Kooiman

Sad he’s torching all good will to get this done.

I love that. I'm painfully nostalgic for that era in football, if only because I was too young to be aware of it. I hope Sean can be that for you. I could see his limitations and ceiling, but when we were an ambitious club trying to break into the top four for the first time under Eddie he was great. The players would shuffle and he would just fill in. I'm actually tentatively excited to see him in a team that isn't us. I can't imagine the pressure that's involved in that (he's been quite open about seeing a sports psychologist to help him with stuff).

I am mildly surprised none of the major outlets have set up a calculator/counter for PSR for clubs. Perhaps that speaks to the lack of understanding around the concept, but a running tally would be nice to have. In our case, it seems odd to be talking about signing Sesko and Scalvini while also pleading poor.

Look, as I get older, I’ve learned to welcome new faces and give them a fair chance to impress—even if, on paper, they don’t exactly dazzle me. Jack Colback remains the lone exception to this rule. That said, he is an England international and someone that offers us a different profile of goalkeeper. I think he’ll integrate well with the squad and more importantly, he’ll push Nick Pope to stay at his best all while trying his darnedest to earn a move here. This is his last chance at a top Premier League club as anything other than 3rd choice. I'm happy we’ve only committed to a loan deal with an option to buy, so the long-term decision-making power stays firmly in our hands. I know Plan A was James Trafford, but I’ll give the club credit for not sitting on their hands. They recognized the need to refresh the goalkeeping department rather than crossing their fingers and hoping Martin Dubravka could step in at a moment’s notice. The nature of our situation and this summer window means not every transfer will be a jump to hyperspace, and I can accept that for now.

I never quite appreciated how good he was as a player until very recently. Mad that he was still playing as he hit 40. YouTube isn't the best for stuff on him as a player, what made him so good at Leeds?

The goalkeeper market, like the striker market, seems somewhat shallow right now. In the same way I'd say we wanted him to revolutionize the way we play, I would also argue City have taken him because he's the best they can get. I still think anyone speaking definitively about his ability to play at a high level in the Premier League is guessing.

After reading Craig Hope's latest dispatch I am curious if the club are waiting on a series of outcomes before engaging in PSR jiggery-pokery. We've seen Everton sell off the women's team to open up PSR headroom, while I'd imagine selling off hotel/land wouldn't be impossible in a city like Newcastle with owners like Reubens. The talk of 'good governance' makes me think they don't want to get their wrist slapped retroactively, especially if they feel we have adequate resources for transfers.

The duality of man.

Does seem very suss that the team buying is a PIF club and PIF also invest in Clearlake capital...

He is/was. Arguably had the most successful career after the show (I was a huge fan of it as a kid).

A young James Corden.

The first post-Ashely signing (assuming it happens) that I'm genuinely really disappointed by. He's always looked totally bang average to me and the fact he's been relegated a number of times reinforces that. The fact he seems a bit of a space cadet off the pitch lessens my desire to sign him even more. He's had a shot at a big club in Arsenal and showed he's not made for that stage. I'm a bit baffled as to what they've seen,

Both games against Preston jump out first (I want to say a good performance against Ipswich and Cardiff at home too). I remember his song getting a healthy full time rendition by the Gallowgate after promotion was secured. EDIT: As I say, he wasn't anything approaching his form at Fulham a few years later and from a goal-scoring perspective he was a major let down. I do remember him stealing us a win at Wolves which was funny.

This is where one of my bigger gripes with PSR comes into play. I can just about get on board with the idea that spending shouldn’t vastly outstrip revenue to protect clubs from financial ruin—even if, personally, I believe that as long as the money is guaranteed (through something like an escrow system), it shouldn’t matter. Where I lose interest is when the same system starts deciding which deals are ‘fair’ and which aren’t. Third-party transactions were never an issue under Mike Ashley, yet now they’re scrutinized when a Saudi company might offer us 10-20% more than a domestic competitor. It completely ignores the fact that, given our ownership, a sponsorship is naturally more valuable to a Saudi business. It feels like yet another ‘closing the door after the horse has bolted’ rule, where the top clubs have already exploited these avenues to their benefit, particularly when some clubs are selling themselves hotels as 'revenue'. Worse still, it’s a rule that isn’t applied evenly. There are countless less-obvious examples of conflicts of interest across the league that go untouched. To your point, a capable CEO with a strong track record would certainly help, but the fact that we have to clear so much of this through our direct rivals feels completely counter-intuitive.

Human beings in a mob. What's a mob to a king? What's a king to a god? What's a god to a non-believer Who don't believe in anything?

Fascinating insight. I was interested to learn that PIF and Clearlake Capital (the majority owner of Chelsea) are business partners, which is seen as explaining why Saudi/PIF clubs have bought so many Chelsea duds. Is that another example of the portfolio's vastness and why it's not about priority?

Craig Hope saying that Luis Diaz move to Bayern opens up a formal bid for Isak.

I like him. He reminds me a bit of Nile Ranger during his brief productive spell under Chris Hughton. He's physical, happy to throw himself about, and causes problems for defenders while being a bit raw. I don't even hate his missed header. I could see a spell in the Championship helping him refine his finishing.

Good and fun aren't the same.

He was tremendous fun in the Championship, but he's not nearly mobile enough for us.

The knock on his work rate is interesting/concerning. That said, the Red Bull way of playing involves relentless pressing a lot of the time which might explain it a little bit. The bigger concern for me would be how he adapts to a single striker formation.

I just caught the goals. The third one was particularly poor from one of their new lads. They've definitely improved the starting XI, but on paper the back five still looks below average, and I don't see much quality off the bench. A flurry of new faces from abroad won't change that.

Even Google Lens couldn't help me put 2+2 together on this one. Looks intimidating though.

The journalistic equivalent of a system player or someone that fit the time he played in. I'd wager sub-editors helped him a lot in terms of keeping to a word count that was satisfying for the reader (and I'd imagine a lot easier to write). Outside of that, he came to prominence at a time when we felt no one of note was telling our story and when they were it was usually misinformed or a cack-handed attempt at balance. Caulkin cut through that and spoke about the region with a blend of understanding and nostalgia that distracted from the present. Sometimes I'd read his work and feel hope for the future, other times I just felt content that I wasn't alone in thinking we were a mess of a club. The takeover was kind of his farewell tour. He flew too close to the sun, and the landscape that came after PIF took charge was vastly different. Now you need a decent understanding of PSR, and foreign affairs, and it's harder to write the plucky underdog story about this ownership group. He tried to go back to the well with his Isak piece, but you can see that it felt forced and slightly patronizing. His game now might be retread pieces of yesteryear and maybe a book, but I'd argue where we exist now is too alien for him to capture in a poetic style. He is a tad sensationalist, but that's how it works these days. The format of 'I'll have more names at 5' 'read the full story at 10pm'. He thrives in chaos with this club. It's fine.