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We've been second best in every single category. They're a good side and have played very well but we've been absolutely shite.

He's doing a great job and they're playing very well but we've been miles off it

Completely forgot about him. 0 goals and 2 assists in 17 games for Ipswich

Perfect username for tonight

That's exactly why we were after him. We'd identified Isak as our #1 but he was going to be too expensive so we looked for similar profile players. Then Wilson got injured, Sociedad softened their stance, fast forward two and a half years and the best centre forward in the world is playing for Newcastle.

The thing with DCL (and I'm applying the same logic to Mbeumo) is, can we get as good or better for less elsewhere? On the face of it, he's a reasonable option because he's good enough to backup Isak but not so good that he'll get pissy being #2. Unfortunately PSR is going to be a problem for us so we have two options, shop savvy or sell someone for a big fee. We have too many gaps in our squad to buy players for big fees and/or high wages and I think he may end up being the latter.

Mbeumo probably is worth north of £50m but I think we have too many gaps in the squad (especially if we want to be competitive on multiple fronts next season) and not enough PSR wriggle room to fill them if we shop in that sort of price range. We will probably need another keeper, we'll definitely need another CB, we may need a backup RB depending on what happens with Trippier, our depth at CM isn't great, plus we need RW/CF. We have a number of key players approaching their twilight years and most of the players we could sell for a fee would need to be replaced. Someone earlier said Mbeumo would "complete us" - he'd complete the starting XI absolutely, but we're probably 4-5 players short of having a squad ready for PL and European football. The drop off between the first XI and the backups is too big.

But to consistently qualify for (and be successful in) the Champions League we're going to need a way of investing in the playing squad without having to regularly sell our best players. The proposed doubling of matchday income of £30-40m/year from a new venue could help us achieve that, certainly more than the fabled "Official Tractor partner" sponsorships that are yet to materialise.

I assume they meant doubling match day revenue rather than overall revenue

I'd like to think I'm not missing the point - it seems to be that a new stadium alone won't close the gap? Obviously that is correct but what is the alternative? If we can't close the gap then just leave everything as it is and just hope for marginal increases in sponsorship revenue every so often? The point about Chelsea and Liverpool is an interesting one and I don't know the details of how those stadiums compare to ours in terms of corporate but what I do know is that Chelsea is in London (£££) and Liverpool have multiple Champions League games most seasons which I assume is part of the story.

Let's just take Man City as the target, that's +£34m. Perhaps there could be a stadium sponsorship available, could we add another £10m to that? Obviously that's not going to fill that £100m+ commercial revenue gap, but it's a start isn't it? What could we have done with that extra £40m in the summer? The only way we're going to get close to catching up in the PSR/FMV world is consistently crashing the top 4/5/6, justifying those larger sponsorship deals, bringing in more PL and UEFA prize money etc. and the best way to do that is to be able to invest in the squad and the increased matchday income can help us do that.

Each place up the league is worth £3m+ so I don't think they'll currently know how much wriggle room they need to that degree of accuracy. Far too many variables between now and 30th June.

Five of the top seven dropping points, huge opportunity for us tomorrow

Loan with an obligation (I think it was if we finished above 15th or something? )

Realistically he was an opportunistic signing to fill a gap at CB/LB. He was only ever going to be a squad player and the emergence of Hall as our #1 LB and Botman returning from injury (hopefully Krafth/Lascelles to follow) makes him expendable. Transfermarkt has his value at about £15m so anywhere in that ballpark would be good business imo.

Seems an odd one, but if we get his £100k/week off the books and enough money to buy a younger replacement then that'd be good business.

The cutoff is June, these charges would have been for breaches between 1st July 2023 and 30th June 2024. We started the 24/25 period 1st July 2024 Edit - yes as @MagCA says its a three year period but each new year starts on 1st July.

It shouldn't from our point of view. We've clearly overpaid for him whereas Forest will feel they've got a bargain with Anderson.

We're going to put socks and gunpowder in its mouth, but not until after 30th June

Just a way of injecting cash into the clubs bank account I believe. Presumably just to cover day-to-day running costs. It doesn't count as income for PSR purposes.

No, I think he's got a point. Investing hundreds of millions of pounds into a stadium they can't be bothered to turn up to as it is, in order to secure the occasional concert, is definitely a sound, logical decision.

I don't think that's correct...

That's the "right" answer for me, just on the basis that if you're structuring your team that you have to choose between them, you're deciding to have an extra defender, winger etc. rather than having both of them. If someone is either/or, which defender/midfielder are you putting ahead of Isak or Shearer?

All just opinions but not having a guy with a 1-in-2 record across ten seasons and 148 goals is overthinking it imo. Even if he wasn't pre-1997 Shearer, he was still scoring 20+ goals a season on a regular basis.