TheBrownBottle

Yeah, that would be my suspicion. No Italian club has that sort of money. Tonali was a record for an Italian player. If it doesn’t work, I’d put money on Juve / Inter / Milan / Napoli etc taking him on loan a couple of time before we end up with a massive loss

We qualified in 97 too. That wasn’t a great transfer window (though Given was a bargain)

Honestly, I wasn’t even looking to bring up the ‘who is to blame’ element. Sometimes transfers just don’t work (and it’s early days re Tonali) But in the present, we can’t afford slip ups - FFP limits the mistakes that can be made by clubs outside the usual six

I’m aware that views aren’t uniform re Tonali, with a sympathy spectrum across the support. But either way, he’s been a disastrous transfer at present. He might end up here for a decade and winning so much that we end up with the Tyne Bridge being renamed in his honour, but that still doesn’t mean that in the present moment that buy hasn’t crippled us due to FFP

‘You are no nearer to catching me now …’

For 2007/08 turnover was £82m (comm was £25.5m). (First season was 2008/09 - takeover in Sep 08), running an accounting loss of £32m By 2010/11 it was £152m (comm £65m), running an accounting loss of £195m. Not even close to possible now, of course.

100%

It was the same in ‘90s, with knackers challenging Keegan re the Cole sale. Everything is about intent. Ashley would simply pocket the difference - McKeag and co would spend it on a shite new stand.

Every club has sold stars in the past - and we’re far more vulnerable to it. I’ve never felt that the players being signed were likely to be with the club long-term, particularly with the FFP constraints. If NUFC gets to where they state they want to be, in five years time I’m willing to bet that we’ll have a completely different team.

We won’t for political reasons. It’s not a good look at all. The danger with this takeover was always exactly this - we get bought out by an unpleasant dictatorship and FFP means that you don’t get the trappings of that either.

Man City has sold £350m of players in the last three seasons. They sell players. Don’t understand why our support thinks that we’re the only club that shouldn’t.

Matt Targett is on £100k pw - that deal never looks great

They’re not all in the same season. The CL is this season only, adidas next year - they will roughly balance themselves out. We’re actually approaching where a competently run NUFC under Ashley would be - the challenge begins from this summer. Even with CL revenue this year, the accounts will still have us comfortably £150m behind Spurs this season. We’re a long way from being competitive with the junior member of the Sky six. I also think that we’ll be a bit less attractive to players and agents - I don’t doubt that Botman, Isak and Bruno (who all signed in the first year) will have hopped onboard expecting something akin to a Man City occurring; everyone will now be aware of what most of us already knew - FFP doesn’t allow us to do that. At present, that looks thunderously unlikely - as long as FFP exists, we’re approaching our ceiling. I’m a miserable bugger with this stuff and my back of a tab packet numbers had us at £260-280m last year. They were actually £250m. Hmm. Also duly noted that we had the 7th highest wage bill last season, not far behind Arsenal - it is likely a lot closer this year too. 7th therefore should be par for a season. The club needs to finish as high as possible and get back into Europe, and needs to start actually getting money for players in order to grow.

Can’t imagine a worse fit than Mitrovic

That would be my favoured spot, tbh

Mainly because Ashley gave it to his own company and they weren’t exactly popular round these parts. And you’d still be talking money for nothing.

Hope so - five years is a long time to lock that deal in place

Yep, no doubt they do. Just saying that I don’t think that to date they’ve maximised the potential commercial revenues. This season’s are likely to be roughly on a par with Everton’s.

I agree NDM is more knowledgeable than any of us. But it doesn’t mean he’s more knowledgeable than the PL’s legal team. We’ll have to wait and see mate, I think NDM has won himself more work via his visibility as well as his knowledge.

They’ve made three deals of real significance - all relating to the kit. Two were PIF sponsorships - Sela and Noon. Not for huge sums (thanks to ‘FMV’), but hardly difficult to do. The other was getting adidas onboard as kit manufacturer. Again, not exactly difficult - their primary business is sportswear, and every club in the world has a kit manufacturer- and while it is of course much higher than the old Castore deal (not hard - Ashley’s deals were never any good) - if they are serious about being challengers, then a five year kit deal at a much lower income than their future competitors looks like a much better deal for adidas. Ashley somehow shrank commercial revenues at NUFC over 15 years (not allowing for inflation, which made it even worse) at a time where every club saw explosions in income - growing them wasn’t exactly a challenge. I would’ve expected absolute maximisation of all potential commercial revenue streams in the two plus years they’ve been in situ. Training ground sponsorship, stadium sponsorship, training kit sponsorship, large numbers of partnerships with various other companies. Even John Hall era NUFC opened up multiple club shops to try to increase commercials. In comparison to Ashley, it’s night and day. But Ashley is no benchmark.

In fairness to BDB: BDB PL win % at NUFC - 52% Livramento - 50% (I also of course think Tino’s a better player)

Yep, agreed. And unlike Chelsea (space being at a premium in west London), we’re choosing to box ourselves in and limit what is possible. Which is why if PIF is serious, we won’t be at SJP in the medium term.

Never said that they were - but this was the finding against UEFA too. They can’t prevent clubs leaving, and membership is ultimately voluntary. No-one forces a club to be in the PL. I don’t think this is quite as open-and-shut as you’re assuming.

Seconded I don’t give two shites what that daft cunt thinks.

I think we already know what the PL’s legal defence vs Forest will be. That it isn’t a restriction of trade - Forest are free to spend as much money as they want. They just can’t be a member of the PL while doing it - they can leave and earn what they want if they wish. They aren’t forced to be the in PL. I don’t think FFP’s legal abolition via commercial law is as shut and closed as many may think.