Sandro Tonali

[oldtype]

Judging by the Van Hecke signing it looks like Tottenham is willing to pay above the odds for their targets. I wouldn't mind cashing in at that price.

[The Prophet]

Just catching up with todays latest. Spurs would be such an odd move. Off the pitch it makes sense, London an increase in wages and all the trimmings, but where is his professional ambition?

 

As for us, he'll be a miss, but he's replaceable. His engine, positional intelligence and general reading of the game are very good, but he also has some well discussed flaws in his game, which have existed since his days at Milan. £90 million plus would be good business, but we really should be aiming for a bidding war to push the price to the maximum.

 

It never felt like he'd stick around long and this summer feels like an obvious off ramp, so no hard feelings. The only real frustration for me is I wish we'd get a replacement through the door before we let first team players leave, the same goes for Gordon.

[Skeletor]

[oldtype]

2 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

Just catching up with todays latest. Spurs would be such an odd move. Off the pitch it makes sense, London an increase in wages and all the trimmings, but where is his professional ambition?

 

As for us, he'll be a miss, but he's replaceable. His engine, positional intelligence and general reading of the game are very good, but he also has some well discussed flaws in his game, which have existed since his days at Milan. £90 million plus would be good business, but we really should be aiming for a bidding war to push the price to the maximum.

 

It never felt like he'd stick around long and this summer feels like an obvious off ramp, so no hard feelings. The only real frustration for me is I wish we'd get a replacement through the door before we let first team players leave, the same goes for Gordon.

 

I suspect the reason Spurs are emerging as suitors is because the better teams don't want him at that price. The "bidding war" has already happened.

 

 

Edited 52 minutes ago by oldtype

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, Vaj said:

Explains why he has had such a drop off, similar to the way Isak was playing at times. 
 

Massive shame considering what we have done for him with his gambling ban, but there is no loyalty in football anymore. 
 

£80m+ will be a good deal though and as mentioned gives us plenty of head room to improve further. 
 

Going to be an exciting summer though as there will be plenty of incomings. Hopefully it will make a positive difference next season but it really could go either way! 

Isak had a poor ending to his season. But I think we’ve lost sight that his final season was among the best we’ve ever seen from a Newcastle player. 20+ goals in the PL, cup final winner, 27 in all.  His final season was miles better than Gordon’s or if it turns out to be his last season - Tonali.  
Isak’s the only one where his final season actually increased his value.  I think the way we handled that saga has discouraged players from doing their best if they want to leave imo. I believe Tonali quit at the Nou Camp for example. 

[The College Dropout]

9 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

Just catching up with todays latest. Spurs would be such an odd move. Off the pitch it makes sense, London an increase in wages and all the trimmings, but where is his professional ambition?

 

As for us, he'll be a miss, but he's replaceable. His engine, positional intelligence and general reading of the game are very good, but he also has some well discussed flaws in his game, which have existed since his days at Milan. £90 million plus would be good business, but we really should be aiming for a bidding war to push the price to the maximum.

 

It never felt like he'd stick around long and this summer feels like an obvious off ramp, so no hard feelings. The only real frustration for me is I wish we'd get a replacement through the door before we let first team players leave, the same goes for Gordon.

I think his leadership and authority will be hard to replace. Even his skill set imo but he does have his limitations. 
 

Tonali, Gordon and Isak are big personalities to replace.  At their best they all bring a lot mental quality to the team.   Tonali is authorative and street smart. Gordon can be relentless and aggressive. Isak calm and composed.  
 

On paper Gordon and Tonali are ‘replaceable’ but it’s a challenge imo.  We’ve not signed players as good as them in years. 

[The College Dropout]

14 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

Just catching up with todays latest. Spurs would be such an odd move. Off the pitch it makes sense, London an increase in wages and all the trimmings, but where is his professional ambition?

 

As for us, he'll be a miss, but he's replaceable. His engine, positional intelligence and general reading of the game are very good, but he also has some well discussed flaws in his game, which have existed since his days at Milan. £90 million plus would be good business, but we really should be aiming for a bidding war to push the price to the maximum.

 

It never felt like he'd stick around long and this summer feels like an obvious off ramp, so no hard feelings. The only real frustration for me is I wish we'd get a replacement through the door before we let first team players leave, the same goes for Gordon.

Same thing Milan fans thought when he signed for us.  

[Shearergol]

I really don’t want to have to change my phone lock screen 😔

[Vaj]

10 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Isak had a poor ending to his season. But I think we’ve lost sight that his final season was among the best we’ve ever seen from a Newcastle player. 20+ goals in the PL, cup final winner, 27 in all.  His final season was miles better than Gordon’s or if it turns out to be his last season - Tonali.  
Isak’s the only one where his final season actually increased his value.  I think the way we handled that saga has discouraged players from doing their best if they want to leave imo. I believe Tonali quit at the Nou Camp for example. 

