TheBrownBottle

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.

And what’s that got to do with this? What does that mean?

I do enjoy Simon Jordan - a man who’s time at Palace ended in administration - telling everyone that unlike him they have no experience in running a football club. Not sure he’s the one I’d take advice from if I did. I’ve no issue with FFP - my issue is with it not being independently governed, which also results in a lack of flexibility; the current rules set only to protect the status quo.

I seem to remember loads of them gloating that they’d go and buy Man Utd / Inter / Marseille now. They forgot that they were dyed in the wool Amnesty activists temporarily. Then they remembered again when the takeover was suddenly back on.

It’s one of the big criticisms I’d have is their slowness in actually getting commercials in. Especially some seriously low-hanging fruit. I’m not at all confident re the maximising revenue element to date.

This is also why the stadium isn’t fit for purpose. There isn’t the money in the NE to raise ticket prices to be on a par with London. The club would need extensive corporate areas to compete - selling boxes for silly money is how to do it. We don’t have the space to do this at present.

We should go back to blue shorts if we’re changing short colours. Looks great I reckon. Plus we did win lots of things in blue shorts.

Classic

An expensive and badly-thought out folly is exactly the place for those building for me.

Except it wouldn’t be anything like it at all We’re going to sell players at some stage lads. Just don’t give Eddie hassle on the SJP steps when we do

Got you makes sense In terms of FFP it wouldn’t be an issue necessarily - but you’d need to ensure future revenues cover you.

Yes, ‘bring on your Hearts, your Hibs, your Celtic’ is one I knew as a teenager. There was another version which had the same rest of the verse, but started with ‘Bring on Sunderland and Arsenal’ instead.

Have to say, I’m in the ‘don’t like NUFC in white shorts & socks’ camp. Would rather wear an away kit.

Boro and Birmingham did - not Leeds & Blackburn though

I’ve seen Birmingham, Leeds, Blackburn & Middlesbrough all win major trophies mind

Absolutely. It’s only thanks to the brilliance of Howe & his coaching staff that a silk purse was made of out of sow’s ear of a squad. He made Joelinton, Almiron, Longstaff, Schar etc into much, much better players than they were previously.

There’s not a chance a decent PL club takes a gamble on Clarke - and he’d be worth £15-20m at an absolute push. I suspect that the Mackems would accept a bid for less than that if it came in. That would power the stadium generator for yonks

Only if you don’t have any sellable assets in your squad - which of course was our issue. The whole ‘Ashley actually helped NUFC for FFP’ was always complete bollocks. The squad was borderline worthless - very few assets worth significant money, lots on stupid wages & ludicrously long contracts.

Tbf Teddy you made mention of their fees as a point of comparison - those three players are considerably more valuable than Jack Clarke. You’re right, I can easily see a Burnley or a Forest buying him - particularly as he’d be risk-free for a relegation.

Leazes Terrace isn’t the biggest issue. It’s the terrace on St James St next to it - that completely limits the footprint of the stand. You can’t make the East Stand footprint any bigger than it already is in any real sense.

I would if the bricks were the same size as a house brick. But they’re much, much bigger - far less time removing the mortar. edit: when I was on a project in the NE replacing sandstone facade blocks, the total labour time per m2 was around 16 hrs/m2

That’s just the facade, and that’s only the demolition of the facade. And labour costs are not the only cost in terms of that demolition. Its also listed so it’s a non-starter.

I’m a quantity surveyor. I actually worked on a renovation in the North East where a sandstone brick facade replaced in sections. The cost would be mind-blowing; yes, the materials wouldn’t be as expensive given most are recycled, but all the finishes would need to be done. If you’re demolishing a sandstone facade by hand, and you’d need to number the blocks etc as they come out, then I’d allow 50% additional time for everything that goes with that. Say 4 hours per m2 of labour - comfortably. For comparison, a two brick thick wall (very thick) takes about 2.5 hours to demolish per m2 - but those walls are likely less thick than those sandstone blocks, you’d need to be a lot less careful, and the removed blocks would need to be carefully enumerated and stored. The costs would be insane.

He did, yeah. They were at least playing in fairness - Atkinson paid over a million quid for a bloke he was sharing a studio with

The gamble is that you can keep up the revenue increases to match future FFP requirements - buying top rank footballers gives you a greater chance of success and more commercial revenues. The danger is if you buy flops, it becomes difficult to claw back from your overcommitted FFP position. This is where Chelsea could run into trouble in the next couple of years.