Keegans Export

Tell you what, if we do want to sign him we'll need to get a move on, it'll take him about a week just to sign the contract

Clearly that's not always the case though, quite a few of our moves have been under-the-radar until things are almost complete. That's not to say Rob M isn't just making excuses for his own lack of (or future incorrect) information of course.

I think if Man Utd are dragging their heels this could just be agent talk

One thing with Barnes - he's unlikely to be a flop. We can argue about his ceiling (versus ASM, Chiesa, Diaby etc) but at the very least he's a good quality starter for a top half PL team and if we decide to move him on in the future there's every chance we make a decent FFP profit.

Barnes isn’t exciting in the same way Maxi, Chiesa, Diaby are but he's incredibly productive - 34 goals and 23 assists in four seasons is impressive.

Just picking last season (post major injury for Chiesa), Chiesa missed 75 days, Maxi 81 days. So they're not miles apart. Having said that, 26 of those for Chiesa were "fitness" while he recovered from that massive knee injury.

I don't think its unreasonable to say that Chiesa (40+ caps, multiple CL appearances) has a higher ceiling than ASM (zero caps, little if any CL experience) and swapping one for the other is hardly a daft idea

Chiesa deal could be similar to Isak - we push ahead with the deal while others are hesitating (with Isak it was his relatively poor 21/22 season, Chiesa his post-injury form). It's our best chance of bringing in elite talents at this stage in our development.

FFP calculations are pretty much a crap shoot. All we've got is the accounts from the season before last (21/22) plus estimates of transfer fees, wages, sponsorship etc. For the latest three-year cycle this summer will impact, we only have the financials for one year. Plus, how much a transfer impacts our FFP budget depends on both the length of the players contract and how much he's getting paid so there's more variables there. Obviously there are certain figures we know eg. PL/TV income and we can project CL income for this coming season but I think anyone claiming to be able to calculate what our spending power is this summer with any real accuracy is just wrong.

You aren't replacing him for £30-35m though, you're replacing him for £30-35m plus the existing budget. I also wonder whether Gordon isn't ultimately the ASM replacement anyway, at least in Howe's mind anyway. What I mean by that is that he's the starting LW, or ends up as the starting LW.

Presumably there'll be a training kit sponsor, no logos on the gear released so far

Yeah but we're also still paying for Bruno, Trips, Botman, Isak...

Challenge accepted.

Does it not work as it is? Six syllables isn't it?

I think if we like Thuram and a deal can be done at a price we're comfortable with we'll look into it. A bit like when we signed Pope - we didn't need another keeper, but he was available for a good price and he improved our starting XI (and therefore the squad as a whole).

Being woefully underprepared has never stopped them before...

Don't get hung up on ages, players develop at different rates/times. If Livramento is the better player now then he'll be in ahead of Ashby, but we can afford to keep Ashby for another season or more to see how he develops. He could easily be a late bloomer and before you know it we've got two quality RBs in their early 20s.

Potentially. It depends on how English clubs do in Europe - the two countries with the highest coefficient will get an extra CL place each. Recently this would have been England and one of Spain or Germany but nothing is guaranteed.

Bruno joined in the middle of the season and hadn't trained with the team, Tonali will have had (most of) a preseason.

That was in January though, not weeks before pre-season training

If its possible to redevelop the current SJP into the world-class stadium our owners will want then that has to be the best option. If there isn't a way to achieve that, building a 65k stadium in Leazes Park would be my second choice. Make it unique, not a soul-less bowl. Design it with noise & atmosphere in mind. It would also open up stadium naming rights in a way staying at the current site may not and they could maximise the corporate facilities/numbers which would both inject a healthy amount of cash. Third choice would be stay at SJP in its current form, a new stadium further afield would be a distant fourth. If we assume money is (almost) no object, it wouldn't surprise me that much if they did what they're doing with the training ground - develop it as much as they can but ultimately move to a "best in class" alternative down the line.

OK so just to clarify, your comprise is what exactly? Knock the terrace down?

I don't really see a "compromise" Either the buildings (and the East Stand) stay as they are or you fundamentally change the buildings to change the stand.

The idea that we put so much on character and dressing room unity then proceed to spend £60m on a guy who's scouting report read "Technically sound, hard-working, has a tattoo of Alessandro Nesta on his right arse cheek, hates bridges and is allergic to pease pudding"

Would certainly explain why SELA is absent from the current training kit. I'm fairly sure Fun88 was on last years gear?