Keegans Export

Hopefully Isak coming in and looking like the real deal has been a kick up the arse.

He's definitely improved his decision making. I'd like to see him play more on the shoulder of the full-back, looking for a through-ball. He always wants to come deep and take his man on from there which obviously he's very good at but it would add an extra dimension to his game if he could make runs in behind too.

Would Johnson count as homegrown too?

You're not wrong, but these things are quite cyclical. Teams run out of steam, they struggle to replace players who get old, they make poor managerial decisions etc. Man City have been the exception to that recently but nothing lasts forever & we can just gradually increase the quality in our 25 to put ourselves in a position to compete with these teams over 38 games.

I remember brining back Jak Alnwick on FM 2015 for that very reason.

That was also the last season under the old TV rights cycle too I think? So we should see a decent uptick in income from that alone, plus a bit more on top for a better finishing position. Edit - 11th to 6th would have been +£11m last season, +£15.4m for finishing 4th

I could be wrong and I haven't read the accounts but isn't there a difference between the "Accounts" and the FFP profit/loss? As in the FFP is calculated differently & there are various exclusions?

Remember - we're coming from a position of having almost no sponsorship income during the Ashley years. Everything aside from the shirt sponsor was Sports Direct. Everything plastered on SJP was Sports Direct. No "Commercial Partners". It's easier to find additional revenue streams when you're starting from such a low base (eg the Noon deal which is apparently worth more per season than Fun88 are paying)

Yeah its basically up to the start of last summer's transfer window, the end of the 21/22 season, so it's not even a full years accounts under the new owners.

He has taken it in. Reasonable, logical opinion backed up by facts/evidence = little traction Shouty, controversial, look-at-me opinion backed up by nothing = lots of clicks, comments and interactions

There is very little chance of any of those countries being sanctioned by the UK Government any time soon, they're far too important diplomatically.

Yeah but we also have the amortised fees for Bruno, Botman, Isak etc still going on the accounts so we've still got to be smart with it

Sounds like Diaby is a primary target for the summer. Northern Echo say we are willing to break our transfer record again. Can't see us spending £65m+ on Diaby and still having enough left to pursue Maddison

Right. But you see how that's different to "Saka will never leave Arsenal for any other Premier League club"? And how someone disagreeing with that statement wouldn't necessarily be the result of some anti-Arsenal/Arteta bias? We've had less than one season of this current Arsenal so let's not get carried away that Saka is about to lead some dynasty. They're having an excellent season with some excellent young players & a manager who is getting a tune out of them but things can change very quickly in football whether you're Arsenal, Newcastle or whoever else. I can see plenty of circumstances in the future where Saka (Arsenal fan or not) thinks his career is best served elsewhere, other than just the lure of a bigger pay packet.

I don't have any dislike for Arsenal (or Arteta) whatsoever. However, that sentence is incredibly naïve, especially to justify your opinion that he will never leave Arsenal for another Premier League club.

Nobody asked for my opinions but here they are anyway. We will have Saudi-inspired kits, we will have Saudi sponsors. We're just going to have to deal with it as the price of having the owners that we do. Same as putting up with all the human-rights warriors (as of October 2021), if we want a team of Brunos, Botmans, Isaks & Champions League football we're just going to have to suck it up. On Castore - I don't actually dislike their kits/gear all that much. The issue is whether they will be able to keep up with demand. If we release a decent kit for next season with a non-Fun88 sponsor on the front it's going to be the most sought after shirt we've had for a decade & you don't want people waiting until Christmas for a jersey they ordered during pre-season. You wouldn't have those concerns with Adidas, Nike etc.

What matters is who is actually running the club. They (the owners) have said that it's Yasir, on behalf of PIF, so he's the one who was "tested". What they've agreed to is that MBS isn't making the decisions, he's not making the calls and as long as that holds I don't think the link between Yasir/PIF/KSA/MBS matters. Having said that, all that actually matters to the PL is that the piracy has been sorted.

What's better than 20,000 empty seats? 35,000 empty seats of course!

We're going to need a new training complex just for all these new backroom staff, you won't be able to move at Benton without bumping into a Head of Youth Recruitment or a Head of Academy Scouting (South).

I'm not going to pretend to know exactly what that means but I guess it just puts them in a position of influence within a company that owns stakes in various clubs? So not the same as Man City buying up clubs outright.

That would be amazing. If we can get three first-team standard (Botman, Bruno types) then some young potential for the others the squad starts to look pretty solid.

Presumably they think they've got a shot at someone in the summer and RH is just the "safe pair of hands" to tide them over until then?

One thing I will say about McTomminay is that if the Chris Wood signing (and subsequent sale) has taught us anything it's that even if he has an average 12-18 months with us, there'll be someone in the PL willing to give us our money back for him.

I reckon he would, just depends if Levy will bow to his demands. Poch holds all the cards imo.