Keegans Export

I'm pretty sure we can't, unless we repeatedly manage to sell players for more than their market value when they need to be replaced. If we spend £300m this coming season (between summer and January windows), even if they're all spread over 5 year contracts, that's still £60m this season, then £60m amortisation in each of the following four seasons, which reduces our available spend by the same amount (eg if we made £100m profit, we'd actually only have £40m to spend due to that amortisation still appearing on the accounts). Obviously that's an oversimplification but that is my understanding of how FFP works.

That's absolutely how I feel and hopefully it's how Staveley etc feel too. The point is whether signing players better than lower-half PL level (Krafth, arguably Richie isn't even that good) but not quite CL-level is worth it, if our ambition is to become a top four side within four or five years. Players like Targett would fall into that category and although £15m isn't a lot in todays market, that still eats into our FFP-limited available spend and we'd probably have to replace him within a couple of seasons. It's a pretty bold strategy and it could easily fail if we don't buy well - then you end up with players who were promised a certain level of success (eg Bruno) who want to leave because we are still languishing in midtable and players who ultimately weren't good enough to get us to the top level that we'd have to try and shift (maybe someone like Nunez comes in for £70m on £170k/week and is a total bust). Edit - I still have to pinch myself that we're even able to speculate about things like this, imagine having this conversation back in September...

The thing with FFP is that we can't spend £300m on players to get us into the top 8, then another £300m to get us into the top six then another £300m to get us into the top four - at least not if the aim is to do that in less than 8-10 seasons. So to an extent we have to be ambitious and try to sell the dream (like we did with Bruno) and buy players that are already top 4-6 quality already because if we spend a huge chunk of our available funds (limited by FFP) on players that are just a bit better than what we have, it's then going to be difficult to find the funds to upgrade all those players in 2/3 seasons. Obviously there has to be flexibility as we saw in January (the Wood signing is a great example) and if we are really struggling to bring in a priority target (eg Gosens, Lodi) then we just move for a stop-gap (eg Targett) but I think that we might see us really push for players like Bruno who will hopefully be part of the hypothetical top-4 Newcastle squad of 2024/25 (or whenever)

Reading that article about Dybala (via Google Translate) - it says "Dybala immediately recorded some polls from Newcastle, Tottenham and Atletico Madrid, memorized them and asked not to proceed" which doesn't sound particularly promising. A bit of a reach that one.

I think the nutters on that RTG probably aren't representative of SAFC fans on the whole to be fair. Same with the gobshites on Twitter.

This is my feeling too. We can ditch nine players without actually losing anyone who has played for the past three months (I guess Gayle has had a few token sub appearances). The challenge is going to be finding somewhere for them to go. I'd say any of the above nine would do a job for a top 6 Championship team but with the wages some of them are on, will anyone bite?

Statutory nightmare or not, it happens to the tune of thousands of hectares over the past few years. And "wider strategic needs" is almost intentionally vague. Obviously we can get into the argument about the green belt, should it exist, should it be protected more, should it be removed all together etc but developers love building on it because it's easy & tends to be close to existing infrastructure. So it gets declassified (eventually). Put it this way - if we identify a plot of green belt land that we want to build a training complex on, and the political and public will supports it, that land will not remain green belt, that much I can guarantee you.

Right - but that's kind of my point. We have some green belt land that someone wants to build on. But legally you can't build on green belt land. So, somebody at the LA or council waves the statutory wand and as if by magic...it's no longer green belt! Obviously it's more complicated than waving a wand but the point is that green belt land is only green belt land as long as the current lawmakers want it to be.

Calling land "Green Belt" ultimately means nothing. Just an extra hoop or two to jump through to get something built. If a Taylor Wimpey or Bellway (or, in this case, a football club) really want to build on it, the land will get built on.

Presumably he means the land around the area rather than anything next to the Hall itself. Well, I actually presume he's talking bollocks, but if he was hypothetically telling the truth... Regardless there has been chatter for a long time that the area near/around the Airport was a possible location for the new training facility, it does make sense.

Really good list of names there but this one stood out to me. Assuming Nunez wants CL football and Osimhen is going to cost £80m+ I'd definitely be making enquiries about Jovic. They paid £60m(ish) for him, current book value about half of that. I wonder if a £30m-40m bid might tempt them? Although he's on about £150k. I think he's class, Bruno threading balls through, ASM and a new right forward either side...

I'd look at Boubacar Kamara. Supposedly Villa have been watching him - if they've got a chance to sign him then so do we. I think we made enquiries in January. A top quality DM would allow Bruno more freedom to push forward against the weaker sides & the two could play deeper together against stronger opponents.

There were lots of reports that he was going to be but nothing was confirmed and he isn't currently listed on Companies House

I think the guy with him in the second picture is the Saudi Golf guy? He's been before. Could tie in with what HTT II says about deals being done...?

I was thinking about that the other day - the problem is we don't have enough goals anywhere else in the side to get away with playing a striker who isn't in and around the box as much as possible.

I think we'll have a pretty substantial shortlist for each position (priority seems to be striker, CB, CM and GK) which will actually narrow itself down as there will be plenty of players who will rule us out due to no CL football. But we convinced Bruno. We convinced Trippier. Botman was by all accounts ready to sign on the dotted line. There are players out there who will take a punt on joining a team on their way up rather than one that's already there, particularly with half a season to impress before the World Cup.

I distinctly remember watching the reading game on holiday - I'd been pretty nervous about our chances that season & I think Rodgers was in charge of Reading, they were being talked up as promotion candidates. Shola scored three & at that moment I decided we were going to absolutely piss the Championship.

There have definitely been better goals but Carroll's third against Villa when we beat them 6-0 was special for me. My first game as a season ticket holder, glorious day, hammer the team that sent us down two seasons prior, Geordie lad wearing #9 bagging a hattrick. Perfect.

I hear what you're saying. For me though, there's a reason Abraham has spent most of his career in the PL & Serie A while Toney has just had his first experience of top flight football at 25/26. Anyway, regardless of who we end up signing, lets hope it's our Aguero rather than our Robinho...

That's some selective statistics right there Abraham was around 1 in 3 for Chelsea at 21/22yo, now he's gone to the top level in Italy and he's scored 15 goals there. You can argue about style or price but in terms of proven production, Abraham is at a different level completely.

We'll have to wait and see but I'd back Nickson et al to identify a better, younger forward for that sort of money. Seven goals from open play isn't it? I just don't think his ceiling is anywhere near top 6 level and if that's our ambition then there's every chance you're looking to shift him in 12 to 18 months.

West Brom were 5th when he took over, they're currently 12th. We call that the Steve Bruce effect.

During my time as a season ticket holder, that's what I regretted the most - not celebrating and enjoying the wins enough. There's enough dejection and disappointment to last a fortnight when we lose, why not allow yourself to enjoy the wins twice as much? Fans of Burnley/ Leicester/whoever - "Celebrating like they've won a trophy" well yeah, first of all none of us here under the age of 60 know what that feels like and secondly I bet you wish you were part of those celebrations too...

That's what worries me a little - is there a risk that he is a one-season wonder? Obviously he had a good record in the Dutch league but he's been about 1 in 3 in La Liga and about 1 in 3 for Sweden (including 2 against the Faroe Islands and 2 against Kosovo in his total of 9). What College Dropout says is right obviously, we aren't getting Prime Shearer or Drogba & there's no guaranteed slam dunk, but I'd rather go with production over projection I think.

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