TheBrownBottle

PSR restrictions etc etc etc Howe really isn’t the greatest at being ruthless, either

I reckon teams which lose more than half their league games despite having the 7th highest wage bill in the country don’t have a fucking leg to stand on

It means our owners are spunking a billion on a joke tournament and pouring an additional £100m into the coffers of Man City and Chelsea - which in Chelsea’s case will help with their FFP woes

Aye definitely, total load of bollocks. BHA would want a fortune to sell.

If the squad remained intact, sounds ok to me - but I think we'll see movement out, and each of those will need a replacement

Because Howe said exactly that in a press conference

He’ll be £60m+ - and Howe is unlikely to blow such a massive chunk of his budget on a second string player.

Zero chance we’re paying that sort of money for a back up. Haven’t seen a more obvious non-starter yet.

Reminds me of my younger days when pre season friendlies against Juve and Barca were the norm It is nice being a proper club again

£25m sounded about right tbh, but he’s their player. And Dortmund and Bellingham seem to have gobshited to the press prematurely, so I can understand them playing hardball. Interesting that no English PL club seemed remotely interested in him. Probably because their scouts have seen him.

The Spurs fans’ song about Sol Campbell remains the sickest I’ve heard, if we don’t include any of the ones revelling in actual death

Seems unlikely to me, and I’m sure we normally shit bricks when Arsenal fans talk like this about Isak

I’ve never seen an NUFC manager get close to Howe’s success rate for signings, so I do find it odd the criticism of players who we’ve been linked to (if Howe wants them) The bit that’s interesting to me is to see if the players he signs are suggestive of a change in the style of play. I’d like to see us evolve a little next season - someone who can unlock defences would be indicative of that

It’s good money for him tbf

Thought it was Bruce who would be telling them to rurl them up?

England’s biggest club still a draw to players shocker

100%

It works on an annual not a monthly basis

No, but that’s because they all have an income c.£200m more than ours, so wouldn’t need to think about it

I know you're earnestly trying to be a WUM and witty to boot, but it isn't working. Stop being a silly billy.

Even if you weren't being daft, that's not how FFP works. We don't need the 40m to buy players - money isn't the issue - 'headroom' is. Selling Gordon for 40m + a 30m trade wouldn't mean we have 40m left over to spend.

I guess it’ll seem odd these days - but for the first 40 years of the European Cup / Champions League it was for champions only (they didn’t drop ‘champions’ from the name in 1996/97 like they should have). It used to be interesting - Eastern European clubs were competitive, and most nations got a slot in the tournament proper. Real Madrid went over three decades without winning it - it’s a bore fest these days, with the same handful of clubs winning it over and over again, unless they’re propped up by oil money (PSG, Man City). The change to the ‘Champions League’ destroyed much of European football. edit: runners-up (and after that 3rd and 4th placed teams) were added to stave off the threat of a ‘European Super League’ by the petulant ‘big clubs’. They resented having to actually win the league to qualify. That threat has been around for decades …

Absolutely nothing to do with coefficients - only champions qualified for the European Cup (or ‘Champions League’) until the 1996/97 season regardless of which league you were in. After the Heysel ban English football got four European slots - 1 for the European Cup (standard with everywhere else), 1 for the Cup Winners Cup (again standard), 2 for the UEFA Cup (one went to the LC winners). In 1996/97 for the first time runners-up were allowed into the tournament - which still strikes me as being a right load of bollocks. After that, the numbers increased gradually to four. Howe becoming the first manager to do this isn’t really one of note - Howe hasn’t faced qualifiers, and had the fifth placed team been allowed in Robson would’ve added a third qualification; KK would’ve qualified twice under the current rules.

He’s got a year left, it won’t be up to him this season

He can’t be replaced by someone other than someone we’ve trained in the academy. He’s going nowhere.