Keegans Export

League Cup final highlights and chill??

So Luke's "I think we all need to wait for final plan to be made public" lasted just over a week

Quite a lot of Caulkin-esque prose on something we don't have any real, confirmed information about. We don't know whether there will be a parade or not, and if not we don't know whether it's the club, the police, the council, the NHS (etc) who have shot it down.

There's going to be a webinar for City centre businesses on Wednesday night, full details expected to be released by the club on Thursday.

Whoever we sign to replace Wilson is going to see a lot of minutes assuming that at the very least we get through the Conference League play-off we've already qualified for. The other selling points will be working with Eddie Howe and his proven track record of making players better and (not to put a dampener on things) the possibility that Isak doesn't sign a new contract and could leave the #1 CF spot open by the start of 2026/27 when he'll only be 23. That's a huge opportunity to be the leading striker for a team with trophy and Champions League aspirations before you turn 24.

Saw someone on Twitter say the men's team won it so they should be the first ones to show it off. I mean, they did? For about an hour? It was on the telly and everything 🤷🏻‍♂️

They've basically been going bust for years, relying on handouts/loans. They just don't make anywhere near enough money to be competitive, the only thing that's keeping them in the Premiership is the lack of viable teams in the Championship.

Anyone too impatient to wait until the 29th can just go to the game anyway. It's only £8 and £1 goes to the Foundation. If women's football offends these people so much they can just stay until the trophy comes out then f**k off home 👍🏻

They are considerably more invested in keeping their own population on side. Internationally Saudi is too influential for governments to really care what they're up to. Countries need vast quantities of oil, we and the US make huge sums flogging them weapons, plus it is strategically very important to have a strong, well-funded "ally" in the Middle East. There'll be an element of trying to make the plebs like us think differently about KSA to increase its appeal as a tourist destination but I don't think buying a football club is going to achieve that. Their human rights issues (which are numerous) are just too high a hurdle as it stands in my opinion and that isn't going to change regardless of how many trophies we win.

I'd argue we're already past the Brighton model and we'd already found the middle ground - I used Bruno, Botman, Tino as examples where we aren't in the sub-£20m take a punt range but £30-35m on players who have experience in both Europe and decent domestic leagues. There should be enough data, eye-test or otherwise, to make a sound assessment on those players. We also have the issue that whereas our first XI might only be a couple of players away, our squad depth is still miles off. If we want to be competitive in Europe and domestically we need improved squad players pretty much across the board. It's going to be hard to get the numbers we need if we're looking at £50m or more on Huijsen, Mbeumo etc.

I get what you're saying but we've had a lot of success in the £30-35m bracket (assuming Transfermarkt is accurate, that's Bruno, Botman, Tino money). You could spend £50m each on RW and CB or target that £35m range, trust the scouts that brought in the above names, have another £30m to spend on a third player and trust Eddie to turn them into £50m+ players.

What if you do have a ticket and it gets "full"? Presumably they know how many people it will take to be "full" and there will have to be some limit on tickets distributed?

My business is central and I haven't heard anything. Having said that I wasn't in today so if it's come in the post I'd have missed it.

Obviously I wouldn't be disappointed with any of the names mentioned but I'd be surprised if we brought Mitchell in then just went for players that anyone with a reasonable interest in PL football could identify. Obviously there's more to his job than just identifying targets but if we're just going to drop £50m on Huijsen and the same on Mbeumo then why him? I'd assumed his remit was to look for Huijsen and Mbeumo type players before they became household names?

Hoy a microphone around, let Eddie etc say a few bits and bobs

Don't see any reason we couldn't do both. Have a ticketed "event" on the Moor, stage etc then a bus parade from somewhere to there for everyone else.

Well I mean they would have put 11 registered players on the pitch and followed the rules of Association Football as best they could... of course we know that's not what he meant

I've been scratching my head about this "event" on the 29th. I mean, how many people are going to want to be a part of that? Can the city infrastructure even cope with it? Presumably if something is happening on the town Moor it'll have to be ticketed to some degree, then a bus parade where it's just a case of "best of luck trying to get a decent spot"? We don't have a wealth of experience to call upon in these situations...

If I had to pick my preferences; 1. Champions League. Win a trophy and qualify for the CL and nobody can argue we aren't on a major upward trajectory. Will allow us to aim for our top transfer targets in the summer, plus massively increases our chances of keeping any players we want to keep. 2. Conference League. Huge opportunity to win a second trophy. Should be able to progress deep into the competition without relying on our first XI and therefore maintain a strong League and domestic cup campaign. 3. Europa League. Less chance of winning it than Conference League, considerably less money than the Champions League. Absolutely would not turn it down but I put it third behind the prestige of the CL and the relatively higher chance of winning the Conference League.

What a guy. Whenever it looks like we might just be slipping a bit he always manages to turn it round, I honestly can't think of a manager who could do that. The big two is now the big three - Harvey, Keegan, Howe.

Nothing confirmed but there have been rumours that it's 29th March. Mark Douglas mentioned the Town Moor.

Agree with you entirely. And as far as the last bit goes, at least we're actually competing in the cups, reaching semi-finals and finals. For how many years would a 4th round tie be a treat? "It has to be our turn one day" is considerably more probable now than it was then.

I'm not 100% sure but there's a restriction on standing/seating ratio. So we couldn't take out 5k seated and replace with 7k standing. I'm not sure of the exact rule.

Let's hope there's no red flags. Fingers crossed approval is.... IMMINENT

In the next few years or so we'd sell out a 100k stadium for a big Champions League game. The problem is success brings two issues; 1. Fewer and fewer games end up as truly "big" games (see how Man Utd and Liverpool fans have viewed the respective League Cup finals) 2. We could sell 65k twice over for a CL QF against Real Madrid but what about Burnley at home three days later? In our future, we either stay roughly where we are (there or there abouts in terms of CL qualification), drop away to mid-table or lower, or Champions League football etc becomes the norm. Personally, I think there will be a drop in demand over time regardless of which future is in store for us.