TheBrownBottle

I’m fully aware of who they are and how much they’re worth. But that can’t be brought to bear due to the financial constraints placed upon the club. Which means that, for now, our spend will be well behind the clubs who were around us last season. And generally speaking, wages + net transfer spend correlates to league positions. I still think top 8 and a cup run - if we exceed that, I’ll be delighted, just as I was last season. If your expectations are 4th or above, then you’re very likely to end up disappointed.

True, though the fact that Shearer is 5th in the all time rankings and Kane is below Tony Cottee tells its own story. The all time records are the only ones which really count - the PL breakaway didn’t reinvent football in 1992. I don’t like over a century of history being rejected because Sky didn’t have the broadcast rights. And on that list, Shearer is second to only Jimmy Greaves post-war - and Greaves might well be the greatest English centre forward of all time in any case, record or not.

They didn’t bother with actually noting assists until the C21st, though I imagine someone will have gone back and counted them. I still think they’re basically worthless stats.

Totally understand being disappointed he’s leaving - though I would say that he’s had the benefit of a manager with tactics & good coaching and better players around him in the last 18 months. Also notable that he praised Bruce when he left NUFC, but hasn’t exactly been as effusive re Howe.

Anyone who thought that is being daft and getting their bubbles popped. Far too much time cheating on Champ Man managing a second club to buy their first club’s players for inflated fees. The real world doesn’t work like that. It is the same for those who’ve spent the last 18 months pretending that FFP isn’t a thing, really. We’re nearly two years into the ownership and it is abundantly clear what the strategy is - a slow build while staying 100% within the rules. Commercial deals gradually increasing, facilities improved, buying players with significant potential resale value to maximise revenues. They’re not going potentially bring scrutiny and criticism by selling a player to another of their clubs for an inflated fee. ASM isn’t going to attract more than what he’s being sold for - and doesn’t appear to have any other suitors at this price, which suggests the fee being paid is inflated. It’s basically what Mike Ashley claimed to be doing in 2008-ish, only competently done and with actual investment to nurture the growth. What it clearly isn’t is a vanity project nor a opportunity for wasting huge sums of cash. PIF is doing that in KSA with the Saudi league, for political reasons.

Cheers - I'll root around and see if I can find it

Yeah, I quite like watching that turn & step away from the opposition - he deliberately times it to either draw a foul or take an opposition player out of play. When he does get caught, it usually results in a foul - I can only recollect a handful of times when he was caught last season, and he must do that a dozen times per game. His shooting boots definitely disappeared just before Xmas, mind.

'Lewk Ur Nyen'

Bruno is likely priced out of a transfer to any European club that would want him, and I can't see us selling to a PL rival for under 100m. A transfer at this juncture simply isn't on the cards. And he doesn't strike me as the sulking type - Ginola hoyed the pet lip on when denied a move to Barca in '96. Bruno is a good lad - I can't picture him causing unrest. That doesn't mean of course that he'd never leave - but that is something which isn't happening this year.

Isak for me, comfortably. I could picture Real signing that lad in a couple of years.

Great, and I'd be over the moon if that is the outcome. Bookies odds just reflect where the money is being put, though. It isn't a probablised outcome of the event.

Shearer scored 39 PL goals after that age despite playing for an average side and having several career-threatening injuries in his past. If Kane signs with a good side at 33 I’d stake my house on him getting to that figure.

Nothing to see nor to worry about here. If he leaves it won’t be this summer. I don’t think his performances in the second half of the season were particularly fantastic in all honesty - he’d be on a much stronger footing to demand a massive hike if they had been. Players come and go - the best thing about having an ownership which is competent is that I’m far less worried about players leaving than I would be under Ashley. Ashley saw only profit; this board will sell players if it’s the best thing for the club. I’m aware that people are tying themselves to the notion that the top quality players we sign these days will be here long term. I’m not convinced this is the correct assumption - there is likely to be a full recycle over the next half decade as huge profits from transfer will just build the club further. Every achievement at the moment is like a bonus - it’ll be another few years before the commercials have us competing with the big boys. We’ll get there, though.

I think Arsenal will have a big drop-off. Man Utd and Liverpool will be the challengers to Man City, who'll end up winning it. The other three usual suspects + Villa and us to make up the rest of the top 8. I suspect we'll finish c.7th, though I think top 8 should be the target. Lower than that would represent a modest failure, I think. Top 8 plus a cup run would do nicely.

In a B&W shirt …

What was the last series like btw? I’m on the other side of the planet so missed it (though I probably could find it online somewhere). I tried rewatching the originals about a year back on YouTube after not having seen them since they were broadcast … they don’t hold up at all. And I still understand the references

I love how sunderland has city freemen, yet the place has so little history that the term has never actually meant anything

It would have been all over the press if, say, West Ham were offering 50m and we turned it down for half that from the owner's other clubs. We wouldn't be able to stop leaks elsewhere. There is no conspiracy to this - the lad isn't worth what people want him to be worth.

All those clubs willing to pay significantly more just sat silent for some reason, and missed out on a bargain apparently. The lad didn't have suitors lined up - he's injury-prone and produces intermittently. Yes, he's fantastically entertaining to watch when he's on his game - but how often is that? Managers don't pay for entertainment - they want players who are fit and hurt the opposition. I'm glad I got to watch ASM in a B&W shirt - he really was a beacon during some dark late-Ashley era days. But it really is onwards and upwards - the club isn't any longer lower-midtable dross which needs enlivening from a maverick. Winning is the order of the day now - and there isn't much in football more entertaining than winning.

‘Young man, this is how football works. It’s a simple game. Centre halves - head the ball. Wingers - cross the ball. Centre forwards - score goals. Midfielders - they need to ensure they’re utilising torso deception and have a strong comprehension of orientation’

Yeah, that's right. The starting point of any new signing should be vitriol until they prove themselves.

I bet the first few dozen pages of this thread make uncomfortable reading. It was more than thinking his value was a bit inflated.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/in-bed-with-maradona/2017/mar/17/la-liga-spain-beckham-bale-kroos-real-madrid-language

Just one year short of the traditional testimonial requirement - amazing how long Ashley-era signings ended up staying. Nothing against the lad at all, though - hope he does well in the future.

It is funny - though I very much doubt a British or Irish player doing likewise wouldn't be criticised heavily for it. The lad doesn't exactly have to, of course.