Keegans Export

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.

My irony meter just exploded...

It's a 25% increase tbf and I understand the concept of ensuring demand outstrips supply. What matters is what they do with the capacity. Obviously they'll want to increase the corporate offering but making sure there's a substantial signing/standing area too is essential in my opinion.

I understand what you're saying completely and I don't think the players or Howe will think "job done" and down tools. I also agree that in the immediate future, CL qualification will be more of a boost than winning the League Cup and finishing outside the CL places. Having said that, if we win a trophy, while I wouldn't go so far as to say the rest of the season would be "immaterial", I can't see myself being disappointed come the end of May regardless of where we finish. We've had amazing teams, players etc. we've had multiple Champions League seasons and never won anything. Obviously being in the CL regularly = more money = better players = more chance of winning stuff but if we win on Sunday I'll have seen a Newcastle United captain lift a trophy and that is literally the only thing I want to see before I die. So yeah, maybe "immaterial" isn't the right word but it's hard to imagine what could happen (football-related...) between winning on Sunday and the end of the season that I means wouldn't still be on a high.

Wouldn't bankruptcy force her to step down as a director anyway?

Immaterial to who? Those in charge of the club would say CL but as a fan if you offered me a loss on Sunday and 5th or win the cup and 10th I'd pick the latter without hesitation. Edit - I realise I haven't really answered the question

I get what @Stifler is saying. I've seen us play in the CL, challenge for titles, I've seen world class players for and against us. A trophy is the last thing to tick off the list.

Where he's got 2024/25 that presumably means the 2025/26 season ie. the one that starts 1st July this summer?

I wouldn't say we (or Howe) have been bad in the market. Really the question is - could that money have been spent better? Would Kerkez and Kluivert plus £20m have us in a better position than Hall and Osula? That's just an example obviously. I don't blame Howe at all for going for known quantities, he's the one who'd pay with his job if we took those punts and they didn't pay off. What I'm trying to say is that we can agree that we have brought in very good players but that doesn't mean we couldn't have spent that money better.

Looked to be in response to someone suggesting he could miss the rest of the season

Firstly, amazing job putting all of that together. Secondly, I think there are both positives and negatives to take. Obviously there's some impressive gains, albeit from a very low starting point. On the other hand that £180m or so gap between ourselves and Chelsea doesn't look like shrinking any time soon, especially as a number of high-value deals have already been done (Adidas, Sela). It just goes to show how vital it is that we keep challenging for Champions League football, which isn't going to be easy when the teams above us can keep spending more than us.

Barnes is the epitome of a C on this scale. Clearly Premier League level but there's a reason he's only been capped once.

It's all very well saying we should use this as an audition for the cup final but if we deviate much from our on-paper "best" XI we won't beat either West Ham or Liverpool

I'm not criticising the rating scale tbf just saying I'd be surprised if any of ours aside from Isak are As

I feel the bar for an A is incredibly high. Tonali is a comfortable B but within 12 months he could be an A.

I'm sure one of the articles mentioned that multiple companies were putting proposals/designs forward for a potential new stadium and Populous was one of those named

The changes they've made to the training ground suggest they aren't going to just completely ignore SJP if/when they decide to move elsewhere.

"They met at Matfen Hall and I gained no new or useful information"

I've thought the same but all that really suggests is that the people running the club day-to-day want a new stadium. Ultimately the PIF will say yes or no and I'm not sure any of the local or even national press will have any inside info on what they are thinking.

That's not controversial though that's just awful

Save us @Shadow Puppets, say it ain't so!