TheBrownBottle

I think Howe is a manager who doesn’t like loan signings, and the jury is out on Wilson. We agree or disagree on our views of whether or not the options were there - and like you said, maybe they looked at every squad in every top league on the planet and there was nowt there. What did not prevent us making a loan signing was FFP / PSR. Plenty of headroom would have been available should we get past Qarabag - which was always very, very likely. So any decision not to make a loan signing was a decision they made - it had nothing to do with finances. Personally, I can’t believe that there wouldn’t have been a player who would not have better than some we have on the books who we couldn’t have offered their parent club £15m for a six month loan. Because that’s the sort of money which would comfortably have been there.

The lad clearly wanted to sign for them - he wasn’t interested from the moment they expressed an interest. And I don’t blame him - I wouldn’t choose NUFC over Man Utd or Chelsea if I was a foreign player. There’s no evidence at all that PIF were going to ever do a Man City / PSG with us. They don’t operate in the same way as Abu Dhabi or Qatar.

Man Utd offered Sesko less money than us, and he chose them. Chelsea aren’t just a London club (with its attendant pull), they’re English football’s most successful club of the C21st. We’ve won a LC in that time. We don’t know what PIF would offer without the rules in place - besides, given how Man City and Chelsea spend, perhaps they’d offer even more without the constraints? There’s an idea circulating that Howe would’ve got his first choices without PSR - and it’s an idea that I think is complete and utter bollocks.

No; that’s not what I’m saying. But I am saying it was stupid not to bring in players on loan, given that there was enough give in the headroom and potential income left for the season which would have made it zero-risk. We could’ve done what Villa did last Jan and tried to get short-term options in to try and add some fresh legs. Instead we did nothing, and now moan on about fixture pile-ups. The club don’t seem to punch smart in terms of the rules they live within.

We have, but you (and others) keep saying it like it’s fact. It isn’t. edit: PSR had nothing to do with Trafford turning us down. He went to a bigger club to be their no.1. He didn’t know Pep was going to sign Donnarumma.

Loans, not permanent signings - buying someone permanently in Jan would have an impact on the summer budget.

It 100% stacks up with the approach post-takeover - there’s been a vacuum at board level and we managed to take a year to appoint a CEO and just went through £250m without a DoF. You don’t get much more negligent than what we’ve seen over the last 18 months. In terms of spending a fortune - the regs hold you back from making permanent signings (which are amortised), but loans are entirely costed in that season. With the new regs, any money made from the CL this season does nowt for next season. So effectively we could’ve gambled on getting past Qarabag and put that straight into a loan signing. The requisite quality not being there is a laughable statement by Howe tbh - there’s no-one better than Murphy for a LB available for a sizeable loan fee? Seems unlikely.

‘Age is just a number’ And that’s why you see so many 50- and 60-odd year olds still playing PL football

People keep saying that PSR did this, but there’s no real evidence that 1) we’d pay over the odds without it and 2) any player would choose us over Man Utd, Liverpool or Chelsea

I can’t name many truly class players who dip for as long as he has tbh.

Since the PL breakaway, we’ve only conceded three goals in four home league fixtures in two seasons - 12/13, and this one. And there’s still five games to go this season.

No, but it also doesn’t make him a great one either.

100%. I think folks need to get their head into that space or they’re liable to become aggrieved this summer. There’ll be a few players itching to go in May, and for once we’re likely to make serious money on them. Nothing wrong with it - everything looks stale at present in any case. Assuming Howe is in charge, he’ll need to bring in quite a few players. For all the talk of ‘transition seasons’, this isn’t one; we’ve just been a bit shite for most of it. Next season will be a genuine ‘transition season’.

I think he’s been poor for much of the season tbh

I expect Tonali and Livramento to be off - Gordon I’m not sure, maybe if he has a good WC - if someone offers daft money he’ll be gone. But I don’t anticipate seeing Tonali or Livramento in a B&W shirt after May. Edit: we’d need £41m for Wissa to ‘break even’; £44m for Elanga, £55m for Woltemade. I can see someone paying close to that for Woltemade; can’t see anyone getting close with Wissa or Elanga

Just to add - not being in Europe doesn’t just impact our income; it impacts the % of our income we’re able to spend. Without Europe, a thumb-suck guess would put our income at around £370m, assuming a top-half finish - and a SCR ratio of 70% would mean that we would have a budget of about £260m for footballing purposes to stay within the rules (though this can be stretched to include 100% of income). Our current wages + amortised transfers is well over £300m. For all the talk about holding onto players, I don’t really see how we can, assuming a mid-table finish.

Jo(rma)n Dahl Tomasson just looks lost, the poor sod.

Agreed - it’s amazing what being in the shop windows can do for some of our players’ performances

For those who like all the records getting broken, there’s another one we could be on course to break this season - the most we’ve ever conceded in our history at home in a 19-game league season is 33 (under Bruce, of course). We’ve conceded 23 in 14 so far - another couple of performances like the last two and we’ll see that that record go.

It says everything when the least cynical and probably most positive person on N-O reckons you cried off with a fake injury (I agree btw - but I am a cynical fucker 😁)

It absolutely is true - the PL SCR rules were agreed in November, they’re available to read online. They operate on a season to season basis - your footballing expenses are ‘limited’ to 70/85% of that year’s income (though there is give in it). So the previous season’s figures have zero bearing on it. I think the board, DoF and the manager were utterly negligent in January re loan signings. Beyond fucking stupid.

Selling the first three is unlikely to put anything much into the pot. We need to do what we should have been doing for some time - selling players at peak value. Last summer reduces confidence that we’ll get them replaced, though.

Doesn’t make a dent mate

Agreed - if you’re not going chuck a couple of kids on when you’re 9-1 ahead, when will you give them a chance?

Villa qualifying does nowt to the usual suspects, but it gives Villa a massive boost. Villa qualifying does us no favours whatsoever.