TheBrownBottle

Which would be fair enough, though he predates my time, I know his short spell was disastrous (and entirely the result of ‘player power’)

Building along the edge of Barrack Road looks possible while losing as little of LP as possible. Struggling to see how the bandstand at least wouldn’t be impacted. But you can reduce the footprint by building up - as in having the stadium built above bars, restaurants, shops, even parking etc. And by finishing three stands - assuming 70k capacity - you could get all the current ST holders into the new ground before demolishing the current SJP and completing the new ground.

Christ, reading that thread is giving me a worse headache than the one time I got pissed on whiskey. Just reads like ITK wankers at crossed wires to me.

Souness and Dalglish did a LOT of damage - Souness’s wasn’t reversed until Howe. Souness is the worst for me - worse than McClaren, Bruce or Kinnear. Souness inherited a talented young side that was a couple of players and some good man management away from challenging for the title and smashed it to smithereens within a year. edit: perhaps Bruce is the biggest wanker to manage us (my dad would still claim Gordon Lee for that one). But a manager who had us in lower mid table every season having taken over a team which had finished lower mid table can’t be the worst we’ve had.

Still NUFC’s greatest mercurial French LW Have that in the eye, Ginola, HBA and ASM fans

Yes, if they offer £200m for one of our ‘purples’, then yes we should be selling. If they’re serious about offering £90m for Mitoma, then offering £200m for Gordon in the summer seems reasonable. I can imagine what Mitchell and Howe could do with that ‘headroom’.

Just to add to that (and for the ‘better atmosphere’ officiandos) - having loyalty to the stand you are in drives atmosphere. ‘Sing in the Leazes’ etc. Which is why having four distinct and well designed stands would be the best outcome for atmosphere. The lopsided current design loses a lot of this - we’ve got half a bowl, which even if closed to the Gallowgate retains the indistinct quality of the ground.

Whereas football - a game invented by Victorian schoolchildren - is obviously far more grown up.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Most modern stadiums are just a bowl - I’d be happy to see something of a more modern take on a traditional English ground but with all the most modern of mod cons. Like if Archibald Leitch and Buck Rogers’ love child was the designer.

Likewise. PSR is the cold part of it - I’d love a new stadium for all the reasons you’ve outlined. Like 100k others in 1996, I was happy to get a new ground then and I’d be happy this time. Friends of Leazes Park last time had to go to Sunderland to get decent numbers for their petition.

Graham Taylor springs to mind - he took Watford from Division Four to Division One, ending as runners-up to Liverpool and reaching an FA Cup final.

Do Leeds even need a LB? Firpo and Byram are canny footballers and both play LB.

Red Star would've appealed to me - as a kid that midfield of Prosinecki, Mihajlovic, Savicevic and Jugovic was the best I'd ever seen. Red Star still have that 'big name' feel.

I loved our group last year - it is exactly what I'd wanted. I got to see us play AC Milan, Dortmund and PSG. We weren't going to win the thing; much better to play against the biggest names in club football.

Yep, I never understand the hankering to have either of those clubs play in England; why the fuck would we want to infuse that shite into our game? They can both stick their atavistic religious politics up their fucking arses.

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