Keegans Export

There was a "Renew" button on the exiting membership page for all of last season but it didn't lead anywhere. I don't think renewals were ever on the cards last season but I reckon they will be now (assuming there isn't going to be a cap on numbers)

Obviously it's going to be difficult to get a ticket for a specific fixture but there are avenues; 1. Buy membership, enter the ballot for the game you want 2. Try and pick one up on general sale (which there will have to be) 3. See if any tickets are available on the resale site (I'm sure there is or will be an official one) 4. See if you can get an existing member/ST holder to transfer their ticket to you So it's not zero obviously but it's going to be difficult.

Yeah this definitely doesn't appear to be PIF cutting ties, just swapping two PIF guys for two different PIF guys.

I'd assumed they wouldn't limit the number of memberships, it's all income at the end of the day. Although I thought the same last year then they decided they were going to cap it at some point.

Yeah but take away all his Premier League experience and he's got no more Premier League experience than Diaby

£6m when his value to our squad is essentially zero is good business

Looking back at the previous windows, I've felt this way after each of them. Jan 22 I thought we were an attacker short, last Jan I was concerned we hadn't brought in another CM. I can't remember any negativity after last summers window but I think I was too busy orgasming over Isak. Anyway, after each of those windows we've achieved what we set out to achieve so what I take from that is that I know fuck all about anything.

Surely you can understand why our aim isn't to hit the FFP limit though?

£120m is an exaggeration because the +£40m will only affect one FFP cycle (three years) whereas the hypothetical £120m-worth of signings will be amortised for longer than that (five years presumably). If we use Isak as an example, £65m for 5 years = £13m/year on the books, plus £5.5m/year wages = £55.5m over three years, so that +£40m sale has pretty much covered that £65m transfer during that three year cycle. If you also factor in that the sold players wage is now off the books - let's say he's on £50k/week so the £5.5m/year wages for Isak is only £2.9m/year net making the Isak deal £47.7m over the next three years. Obviously that's just a really rough outline but that's basically how selling a player for £40m can essentially pay for a signing at £60m.

In theory they could loan the cash at a favourable rate if we had an obligation to buy. Clubs here do it on occasion with the TV money.

Might have already been posted but these accounts are now available on Companies House

Would you revisit that if Barnes put up something like 10G/5A next season? I'll definitely miss ASM like, always love a player who gets you excited every time they receive the ball. The difference now is that we've got a few players like that, plus Tonali and hopefully plus a few more. Barnes won't give me that feeling but if he sticks it in the net often enough it doesn't matter.

That's right but the PIF argument was that MBS would have no involvement in the running of the club and therefore didn't have to be put through the Owners and Directors Test. It was just an excuse to delay it until the piracy was sorted out obviously but the reason it took so long, then stalled completely, was that the PL said "MBS is going to exert control, we want him listed as a Director and do the ODT" and the club said "No he isn't so he isn't going to be listed as a Director and he isn’t doing the test". As soon as someone who isn't listed as a Director with the PL starts to exert some sort of influence or control over a club you could have bother, if the PL were bothered enough to do something about it.

Genuine question because I've not really been monitoring any transfer activities that don't include us but what's that based on?

Well it's not fit for its advertised purpose...

All the red flags there - new contract being discussed, talk of an "auction". All points to our name being linked to benefit either the agent or Napoli.

He's right, I had a look at the minutes of the last PIF meeting and the agenda was; 1. Managing PR for the LIV/PGA merger 2. Options for next football club purchase 3. Discuss further £2bn investment in electric cars 4. What to do with those pesky, principled mackems on RTG

The article explains it pretty well - they were looking at lower-tier clubs, but since UEFA softened their stance on clubs with the same owners competing against each other in Europe they are now considering going for bigger clubs. Basically the issue would have been if we and whichever club they bought both qualified for the Champions League, now that issue has gone.

Really making some moves. Players with experience in the top two divisions, England Internationals at youth level, local born too.

Can't say I've heard of her but seems to have played in both the first and second tiers previously. Seems like a good signing.

When did they sell Grealish? That'll have been a massive boost.

Some articles are saying the opening bid was £28m (could be Euros), that it'll be rejected but that Villa will go back with another bid

The thing about the FFP/sell-to-buy line - I always come back to the same thought, what would our budget have been if we hadn't qualified for the CL? If its Tonoli for £50m and Barnes for £35m and that £85m has cleared us out how much would we be spending if we'd finished 5th? Or lower?

From Palma (Mallorca)

You make a lot of good points, but there are two issues I see there; 1. We have enough absolute shite in our squad that need shifting, even just to get the wages off the books, before we look at the core 14-15 players who played the majority of minutes last season 2. If you sell Wilson for example, yeah you're bringing some money in but you're then committing yourself to bringing in a replacement which is going to cost money, so the gain is going to be fairly limited. There are enough weak spots within our squad that need addressing without creating another weak spot by selling someone who played a lot of minutes and scored a lot of goals. Between them Miggy and Wilson played nearly 4,500 mins last season. Add in the extra European games and that's a lot of minutes that you're going to need to replace by selling those two.