sushimonster85

Wonder if this is the Fabian Ruiz links getting some proper legs.

1 hour ago, Nucasol said:

Is it just me or do all the NUFC journos seem like they’re away? Very quiet at the moment.

I imagine this period before the window is actually open is the only time they felt like they could get away for some time off without missing too much. 

13 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

No idea if the lad will sign or not - but surely no-one could be annoyed at him choosing AC Milan over us?  They’re one of the four or five grandest clubs on Earth to me.  Admittedly there are parts of my brain which basically froze in the late 90s, but still.

Aye, it's fair play. If this had been a couple years ago when Milan were still stuck in a slump that felt like they would never get out of I'd maybe have questioned him more. But with them heading back in the right direction on the pitch, they're one of THE big draws in European football. 

2 hours ago, relámpago blanco said:

Same, Gayle and Ritchie for example will be easy. Any championship side will take both tbh and probably great signings for that club. 

Think the issue is going to be whether there are any Championship clubs that would pay them what they're getting here. Need to hope they want to leave to play regular football, rather than just wait it out till their contract expires.

The Express article is likely based on BS. Romano said yesterday that the player bad already agreed to a 5 year contract, and be is rarely off.

6 minutes ago, Gaztoon said:

 

Only two week in ?

Imagine this place by mid-July?!

Fun88 Twitter profile still has 'official NUFC shirt sponsor' as well as Miggy, Lascelles and Wilson in their header picture. I imagine even if they are going, their contract runs through June. 

2 minutes ago, TBG said:

I have zero commercial background but I know for a fact it shouldn't be taking this long. 

'Fact' being used in the Trumpian sense here I am assuming?

1 hour ago, The Prophet said:

 

Normally wouldn't post this kind of nonsense, but isn't this the account that leaked the new shirts?

 

Would be controversial.

It is, aye. But on the flip side he pals around on Twitter with Sean Casey, who I believe is still at the airport waiting for Fonseca's plane to arrive. 

2 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

I think it's tricky to make an assessment on the entire fanbase, based on your average Twitter supporter. They're motivated by entirely different things.

This is very true. It's easy to get sucked into the Twitter bubble and end up believing this is a massive PR blunder from Castore, the likes of which they will never recover from... Then you remember that the average fan has no clue any of this is going on.

Just now, GeordieDazzler said:

As has been stated before I can’t see this related party stuff standing up in court. Leicester sponsored by King Power and City by Etihad. Can’t be one rule for them and one for us.

They'd argue that those deals were signed before these new rules came into affect. The real iffy area is determining what 'fair market value' really is.

2 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Are you sure? Pretty sure it can be just has to be judged at fair value. 

Yep, this is the case. If it's an affiliated company the Premier League will refer it to an independent panel who will judge if its deemed to be fair market value, or inflated. 

I would also mention, this is legally far too vague and will likely crumble at the first hint of a legal challenge. Whether that comes from us, or some other team down the line. 

Just now, Keegans Export said:

I'm going with no 

Same. Think there was a reason those posts were removed. 

Surely if it were anyone other than Fun88 it would've leaked by now?

Just now, gdm said:

It’ll be fun88. They are still posting. Giving away signed tops etc. surely if a new sponsor was to be announced fun88 would announce their contract was ending 

Possibly. Though did think it was weird timing, surely you wait a couple days then give away a signed 22/23 shirt if you're still the sponsor?

Castore just posted a teaser they then quickly removed on Insta. Shirt pre-orders go live tomorrow at 10am. Imagine we find out sponsor craic either later today or tomorrow at 9am.

Just now, ponsaelius said:

Is DCL injury prone or has he just had one injury last season?

He was generally solid before this season. Either this past season was an outlier, or his body is starting to fail him. 

2 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

This season:

 

Seems a perfect fit for what we need at least.

Yep. As soon as the link appeared (with actual backing from more credible journos) last week he has been at the top of my wishlist. Think he would be a transformative signing. 

10 minutes ago, GeordieDazzler said:

Wonder if we’ve sent our medical team along with the Brazil team just in case.

Doubt it. It's not January, there aren't the same kind of time constraints we were under with Bruno. Also, I don't think Paqueta is going happen. 

16 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Do you have examples?

 

I look at Lukaku. His overall Xg is low but he spent a lot of time on the bench. I thought Chelsea's style of play doesn't suit his style with the slow build-up. But his overall npxg is fairly high and doesn't line-up with my eye test. He does have a habit of a poor touch often that could lead to a shot that doesn't happen perhaps. I haven't dug deep into his stats though.

It's a bit of a weird one, because we only have one real example of a dip, but look at Harry Kane, and whatever was going on with him at the start of this season. Whether he was distracted by transfer speculation or just knackered who's to say. But his xG for this season and the season prior are pretty much identical (20.1 this season. 20.5 last season). Yet this season he scored 6 fewer goals. The first time he has under-performed his xG for as far back as fbref have 'expected' data. Kane is a player who, in the past several seasons, has vastly over performed his xG. If you were to look purely at the numbers this season is unexplainable. However anyone who watched Spurs in the first half of the season could tell you straight away that Harry Kane just wasn't with it. 

This is what I was referring to, a striker having a dip in confidence can be really hard to forecast, and they're more prone to it than pretty much any other position on the pitch.  

6 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I think confidence is also reflected in Xg. Confident players tend to get into better goal scoring positions and have higher Xg.

True, but some players confidence is more fragile than others, and can vary wildly. Then you have mentality monsters like Ronaldo for whom confidence is never an issue. I do feel confidence/mentality is one of the (only) areas where xG is a little blind.

xG is very useful, however I feel the role of striker (and keeper to be fair) is the most confidence based position on the entire pitch. Things like a players confidence, or overall general mentality, can be really hard to quantify with raw data. 

Now xA on the other hand, there is a useful stat. Pascal Gross at Brighton was the best example of club looking past initial numbers to find a real bit of diamond in the rough. He never posted huge assist numbers at Ingolstadt, however his xA was consistently through the roof. He was constantly creating good chances, they just weren't being finished. 

2 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

I know it's probably a bit sad but I love shit like this.

 

Making a real concerted effort to get the best possible people in each role in each area of the club 

 

Not just having Lee Charnley do everything 

Actually becoming a somewhat modern football team. 

24 minutes ago, hakka said:

 

After the game the pundits pretty much spent 45 mins discussion Arsenal only, definitely were not interested in talking about Newcastle.

Whilst I do totally agree that Sky/BT have a top 6 bias when it comes to how they cover games, I actually think that instance it was probably fair enough. Arsenal's CL hopes going up in smoke was a much bigger story than how good we looked in what was a no stakes games for us. 

1 minute ago, SUPERTOON said:

 

This is going to be the most prepared offer of all time judging by how many times Spanish outlets have reported that we're preparing an offer.