Adam P

I think the margins could be smaller than that. The 70m losses are for 21/22 and 22/23. The PSR date was June 24 so there is something missing, no? The June date also 'creates a market' so it becomes a de facto time to sell. We probably did need a sale but i would say that if the CEO, COO or CFO are anywhere near what they are paid, then the deficit would be smaller than the minimum estimated selling price of Mineh. Otherwise they have built an unacceptable level of risk.

I note that the Athletic article says 'Premier League clubs are speculating' about our PSR status and then uses an 'insider' to say that we were close to having a PSR issues. My view is that the PSR angle was used by the club out of fear of a backlash against selling a homegrown and popular player. The noise around PSR intensified last week and was driven by people like Downie and Hope. The stories about Isak and Gordon could have some truth in them but as i reckon the PSR angle was being pushed into the media, seems like the same journalists were having this angle pushed to them too. When we concluded our transfer business last summer, the revenue we had coming in for the season would have been predicted to within a few thousand pounds. Our cost estimates including all wages to players etc, would have been predicted to within far greater degrees of accuracy. In short there were no surprises, in terms of cost or revenues, from August 2023 to June 2024. So when the club smartly brought in 68m for a reserve midfielder and a lad who had never played for us, it suggests they were in control. Swiss Ramble, the source of the '40m PSR' figure was looking at our accounts published last year, there are a lot of revenues not accounted into that figure. I may be wrong, but my read of the individuals in place within the executive roles at the club is that none of them run a business with the level of risk invovled where they could be 'up to 100m overspent' on budget. Its a farcical suggestion to me. My bet would be that without selling Minteh, we might have been close but that we knew we could make a deal months ago. Even then i am not convinced we were in real trouble. Anderson is a PSR sale in that we need to sell to buy the right players to improve us this summer, not that we need to sell to avoid a points deduction. Thats the beauty of spin.

A hotel owner is adamant that his clients shag hookers in his hotel? Sounds legit.

Just speculating on how the management will view his performance as one of their highest paid non-playing staff. They may see this as a failure of due diligence given that his playing colleagues were aware of his illegal gambling before he signed.

Was going to say the same thing, might be his reputation and position with management is not great after spending the majority of our money on a player with a gambling problem.

I think you misunderstood, the timing is one piece of evidence, cultural connections between police and institutions is another. The timing piece is important. The Tonali investigation was announced on 18th October and he was banned on 26th October. The part that you probably didnt pay attention to was that Investgations in Italy come after confidential pre-investigations. The Fagioli story broke by some Italian paparrazi figure on Aug 2nd, before it was official. The police pre-investigation of Fagioli was therefore underway well before August 2nd. If Tonali's name was part of that pre-investigation, then it was already underway before Aug 2nd.

Did you have a drink over lunch? It might have been a complicated sentence but you're not that daft.

If there was evidence that Milan knew, there would be court cases. The timing and circumstantial evidence suggests that consistent with Italian culture, back office relationships amongst institutions and authorities and the extremely odd nature of Milan selling a talismanic player one month before the investigation became public, all points in one direction. Presuming their innocence is very noble of you.

Hotel hairdryers too mate.

Of course there is no evidence Milan knew but i am convinced they did. All it takes is for the police to have a relationship with the football club for that information to be shared.

I am aware of that information, the police knew about the illegal gambling before August 2nd. Juventus denying they knew about Fagioli is basically stating that the police in Turin didnt tell them. Of course they did, this is Italy. The official investigation only starts after a period of time of evidence collection. That period is confidential and can last 18 months before an investigation starts. If the Public Prosecutor thinks the 'accusation' can stand up in court, an investigation is officially launched. So the police turning up to arrest the players marks the end of the first phase, not the start.

As soon as the information was in the hands of the police, the police will have told AC Milan what was happening. That's the 'working in Italy' insight.

Why would they say that? The argument put forward to me by them was that they had a choice of players to sell for similar money, there was no financial need to sell Tonali. Exactly what Milanista said on here. Italian investigations only start after a confidential pre-investigation period. The charges and accusations are consistent with a timeline well before the start of August, which was the date references in the Italian press as the start of the 'investigation'. You can add 3 months to that for when information was passed to the police for a potential official investigation.

Difficult to prove but absolutely nailed on. I was in a 'Milan pub' in Brussels for our Dortmund away game and spoke to loads of their fans. Every single one of them when asked laughed and said 'of course we knew'. Having worked in Milan and Rome in the 2010s regularly, there is nothing anyone can say to me that would convince me otherwise. Even a cursory knowledge of criminal investigation timelines and processes under Italian law pushes back the start of the 'pre-investigation' phase into the early summer.

Then we would have to sell Pope after he recovers or put an England international on the bench and spend 40m at the same time. Sure, when the time is right we need to invest in the next keeper but its not now.

Only a loan for a keeper makes any sense, spending money to cover Pope's injury make little footballing or financial sense.

Last night was a great result under difficult circumstances. Keeps us alive in the group. Got to be happy today even after the stinging pain last night.

Ramsdale is a better footballer than Pope. Pope's distribution and confidence with the ball at his feet can hinder our ability to break a high press by reducing the number of formation / position options in the set up. Creating the extra man to break the press can require the GK to act like a CB. If you tell me that Ramsdale is not that good with the ball at his feet i havent watched him enough to counter the point. That is a clear weakness in Pope's game though. His 3 kicks into touch aiming at Dan Burn's head a few weeks back were good examples.

The decadent bastards.

Shot on location in the customer bathroom of a knocking shop in Dortmund. Nice hairdryer for the record.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_hysteria_cases Someone add Arsenal fans to this list and hoy it on their subreddit.

No VAR at the game yesterday and the goal stands and the Arsenal lot would be clamoring for VAR. The circumstances yesterday were bizarre which unsurprisingly heightened the sense of controversy but at the end of the day not giving that goal would have been far more controversial.

If VAR had ruled out the goal based on the video evidence they had, it would be a bigger controversy. They would have had to have chalked off a goal that was given by the ref based on inconclusive evidence. That would have been an example of the worst use of VAR and an example of what it has been criticised for.

Is it just me that thinks Arteta is really arrogant? After their mid-week loss he said 'we will use this to beat Newcastle' after our win Eddie said 'we have to back this up with a good performance against Arsenal'. Backhanded with the 'he's had a lot of support and now they are contenders'. He spent 150m over the summer. The majority of our summer budget is in hospital or on the naughty step.

I think Adam P is an excellent communicator for his age, concise and clear when he talks about a game in the immediate aftermath which is a skill. His hairdryer / 3 star hotel room review commentary is peerless too.