Don’t doubt that but it has been well documented since that there had been a few fallouts that coincided with the dips in form in that season. He started slowly due to apparent issues around his contract and then after talks with Howe we saw his best form and then there was supposedly another disagreement behind the scenes at the end of the season before his poor end to the season. Whether that’s true or an easy thing to make up, who knows 

[Kid Icarus]

The team that's just finished 17th two years in a row have £100m to spend on one player, but there's definitely no cartel. 

 

 

Edited 34 minutes ago by Kid Icarus

[STM]

21 minutes ago, oldtype said:

Judging by the Van Hecke signing it looks like Tottenham is willing to pay above the odds for their targets. I wouldn't mind cashing in at that price.

 Van Hecke is a good player. Hes had a few ropey games against us but hes a very good defender and a good signing for Spurs.

 

If they keep Van De Ven, they have half the Dutch back line. Although I reckon they sell Van De Ven.

[Optimistic Nut]

2 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

The team that's just finished 17th two years in a row have £100m to spend on one player, but there's definitely no cartel. 

 

 

 

 

It's fair enough. Same with Man Utd. Ourselves & Villa should be able to spend the same fees & wages to compete fairly if we have the means to though. 

[midds]

Would find it virtually impossible to say getting £90 - 100m for him would be anything other than great money for him tbh, regardless of who eventually pays it. On his day he's absolutely fucking brilliant but we've not seen it anywhere near enough really. If he's agitating for a move away and we can get that much for him then we have to bite the bullet and move him on and hope that the recruitment team are actually doing their jobs this summer and replacing him adequately. 

 

The larger picture is that he would be the third high profile player to choose to look elsewhere in the last 12 months (that's discounting the reported rumours about Hall and Tino). That's genuinely worrying from the outside looking in. Why do some of our best players not want to be here any longer? How are we supposed to catch the teams ahead of us if we can't keep our own best payers? Are both very pertinent issues and I don't think a lot of fans will like the answers

[Miggys First Goal]

Spurs man. They’re like that one kid who hangs around with the popular kids trying to act like he’s part of the clique when he’s clearly not. 
 

See also Disco Inferno with the NWO. 

[Wallsendmag]

3 minutes ago, midds said:

Would find it virtually impossible to say getting £90 - 100m for him would be anything other than great money for him tbh, regardless of who eventually pays it. On his day he's absolutely fucking brilliant but we've not seen it anywhere near enough really. If he's agitating for a move away and we can get that much for him then we have to bite the bullet and move him on and hope that the recruitment team are actually doing their jobs this summer and replacing him adequately. 

 

The larger picture is that he would be the third high profile player to choose to look elsewhere in the last 12 months (that's discounting the reported rumours about Hall and Tino). That's genuinely worrying from the outside looking in. Why do some of our best players not want to be here any longer? How are we supposed to catch the teams ahead of us if we can't keep our own best payers? Are both very pertinent issues and I don't think a lot of fans will like the answers

 

That's the million dollar question. 

 

Is it;

Wages?

Agents?

The North East?

Our style of play?

Simply not big enough to hold onto our top players?

 

Whatever it is, it's not a sustainable model having to sell your best players every summer. Obviously not being in Europe next season is a  massive factor when presenting ourselves as an attractive proposition for potential signings and also keeping our best players here.

[robbo_11]

5 minutes ago, midds said:

Would find it virtually impossible to say getting £90 - 100m for him would be anything other than great money for him tbh, regardless of who eventually pays it. On his day he's absolutely fucking brilliant but we've not seen it anywhere near enough really. If he's agitating for a move away and we can get that much for him then we have to bite the bullet and move him on and hope that the recruitment team are actually doing their jobs this summer and replacing him adequately. 

 

The larger picture is that he would be the third high profile player to choose to look elsewhere in the last 12 months (that's discounting the reported rumours about Hall and Tino). That's genuinely worrying from the outside looking in. Why do some of our best players not want to be here any longer? How are we supposed to catch the teams ahead of us if we can't keep our own best payers? Are both very pertinent issues and I don't think a lot of fans will like the answers

 

From the players perspective he probably views it as an upgrade in terms of location, salary and working with a manager he knows. The agent is going to get a bumper pay day from this as over the last 12 months has been shopping his client around.

 

If we get £100m for him its a cracking deal, as long as the replacements are better. If it is like last summer, majority of fans would say project over and these 'best in class' c-suite have failed miserably.

 

Ultimately the way the league is, it's a closed shop financially. We could have a great season domestically and then rivals pick off the better players by using methods above.

[KingArthur]

5 hours ago, GWN said:

id take 100 million like

Everyone with half a brain would take.