Keegans Export

I think if we had a chance there (and I dont think we do) then you're brining him in as your #1 striker for the next however many years and you'd expect to pay him comfortably more than £100k/week.

Scamacca, Schick, Isak, Calvert-Lewin - we've obviously got a "type", big lads who can handle playing up front on their own. Schick is still my #1. I like the extra bit of experience he has over the 20-23 year olds and he's coming off a good season rather than the out-of-form Isak and DCL who has had a disrupted year through injury. I also like that he's played in Germany so the cold won't bother him

REDACTED would be a really REDACTED signing. Wow, mods worked quickly on that one.

I think that was different in that they knew we were desperate and thought they might as well try to take advantage. As far as Henderson goes, did I read somewhere that he's on about £100k? If Ten Haag has decided that DDG is his #1 there's no point in keeping that sort of money tied up in a backup keeper so I reckon they'd take a loan offer.

The bias in this post is staggering. Such selective categories. What about... Takeaways: nobody knows their way around a mixed kebab like Brucey. He could polish off two of those, plus a free cheesy garlic bread and still have room for an extra bag of chips on the way home. Eddie Howe? Bet he couldn't even handle a Happy Meal without leaving some of it for breakfast the following morning. Being a Geordie: Bruce is a proper Geordie lad, just like Don Hutchinson and Graham Fenton. Howe is just another soft southerner who we always hate, like Rob Lee, Les Ferdinand and Warren Barton. Volume: when it comes to taking up physical space, it's not even close. Brucey wins hands-down. There isn't another manager in the world who can occupy an area that size. His head alone is colossal. Howe on the other hand, well you'd hardly look at him and say "Wow, I bet he takes up more than one seat at Cineworld" would you? So you see, there's two sides to every story.

1. There's two reasons we won't brazenly break the rules. Firstly, there could be punishments handed down by the Premier League as well as UEFA. It's not worth the risk of potentially losing out on qualification either by a points deduction from the PL or punishment from UEFA. Secondly, and I'm just guessing here, I think they want to be seen to be following the rules. We know certain powers within the PL will be watching us like a hawk, likewise UEFA who seem quite heavily influenced by Qatar. 2. Loan fee + wages will count towards FFP losses during the loan period, transfer fee will count towards losses from the period in which the transfer is confirmed (then amortised over the length of the player contract). It could be a way of bringing players in now then paying the transfer fee once we have an extra seasons-worth of sponsors setup. So if our commercial revenue is £10m this season, but we increase that to £50m in the next accounting period, that extra £40m could be someone like Dean Henderson (purely using him as an example because he's been talked about in the press) = the loan next season will have fairly minimal impact on FFP, then the transfer fee the following season is easily covered by additional revenue through sponsorship. So, to answer your question, yes it could be a way to get more players through the door now without impacting our FFP position until later seasons.

We could call it the "Promotion-at-the-first-time-of-asking Value Bundle"

I think I'll do the same

Yeah that's right. You could probably trawl through the accounts to work out the FFP implications but, as we've seen with Everton, it would only be an approximation due to the PL being so lenient with COVID related losses. I do agree though, a (relatively) small loss on the accounts is better than I was expecting. Edit - 2019/20 figures were a reported £26m loss, £27m was put down to COVID so we claimed a £1m profit before tax from the period

I'm not sure where I read it but I think Ligue 1 is pretty buggered financially in general.

There's obviously a debate to be had about exactly how good he is, but comparing Kalvin Phillips to Tarkowski is mental. You also have to balance out the high upside players with more reliable options. Badiashille and Ekitike could both flop, we've seen it plenty of times before, so you need to make sure a couple of signings are an almost nailed-on hit. Bruno was the former (which has paid off obviously), Targett and Burn were the latter. Wood is a bit of a funny one seeing as that was a move out of desperation rather than anything else, hopefully something we won't need to repeat in the summer, as much as I like the bloke.

You pay a premium for a player who is a known quantity though. I'm a fan of Phillips but let's assume he is just above average. Anyone we bring in from abroad at <£10m is going to be a risk, will they adapt to the PL, will they need 6+ months to get used to the pace of the game, how will they settle in England etc. Wheras with Phillips we can just slot him right in there next to Bruno and you know exactly what he is going to do and exactly what his floor is. Obviously we're then hoping that Howe can work a little bit of magic on him too. Give me him over any sub-£10m DM from elsewhere and I'd be happy.

I really like Jovic but he's someone who'd be coming here to try and turn his career around rather than someone coming in with a good season or two behind them. I might also be biased towards him because he's my #9 on my FM 2015 save...

He was on my shortlist - that's a good price if we end up spending a load on CB, CM and a striker - but I thought he played on the right and it turns out he's actually been playing on the left. I guess if someone chucked us £40m for ASM he'd be a ready-made replacement?

Lewis was someone I really had high hopes for when Howe came in, I was sure some proper coaching would see him push on. Then he wasn't even included in the squad.

Remember when Papiss was angling for a move elsewhere, there were mutterings about him not wanting to wear a shirt with Wonga on it because of his religious beliefs...then he was photographed having a great time in Aspers

So sportswashing is fine as long as it's...subtle? Sticking QATAR AIRLINES or ETHIAD all over everything = fine A particular colour of change jersey = not fine Like I say, there's a lot to process with what's going on with our club and people can draw the line wherever they want but the colour of a change kit seems an odd place to do it.

I don't want to sound mean but what were you expecting? That they were just doing it to have a warm, gooey feeling inside from making a load of Geordies happy?

The colour of the kit seems like an odd place to draw a line imo. Not that I'm suggesting anyone on here is doing that but we all know we are essentially owned by Saudi Arabia, we all know where the money is coming from and we all know that we are going to be marketed in Saudi as "their" Premier League club. I don't think you can be ok with all of that and then not be ok with having a kit clearly designed to appeal to Saudis.

What does it mean by "match version"? The crest looks horribly plastic-y and stuck on

That's absolutely correct, although the clubs are (or were) discussing a fee that would allow him to join earlier in the region of £5m, according to Craig Hope

So Luke "£60m budget" Edwards has us moving for Ekitike (was around £30m in January) and Calvert-Lewin (£30m+ you'd imagine)?

There was something on The Athletic (or could have been elsewhere) that his notice period doesn't actually end until towards the end of the year, not the end of the season, so unless we pay the money (or come to an agreement with Brighton) he wouldn't be in place for the summer transfer window.

Totally agree with you on Phillips. I think he's exactly the sort of player we need- against the bottom-half teams he can sit and allow Bruno some freedom going forward, against the better sides they can play a bit deeper together and I think they'd shield the back four quite effectively.

Wages are a bit more complicated obviously but yeah they are included in the FFP calculations so if our wage bill goes up £20m/year that'll have to be covered by legacy profits, player sales or new income.