TheBrownBottle

I read it as implying the opposite - they’re already run by a oil state in the gulf, why would they need to be taken over by a different one?

Tap player up and unsettle them, offer half of market value, cry ‘foul’ when another club actually offers the money. It’s not a great look, tbh.

Contract extensions affect the amortisation - you can reduce FFP this way. Quick example: you sign a player for 100m on a five year deal. So that’s 20m per year for FFP After three years, you give the player a player a two year extension. The sunk amortisation fee is deducted from the transfer fee at registration, and the remainder is split over the length of the new (extended) contract. So: 100m (fee) - 3 x 20m (three years amortisation) = 40m 40m / 4 (four years for new extended contract) = 10m per season amortised for FFP edit: you can ‘pay off’ the fee by sticking the remainder in your FFP books so that you don’t keep splitting the original fee - if you don’t want to that is. This is an ‘impairment charge’ in accounting terminology

I was a 13-year-old kid on that coach back from Forest in ‘96, no doubt looking utterly forlorn when a couple of older blokes noticed and told me not to worry, ‘we’ll win summick next year’. Canny blokes, but not exactly Nostradamuses I still haven’t been able to rewatch Woan’s goal. In my mind’s eye he was just past the halfway line. Didn’t pick up the end of season VHS review - couldn’t bear it. Would kill to finish 2nd now mind

It would be nice, not sure I share your confidence, but fingers crossed. It does appear that AC are waiting for the player to effectively force the move to them rather than paying the asking price - though this is entirely inferred from back page tittle tattle, so fuck knows if that’s actually the case. I’ve never liked big clubs doing that - deliberately unsettling a player to get them cheaper than they should. They’ve got away with it for decades, of course.

Yep - if we buy a 100m player on a five year contract, the transfer fee impact would only be 60m during any FFP three year period (20m per season)

I reckon that’s pretty well explained tbf

It's amortised, so it doesn't matter if you have a 100m transfer with the player on a five year contract and you've agreed to pay 10m upfront and 90m the year after - it is 20m each year over the five years which counts towards FFP

What about the one I saw Gazza play in? That was a side filled with mediocrities and a footballing genius. ASM is exciting in a shit team because he can beat a man. Playing in a shit team has potentially helped not hindered him - his worst excesses have not been curbed. If NUFC becomes the side we hope in the next couple of years he’ll have to either improve massively or be shipped off. ‘Bruce-ball’, if it has skewed anything, is to make people forget what really good footballers actually look like. ASM is more Ketsbaia with Twitter nous than a footballing genius.

Nowt to do with Bruce-ball whatsoever. The most naturally talented players I’ve seen in B&W - Beardsley, Ginola, Robert, HBA - didn’t hold on to the ball like ASM because all of those players had footballing intelligence. ASM, to date, has shown few signs that he has it - and I’m hoping some can coached in. Better players around you help, yes. No good team - or manager - would have put up with play that shite for any length of time.

Yeah, it’s really good that one. It feels borderline bad taste to say this, and there are of course far more important things to think about, but what a side Yugoslavia would have had in the ‘90s without the civil war and break-up. There is a really good chance they would have bagged a major tournament.

Make or break season to me - if the lad can look up more often and release the ball just a little earlier he’ll be a cracking footballer. I thought the last two or three games of last year were the best ‘all round’ games he’d played for us - if we can get a better player on the other flank to take the pressure off his side it could make a massive difference. Plus Howe has a full pre-season to work with him. If next season is all running down blind alleys and shooting tamely from ludicrous angles then that’ll be it.

He put it horrifically because he’s a cunt, and he’s lacking in self-awareness and forgets that Birmingham is a city that no fucker would ever willingly live in, but there is some truth to what he said. It would be a difficult sell, and there’s a premium attached to getting a footballer to live in a provincial city. If I’m Ekitike and I’m offered Paris or Newcastle, I know where I’m going. As would most people if we’re being honest.

I had genuinely forgot about the lad over the last few days. I think I sort of thought it wasn’t happening. Whether he signs or not, still think the YouTube clips are a bit ‘meh’ - there is a lot of the Ayoze about the lad; the finishing looked more luck than technique. He’s more than young enough to develop, and the clubs being linked are European heavyweights, so obviously there’s more to him than the clips suggest. I wouldn’t be excited by his signing nor disappointed by his non-signing to be honest - couldn’t say that for Bruno or Trippier.

I remember James Richardson saying that ‘Golaco’ was used because it sounded like ‘gol Lazio’ or ‘go Lazio’, because loads would have been watching just to see Gazza play for Lazio

Spot on. Remember getting thumped at home off Fulham under Souness, after he chucked on a load of forwards?

I completely agree that's where the bile comes from - personally, I just think he's an inoffensive but thoroughly mediocre manager. I like the fact he isn't a Allardyce-style wanker, and I think he's a positive force for good with his statements on issues like racism etc. Just think he's a bit crap at football management.

I wouldn't hold my breath based on the link below ... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jun/15/englands-drubbing-by-hungary-shows-risk-of-over-attacking-warns-southgate

Let's not forget that they managed to finish 8th in the Third Division in 2019-20. Their glorious play off triumph needs contextualised with this in mind. They finished 52nd in English football that season. Whatever happens next season, it will be their first 'top-half' finish in five years. Top half of the football league, that is of course - they've only managed three actual 'top-half' finishes in the top flight in the last 65 years. They're the biggest club in the second tier though, of that there can be no doubt* *this statement has some doubt attached

Yeah, a superb midfielder

Belgium are an excellent side at present - but they’re not traditional heavyweights. England knocked them out in the last 16 in Italy ‘90, of course - but other than Enzo Scifo that wasn’t a particularly strong Belgian side

I thought transfers were amortised for FFP - so paying in installments will make no difference, as the amortisation is based upon the length of the player's initial contract?

QF is par for England; history suggests that England are knocked out by the first really good side they play. And if the tournament is played outside England, this becomes a hard and fast rule. The second part didn’t change under Southgate - England had some fortune with the draws and home advantage at the Euros (not to be sniffed at - England haven’t beaten any major footballing nation in a knockout game played outside of England - and by major I mean Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, Portugal). There is no reason to think Qatar will be any different.

Filled the ‘English quota’ for me. Lampard was brilliant at one thing. We’ll have to agree to disagree

I never thought the likes of Terry or Lampard were top rank international class players - what they lacked was covered up at club level by playing with outstanding footballers. They were exposed at international level for their basic technical failings. Christ, the whole ‘Lampard and Gerrard can’t play together’ thing was treated like a tactical conundrum …. Calling for Southgate’s job is crackers to me - it’s hard to argue that he hasn’t done a decent job, and as you say the idea that anyone can just step in - not sure about that tbh.