Hugo Ekitike

[TRon]

57 minutes ago, WilliamPS said:

Kompany and Zableta were both bought pre Mansour, City had started to spend heavily pre their 2nd takeover although they bought a lot of rubbish.

 

shows the impact of FFP - can’t afford to have a load of flops now, to progress almost every signing has to come off.

 

city bought about 3 big money strikers a year for years until aguerro - simply not possible anymore

 

 

 

 

Agree, FFP will slow down our efforts to crash the top 4. City and Chelsea were able to buy top players closer to 30 who they were prepared to lose out on resale value because they were in their prime and could do the job right now. We have to be very careful not to go down that road because the way things are set up now, we'll be hamstrung further down the road, a bit like Everton are now. Villa are playing a dangerous game as well.

[relámpago blanco]

21 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Agree, FFP will slow down our efforts to crash the top 4. City and Chelsea were able to buy top players closer to 30 who they were prepared to lose out on resale value because they were in their prime and could do the job right now. We have to be very careful not to go down that road because the way things are set up now, we'll be hamstrung further down the road, a bit like Everton are now. Villa are playing a dangerous game as well.

You are right, they both will be fucked. I didn't realise how much money Villa had spent. 

[KaKa]

25 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Agree, FFP will slow down our efforts to crash the top 4. City and Chelsea were able to buy top players closer to 30 who they were prepared to lose out on resale value because they were in their prime and could do the job right now. We have to be very careful not to go down that road because the way things are set up now, we'll be hamstrung further down the road, a bit like Everton are now. Villa are playing a dangerous game as well.

 

It's not that clear cut IMO.

 

I think we've nailed it manager wise, and also director of football wise, and that makes our potential very dangerous.

 

Ironically, I think FFP focuses our recruitment even more, and more efforts are being put into scouting, background checks etc. I think we ultimately probably make better signings because of it, and because of the quality of people we now have in place, which will continue to expand.

 

I think a place in European competition will come quite quickly and from there we will then be looking at making some key signings looking to break into that top 4.

 

 

[TRon]

1 hour ago, KaKa said:

 

It's not that clear cut IMO.

 

I think we've nailed it manager wise, and also director of football wise, and that makes our potential very dangerous.

 

Ironically, I think FFP focuses our recruitment even more, and more efforts are being put into scouting, background checks etc. I think we ultimately probably make better signings because of it, and because of the quality of people we now have in place, which will continue to expand.

 

I think a place in European competition will come quite quickly and from there we will then be looking at making some key signings looking to break into that top 4.

 

 

 

I agree, in the long term we will probably be better off for it, at least from an accounting POV. But I don't think Chelsea or City minded losing money at the time because they did buy their way to trophies. Let's face it, we could do it as well given half a chance. But we'll get there in time, might just take a couple of years longer.

[Conjo]

6 hours ago, tgarve said:

It’s not 

 

It is

[Nine]

The landscape of football has changed a fair bit since the first and second city takeover, besides the obvious bits I dont think its worth comparing to way they did it.. its going to be harder and a whole different ball game for us. 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2022 by Nine

[ExiledGeordie]

8 hours ago, KaKa said:

 

It's not that clear cut IMO.

 

I think we've nailed it manager wise, and also director of football wise, and that makes our potential very dangerous.

 

Ironically, I think FFP focuses our recruitment even more, and more efforts are being put into scouting, background checks etc. I think we ultimately probably make better signings because of it, and because of the quality of people we now have in place, which will continue to expand.

 

I think a place in European competition will come quite quickly and from there we will then be looking at making some key signings looking to break into that top 4.

 

 

I think this is a good summing up of our current situation. We’re getting the structure in place and buying the right sort of players for the current situation. With FFP i won’t think we can go out and make silly signings and I think they’ll go with Wilson, a new younger striker and Wood for next season plus a goal scoring RW threat (one or two may come in late on the window ofcourse). If you put that with our defensive reinforcements it’s starting to look like a really solid team which as stated above can get us into that 6th to 8th region next season. I think you’ll then see then us go again with a top striker and maybe attacking midfielder next summer and the players to start to nudge towards top 4.

[gazza ladra]

1 hour ago, Nine said:

The landscape of football has changed a fair bit since the first and second city takeover, besides the obvious bits I dont think its worth comparing to way they did it.. its going to be harder and a whole different ball game for us. 

 

 

 

The landscape has changed since Leicester City won the title. That scared the shit out of the rich clubs.  Their spending went up as a result… or so I have read.

[Stottie]

Liverpool nearly missed the CL when VVD was injured. That season Man U finished second. It was only the season before last but neither of those sound likely now. Things can change quickly. 

 

Arsenal had everything to play for and we dominated them. Coming after the form we showed in 2022, you have to be optimistic going forward. 

[Cronky]

I went to the recent Rugby League cup final at the Tottenham Stadium. It's absolutely brilliant, but the cost is estimated at £850bn and they went into enormous amounts of debt to build it. If they were to miss out on CL places for a few seasons, I can't help but think they'd be in a lot of trouble. They are probably the most vulnerable of the 'big six', but this sort of situation would explain why those clubs are so desperate to maintain their position, and that we're considered such a threat.

