Keegans Export

There's no real need for us to be active in this mini window, aside from potentially missing out on targets. We aren't in the CWC, the PSR deadline isn't until the end of the month and the players won't be back for preseason until July so bringing someone in on 30th June rather than 8th June doesn't make any difference. I assume by "early", Howe means before preseason, unless he's clarified otherwise.

When I've been considering taking advantage of teams in PSR trouble, I've spent as much time thinking about who we could fob off on them as who we could take. We have a lot of deadwood that would be lucky to bring in anything at all.

It's a gradual process that ends with every professional footballer on the planet being signed to Chelsea.

Give me Madueke at RW and Shola in charge of every aspect of our loan dealings

Hopefully you're right. That's the only thing that concerns me, that we've been here before with a stretched squad, huge gap in quality between first XI and the backups and it was only Howe's ability to extract the absolute maximum from the squad that saw us finish as high as 7th. To some this is "complaining" but it's only offering an opinion - that if we go big on one or two marquee signings from the PL, our squad will be too light. Maybe that won't be the case. Maybe we'll actually be able to spend enough to add the four or five players I think we need. Maybe we won't spend £60m on Pedro or £50m on Guehi or whatever. All just opinions.

Honestly feel like moves like this, while undoubtedly very good players, will have us bemoaning lack of depth/options by the middle of November. If we don't get more than 2-3 players for the first team squad because we've spent £60m+ on one player, I never want to hear the club complain about PSR ever again.

Yo momma so dumb she bought a sofa at full price

We got a pretty good deal the last time we took a calculated gamble on a player we had scouted extensively but was coming off a poor season...

Bakayoko for me. Obviously can't play up front but he's only got a year left on his deal so you'd assume he'd be £25-30m at most. Playing in the Netherlands so assume he isn't on a huge wage. The overall package might allow us to buy a proper backup striker eg. Kalimuendo and have both for what Mbeueuembo would have cost. That's the sort of deal I think we should be doing this summer.

"There's three ways to do things - the right way, the wrong way and the Anthony Elanga way" "Isn't that just the wrong way?" "Yes, but faster"

It doesn't have nothing to do with it because we aren't going to sign players and not have them in the CL squad (4th choice keeper not withstanding) I think we have 24 first team players, plus Osula who I'm not sure whether he has to be registered or not and Miley who definitely wouldn't have to be. Only one of those 24 is homegrown (Longstaff) so we can have a squad of 22 I think? Assuming one of the keepers isn't registered that means we've already got one first team players picking up a wage but not being part of the squad and that's without making any signings.

As I said, it's perfectly reasonable to say that 90% of what they've done has been positive but have a desire to crack the remaining 10%. I also don't think there are many managers out there who could have achieved what Howe has achieved after three transfer windows without a first team addition. Of course, PSR has been a massive issue but look at sponsorship - Sela, Adidas, Noon, all great. But we've made no movement on other opportunities eg. training ground, training kit. Even £2.5m/year for each of those would more than cover Isak's proposed pay rise. It's nearly nine months since Eales announced he was going to step down and we still haven't got someone in. Some things we do move at a glacial pace. Again - pointing out areas where we/they could do better doesn't mean I don't appreciate/respect what they have done. If our ambition is to be #1 then that's what it's going to take - with the rules in place to stop us, everything we do is going to have to be near enough perfect.

Absolutely not, they've been fantastic for the club. However, nobody made our (and PIFs) Chairman go on camera and say he wants us to be "Number One". If that's the goal then great, go out there and prove it. Don't give 9-figure sums to some of the teams between us and #1. You can both be delighted and grateful for what they have done for the club and hope for more.

I don't know what the prize money for the CWC is but I wonder whether those clubs will benefit more from PIFs money than we have? I'm talking in terms of PSR-qualifying income rather than day-to-day running costs.

Well it starts with them sponsoring a competition we aren't in so 🤷

Make the most of this one, we'll never see him in a Newcastle shirt again

It's really frustrating that, from a PSR perspective, we'd be better off selling Miley and bringing someone like Hayden Hackney in. I don't like the idea of selling him for a number of reasons, not least that we need another CM anyway and it'd mean we'd probably have to keep Willock and Longstaff because I can't see us brining in two midfielders.

Don't leave me hanging! What have I missed?

We either take the risk of signing unproven players on less expensive deals, or we take the risk of paying big fees/wages for the proven talent but not having the numbers to compete on multiple fronts. Personally, I prefer the former because I trust whoever is recommending targets - not just the ones we've signed but the ones we were tracking who have gone on to become very good players (eg. Pedro, Ekitike, Szoboszlai and so on)

Nope

It's not a "strong chance" if he always wanted to go to Man Utd, a team that both wants, needs and can afford him ffs

It's only really the financial outlay that's up for discussion isn't it? If we go big on him, a CB and another £20m+ on a keeper are we then scrabbling around the bargain bin for any other signings? As good as he is we'd still be buggered if Tonali does his ACL or Isak is out for a prolonged period. The issue in 23/24 was not having the numbers to perform on multiple fronts - players have to play more minutes, more injuries pile up and on it goes.

He can still only play one position at a time. He gives us flexibility but not as much flexibility as signing both a RW and a striker would. Obviously I've got no idea what our budget is but we aren't one player away from consistently being able to compete both domestically and in Europe, however good that player is.

That's what the Community Note says, it's not his account

The problem over the past couple of seasons hasn't been the starting XI, it's the drop-off from the first 12-13 players and the rest of the squad. That's the reason I've never been 100% on Mbeumo at £50-60m. Does he improve our XI? Yes, considerably. But when we've got a CL game on the Wednesday and a big PL game on the Saturday I'd rather have the option of a new RW and a striker, even if that means going down our list of targets a bit. The Villa game this season stands out. I still maintain our XI that day was better than theirs but whereas they could make four or five changes from their midweek team we had to send out the same players for their third game in a week.