TheBrownBottle

Spurs would always be the best chance of overhauling a club. Man Utd aren’t the ‘weakest club’ - they arguably have the weakest side currently. Man Utd will be a ‘top six’ club as long as it’s a ‘top six’. If it was a ‘top three’ they’d be in that too. Man Utd’s turnover dwarves Spurs’ turnover. To catch up we’d have to be as successful as Man City, and somehow make the same dodgy sponsorship deals that they’re being charged with. Newcastle United will never be a bigger club than Man Utd in my lifetime. But I’d love to see us be more successful than them for a period - that doesn’t seem impossible.

Yep. Chelsea are England’s most successful club in 21st Century. How many would honestly say that Chelsea are a bigger club than Man Utd?

It would be implausible even with an ability to spend shitloads more. It’s Man Utd, they’ve been England’s biggest club for pretty much the entire post-war period. Newcastle chucking money at a few players and winning some trophies isn’t going to change that. Man City dominate English football at the moment, but they’re not a bigger club than Man Utd, despite Man Utd being hobbled by wasteful incompetence for more than a decade.

Not sure any of it is untrue, mind.

Darren Eales talked about us looking to become a top six club which competes for trophies. That doesn’t sound like leaving Man Utd behind to me.

There’s no evidence that he was going to be able to do that - Craig (Nee)Hope has suggested that he’s frustrated with his being unable to do so. It being Man Utd probably is reason enough, in fairness

It would self-defeating and stupidly spiteful at that point. Sort the compo and let him leave. That’s not going to happen - the clause, that is

It’s not about whether fans knew about it. It’s the fact that half the Italian U-21 squad clearly knew about it. It’s not a leap to think that others in Italian football knew - the fans aren’t in the loop

That’s true. Ashworth only has transfer as one of his responsibilities. Another is sports science / physiotherapy. That’s been going swimmingly this season.

I still think that far, far too much is being made of this. If football has a dearth of good administrators then it needs to take a long, hard look at itself. He’ll be replaced by someone either to fanfares or odd disappointment. Then we’ll seldom hear anything about the successor.

I do love that so many of our support think that Tonali kept this all super secret. He got half the Italy U-21s into it because they were coming across asking him what he was doing. It really wasn’t some deep dark secret

Yes, they achieved their standings after winning more trophies than Man U over the last decade. So far we’ve finished 4th once. It’s not close to being similar tbf

Was he ever really tested? We finished second in his first season, with KK being replaced by the manager who managed Shearer to the league title. Then he suffered what could have been a career-ending injury, and wasn’t the same player when he came back. He was still quality, but he wasn’t likely to have Barcelona or AC Milan knocking any time afterwards. The only club I can remember being linked to was Aston Villa when Gullit was alienating him. He was linked to Liverpool when BR was there, but again he was playing jn a good side.

Best attitude imaginable. DFB is who I’d want to be if I was a pro footballer

There’s zero chance Howe gets offered the Man Utd job at the present moment. I can’t see them not wanting an elite manager when ETH goes.

Yep. You’d want your DoF to have a good working relationship with the manager, but you don’t want an ‘old pals act’

Don’t think it makes a blind bit of difference re NUFC’s standing in all honesty. Anyone who thinks we share standing with MUFC is borderline delusional, irrespective of where we’d like to get to. Ashworth left Brighton for us - did Brighton’s standing change in anyone’s eyes? They don’t seem to be suffering his loss. I think some of this is being overstated. The links to the Bournemouth bloke are more of a concern, frankly. It’s already a bit iffy that Howe gets his relatives onboard.

He’s no. 2 for a reason, and I agree giving the bloke pelters helps no-one. Mind, he’s conceding goals at a rate around 2.5 times higher than Pope, which does tell a story. I also think he concedes more shots because of how deep the defence plays when he’s in nets, and his slowness off his line to clear the ball himself. For me, Dubravka is an ok-ish PL GK - perfectly fine as a back-up. Pope is a really good PL GK, so it’s harsh to constantly compare the two.

Yep, that’s my thinking. I still think this is far more of a passive investment than many would like - the fact that PIF has handed over the full running (approvals only) to non-PIF staff suggests as much. Man City & PSG never did this.

I know we’ve discussed FFP on other threads, but I’m curious - do you think the club will challenge it? I don’t think that they ever will. I also don’t get the impression that they’re overly concerned about it - it’s something the support wants them to do, because they’re assuming that PIF want to plough billions in

David F Batty, man of mystery. My favourite Batty story is that he was spotted helping his dad and his mates at work the day after his England debut - his dad was a bin man. Just a ludicrously normal bloke who was gifted at football. I also loved his stoic reaction to missing the vital penalty vs Argentina. No ludicrous self-absorbed tears - just a shrug and ‘I’ve never taken one before’ in the interview afterwards. And waving to his kids back home through the camera during the national anthem, instead of screaming it like a rugby wanker a la Tony Adams. The man don’t give a fuck.

No, I think the bias is showing (nowt wrong with that) Man Utd are much, much bigger than us, and are far more likely to win trophies than we are in the coming years. Our owners having a great big pot of cash is utterly meaningless if you can’t spend it. Even if we could spend it, the idea would be to try and become as big as a Man Utd - a massive challenge even without the FFP restrictions. I’m not seeing the state-of-art infrastructure at NUFC that you’re talking about. We still don’t really know what’s planned - lots of it is hope and supposition. That benefit of having three times our income is quite a benefit, and if a player was given a choice of NUFC or Man Utd, then nine times out of ten they’re going to go to Old Trafford

Yeah, he always seemed sound to me. Type of bloke who’d I’d happily sit down with. The paranoid bloke with the glasses was the biggest weapon - the one who thought Burton Albion had bunged the referee, as if they were peak-Calciopoli Juventus rather than a tiny club from a small brewery town.

Likewise. It’s a fucking boring story. Wish Man Utd would either buy him out or fuck off

Looks like I’ll have to restart a Netflix subscription - can’t miss my favourite comedy of the 21st Century. Peep Show is nowt compared to it. I love the idea that promotion from Division Three will represent a ‘happy ending’. Unless I’m misremembering, wasn’t the goal of our heroes at the start of series getting promotion back to the Premier League?