NUFC Transfer Rumours

[Izakaya]

25 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

A couple of local journos off the record. To someone I know, who told me. "Chaos behind the scenes", "Howe is raging"

 

 

 

It's Howe that can't work with a DoF though?

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I mean, we know the CEO is off sick and the DOF has resigned. This wasn’t the setup we wanted for the transfer window. 

[TRon]

2 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Erm, no they have more money. 

 

 

And more pull because they are associated with success over the last half century while we aren't. 

[SUPERTOON]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I mean, we know the CEO is off sick and the DOF has resigned. This wasn’t the setup we wanted for the transfer window. 

We seemingly did nothing much about it though. 

[Kid Icarus]

3 minutes ago, Izakaya said:

It's Howe that can't work with a DoF though?

Worked perfectly fine alongside Staveley and Ashworth. Our inability to get deals done is a 2024 onwards/having a DoF thing.

 

 

Edited July 28, 2025 by Kid Icarus

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 minute ago, SUPERTOON said:

We seemingly did nothing much about it though. 

Not as quick as we would’ve wanted, no. 

[Toon1984]

1 minute ago, Haz said:

It’s not difficult to reach that conclusion.

Not necessarily. You could have the best scouts/negotiators in the world but if you can’t offer as much money to the players in wages then you can’t expect much success.

With hindsight, we’ve been chasing the wrong players - ones that are out of reach for our club just now.

[Haz]

I can accept that but we can’t attempt to attract the big boys on minimum wages. We know the score now. We have the money but simply not prepared to use it.So we need to be looking at decent prospects.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Just now, Haz said:

I can accept that but we can’t attempt to attract the big boys on minimum wages. We know the score now. We have the money but simply not prepared to use it.So we need to be looking at decent prospects.

How do you mean not prepared to use it? 

[JP]

I really don't get the move away from our previous recruitment style.

 

It landed us Isak, Tonali, Bruno, Gordon, Botman etc. Its arguably much less of a gamble to keep going down this route as the afore-mentioned are established so the newly recruited players would be coming into a better team.

 

[Toon1984]

4 minutes ago, Haz said:

I can accept that but we can’t attempt to attract the big boys on minimum wages. We know the score now. We have the money but simply not prepared to use it.So we need to be looking at decent prospects.

If you’re suggesting we bust the bank to offer huge wages to one player then that opens a dangerous precedent. All our best players will expect large wage hikes and squad harmony will be shot.

PSR stops us from doing that whereas the cartel clubs can.

 

[Haz]

No I’m not suggesting that. As i said previously, if we’re not prepared to do that then we need to shop for decent prospects.

[Kid Icarus]

2 minutes ago, JP said:

I really don't get the move away from our previous recruitment style.

 

It landed us Isak, Tonali, Bruno, Gordon, Botman etc. Its arguably much less of a gamble to keep going down this route as the afore-mentioned are established so the newly recruited players would be coming into a better team.

 

Not even sure we really have tbh. I think Trafford, Scalvini, Ekitike, Guehi fit into that list of players, but the people managing these transfers has changed for the worse 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

2 minutes ago, JP said:

I really don't get the move away from our previous recruitment style.

 

It landed us Isak, Tonali, Bruno, Gordon, Botman etc. Its arguably much less of a gamble to keep going down this route as the afore-mentioned are established so the newly recruited players would be coming into a better team.

 

It seems like a mistake now and anyway we always needed both types of player, but the reasons I can think of are:

 

We need to go up another level and can’t take risks. 
 

We have more money now so we thought we could afford a couple of stars. 
 

The prices of the riskier players has come up closer to the proven players. 
 

Nobody could disagree that we want more signings like the ones you mention because they’re all amazing, but those are some of the reasons I could imagine. 

[macphisto]

2 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Because it isn't there job role? 

That doesn't mean they don't have the skills. The reason we haven't got our targets has nothing to do with them. It's simply because we are going low with our offers, they're just working within the parameters set for them.

 

If there was anything wrong with their skills, I'm sure the agents of the players we've targeted would easily sort it out. 

