Keegans Export

...and yet if you do make the CL, you still probably won't be able to invest enough to build a squad capable of competing in Europe and finishing top 4/5 domestically so at best it's one season in, one season out. The more I think of it the more I think Eddie is working absolute miracles. To have gone 4th, 7th, 5th while being the 10th biggest spenders in that time (12th in the past two seasons) is remarkable.

Seems unlikely?

They've presumably decided to really go for it now, bringing in a DOF and giving her almost a clean slate. Will inevitably put a lot of pressure on Langley, quite an ask for a 30-year-old with relatively little experience.

The issue is that their income over the 3-year cycle (including this coming season) is miles behind everyone else. Burnley will still have their 23/24 PL income included in their calculation and the closest would be Leeds because they were also outside of the PL in 23/24 and 24/25 but their income is considerably higher than Sunderland's regardless. Although they aren't losing a huge amount compared to a lot of clubs, they also aren't allowed to lose as much because of those two seasons in the EFL. They've also got the same issue as us - namely that they can't afford to sell anyone worth any reasonable amount without also having to replace them. They could sell Bellingham for a decent wedge but then you're already one starting CM down before you've kicked a ball. Ultimately it'll depend on what the ambition of the owner is. They could go for it, take the risk and spend £100-150m or he could just bank the extra £100m+ income from a season in the PL, plus the parachute payments and aim to be a yo-yo club.

It's not as difficult a conundrum as it might seem from the outside. All they have to do is set their moral compass back to September 2021 and everything is hunky dory 👍🏻

Definitely the latter. Partly because people don't really understand the former but mainly because if we were going to spend £400m that's going to generate a lot more clicks than saying £100m

I'm going to be absolutely devastated when this goalkeeper I hadn't heard of until about a week ago and still know essentially nothing about inevitably signs for someone else

We can only speculate on what is quite limited concrete information, so I'll speculate... What it comes down to (in my opinion) is this muddled mess, not exclusive to NUFC, of CEOs, Directors of this and that, managers and head coaches. Who is ultimately in charge? It looks to me as if Eales sees (or saw) himself as ultimately the top of the pile. He champions Mitchell to be his guy on the football side and Eddie, ultimately, reports to his Director of Football. The problem is that Eddie already had his feet under the table and has been doing a magnificent job, so is he the top man on the footballing side of things, including incomings and outgoings? "Power struggle" is the dramatic way of putting it but I reckon that's basically what's going on. Anyway, Howe has clearly done enough to justify being the final decision maker. Yes, he'll need people making arguments for and against but he leads the show. Let's be honest, if it all goes to shit he'll be the one who loses his job because of it so I don't blame him really.

He might think a couple of years as #1 in the PL/Champions League sets him up to move straight in as #1 at Barca anyway.

We could just call him Brian? Or Bryan? Actually that might be worse.

I must have got 10% from the FA Cup or something. Will take a while to get used to all this European football carry on again. Looking forward to it.

What are the UEFA rules on away allocation, 10%?

I'm also not putting "The Guehi Saga" entirely on him either. For starters, he'd just joined and was going off the clubs existing target list. Secondly, a number of journalists have reported that the negotiations did not go the way Palace/Parish was suggesting, so I'd take that with a pinch of salt too. He'll be judged on how the squad shapes up for the coming season, not what happened last summer.

He's done nothing positive so far because we've had no money to spend and his first job was to fill a PSR-shaped hole left by his predecessors. Bit harsh using that as a stick to beat him with. Saying he "took Howe on" seems a bit of a stretch? So does blaming that for our shaky start. Surely having spent most of the summer trying to flog anyone we could to avoid a points hit and multiple windows without first team additions were more likely to be the problem?

It's almost certainly still £75k then it'd go back up to £100k if CL qualification was achieved. It might reduce further but there'll be a lower limit to how far it can drop. Likewise it wouldn't go £100k > £125k > £156k > £195k > £244k if we kept qualifying.

There must be a misunderstanding here. Say I join Man Utd on £100k. We miss out on CL football so my salary goes down to £75k the next season. If we miss the CL again, what is my salary then...?

Yes, we were tentatively linked to him in 2022

I'm sure we've been linked with him before. Maybe the summer Isak signed?

It's pretty vague and not particularly well worded but that's the best I could come up with. Still not 100% on the capacity. On the face of it and extra 13k isn't bad but how much of that is going to be an extended hospitality offering?

I assume what they mean is that the stadium design will incorporate a fan zone, like the current Stack, which will be 35m high?

Possibly, but they've done it before I'm sure?

I understand the scepticism but the club clearly do appreciate the atmosphere inside SJP and how that can affect the on-field performance. The "Two free drinks" deal tomorrow is evidence of that. Hopefully they'd be looking to improve the atmosphere in a new stadium.

I love the "it gets paid by our taxes" line, like he's some millionaire lining the Government coffers by five figures a year 😂

It's hard to comment because we don't really know our financial situation heading into the summer. If we're confident we have the money to bring in the quality & numbers we need without selling Bruno, I'd rather we didn't. If we did sell him, yes that would give us more wiggle room but then you'd have to replace an absolutely vital member of the team and our captain. Even with a substantial "war chest" who do you go for?