Matt1892

I would say it is similar to Gordon in that a player we want is available before we expected, so we are moving to secure them now they are available. A RB was likely earmarked for next summer but with Southampton being relegated it has given us the opening to go earlier on this one.

I agree with this, there can be no accusations of the company not backing Howe in the transfer market or a lack of ambition. If we can get away with spending it we will.

Every window journalists have been fed the line about a budget and every window we have gone above that. I actually think they had been given a ballpark budget by the club, not so the club can try and fool other clubs about what we have to spend but more that it was what we had budgeted for as part of a bigger plan. The issue is that the owners are ambitious and want us to kick on so every window we went that little further than we wanted to and that has impacted the budget for future windows, which is why we are in the position we are in now. There is only one way we can overcome FFP in the short term and that is the sell players, people will point to the likes of Lewis and Hayden but these players are worth next to nothing, so it has to be a player or players that will command a decent fee that can be booked as profit. Otherwise we stick with what we have, spend limited amounts and hope someone will do us a loan to buy deal but that sort of player might not be on the list.

I thought he was England’s best player and they won the tournament, they don’t usually give the player of the tournament to someone that was knocked out in the group stages.

It would be strange in that Barnes plays down the left and Diaby predominantly plays down the right. Out of both sides the right is more pressing than the left to be upgraded.

This was from Howe in May: "Dan [Ashworth, director of football] has made the point to me about trading being an important part of our future. That does not necessarily mean selling your best players, but trading with FFP rules can be a good thing for your finances," he continued.

He looks like he went bobbing for apples in the chip pan.

I agree with the likes of Bruno and Isak, the bigger concern with those players is that we don’t push on and they want to leave for a more ambitious club, which will potentially happen if the likes of Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool overtake us as we have our hands tied.

I agree completely with you on point one, the problem with that is that I don’t think we could even give these players away let alone get any sort of fee for them. The biggest thing holding us back from the Ashley era as that we were taken over with very few saleable players. Even now after the season we have had you have ASM, Almiron, Wilson, Longstaff, Joelinton, Murphy and Schar. I’ve deliberately left Willock out of that due to him falling in the same FFP year as the takeover. Compare that to Chelsea who despite having a terrible season can sell £200 million of players without any issue, or Man City who have sold £50 million plus of youth players over the last 2 seasons who have had zero impact on the first team and it shows where our issue is. As for Wilson, I think the questions will be around will he sign a new contract? How long would he want the deal to be for and how long realistically does he have at this level? Also, how is he going to react to being a bit part player as we should be building our attack around Isak as he is the future. If we stick with him and need to replace him in 2 years, we have to find that money from an already tight budget again. I am not saying all of them should definitely be sold this summer by the way, what I am saying is there are restrictions put in place deliberately to stop us from progressing and the options are we sell to free up money to invest or we do it at a much slower pace, meaning we could be overtaken by the likes of Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea. If the company did decide to sell ASM, Wilson and Almiron to fund a similar level of spending we have seen so far then I would be completely supportive of that.

It is a nonsense argument and one people will avoid. There is a legitimate debate on how we overcome FFP in the next few years as I’m of the belief that it was implemented to keep teams from breaking in to that top group of clubs on a permanent basis, as they will always have the money to buy the better players and pay the bigger wages until you can match them financially, which you are looking at a 5 year minimum period of being there or thereabouts. In ASM you have a player who wouldn’t be in my starting 11 and that Harvey Barnes could replace for a similar fee, freeing up funds over the next few years due to ASM being pure profit. You then have Callum Wilson who has came off his best season scoring wise but again, he wouldn’t be in my starting 11, is 31 and in the final 12 months of his contract. Now is the only time we can realistically get decent money for him especially after his finish to the season, as it has help people forget the period from November until April where he only scored one goal in all competitions. Then there is Almiron, a player who would be in my starting 11 but who sits in a position where we clearly need an upgrade. His purple patch has boosted his value but I don’t have any faith that we will see that again, meaning his value will drop going forward. So if we want to keep up our level of spending that has taken us to the Champions League so we can keep progressing from there then we need to sell, otherwise we slow down and are overtaken.

What a weird way you try to debate people on an internet forum.

I think we could comfortably if the money was right, potentially this is the last window where we could get good money for Wilson and Almiron. as for who would I replace them with, I would leave that to the club but as they have a good track record of signing players and using the money well. I would bet this strategy would be more successful compared to not wanting to sell anyone because I was attached to them, then watching us being outspent by all of our rivals.

I know people get attached to players and I understand that completely. However, this is the only way we can continue this level of spending while we grow the commercial side.

Even if we could pocket £20 million profit on ASM it potentially frees up £100 million this window. We will need to find another £20 million next year but that should fall in with the profit from Champions League and the adidas deal.

You also don’t stand still while all of the clubs around you are looking to improve, what happens in those circumstances is you go backwards. There is a lag now between what we can spend and the future revenues for when we improve the commercial side, the only way to bridge that is by selling players.

Selling ASM will free up a lot more than what we will be spending on Barnes and I would rather do that than consolidating with what we have. same goes for Almiron and Wilson.

I thought Disasi was coming to the end of his career the way he was described. He’s actually younger than Bruno.

Going into the summer the noises from Howe was about 2 or 3 top players as he didn’t want to upset the team, I completely understand that and that moved to looking at a CM, RW, LB and possibly a young RCB as initial back up to Schar. Again, completely understand that thinking. We have since signed a top CM bit have also been looking at a RB and a LW, which makes you wonder what is going on or what the plan is this window.

Trafford had a contract until 2027 though, where as Harwood-Bellis only has 12 months so they have less leverage to include such things in the deal.

The other thing is if we have a genuine goal threat wide left then Howe is less likely to push Isak out there, whose talents were wasted in that position.

Or Leicester could have told him and his agent they won’t stop him from leaving if a club matches their valuation, so Newcastle know the fee involved and that the player wants to come.

Here is a good video of how the team set up, they play such a fluid system that it was really difficult to stop.

Gordon player of the tournament.

Jones could have easily rolled that through to Gordon. Even if the angle was against him he could have pulled it back for someone else.

Leicester played in a similar way to us when they finished 5th both seasons running, apart from they could switch between 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 depending on opponents. They were one of the best pressing teams in the league and Barnes and Maddison would rotate like Joelinton and Willock did last season. Barnes did have the benefit of a good attacking left back behind him so they could double up when going forward, but in the main this won’t be a new formation or style of play for him.