OptimusSlime

Genuinely shocked at how ruthless sone are on here regarding selling Almiron, Murphy, Maxi. It’s very different to the conversations I have in real life with mates, colleagues, family. Is this a case of people who’ve played football manager too much and just see our squad as names on a screen with set attributes and forget the human element? Are we as fans that disloyal (works both ways) to e.g. Almiron who scored double figures and just held an NUFC birthday party for his son? To Murphy who has become a cult hero and is the perfect versatile squad player who let’s face it won’t be on big money? Scott Sellars lost his place in the team to Ginola and was subsequently sold. Ruel Fox lost his place to Gillespie and was subsequently sold. Unless and until these players lose their spot to someone better - or someone offers a fee significantly above market value (which I guess is a point of debate) there is nothing to discuss for me.

Aye FFP rules and accounting rules are completely separate. We appear to have absolutely no problem with cashflow/accounting as further shares can be issued to get cold hard cash to pay for things into the club. Payment instalments etc all come into this. Failing to have enough cash to pay bills sends you into administration. FFP is a made up set of regulations that puts additional spending restrictions in place. This is what holds back out spend.

I think selling him would be insane considering the amount of games we have next season and how much it would cost to buy a player at his level. I’ve seen some comments around cashing in on him or Almiron which at this stage would be a massive backwards step for me. I don’t doubt we could replace these players as our ambitions grow - but not at this time as far as I’m concerned.

I’m confident Gordon is going to have a strong season. I have faith that the club know better than me on football (which wasn’t the case under previous regimes). His physical attributes seem well suited to our intensity style, once he gets himself in the physical shape Howe demands. Should he have a good season and end up on the fringes of the England squad - £40m will quickly look like a great deal. “Like a new signing”.

I would be against moving from St James, even just to Leazes Park. Every club from the mackems to Arsenal to West Ham lost an element of the soul of the club moving to a new location - however lovely the new stadium could be. The only option for me is expansion which I think the club has in mind too. Maybe 62k is too small but I’m not sure there will be consistent demand for 70k plus tickets - if and when this honeymoon period is over. Particularly when the ineveitable price increases happen and they stop selling family enclosure kids season tickets for less than £100 per season. I think the not selling new season tickets is a strategy while they wait for all the long term deals to expire and lots of kids in the family enclosure to age out of being allowed there. They can then look at further corporate areas, reducing the family enclosure, more safe standing without pissing off loads of season ticket holders who get frustrated at being moved around.

Was your ticket classes as hospitality? My understanding of the way the club is run is that general tickets (platinum to family) and hospitality are run as entirely separate departments, so they don’t allow a path from hospitality to general tickets or vice versa. That is a choice by the club and not to say they could not make exceptions if they wanted to.

If we can get Maddison for terms the club are happy with, and the player wants to come to NUFC I’d be very happy. Over this weekend NUFC players have scored for England and Brazil - I don’t recall that ever happening before. It takes a certain standard of player to improve our team now. Never any guarantee of success with any transfer but we need top players to improve and add depth to our team. Maddison has been one of the top players in the league in recent years, has started for England past couple of games and feels as sure a thing as any. You just know he is the sort of player Keegan/Robson would have signed too.

To get a high level view look at the Deloitte money League and annual match day total income. You have to be mindful of those teams who were e.g. in the CL or had lengthy cup runs in 2022 as you could be comparing apples with pears. Ours does look on the lower side when you think our stadium is relatively big:- https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/sports-business-group/articles/deloitte-football-money-league.html Man U - £126m Spurs - £125m Liverpool £112m Arsenal - £94m Chelsea - £82m Man City - £64m West Ham - £49m Newcastle - £33m Leeds - £28m Leicester - £25m Everton - £18m You can also see why Everton want out of Goodison… Our match day income probably needs to double as a minimum if we are to eventually compete on wages with those with higher incomes and stay within FFP. We won’t be able to rely on commercial revenue alone increasing unfortunately. This will mean more money out of peoples pockets. This would be helped massively by longer cup runs, CL involvement, corporate being sold out. I’m certain there will be a medium term plan to raise ticket prices though. I don’t think our tickets are cheap as such but they aren’t expensive compared to other teams. As I said in another comment I do think Platinum Club and similar are priced low compared to similar offerings with padded seats at other clubs though.

To be fair they’ve basically got rid of the family section for the CL games with a flat £55 across the 3 categories (and that is at a discount for season ticket holders, it says). £175 for the CL package for members?

I think the last of the long term season ticket discount deals ends at the end of next season. That will end the current system of some season ticket holders paying different rates. That will be quite a big % increase to those coming off the deal. Once they have all the pricing level I could see more significant price increases, as it stands season tickets are much better value than buying match by match. One area I think they could get away with putting the prices up without too much heat is Platinum club/1892. Premium/padded seats with dedicated bars are often a good bit more expensive at other clubs than a standard plastic seat with access to the general concourse. Then look to keep eg the family enclosure as affordable as possible. I can only see price rises in the future and I guess the question is how to do it fairly.