledgeable… https://youtu.be/nZMwAqIcTs8?si=l0wlX3JK9AlY8wCF

I genuinely don’t understand some posters’ attitudes, like. You know who you are. For anyone capable of logical, and emotionless thinking, it’s absolutely plain to see that… 1) our PSR situation is in a better place currently. 2) we attempted to be ambitious with the players we went after, knowing that we could afford them in theory (under normal market conditions etc)… but… 3) when certain other teams entered the fray our chances dwindled when we were blown out of the water on wages. It’s not a “bad strategy” to go after sought-after players and hope you can get deals done within the wage structure we have, especially if we have been given solid encouragement that deals were there to be done. And it’s not “bad strategy” just because in a handful of cases some bigger clubs have joined those races and beat us to them. Hindsight, sure, but ambition is good. And now certain posters are STILL complaining when we switch tactic and work our way down to the next tier of targets. Eddie Howe is the single most important person associated with this football club in the last 20 years. If you can’t trust that he knows what he’s doing, or that he and his staff are working to the absolute best of their ability for the benefit of this club, then I don’t know what to say. And to a similar degree the same applies to the owners. A lot has changed since they came in. I agree they could vastly improve communication and it’s important to get a CEO and DOF in place, but if Eddie says it hasn’t affected our summer, then I’d be inclined to just believe him and let them crack on. As tends to happen in a difficult moment, this place can become really really toxic, vastly over reactive, and lose all sense of the bigger picture. It’s all the more evident when you actually go to a game and interact with humans… Ive been to both games this weekend, spoken to dozens of people, both fans and people working in the club, and there is frustration, but understanding of the situation, and belief that we can still end the window with what we need. In the real world, outside of internet forums and Twitter shit, there is always a far more level headed reaction. I don’t see why we can’t allow them to just get on with it and see how the pieces fall come the start of September.

What are you on about? 😁 He said our PSR situation was in a better position at the end of the season. Doesn’t mean we can compete when push comes to shove and a Man Utd or a Chelsea blow us out the water on wages, though.

Because we haven’t once put out anywhere close to a full strength team? 🤷‍♂️ I’m going for a 1-1 draw.

Another calm, sensible answer from Eddie on all the worries about behind the scenes stuff… (from 15:45 onwards)…

Played well first half. Good intensity, so lovely passages of play. Struggled second half but that coincided with subs and a notable (potentially purposeful) drop off in intensity.

Can’t comment for Howe, but I know (at least some of) the players want Alex gone.

I can only reiterate that our players, at least the ones I speak with, had no idea whatsoever that this was coming… and they are massively pissed off with him for it. As far as they’re concerned, this has only come about since early July. No offence Paully but I don’t think your info is right on him downing tools for certain games last season.

Watch the whole press conference. What a fucking manager, man…

12:00 onwards… will hopefully calm some fears / overreactions…

I’d rather we went for guaranteed goals right now, and spent a year or two scouting the shit out of our next big striker move, personally.

Age is on his side, but I’m not really getting the enthusiasm on this one. He looks incredibly raw on his YT highlights reels. Personally, and I know it’s not a popular opinion on here, I’d much prefer we went with Watkins and Wissa, or even Jackson, before going for someone so raw and unproven to any real degree.

🤷‍♂️