 

Due to the power vacuum at the club, the issue is who is setting our strategy? I would be amazed if it's Nickson and Andy Howe. Maybe it's the PIF representative on the board or Eddie Howe, we just don't know. 

 

There's been a lot of scapegoating of people, Mitchell last summer with Guehi and Trafford and now Nickson and Andy Howe. We should be looking at PIF where we had no money last summer, in my opinion, and they are responsible for the current lack of leadership at the club where we've lost Staveley, Mitchell and not replaced Eales in the past year. 

[Elliottman]

56 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

I think we're already past the point of Howe being fed up with this shit tbh, just based on what a couple of local journos have said off the record. 

To be fair, they barely get what they say on the record correct so struggling to give this any value. 

[nufc123]

24 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Not as quick as we would’ve wanted, no. 

They knew Eales were sick a year a go. Its criminal how poor they have handled it.

[Ikon]

I see a lot of people saying that we can’t take risks and that we have to get the “bullet proof” ones more or less, which agree to to an extent. Well, if we aren’t prepared to pay bigger fees and wages to get deals done then surely we have to look at more realistic options within our financial means? Sooner or later at least I mean. Otherwise it’s a bigger risk doing nothing isn’t it? 
 

Most of our targets by the sounds of it is players that there’s quite the hype around and that will automatically mean prices and wages being higher as well as there being competition from top clubs. I guess time will tell when the window closes. 

[TRon]

2 minutes ago, Ikon said:

I see a lot of people saying that we can’t take risks and that we have to get the “bullet proof” ones more or less, which agree to to an extent. Well, if we aren’t prepared to pay bigger fees and wages to get deals done then surely we have to look at more realistic options within our financial means? Sooner or later at least I mean. Otherwise it’s a bigger risk doing nothing isn’t it? 
 

Most of our targets by the sounds of it is players that there’s quite the hype around and that will automatically mean prices and wages being higher as well as there being competition from top clubs. I guess time will tell when the window closes. 

 

 

Those are the ones Howe wants though. I imagine the board are trying to persuade players to come in while still staying within PSR guidelines, then cartel clubs are coming and offering similar or better terms and getting it done. That was the whole point of PSR. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

3 minutes ago, Ikon said:

I see a lot of people saying that we can’t take risks and that we have to get the “bullet proof” ones more or less, which agree to to an extent. Well, if we aren’t prepared to pay bigger fees and wages to get deals done then surely we have to look at more realistic options within our financial means? Sooner or later at least I mean. Otherwise it’s a bigger risk doing nothing isn’t it? 
 

Most of our targets by the sounds of it is players that there’s quite the hype around and that will automatically mean prices and wages being higher as well as there being competition from top clubs. I guess time will tell when the window closes. 

Absolutely, all I can think is that we thought our targets were realistic and they ended up being hijacked. I mean, Joao Pedro isn’t exactly Isak, Man City might not have wanted Trafford, I didn’t think Ekitike was even someone who’d go for £90m. 

[Kid Icarus]

7 minutes ago, Elliottman said:

To be fair, they barely get what they say on the record correct so struggling to give this any value. 

Some are fairly reliable despite not being particularly likeable.

[Bondedcrown]

7 minutes ago, nufc123 said:

They knew Eales were sick a year a go. Its criminal how poor they have handled it.

Tragic and disgusting

[TRon]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Absolutely, all I can think is that we thought our targets were realistic and they ended up being hijacked. I mean, Joao Pedro isn’t exactly Isak, Man City might not have wanted Trafford, I didn’t think Ekitike was even someone who’d go for £90m. 

 

 

Our success in the transfer market is a double edged sword in this regard. Rivals are probably looking at our targets then jumping in on the back of it. Not the worst strategy when you think about it. 

[Ikon]

I get that, I like that we are trying. Just hope that we aren’t too stubborn if it shows that we aren’t getting deals done. We just cannot be in a position when the window closes and be more or less empty handed. Hopefully things can change, but it must change rather quickly if we are to have any chance of doing enough in this massively important window. 

[alexf]

There is zero depth to the squad in CM and ST. Osula and Miley are useful young players but if want to achieve anything we can't be relying on them for extended time. Willock has offered nothing for 2 years now.