Shadow Puppets

But they’d score a shit tonne of goals in the meantime.

Still remain convinced this one will happen. All the chatter at the start of the week was they wanted it done by the weekend.

I mean, there’s still a chance he stays and we move forward with a contract offer. That was, apparently, put to him as an option on Monday should we not be able to sign a replacement. No coincidence (or is it?) that the Sesko thing is coming to a head on the day Eddie is due to speak face to face with Isak for the first time in weeks 🤷‍♂️

We’re in a really fucking odd predicament like. Through the great work of Eddie and the players over the last few years we’re now a team that people expect to be seeing in and around the Top 6 every year, but every other metric (wage bill, commercial revenue etc) doesn’t align, and likely won’t align for many years. So, when the takeover just happened we were seen as an exciting next step for a lot of players a couple of years ago… the “best of the rest” option in the PL… we are now the “worst of the best” option. We’re trying to compete for players that can play for any of the big 6 teams, most of whom can offer exactly what we can in terms of competition (except in Man Utd’s case), a longer history of success, the chance to maintain that success and guarantee success in the near future, bigger wages, bigger signing on fees, living in London etc etc etc. Essentially… we’re promising them an ambition of our destination, when others are already there, enjoying the sunshine. I don’t fault our recruitment team for being ambitious… I’d rather be in the conversations with players like Sesko/Ekitike than not… but it’s been a brutal summer of essentially “putting us in our place”. I still have no doubts that we will pivot to bulking out the squad and still believe we’ll sign 3-4 more players this month, but in terms of drastically improving our first team, I genuinely don’t see how we do that at this stage unless it’s by taking a massive risk on an unproven player… something that I’m not sure whether Eddie would be willing to do. What we drastically need is for the CEO and DoF positions to be filled properly, and a concerted effort made between PIF and the club to bend every fucking PSR rule / loophole available to them moving forward to accelerate the project, else it will stall. Or we need to get Nick deMarco to work his magic on the PL.

OK... you do you 👍 😀

?

I have no idea, but there’s zero evidence to say he supports Man Utd. I did a “DeepResearch” search via ChatGPT (where it scours the web for hundreds of articles looking to compile your answer) and it said…

No he’s not.

Mbeumo is on over £200,000, for sure.

Not really, when you’re choosing between two great projects (for different reasons). Joining NUFC and MUFC are both excellent opportunities for any player in his position.

Don’t think it’s cut and dry how this one ends, but agree it’s looking shaky. All I can add after chatting with a few people today is that all the talk of Man Utd being his perceived “preferred destination” is coming from Man Utd’s end. That’s what Man Utd are briefing to the media. It was suggested to me (not definitively, but more speculative), that the reason they might be briefing that is so that if he joins NUFC, they can save face and claim it’s purely a financial deal they couldn’t do… that the player wanted to join them but it was taken out of their hands due to us offering over the odds. I find that notion a bit weird, but just passing it on. Both Leipzig and Sesko’s camp are communicating, at least to NUFC (and it seems a couple of journalists have picked up on it), that he doesn’t have a preference, likes both projects and would be happy to sign for either. I think, from the NUFC end, we may make one last attempt to force the issue (whether that’s an additional fee, clause, extra wages or something, I don’t know), but other than that, it’s literally a wait and see what Leipzig and Sesko’s final decision actually is. I’d personally be very surprised if Leipzig just accepted both deals… there doesn’t appear to be any reason for them to do that.

😁

BECAUSE HE REALLY DOESN’T WANT TO BE HERE!!!

Not 100% on that.

From what I’ve heard, probably the biggest problem we’ll have IF Isak was to stay would be reintegrating him into the squad. The level of anger from some of our players towards his behaviour has apparently been significant.

To give him some credit (you know I’m not usually a fan), he seems to be getting some good info this summer…

So does he get the number 9 shirt? 🤔 (if it happens)

🙄

I love your optimism, but that’s not what’s happening here.

They can absolutely afford him like. PSR expert on Talksport the other day estimated they could spend £400m this summer with no issue and no need to sell. Whether they’re willing to match whatever our asking price is, though, I don’t know.

😂

There's also the other possibility that the Slovenian report the other night was right, and it's actually Leipzig that are causing the delay trying to get Man Utd to the table.

I assume the "sell on percentage" and structure of the deal?

👏👏👏

Haha… I can assure you that I am not Highland Geordie. But 👋 Mr Highland, and thanks for reading.