TheBrownBottle

I'm a soppy old twat, but he's one of us - which I really do think has to be remembered. When I eventually shuffle off this rock, I'd be surprised if Murphy makes my 'top five NUFC RW' list. But I love the lad - can't be helped. He's living my dream - NUFC fan by birth, yes to get where we're looking to go he probably won't be there - but I love the lad, and he's a better player than he's given credit for.

I agree, but it was always such an oddly loaded term - I grew up with NUFC always described as a 'sleeping giant'. It feels odd looking back - the clubs who'd always be described as that by the media were us, Wolves, the mackems and Sheff Wed (Leeds did win the title). Yet I suspect the only ones who could really be described as that were NUFC. English football is unique in terms of clubs being capable of being 'massive'.

* Ewar Woowar

I think that’s a great post - I do want to be clear that I 100% respect your opinion (and I also want you to be right!). But I’m a cynical awld bastard so I’m always looking for confidence in the numbers

The issue is that you keep assuming perpetual growth with nothing to support it. Our biggest commercial deal - as it is with most clubs - is our kit deal. We've signed up with adidas for five years - so that isn't going up again any time soon. You allow for the same increases year-on-year that we've had to date, yet never cite where all that additional growth will come from, simply applying increases year on year. Even if you were to allow commercials to increase in the way they have according to Deloitte last season, and compared them to Spurs (whose commercial growth dropped to 11% from 22%; because there is a ceiling for every club), it would still take five years to catch Spurs. That's allowing for 62% increases year on year for NUFC and 11% for Spurs - never going to happen without something truly dramatic occurring. So it would take half a decade even allowing for Spurs' growth to remain as it was and ours to grow at insane rates. Commercials this season will grow through the adidas deal, but shrink from the lack of CL football. If there is anything like another 62% growth this year in commercials then the club is doing a phenomenal job of keeping the deals quiet. Things really don't change quickly in football - at all. The 'Big Five' when I was a kid in the late '80s were Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Man Utd, Spurs. Only one from that group have dropped out. To it have been added Man City and Chelsea - who had unbelievable sums poured into them when this was still possible, and have won between them (since Abramovich arrived at Chelsea in 2003) 3 European Cups, 2 UEFA Cups, 13 league titles, 8 FA Cups, and 9 League Cups, which is what has built both of them. We're playing in a very different sport with PSR.

100% mate, as depressing as that is!

Champ man / football manager was always as much an accountancy simulator as anything - the more 'realistic' it became the more I zoned out. Haven't played it for years

I hope so, but if his transfer fee is what has been reported, then we'd need a 12m fee to 'break even'.

I'd have been very surprised if we had, tbh

I can't argue with that. This nonsense takes up far too much thinking - the only reason it seems important to know it is so that the club's performance in signing players etc can be reasonable. Happily, N-O is a reasonable place - but I've seen the Ronnie Gill and YouTube btl comments along the lines of 'why aren't we signing players?', 'where's the ambition?' etc - when the club is hemmed in by the daft PSR rules. To me, we can argue about whether or not the club has made best use of the available spend (and I think they've done an excellent job to date - we've had very few 'misses' in our signings), but I've seen plenty slagging the club for things outside its control.

Vlachodimos is a massive PSR headache now; the Anderson and Minteh sales fell into the 23/24 season. This season, Vlachodimos adds amortised fee plus salary. He doesn't release 1m of headroom let alone 100m; he reduces headroom by c.6m this season.

The PSR situation is a weird one - I do think that if PSR didn’t exist, and the owners had been able to spend what they want, I doubt Almiron would have been here for as long as he has; at the same time, it has made fans view players as commodities even more than they were in the past. I’m not happy re Almiron leaving - I’d defended him in the past on here - but I do think it’s the right time to go for all parties. This one doesn’t feel like a celebratory transfer out at all - more like just one of those things which happens at clubs; sometimes players outgrow the club, sometimes clubs outgrow the player. I’d be amazed if Almiron is thought of negatively in the future (I suspect he’s more likely fade from the memory banks unless something brings his name up), but bugger me I’ve seen less talented players in B&W and (sadly) absolutely shitloads with a worse attitude than this lad.

Shite, don’t know how I missed that

Yeah, fair enough - I’m not going to argue with a Peep Show quote

It’s not happening

Reflecting on a player’s career at the club seems like the most natural reaction to a player leaving. It is the time for an assessment of the successes and failures - if others want to treat it as a time to write nice things like it’s a high school yearbook then I’ve no issue with that. I’ve never criticised a player at a match nor in any way which they’d have visibility (unless they search for themselves on somewhere like here). It’s not about shitting on his limitations, but I also don’t think it should be about overstating his virtues.

I’ve never watched any of our cup final defeats afterwards - not even highlights - but that burns in the brain. Maybe it’s not as bad as I remember, but I’m fucked if I’m rewatching it.

True, if it is considerably further. Build it at Gosforth race course or something and that’s a problem for the city centre. But if anyone has an issue walking an extra 100 metres, then they should probably knock the drinking on the head - those empty calories are making them so unfit that they really need to take a look at themselves. I’m also a little unconvinced re the best for the city crack tbf - I’m not sure that pouring the money into the coffers of leisure conglomerates and breweries (pretty much none of which are locally based) is all that useful to the city. Besides, every other city in the UK manages to have city centre pubs without a football stadium nearby. I’m not advocating for a move further out, but I don’t think that the financial viability of the city’s watering holes shouldn’t feature on the club’s agenda.

I got pelters once for saying it, but for me he’s the embodiment of the unintelligent (in football terms) winger, in part for this reason. Good footballers do not spend their time on the ball staring at the thing - their head is up; control is a given. edit: I do wish the lad all the best, he always gave 100% and seems like a canny soul. I’m glad he’s going somewhere he’ll be happy and adored - seems like a happy outcome.

Most people who have their match day routines in terms of the pubs they drink in aren’t going to suddenly change those behaviours. It’s new corporate and tourist punters who are more likely to hoy the wedge at a new stadium. If I was still in Newcastle, I’d still be in The Three Bulls or upstairs in The Percy at the ‘Toon Disco’ post match. In my younger days, everywhere from the Empress to The Vault to Idols have been matchday regulars. Don’t see why any of that would change.

I remember those - every HMV and John Menzies would have them in the sport videos section, even in Newcastle, whereas we had to go to the official club shop on Barrack Road to buy NUFC videos a lot of the time; that club shop was about the same size and had the same decor of a school tuck shop. Still, I got my ‘Magnificent No. 9s’ video in there with birthday money from my auntie, and managed to get Mick Quinn to sign it for me. Fuck knows why I chucked it out at some point!

I’m a big cuddly teddy bear of a internet forum poster deep down

Yep. There was also a big four’ after Leeds and us fell away too from the mid-00s (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd). The ‘Big Six’ is mainly about financial muscle. Those clubs are six of the ten richest clubs of the planet. But they are also the ones with the widest reach & fanbase - the social media followers league isn’t a perfect corollary, but it gives a sense of just how wide the gap is (2024 figures):

Net profit / loss is based on amortisation

Love it when ex players refer to NUFC as ‘we’. I’m easily pleased tbf