TheBrownBottle

NUFC not being his first preference doesn’t mean he wouldn’t play his best and be professional if he was here. Given the choice, of course most would sign for Milan - if not all. Hardly a black mark against him if he’s hoping for the bigger move. Yes, we’ll need to move on if he won’t sign - but the fact we’re still in it (apparently) suggests that isn’t the case.

I’m guessing because sportspeople took a moral stance and refused to play apartheid SA? The straightforward answer would have been ‘I don’t think KSA is the same as apartheid SA’.

For clarity, I'm comfortable with journalists asking people who take money for this stuff difficult questions. I don't think supporters of football clubs should need to answer them

'Would you have played in Apartheid SA?' is a straightforward tbh. Sportspeople didn't play there.

Golfers are shit at answering the old 'moral quandary' questions shocker https://www.bbc.com/sport/av/golf/61738171

He was also vastly underpaid for the position relative to others. Or at least he was vastly overpaid based upon his skills and experience - but NUFC's salary package for that position was tiny in comparison to the rest of the PL.

I'm so glad I've held off from saying that Botman is the new VvD / is shite and slow. In part because I've never watched him play 90 mins (note: this does not stop NUFC twitter from making proclamations), but also because it is best to keep that powder dry. So I'm looking forward to him signing / us moving on to better targets soon, and he can become a club legend / a lucky escape

Oops that what being knackered and no checking does. Three and a half grand in the kitty, then. Either way, the assumption that there's loads of money flogging kits in KSA is flawed

Sponsorless shirts would be fantastic - not sure if they will or not though. It makes very little difference commercially if they can sell them in KSA or not. The club will get somewhere between 5-10% of any shirt sale - KSA has a population of only c.20m. If the club sold 20,000 shirts - 0.1% of the population - which would be an incredible number, from which they'd make about two grand. With kit deals, most of the money the club receives is upfront, not back-end. I've seen logical arguments that clubs would actually be much, much better off in the long run if they just made their own kits and flogged them.

Bookmarked as requested. That Saudia logo looks funny to me

Just skim-read the RTG thread. Absolutely hilarious - from $tn hedgefunds to sizing up which ME country is likely to be buying them (Kuwait seemed to be a favourite). The idea that because NUFC is owned by a sovereign wealth fund, someone is sat in a palace in the ME saying 'hey, let's buy KSA's club's rivals - that'll be fun, imagine the derby days!' They don't seem to understand that they've had their billionaire sugardaddys, who propped them up at huge losses for over a decade. Any potential buyer can quickly read their accounts, and realise that their potential is minimal - their income streams are tiny, and they aren't viewed as a 'name' club on its haunches (see Villa, Leeds, NUFC, Everton). All they're going to attract are chancers, and it is going to eat them up over the coming years when they realise no fucker is going to throw silly money at them ever again. They had their chance, but had smaller gate incomes than Hull. Utterly delusional. I love them.

Fucking hell, how did I miss this? I'm gutted, I've missed half a day of laughing my cock off. Bastard.

He knaas the Krays though. That gangster want to be careful

It's a million miles better than the pointless friendlies which would have been played in its place. International managers still have the choice to play second XIs, no-one is forcing them to do otherwise. Besides, the second XIs / U-23s are just as liable to be knackered. From the formation of FIFA, the pre-war WCs, the inception of the European club competitions etc the English (and British) have a long-standing tradition of putting down anything new. Until its been around long enough to become somewhat venerable, then they embrace it. I'm not a massive fan of international football full-stop - Newcastle winning a corner stirs my blood more than England winning a game - but I do think the NL is a canny idea.

I'm fucking owa the moon about this bloke being DoF (or Sporting Director), this is the first time in all these decades where it feels like the club is actually trying to appoint competent people at all levels of the club (not just as managers). The club has been blighted throughout most of its history by a general lack of professionalism at all levels - we'd sometimes have good managers, but it always felt like they'd be undermined by other parts of the club. Sub-par medical depts, training facilities, academies, boards etc. Badly run football clubs don't tend to win anything - and NUFC has never been particularly well run. I can't see this club being anything but well-run going forwards - and that's more exciting than any superstar centre forward signing to me - we've seen plenty of those; far more great no 9s than trophies. This guy - and the appointments to come - will make us a proper, professional football club. Geed up.

There is precedence for us - Guivarc'h promised to sign during the '98 World Cup, and he did. Hopefully, the comparisons would end there

Also, given BDB has played LB in the past, I imagine he'd comfortably sit on the left of a back three if Howe chooses to occasionally play that way

BDB is the perfect squad centre half - he's decent in his position, and he's obviously like a pig in shite being back at his boyhood club. Every minute played will be like a dream for the lad; and given what's happening, if he sees his time out he might just win a medal too. I completely understand why Howe would want to improve on BDB - but BDB will be here next season, which cannot be guaranteed for Clark, Fernandez or Lascelles

I've found myself shouting 'why don't you put something on the end of it' plenty of times when watching Chris Wood not connecting with crosses

A Dan, a Canada Sorry, can't stop thinking about palindromes after that thread on here the other day

Hope it's better than our last DoF's first interview to the press on talkSHITE. Yohan Kebab, Ben Afree etc

Fucking hell, that's more like an Italian Kim Wilde with proper '80s synth than the usual Whistle Posse Eurodance pish. Don't get me wrong, it is still utterly unlistenable, but at least it is different

Likewise mate - I was utterly shite with money until my mid-20s. Got hit constantly with bank charges - shithouse trick to hammer the poor. The 40m did include the fine - but 30m wages against 12m turnover - and the biggest loss in the division by a mile - tells you that they gambled. And won, tbf

I said you sunderland lot are little slugs, little slugs with no personalities just jealous that we're better at everything than you

Not looking to downplay it - hope that was clear