sushimonster85

To be fair to whoever that was, the article does mention there is likely to be opposition from the council. This is far from done. Just heirarchy at the club are leaning towards recommending this option to the PIF.

This forum needs to get back to what it does best. Namely dealing with nerve wracking/troubling times with prime era Aniston pictures and gifs.

Not as confident Dub will actually get done, but there's no way we aren't extending Schar. Only way that doesn't happen is if he wants off.

Probably not. But I very much doubt he will be surprised. Nor will any anger he has will be directed at the club/Mitchell. Like the rest of us he will be pissed off at PSR.

If we don't get CL we will likely have to compromise on the price a little. Otherwise we may get to keep him longer, but risk losing him for nothing when his contract is done.

This is the actual thing. We have been crying out for a refresh in terms of players for a while now. Like, probably a year. PSR doing it's job....

Aye, especially if we qualify for Europe. New UEFA rules say something along the lines of your squad costs (wages effectively) have to be less that 70% of your overall turnover. Last financials the other week had ours currently at 68%. Obviously Miggy has gone, and by next season likely Wilson, Trippier, Lasecelles and Targett. Plus our revenue should be higher, but we still will need to be careful.

Tend to agree. Think we will have a big/productive Summer, however I get the feeling the players we sign will only be known to the very hippest of hipsters. And none will be over 35m tops.

It does line up with the short termism that was apparently present before Mitchell got there. Feel like this is why, when Mitchell came in, he was very clear that in that window he was there to help facilitate plans the club already had in place. Really got the impression he wasn't on board with it.

If they're daft enough to spend it on Felix I'm not too worried.

Think this is very much the case. Think if we'd have signed Guehi, then not gotten CL we would've had to listen/accept offers for Isak, Bruno, Gordon etc before the end of June. Don't get me wrong, can still see offers coming in. But we should hopefully be in a much stronger position to knock back/say "sure, 150m and we can chat."

Now Howe has said this (again) at the press conference, how long before the first speculative link on Twitter/in here?

Lads, just stop it!

Think a lot of this will depend on their agent. I'm sure the club/Eddie will be drilling it into them. But ultimately these lads tend to (rightly or wrongly) trust their agent with this sort of stuff. If the agent wants a move he will skew their thinking that way however he/she can.

Aye, people are just driving themselves mental in here. They've been briefing the same message for months. No one in Jan, barring a big injury to a big player.

Have really reached Burnsie level of desperation?

Not really. Word is (and was back in the Summer) that signing Guehi would have meant a big departure at some point before the June 30th 2025 PSR deadline. We didn't get Guehi so we will never know, but if we had it could have left us more vunerable to bids for Isak, Bruno, Tonali, etc.

According to local journos we were never as high as even 80m, hovered around 60 before walking away. And as others have said, if we'd have done that deal we likely would have had to generate it back and then some before June 2025.

Yeah, said it all month, but the club have made it pretty clear we aren't signing anyone in Jan. The only slight caveat to that was always 'unless a key player gets a bad injury'. Yeah, Almiron is going and we look short. But Barnes and Wilson are both back pretty soon.

Haha wouldn't go that far. Summer is a different matter. I just feel bad for people every time I come in here theorising about this position or that position. The club have gotten it out there all month, and in the months leading up to Jan that, unless there was a majoy injury to one of the crown jewels, we would be saving ourselves for the Summer market. The days of "well of course they say that..." or 'smokescreens' are long gone. The notion of 'smokescreens' to begin with is just a bit daft.

We're not signing anyone in Jan.

We aren't signing anyone in Jan. We may move for him in the Summer if we end up in Europa or Conference. If we get CL we need someone who is ready to (in theory) start week and week out at a high level.

Cunha is a tremendous player, but as others have pointed out, we don't really play in a way that suits him. And the only position we have where he comes close to fitting in our current system would be on the left, which Gordon has nailed down. Mbuemo is still the ideal target for me. Though I think we only move for him in the Summer if we get CL.

Think that's what was meant. Isak has played himself into the bracket of players where there are only 2 or 3 clubs that could realistically sign him in the middle of a contract.