Keegans Export

The thing I don't get about the attendance thing is why do they make a big deal out of it at all? I mean, it's Championship football, very few clubs are going to get regular attendances north of 30k and there's no shame in that at all. This obsession with the figures that clearly bare no resemblance to the actual number of fans in the ground, the mad excuses for having a half-empty stadium - it all just makes what is honestly a perfectly normal situation into something really odd.

So you're saying the Italian media have just...made something up? The Italian media? I'm stunned.

Recently we've been very much based in the UK market. I think Tonali has been the only first team transfer from abroad since we bought Isak

Why would we tie ourselves in for 10 years? A one-year training kit sponsor for £2m would have covered Bruno's wage rise for the year and then some. And is considerably better than £0m. If we'd signed a £5m/year deal for 3 years for the training ground, maybe we'd have been able to keep Minteh? So now not only have we lost the potential income from that deal, we're going to have to spend a load of money brining a winger in.

The "waiting for the rules to change" argument has run it's course a while back imo If they've held off on key sponsors eg. Training kit on the basis that they'll get more if/when the rules change, how much more are they going to have to bring in to cover three years of missing potential income?

Interesting that the FMV tests for sponsorship etc will still use an independent expert assesor but the tests for shareholder loans won't...

But, we do presumably own the stuff it's made from...? "How about a piece of the hallowed St James Park turf? Well, as a relative of the PIF Chairman, we can do you a special deal of only £10m per square meter! Or perhaps you'd like one of these vintage urinals from the legendary Gallowgate End loos? A bargain at just £20m"

Apparently Tony Bloom wrote all the good bits

It's the double-edged sword of amortisation. We sign Isak for £65m, but only £13m of that goes on the books for that season (assuming a 5 year deal). That's where the whole "sell £20m worth of players and you could spend £100m replacing them because of amortisation!" The downside is that £13m is going to be on the next years books too. And the one after that. And so on. The amortisation of every player we've signed since the takeover is still being taken into account, so even though we haven't spent much, the money we did spend is still affecting our PSR position. Just Botman, Bruno, Tonali, Isak, Gordon and Barnes is roughly (very roughly) £55m/year plus wages

They're in the process of expanding the current training ground further so we'll be staying put for a while

I assume he's kidding...

Extra £250 from every season ticket holder. Fire a few minimum wage club shop staff. Sorted.

You know he will. Bonus points for a cheeky mention of the league cup win.

Doesn't really matter who's made the call, if one of your star backroom acquisitions is on his way after less than six months there's a clear issue with that recruitment process.

I suppose it only works if you have a team trying to play through it from the back so we can turn the ball over in the final third. Most teams are now quite happy to let us have the ball if necessary because if we win the ball in our own third we don't seem to be able to hit teams on the counter and we can't create anything of note against a low block.

That depends how involved he was in the transfer activity before then, including players being given contract extensions. If he was largely hands-off or not particularly involved in which players we were chasing and how much we were willing to spend then fair enough, especially if our PSR position has not been laid out clearly for him. However, if he's gone into the last few transfer windows leading the charge with his eyes wide open then he has to take some of the responsibility for how those transfer windows played out.

Honestly, I have no idea. But I also had no idea who Thomas Frank was until he turned up at Brentford and he's just embarrassed us in that second half. I still can't pronounce the Brighton managers name and he seems to be doing alright.

And yet, when Paul Mitchell essentially called this out, he got slated?

What we really need is two or three additions in January. The problem is, thanks to our PSR position, we can't do that without selling one of our best players. This is why managers ultimately get binned off, it's easier/cheaper than large scale player turnover. I'm not saying it's right, but we've got three big games coming up and if we don't get the results we need our season could be effectively over before Christmas.

Second half has been embarrassing.

He's only just about to turn 27 too, he's not a pensioner. We could easily get 3+ seasons out of him. I also wonder whether the glut of "links" to PL players is a combination of name recognition driving clicks/engagement plus UK journalists having more contacts within the UK. For example, if we've been watching Semenyo then they'll be more likely to pick that up compared to some young lad playing in Portugal, because they don't have as many sources there.

I mentioned him in passing a while back on the basis that I think he's a left-footed RW who is the right age and I think his contract expires next summer. Don't actually know anything about him though. Edit - me and quite a few others I should say

If I was a PL team in need of a left winger, Barnes would be very high up on my list. Let's face it, if we didn't have Gordon, Barnes would be starting every game for us without question.

That's what our season will depend on. Howe has come up with a fantastic strategy for games like this, shape, team selection etc all spot on. Now we need to do the same for the teams that are happy to let us have the ball. Assuming we're going to stick with the 4-3-3 I reckon our best bet is Tonali at 6, Bruno playing further up on the right side. I'd also have Barnes on the right, I think he'd link up well with Bruno and he's more two-footed than Gordon.

My exact thoughts!