TheBrownBottle

Agreed - this sort of thing was the raison d’etre of Ashley’s NUFC. There was no plan beyond trading profit. For us, it would be reinvested and then some.

Not how FFP works, though. And that’s the point - the ones complaining about it seem to be the ones thinking precisely this. A sale of someone like Bruno would mean we aren’t seeing Ritchie and Dummett on the bench. We always had to sell under FFP

Messi, Neymar, Cavani, Mbappe, etc etc all happily did exactly that. The French top tier isn’t the best in the world, but it’s hardly tin pot either. And we did sign Bruno from France.

If he goes in the summer, three-fifths of his transfer fee would already have been amortised. It might be possible to buy three or four £80m players on five year deals (thanks to amortisation - though you’d need to ensure that future revenues are kept up).

Get it checked mate - I got my apnea diagnosed and now sleep with a machine, and didn’t realise until my first night with it that I’d never had a proper sleep before. Also, I get to pretend I’m Darth Vader when going to kip.

Best tell Staveley to order some red & white paint just in case

One or the other (or both) have a good chance of getting sent off. I still think we’ll win comfortably though

I have a completely irrational dislike of squad numbers generally, and a very specific dislike of players’ names on the strips.

Villa has had huge sums poured in. Tony Bloom has put over half a billion quid into Brighton. Without Bloom’s massive capital injections, Brighton would likely be where they normally are - the third tier. Villa’s owners pumped in a third of a billion in non-repayable share issues. Imagine if Leeds or Sheff Wed had a similar investment. There’s nothing ‘organic’ about either of them. Brighton is far, far less organic than NUFC - there is far more argument that huge investment has them well above their ‘natural’ status.

The problem is that all the other clubs know how FFP works, know what our income streams etc are and how much they’re likely to be, and what our outgoings are. If we’re playing poker with FFP, it’s like showing your opponent your hand and then saying ‘yeah but really that’s not the cards I’ve got’. There is no smoke and mirrors, unfortunately

And the poor sod is likely already feeling a bit stressed given the blanket media coverage. I still think the reaction is completely OTT. It’s a gaff more than anything. Instead we’ve got punters on the radio asking for names and addresses after a public lashing in the centre circle.

Don’t know, they’re getting £500 a ticket and a paint job. Canny swedge when you think about it.

Most talented English midfielder I’ve seen in my lifetime (though I get the feeling Bellingham will supersede him). Fucking horrendous in the tackle.

Likewise mate. It’s irritated me thinking about it because I that Howe really does need reinforcements, and I don’t think they’ll be coming (and if they are, they won’t be significant). No other club talks about FFP as much.

Aye, fair enough - I likely am. It’s borne of frustration more than anything. FFP absolutely hamstrings us, and even a dozen of these smaller deals would likely cover a player’s wages for a season.

It would involve asking questions of how good a job certain parties are doing at the club - which isn’t quite verboten, but there is a lot of defensiveness around it. Personally, I don’t think Staveley, Reuben, Eales and Silverstone have pulled up any trees commercially. There has been nothing innovative about the approach based upon the deals landed. Noon and Sela are PIF, and the adidas deal - for all the Amazon doc, biggest deal in the club’s history crack - is still simply a kit manufacturing deal, which last I checked pretty much every professional football club on the planet managed to land. Like you, I was anticipating commercial deals left, right and centre. Man Utd have an official ‘Percussive Therapy’ partner. It’s right old load of bollocks, but there is nothing stopping the club pulling literally dozens of these in - they won’t be close to what Man Utd rakes in, but it all counts. Get PIF’s contacts books out - and aren’t the Reuben’s connected? Staveley is a broker by background. Silverstone is a commercial gun, apparently. I look forward to being shot down on this

Completely agree on all counts

I’m still scratching my head as to why this hasn’t occurred tbh. The lowest of low-hanging fruit.

And that’s not allowing for signing-on fees, bonuses etc.

Is Howe’s press conference today? Was expecting it to be a couple of days before. Itching to listen to the man speak - he normally instills some confidence (and I’m not the one playing)

Did you repaint your Black Cat Bar, did you repaint your Black Cat Bar? Black Cat Bar; Monkey’s Bra

Yeah, this is where I’m at with him. It’s only if Wilson isn’t happy I’d move him on. We definitely need to get someone in either way, as both our centre forwards are injury-prone.

I reckon any lower half club would be on him straight away - or a newly promoted club with money to spend. He’s an excellent centre forward - when fit.

Yeah, agreed. I’m a boring traditionalist, so I’d rather not have VAR - but having different rules within the same round of the competition just seems really wrong. Having the final ties at Wembley being VAR-based makes a lot of sense if it is to be used (and a referee’s mistake at that stage would be a lot more costly)