[Keegans Export]

12 hours ago, WilliamPS said:

shows the impact of FFP - can’t afford to have a load of flops now, to progress almost every signing has to come off

 

 

It's another reason why we aren't just going metal with the transfer budget. Each season we improve gives us more credibility, the closer we get to Europe (or get into Europe) will allow us to attract better quality players and we are making sure there is a hefty FFP-compliant budget there for when that happens.

 

It's similar to what Spurs are doing - they've got the right manager in place, they've got CL football and now they're releasing the purse strings.

 

If we ever made it to the CL I think we would spend a monstrous amount of money that summer (provided we haven't wasted a load before then).

[Rich]

1 minute ago, Cronky said:

I went to the recent Rugby League cup final at the Tottenham Stadium. It's absolutely brilliant, but the cost is estimated at £850bn and they went into enormous amounts of debt to build it. If they were to miss out on CL places for a few seasons, I can't help but think they'd be in a lot of trouble. They are probably the most vulnerable of the 'big six', but this sort of situation would explain why those clubs are so desperate to maintain their position, and that we're considered such a threat.

 

Didn't realise it cost hundreds of billions, mind.

[Shak]

Fuck's sake, spent too long laughing at the idea of what an 850 billion pound stadium would look like and missed my chance to make the joke first

[Manxst]

Tottenham stadium was around £1bn. 
 

https://www.goal.com/en/amp/news/assessing-the-cost-impact-of-tottenham-hotspurs-new-stadium/13xo4l1pe98o51qrx9qyl1io4u

[DahnSahf]

4 minutes ago, Shak said:

Fuck's sake, spent too long laughing at the idea of what an 850 billion pound stadium would look like and missed my chance to make the joke first

 

If you had a private island you could get a half decent navy for that, like.

[Cronky]

Okay, okay, you know what I meant. 

 

This place is like a pack of wolves sometimes.

[relámpago blanco]

18 minutes ago, DahnSahf said:

 

If you had a private island you could get a half decent navy for that, like.

You could have one hell of a navy for that. Our aircraft carriers were only 6 billion each.  20 aircraft carriers, 1000 f35cs, 200 type 45 destroyer and 400 frigates, 100 or so attack and trident subs would cost less than that. 

 

Plus you could do a minor upgrade on the metro

 

 

Edited June 26, 2022 by relámpago blanco

[LV]

Could probably move Leazes Terrace for that 

[The Prophet]

 

Not sounding good for wor Hugo.

[Guest]

If someone is prepared to meet the agent’s demands, fair play to the agent and good luck to him. You’d imagine the only club who might do that is PSG.

 

If not, we sign him.

[The College Dropout]

12 hours ago, TRon said:

 

Agree, FFP will slow down our efforts to crash the top 4. City and Chelsea were able to buy top players closer to 30 who they were prepared to lose out on resale value because they were in their prime and could do the job right now. We have to be very careful not to go down that road because the way things are set up now, we'll be hamstrung further down the road, a bit like Everton are now. Villa are playing a dangerous game as well.

City didn’t buy a bunch of 29 year olds to win the league. 
 

Aguero, Hart,  Lescott, Toure, Fernandinho, Silva, Aguero, Balotelli, Milner, Dzeko, Johnson all younger than 27 when city signed them surely. 
 

They did sign a bunch of stepping stone players like Bellamy, the other Toure etc. But we are doing the same - that’s everyone we’ve signed so far bar Botman and Bruno.  We are unlikely to make a profit on anyone else we’ve signed. 

[Chris_R]

1 hour ago, Cronky said:

I went to the recent Rugby League cup final at the Tottenham Stadium. It's absolutely brilliant, but the cost is estimated at £850bn

 

[Dokko]

At this point I'd be telling him to ditch his agent or he's not coming.

[junkhead]

1 hour ago, relámpago blanco said:

You could have one hell of a navy for that. Our aircraft carriers were only 6 billion each.  20 aircraft carriers, 1000 f35cs, 200 type 45 destroyer and 400 frigates, 100 or so attack and trident subs would cost less than that. 

 

Plus you could do a minor upgrade on the metro

 

 

 

 

Could deploy an iron dome against any pigeons thinking they can just come and die on the roof. Might actually magnify the problem but when has that stopped an arms deal?

[Yorkie]

Obviously the ideal scenario is to sign all of your players before pre-season and all at a fair price. However, that's almost impossible, particularly given our negotiating position/vulnerability to being fleeced. 

 

Getting Pope in early was critical in order to maximise the objective of having two goalkeepers pushing each other from the get-go. Then, getting the rest of the defence sorted as early as possible was also particularly important, because I think it's in Howe's DNA to build from the back. Allowing that really fundamental aspect of the team to bed-in as soon as possible is crucial. 

 

From here though, I don't see any huge rush. Assuming he's satisfied with our CM options, recruitment now is just about augmenting the attack with upgrades. And if it takes until deadline day to sign an attacking prospect who isn't absolutely essential to the basic functions of the team, so be it. Hopefully the winger we eventually get comes before the first match, but not the end of the world if not.

 

With Pope, Targett and Botman sorted, it's feet-up time from our point of view as observers. Hope folks can just enjoy the summer, let the signings arrive as and when they do. They'll come, just a question of who and when.