Keegans Export

I wasn't following that story, what happened?

That's quite the risk on his part though isn't it? Unless there is a release clause, what if his Saudi club decide they don't want him to leave? Unlike us they can absolutely afford to pay him £600k/week to train with the kids at the academy.

I don't think Saudi clubs play by any normal rules tbf Presumably they think every player has a number and they just need to find it, £500k/week, £600k/week...?

As I understand it, it's a legitimate way to add cash to a business but it doesn't count as income/profit. It's not a PSR "cheat". I have a business, so I could issue one share for £20k and use my own money to buy it. My business now has £20k extra cash but that won't go down as income the business has generated. I'm also fairly sure our owners have done this on more than one occasion.

It's also sort of saying to Liverpool - shit or get off the pot. The bidding has started so are you part of it or not?

Last summer produced nothing obviously but I think we all suspected going in that ongoing PSR issues and missing out on the Champions League would cause problems. Once we finished last season it was all much better PSR position! Champions League football! Transfer summit! yet here we are, preseason well under way and we're looking like having a weaker squad (and starting XI) than we finished last season with

Just tell him you're now a Real Madrid fan and ask how he feels about TAA & his puny collection of just six Champions League wins

So £70m + bonuses is what they're after? Assuming that's roughly what we looked at for Pedro & Ekitike we should be able to secure this deal before Isak moves. If he ends up staying then great, supposedly that was the plan with the other two anyway...

I presume this one is tricky because you'd assume the guy he'd be replacing is still here. Wissa would be the rotation/backup regardless so no excuse on that one.

Are we sure that isn't what's happening? Create hilarious sitcom -> sell to Amazon for millions and millions -> PSR defeated?

Oh boy, I mean the whole Barella/Tonali thing was bad but...

I don't know enough about "ball" or Sesko specifically but it's definitely the sort of deal we need to do. We've tried going head-to-head for Delap, Mbeumo, Ekitike and it hasn't paid off so it's time to go back to what has served us well in the past - trust our scouts, trust Eddie's coaching and make the move while rivals hesitate. Whether that is Sesko or someone else doesn't matter, that has to be the blueprint.

Seeing as the Isak and Liverpool sides seem keen to make this public then we should do the same. Set our asking price. That's the number until 1st August, then the asking price goes up £5m per day until the window closes. Like the infamous Arsenal representative on speaker phone, Cabaye listening in - say to Isak, if they really want you, they'll make it happen.

In order - £35m £55m £35m £40m £65m £35m Give or take, £265m gross, £115-145m net depending on Isak's fee

So 12 months to breaking ground, another 18-24 months to completion. Assuming we want to go even bigger and still don't even have a site picked out suggests I probably wasn't far off with my assumption that few of the current squad will still be here when (if?) it's done.

So what you're saying is.... ...PUT OUT THE ADAM PEARSON SIGNAL

This is something I've thought about with the stadium but it might hold true for the training ground too - even if we picked a site tomorrow, how many of the current squad will ever actually set foot in it? I've no idea how long these things take but seeing as we apparently haven't even decided where we want to build it, I assume we're talking a number of years?

Will £130m be "transformative"? He's probably got about £30-35m left on his book value so thats +£90-100m plus wages maybe another £6m or so per year. Obviously we know the incoming players' fees would be "amortised" but we can't forget this £100m or whatever it ends up as drops off in a few years time.

They can "offer" what they like but he only gets it if we agree to sell him. He can't just walk out. He's got three years left, yes we risk losing him for less if he doesn't sign a new deal but that isn't without risk for him either. What if he has a season plagued with injury and/or patchy form? Is he still walking into a £300k/week contract or will the big boys have a different shiny new toy to target? If he turns down an extra £100k/week here that's over £15m guaranteed he's leaving on the table, in the hope that both someone offers us what we want plus the massive salary he apparently wants.

The problem from a communication point of view is that Howe made a rod for his own back by saying he wasn't in Glasgow because of the speculation. Obviously he could have got injured or worsened an existing niggle since then which is why he isn't travelling but when you've already publicly given one reason for his absence, people are naturally going to assume that's the reason for his continued absence. Best case scenario he is injured and is going to have little to no preparation ahead of the season. For the first time since we secured CL qualification at the end of last season I now think it's more likely he goes than stays.

Fair enough. I just think all the evidence points towards this never being a case of throwing unlimited sums of money at it. Example - the women's team. There are currently no PSR rules in the women's game. The precedent has been set that a successful women's team can be "sold" in part or whole and that money essentially invested in the men's team. The first £1m women's transfer has just happened. Why not dump (by WSL standards) a ludicrous amount of money - a Chelsea/Man City on steroids - to increase the worth of the women's team and sell 10-20% a la Villa/Chelsea whenever we need a bit of wriggle room? Because there isn't currently a sound business case for it. If it was all about pumping as much money into the club as possible, that's what they'd do.

I guess I'm just curious to know what you think PIF would have done differently? Did they think they could just spend whatever they wanted, in which case they must have had absolutely no knowledge about how football has been governed for about a decade. Jamie Reuben was a director at a football club himself, surely they knew at least the gist of it? Arguably the APTs might have caught them out but they havent really shown any appetite to push the rules to their absolute limit as they are, never mind what they could have spent if the regulations had been considerably more relaxed.

I should add - I do think there's an element of the purchase being Staveley's vision and her selling the idea to the other parties but I dont think they just handed over £250m based on her saying "Trust me bro" I'm also not convinced this was ever going to be a throw money at it indiscriminately project for PIF. The lack of associated party deals (reduced value or otherwise) and the very slow, careful "process" around infrastructure projects suggest this has always been a business investment.

There may well have been an element of naivety in the purchase but there's no way Stavely, the Reuben’s and PIF invested £300m without due diligence. I can't believe one of them didn't suggest maybe looking into the rules dictating how much they could or couldn't spend.

FAO @Alan Pardew