Keegans Export

No, transfer fees count regardless as far as I understand. Some investment in the Academy is exempt but not fees.

Quick calculation, sign Brazilian player X for £20m fee + 5yr contract @£40k/week = £2m/year wages + £4m/year amortisation = £6m/year So hypothetically if you sell X for £30m after three seasons, he'll gain you £22m from a FFP perspective* because his book value will be £20m - (3 x £4m) = £8m We bought Bruno for £35m (I think?) and all he had was 50 appearances in France and a handful of Brazil caps. *I'm not sure whether wages would be part of the calculation, if so then it's a £16m gain because he'll have cost £6m in wages

I'm getting very confused about all these Brazilian wonderkids. There's Andrey Santos (CM) and Angelo Gabriel (FW) who plays for Santos and they're both around €25m?

Has anywhere reliable actually linked Merino?

That's my interpretation too

I don't understand why being good at scrapping in the streets is of any real use, its not the 15th Century ffs

Is there a replay of that online anywhere? I was at the game and I'd love to see it again

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I didn't care what these people thought of us when we were shit. I don't care what they think of us now we are quite good. I won't care what they think of us if we end up being brilliant.

It would be great to see that Newcastle Sports City ambition that SJH had come to fruition. I've often thought you could put together a very successful rugby/basketball/women's football team with relatively little investment, at least compared to PL football. Obviously they've introduced salary caps in the rugby but the rest are pretty much pre-FFP football aren't they? How much input did SJH actually have on the Falcons/Eagles/Ice Hockey (Cobras?)?

I'm sure I read that Charnley was the lowest-paid Director in the PL and it was only him in the boardroom so I'm guessing the answer is "a lot"

So he's behind Bruno, Joelinton, Willock, Shelvey & Longstaff in CM and ASM, Almiron, Fraser, Murphy and (presumably) Isak out wide. I get the point about the quality of training but I think keeping him around to be 6th choice CM/winger was daft and potentially detrimental to his development.

According to fbref, he's played 74mins across five appearances. With ASM out and Isak still returning to fitness, if he doesn't get some decent minutes in the next three games is it fair to start questioning the decision not to send him out on loan?

I tend to get quite snooty and refer to them as a Hippocampus rather than a seahorse. The half-horse-half-fish that Poseidon used to pull his chariot in Greek mythology probably has a bit more "cred" than the weird-looking thing you see hanging around seaweed.

Martin Samuel is a really odd bloke. He has this very strange writing style that just reads like he's drunkenly vomiting words onto the page.

...???

Every time we hire someone to a new executive role, I just add it to my list of jobs Lee Charnley was supposed to be doing. Now, maybe he was just useless and a lickspittle for Ashley but his role of "Managing Director" is now being done by Staveley, Merdad, Jamie Reuben, Dan Ashworth, Eales and now this guy. No wonder he never got anything done

It's a fair stance but at the same time we're talking about 10-man Fulham and Brentford at home - a trip to Old Trafford isn't what it used to be but its still a completely different animal. We should play our strongest available XI imo

I don't agree with the wording ("whigning" etc) but this would be my solution. Doesn't have to be 500 specifically but some amount. It means the loyalty point system is still in play and rewards that "loyalty" but doesn't make it a closed shop for newcomers (like the hypothetical 14-year-old hoping to go on his first away trip).

Well if we can play enough shit teams or teams that play shit against us that we get into Europe I won't be crying into my passport about how we got there

This is panning out like my favourite FM save. Buy up the best young prospects for reasonable fees and have them grow together into £100m players. In my case it was Tielemans, Rotariu, Jovic (plus others). Bonus point to anyone who can guess which edition that was...

Hopefully, for the sake of football as a whole, this thread can gradually die a death now.

I think that even if we were perennial CL qualifiers we'd still be vulnerable to the likes of Real and Barca. Difference is that now I'd back us to take whatever astronomical fee we get and buy three more quality players rather than see the owners use the money to buy H&M.

Does the BBC Sounds app work for 3pm KOs abroad? I know there's a black-out back home so I'm usually stuck with 5Live but I'm in Spain currently so hopefully I can get our game?

Greggs corporate "banter" isn't bad actually. That nativity scene depicting Jesus as a sausage roll

I think it was Howe's thing, although he never planned for them to be made public. Agree they're great though.