TheBrownBottle

A deep-lying centre forward isn’t a ‘10’ or a playmaker. Woltemade has shown practically nothing to suggest he’s a playmaker.

I don’t doubt it - I worked on Sydney’s Light Rail, and with it being run through the centre of Sydney the existing service runs were insane. And, it transpired, hopelessly inaccurate. It’s incredible how often electrical, gas, water and comms services aren’t in the location they say they are.

Tbf some of Scotswood Road looks like the bomb was already dropped

I’d have pretty much the same view of both if the clubs involved didn’t include mine

I’ve encountered underground HV cables (and other utilities) not being where the as-built drawings suggested they would be as well as where dial before you dig states they would. But again, the worst case outcome with that for a client is usually an EOT and / or cost claim as a variation.

It’s not tricky at all. Cards on table - I’ve worked on multiple billion-pound construction and infrastructure projects in a position of seniority. HV cables being re-routed are encountered on pretty much any major project. Anyone talking about them being a roadblock is exposing themselves as knowing fuck all about the subject, and certainly could not have ever worked on a construction project of significant size in a city centre location.

It has to be said, I didn’t imagine he was as limited a footballer as he’s proved to be so far. If he had two 20+ goal seasons over two years then I’d argue he would be just about worth it in terms of PSR. Yes, the injury was unlucky, but he doesn’t just look ‘rusty’ to me. I was ok with signing him re PSR, I was more worried about the way he went on at Brentford. Just seemed like selling a cunt, buying a cunt to me last year.

Deffo - Wissa is much higher risk in the PSR world as you’ve zero chance of clawback. Which of course doesn’t matter if he scores the goals you want over the course of the four year contract. Not looking great on that front at present

I think Ramsdale looks like a bad signing either way, agreed. If we loaned Elanga in the summer, we are unlikely to get a fee to cover his amortisation - and we’ve already incurred a (wasted) £11m amortisation for this season. I also think it’s unlikely we’d get £33m the year after if Elanga continues his current form elsewhere. So a terrible permanent signing can impact multiple seasons.

We’ll make an accounting loss if we don’t get at least an £11m loan fee for the season - who is liable to pay that for Elanga? Shit permanent signings cause more damage than shit loan signings. If we’d permanently signed Ramsdale for £20m, would that have been a better outcome? I still think sensible loan signings can work in the age of PSR - Villa have done well with them. Targett was good for us.

But that’s not the same as Wissa or Woltemade being on the verge of ‘clicking’. Isak was a clsss centre forward - the current two look light years away from it. I don’t think that instinct can be coached - if Wissa and Woltemade can’t work out for themselves that they actually have to find the space (and how to do it) to score goals, then that is unlikely to be learned.

No, not if the player flops. Is Elanga looking good in PSR terms because he’s permanent? What if we’d signed someone like Rashford instead on a £11m loan fee for the season. Which would be the better signing under PSR?

Re-sale doesn’t mean it has a PSR impact. If we sign a permanent player for £50m on a five-year contract or a loan player for a year for £10m it has the same PSR impact in that season. You’re also not stuck with the player if they flop. Permanent deals are no guarantee of better PSR outcomes.

Why would loan signings be a no-go due to PSR?

For me, he should get this season (barring an absolute disaster) and the opportunity to put forward the plan to fix what’s going wrong at present - but if the answer is ‘more of the same’, the board should be asking whether he should be in situ at that point. But I’d like to think he’s smart enough to see that it isn’t working and is thinking of ways to correct the ship for next season.

Did Woodgate ever play a minute in midfield in his career?

I don’t think it would matter which position he plays in, he’s just absolutely out of form and I agree, I think Howe would actually send a better message to the team benching both Tonali and Gordon for a few matches

Agreed, but the rules mean that Man Utd can have an insane transfer record and fail again and again and again and they can just try again the following summer. For us, it absolutely cattle-trucks us as we lose all of our PSR headroom. We did exactly the same thing last summer as what they normally do, but we might struggle to recover from it. Mitchell was a goon but completely right when he described our transfer policy as not fit for purpose, and last summer our luck ran out with it. Personally, I blame the club far more than I blame Howe - though Howe should be held accountable for players he signs. There’s been a massive vacuum at the top of the club, which has been covered up by Howe’s management to date. Sad part is that ultimately he’s the one who could pay the price for that. The club has got to get a grip this summer - Wilson needs to be empowered to be an actual DoF and not an overpaid admin.

I never said we should leave things as they are, that’s all a wee bit strawman. I’m suggesting that something which Howe tried for quite some time which didn’t work then is unlikely to present a solution to our current issues. I don’t think Tonali would make a particularly good ‘8’ - he didn’t look much cop when Howe played him there. edit: I also didn’t think Bruno looked particularly good playing deeper.

Howe plays the same XI pretty much every match and doesn’t rotate - so we don’t have a better quality squad in the view of the manager. Playing the usual XI vs PSV looked crackers to me, given the standard of the opposition. Elanga being as terrible as he is isn’t great, but I can’t imagine many other clubs sanctioning paying £55m for him. Again, buying ‘squad players’ isn’t how good sides build squads. You buy good players with a view of potentially replacing the first team player, and pushing out the second string player in the same position. You don’t spend massive money to replace your bench.

His next three (non-pen) goals after the Liverpool game were from inside the six yard box

Several of Isak’s early goals came from inside the six yard box, and others from not much further out. There weren’t many ‘worldies’ that first season.

Bruno offers more going forward than Tonali - and Tonali is a holding midfielder by trade. Why would we weaken ourselves by playing two players in positions which lessens what both offer? Just seems daft to me. Which is why Howe stopped doing it.

I don’t remember this at all. Isak scored two in his first three games (including one at Anfield - and another which should have stood). Then he was injured for a couple of months, then he scored on his first game back vs Fulham. He went on a run of scoring seven in six before a dry patch the last couple of months of the season. There was no ‘several months’ to get him to do it.

Thanks to PSR, the last window could set us back years. Three of the big money signings have barely had 90 mins between them where they’ve looked at the level. I don’t think anyone right now would pay us the same money we paid for four of them - in the cases of Elanga and Wissa, it’s hard to imagine them being sold in the summer (were they to leave) for anything but a fucking massive loss on the ledger for the year; though that is something which might need to be contemplated to start afresh (both would have one year amortised by that point). I don’t think it can be understated just how disastrous it could prove to be with the current rules in place, also allowing for a drop-off in income next season without CL football. Additionally, we could be further hampered by a loss of PL prize money this season depending on finishing position. We’re not in a position where we can easily absorb massive transfer cock-ups, and we look like we’ve made several in a single window. One of those cock-ups is the notion that you buy squad players - you don’t; you buy players who can improve the first XI and push out previous squad members. You definitely don’t pay first team prices for players who will sit on the bench. edit: who knows, maybe our overlords may finally do us a favour and bail us out of the shit by having a KSA club buy Wissa for £40m in the summer. Wouldn’t hold my breath, though.