TheBrownBottle

Being in Europe does attract players - as well as helping in keeping good ones at the club. I’m not sure that assuming that Bruno, Isak, Botman etc are happy to simply write off a season - and Europe next season - is the right course of action. The FA Cup means that, at the moment, there is everything to play for - we weren’t going to win the PL, and we’re unlikely to any time soon. The FA Cup should be taken deadly seriously.

It is a beautiful part of the world. Can’t forget the image of that moment when you first see that shimmering town on the banks of the Tees:

I thought it was classic dubravka tbh. He made a lot of good saves - and quite a few he should have made in any case. He was my MOTM, though it could be argued he could do better with the first. Classic Dubravka is also doing this inconsistently. He always was - he’d have a good game and a couple of mediocre / bad games. It’s showing up more now because we’re not a shite team aiming to be a mediocre one.

Those whistle-stop tours of Cleveland were great fun … especially having to put the cans away due to the escort. They were delusional in any case if they thought anyone would be wandering around the Riverside looking for a local pub. Rough as guts that place.

The KSA govt challenging these rules in a UK Court could well be a political problem. They’re far more likely to wait for a stalking horse. Everton, you would have thought, would have been an obvious candidate. Interesting that to date they haven’t.

Doesn’t start until next season - it won’t count in this year’s numbers

Yeah, I agree - it is one of those where it feels more of a ‘tread carefully’. No player is unsellable for me - it’s just that we wouldn’t get much for Wilson, but a replacement would likely be very expensive. Which is why my preference would be to get a young lad in as a potential third option - not Ekitike, but someone of that profile. I’ll happily back Howe’s calls on players in / out though. If Wilson leaves it will be because it is in the best interests of the club and player (in the view of the management).

They always are. There’s not a lot out there who have Wilson’s GtG ratio

He’s lost a bit of pace, but when he’s fit he’s still top notch. Goalscorers aren’t ten a penny - not saying we shouldn’t look to replace Wilson given his ongoing fitness issues but replacing him will be harder than pretty much any other player in the squad.

I agree; it highlights who made these rules up and why. But under the present regs Chelsea are not in conflict with them.

I don’t think that contradicts what Jagten or I said tbf

We’d make a lot more profit from Bruno = more money to spend. Our back line has been badly exposed without Botman - and he’s clearly still unfit. I think you’re looking at a player is who likely to be one of the world’s best centre halves in the next few years. Bruno is at his peak now.

Ideally we keep all three, of course. But we’re talking hypotheticals.

We don’t win without Bruno statistically, it’s true. But I do think Bruno is more replaceable - there are more quality midfielders kicking around than centre backs and forwards atm. Isak is lethal when half fit - the lad has buckets of potential. Replacing a player on track for a 20-goal-season isn’t straightforward

Bruno, if it came down to losing a body part

We haven’t added a lot of new sponsorships. We added Sela - which brought in an extra c.£20m. It’s very, very likely that we’d need to sell to buy anyone who isn’t cheap in Jan. The CL money for the groups would most likely have already been spent for FFP purposes in the summer. The club are unlikely to leave it for January. It’s not about cash flow - that’s not going to be a problem for our owners. It’s the FFP stuff - and that is for accounts for year, not month-by-month.

Yeah, that was what I saw from Tonali - admittedly via a handful of European games last season; I haven’t watched Serie A for a long time. He has never looked like a great technical footballer.

Their argument would be that they could get that money off another company in the market. Not saying that the rules are ok, but they wouldn’t run afoul of what’s in place

Independent regulation would be what I would want to see. She might be a Tory, but I thought Tracey Crouch was right on a lot of this stuff.

That wouldn’t surprise me - especially in terms of inheritance! It also should be an amber flag - back of house staff costs are not hobbled by FFP - we could hire the best in the business with zero impact to FFP, if we’re serious about it. See also: training facilities. edit: should have read ‘wouldn’t’. As if Ashley had a commercial team …

I know. It’s grim

FMV is the dodgiest part of the ‘FFP’ shite for me. Other clubs deciding what another club should be able to bring in. We know this would be thrown out in any adjudication - it’s lunacy by the PL clubs.

No, I know it wasn’t directed at me personally. Just think that it’s best to ‘cool jets’ on talking about people ‘not deserving a football club’. Some of us remember when Newcastle United’s existence was under threat - even the dafties going overboard on Howe don’t deserve that. It’s all just opinions - theirs are no less valid than mine or yours.

Fuck me, imagine letting off someone you think is guilty of rape because they play for your club? Or convicting an innocent man because he plays for your rivals? Grim.

They’re not that new in fairness. A year and a half is plenty of time to get some deals in.