TheBrownBottle

The rules on FFP are pretty straightfoward tbh. Amortisation works by dividing the total fee (not phased amounts) over the length of the player's contract. This is why Chelsea was offering eight year deals last year. We haven't been doing that - if the reports are true, Tonali has been offered a six year deal (which is still long in football terms). Part of the problem is that while Tonali's 70m fee (or whatever it lands at) is split over six years, previous signings of ours are still being put through the FFP books. You don't need to be a professional accountant to grasp FFP - so most of these journalists will have a reasonable grasp of it (I don't doubt that some won't). Chelsea's turnover is more than twice ours, too - they've a lot more wriggle-room. So even though ASM and Joelinton signed in 2019 (for example), their transfer fees are still being put onto the FFP books. We haven't sold many players of late, so nothing is balanced, and the players bought in the last 18 months will still be impacting the books for years to come.

You'd hope so

Bet there is a hefty signing on fee too. I'm sticking by what I've always said - everything about him screams 'Spurs' for me

Yep, it is a significant problem - though it is a combination of the two. Until we get some big leaps in revenue we're constrained in what we can offer - even with CL football we'll still bring in less than Spurs, for example. And for our turnover, we've a lot of deadwood on solid PL wages. Shelvey and Wood leaving helped, but the likes of Dummett, Lewis and Ritchie are on decent wages. I understand that Ritchie and Dummett are good behind the scenes - but you don't pay a couple of coaches over 80k per week between them.

It is fairly straightforward to do the sums; the club releases its financial records on an annual basis. Happily, FourFourTwo released a video the other day explaining it quite neatly. It is why plenty of us laughed at Edwards's '75m' claim, but also poured cold water on those who thought that we'd be spending 150m+ net this summer.

We’re definitely close to the edge on FFP, but most of those who’ve done the sums would say that there would be c.£50m after Tonali signs without starting to sweat too bad

The article implies that buying Tonali effectively rules out buying Maddison, as that’s the money spent on midfield. Reads like guesswork to me.

C.82 was the first really good French side. Prior to that they weren’t much cop.

Not until McTominay retires. He can haunt your dreams until then

I’m not precious, I’m only kidding The ‘pivot’ to me is an evolved version of the sweeper / libero. It describes a deep-lying playmaker. A creative ‘no. 6’.

that made me laugh more than it should. Gloriously retro insult

Yes. It’s cuntese for ‘defensive midfielder’. Double-pivot is twatlish for ‘a pair of defensive or deep lying central midfielders’

Shit. Maybe his club will let us swap him for O’Nien?

I reckon we’ll see another transfer of similar value, then maybe a bargain or two. I’m also happy that if we’re selling anyone, we‘re doing it after we’ve bought first.

I totally understand but why Given wanted out, but the timing was shocking, and probably resulted in our relegation - Given in nets wins us a few more points that season. I couldn’t quite ‘forgive’ him after, it forgive is the right term. As for Carroll, from what I gather he was happy to orchestrate a move, Ashley happy to take the money, and all parties to pretend that it was heart-wrenching. Carroll’s failures were pure schadenfreude for me - he had the chance to live the dream and sacked it off.

So much dignity that their comments are hidden from public view

I’m too much a child of the ‘80s and ‘90s. There is a part of my brain that can’t quite shake off thinking of AC Milan as the world’s grandest football club.

I love how these PFMs say this unthinkingly, yet forget that an Englishman hasn't won the title since the PL breakaway

If we had a shred of decency I think we should be going back to Sociedad and paying them the other 40m that we clearly fleeced them of

No-one seems to want the bloke - but it was a cracking finish again for Scotland the other day vs Georgia. Well taken on a shocking surface. I love the idea that the club are feeding false information to hacks - particularly hacks like Edwards, given how much of an arse he's been over the last three or four years.

This will mean that Andreas Andersson will now be only the second-best player we've ever signed from AC Milan. So that's disappointing.

Yeah, that's where my thinking is too. In terms of Longstaff - a successful season going forwards will mean 50+ games played per season. I'm a fan of Willock and Longstaff - they'll definitely get minutes (and I prefer Willock in the centre to big Joe)