TheBrownBottle

It’s impossible with all the other regs in place at the moment. FMV and all that nonsense. The other clubs can literally block everything.

Do we really think that the publically produced accounts and the FFP regs are all an elaborate smokescreen to help NUFC drive prices down?

I don’t think that there is anyone daft on here, but I wonder what the portion of the support who thinks we’re going to be Real Madrid MkII think of Eales stating that the club’s aim is to be ‘top six’? I think that with the constraints that’s a hell of a challenge, but there will be a chunk of the fan base who bought into the ‘we’re going to be number 1’ patter

Same. Sometimes you need to be pragmatic.

We’ve had plenty of ageing Mackems play for us mind

Why? I know his club has said they won’t loan him

I’d take either. Preferably Phillips of course

Because they had FFP leeway

It’s literally published. £105m in FFP accounting losses over a rolling three year period. All PL clubs books are published. It’s not made up, as Everton can attest.

We can’t, no matter how confident you are. A loan to buy is likely the best bet. But that won’t happen until the very end of the window.

I’ve always thought that what is being attempted is what Ashley attempted, just on steroids and done competently. You buy players at the right age with significant potential and future value. You develop them and make a massive profit, which then recycles etc etc. The ‘Arsenal model’ is what Ashley said he wanted. These days it’s the ‘Brighton model’. Spurs have been exceptional at it. Buy your Isaks, Botmans, Brunos, get a few years out of them, have some success, sell for big profit, repeat. Nothing wrong with it as a strategy for growth - it makes sense given our position and current ceiling. To do it you need the right personnel - and generally the club have brought in those viewed as the best operators for that model (Howe, Ashworth etc). There’s a reason that the PIF didn’t go for a ‘name’ manager.

This is it, and I used Tonali as an example in the present, but it was about flop transfers. FFP just completely knackers the ability of a Newcastle / Villa / West Ham / Everton etc to have a bad big-money buy.

Yeah, that would be my suspicion. No Italian club has that sort of money. Tonali was a record for an Italian player. If it doesn’t work, I’d put money on Juve / Inter / Milan / Napoli etc taking him on loan a couple of time before we end up with a massive loss

We qualified in 97 too. That wasn’t a great transfer window (though Given was a bargain)

Honestly, I wasn’t even looking to bring up the ‘who is to blame’ element. Sometimes transfers just don’t work (and it’s early days re Tonali) But in the present, we can’t afford slip ups - FFP limits the mistakes that can be made by clubs outside the usual six

I’m aware that views aren’t uniform re Tonali, with a sympathy spectrum across the support. But either way, he’s been a disastrous transfer at present. He might end up here for a decade and winning so much that we end up with the Tyne Bridge being renamed in his honour, but that still doesn’t mean that in the present moment that buy hasn’t crippled us due to FFP

‘You are no nearer to catching me now …’

For 2007/08 turnover was £82m (comm was £25.5m). (First season was 2008/09 - takeover in Sep 08), running an accounting loss of £32m By 2010/11 it was £152m (comm £65m), running an accounting loss of £195m. Not even close to possible now, of course.

100%

It was the same in ‘90s, with knackers challenging Keegan re the Cole sale. Everything is about intent. Ashley would simply pocket the difference - McKeag and co would spend it on a shite new stand.

Every club has sold stars in the past - and we’re far more vulnerable to it. I’ve never felt that the players being signed were likely to be with the club long-term, particularly with the FFP constraints. If NUFC gets to where they state they want to be, in five years time I’m willing to bet that we’ll have a completely different team.

We won’t for political reasons. It’s not a good look at all. The danger with this takeover was always exactly this - we get bought out by an unpleasant dictatorship and FFP means that you don’t get the trappings of that either.

Man City has sold £350m of players in the last three seasons. They sell players. Don’t understand why our support thinks that we’re the only club that shouldn’t.

Matt Targett is on £100k pw - that deal never looks great

They’re not all in the same season. The CL is this season only, adidas next year - they will roughly balance themselves out. We’re actually approaching where a competently run NUFC under Ashley would be - the challenge begins from this summer. Even with CL revenue this year, the accounts will still have us comfortably £150m behind Spurs this season. We’re a long way from being competitive with the junior member of the Sky six. I also think that we’ll be a bit less attractive to players and agents - I don’t doubt that Botman, Isak and Bruno (who all signed in the first year) will have hopped onboard expecting something akin to a Man City occurring; everyone will now be aware of what most of us already knew - FFP doesn’t allow us to do that. At present, that looks thunderously unlikely - as long as FFP exists, we’re approaching our ceiling. I’m a miserable bugger with this stuff and my back of a tab packet numbers had us at £260-280m last year. They were actually £250m. Hmm. Also duly noted that we had the 7th highest wage bill last season, not far behind Arsenal - it is likely a lot closer this year too. 7th therefore should be par for a season. The club needs to finish as high as possible and get back into Europe, and needs to start actually getting money for players in order to grow.