Whitley mag

Think Ashworth was right in dragging his feet on new contract, he’ll certainly not get any better with age as his physical attributes wane.

The subs are either like for like, or just a complete scattter gun approach. Willock has been piss poor for months, we needed more control Miley should have been the sub yesterday.

Sell sell sell he’s finished.

I’m sure this won’t be all pure profit and imagine he received a hefty signing on fee in the summer.

Need to add a dynamic, technical midfield player to the summer shopping list, the much lauded midfield 3 isn’t all that unfortunately.

If they’re not encroaching as much as those mock ups of a stadium suggested, possibly as The BrownBottle suggested they’re moving towards Barrack Road and just more in to the car park. Not sure it’ll be rotated, but might explain the wrap design if they’re still short on room towards Leazes Terrace possibly.

His first tweet with the outlines certainly confused the Twitter lot, not sure this bloke tweets regularly and seems clued up, don’t think he would make this up. This pic makes me wonder how they’re going to do it though, if they’re not encroaching this much ?

Suggests he has seen plans for new stadium and the new build isn’t as far in the park as what was shown on that YouTube video. If that’s the case we would need a temporary home whilst it’s built.

Waste of a flight for Levy what a shame.

If the finances don’t allow it though what does he do ? He’s reliant on Silverstone bringing in new deals, or are you saying you’re happy to sell Tonali, or Isak at this point to fund 3 players coming in, bearing in mind one will need to be a replacement ?

Seagulls taking their revenge on mackens.

Think Dibling might be one that goes before we get a chance in the summer, whether he’s worth 50 plus is another thing, but definitely someone I think Howe would have liked to work with.

Spot on Mitchell has been dealt these cards and not much he can do currently, bar bring in some youth players.

The company named in Hopes article did the Anfield redevelopment, was inside the main stand during the summer for a concert and it’s very nice, walked through the new Anfield Road End to get out and that seemed very basic on the inside and dull. Think their main stand does look alright from outside though, but St James is such a hotch potch of materials not sure what would look good.

Amazing how dated even that looks now.

Not saying a wrap is my favourite option but the top end ones, not the Le Havre one will be the standard if that’s the route they go.

The previous Castle Leazes stadium had a San Siro look, with a structure across the roof to resemble the Tyne Bridge. Of all the wrap stadiums the Bernabau looks the best, but think that’s because they’ve kept the old steep seated structure inside the stadium, it’s a good example of old and new, something I thought they might try in a redevelopment of St James to accommodate the East Stand limitations. If I was saying unique in this country I would go for a large single tier stand behind one goal, make it the biggest in Europe and all rail seating. Then behind one goal frame a view of the city with a glass window, such as the Atlanta and Minnesota NFL stadiums. The stands need to be steep and close to the pitch, hopefully more aesthetically pleasing from the outside than Spurs stadium, the large window would ensure that.

No the ownership shot their load early and brought in top drawer players en masse, they decided to turbo charge the club after takeover instead of building slowly. We’ll undoubtedly see a more measured approach going forward, but I believe they’ll only sell if they think a player such as Bruno has peaked, otherwise they’ll hope to add to the core, once this 3 year PSR cycle which included the initial big spend drops off. The only problem we might encounter is giving Isak a wage befitting of a 150 million player and staying within the new 70% limit if that gets approved. The last 3 windows and certain players like Almiron and Wilson dropping off the wage bill will give us room to invest this summer.

New stadium for me and nowt to do with PSR, though that’s clearly a bonus. The current stadium has seen its day, bolting on an extension whilst largely having to leave the East Stand in its current guise and two dated lop sided stands with poor views, would seem massively underwhelming and an opportunity of a lifetime for the city missed. I suspect they’ll make the new stadium option much more attractive to sway opinion, providing the finance is actually there to spend 2/3 billion on a new stadium, a half measure such as another tier on the Gallowgate smacks of hedging their bets and won’t be game changing if the ambition is really to challenge the elite.

The line that St James apart from the Gallowgate wouldn’t change significantly is a bit disappointing, if that was the option and it’d cost a billion. I would have thought St James as opposed to the new stadium would have been the bubble wrap option.

Morals out the window.

Yeah might be a good deal financially, but if they’re unable to replace him risks de-railing their season if Watkins gets injured. The fact they also had to sell Luiz in the summer to comply, just shows how the current system is rigged and anti-competitive.

On face value it appears Silverstone has taken the plaudits for the adidas/Sela deals, which I agree was low hanging fruit and has attracted some other minor sponsorships which are not going to move the dial significantly. However, playing devils advocate if your Silverstone and you know the yearly growth is important, would you not be spreading things such as training and stadium sponsorship out, rather than doing them in one fell swoop ? As a layman you could argue why don’t they just do short term deals on training gear etc, but in the real world is that getting the best return ? My hunch is that Silverstone isn’t the most dynamic, I don’t think the club are maximising the Middle East avenue sufficiently currently and is bleeding the fans dry currently as the easy option, not sure he was particularly liked by Arsenal fans, but think they are holding off on training and stadium sponsorship until these big infrastructure announcements, have a feeling we’ll see a big Middle East sponsorship of new stadium.